大开眼界 Perfect Vision

Title: Perfect Vision 大开眼界
Preacher: Rev. Wong Siow Hwee
Date: 8th Jan 2023

We will be preaching on the book of Revelation from Jan to May this year. The last time we preached on the book was 26 years ago in 1997 when we invited the late Rev Choong Chee Pang to preach a 6 part series in Jubilee. [1] I’ve uploaded the sermon transcripts onto our church website if you are keen to check them out. There are two reasons why we are preaching on Revelation again this year. The first reason is that it is part of my lifelong dream to preach through the entire bible, and Revelation is one of the last parts of the bible this generation of the pastoral team has yet to cover.

But the second reason is the important one: we want to continue the conversation this year about flourishing life. Last year, we talked about flourishing life from the perspective of wisdom from Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Job. This year, we will approach it from the New Testament from the perspective of Kingdom of God. And we shall see that Revelation has something unique to say about the Kingdom of God.

Before I proceed further, I need to answer one key question about Revelation: Why not write plainly? Why the heavy use of symbolism that makes it so difficult to unpack for the modern readers? The short answer is “can and cannot”. John cannot write plainly because Revelation is a message against Rome, their direct oppressor. Although John is not afraid of death, he does hope the message would be copied and passed as far and wide as possible, and it would be foolhardy to write an anti-Rome message in plain language. But the good news is that even though he cannot write plainly, thanks be to God, he can write figuratively to his readers with minimal miscommunication. The cypher for his coded message is already there, ready to be used. Many of the symbolisms used by John can be found in the Old Testament, especially Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, which is the scripture the churches read every day. Essentially, what John is doing is rather similar to what many of the Chinese netizens do creatively to get past the censorship in China whenever they want to criticize the government 指桑骂槐. The seven churches know what John is saying to them. However, we find Revelation confusing because we are less familiar with the Old Testament, and we are not experiencing the history that the seven churches went through, so it is harder to link the metaphors with the historical events and figures. But don’t worry about it. Many of the symbolisms can be easily resolved using the Old Testament and learning more about Roman history in the first century. We cannot claim to have perfectly decoded Revelation, but we do have pretty good guesses as to what John is saying.

There is just one key principle you have to remember: whatever is the message that is decoded, it has to be meaningful for the congregations of the seven churches, because Revelation is written for them. Hopefully this principle will help to safeguard you from a lot of the speculative interpretations of Revelation out there. If the interpretation is meaningless to the seven churches, then it should be equally meaningless to us, no matter how well we think it fits as a prophecy. And if the interpretation is meaningful to them, then we can begin to think about how to extend that meaning to us.

Let’s start with the purpose and title of the book Revelation: which literally means unveiling. The book lets you see what was previously hidden from you. But perhaps hidden is not a fair word, as if God being secretive, which is not at all the case (Ephesians 1:9). I would prefer to put it as an enlightened perspective. The truth was out there all along, but Revelation finally allows you to see things clearly. I liken this process to looking at a picture. There are many things that you may not see until you are enlightened to the full reality. (Let’s look at some common examples. [2])

It may not matter much if you are unable to see the truth in these optical illusions, but your ability to perceive reality may have serious implications in life on things that matter. The right perspective is critical for flourishing life because our decisions and actions are shaped by how we perceive our situation. Let’s think about something pragmatic like our financial situation. Should we save more or should we spend more in 2023? If we do spend, what should we spend on? This is the moment that you realize that our perceptions are shaped by a lot of people: property experts share how you should look at the property market; insurance agents and bankers share how you should look at your investments; the government will share their perspective of the economy as they do their annual budget; even your neighborhood stall owners will advise you on the fluctuating prices of your essential household items. We cherish the views of subject experts because the good ones allow you see things a little clearer than before, and that extra depth in perspective may allow you to gain an advantage in life, whether it is financial decisions or other matters.

