Friday, May 16, 2025

Dwelling Place

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation 21. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

We have lived in our house for four years. After we found a builder (Troy Mihalinac) and designed our layout, we filed permits and submitted plans. Giant trees were removed in minutes. A bulldozer laid the way for a new driveway. Excavators removed clay soil to build the foundation. Contractors poured concrete walls and floors. Amish carpenters walked on the edges of 2x6’s twenty feet in the air as they assembled the framing. Others installed the heating, electrical and plumbing systems. Cindy and I applied coats of paint, picked out flooring and furniture, and now, after four years, we are still working on the landscaping. It’s been a lot of work, but we enjoy sitting on our back deck in the summer and in front of our fireplace in the winter. That’s when Cindy talks about building more coops for chickens and turkeys or other projects.

I open my sermon with this personal experience because our reading from Revelation opens with John seeing a new heaven, a new earth, and a new Jerusalem. You may be wondering why we need a new heaven, earth and Jerusalem. You think that our world is wonderful. Anyone who has been to Hawaii or Alaska raves about the beauty. If you have material possessions, good health, wisdom, family and friends, you may say that life is good. On the other hand, for many people, life ain’t so great.

Let’s first go back to chapter 20. There, as God sat on his throne and held the last judgment, earth and heaven (sky) fled from his face and no place was found for them.[1] This suggests that the present heaven and earth created by God is not a fit home for his resurrected and righteous saints. This follows from the prophecy of Isaiah, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”[2] Isaiah goes on to tell how God’s people will build houses, plant vineyards in peace, and how the wolf and the lamb eat together. Young men will die at the age of one hundred.[3] In the final chapter, Isaiah reiterated his prophecy, “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”[4]

 

This may tax the limits of our imagination, but we need to keep in mind that God communicates to us in the human language we speak. God’s words surpass our earthly language and existence; so, these descriptions should not be seen as literal restrictions on life in the new era but seen as pointing far beyond our present limitations on human life. Isaiah’s prophecies echoed by Paul, Peter and John point toward eternal life, but eternal life has already begun for Christians on this earth and extend forever into the new heaven and new earth.

To the Corinthians, St. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”[5] And to the Ephesians, God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”[6] Peter echoed this in his Second Letter (3:15). And during his earthly ministry Christ asserted that “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”[7]

John does not describe this new heaven and earth, but immediately draws our attention to the holy city, the new Jerusalem. This is not a restored historic city, but a new one from God. Earlier in his letter (to Philadelphia), John wrote, “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven.”[8] Paul also wrote to the Galatians, “the Jerusalem above is free, who she is our mother.”[9]Hebrews too references this city where God dwells with his people.[10]

In this city God dwells with his bride, his people, the Church. The voice reminds us that God has bound himself to his people in an incarnational and sacramental way – in Christ, who is the new temple, and in divine worship, when God comes to his people through his Word and Sacraments.[11]

God’s dwelling place, also known as the tabernacle, is associated with His glorious and gracious presence with his people in the new heaven and earth. Exodus 26 tells us that the tabernacle erected by Moses was the visible location of God’s covenantal presence with his people. The tabernacle and the subsequent temple were structures that enabled God to dwell among sinful people. They were also part of the sacrificial worship that provided atonement for sin. In this new dwelling place, God’s actual and personal presence among his people is a permanent reality. As verse 22 tells us, John sees no temple in the city; all that remains is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.[12]

The benefits of God dwelling among us are listed in verse 4. Death, mourning, crying and pain are gone like yesterday. As the Psalmist prophesied, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy…”[13] In last Sunday’s reading, we heard that the “Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”[14] When we truly repent, tears flow openly as we face death. Here, death has been conquered. God’s promise to ransom us from death is accomplished. What was corrupted by sin resulted in death. Here, death and all corruption in the first creation is replaced by eternal life and incorruptibility,[15] and John describes God’s people after the resurrection in the state of eternal life in the new heaven and earth.[16] When we read that God is making all things new, it refers to the new heaven and earth of verse one, but it was promised long before this.[17]

The One speaking from the throne is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. We know those to be the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, but they refer to all creation and all life. Alpha and Omega should be seen within the context of the new heaven and the new earth.

When he says, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment,” he echoes Isaiah, who prophesied, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,”[18] Jesus spoke these words twice in John’s Gospel. So, here the words serve as a reminder to heed Jesus’ gracious invitation to drink freely of his living waters, his baptismal waters.

