Revelation 1:4-11

Let us move on to Revelation 1. I mean, this is just incredible to think about. I do not think we think about it enough. I do not think we acknowledge enough that Christ is in us. If we did that more often, we would sin less. We would make mistakes less. We would honor God more. We would serve more. Let us read starting in verse 4.

John introduces us to Christ here in his salutation and he does this by listing His titles, which are things that He accomplished, that He faithfully witnessed God's way of life as a human. He had a sinless life and He proclaimed the gospel, left us an example. Christ rose from the dead. He conquered death and became our High Priest. And then of course He ascended to God's throne, and He took up all authority in heaven and earth.

Next, John goes on. He tells us more of what Christ did for us. He is reading Christ's resumé here and telling us as we begin to go through this book just how awesome Jesus Christ is. And he tells us He loved us and because He loved us, He cleaned us up by sacrificing Himself to pay for our sins. And He has been hard at work preparing His elect for their places of responsibility in His Kingdom. And for this, He receives all glory, honor, praise, and dominion forever.

Then John tells us to get ready. He is coming. Time is short. Do not be put off by what the world thinks of Him or how the world wants to draw Him or what happens to them because of their rejection of them. Remember, this is a look into the Day of the Lord. And Jesus Christ, yes, He is the Lamb of God, but yes, He is also King of kings and Lord of lords, and He comes with a sword. Do not let that put you off to think that He is mean or something. Because He is being just. They deserve what they get. So he is telling you, stay faithful. Endure. Things will get bad, but you must stay close to Jesus Christ.

And finally Jesus Himself speaks. And He speaks comforting words to His faithful elect using merisms. (I told you to stick that in the back of your head.) He uses merisms to confirm that He is our everything. I, He says, am the Alpha and the Omega. Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, Omega is the last. So He says, I am everything in between, too. He says, I am the Beginning and the End. He is with you all the way, from beginning to end. Whatever period of time you are talking about, whether it is from the time They came up with this plan of salvation to the time that it is totally fulfilled, Jesus is there. He is always there. He is always working hard to make sure it comes to pass. Or if you are limiting this to just your own interaction with Him from your calling to your glorification and on into eternal life, He is there. He is working. He never gives up.

We could say that He is the great I AM. It talks about it a couple of times just in this first chapter. It does not say that. It says, Him who is and who was and who is to come, but that is essentially what I AM means. He is the Eternal One, the One who is there forever.

And then He says, I am the First and the Last, if you did not get it from Beginning and the End and Alpha and Omega. He is telling us that He is these things and everything else that would be laid upon that spectrum.

In this final book of the Bible, in Revelation, analogous we could say, to the final holy day of the year, the Eighth Day, He shouts out to us as we begin here, Do not be afraid! Cheer up! Understand that you lack nothing in Me. You've got what it takes. And if you don't think that you've got what it takes, you have Me. That is what He says. He says, I am your all in all. I am what you need to retain. I am your example. I am your teacher. I am the teachings.

So we do not need to worry. We do not need to be afraid no matter how bad it gets. We already have the fullness. Now we have not inherited fully. That is why He wants you to endure, because there are things that have to happen. You have to keep on keeping on all the way to the end. … . . .

Revelation 1:4-6

This is the apostle John’s opening salutation for the book, and it includes some of Christ’s credentials. But for our purposes today, verse 6 is what we are after. It says that Jesus has made us kings and priests to His God and Father. A better rendering is “a kingdom of priests” rather than “kings and priests,” which we will get to in a moment.

It is a very significant statement. There is an echo of this in Revelation 5:10, which Richard began his sermon with on the 1^st Day. That’s the one that says that Christ has “made us kings and priests [or, “a kingdom of priests”] to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.” There is a similar mention in Revelation 20:6, which says that those in the first resurrection “shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

But we came to this mention because it shows that this applies to us right now. The other places tend to give the impression that the priesthood is a future role. Yet verse 6 here states that He has made us priests. That is who we are right now.

Most translations and commentators suggest that “kingdom of” is a better rendering here than “kings and.” I’m not a Greek scholar, but what I have found is that “kingdom of priests” has more support from the rest of Scripture than to say that we are kings now because we were washed in His blood. Our kingship is still future, but our priesthood is something we must attend to now as we prepare to reign, which Richard spoke about.

In Exodus 19:6, God said that the children of Israel were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That was His intent for them. Israel failed miserably in that responsibility, though they will have another chance after their future restoration.

But Peter picks up on this terminology and applies it to the church: