A Trinitarian Greeting

If you have your Bible, we’re turning through to the Book of Revelation, as we begun last week. The Book of Revelation, chapter one. This morning, we’re gonna be taking up the beginning of The Greeting. So The Greeting from John and from God goes from verse 4 down to the end of verse 7, uh, sorry, the end of verse 6. We’re looking at the first half this morning, and this evening we’ll look at the second half. You’ll see paragraph, it’s sort of set out in 2 chunks. The first half is the God who greats us, and the second half is the Christ who blesses us, and we’ll look at that half this evening.

We’ll pick up at the beginning and we’ll read through to verse 8. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants, the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John, to the 7 churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the 7 spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Amen. May God bless His Word to us, and let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you that you have provided us with your Son. And, and we pray now that you would speak to us through him, for we want to hear his voice. We want to hear his Word, and so we pray, Father, by your Holy Spirit, through the preaching of your Word, grant us, by faith, hearts to believe, ears to hear all that you have to say. Lord, feed us with spiritual manna, with honey that satisfies our soul. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Well, I’m not sure if they’re a, a thing nowadays, but when I remember being a kid, we used to get these books, and you’d sort of open them up, and they were sort of illusions, and you’d s-It’d be a bunch of colors. My friend used to love these things. You’d open them up, and apparently, you’d look at them long enough in a certain way and then you’d see a picture. S- maybe some of you people can remember this. Um, I could never do them. I, I, uh, probably ’cause I’m partially color-blind, potentially because I didn’t have glasses at the time, I don’t know, but I could never do them. I just saw colors. But my friend, he would look at them, and maybe he was just making it up, I’m not, I’m making it up, I could never confirm, but he would look at them and be like, “Oh, yeah, there’s this picture, and there’s this and there’s that.” And I’d be like, “What are you talking about? I don’t see anything.” Always felt pretty ripped off, to be honest.

But, you know, at a surface glance, it was nothing but just a, a bunch of colors. But there was, there was something wonderful, something glorious, you might say, to behold if you had eyes to see. And, and our text is a little bit like that. The greetings in the New Testament are often like that. We can be tempted to just see another greeting. Oh, another apostle greeting another church. Okay, let’s skip over it to the next paragraph where the real meat begins. And yet, in, in this greeting is rich food for our souls, and that’s why I’ve paused upon it.

Verse four and five, we read these words. “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come and from the 7 spirits who are before His throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on Earth.” Now, in one sense, it is just a greeting, but it’s an apostolic greeting from God’s spokesman communicating something to the Church of Jesus Christ, and we’re gonna look at the 3 different parts of this greeting. We’re gonna look at the Father, we’re gonna look at the Spirit, we’re gonna look at the Son.

But before we consider the actual content of the greeting, we, we need to firstly consider what’s, what’s being given, communicated in this greeting, but also, who the greeting is to. So, just firstly, notice that this greeting comes to 7 churches in Asia. John, to the 7 churches that are in Asia. And, and you might be tempted to ask yourself the question, why would we care, because we’re not the 7 churches in Asia. This letter was written specifically to, if you have a look at chapter two and three, the headings are help- helpfully provided there. The church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna, the church in Pergamum, the church in Thyatira, the church in Sardis, the church in Phila- Philadelphia, and the church in Laodicea. They were 7 churches along a trade route that were sort of close-ish to Patmos where John was. They were also churches that John was intimately involved with. John was the pastor at Ephesus for a season. The apostle pastor, I guess you could call him. And, and so he was intimately concerned with these 7 churches.

But if he’s writing to them, why should we be concerned? I mean, generally, you don’t write, read, read other people’s letters, right? Unless someone gives it to you. But generally speaking, it would be inappropriate if, if one of you found a letter I wrote my wife and you decided to read it. Well, these are letters d- addressed to a church, so what use are they for us? Well, the word 7 can be used in, in 2 different ways. It can be used literally, like this. 7 churches. It can also be used literally like 7 lambs, offer 7 lambs. But it can also be used metaphorically. So, you sprinkle the people of God 7 times with blood. Now, you are literally sprinkling 7 times. But you’re not literally sprinkling every single person in the nation of Israel 7 times. Why? Well, because practically, sprinkling a million people 7 times with blood would take an impractically long time. So when the covenant was established, Moses sprinkled 7 times over the people. And so there was a metaphorical nature to it, there was also a literal nature to it.