I opened this sermon with a description of how our new house was built. The entire process was exciting. In May 2021, we moved into our new home. Now, here is the sad part. We built our new home about fifty yards behind the house where I grew up. My dad and others built an 800 square-foot brick house with a detached garage in 1955. At first, my parents and older brother lived in the basement. Originally, the house had well water, a cistern, a coal furnace and propane for cooking. Over the years, dad attached the garage to the house and added a third bedroom over the garage.

As a family we enjoyed many memorable moments in that house. Birthday parties and family reunions, homework at the kitchen table and basketball on the driveway. There were sad moments as well. Both of my parents and my younger brother all died there.

Watching our builder demolish our old house was like watching my mother die. There was no joy in the inevitable ending. I mention that because, although our reading does not include it, verse eight reminds us that the cowardly, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will be consigned to a fate worse than the death of a family member or destruction of an old familiar home. That is not something I want; nor is it something I want for others. But we need to keep in mind that along with God’s free gift of grace offered to every person on earth, our loving God judges all.

God’s plan is not a motto for Planet Fitness. There is no Judgement Free Zone. God’s plan includes a judgment, and in any judgment, there are the forgiven and the unforgiven. If we did not have the new house, watching the destruction of the old house would leave me hopeless, but we had a plan, and that plan included not only the destruction of the old house, but the building of a new house.

There are many nonfiction books we can read about the end of America, the fall of Western Civilization, the destruction of the planet and so on. There are plenty of apocalyptic books to entertain our minds and sometimes lead us astray. As faithful and hopeful Christians, we, like John the Apostle, must remain focused on God’s Kingdom. As Martin Luther often told people, we must cling to our Crucified Christ, and bear in mind the words of our Exalted Christ, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”[19]

Folks, our new home is a beautiful home. We have everything we need to live there for the rest of our lives, but it is not our final home. Cindy and I know that. We made plans with attorneys and funeral directors to take care of our estate and our bodies. We know who is getting what and where we will be buried. Most importantly, daily we entrust our souls to our Father’s judgmental mercy, and the rest of our days to building God’s Kingdom.

 Have you entrusted your soul to our Father’s mercy? Have you entrusted your days to building the Kingdom of God? Are you more concerned about these things or getting your own pound of someone else’s flesh and your own little fiefdom?

Friends, we hope in Christ’s promise that in His Father’s House there is a room for us.[20] For now, God dwells among us. John wrote, “The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”[21] He is with us now, and that brings more joy to me than any new house, car, tractor or puppy. God is with us in Word and Sacrament, and God has kept that promise for more than 2,000 years. God’s promise should suffice more than any new teaching, way or movement. With that gracious promise, I can live anywhere and under any circumstances because I know that my Redeemer lives.

Brothers and sisters, we are not self-righteous, and we live righteously only because of God’s mercy. With every breath we take, we live with God who is an ever-present reality and not simply a future promise. And this Gospel – this Good News – that God dwells with us is what we must share with others. Take time today to ponder those words, and do not be afraid to share them with someone who needs to hear them. When you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!



[1] Revelation 20:11.

[2] Isaiah 65:17.

[3] Brighton, 591.

[4] Isaiah 66:22.

[5] 2 Corinthians 5:17.

[6] Ephesians 2:6.

[7] Matthew 24:35.

[8] Revelation 3:12.

[9] Galatians 4:26 – Berean Study Bible.

[10] Hebrews 12:22.

[11] Louis A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), pp. 596f.

[12] Brighton, pp. 597f.

[13] Psalm 126:5-6.

[14] Revelation 7:17.

[15] See Hosea 13:14; Psalm 49:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:20-57.

[16] Brighton, p. 599.

[17] See Isaiah 65:17; 66:22.

[18] Isaiah 55:1. See John 4:10-14; 7:37.

[19] Matthew 6:33-34.

[20] John 14:2.

[21] Revelation 21:3.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Comforting Interlude

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation 7. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

Today being Mother’s Day, I would like you to know that like all mothers, my mother thought I was an angel. Then I turned two. That said, we turn to another theme in Revelation – angels. We know that no one can see God and live. Even Moses could not see God in all his holy righteousness and glory. When he asked God to let him see his glory, God answered that he would permit Moses to see his mercy. Then God said that Moses could not see his face, for no one can see God and live.[1]

God used various natural forms to speak to humans, such as a burning bush, a cloud and pillars of fire. God appeared in the form of an angel or heavenly figure in human form to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and others. He gave the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai through angels.

