The Big Reveal:All About Us

 July 12 2026

Revelation 11: 1-6

         I know that it seems we have been studying the book of Revelation for quite awhile now, but I am still caught off guard at how relevant the lessons of this book have been. Todays scripture is proof of this point as well. If you have listened to the news lately, you would have heard how the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, has pushed for the Bible to be studied in the schools of his state. He is also one who insists that the barrier that stands between church and state be abolished. Now while this might sound good on the surface, what Mr. Patrick desires is actually impossible.  Now I say this not from a political viewpoint but rather from the fact that the church and the state have different ways of determining their identities. If Mr. Patrick properly understood the scripture he wishes to teach to the students of his state, he would discover that with God there are two separate and opposite identities, holy and common. The church is to be identified as holy while the state, such as our United States, is identified as being common. If we think about the common way people find their identity we would soon realize that a country’s identity is found through what makes it different from other countries. Our neighboring country Canada, for example has as the head of its government,  a prime minister, while the United States has a president to fulfill that role. So this common way of identifying ourselves is to belong with those who are like us and separate ourselves from those who are different from us. Who we are, we might say, is that we are those who are not one of them. This then is the common way we separate our world, creating a world where people know themselves as belonging to us and not them.

         Now, when it comes to the church, those who follow Christ, we are simply to be identified by being us. We heard this when we studied the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation, in the ninth verse. There John heard the elders proclaim that Jesus the Lamb slain for us, is worthy for by his blood he has ransomed people for a holy God out of every tribe, language, people and nation. These terms, tribe, language, people and nation, are all the common ways we create our identity by separating ourselves into our us and them categories. Yet, through the blood of Christ we are no longer common but we are indeed holy because we are all one kingdom made up of priests who bless others. So from the moment that Christ shed his blood on the cross there are two types of people. The first of these are all those who refuse to be identified by what Christ has done. These people still hold fast to the common way of identifying themselves, seeing the world as us and them.The second of these ways are those who know themselves being holy. Those who know themselves as being holy are those who see all others as being one of us, whether those others know this or not. The importance of holiness is plainly stated in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews where we are told that we must strive for holiness for without holiness no one will see the Lord.

         Now, the audience that John first read this letter that John wrote, what we call the book of Revelation, knew the importance of knowing the difference between what is common and what is holy. So in order for us to even begin to understand what John has written we too must to be certain of what it means for us to be holy. We must be certain that we know that there is only us. If we are to have any hope of understanding our scripture we must keep this in definition of holiness in mind as we come to today’s reading from chapter eleven of the book of Revelation.  

The scripture for today begins with John measuring the Temple of God, and the altar and all those who worship there, a place that we are to know is thoroughly holy. Now the reason that John is doing such an unusual job is that it is God who has told him to get busy measuring the Temple. Well, if you are familiar with the Old Testament, you will know that what we are hearing in these first few verse of chapter eleven is an echo of the fortieth chapter of Ezekiel. When he people of Judah were then marched off to live as slaves in Babylon they would have naturally wondered just what was to be their future. They no longer had the Temple which spoke of God’s desire to dwell among his people. So God raised up a prophet named Ezekiel from among those forced to live in Babylon. In the fortieth chapter of his book, we find that Ezekiel has a vision. In this vision, Ezekiel sees a new Temple that was being measured by a man whose appearance was like bronze.  Through this vision Ezekiel was telling his people that God’s intention to dwell with his people had not changed which gave them much needed hope.

         So in the eleventh chapter of the book of Revelation, this new Temple that John is called to measure, this is the fulfillment of the vision that was given to Ezekiel. Yet there was something very strange about this new Temple that John was measuring. Yes, there was the altar where the sacrifices were offered, and yes there was the sanctuary where the golden lamp stand and the incense altar and the show bread was set upon the table, and yes, there beyond the sanctuary was the Holy of Holies. But what every good Temple worshipper would have noticed is that the wall that had been erected to separate the people of God from the people of the nations, this wall was missing. In the old Temple, this wall kept the people of the nations from worshipping with the people of God. All along this wall were signs warning the people of the nations to not even consider to try and breach the wall in order to worship with the people of God. If someone who was not one of the people of God was found  to be in the area of the sacrificial altar, or the sanctuary or Holy of Holies, the result would have been an instant death. So for a Jewish person to hear that this wall was now gone would have been a shocking revelation. The result was just as bad as any good Jew could have imagined for we are told that without the wall, the people of the nations had come in and trampled down the holy city. It is no surprise that John uses these words, “trampled down”, because these are the exact words found in the seventh chapter of Daniel. There Daniel saw that a nation would arise who would be extraordinarily fearsome, and this nation would devour, and crush and trample down the holy ones who make up God’s kingdom.

