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Heaven in View Revelation 5:1-10 John
1:43-end
This Present
Darkness – Frank Peretti: Ashton, a small
college town, is being subtly overpowered by evil forces, with demons
directly involved and humans acting as their instruments. A group called
Higher Consciousness wants to control the town through brainwashing and
similar means. They start their recruiting in the A glimpse (in novel form) into the spiritual world where angels and evil spirits battle over the souls of people and where prayer has a powerful effect on the outcome. Calling of some of the first disciples - Jesus finds and calls Philip and then Philip finds Nathaniel and says: - “We have found the one Moses wrote about, in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph… Come and see.” – come and meet him for yourself. Evangelism at its simplest – come and see Jesus for yourself. - Jesus breaks through Nathaniel’s scepticism by showing that he already has insight into the sort of person that Nathaniel is. Jesus already knows our hearts, even before we turn to him. Even if you do not know Jesus for yourself yet – he does know you and loves you through and through. - Nathaniel responds: Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel – he has found Jesus for himself. - Jesus
says something quite surprising: You will see much greater things, this is
only the beginning - you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Rev 5.1-10 - Another glimpse into heaven: - In the midst of a vision that John is given into heaven – starting chapter 4. - What does John see? (Chaps. 4-5) – invited in through an open door:
The scene is developing all the time – Chap 5:
But how does all this affect us today, what do we need to hear and to see in this passage. I want to focus firstly on the situation that John was in and secondly to come to us and what this says about us being a God-focussed, prayerful kingdom of priests. 1. John – probably the apostle who wrote John’s gospel too. Rev1.9 – John is on The Romans housed political prisoners and
criminals on the island. Political prisoners had freedom to wander the island
and were not forced to do the same hard labour in the mines and quarries as
the criminals did. Christians, at that time, were deemed to be criminals and
were fettered as well as lacking adequate food and clothing. They slept on
the bare ground in caves. John was an old man of 90 when he was exiled to
this place, it must have been a tremendous hardship for him. John could have focussed on the negatives and deprivations of his situation. He could have spent his time whingeing to God about how cold he was, how hungry he was, how he missed his friends, how restricted he felt and what on earth did God think he was doing allowing him to be exiled to such a place. He could have focussed on the negatives. But John does none of this – instead we find him “in the Spirit on the Lord ’s Day” and witnessing an open door into heaven. Instead of being earthbound, John is focussed on God and his glorious majesty and presence and power. 2. Us – God-centred, prayerful kingdom
of priests
– where is your attention centred? – is it on the things that are not going right for you – too hot, too cold, too much change, not enough of this, too much of that, preacher going on too long …. Or are we focussed on God and what he is doing and can do because he is almighty, victorious, all-loving and powerful. On God reigning in heaven. On Jesus, now crowned as king because of the victory he won by his death on the cross. If we take our eyes off God and focus instead on what we see as the negatives of our own situation, or even what we see as negative in the church then we will lose sight of the greatness, and the presence, and the purpose of God and we need to humbly turn back to him.
I am struck by the bowls of incense (Rev 5.8) which are the prayers of the saints. How often do you feel that prayer is a bit of a waste of time, that sometime all you are doing is a weak sort of series of mumbles that get no further than the ceiling. That is to have a very earthbound perspective of prayer. How much more encouraging it is to realise that each and every heartfelt prayer that we utter is rising to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit like incense rises and fills a big space. If I were to light an incense stick here – eventually its smell would reach each one of you and fill this building. This is the image we are given of prayer (saints = all Christians) – it rises like incense all the way to the throne of God – and becomes a part of the worship and intercession of heaven. Each of those little, poorly expressed cries that we make when we pray are rising like sweet incense to God, each genuine prayer in some way changes things in the spiritual realm as well as changing things down here. As Philip Yancey says in his book on “Prayer” - prayer is not about getting God’s attention – we have that already, prayer is about what role do I play in what God wants done on earth? It is about asking God about what he is doing here in Thorpe Acre and asking him how we can be a part of that. And somehow our prayer affects what goes on in the spiritual realm and releases God’s power to be at work here on earth.
He is talking here about the church from every tribe and nation, the body of those who know Jesus and worship him as Lord. There is a fair amount of confusion around concerning the role of priest today – people either tend to think in OT terms of priests who make sacrifices and work full-time in temples and are no longer needed because Jesus became the sacrifice to end all sacrifices; or they think of priesthood just in terms on the ordained ministers of the church – doing whatever it is that they do all week – or do we only work on Sundays! But the Bible talks in the NT about the priesthood of all believers (cf 1 Peter 2.9). And that means that we each need to think about what it means to be a priest – because we are all priests. Simple and helpful definition: A priest is someone who draws close to God and who helps others to do so too. Which brings us straight back to being God-focussed and prayerful because God wants us to come closer to him and to help others to come close to him too. We all have a role to play in this. Those of us who are ordained are merely expected to take an enabling lead in this. Philip acted as a priest when he met Jesus and introduced Nathaniel to him. We act as priests when we seek God in prayer and lift others to God in prayer. It is a priestly ministry to teach others about God, to prophesy, to encourage – in fact all the gifts of the Spirit are about exercising a priestly ministry. So we need to draw near to God and encourage others on
that journey too – doing whatever it takes, in one sense by whatever works
for us because we are all different – but certainly by prayer, by worship, by
reading God’s word, by obedience to God and may be by song, or dance, or art
or other creative activity. Perhaps by
drama, or silence, or quiet retreat, perhaps in company with others – as part
of a cell group, perhaps by in depth study, by service or through prayer
ministry. The list goes on but the
promise is clear – Draw near to God and
he will draw near to you (James 4.8). So God calls us to be a God-focussed and prayerful kingdom of priests. That is an exciting and privileged place to be. So forget looking at any negatives. God wants to bless us, he wants the best for us and he wants us to thrive and to flourish both as individuals and as church. |
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Church Thorpe Acre with Dishley