Angelology (the study of angels) developed in Judaism because of the belief in the remoteness and transcendence of God, part of which was due to his terrifying and overpowering majesty, which no human could approach.[2] All of this should lead us to ask why Jesus used angels to communicate the bulk of Revelation’s prophetic message. Is it because no human being could stand before him?

In chapter one, when the exalted Son of Man appeared to John to commission him to write Revelation, John said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”[3] We find the same in the Transfiguration accounts. The disciples fell on their faces and trembled with terror. Paul’s experience was similar when he encountered the Risen Lord on the way to Damascus.[4]

If we look to Revelation for an answer, we find none. The exalted Christ began mediating the first part of the message directly to John before turning it over to angels, but there is no explicit answer as to why. Scripture does not reveal the mind of Christ regarding this action. The best we can do is to speculate that the exalted Christ first wanted to establish beyond any doubt that this revelation came from God and himself. Once this was established, he could turn the work over to the angels. Given the mysterious character of Revelation’s message, if this were not established, the early church may not have accepted the Letter into the canon. But since the risen Lord directly commanded John to receive and write this revelation, there is no doubt or question as to its origin and godly purpose. Christ established the origin and authority of Revelation by mediating the first part of it, then he safely turned the messaging over to angels.[5]

The point that Jesus made (in chapter one) regarding this was that John could not continue to stand face to face before the holy, majestic presence of the risen Lord because of his earthly decay as a human and Christ’s exaltation as holy God. So, he allowed and empowered John to stand before him until John knew for certain that the message was of God. Just as God in the Old Testament had angels by whom and through whom he spoke to Moses and others, so now Christ in his state of heavenly glory has angels through whom he speaks to John, and they continue the message.[6] That brings us to today’s passage.

Chapter seven is a comforting interlude between the openings of the sixth and seventh seals during which John sees the 144,000 sealed and the saints before God’s throne in heaven. The four winds refer to the whole earth and should not be associated with the four horsemen. The four winds, however, are a symbol of suffering and destruction, but are restrained so that God’s people may be sealed.

This sealing is the work of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments by which the Christian is kept in faith and protected in hope through all the tribulations, sufferings and persecutions executed by the four horsemen. No matter how dire dangers become for the Christian, God keeps us in faith and hope regardless of what is thrown at us, including death. With that in mind, St. Paul encouraged the Philippians and Timothy to press on, to fight the good fight for the victorious crown awaited the Christian. The victorious Lamb is our Good Shepherd.[7]

The 144,000 have been thought to be faithful Jews who believed in Jesus, the nation of Israel or Jewish Christians. Most scholars believe that the number is symbolic and refers to all Christians on earth throughout the time period covered in Revelation.[8] Similarly, St. Paul used the phrases “true Israel of God and true sons of Abraham” in his Letters to the Romans and Galatians.[9]

The number suggests total completeness and gives the reader an image of God’s people marching in perfect step, fully equipped and ready to do God’s work. John drew from Israel as an organized military camp in the wilderness ready to conquer the promised land.[10] And so the church stands ready to carry out its marching orders.

The saints arrayed in white robes symbolize the purity and righteousness of Christ given to them through his blood. Waving palm branches to celebrate Christ’s triumph, and praising God through song shows the redemption of God’s people in Christ. They came out of the great tribulation just as John did. Recall in chapter one, he wrote that he was their “brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.”[11]

We should also remember as we read this that Christians have always suffered tribulation. In Acts, we read how Jews from Antioch and Iconium stoned Paul and left him for dead outside of Lystra, and how he then encouraged disciples “to continue in the faith, and … that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”[12] He referenced this in his Second Letter to Timothy when he wrote, “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”[13] Jesus himself said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”[14]

But as John tells us later, God permits tribulation to occur to show the Church’s faithfulness to Christ. Wherever and whenever Christians experience tribulation, God is present to shepherd them and remind them that Christ is coming to take them home. Jesus himself described such terrifying days in Matthew when he said, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”[15]

The picture of eternal glory of Revelation 7:14 is for the comfort of all Christians of all times as they experience whatever tribulations sorely test their faith and patience.[16] Folks, Christians continually emerge from tribulation because we live in eternal communion with God. The final image of comfort for any believer is that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.

