I was thinking again this week how thankful I am that the apostolic teaching of the New Testament was recorded in the first century and not in modern times. I know I've told you this before, but The New Testament's a record of many personal letters or letters to churches and individuals. And if that happened today, we would probably end up reading the, instead of the holy text of scripture, we would have the holy text messages between the apostles. And, you know, it would require preachers to learn a new language. Instead of Koine Greek, it would be trying to decipher acronyms and emojis. when texting first became popular to say I was resistant to it would be an understatement. I felt a certain amount of frustration when I tried to decipher some of the texting acronyms. I would get a text and it would say ROFL and I would be like ROFL? What's ROFL mean? What were they trying to spell here? The one that confused me the most was I got a text once that just said T-E-O-T-W-A-W-K-I. Teotihuacan. Anybody know what Teotihuacan is? The end of the world as we know it. I thought it was just a song from the 80s. It turns out to be the dumbest acronym ever. A lot of people approach revelation as if it's just there to inform us about the end of the world as we know it. And it does, right? It's the information there about the end of the world is sort of ancillary to the real focus of Revelation. I told you last week the first eight verses of chapter 1 form this sort of multi-layered introduction to the book. The greatest substance of what John's going to have to say is really going to start in verse 9, but the introduction is here to sort of focus the reader's mind on what they're about to read. And so last week we saw In the first three verses, the certainty of Christ's Word, right? It's revealed through this divine chain of the Father to the Son, and then Jesus sent an angel to John, and John writes the letter to the original audience, and it's made its way to us, and it's meant to be read and heard in the congregation, the assembly of the people. Verses 4 through 6 we saw the certainty of Christ's work. He's called the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. John says he loved us, he's cleansed us, he's made us a kingdom of priests to God and all glory and dominion are reserved for him forever. We didn't make it all the way through the introduction. We left verses 7 and 8 for today. So today we'll read all eight verses of that introduction, but we'll focus on verses 7 and 8, which is the certainty of Christ's return. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants the things which must shortly come to pass, And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things that are written therein, for the time is at hand. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so, amen. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. If you believe in Jesus, the biblical expectation for what you believe is not only in what he has done, but also in what he will do. The Christian life of faith is marked by our belief in the person and work of Jesus historically, and the expectation that all history is someday going to culminate with the glorious return of Jesus to earth. the promise of the return of Jesus in glory. It's not just limited to the book of Revelation. It's found throughout Scripture all the way back in the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis 49. It describes that all the kings of history that are sitting on the throne over God's people are essentially just keeping the seat warm for Jesus. He's the one to whom rule truly belongs and he's going to come and assume that rule. The prophet Isaiah gives us the promise and expectation of a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, who's going to come and rule on the throne of David, establishing eternal justice and righteousness. The prophet Daniel, he had a vision and he says he saw one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven and he came to the ancient of days and there was given to him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and languages should serve him and his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom will not be destroyed. The Old Testament prophet Zachariah promised the day when the Messiah would descend and Those who had pierced him would mourn, and he would stand on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem, and that mountain would split in two beneath him. Jude in the New Testament tells us that Enoch, all the way back before the flood in Genesis, preached, quote, behold, the Lord comes with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all the ungodly. And in Acts, as the apostles in Acts 1 stood and watched Jesus ascend into heaven, they just stood there staring up into the sky until two angels made them stop saying, look, this same Jesus who you saw ascend is going to come back just like you saw him leave. This is the Christian's fondest hope and desire. We are always watching with the expectation as if staring at a horizon and waiting for the first signs of dawn or what the prophet Malachi called the sunrise of righteousness. When the apostle Paul wanted to encourage his friend Titus to hold fast to a righteous life in this world, He said that this is the focus of a Christian in Titus 2 verse 13. He says, we are looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. To that end, the Apostle John sort of front loads the message of Revelation in this introduction that focuses us on what the true relevance of Revelation is. This book is going to tell us how His glorious appearing in our blessed hope comes to fruition. How it unfolds by God's omnipotent hands. When