11-15-20 Grace-Benson & Vail Sermon

Revelation 19:1-9 Sermon.

Are you a winner, or a loser? I want you to answer in your head. Now I will ask you again, but I want you to get out of your head and answer with your heart, your gut, your body. Are you a winner, or are you a loser?

A lot of times my head thinks, “I am a winner.” Jesus died for me and so in a winner. The idea in my head is like a fire on a matchstick. But the wind comes and blows and my body, my heart, my gut say, “I’m not a winner, I’m a loser.”

What’s the wind? Look around and see people I love have died. One day I will die. One day everyone I love will die. What losers. I look around and Christians don’t seem to be making much difference in the world.

The problems in the world just keep going. Or I look inside and there are experiences I’ve had in the past. Stories that have built up that say, “you’re a loser.”

We need to listen to new evidence, not just our own. We need to get out of our stories about ourselves and into God’s story about us. Revelation 19 gives you new evidence, a different story; but not just evidence or a story, it invites you to listen to a song. A song that is going on now. A song that involves those friends of yours who have died and looked like losers, but who Jesus shows you, they are winners when they die connected to him.

A song that gives a glimpse of just what a huge difference the church here actually makes, converting people to Jesus’ victory. A song that expresses the real you more than anything else.

This song was first given to John. He was exiled on an island, Patmos. Away from friends and loved ones.

Isolated. He knew about persecution happening to Christians. Lions tearing some apart. Others hung up, covered with tar and lit like torches. John himself it’s said in tradition was boiled in hot oil, expected to die, but he lived through it. You can see the burn marks all over his body. He looked like a loser. But his mind, his body, his heart was given the visions, this song to speak loud and clear to him. “John, you are not a loser. You are a winner.”

The vision took place after John saw the judgment and defeat of a great prostate. Revelation 19 is the spoils of war. The victory celebration. The job well done celebration. He said “I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting.” The vision starts with a sound. Loud, roaring, shooting, victory yell.

Most natural comparison is a yell when your team wins a championship. The yell of a war over, enemy defeated.

Lots of yellers are happy and excited about this. A great multitude, not some small strange minority group or click, a large multitude. What does this group say?

“Hallelujah!” God is the best. God is worth praising. He has a heaviness, a weightless to him, a gravity.

It’s worth having God as the center of the universe, the gravitational pull of my existence. The one who gets the attention and thought and credit and joy. The one who I say thank you to for all my good. And who I ask for help for all that is bad. Hallelujah, praise the lord. Praise him, he’s worth it.

Now, is that just true for that group in Revelation 19, or is it true for this group? Do you believe that God is worthy of praise? Do you believe with your mind and your heart and your body? Do you believe that you can take a breath and let him be god, and know that it’s ok. He can handle it, he is in control. So, hallelujah.

The sound goes on, “Salvation and glory and power belong to our God”, one major reason for the praise: he has defeated that’s wrong. He’s accomplished salvation. Saving, delivering, getting people out of trouble, out of danger, out of fearfulness, out of guilt, out of shame, regret, and self contempt. He has got people out of confusion, lies, deceit from without and within, he’s gotten people out of sickness, pain, suffering, even death. He’s saved from all that. This is good news. Salvation from alienation, isolation, loneliness.

Glory and power belong to him. He’s a God of attraction. If something in this room was glowing, it would get your attention. God has a glow to him, he radiates in his glory. He has zero limit to his ability to do and create and be. It would be easier for him to exist than not exist, that’s how great he is, how glorious and powerful.

Now, was that true only for the group in Revelation 19, or was it also true for John, exiled on Patmos, and the early Christains, persecuted and killed?

“True and just are his judgments.” How do we know God's glory, power, greatness? He judged with truth and just-ness. It’s so hard to judge based on truth and justice. You make judgments all the time. I think of being an arbitrator of arguments between children. 2 people are upset, they have their reasons, and as a parent, I’m supposed to judge the way to guide them forward. Not easy. I don’t have all the information, I don’t have justices and rightness in me that I bring to the judges seat. God brings perfect justices and rightness. He’s got all the information, all the wisdom. He’s in a category all his own. He sees truth; all of it, not part. And justice, 100% not just kind of partially just, as good as you’d can manage. Perfect justices. No mistake, no hypocrisy or ignorance or favoritism or twisting if justices. A perfect judge. What’s one primary judgment with attention and praise?

“He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.” Who is that? Church gone power hungry. Religion intent on using power to gain more and influence and control without concern for the wellbeing of others. Prideful and boastful, she corrupted the earth by her adulteries. How? The same attitude can be shared. If people see the power hungry churches and religions; and they appear to be winning at the game of life; people say, “that’s a way to be a winner and not a loser.” We all have it in us to get power hungry. To want to control others and control situations to get what we want. God sees this and knows this corrupting belief. God sees it clearly in us and in others. His judgment is true and right and just.