Friends, in nearly 150 countries, God wipes many tears of those imprisoned, displaced or killed for being Christian. Stephen Rache, an American lawyer who works extensively in persecuted Christian communities in Iraq and Nigeria, told an audience that the Nigerian government has abdicated its responsibility to keep its citizens safe, resulting in widespread religiously motivated violence and a general lawlessness.[17]

What is even worse, four years ago the U.S. State Department removed Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” on a watchlist of countries with the most egregious violations of religious freedom. In 2024, more than 3,100 Christians were murdered and more than 2,000 kidnapped. Christian persecution is a daily experience in Nigeria and other countries as well.[18] Islamist extremism is at the heart of the violence.

Christians face tribulation even in countries like Finland, where its top prosecutor appealed a unanimous court decision rejecting her allegations of “hate speech” against a Christian politician who quoted the Bible on Twitter. Finland’s identity privilege laws would effectively outlaw Christianity in that country.[19]

That said, I don’t think the situation of John’s churches is vastly different than those of churches throughout the world today. We don’t live in Country of Particular Concern, but how many days until our tribulations are similar to those of Christians in Nigeria, Finland or elsewhere? How will we remain faithful? As I pondered that, I came across an article entitled, “Fire Upon the Earth.”[20]

It begins like this, “Contempt for religious faith has been growing in America’s leadership classes for many decades.” Later in the article, we read, “God’s grace is the beginning of glory in us. It’s what paves the way for each of us to experience the glory of God in our lives. This is the grace we were given when we were baptized. As we build on this grace day by day, we start to experience the heavenly life that the saints now enjoy fully.”

The author continues, “Happiness is tied to wisdom, and wisdom grows out of risk and suffering, the beauty and hard edges of experiencing the real world. … Happiness requires other people. The joy of a young mother is linked to the gift of life she makes to a new and unrepeatable soul in the act of birth—to the pain and effort she experiences in bearing her child. Happiness is either created and shared with others here and now, or remembered as moments shared with others in the past. This is why, even as he was beaten and starved in a Nazi death camp, the Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl could know happiness and the interior freedom it brings when he remembered the love of his wife.”

Friends, reading Revelation should remind us that we who love Christ will experience tribulation. We who love Christ will also experience God’s grace, God’s love and God’s hope through Word and Sacrament. That alone should suffice for us to remain faithful to our beliefs. If Viktor Frankl could know happiness and freedom by remembering his wife, imagine how much more happiness and freedom we will experience recalling Christ.

Today, I ask you to take time to pray for all the saints experiencing tribulation throughout the world. Take a moment to thank God for grace, hope and love, and remind yourself that our Good Shepherd gently wipes away all the tears in the world. When you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!



[1] Exodus 33:20.

[2] Louis A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), p. 207.

[3] Revelation 1:17.

[4] The section in Luther’s Small Catechism (Questions 126-152) regarding Christ’s state of humiliation and his state of exaltation may help us understand why John, the three disciples and Paul reacted as they did.

[5] Brighton, pp. 208f.

[6] Brighton, p. 209.

[7] Brighton, p. 187. See Philippians 3:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8.

[8] Brighton, p. 189.

[9] Romans 4:1-12; 9:6-8; 11:11-27; Galatians 3;26-29.

[10] Brighton, p. 190. See Numbers 1:1-46; 31:1-6; 26:1-64.

[11] Revelation 1:9.

[12] Acts 14:22.

[13] 2 Timothy 3:12.

[14] John 15:20.

[15] Matthew 24:29-30.

[16] Brighton, p. 199.

[17] Jonah McKeown, “Expert Urges Attention to Persecuted Christians as Bishops Decry Islamist Violence in Nigeria,” National Catholic Register, January 29, 2022, www.ncregister.com.

[18] “After Thousands of Deaths and Kidnappings, Nigerian Christians Call on US to Recognize Their Persecution,” Fredrick Nzwili, Christianity Today, March 24, 2025. www.christianitytoday.com.

[19] Joy Pullmann, “Finnish Prosecutor Will Keep Prosecuting Christian Politician For Quoting The Bible,” The Federalist, May 2, 2022, www.the federalist.com. See also “International Religious Freedom Summit examines religious persecution in the West,” Tyler Arnold, Feb. 6, 2025. Catholic News Agency, www.catholicnewsagency.com.

