Author: Ryan Hale

We haven’t even come to the worst yet. Even though the seventh seal has been opened and four of the angels have blown their trumpets…

Even though fire and blood have been hurled onto the earth…

Even though a third of the earth was burned up…

Even though a third of the seas were destroyed along with the fish and creatures within them and the ships upon them…

Even though a third of all of the fresh water sources, the rivers and the springs of water, were destroyed…

Even though a third of the moon, a third of the stars, and a third of the day and the night were now without light…

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

Revelation 8:13

…Despite all of this, in his vision, John saw an eagle fly over and heard him crying out woes upon the earth in advance of the last three angels yet to sound their trumpets.

What could be worse? The earth and the universe are not only destroyed, those that are left are suffering because of the lack of one-third of the entire ecosystem required to maintain balance and live. It is gone and nothing will work correctly. And yet there is more to come?

Woe to us here on the earth that won’t heed God’s direction and acknowledge him for who he truly is, the creator and king over all things! God’s judgment and wrath are coming. Let us be prepared for it in Christ!

Following the opening of the six seals, John remains in the throne room where he sees 144,000 people, 12,000 from each of the various tribes of Israel, who have been sealed as servants of God.

Beyond this, suddenly, he also then sees a multitude of people from each of the other groups of people across the world, all in white robes. An elder from that throne room explains to John that these are people that have come from the great tribulation.

The Lamb, Jesus himself, in Revelation 6, has just opened six different seals which unleashed this tribulation upon the earth, the wrath of God that came as a wave upon another wave. Now, those who have come from that time have arrived in the throne room in these white robes:

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes —who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 7:13-14

It is a type of paradox that, having washed their robes in blood, they could turn out white. Blood on clothes would stain them red, but yet in the blood of the Lamb, it is made white.

Those that are standing in the throne room praising God, serving him night and day, sheltering in his presence and being led by the Lamb, these people are the ones that have washed their clothes, making them white, in the blood of the Lamb.

We can do the same. We can be cleansed. We can be made clean and white as we stand before God by placing our faith in Jesus. We can come to Christ with our dirty garments, those that have been made dirty by our disobedience, our rebellion against God, our sin, and we can wash them in the blood of Christ. By placing our faith in his sacrifice, we can be cleansed of our sins and be reconciled with God. If we want to be among those who are able to stand in God’s presence one day, we can be washed, making our clothes white again, in the blood of the Lamb.

In Revelation 5, John saw a vision of a Lamb who had come forward in front of the throne and before the elders and creatures in heaven, a Lamb who had been slain so that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation could become priests in the kingdom of God.

So this is a beautiful, conquering, and mercy-filled vision that John had received, but unfortunately, it is not the end of the story.

The Lamb had come forward because he was worthy to open the seals of the scroll, the scroll of the wrath that was to come upon the world.

And so as we read forward into Revelation 6, we see that is what happens. The Lamb begins to open those scrolls and the wrath of the Lamb begins to be poured out upon the world.

Upon opening the sixth seal, the sky became black, the moon like blood, the stars falls to the earth, the sky vanished, and the mountains and islands were removed. And what is more…

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Revelation 6:15-17

The leaders of the earth placed themselves in caves. They preferred that the rocks fall down upon them rather than even seeing the face of God, rather than even see the wrath of the Lamb. It would have been a terrible sight.

John’s vision is a vision of the future. It is a vision of what is yet to come. This is a time that is coming for us.

We often prefer to think of Revelation 5, where the Lamb comes to gather the people for his kingdom, but we rarely speak of Revelation 6, where the Lamb comes in wrath.

This is what we mean when we say that we are saved. Saved from what? Saved from the wrath that is coming. The Lamb will unleash the wrath of God upon the earth, in fact upon the entire universe, and those that are not found within the kingdom will not be saved. Like the kings and the generals mentioned in the passage above, they will be destroyed as a result of the coming wrath.

So let us place our faith in the one who promises salvation. Let us not be so proud to think that we can stand up to the wrath of the Lamb or that it will not come. It will come. Let us instead place our faith in the one who was slain and has paid the price to allow us to be part of his kingdom and enter, saving us from the coming wrath of the Lamb.

One of the most common things that I hear from Christians is the need to be able to give a “good testimony”. Another way that we might say that and explain to someone is that we need to have a good reputation as Christians within our community. In this way, so it is thought, we won’t be accused of something that we have done wrong. Or we won’t bring disgrace to the name of Christ because of the sin that we have committed.