Notice the contrast in this vision. On the one hand, the defeat of the devil and anyone who is lazy and slackish enough to join his rebellion, their defeat is real and lasting. But on the other hand, the celebration that is going on in heaven right now is real and lasting. Not only is God dead serious about the defeat and demise of all that is evil, he is equally and even more serious about the celebration that is going on in the heavenly realms already. He wants you to hear. He wants you to know, “I am a winner, not a loser.”

And again they shouted: “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.” The multitude again says, praise god. This is good. The utter defeat is all that is evil is a good thing. The defeat of John’s friends being torn by lions, lit on fire, put in boiling oil. For that to end is a good thing. Imagine a soldier at war, and the fighting, the killing, the violence is over because the enemy has been absolutely defeated. There will be no follow up war, no repeat Terror. It’s all over. What joy. Smoke going up forever. The defeat is eternal. Evil will be done.

The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the

throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!”

The 24 elders are leaders from the Old Testament time period and the New testament time period. All who are meant to be there will be there, no one left out, no one misplaced. They fall on their faces and worship.

“God, you are so good. I want to fall down to pay you honor. Worshiping you is more important than staying on my feet right now, or of maintaining some kind of dignity. You are so good. It is so good to be in your group.

Notice where God is. He is seated on the throne. Unthreatened. Not worried about all the powers of evil do. Never a doubt about who will come up on top in the end. No sweating. He doesn’t even need to get out of his seat to deal with the issues of evil.

Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!” Praise him, you’re a servant. What a privilege, not just to be tolerated, but useful and desired by him. The servants include: John’s dead friends, your friends who have physically died but now live with Jesus and sing this song. Would you believe that this includes you too? That you could sing this song today? It Doesn't matter if you're great or small in this world. All worldly distinction drops away in the light of his presence.

“Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting.” As powerful to hear and experience as running waters and thunder. Think about when you hear a huge waterfall or a blast of thunder. Those sounds are not just heard, they are felt. They can easily change more than your eardrums. You get goosebumps. Your body hears, not just your ears. The sound reverberates through your body so that you believe with all your being. “That waterfall is great. That thunder us powerful.”

Same here. This sound of joint praising will overwhelm the senses of those who experience it.

“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Why praise god? Because of who he is and what he does.

He is the lord, master, the almighty. What does he do? He reigns. He rules. He causes things to happen for the benefit of those under his reigning. He arranges materials for thriving to happen, he protects and provides for people all they need. He reigns, he’s the right one for that position, and he one day will have assumed the full role due him, that of reigning king over the new heavens and new earth.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come. This is cause for joy. Gladness. All credit to him. It’s the joy of a wedding. The joy of a Union happening that will make the one unified into more of who they were always meant to be. Do you believe that you are unified to Jesus? Do you believe that he wants you as his bride? Listen to this song. You are a winner.

The wedding of the lamb reminds us of his willingness to be slaughtered for us, to be representatively and substitutionally sacrificed in our place. That is more than any other event in our world's history what makes you absolutely sure you are a winner, not a loser. His willingness, as the feast king in the throne, to also be the lamb crucified on the cross. He became a loser so you can be a winner right now. To have the defeat of your rebellion against God come on him, for him to endure the smoke of the burning of your sins against God. All so that by his dying as a lamb and rising again, he could transform you from a loser into a winner. Someone wed to and inspired not by the prostate and her power, but instead you are wed to and inspired so much more by his incredible

willingness to die for you and ability to rise again to absolute victories over all that is bad, even over death itself.

That’s the lamb who we’ll have his wedding day. He wants you to join in on this song, and enjoy the Union and the happiness of that day.

And his bride has made herself ready. “Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Not only has the lamb done all necessary for that day to happen, but the bride also has been prepared for that day. Ever been at a wedding and the moment comes, and the bride comes out, and she forgot to put her dress on? Forgot to get her hair made up? Forgot maker and some kind of jewelry? Of course not, no bride shows up to that moment dirty and scrubby. This wedding will be no exception. The bride is prepared. What preparation? Bright clean linen clothing. Not manufactured by her, but given to her to wear. Given, not earned. Enjoyed as a gift. Yet really worn and possessed as her own. What is this clean linen? The righteousness of Christ given, and acted out by God’s people.

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” An angel gives instruction, this is worth writing so that others can read and know about this. And in a way experience the splendor, and be affected by this coming event already as they still live in a challenging world as imperfect people who still suffer and struggle. This is pure blessing, blessedness. Joyful to be a part of this group. To be invited to the wedding supper of the lamb. These are true words.

So, what do you believe? Are you a winner or a loser? You don’t have to fake it. Give your answer to God now, not just your mind but your body, heart, gut. Hear what God says, and know for yourself, “Because God says so, I am a winner. And I love this song. Amen.