First Presbyterian Church Of Baton Rouge

 The Church appears as a guttering and flickering flame in the West. But, this is the hour to which you have been called. For such an hour, the Church needs strength, courage, boldness, an unwavering confidence and a steady gaze to conquer. We must not fear to look into the eyes of the beast, clearly proclaiming the truth, genuinely imitating the pattern placed before us. And, come what may, our hope is the very hope that we commemorate every Lord’s Day. The hope of the resurrection, that out of death comes life.

Paul expresses several times a joyful loop of giving in Corinthians. God gave his only Son to the world in Jesus Christ. Believers receive that gift of mercy with our whole hearts. We give thanks for such grace. At the very same time that we do, we get sent into ministry. God gives. We give. And then the recipients give thanks back to God for the love and salvation we shared. God gets glorified. Then, he pours out more grace into us and through us to others, and the loop of love and praise continues like a wonderful music.

The multitude of believers arrive before the throne out of the great tribulation of life in a rebellious and wayward world. This is the communion of the saints. All believers of all times and places gather from every tribe and corner of the earth. With one voice, their differences are universally translated into harmony, adorned in brilliant robes. These dazzling robes are lives washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Washed with faith that has endured through the years. And now they receive the consolation of God.

Many commentators believe the horsemen of Revelation 6 represent God’s removing of his restraints on human depravity. Our natural tendencies get to progress without being checked. We lust and covet. We seek to acquire and possess. We hurt and kill each other to get it or protect it. A balanced peaceful life and economy disappear. The weak get trampled first, then the rest. Death has a field day. All this occurs when the Sovereign God lets us finally have what we demand.

Lesser gods are not worthy. But the Lamb who was slain and yet lives, he is the one who opens the scroll. He is the one who staked his life on a redeeming future. To the degree that we join our hearts and voices to his worship, our faith will flourish. And to the degree that are our faith flourishes, we will live in peace and hope. And to the degree we live in such trust, the world will be drawn to the gospel of the one true God, the Lamb on his throne. 

At the top of a rollercoaster, you see the entire park laid out before you. Revelation is the same, laying all of the previous books of the Bible out before us and firing our imagination with a vision that will exhilarate us through all of the shaking and rolling in life that will come.

The Laodiceans were strong. They had significance in the city where they lived. They had resources. They had right beliefs. But they had grown complacent. They had their comforts and their distractions, and they really liked not needing anyone else. Sometimes they liked not needing a savior. But Jesus was having none of that.

First love doesn’t have to be cartwheels and euphoria. But recovering first love means keeping a line open and clear between where it all started and where you are now. It means scribbling a little star at the bottom of a page or on a bulletin, or even finding a star emoji so you can tell your Lord Jesus, “I really like you. I have for so long. I still do.”

The letters to the angels of the churches call us to examine our lives. What are we putting ahead of Christ? What good things are we substituting for him? What compromises have we agreed to make with the empire? How might we be keeping a true faith and yet colluding with destruction?

The sight was so overwhelming that John fell down on his face like a dead man. But Jesus, in his tender mercy, put his right hand on John’s head, and spoke the words we hear God and angels say to trembling humanity throughout the Bible, “Fear not.” In other words, don’t be afraid, John. It’s me, your Jesus. I have not come to destroy you. But to give you a glimpse of my glory and power so that you may have confidence to face a hostile world.

You can dismiss Jesus. You can ignore him. You can try to say he didn’t say what he said. You can try to wave away this talk of resurrection as the fantasies of fools. But you will see him. You will see him whom you pierced. And it will cut you to the heart to know you got it wrong about Jesus. Of course, that truth does not allow believers to be smug. They too will look on him whom they pierced. Oh, yes, we love Jesus, and we will thrill to the sight of Christ Jesus in all his glory when he returns. But the more we gaze at the wounds, the more we will see how deep they are. How painful they were. How horrifying was the price he paid for us. He is the reality we must confront. For he will confront us, each of us, with his reality.

Believers are not exempt from trials. They will come. They will show up at unexpected times. But if we've been listening to the words of Jesus, and doing what Jesus requires of us, guess what? When the storms blow, we will be able to stand because we built our lives upon the rock of Christ.

Jonah knew the truth, “You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” He just had to get on the right side of that truth. He had to move from anger and envy to worship and gratitude. How do you get out of yourself? Get into the LORD I AM. Sounds so simple. But it’s really hard! 

The moment we turn to him, he turns to us. We don’t need to be ignorant of this. He is the God of second chances. The Lord is gracious, slow to anger, full of steadfast love and mercy. Here’s news beyond hope for those blindly groping for God. Not only is he real, but he is also your heavenly Father who loves you and wants to restore you, forgive you and fill you with his eternal life. Believe him.  

Jesus would bring a salvation beyond Jonah’s imagining. Jonah got rescued by a fish. The Son of God came and went three days and nights not only into the belly of a beast but into death and hell itself. Three days and nights he left this world. Then returned victorious to save the whole cosmos. Jonah spoke beyond his life to the truth of this story: salvation belongs to the LORD! What we most need belongs to God alone. But he freely shares with those who turn to him with their whole hearts.