But what about our spiritual reality? Isn’t it just as important to see things about God clearly? This is the precisely the message of Revelation for the seven churches. John knows that they have an immense need to see the spiritual reality clearly because if they don’t, the fear is that that the church might not survive till the next generation. Pastor Zhang Li will talk more about their circumstances in next week’s sermon, but we will only go into the full details in this year’s church retreat.

In today’s passage, I will highlight the two most important things I see that is revealed to them about the spiritual reality. The content of Revelation is described in verse 2 as “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ”. In short, the spiritual reality that Revelation will unveil is Jesus Christ. It is important to see Jesus Christ clearly for who he is and what he has accomplished. The first important requirement: you must have the proper perspective of time. God described himself as “8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”” This has the same meaning as the name of God revealed to Moses Exodus 3: 14 “I am who I am.” Alpha and Omega represent the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Hence, the title sets forth God as the sovereign Lord over everything that takes place in the entire course of human history. [3]

For people in pain and suffering, time can be a torture when every moment is difficult to go through. A proper perspective of time would be to understand this metaphor: what may seem like pitch black at the moment contains a light at the end of the tunnel. Your pain and suffering is not as eternal as it might seem right now. God gives a timely reminder to the seven churches to look beyond the present moment to see that time is in God’s hands. I know that might sound like a cliché. But something has changed in this cliché. Jesus then repeated the same titles of God for himself “17 “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” These titles also emphasize absolute sovereignty. So now we know, time is not just in God’s hands, but also in Jesus’ hands. And this is meaningful to the seven churches, because they know Jesus. They know it through the testimonies of John, who was a pastor to them. They know Jesus, to whom they put their faith in. They know Jesus is with them through the Holy Spirit, and will be with them in the new heaven and earth. Now John is revealing to them in his vision that Jesus is the First and the Last, and they should look at time differently. In short, in Jesus Christ, time is now on their side.

Besides the proper perspective of time, the seven churches also need the proper perspective of power. Verse 5 described Jesus Christ as “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” The expression looks forward to his open manifestation as King of kings (Rev 17:14; 19:16). Jesus achieved that through faithful obedience that led to death. Vindicated by the resurrection, he is, at the consummation, to be universally acknowledged as supreme ruler (cf. Phil 2:10-11). John also unveiled 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. In short, Jesus is watching over the seven churches. Their fate is in his hands.

What does it mean to have both power and time? To the seven churches, it meant security. People with power feel insecure because they fear their power will not last. People without power feel insecure because time is just a promise, and the future seem unknown. But when you have both, then you are truly secure. And if Jesus Christ is the one with both, then you know he is the one who is truly in charge. He is the only one you need to be mindful of, the only one you need to be accountable to, and the only one who will have the final say about your fate.

Allow me to share what this means for us today. To me, the right perspectives of time and power imply hope for us Christians. There are many times I look at the world and feel powerless to transform anything. I look with despair at the geopolitical stalemates between the superpowers, whether it is the Ukraine wars, or trade wars, and even the control of nuclear weapons. Though the world leaders might have made some promises about climate change, everybody knows in their hearts they are far from enough, and would likely turn up empty. These are major concerns we share as humans, but I’m sure many of us have many more in our individual circumstances, whether it is about the country, or our society, or in our individual workplace, or family.

But maybe we need to tweak our vision with the right perspectives about time and power, and then we can perceive the full picture of our reality. Then we see our Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings as he is the one in charge, not the world leaders, not the oppressors that we face in our own circumstances. A people of hope are not naïve or idealistic, but are people with perfect vision. Thanks be to God that the truth is now unveiled to us. We can fight the good fight, and we shall finish the race with glory. We have hope, because we see Jesus as who he truly is: the one with power and time. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

[1] https://www.jubilee.org.sg/sermons/?series=85
[2] https://www.insider.com/classic-optical-illusions-2018-1
[3] Mounce, Revelation (NICNT)

华语崇拜视频链接：https://youtu.be/RfLm7UjetkI
Sermon video at Bilingual service：https://youtu.be/OyLgogGaoTE