这些话是真实可信的 These Words are Trustworthy and True

Title: These words are trustworthy and true
Preacher: Rev Enoch Keong
Date: 04 June 2023

The last book in the bible, the final portion, begins with “These words are trustworthy and true.” (v.6a)

Reading the assertion, I ask, “what about that is trustworthy and true?” And “so what? These questions come straight to mind because these are supposedly the very last words of the entire Bible.

The bible is also called the biblical canon. A canon is a measuring stick, a standard where all other measuring instruments to be crafted would check against. When we call bible the biblical canon, it is then “a critically agreed minimum of authoritative, accurate revelation by which we can evaluate all other claims to revelation.” [1]These words” found in verse 6 refers to the entire book of Revelation. And Revelation being a part of the biblical canon is here to help readers tell apart the sound and unsound descriptions of God. Godly and errant way to view life. What is from God and what might not be. And things that Christians should and should not be doing.

I therefore want to encourage us to join me in asking “what about” and “so what” as we ponder the final words of Revelations.

Final words often contain messages that sum up the heart of the matter and the matters of the heart. God people are called to hear what it is saying to us today?

Yet, what is the book trying to say in the first place to the original readers? For the last time in this sermon series, let us recall the reason for John to have written the book, and then take a closer look on what the book suggests for the readers –past and present–to do.

I.
Revelation was written to help the seven churches in Asia Minor navigate a dilemma they faced, namely, the pressure to worship the Roman emperor. It was for them a catch-22 situation. To resist emperor worship was to go against the authorities. What follows would be persecutions, hardships and even death. The church of Smyrna, often called the persecuted church, probably experienced just that. These are words written to them, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (2:10)

The other way to handle the pressure would be to comply instead of resisting, at least to an extent where the church wouldn’t invite trouble from the authorities. To do so would make life easier. The larger society that was into emperor worship will be accepting of them and will do business with them. But herein lies the problem, to compromise would means to cease behaving like a church. So, to resist or to compromise both threatened the survival of the church. Faced with pressure and temptation to compromise, what should be the way forward?

II.
What would be our response should we be put in similar situations?

Emperor worship is something of the past, irrelevant in today’s context. Yet, we do face deterrents today, deterrents that would keep us from following Jesus faithfully.

One such deterrent would be modern-day idolatry. By idol worship we mean the giving our hearts and minds in pursuing something or someone, to such an extent that our self-worth is defined by that something or someone. The text talks about this. We find it in the difficult to understand verse 18 and verse 19. The two verses that warn against adding to and taking away from the words of the prophecy of this book.

Adding on does not refer to supplying words and examples to explain passages in the book of Revelation. Neither does taking away mean intentionally skipping over certain parts for the sake of easier comprehension or even to forget certain thing that the book mentions. The expressions adding on and taking away probably follows Deuteronomy chapter 4 and 12. A quick look at the 2 passages tell us that adding on and taking away refer to mixing idolatry with worship of the one true God. To worship such counterfeit gods is as good as ‘adding on’ to what the bible teaches. It is also ‘taking away’, since to do so disregards teachings against idolatry.

What are some idols and counterfeit gods that are pursued today? Financial security, health, study grades, family name, friendship and love relationships still rank high on the list of counterfeit gods. Instead of us listing them here. Maybe let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves, ‘To what does so much of our time and energy go to?” and “Do we crash and remain crashed when certain pursuit doesn’t turn out the way we want it?” When we fail to reach our goals and objectives, to crash is human. But to stay crash perpetually, and think that that’s the end of life, would means that the pursuit is in fact idol worship. Let’s take a minute to pause and ask ourselves the 2 questions.

If we are to ask the 7 churches, their major deterrent was fear. Fear of persecution by authorities and fear of being marginalized by society. Again, the cause of them being in fear does not apply to us. But I think we do share the exact same fear of persecution and being marginalized by people. Persecution can come in the form of not given a promotion because we stand by Christian values instead of taking part in some questionable dealings. Marginalization can be a result of us promoting Christian love and forgiveness instead choosing to revenge or retaliate.

So, although we are living in different time and space from the seven churches, when it comes to us being wholehearted worshippers of the one true God, the nature of the challenges faced is fundamentally the same, fear and temptation.

Not sure if we would find John’s proposal to be good enough. The counter strategy supplied by Revelation in the face of fear and temptation is worship. Why worship? Let me try to explain.

III.
Revelation has inspired movies on end times. Revelation led people to come up with predictions on when the end of the world would be. Revelation fuels imagination on the way our eternal home will look like. But we find neither of these in the very last words of the book.

What we have are largely sayings concerning Jesus. In verse 16, for the first time in the book, Jesus identifies himself by name and declares that he is doing the thing that God does, sending the angel to his servant. In other words, Jesus and God are one.

