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Essay 105 (1-14-06)

TEACHING THE APOCALYPSE (2)

2. Exaltation of Jesus Christ as Living Lord

Next to God himself, which we considered in our first installment, this is the second dominant theme of the Apocalypse. The living Christ permeates the book from first to last. There is abundant material, rich and edifying, for lifting up the Christ in our teaching, There are three passages in particular that will enrich our presentation of Jesus as the risen and living Christ.

 The first is in Rev. 1:9-20 where John receives his commission to write to the seven churches. In this glorious epiphany (appearance) the Christ is presented in terms of his relationship to the church. John saw seven lampstands, which were the seven churches, and they represent all churches for all time to come. And he saw the Christ, in all his glory, in the midst of the lampstands.

  It is one of the reassuring certainties in Revelation – that Christ is amidst the church. As we learn from what was said to the seven churches, that they were far from perfect, just as they are far from perfect today. In spite of its imperfections Christ is still with his church, and he is its head. The relationship is so close and intimate that the church is properly referred to as "the body of Christ."

  Should this not affect the way we behave in church? Not only do our sisters and brothers make up the body of Christ, but when we assemble Christ is there with us. Should we not be vitally aware of his presence? And should not this influence the way we treat each other and think of each other – and the whole community of faith around the world. Christ is with us!

  What John saw when he looked upon Christ – and the imagery he used – point to who Christ is, his very essence. He is "the Alpha and the Omega" – the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – "the First and the Last," which means he encompasses all reality. He was "like the Son of Man," which means he was the fulfillment of Jewish expectations of a transcendent being, and yet he was a human being.

  Above all, John saw the risen Christ and heard him say, "I am He who lives and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore" What a sobering line, which Jesus affirms even in his glory, I was dead! There would be no good news, no gospel, if that fact ended the story. Now he is alive forevermore. That is the gospel.

  John describes his appearance: "He was clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band." This depicts the Christ as a priest. In this first chapter the writer sees Jesus as prophet, priest, and king -–the three offices traditionally assigned to him.

  The first verse of the book refers to the "revelation" (apocalypse) that God gave to Jesus Christ "to make known to His servants." This is the role of a prophet. In Rev. 1:5 Christ is referred to as "the ruler of the kings of the earth." That makes him king. Then the description of him dressed like a priest (1:13) completes the threefold nature – prophet, priest, king.

  The glorified Christ is further depicted as "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice like the sound of many waters." Rather than to try to find detailed meaning in these images, it is best to see them as a summary view of the glorified Christ. It is not unlike the description of him at the Transfiguration – "His clothes became exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can make them" (Mk. 9:3). The author of the Apocalypse was also present on that occasion.

  John tells us how he reacted to this overwhelming experience: "When I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead." He lay prostrate, humbly recognizing his sinful humanity in the presence of divine glory. A touching scene follows. The glorified Christ lays his right hand on him, and tells him, Do not be afraid.

  It is one more certainty of Revelation, and one of the assurances of the gospel. We do not have to be afraid, not even in the presence of deity! Reverence, yes, but not fear. We too can feel Christ’s right hand on us in this fearful, troubled world. It is a touch of both assurance and love. This is the message of the apocalypse. The righteous are secure.

  The second key passage about Christ is in chapter 5 where his role goes beyond being prophet, priest and king. He is now the revealer of the mind of God. He does what no one else can do – "break the seals" and disclose God’s purposes. The imagery is radically changed. While earlier in the drama he was the living, glorified Christ, he is now a humble Lamb that looks as if it had been slain.

  The imagery in this context is oddly mixed, for the Christ is not only a Lamb slain, but also as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David." The mixed metaphors of Lamb and Lion point to both his humility and his authority. The humility of a sacrificial lamb led to the cross, his power of a Lion delivered him from death.

  John sees that God, seated on his throne in heaven, has a scroll in his right hand, written on the inside and out, and it is sealed with seven seals. This scroll holds the secrets of God for the future, but there is no one who can open the scroll. John weeps – much weeping – because the scroll is irrevocably sealed.

  We would be a different people if we had that kind of hunger for God’s word – even for that which is not sealed, but readily available in holy Scripture. Here we have a man weeping because he can’t read the Bible!

  One of the elders told John that he need not weep, for there was one who could open the scroll and read it, the Lamb. John watches as the Lamb, which has "the seven Spirits of God," took the scroll and opened it, seal by seal. This sets the stage for the disclosures related to "the opening of the seven seals," which in turn lead to the judgments of "the seven trumpets." God is disclosing his agenda, but only through the Christ.

  In this passage Christ is praised as God is praised in chapter 4, and he is now made equal to God, as indicated in Rev. 5:13
 

  Blessing and honor and glory and power

  Be to Him who sits upon the throne,

  And to the Lamb, forever and ever.