And our, our 7 here is being used in that way. It’s both. It is literally written to 7 churches, but it’s also a metaphorical picture of the Church of Jesus Christ. Because 7, as you probably are aware, biblically is a number of completion. Going all the way back to Genesis. God created the world literally in 6 days, and on the 7th, it was finished, right? It was good. It was complete. It was wonderful. It was perfect. And from that point onwards, all through the scriptures, Old and New Testament, this 7 comes to resem- re- represent whole, complete, all. And so it’s being used here in both of these senses. Literally, John is writing to these 7 churches. yet, as with all of the apostolic letters, they were read much wider. They were taken from church, to church, to church, to church, to church, which is kind of ominous when you think about chapter two and three. You imagine being the church in Ephesus, and you know Christ’s letter to you is being read to every other church. That’d be a bit grim. And yet, it is a letter that is given to you and to me, as church.

And this is important because the Church of Asia, around about ’95 and ’96 AD, is under quite severe persecution. It’s reasonably localized, so it would break out in one city, break out in another town, break out in another place, but it was still very constant, and the church was feeling battle-weary. It was growing tired, because it was sorely oppressed. Now, if you’re sorely oppressed and you’re persecuted for your faith and you’re persecuted for your testimony, which a lot of this book is about, what might you be tempted to do? Close your mouth, stop sharing the Gospel, and hide your lamp under a bushel, right? Because that makes life easy. If I just stop telling people I’m a Christian and start acting like everybody else, I won’t suffer. And so the churches of Asia are tempted to silence themselves, to shut down their word of their testimony, and John is writing to encourage and enthuse them to be faithful in the face of difficulties and trials and persecutions.

And that’s why these words that we’re about to look at are so important. John is writing to a battle-weary church, and he’s giving them hope by pointing them to the only one that can sustain and strengthen their witness. And what does he give them? Grace and peace. Uh, how many of the epistles begin with grace and peace? You might be tempted to think it’s just a generic thing you say, like when you say to someone, “Good morning.” I mean, do you actually mean it’s a good morning? Or are you just saying it? When you say, “Sup,” are you actually asking how the person’s doing? No. You’re just saying hi, and it doesn’t mean a lot. It’s just like gr- I’m gre- generically greeting you. You’ve walked into the room. Well, it’s interesting. Greeks, Greeks would say peace, charis, when they met someone. Jews would say shalom, peace. Both are put together in the New Testament, because in God, both grace and peace always come together. “Where there is no true grace, there can be no true peace,” Matthew Henry says. But where there is grace, peace will always follow.

And so John writes to them to give them the 2 very things they need, God’s favor, God’s grace, and wholeness, peace, that can only come from the grace of God, and then he points them in hope to their Trinitarian God. He points them to the Trinity. So firstly, I want you to notice that he points them to the everlasting Father. Notice that he says, “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.” The, the phrase here is, is actually grammatically incorrect. I- if you read it in the Greek, John’s kind of breaking grammar rules, and there’s a good reason for that. Grammar cannot capture the reality of who our God is. But not only that, he’s picking up Old Testament phraseology from what we read, Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am.” He’s picking up passages from Isaiah.

Have, have a look with me. Turn to the Book of Isaiah. This is a phrase, a concept, if you will, that comes up repetitively in the Book of Isaiah, and we know that Isaiah loves to exclaim and proclaim a very big God, don’t we? Think about that scene in Isaiah 6 with God high and lifted up upon His throne, surrounded by the cherubim, “Holy, holy, holy.” He loves a big God. So Isaiah 41, we’ll start there. Isaiah 41:4, “Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?” It’s the question, “Who has done this? I, Yahweh, I, the Lord, the first-“and with the last, I am he.” Get it? Beginning, I was there. End, I am there.

