Our future hope is so great that it calls for our present faithfulness and perseverance.
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
22 years ago Valentines Day was on a Sunday. I didn’t have to look that up on Google. I didn’t have to ask Siri or Alexa to know that.
I know that because 22 years ago I was working for a church outside of Nashville. I knew that my Sunday would be full of church activities. It was going to be a full day and I wouldn’t have time on Valentine’s Day to take Alisha out to celebrate.
So on Saturday night, February 13th, Alisha and I got dressed up and went out to the nicest restaurant I could afford for our Valentine’s dinner. After dinner, we went to Bicentennial Park in Nashville and walked around in the freezing cold until I worked up the nerve to read her the lyrics to a song I had written for her, and then I asked her to marry me.
You know you might be married to a preacher if he proposed on February 13 instead of February 14th because February 14th was on a Sunday!
A few months later, Alisha and I were married. And I’ll be honest, I don’t remember exactly but I’m pretty sure when my dad officiated our ceremony he said something like…
We are gathered here to WITNESS.
Witness what? Our vows? Our pledge of faithfulness and commitment to one another.
Why did we need a witness?
The reason you need a witness at a wedding is because you need someone who can say, “Yes, that happened!”
And right now, we are living in a world that needs someone to witness.
There’s a lot going on in our world right now. From the political tension in our country, to the stories of racial injustice, to the pandemic that has affected all of our lives… we live in a world that is fallen, broken, and in desperate need of redemption.
But there’s more.
There are forces at work in our world that are seen, but we know there are also forces at work in our world that are unseen. And lest we forget, our battle is not against flesh and blood.
There are spiritual forces always at work in and around our lives. Our battles are against these unseen forces, invisible enemies, the principalities and forces of this dark world.
We see these forces at work in our lives and in the lives of the people we love. Sometimes, because we live in a world that doesn’t see the world through a spiritual lens, we forget there’s a war going on. A battle being fought.
And what happens for so many of us living in the wake of this broken world, living in a war zone that is often unseen, is that we forget or lose sight of our future hope.
And whenever we lose sight of our future hope, we forget to stand up and speak up as a witness that SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED THAT HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING.
Oppression & Persecution
This is what was happening in the days following the resurrection of Jesus when many early Christians were living in the province of Asia under the control of Rome.
If you can imagine living in a location under the complete control of a Roman Emperor who was committed to killing every Christian and putting an end to anyone who didn’t recognize his authority and self proclaimed divinity.
How in the world could these Christians live in a world where they were required to pledge allegiance to the divinity of a Roman Emperor and remain faithful to their witness and confession of Jesus as Lord?
During this time there was a man by the name of John who had been exiled on the island of Patmos off the coast of southern Asia. Several years ago I was blessed to go to the small island of Patmos. It’s a beautiful place, and if you go there today you’ll see a beautiful church that’s built at the sight where many people believe that John had a revelation from God.
If you turn to the last book in your Bible, the book of Revelation, you’ll find the words John wrote when he received an incredible vision of Heaven.
In his book, Can I Get a Witness?: Reading Revelation through African American Culture, Brian K. Blount writes this about John’s purpose in writing down this letter to the Roman controlled churches in the province of Asia…
“…John was interested not so much in creating a church of martyrs as he was in encouraging a church filled with people committed to the ethical activity of witnessing to the lordship of Jesus Christ.” “Revelation craves witness as engaged, resistant, transformative activism that is willing to sacrifice everything in an effort to make the world over into a reality that responds to and operates from Jesus’ role as ruler and savior of all. In other words, ‘Jesus is Lord! Can I get a Witness?'”
The Rider Named Faithful and True
In Revelation 19.11-16, John writes…
Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.
Who is this rider? Who is the One who is named “Faithful and True?”