John shifts to this message in verse seven, his first words there in verse seven are, behold, he comes. Last Sunday. In our second service, we read from 1 John 5-6, where he wrote about Jesus and said, this is he that came. And I told you last week, that little phrase is packed with sort of messianic expectation. John the Baptist in the gospel sent messengers to Jesus to ask him, are you he that is to come? When he entered Jerusalem for the final time, he entered to the sound of crowds shouting, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is he who comes as King of Israel. And so in his letter, John described that messianic title and said, look, Jesus is he that came. But now as John turns to the future in Revelation, he says in verse seven, behold, he comes. Behold is literally look, it's an exclamation. John's message in this book is to say that he that came is still he that's coming. This introduction makes it evident that the second coming of Jesus is the highlight of this entire book. The return of Jesus is the culmination of God's plan. When the curtain finally drops down on the final act of human history, the stage of creation is just going to be filled with every knee in heaven and in earth and under the earth, bowing, kneeling before Jesus, praising him, recognizing him as king, the returned risen king. So this morning, Just as a brief introduction to that day, John points us to the return of Jesus to remind us of a few facts about it. He says, it will be visible, it will be sorrowful, and it will be powerful. First see in verse seven, his return will be visible. Behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him. I want you to understand, as John presents this introduction and gives us this introductory material, he's calling on what the original readers already knew and believed about the second coming. As glorious as verses seven and eight are, John is not coming with a lot of new information. He says Jesus comes with clouds. I have no doubt there's symbolism in this. Right all the way back in Exodus when God dwelt with his people, it was through the manifestation of a cloud. There was a pillar of cloud that guided them by day. Moses records the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud. So this cloud is likely symbolic of his presence and power just like back in Exodus. But even though there's symbolism to this, we have no reason to accept it as anything other than literally true. As more than one place promises the return of Jesus is him coming in the clouds. Daniel 7, verse 13, he says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came before the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before them. Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse 30, there shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. As we already noted in Acts 1, as a cloud received Jesus up out of their sight, two angels appeared to the apostles and they said in verse 11, you men of Galilee, why do you stand up here gazing into heaven? The same Jesus which has taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. The Apostle John who wrote this for us was one of those men who was standing at the top of the Mount of Olives watching Jesus ascend in a cloud. And so this tells us that John expects, and all Christians expect, the promise of God in regard to the return of Jesus will be fulfilled. And so when the promise is something as simple as he'll come with the clouds, Or if it's considerably more complicated, like the next phrase that says, every eye shall see him. We accept those promises as true. We expect those things to happen. The promise that every eye will see him seemed entirely impractical a hundred years ago. But a lot of people have pointed out that with the invention of, you know, smartphones and everybody's got an internet connection, this has brought this into the realm of plausibility. Well, I assure you, this was always within the realm of possibility for God. Perhaps the return of Jesus will be such headline news that everybody does tune in on some kind of screen and get an eyeful of it so everyone's eye sees him. You know what, that might be how it's fulfilled, but it's very likely this belongs to the realm of God's miraculous providence. And it's beyond our thinking of how every person on a round globe would be able to witness his coming to the Mount of Olives. So if Jesus wants every eye to see him, he can make that happen without smartphones if he wants to. But what it does mean, is that the coming of Jesus will be visible, right? Every eye will see him. Understand, there is nothing secret about the second coming of Jesus. When Jesus descends from heaven and returns to this world, his glory and majesty and authority are gonna be evident to all because it's going to be openly displayed for all of humanity. It's clear, however, that not all humanity is going to react equally to this return of Jesus. Not everyone is going to have the same reaction at the second coming. Because John describes here, not only is his return going to be visible, but John says his return is going to be sorrowful. Look at verse 7 again. Behold, he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him. Nay, also, which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. Again, John is just bringing old news here. He's not trying to develop any new concepts of Jesus' return just yet. He's just reminding his readers of what they've already come to believe. In this case, he's bringing the prophet Zechariah from the Old Testament into the discussion. You can turn to Zechariah if you want to in Zechariah chapter 12. It's helpful if you want to see this. In Zechariah chapter 12, I want to