And then skip a couple of pages to Isaiah 43. I, Vi- Isaiah 43, verse 10, “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me, there is no Savior.” You pick it up. Before me, there was no God. After me, there is no God. There’s just me. Then, couple of pages more, chapter 44, verse 6, “Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, ‘I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come and what will happen.’” But notice this, eh, “Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? There is no rock. I know not any. Is there any before me? Is there any after me?” The answer, of course, is no. And so, fear not. Be not afraid.

One more. Have a look at chapter 48. 48, verse 12, “Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I called. I am he. I am the first and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the Earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand forth together.” Brothers and sisters, the, the, the overarching testimony of the word of God is the everlasting nature of the Lord. And, and you might think to yourself, “Well, how is that a comfort? How is it a comfort to us, and to the 7 churches of Asia, that, that God was there in the beginning and there in the end?”

Well, you’ve gotta think about it a little bit differently. You see, one of the things we get tricked into thinking is becoming very philosophical, and I did this when I was talking about writing a master’s thesis. I was looking into the eternal duration of God. And if you start getting lost at this point, it’s totally okay, ’cause I didn’t end up writing it. We considered whether God experienced successive events of duration within his mind as time played forth. Was he, is he outside of time in such a nature that everything is now, or does he experience A, B, and C? And we start waxing eloquently about the finer points of philosophy, and we miss the point. What’s John’s point? He’s the God who was.

Okay, so what that means for you practically is that you’re being reminded that when Abel died, the Lord was there with him. And when Abraham suffered, God was at his side. and when Moses rejected all of the riches of Egypt in order to serve the Lord, it was the same Lord that you serve. And so you look back through the gallery of faith of Hebrews 11, you remember all of those men and women in Hebrews 11? There’s Sarah, and there’s Gideon, and there’s all these different people, and it’s like John is saying, “The Lord was the Lord of all of them and look how they stood. They were faithful, and they suffered.” And Isaiah was cut in two, and yet he’s the one who says, “The Lord is the one who is and who was.”

But he’s not just the God that was; he’s also the God who will be, right? And so we don’t know what’s coming tomorrow. We don’t know what New Zealand will look like. They didn’t know what Asia would look like. Would the Emperor Domitian make things worse or would he be better? Would the next emperor be worse or better? They did not know. We do not know what the next government bring, will bring or this government. We don’t know if laws will come in that will make things harder for us. We don’t know if the school will one day eject us because of our faith, but God does. God is there. God is present and in control of your future and everything that you will face. “So do not fear,” he says. Grace and have peace about the future.

And yet he’s also not just a God that was there yesterday and tomorrow, but he’s a God that’s here today. Whatever your present struggle is, whatever your present suffering is, whatever difficulty you’re walking through, whether it’s a marriage, whether it’s with children, whether it’s with work, whether it’s the opposition of a friend or an enemy, it makes no difference what the difficulty is. The Lord is here, and He is with us, and we can trust Him. We can have peace. We don’t need to get bent out of shape. We don’t need to murmur and complain and become bitter. But most importantly, we never need to silence the word of our testimony. We are going to be exhorted over and over and over again in the Book of Revelation to be a faithful witness, and one of the reasons we can do this is because we have an everlasting God.

You might think about it this way. Teenagers have wonderful advice sometimes, every once in a while, at least. You know, when you need your phone worked on, they’re great, and you can learn things from young people, even from children, but if you want a If you wanna find a wonderful testimony, who do you go to? You don’t go to a 7yearold, do you? You find a 90-year-old godly saint. You know, my, my Ouma was here last week for the baptism. She’s 94. Has walked with the Lord pretty much her whole life, and, and what a joy it is to sit with her and ask her about her love for the Lord, and to go to her and hear about the way that when they came over here, they gave up everything, all of the Dutch immigrants did, to, to start churches, to plant churches, to build churches that were faithful to the word of the G-, of the Lord, because there was almost none in New Zealand, because liberalism had rotted everything. You don’t go to a 13-year-old, do you? You go to a 90-year-old, and yet we have an eternal God we can go to.