         After we read these first few verses of chapter eleven, we are left wondering just why then has this wall that protected the holy temple of God from the nations been taken down ? The answer is found in the second chapter of the letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians where he writes about the church being the new Temple with Christ as its cornerstone. There in the eleventh verse, we read this: So, remember that at one time you people of the nations in the flesh, called the uncircumcised by those who were circumcised, remember that at one time you were separated from Christ, you were excluded from being a citizen of Israel, you were strangers to the covenant of promise.” Here we should pause to consider all of the ways we hear in this section of how people were identified through, “us and them”, language. Paul speaks that there was once the Jews and there were also those of the nations; there were the ones circumcised as the covenant people of God, and there were those who are not circumcised; there were those who called themselves citizens of the nation of Israel and there were those who were citizens of all of the other nations; there were the those who were well versed in the covenants of promise that God made with his people and there were the people of the nations who were strangers to this covenant life. So as Paul continues, the people of the nations were people who had no hope as they were without God in the world. The Jews could say we have God and we have no trouble with the rest of the world being simply those people who were without God. This is the terrible tragedy that is found in the common life which separates the world into the haves and the have nots.

         Yet all is not lost for we serve a holy God. Let us listen again to the second chapter, this time at the thirteenth verse: But now, in Christ Jesus, you who used to be far away, being that you were those people, now you have come near through the blood of Christ. For Christ is our peace for he has made us both one. Christ is the very one who has broken down the dividing wall that once stood between the people of God and the people of the nations, destroying in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments, and the statutes, that the Jews used to identify themselves as being, us, and the nations being, them. So Christ, in doing this, has created in himself, one new humanity, a new us, where there used to be a world of us and them.” Paul concludes this section by saying this, “So then you people of the nations are no longer to be considered strangers and foreigners because now you are one of us, fellow citizens with the holy ones of God, and members of the house of God.” I hope that through what Paul tells us here that we can now see why the church and the state are far too different in the way they identify themselves to ever consider being united together. As members of the house of God we declare that we no longer consider anyone to be a stranger or a foreigner even if the country we live in chooses to do so in order to clarify their identity.

         So the answer as to why the dividing wall that kept the nations from reaching the holy Temple of God has been torn down is that Jesus Christ has abolished this wall through shedding his blood on the cross. The purpose why Jesus has done so is found as we continue in this eleventh chapter of Revelation where John speaks about two witnesses. The identity of these two witnesses is given away when he states that the power of these two witnesses, is that they can shut the sky so that no rain will fall, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague. If anyone has even a little knowledge of the Old Testament, it is fairly easy to conclude that they are first, Elijah, who prayed for a drought during the reign of King Ahab and no rain fell for three years. And secondly, John is speaking about Moses who did indeed turn the Nile red with blood and caused many plagues to devastate Egypt when he was sent to free the people of Israel from their slavery. 

Now, if we consider Moses and Elijah being a witness to something as is suggested by John, it seems natural to believe that he is describing a scene found in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew. What happens here in the first few verses of this chapter comes right on the heels of Jesus announcing to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to be crucified but three days later he would rise from death. Peter, the leader of the disciples got in the face of Jesus, telling Jesus that there was no way that he was going to let such a thing happen. Jesus responds by telling Peter that he was Satan and that Peter needed to get behind him. Well, six days later after his confrontation with Peter, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a high mountain. There Jesus glows with the glory of heaven and suddenly standing there with him is none other than Moses and Elijah. Peter, James and John are beside themselves at such a mind blowing event. Then as suddenly as this scene had happened it was gone, and Jesus is standing there alone. And what Peter, James and John hear then is the voice of their Heavenly Father, who tells them that this Jesus is His Son, his beloved one, the one with whom he is well pleased, and they are to listen to him! In other words, if Peter, James and John had any doubts about Jesus being crucified they had better leave them there on the mountain. The message they beheld was that the Law, represented by Moses, and the Prophets, represented by Elijah, were witnesses to the life that Jesus lived. This is the very same truth that Jesus speaks of in the sixth chapter of John. There Jesus tells us that the scriptures, both the Law and the Prophets, witness to him. 