  Christ, depicted as a sacrificial Lamb. is now given the attributes of God: "You were slain, And you have redeemed us to God by your blood" (Rev. 5:9). Furthermore, John sees the four living creatures and the 24 elders bowing before the Lamb as they had bowed down before God. He listens as innumerable angels praise the Lamb, ascribing to him attributes of God – power, riches, wisdom, honor, and glory. He is always the Lamb that was slain who now lives forever.

  The Lamb is described as being worthy to open the scroll because he had "overcome," which in Revelation means to have suffered a martyr’s death.

  The third passage about Christ is Rev. 19:11-21 where the imagery changes still again. Now he is the great Warrior against sin, injustice, and oppression. John saw heaven opened, and he saw the Warrior go forth against his enemies astride a white horse. Christ is given four names, three of which are revealed -- Faithful and True, the Word of God, and King of Kings and Lord of Lords – while the fourth is known only to himself. This name remains a secret, possibly pointing to the ultimate mystery of Christ,

  There are the usual symbols of his power – eyes like a flame of fire, many crowns on his head, clothed in a robe dipped in blood. There is the striking statement that "in righteousness he judges and makes war." Here war is clearly part of end time. The "armies of heaven" --- dressed in fine linen, white and clean – follow the Warrior, also on white horses. A sharp sword goes forth from his mouth, with which he strikes the nations, which he will rule with a rod of iron. Then the sobering line: "He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

  This scene is not a pretty one. The war is deadly, awesome, and gruesome. John sees an angel standing in the sun, inviting all the birds of the earth to a great feast, "the supper of the great God." They are to feast on the flesh of the wicked, those slain by the Warrior and the armies of heaven. The buzzards are to eat the flesh of kings, captains, mighty men, and people both small and great.

  At last "the beast" and "the false prophet" are described as making war against Christ and his army. These enemies are captured, and at last they are cast into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. The rest of the wicked are destroyed. The grim drama closes with: "All the birds were filled with their flesh."

  The Apocalypse does not water down its view of the cosmic Christ – Lion and Lamb, Savior and Destroyer, man of peace and man of war – in order to say what is politically correct. John’s picture of Christ is offensive to the modern reader, even to his own professed followers. It reminds us that there is judgment as well as grace in the divine economy – judgment on those who reject the grace.

  The consensus of scholars is that "the beast" stands for the corrupt, atheistic secular power that opposes Christ and his church. This would mean Rome, which at the time of writing was persecuting the church, but it would include any secular /political power that blasphemes God and persecutes the righteous, including our own nation to the extent it becomes anti-Christian. There are presently numerous nations, particularly in the Arabic world, that are persecuting Christians.

  And the "false prophet," who is said to perform miracles, may be seen as the corrupt religious systems that serve the beast in his devious purposes. Modern examples of this, beside Arabic fundamentalism, would be the collusion between the corrupt German church and Nazism, and the "legalized" churches in Communist regimes that cooperated with the government in their persecution of the witnessing church. Literally millions of Christians were martyred during the 70 years of Communist terror, including thousand of priests and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church. In a recent visit with leaders of that church, as part of U.S. Counsel of Churches, I was told that it was the faith of the women that kept the church going all those years.

  But our purpose in teaching the Apocalypse is not so much to identify the symbols in specific terms, but to understand why the writer resorts to such symbols and what he intends to convey by using them. He uses apocalyptic language, which is different from the prophetic in that it describes what God himself will do, apart from human initiative, in sudden, dramatic, cataclysmic fashion in executing his purposes, especially in reference to judgment.

  The point is that in the end God wins, whoever the enemy is, and in his own way and with dramatic emphasis, however grim and bleak the situation may now appear to be. The apocalyptists, unlike the prophets, emerged in times of despair, when God’s people had no hope. They wrote – rather than spoke – that in his own time God will act – and will he act! – with fury and indignation against the wicked oppressors, while rewarding the righteous. The grotesque symbols, typical of apocalyptic, depict the immeasurable evil and degradation of God’s enemies. And so there are such symbols as their being cast alive into a lake of fire that burns with sulphur.

  John is saying that if the judgment is not that literal, it is just that real – and just that bad. If we are turned off by the grossness of it all it is because we do not sense the full measure of the seriousness of sin in God’s sight.

  So, the author of the Apocalypse gives the reader a lofty, cosmic view of Christ – a high Christology the scholars would say, If the gospels give us pictures of Jesus in the flesh and his earthly ministry, Revelation gives us insights into the glorified, heavenly Christ and his eschatological (endtime) role.

  The metaphors are indeed mind-boggling, but they are crucial if we seek a fuller view of the incomprehensible Christ. He is both the slain Lamb of God who reveals the secrets of God, and the Warrior-Messiah who comes with fury and vengeance against personal and institutional evil, "treading the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

Note: All these essays are available at www.leroygarrett.org Click on Soldier On.