I mean, how much more glorious is the comfort, the peace, and the wisdom from an eternal being compared to someone that’s only seen 90 years? What comfort we can find in coming to an everlasting God, and this should give us great comfort and courage to burn our lamp brightly, trusting God for tomorrow. We don’t need to think and worry about the implications. We can be tempted to logically work through our concerns. What I mean by that is we go, “Well, if I burn brightly in my testimony” “I might lose my job. I might lose my friends. I might be rejected.” But brothers and sisters, does God know, not know the outcome of our testimony? Or you might say, “Ah, yes, but it will be a waste, because I’m not clever enough to give answers when people ask. I’m not smart enough to deal with the problems.” And yet does not the Lord know the questions that will come, and is not God the one that will faithfully cause it to bear fruit? So brothers and sisters, burn brightly with peace. Have hope and comfort no matter what difficulties you face, because you have an everlasting God on your side.

So he points us to the everlasting Father. He also points us to the ever-present Spirit of God. And so he says, “Grace to you and peace from the 7 spirits who are before his throne.” You see, one of, one of us might object. One of us might say, “Look, this is wonderful, Logan. What a, what a great concept. A Father who, you know, exists eternity backwards and eternity forwards, and He’s just, He’s so other, right? He’s just so different.” Like, we’re time-based, fixed in our experience of life. We can’t even remember what happened last week, let alone think about what’s gonna happen tomorrow. Whatever we try and plan tends to just fail miserably. There’s just, it’s too big, it’s, it’s too much. And the Lord says, “Well, think about the one who’s with you, the ever-present Spirit of God who dwells in your midst.”

“Who is this 7 spirits?” you might ask. Well, last I checked, there was one Holy Spirit, not 7. So is he talking about, you know, we talk about good spirits and bad spirits? Is it like 7, there, there are 7 particular good spirits that chill at the throne of God, a little bit like, you know, the 7 angels, maybe, that might happen to be there? No, it’s, again, it’s this metaphorical picture. This number of 7 is really important. A- and to understand it, you have to see a little bit of a connection here. So in, in 1:4, we’re told there are the 7 spirits, the 7 spirits before His throne. Then in verse 12, we’re told that John turns and he sees 7 golden lampstands. And then down in 20, there’s these 7 stars in the hand of Jesus, and we’re told that the 7 lampstands are the 7 churches. And then if you have a look at verse, chapter 4:5, we’re told that from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning 7 torches of fire, which are the 7 spirits of God.

Now, let me ask you a question. What, what sits on top of a lampstand to make light? Children, it’s not a light bulb. I know that might be shocking. Uh, in the olden days, they didn’t use light bulbs. Very exciting, I know. Maybe you’ve had a power cut and experienced this. What you normally use, a candle, right? If there’s a power cut, you use a candle. Well, they had lampstands with oil, and the oil was on fire, and it would burn. So we’re told there are s- the 7 spirits before the throne of God. There are the 7 lampstands that are the church, that are in the presence of God, that Christ is walking among, and then the Spirit of God is burning on the lampstands. I wonder if you can see this connection that’s being made by John?

The, the 7 spirits are the Holy Spirit, completion, that’s simple, but what’s being painted here is a picture of the Spirit of God burning brightly in the Church of God to make the Church of God able to do what Christ calls it to. And so you think about Jesus saying, “A burning wick I don’t snuff out.” And so you get this church with this very small little flame, and by the Spirit of God, Christ cares for his church and inflames them, not so that they would be covered, hide it under a bushel, no, but so that it would burn brightly. And the testimony and the burning of the church is the ministry of the Holy Spirit among her.

Now, why this is such a hope and comfort for the church of Asia in the midst of their difficulties, and for us as we feel embattled after the last year, is that it doesn’t rely upon you and me. Do you feel weary sometimes? Just feel like giving up? You feel like your efforts are in vain? You wonder if it’s really all worth it? The wonderful thing to know is, it is not you that will achieve God’s purposes. All you have to do is be faithful, is turn up and be faithful, and the Spirit of God will make it effectual. He will make it burn. He will cause it to bear fruit.