And I can, of course, affirm that this is correct. As we follow Christ, we need to leave behind our life of sin, both sins that we commit publicly as well as privately, and move forward to a life that completely honors Christ, both within the church as well as to the rest of the community.

But while affirming this idea, I can also say that I don’t believe that it is complete. We can easily have a good testimony, or a good reputation, within the community while still being far from God. We can be known as a church that is constantly meeting, constantly worshiping, constantly preaching, and still have people within it that hate one another. We can be a church that seems to be alive, and yet in reality is dead.

As John writes down Jesus’s words to the church in Sardis as he tells them exactly this:

I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Revelation 1:1-3

The church in Sardis has a reputation for being alive.

Thinking about this statement, we can first of all say that the church has a reputation. They are known within their community. In many places today, a church would be happy to know this, that they they are known within a community. They have a reputation. Great news, the people around us know that we are here!

And what is more, the reputation is good. The church has a “good testimony”. Wow, that is even better news! We are not only known, but we are known for being alive. Wonderful!

But now Jesus finishes the statement and says what is actually true about this church. While their reputation, their “good testimony”, says that they are alive, in reality, they are dead.

How are they dead?

Jesus doesn’t say exactly, but how could we possibly have a reputation for being alive but in reality we are dead? Let me pose a couple of possibilities.

First, as mentioned previously, we can have a lot of activity, and yet at the same time, the activity is with people who actually hate one another. They hold animosity toward one another. They don’t actually like to be together.

From the outside, it looks like they are alive, but in reality, they are dead. They could never be the people that Jesus called them to be because Jesus’s command to his disciples was to love one another. And yet, they are dead because instead of love, there is hate.

I think that there is a second, very important way, in which we could say that we are alive, but instead, we are actually dead. Jesus has called us to be about his work. He intends to redeem the whole world to himself. People from every tribe, tongue, and nation, reconciling them back to God. And yet there are churches that do not join him in his plan.

We hold meetings. It looks like we are busy. It looks like we are alive. We have a “good testimony”, and yet we aren’t actively doing what Jesus said that we should be doing.

What is more, we don’t necessarily do anything about it either. We don’t teach people about God’s mission. We don’t teach people about Jesus’s redemptive priorities. We don’t teach them how to do the work that Jesus called us to do.

While these are two ways in which this can be a reality in our churches, there are many, many other ways that we can have a reputation for being alive and yet we are dead.

Our “good testimony” only goes so far. Our “good testimony” assumes that other people in our community are our judge. Our “good testimony” is only a reputation. It is not a reality.

We need to make sure that we are looking in the mirror. We need to to confirm that we are going beyond a “good testimony” or a good reputation to truly living in the way that Christ has called us to live. To be the community of believers that Christ has called us to be.

In short, we need to wake up. Just as Jesus told the church in Sardis, we must wake up. We need to stop saying that we are OK with having a “good testimony” and that is enough for us, but instead determine that we are not finished until we are living as Jesus has called us to live. We need to complete the work that he has called us to do. Fully complete the work, with no deeds left unfinished. All that he has called us to be and do, that is what we must pursue. Not someday. Not in some fashion. Fully and completely. Now.

We may very well believe our own reputation. We might be thinking that we are alive because of what others have said about us. But that is not enough. Jesus knows whether we are truly alive or actually dead. So let us examine ourselves fully and determine whether we are truly alive. And if not, let us repent. Let us wake up.

We will all come to an end. Every one of us. Death waits for each of us.

Yet death isn’t truly the end. While our bodies may physically end, we intuitively know that life is more than our physical body. There is that person, that being, that is within us that is more than just our body. We are more than just what we can physically touch. I am me. I am not just my body. I am the life that I have been given.

And so we must then ask: If my physical body isn’t all that I am, what happens when the physical body does die? Because it will. But what comes next?

Jesus’s physical body died. He died on the cross after thirty-three years on the earth. He died here on this earth.

But that was not the end. He went on to rise from the grave three days later, defeating death. He overcame death to go on and live forever. Jesus is alive now. He is at the right hand of his Father in heaven. He is there now. And he will live forever.

And this is what he said of himself as he gave John the revelation of the time that would come:

Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 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.

Revelation 1:17-18

John had fallen down before Jesus when he saw him, fearing for himself based on what he had seen. But Jesus told him not to be afraid. He told John that he is the first and the last. The first in that he created the world. The last in that he will judge all things in the end.

Jesus explains that, Yes, he did die, but he is no longer dead. In fact, he is alive and will be alive forever. He will not die. He will go on living and will continue to hold the keys to death and to Hades.