Now if we pause to consider just what the life of Jesus represents it is easy to see that in the life of Jesus we see a unity between God and humanity. If ever there were a relationship we could identify as being,” us and them” it is God and humanity. Where God is uncreated, invisible, all powerful, all knowing and all loving, humanity, on the other hand, is created, visible, weak, ignorant, and possessing an impure heart. Yet God refuses to be defined by these differences for he instead, in Christ, is defined by being forever united with beings so unlike himself for God is always the God of us. This life where God unites himself with us is witnessed by the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

This life where God unites himself with humanity is called the blessed life in the Old Testament. The clearest place where this blessed life is spoken of is found in the sixth chapter of Numbers. There we find that the High Priest, named Aaron, places a blessing upon the people of God as they leave their time of worship. The blessing is simply this: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his face to you, and give you peace. What the worshippers would have understood from this is that first, God looked upon them as being his first-born son as in their culture this is who received the blessing of their Father. The Father blessed his eldest son so that the power and authority of the Father would be now given to the eldest son. So, in effect God is telling his people that they were those who were given the honor of bearing his power and authority so that they might represent him in the world, the essence of what it means to bear his image. As such God would keep them, giving them all they needed for life. Yet there was more because God smiles on them as he promises to them his grace. In ancient Jewish culture, this meant that God would invite them into his tent to experience his hospitality. In order to do this, God had to take down the hedge of protection from around his dwelling in order that they could enter his house. As they enter his house, they find that God kneels before them, this is why he looks up at them. This means that God desires to serve them, to suffer with them and to sacrifice for them. The result is peace meaning that now they were united with God, becoming his friends and yes, even his very family.

If you listen closely to this blessing you can hear the very story of the life of Jesus, our king. As priests in his kingdom, we are to be like God seeing everyone as being worthy to be blessed, because we are to see others as we do Jesus, his first born. We are to keep all we meet by giving all them the basic needs of life. We are to smile upon the strangers who came our way. We are to open our lives to offer the grace of hospitality even if it means we are left open to be hurt. The hope is that as we serve our guests, suffering with them and sacrificing for them, the result will be peace. Where there was once a stranger is now a friend, yes, even family. This is the peacemaking that Jesus teaches us that proves what God believes about us, that we are indeed his holy children. In this way those living in an us and them world come to be part of the great us, the us we know as being the kingdom of God. To the glory of God. Amen!

 

The Big Reveal:The In’s and Outs of the Life of Christ

 June 28 2026

Revelation 3:1-7, 10:8-10

         Well, we have at last come to one of my favorite times of the year, that time when the black raspberries and blackberries are at last in season. As a kid, I wasn’t very happy to find out that our whole family had to go out and pick berries on some hot evening. Perhaps it was just that I didn’t like having to pick enough berries to fill that gallon jug that I was given. But now that I can just find berries and eat them as I go, I love finding them as I take my dog, Mazy, for for a walk. As I have wandered out this past week, I have found that quite a few of the berry bushes I picked from last year died in the drought last fall. So I have had to widen my search to find a few more berry bushes to pick from. Now, not every berry bush I find has berries on them which is frustrating. I mean, blackberry stems and leaves are not what I’m after. In a way, these bushes which show no sign of bearing berries are about as worthless as the berry bushes which died last year. I mean, neither the ones that died nor the ones which have no berries really do me any good, do they?

         Well, in a very similar way, Jesus is a lot like I am when I go out to hunt for berries because he too desires to find those who call ourselves the church to be people who are bearing good fruit. This is what Jesus teaches us in the seventh chapter of Matthew, where he says this, “The trees that are beneficial are all those which bear good fruit. …If a tree bears rotten fruit it is not beneficial, so as a rule all trees that do not bear good fruit must be cut down and thrown into the fire.” And just so we do not think that Jesus is not just telling us how to tend fruit trees, he concludes by saying, ‘So, by your fruit, this is how you will be known.” This idea that we are people who will be known by the fruit which our lives produces, this is an important idea to hold on to as we come to one of the most disturbing reviews that Jesus gives to one of the seven churches he addresses in the book of Revelation. 

Today, we come to the review Jesus gives to the church at Sardis and it is a rather blunt appraisal by Jesus who is the one who possesses the seven Spirits of God, the very one who holds the seven stars in his hand. If we turn back to the first chapter, we find that these seven Spirits and seven stars are the eyes and ears watching the seven churches. So in this description of Jesus we are to know that whatever is going on at this church at Sardis, Jesus knows about it, it is not hidden from him. It is no surprise then that the first words of Jesus are that he is well aware of what is going on in this church at Sardis for he knows of their works. Secondly, we hear that Jesus knows of their of their belief that they are alive but the reality is that they are in fact dead. What Jesus is implying here is that he knows that the works this church are producing are not works which he has judged to be good. Therefore, as he has taught them in his core teachings, since they have not produced good fruit, they are as good as dead. The only conclusion that Jesus can make is that they are nothing but a barren tree, in need of being cut down and thrown in the fire, ouch!