This is one of the things I love about hearing the stories from the Gideons and from John and Carol, is how many times a Bible gets given to someone and no one does anything and someone just gets saved, because God delights by his spirit to do the work of salvation. And he will do the same here. And so we get given this picture in Zechariah which John is leaning into, in Zechariah 2, where there is a, a lampstand and there are olive trees, and the olive trees are giving oil, a perpetual supply of oil, to the lampstands so that they never stop burning. And we’re told that this is the Spirit of God. This is the work of God. He’s not a far away God, he’s a god here present with us giving us everything we need, supplying our every need.

Do you remember that beautiful doxology, that blessing and doxology in Ephesians 3, where Paul says, “To him who is able to do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think.” Now, I don’t know about you, but I can think some pretty big things. I can dream big. I’m a big dreamer, and I’ve got a very large imagination. And Paul says he can do far more abundantly than anything I can think of, because the Spirit of God is present in our midst at work. The same spirit of whom Isaiah prophesies and says, “The Spirit shall fall upon the servant of God, spirit of wisdom, of power, of might, of justice.” Brothers and sisters, God is not far away. He is here present with us.

And so we have the everlasting Father and the ever-present Spirit, but maybe one of you thinks to yourself, “These things are all just so ethereal. They’re so spiritual. You know, there’s no flesh and bones on it.” And yet we’re told we have a ever-living son. “Grace and peace,” John says, “From the ever-living Son.” Have a look again at the text in verse 5. “Grace to you and peace from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.” Do you want some flesh and bones? Brothers and sisters, what do we say Easter Sunday for the last 2,000 years? He is risen. He is risen, indeed.

We do not just have an ethereal spirit God, though God is spirit. We have the Son of Man and Son of God. We have the God man, Jesus Christ, who has risen from the dead, ascended to the Father, and sits at the right hand of God, enthroned in power and glory and might, so that in chapter 5 Heaven can s- declare worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. To him who sits on the throne, and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might, forever and ever.

And, and John expands our image of Christ, because he knows that Jesus Christ is the one in whom we see and know God. And so he wants to expand our vision so that we see more of him, and so he gives us 3 things. He says Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on Earth. And why faithful witness? Well, what’s John trying to encourage the church to do? To be a faithful witness, right? And so, he’s gonna go on to say of Antipas, in chapter 2, verse 13, “I know where you dwell, Pergamum. Where Satan’s throne is.” I mean, you think it’s bad in Manurewa? If you’re from Manurewa? You have no idea. They literally dwelled where Satan’s throne was, John says. “Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among

This, this hope, this peace, comes from the faithful witness, the one of whom Paul says to Timothy, “Give the good confession,” like who? Jesus. Who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate. Who did not give up. We look to Christ, who was a faithful witness in the face of a death far more agonizing than anything we will ever have to endure. He could’ve rightly given up, because he had done nothing wrong. But he faithfully bore the testimony of God in the face of the grimmest opposition for the sake of his father, and we have this example set before us to do the same.

But we don’t just have a faithful witness. We have the firstborn of the dead. You might ask yourself, “What’s meant by the firstborn of the dead?” We, you know what a firstborn is, right? Firstborn child. It’s the first. It’s the one who receives the most in those days. Not so nowadays. People tend to share the inheritance, which is nice when you’re the youngest. Uh, but in those days, the oldest child got almost everything, and he kept the land. Well, the firstborn is he who receives all honor, all glory, all praise, because he’s the primary namesake of the father. And, and so it is with Jesus Christ.

You see, he is the only one that has died, been raised, and lives forevermore. He is the first fruits, and the hope and comfort that we too one day will live with him. You see, Lazarus, John 11, what happened to him? He died, he was resurrected, he was raised from the dead, but he died again, right? He didn’t stay alive. And even Elijah, who ascended into heaven, well, he didn’t die, so he’s not a helpful example, ’cause I’m gonna die one day, and I’m gonna give up my life one day, if you’re the Church in Asia. But when you look to Christ, you see a churchsorry, you see a person who has both died, been raised, gone to heaven, and continues to live. And there we find our hope for facing the challenges before us. Because even if it brings death, we shall live.