Frequently I have talked about the meaning of following Jesus. As his disciples, we must do what he did. We must do what he has commanded us to do.

However, following Jesus also has additional significance. By following him, we also get to experience what he has experienced. In this case, we can follow Jesus through the process of death into eternal life.

Living forever and ever.

A life that will go on. Without end. A life that will allow us to stay in relationship with God. A life that will bring glory to Jesus forever.

Jesus is the first one to have experienced this life. He is the “firstfruits” of the life that defeats death. We also, though, will experience the fruit of his work. The fruit of his life.

As his followers, as his disciples, we do not just look forward to and end of our physical life. We follow him, looking forward to a life that will continue on forever and ever.

Jude focuses his letter on this difficult reality, that there are people within the church who pervert the grace that Christ has given us so that they live in any way that they would like, regardless of what God has said or who he has called us to be:

For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude 1:4

Jude’s original desire was to send a letter about the salvation that they had received. It was intended to be a celebration, a letter full of joy. But instead, he found himself compelled to send a letter about the need to persevere and contend for their faith.

I hear this objection, both from Muslims but not only them… But it seems like you have allowed Jesus to pay for your sins and you can just continue to go on doing whatever you want, to live in whatever way you like.

And it is true. We do have many people like that. I could probably say that I was counted among them at one point.

Jude is clear about what these people are doing, though. They are perverting the grace of our God. They are mocking the death of Christ and turning it into a license, permission, to live in whatever way they would like to live. This is far from the way that God has intended us to live. Instead, Jesus has purchased us with his blood away from the kingdom of darkness to enter into the kingdom of God, not continue to live in darkness!

What is the justification for doing this, for living in whatever way they want while also saying that they believe in, and follow, Christ? It is their own dreams. Their own ideas. Their own desires:

In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.

Jude 1:8

They believe that their dreams, their ideas… in fact, we might say, their own truth, is what leads them to decide that this is right. They will refuse living with the authority of God over them, but will instead live in the way that they believe is right, that which is right in their own eyes, based on the strength of their own ideas, their own dreams.

In the end, these are people who will bring division amongst God’s people. They will insist that they know what is right, regardless of what can be clearly understood from the word of God.

And so, Jude calls us to persevere. He calls us to contend for the faith. He calls us to stand firm, being built up through prayer and by listening to the Holy Spirit, not to our own fleshly desires and thus perverting the faith.

Love isn’t necessarily easy to define. In fact, the Greeks have, depending on who you ask and how you are counting, as many as eight different words for love, each to try to define a type of love, or a way to love:

1. Eros – Romantic, passionate love
2. Philia – A friendship type of love
3. Agape – A selfless type of love, the unconditional love of God
4. Storge – The love of a family member
5. Mania – An obsession. Becomes stalking or co-dependency
6. Ludus – A playful or flirtatious type of love
7. Pragma – A long-term, enduring love based in commitment
8. Philautia – The love of oneself

Agape is the word that John uses when he speaks of how God revealed his love to us:

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:9-10

This is the definition of love, the love that God had for each of us. His love was to sacrifice himself so that we might live.

And he demonstrated this love without us loving him. We didn’t love him, but he loved us. He gave himself for us. What an incredible love that is!

Jesus came to be an atoning sacrifice. To atone means to make amends or to reparations. That is what Jesus did. His sacrifice is a sacrifice that was offered by God on our behalf so that, if we put our faith in him, we can live. Our relationship with God can be repaired. We can have amends made for us. Jesus bore the weight of the punishment on our behalf, an incredible expression of agape love.

This truly is the love of God for each of us.

John says that we are now called children of God:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:1-2

I had a young Muslim man ask me a few years ago: What does that mean that we are called the children of God?

Here are a few thoughts in response to his question:

First, not just anyone is considered to be a child of God. John explains a little bit later in the chapter that we can know who is a child of God and who is a child of the devil, of Satan. Those that do not do what God says, or those who do not love their brother or sister in Christ are those that are children of the devil. But those that believe that Jesus is who he said he is, those who believe in his name and who love one another are among those that are God’s children.

In Hebrew, the name of Jesus is Yeshua, and it specifically means “The Lord is Salvation”. So if we believe in Jesus’s name, we believe that Jesus is Lord. He is king. He is the king in the kingdom of God. The Lord of the entire universe.