You see, only as we become aware of the fruit we produce can we then return to bearing the fruit that Jesus desires us to produce. As Jesus continues to address this problem found at the church at Sardis, we begin to understand the reason why they have not produced good fruit. Jesus calls them back to life by telling them to once again be steadfast, to stand firm in their faith. This is the very same need that was found in he church being addressed in the book of Hebrews, where the writer of that letter tells his church at the end of the tenth chapter, ‘You have need of endurance so that after doing the will of God you might receive what is promised. For in just a little while, the one who is coming will arrive, he will not be delayed. But as scripture tells us, “My righteous people will live by faithfulness”.  So if we shrink back and waver in our faith then the soul of God will find no pleasure in us.” Those who shrink back and waver in their faith are hardly steadfast as Jesus expects. The cause of this unsteadiness in their faith, is found earlier in this same tenth chapter of Hebrews. The writer tells us that this church had gone through, “….a terrible struggle with much suffering. They had been made a public spectacle, being insulted and persecuted. They had also joined others who were enduring a similar fate. They had sympathized with those who had been imprisoned and with joy they even allowed others to confiscate their personal belongings since they knew that they had a better and abiding possession.” So it becomes clear that the reason why their faith had began to waver is that they have had to endure extreme hardship on account of their faith. 

Now it should come as no surprise though, that the church in the book of Hebrews suffered as they did because this is exactly what John explains will happen as we hear in the tenth chapter of this letter of Revelation.There we find that John hears a voice from heaven which says to him, “Go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and the land”. So John goes to the angel and he tells the angel to give him the,“little”, scroll. Now this mention of a little scroll is an important clue to help us figure out just what is happening in this scenario. This same word for little is found there in the seventh chapter of Matthew, where Jesus speaks about the narrow road. Jesus tells us, ‘How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life and little is the number of those who find it.” So the scroll is little because what is written on it are the small number of people who are walking on the narrow way.

What John also expects us to know is that this scroll is the book of life which is described at the beginning of the twelfth chapter of the book of Daniel. There we are told that, “…there will come a time of suffering and in that time the people of God will be delivered, every one who is written in the book, or scroll. Many of these who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake,  these in the book to everlasting life and others will awake to reproach and everlasting contempt.….’. So when John is handed the little scroll, he is being given the book which has the names of those going on to everlasting life. Now when the angel tells John to eat the scroll, what he is telling John is that the certainty of his eternity is to be for him a very sweet hope. Yet, as this scroll hits his stomach he finds that knowing that his name is in the book of life is, at the same time, a bitter experience. This bitter experience is the suffering that must be endured by those who live by the wisdom of the cross instead of living by the wisdom of this world.

Paul writes much about the sweetness and the bitterness found when we live by the wisdom of the cross. In the fourth chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians, he praises God , because God has flooded our hearts the light of the glorious knowledge of God that is found when we live before the face of Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to say that this knowledge of God found by living before the face of Christ is a treasure which is found in the clay pots of our earthly existence. The reason why God has put his power within such fragile beings is so that it might be seen that the surpassing power witnessed in our life comes from God and not from us. Paul speaks of how this power is witnessed by the world. He writes,  “We are under pressure in all we do, but we are not crushed; we are in doubt and perplexity but we are not driven to despair; yes, we are persecuted, but God has not abandoned us; we are indeed thrown down but look, we are not destroyed. At all times we carry within our bodies the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be brought seen living in us. We who live are constantly handed over to death… so that the life of Jesus living in us might be brought to light in our mortal flesh.” What Paul describes here is what we might call, the in’s and outs of the life of Jesus. The true power that we receive from the life of Jesus living in us can only be displayed outwardly when we are willing to suffer for his sake. In other words, the goodness of the life that is ours when we live before the face of God is most clearly seen when the world is at its worst. Yet it is precisely when the world is at its worst that we are tempted to waver in our faith. This is what is known as the crisis of faith. When we are tempted to withdraw from this suffering we call into question the power of Christ that we say our faith is founded on. As John demonstrated for us, yes, it is sweet to know we have our names written in the book of life because of our faith in Jesus. But because of that same faith, we will be called to endure the bitterness of persecution at the hands of the world.