Throughout John’s Revelation Jesus has appeared and been described in different ways. He is the Lamb who was slain, He is the Son of Man clothed in a long white robe with a gold sash across his chest, eyes like fire, feet like bronze, and a voice like the sound of many waters. And now here, it is Jesus, God’s Messiah, who is pictured as a mighty warrior riding a white horse. His name is Faithful and True.
He is faithful… worthy of the confidence of the church to deliver them from all of their enemies…
AND
He is true… true to all the promises he has made!
In other words, John wants these early Christians who are truly suffering and dying because of their faith in Christ that they can remain faithful to Jesus because this is His Name… His Name is FAITHFUL AND TRUE!
Don’t Forsake Your Witness
John says…
His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself.
There’s no name that we could speak or know that would do Him justice, so he bears a name that is so great only He can understand.
He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress.
In other words… Your Messiah who entered Jerusalem on a donkey is going to return riding on a white horse and He will judge the nations and kings and emperors and He will even cast our ultimate enemy, Satan himself, into that eternal fire.
It’s like John is sending a message to these Christians who are living through difficult times and this is what John was saying…
YOUR FUTURE HOPE IS SO GREAT THAT IT CALLS FOR YOUR PRESENT FAITHFULNESS AND PERSEVERANCE!
In the middle of the difficulty, in the face of the Empire demanding your allegiance and your obedience, when it would be easy to renounce Jesus and live a comfortable life that Rome wants to offer you… don’t trade your future hope for present comforts. Don’t deny Jesus as Lord for an earthly emperor. Don’t forsake your WITNESS.
Whatever the price, whatever the cost, you are called to be a WITNESS for Jesus. And your WITNESS, especially during the difficulties of life, testifies that SOMETHING really DID HAPPEN that changes everything!
Can I get a witness? Jesus, your Messiah & Savior is FAITHFUL and TRUE. He is the WORD of God. And…
On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
Jesus Christ ALONE is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
Will You Be A Witness?
So let me ask you this question…
What is hanging in the balance of your decision to be a witness for Jesus?
What is hanging in the balance of your decision to remain faithful to God and persevere through the difficulties of life?
I don’t know if you heard, but this past Sunday there was a football game. I was excited to see that Tony Romo was finally in the Super Bowl! Wether you watched the game or not, you probably heard about the game, you heard about the commercials, you heard about the half time show. You either heard about it from a friend, from your social media feed, you heard about it on the radio or on the news.
How did you hear about it? You heard about it because we live in a world full of witnesses. The question isn’t, Will you be a witness? The question is, Will you be a witness for my Lord?
That’s the question John was asking to those early Christians some 2000 years ago. That’s we question we need to be asking each other today. That’s the question I believe Jesus is asking you and me.
Will You Be MY Witness?
Who will be my witness? Who will be the one to say, Something has happened in my life that has changed everything. Who will be the one to testify about the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, even through pain and hardship, even through disappointment and difficulty?
Who will be the one to say it’s because of my future hope that I remain faithful to God and persevere through the difficulties of this life?
The world needs to see what it looks like to navigate the ups and downs of life full of faith. A faith that willing to hurt, willing to cry, and willing to hold on to what you know is true about God. To be relentlessly committed to the goodness of God even in the most difficult seasons of life.
What the world needs now is someone to be a witness of the goodness of God.
Because of the witness of these early Christians, you and I are standing here today. Here’s the truth, the violence of Rome didn’t put an end to Christianity…
If anything, it strengthened the church, it deepened the resolve of the church, and it gave credibility to their witness. What does it say about a people who are unwilling to deny their God in the face of such resistance? it must mean that something really did happen that changed everything.
This is the reason those first followers of Jesus, all but the Apostle John, died a martyrs death, unwilling to deny Christ even if it cost them their life.
Today, our calling isn’t to be a martyr, its to be a witness.
Can I get a witness?
Can someone testify that the Lord our God is God, the faithful God, who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his love on all those who love him and obey his commands?
And by the way, here’s the picture John gives us this about our future hope…
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
Our future hope is so great that it calls for our present faithfulness and perseverance.
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