[20] Charles J. Chaput, “Fire Upon the Earth,” First Things, May 2022, www.firstthings.com.

Friday, May 2, 2025

Revelation's Symbols

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is based on Revelation 5. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

As I mentioned last week, there are various meaningful symbols throughout John’s Revelation. One of them is the lamb. Lamb appears in the Bible over 275 times. It is first mentioned in Genesis (4:4) when Abel, who was the keeper of the sheep, brought the firstborn of his flock to the Lord as an offering. Lamb was the main menu item for the Passover meal. Its blood was smeared on the doorframes on the first Passover when God delivered his people from slavery. Unblemished lambs were offered to God as a sin offering.[1]

Paul says that Christ is the sacrificed Passover Lamb.[2] In the accounts of the Passover meal before Christ’s death, there is a connection between Christ’s body and blood and his impending death, and the Passover lamb whose blood was shed. Apart from Paul, no other New Testament author explicitly calls Christ the Passover Lamb, but the fact that Paul does implies that such a connection was widely known. It was clear in the early Church that people saw in the Passover lamb a type of the sacrifice of Christ.[3]

The phrase “Lamb of God” is found in only two places in the New Testament. John the Baptist speaks the phrase twice in chapter one of John’s Gospel. A verse in 1st Peter reminds readers that their ransom paid to God “was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”[4]Of course, the phrase has been used in Christian worship and theology and is foundational to the message of Christianity.

In Christian art, the Lamb of God depicts Jesus as a lamb carrying a halo and holding a cross symbolizing victory. The cross normally rests on the lamb's shoulder and is held in its right foreleg. The cross usually has a white banner suspended from it with a red cross on the banner. Sometimes the lamb is shown lying on top of a book with seven seals hanging from it. This is a reference to the imagery in today’s reading. Some artists depict the lamb bleeding from the area of the heart, symbolizing Jesus shedding his blood to take away the sins of the world.[5] There is probably no other symbol or title of Jesus that touches the heart as the Lamb of God, and its relationship to Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd.

As we read Revelation it is important to remember that its Christology deals primarily with the exaltation of Jesus Christ and his glorious reign. The foundation of this exalted Christology is the theology of the Lamb of God who suffered, died, and rose again. By this he earned the eternal glory of his Father, and now (in Revelation and in our time) he shares that glory with his people. Throughout Revelation we are constantly reminded that Christ is the exalted Son of Man, Lord of lords and King of kings because he was and is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for the sins of God’s people.[6]

In today’s passage, we find three hymns of praise sung by elders, angels and all creatures. The first hymn is called a new song. Later, in chapter 14, the church sings a similar song as they follow the Lamb. It indicates that worship and praise of God’s people on earth is parallel to that of the saints in heaven before God. In chapter 15, as the church is engaged in battle with the beast, she sings the song of Moses and the hymn of the Lamb. These are victory songs. Despite the suffering caused by the beast, the church sings a new song. The song had never been sung before. The songs of Moses and the Lamb express God’s rightness and show his anger and judgment on earth towards the beast and evil forces. This new song in today’s passage, which has no Old Testament references, echoes verse 11 in chapter 4 and is a victory song sung before the battle because the promise has been fulfilled. Christ came and won the victory for God and his people.[7] This new song exudes the believers’ confidence.

In verse 11, the angels join in the cheerful praise of the Lamb, who at the right hand of the Father is worshipped and adored. Notice in 4:11, that God the Creator is given glory, honor and worship. Equally, the victorious Christ is given the same in this song. Note too the additional words of worship and praise given to the Son: wealth, wisdom, strength and blessing. These are given to Christ because in his earthly life of humiliation, suffering, death and glorious resurrection, he earned them. Christians see in Christ the wealth, wisdom, strength and blessing, and through them receive from God the gift of salvation through the proclamation of the Gospel.

At this point, if you are lost, here’s how to find your way to understanding all this: Read the difference between Christ’s state of humiliation and his state of exaltation in Luther’s Small Catechism. Questions 126-152, succinctly explain these two states.

In the third stanza, every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth and in the sea sings, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”[8] Every creature (angels, people, earthworms and whales) sings this because it is only in Christ that the human race receives and acknowledges the wealth of God’s saving grace, and it is only in the Lord Jesus Christ that the wisdom of God is received and acknowledged, especially that wisdom which leads the human heart in repentance to a saving faith.[9] Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Can I get an “Amen!” to that?