And we believe that he is our salvation. In him, we can be saved from destruction, from the righteousness of God that will one day come to judge and bring wrath upon those that he finds to be unrighteous. But in Jesus we can place our faith for salvation. We can look to him as our righteousness, replacing our unrighteousness as he has taken the punishment for our sins upon himself upon the cross.

So if we believe in the name of Jesus and placed our faith in him, we have taken the first step. A result of having believed is that we now desire to do what Jesus has commanded us to do. And what is his command? His most important command is the same most important command that God had given the Israelites: Love. Love God, most importantly. But John reminds us that the command that Jesus gave to his disciples is that they were to love one another.

So, do you want to be a child of God? Then the way to do that is to love your brother or sister in Christ. This is a command directly from Jesus that isn’t necessarily easy, but it is simple. This is our calling, that if we desire to live as children of God, we must believe in the name of Jesus Christ and we must love our brother and sister as Jesus commanded us to do.

Second, to be a child of God means that we have a whole new identity. Talking with my Muslim friend, I tried to help him understand that we are no longer called to be servants of God, as Islam defines Muslims to be. No, instead, we are called to be his children.

This is a significant difference. A servant is one who serves, but has no real position or status within the family of God. He has no inheritance. He has nothing that he receives from the Father except for work or compensation for the specific work that has been done.

A child, on the other hand, finds his identity within his family. He carries the name of his Father. That which the rest of the family enjoys, the child enjoys. Who the family is, the child is. The servant will not necessarily receive any inheritance, but the child is a natural heir. In this case, an heir to salvation that will give us eternal life. A life that will be lived forever. Not eternal punishment, but eternal life with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit.

And third, speaking of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, what did they have to say about us as his children?

Looking back to the prophecies of Samuel, Paul says that God calls us his children:

I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

1 Corinthians 6:18

And Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters:

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

Hebrews 2:11-12

And the Holy Spirit says that we are no longer slaves (or servants), but instead now children of God:

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs —heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Romans 8:14-17

So now, as my Muslim friend did, we have a choice. Do we want to be a child of God? Or do we prefer to remain a servant?

If you want to be his child, you can. If you want to enter into the family of God, you can. If you want to be called one of his own, you can. But there is one way. And only one way. By believing in the name of Jesus Christ and loving your brothers and sisters within the family that has now adopted you to become a part of it.

Jesus gave us a new commandment. His commandment is to love one another.

Simple. It follows directly on the heels of the first and second most important commandments:

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself.

So Jesus gave his disciples a “new” commandment: Love one another.

Except it isn’t actually so new. It is old. It is the same as before, just restated.

And yet John continues to remind us of this same commandment, because he has seen the hate that can come from each of us and has recognized how different it is from Jesus’s command. John says:

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.

1 John 2:9-11

Do you have a Christian brother or sister whom you hate? A person you despise or can’t stand to be around? If so, you are walking in darkness. Simple as that.

Do you need to forgive them? Then it is time to do that.

Do you need to forgive them again? Then yes, it is time to do that again.

Let us not walk in the darkness because of discord or disagreements with one another. No, instead, let us walk in the light because of the love that we have shown for one another.

I can hear echos of Jesus’s words, as recorded in John’s Gospel. Jesus had explained to his disciples that there was an intimate relationship between he and his Father, God himself, and his disciples. He said:

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 14:20

This intimacy that the disciples experienced with Jesus, and by extension with the Father, produced incredible difficulty but at the same time, incredible joy. Joy that could not be denied.

Their joy came because they knew Jesus. Their joy came because they laughed with him, cried with him, and ultimately worshiped him. He was God who lived there on the earth with them, and they knew him and their joy increased as they were in a fellowship relationship with him and with one another as a result of Jesus.

Later, now not just writing his account of his time with Jesus, but instead in explaining the life of a believer in Christ, John says that he wants other people to know that joy that they have experienced, and by them knowing that joy, their joy, that of John and the other disciples, will be complete:

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

1 John 1:2-4

There is a type of selfish desire that is of God. In this case, John says that he is writing what he has seen and heard in Jesus so that their joy would be complete. John says that he has written so that they, the disciples who have seen and experienced this life and light, that of Jesus, would have a complete joy. This is his desire, that the others would know Jesus and would know the Father, and in this way their joy would be complete.

They would have complete joy because they would be together with others. In a similar way that Jesus said that he is in the Father and Father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the disciples, now the disciples desire that others would have the same understanding and that Jesus would be in them, and by doing so, the disciples would experience immense joy.

The body of Christ would be built up.

The bride of Christ would become that which the bridegroom, Jesus himself, was wanting.

And in this way, the joy of the disciples would be complete.