So the church at Sardis is found to be just like the church written about in the letter to the Hebrews. The church at Sardis has pulled back from living a life which demonstrated that the the power of Christ lived in them. They no longer were found faithfully living by the wisdom of the cross. When they withdrew from living by the wisdom of the cross then they withdrew from the very life of Jesus. A refusal to witness to the death of Jesus on the outside of their life meant that inwardly the life of Christ no longer lived within them. As Jesus teaches us at the beginning of the fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel, “Just as the branch is unable to bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you bear fruit unless you remain with me.” Jesus goes on to explain telling us, “The one who remains with me, the one I am found to be living within, these are the ones who bear much fruit. If you are separated from me you, your power will produce nothing. If anyone does not remain with me then they are like a cut off branch which is thrown away because it has dried up. These dry branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned.” When we hear this harsh warning from Jesus we can now understand why Jesus tells the church at Sardis that even though they were known to be a living church they were nonetheless, quite dead. When they had experienced suffering on account of their faith in Jesus they did not remain with Jesus. So like a branch which had been cut off from the vine, they had become withered and without life. Jesus could say that their works were not complete for while they professed to have the life of Christ inside of them, they had refused to demonstrate the death of Christ in their witness to the world. So the world did not witness in them the true power that is ours when Christ is alive and well within us. This power can only be known when in that moment when we face the crisis of faith, we stand fast, willing to suffer for Christ instead of withdrawing to safety. The problem, as Jesus tells the church at Sardis is that they needed to once more become steadfast, unmovable in their faithful living according to the wisdom of the cross.

Jesus also tells the church at Sardis that they were in need of doing three actions. They were to remember what they had received, to recall what they had heard and above all repent. What the church was to remember is found In the fifteenth chapter of the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Paul tells us that what we have received as followers of Jesus is the gospel message. This message is this: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and then he appeared to Peter and to the twelve.” So we are to remember the one we follow, the one who was willing to suffer and die for our sins, this is the one who three days later was raised to life. If we say that we follow Christ, then the pattern of his life must become the pattern for our life. As he was willing to suffer at the hands of others in order to condemn the sin that lives in the desires of our flesh, so too we must be willing to suffer at the hands of the people of this world. In doing so, we will be an example to all of how the vulnerable and weak of this world suffer when they are crushed by those who live by the desires of their flesh. This is what the life of Christ calls us to do, to be be a witness to the suffering and agony that the world brings to bear on the innocent people of this world. And we must also demonstrate the power of forgiveness for those who bring such cruelty against us, so that our good might overcome their evil. In this way then, we follow Christ who gave his life for us at the cross. When we live like this then the gospel message can be said to be living within us. 

So by living a life that conforms to the life and death of Christ, we are living proof that not only have we received the gospel message, but that we also have chosen to obey what we have received. This is the way that we turn from living in fear of the world and the suffering we might receive at the hands of this world and turn to place our life in the hands of our living Savior. Repentance is more than mere admitting that we are living opposed to the way of Christ. No, repentance must be that we actually begin again to follow Christ on the narrow road. We must not forget that Jesus tells us right from the beginning of this journey, that this narrow way is the way of the cross, the way of suffering that leads to life.

Now when we rightly understand the difficult journey we face when we decide to walk on this narrow way, it should come as no surprise that we will need others who will walk with us so that we might bear each others burdens. I believe that Jesus understands this need because he does mention in his review of the church at Sardis that there are a few members of this church who have not defiled themselves. These are the ones Jesus tells us that do walk with him, those he can judge as being worthy to do so. What is interesting is that he does not tell these faithful few that they should separate themselves from the the rest of the church that has lost their way. I believe Jesus desires that these faithful few are to heed the wisdom found in the tenth chapter of Hebrews. There the church is told to not abandon meeting together, even with those who have lost their way. The reason for this is twofold. First, those who are faithfully walking on the narrow way are to encourage those who waver in their faith because of the suffering they are called to endure. We must continually remind each other the wisdom found in the fourth chapter of the first letter of John, that greater is the one who is in us, than he that is in the world. The one who is in the world causing all of the suffering and destruction that we see is Satan. Yet, as Jesus teaches us in the twelfth chapter of John, Satan has been defeated through Jesus bearing his cross for us. Secondly, in the tenth chapter of Hebrews these faithful few are also to consider how they can spur others to get busy bearing fruit. When the temptation arises to retreat, the faithful few are to incite others to advance the cause of Christ through the sharing of God’s unlimited love and the doing of the good we know to do. We must never forget that our faith is dead if we do not back it up with the bearing of good fruit, the good which overcomes the evil of this world. To God be the glory! Amen!