And then one more. He is the ruler of kings on earth. Now this phrase is not generic. It’s not just that he’s generically sort of like a king of everybody. It’s specifically addressed with Psalm 2 ideas. You know, s- remember Psalm 2? The nations rage, the peoples plot in vain, there’s all these enemy kings. But God has put his anointed one on Zion. His king is on the throne anyway. And it’s this concept that’s being unpacked here. You see, all the way through Revelation, I’ll show you a couple in a second, is this concept of antagonistic kings who are under the authority of Christ Jesus. And this is really important.

Have a, have a look with me, turn to chapter 6, verse 15. “Then all the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, they hide themselves and they cry out, ‘Fall on us. Hide us.’ From,” The lamb. Why? ‘Cause they’re under the wrath and authority of the lamb. Or chapter 18, chapter 18, verse 3. “All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of Babylon’s sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich.” So all of the kings of the earth have done this. They’ve joined together. And then in verse 9, “The kings of the earth who committed these things, they will stand off and cry out, ‘Alas, alas, you great city, you mighty city, Babylon, for in a single hour, your judgment has come.’” And you see the judgment of God being poured out upon the earth, and even the kings recognize that under the authority of Christ.

This is our Lord who has sovereign authority, even over the emperor of China, the Muslim leaders in Nigeria, and our Prime Minister. Whether they are for Christ or against Christ, they are under his rule. Why is that helpful to the Church of Asia and for you and me? Because in 95, 96 A.D., the Emperor Domitius, he hates Christians, and he sees them as a thorn in their side. Sound familiar? Gisela was telling me she was watching a, a debate in Australia of 2 parliamentarians about a hate speech law and, and one of them was questioning about whether a Christian statue, a statue of Jesus, would be seen as offensive and come under hate speech if someone attacked it, and the lady avoided the question. Why? Because it’s okay to hate Christians. You’re not allowed to hate anyone else. It’s okay to ridicule the name of Jesus Christ in movies. You’re not allowed to ridicule Mohammed or Allah, but you’re allowed to ridicule Christians.

We face that. That is our life and it’s only getting worse, and yet the rulers of our nation are under the authority of Christ, and can only go so far as he pleases. And so if we face persecution from our government, it is under the authority of Christ that they do so. And so we can trust him. We can entrust ourselves into his care. But this is not just physical rulers, you know. Because a- as someone prayed this morning in the prayer time, our, our opponent, Ephesians 6, is not flesh and blood, right? But principalities, the devil. And yet those kings, those authorities are under the sovereign rule of Christ as well. Satan himself cannot do anything without the sovereign permission of our King who sits upon the throne.

You think of that glorious scene of Job, as troubling as it might be to some of us, where the devil comes in and he says, “Oh, you’re only good to Job ’cause you give him good stuff.” and God says, “Okay, fine. You can, you can attack him, but you can only go this far.” And then it happens again. He says, “Okay. You can attack his body, but you cannot kill him. I do not give you permission.” Can Satan kill Joe? No. He cannot. It’s literally impossible for him to kill Joe, because he is under the sovereign authority and control of God. And so, nothing will befall upon you unless it is under the sovereign will of your king, and your king knows what’s best for his subjects.

And so, the exaltation to us today as we look to this triune God, as we face difficulties, as we face challenges, the exaltation for us is: Will we be conquerors? Will we be, Romans 8, more than conquerors? Will we, as Paul writes to Timothy, endure with Christ that we might reign with Christ? Will we suffer with Christ that we might be glorified with Christ? And so, we join, we join, the churches of Asia as we hear the exalta- the exaltation of Christ Himself when He says to us, Chapter 2, Verse 7, “To the one who conquers, I will grant the tree of life.” Verse 11. “The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.” Verse 17. “To the one who conquers, I will give a white stone with a new name and hidden manna.” In Verse 28. I missed it. Verse 26. “The one who conquers, who keeps my works until the end, to him, I will give authority over the nations.” And on and on it goes, through each and every one. Conquer, conquer, conquer. It doesn’t mean take over the nations. It means remain steadfast, brothers and sisters, immovable, because you have an everlasting God and an ever-present spirit and an ever-living Son.

May God grant us to hold firm to His testimony, to bear the witness of Christ, no matter what end.

---