Folks, this passage is John’s vision of God’s heavenly majesty and the coronation and enthronement of Jesus Christ. God’s redemption and restoration of the human race came through his Son. The whole purpose of God’s activity toward all people and creation is that it would end in worship and praise of God as Creator and Savior through his Son.

This vision is Christ’s ascension. This is Jesus’ high priestly prayer for glory for himself, his disciples and all believers that we read in John 17. In verse 24 of that chapter we read, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” This is what the three disciples saw on the mountain when Moses and Elijah appeared in glory and spoke of Jesus’ departure, and what he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Peter, James and John saw his glory.[10]

This is Martyr Stephen’s vision. “As he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’”[11]At the beginning of Acts, we read of Christ’s ascension from the perspective of those who saw it from earth. Revelation 4 and 5 are the exaltation of Christ at the Father’s right hand from the perspective of heaven.

This is the flip side Good Friday’s mourning when Jesus was crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross when darkness covered the face of the earth. The crown of thorns gives way to a crown of many crowns. The glory of the cross is now seen in the glory of exaltation of Christ at the Father’s right. Heaven is no longer mourning for the celebration has taken its place.

Friends, as we read the rest of Revelation, we interpret everything through this vision of Christ’s coronation. It gives us hope because it tells us how it all is going to end. This vision helps us, as Church, to carry out Christ’s mission for us on earth.

I was thinking about how this passage applies to our lives, and because the NFL draft was recently held in Green Bay, I wondered, “Did Revelation’s victory influence Vince Lombardi’s confidence?” It’s a debatable question, and I say it did based on this Lombardi quote. “When we place our dependence in God, we are unencumbered, and we have no worry. … This confidence … is both contagious and an aid to the perfect action. The rest is in the hands of God – and this is the same God who has won all His battles up to now.” … God has won all His battles up to now.

Successful people like Lombardi inspire people. But what if you are not Lombardi. What if you are Garth Fritel? The story of Garth Fritel is how a man won a war in the soul by crossing into the unknown territory of pain, isolation and a collapsing body to say only one thing: “Yes, God — I give it all to you.”[12]

Fritel died last August at age 47 in Spokane, after suffering from ALS for seven years. The disease claims lives in less than three years. His wife, two daughters and a group of people prayed for a miracle of physical healing for Fritel, but for the last three years of his life, Garth did not move a single body part below his neck.

An online article tells us that Garth laid awake at the loneliest hours of the night, where a shifting kaleidoscope of thoughts came into view. His wife, Adeline, slept like a stone beside him. She spent each of her days pushing boulders up Mount Spokane juggling her work as a pharmacist, caring for their daughters and handling carpools, meals, cleaning, etc. He never dared to wake her. In total silence Garth looked at the choice he was faced with: A. Quit and die. B. Live.

He chose option B. He learned that suffering with and for God is the inseparable companion of union with Christ on the cross. He said, “I can choose to pick up the cross or I can choose not to. I can choose to give my suffering over to Jesus or I can choose not to. With God or without? I have the power of choice. … How people survive ALS without faith is a mystery to me.” Each evening, Garth gathered his family in the living room where they prayed as a family, and a single question was asked: What was your blessing today?

Friends, what is your blessing today? For me, it is God giving me the opportunity to delve into the Word. It’s Pastor Louis Brighton whose knowledge of Scripture, and Revelation in particular, which blesses me with understanding and insight. Yours might be the presence of your loved ones or beautiful memories of those now with the Lord. Whatever your blessing is in health or in suffering, in riches or poverty, in peace or in persecution, know that your victory has been won. When you sing your victory song, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus the Risen Lord. Amen. Alleluia!



[1] Leviticus 14.

[2] 1 Corinthians 5:7.

[3] Louis A. Brighton, Revelation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1999), p. 149. See Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20.

[4] The New Living Translation of 1 Peter 1:19.

[5] Revelation 5:6; John 1:29, 36.

[6] Brighton, p. 149.

[7] Brighton, pp. 141-142.

[8] Revelation 5:13.

[9] Brighton, pp. 143-144.

[10] Luke 9:31-32.

[11] Acts 7:55-56.

[12] Kevin Wells, “A Man of Heroic Courage, Nailed to the Cross of ALS,” National Catholic Register, April 21, 2022. See https://www.ncregister.com/