That’s not all John tells us about Jesus. John also wants us to know that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. (22:13 & 16). Can we therefore say, that after reading about the judgment on Babylon and the coming of the new Jerusalem, after the vision of the new heaven and new earth has faded into the background, we are not left with some other events or some place to look forward to, but Jesus. Could John be telling us that the end is not a place for us to be in, but a person to meet. A person who is and who was and who is to come.

At the same time, for the churches that was struggling to stand firm, John also needs them to know that this Jesus is coming soon. We moderns would want to think that John is mistaken here. It’s been 2000 years since. But Jesus himself did say that his return would be like a thief who turn up suddenly, totally unexpected. And I like to think that is what John is saying here.

We asked earlier on, ‘what about’ that is trustworthy and true? The answer: all that we just said about Jesus.

As to the “So what?, there can only be one possible answer in light of all that we are told about Jesus. Worship the one true God and live lives as faithful followers.

IV.
Having given us John’s reasoning, I would like to close the sermon series on Revelation with 2 reflections.

First, on worship. Why did John propose worship as the counter strategy to oppression? To answer this question lies in John’s understanding on worship.

We like to talk about liveliness in worship, and we mean by liveliness quick tempo music, lively participation of the congregation, etc. That’s liveliness in term observable forms, very much needed indeed. But I believe John is nudging us to worship with a liveliness that wells up from within; an internal liveliness in worship. Worship with internal liveliness could never be singing for singing sake, praying for praying sake, but a longing for God, singing to him, pouring our praise and fears and hopes in our prayers to him, directly. With such liveliness, worship would be truly engaging and experiencing the presence of the One who is coming.

In worship, we, God’s people, renews our commitment to God. We confess that our allegiance to God above all people and personalities, and institutions and systems that may lay claim upon us. Worship is also the place where God people become unhappy and uncontented in a good way. Worship causes us to see the world as God sees it—a world that still experiences “mourning and crying and pain…as Christians we can never be [happy and] content with such a world.” So worship, while drawing us to God, “...also propels us back into the hurting world to share the love and grace of God.” [2]

Is supposed enough is said on why worship is the counter strategy. We paused and reflected on 2 questions concerning priorities earlier on. Let me add a third one now. Is ours a life of worship characterised by internal liveliness? If all the cups, bowls trumpets, beasts and horns has lost us along the way in this sermon series, not this bit please, This is the purpose for John to have written Revelation, to urge God’s people to live lives of worship characterised by internal liveliness. This much we will say concerning worship.

The second reflection is on living lives as faithful followers. We are familiar with the beatitudes found in the gospels. There are also beatitudes in Revelation, 7 of them, let’s take a closer look at the 7th and final beatitude which say, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.”

Beatitude speaks of qualities seen in people who belong to the kingdom of God or the things that such people would do. Here we are told that blessed are those who wash their robes, where washing here refers to the removal of sin through repentance and faith in the redemptive action of Christ (Rev 7:14).

The word ‘wash’ in the original Greek text suggests continuous washing. It calls for a constant admittance of the need for cleaning by the blood of Christ. In day-to-day term, it would mean regular reflections, self-searching, and calling for help to live holy lives.

On the screen is the confession prayer prayed this morning, allow me to read it:

Lord God, we have given more weight to our successes
and our happiness than to your will.
We have eaten without a thought for the hungry.
We have spoken without an effort to understand others.
We have kept silence instead of telling the truth.
We have judged others, forgetful that you alone are the Judge.
We have acted rather in accordance with our opinions
than according to your commands.
Within your church
we have been slow to practice love of our neighbours.
And in the world we have not been your faithful servants.
Forgive us and help us to live as disciples of Christ, our Saviour. Amen.

If the prayer to be meaningful, it is because it is applicable. Question. Would a person who does the things described in the prayer be good enough to please God? Speaks without an effort to understand others. Keeps silence instead of telling the truth. I would say, nope.

I find these sentences to be describing me, and I am not even sure that given time, can I do things in a much better way.

If we are like me, then we will find the need to pray such confession prayer, and find ourselves to be doing things confessed herein. We can’t get very much better. But what we have at the same time is God’s undying love and his grace, and he invites us to wash, and to wash again, our robes.

Worship and washing goes hand in hand. A life not reflected upon will not be able to truly experience and worship God. And a person who worships but does not reflect probably would not experience much growth and transformation.

So 2Ws, worship and washing. We can try to find 2 more if we like to make it 4Ws.

Yet what is of true importance is this, says John, Jesus will come suddenly. Hence, Worship and washing is what we would want to make as focus of our daily lives.

[1]Keener, Craig S., Revelation (The NIV Application Commentary Book 20), Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition. p.520
[2]Mitchell G. Reddish, Revelation (Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary), Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc.: Georgia, 2001. p.438.

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