note a couple of things. First off, verse one says, this is the burden of the word of the Lord. You see Lord there, all caps, that is the Old Testament term Jehovah, Yahweh. So Yahweh is the one who's speaking throughout chapter 12. We'll see again down in chapter 12, verse four, in that day saith, The Lord says Yahweh, Yahweh's the one who's talking. And that's important when we get down to verse 10. Zechariah 12.10 is what John is quoting in Revelation. And it says, and I, that's Yahweh, right? I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. Supplications is prayer, it's specifically a prayer for mercy. I'll pour out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, on the house of David, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Talk about an eye-opening passage. Yahweh, who is speaking, can speak about this one who was pierced and use the words him and the words me. They'll look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourns for his only son. Yahweh himself is the pierced one. God came in the flesh and it was God in the flesh that went to the cross and was pierced there. Nails driven through his hands and his feet. And so John now is quoting Zechariah in our text to introduce revelation and say, well, this is what's to be revealed in these pages is the consummation of God's promise to Zechariah. And by making that connection to Zechariah, we understand that when he describes this grief, right? He says, they also which pierced him and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. When he describes this grief, he's talking about the grief of the Jewish people, right? Yahweh said to Zechariah, I'll pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So at the return of Jesus, the Jewish people will look on their crucified Messiah and they will mourn in repentance. Their eyes will see him. They'll know him for who he is. They'll recognize this great blindness that they've had in regard to their Messiah. They'll come to know, to truly know that Jesus is Yahweh himself in the flesh and that God has an irrevocable plan for the nation of Israel. But that's not all that John says in Revelation 1-7. John identifies two groups that are going to be sorrowful at the return of Jesus. It seems like John's saying that the mourning that happens at the return of Jesus will be, for some, tears of repentance, and for others, it's going to be the cry of dread. These two groups in verse 7, there are, he says, those who pierced him. And we can see from Zechariah, he means the Jewish people. But there's also, John writes, all the kindreds of the earth. shall wail because of him." Far, far beyond the Jewish people, there's going to be this grief at the coming of Jesus. The word wail there is literally the Greek word that means to cut, to cut in grief. The return of Jesus is not going to be a day that is universally joyful for all people. For believers, it's the blessed hope that we're awaiting for. For Jews, it's going to be a grief-filled day of repentance. But for unbelievers, it's a day of angst and torment. What a contrast here. Just like many rejoiced at his death, there's going to be many who are going to mourn at his return. Again, John's introducing this second coming by saying, you've already heard this. You already know that the reaction of many is going to be anger and fear and mourning and grief. Jesus taught this himself in Matthew 24 verse 30, which is the exact place where John picks up this phrase. Listen to Matthew 24 30. and then there shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So even as the end unfolds and the undeniable truth about Jesus is made clear, humanity as a whole is not going to be happy to see this. They're going to refuse to turn to him. Revelation chapter 9, we'll see later, is going to picture their refusal in verse 29. It says, neither did they repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts. In fact, instead of repenting and seeking God's mercy, we find they would prefer death to deliverance. Revelation chapter six, verses 15 and 16 pictures this. Listen, the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For unbelievers, the return of Jesus is not going to be a welcome event. His return in glory is going to be with a declaration of God's wrath towards all those who have not accepted and obeyed the gospel. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1, 7, and 8, the return of Jesus is gonna be with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The people will mourn as the justice of God is revealed in the person of God the Son. And so in the beginning of verse seven, John describes the return of Jesus through the eyes of the Jews. They'll mourn the one whom they've pierced. Then he describes the return of Jesus through the eyes of unbelieving Gentiles, right? All the kindreds of the earth will wail because of him. And if you're wondering at this point, well, then where's the Christian response to his coming? It's in the final three words of verse seven. Even so, amen. Even so, it's kind of odd. The Greek word ne means yes. And that's what that word is there. Yes. And while amen is the word that means so be it. And so John's giving this Christian affirmation to the prospect of the second coming by simply saying yes. So be it, right? This is what is to happen, and this is what I want to happen. The return of Jesus is gonna be visible, the return of Jesus is gonna be sorrowful, and third, the return of Jesus will be powerful. You may remember in Exodus when Moses saw this burning bush on a mountainside, and yet it was not consumed that he went to look at it. And when he went there, Yahweh spoke to him from out of the burning bush and declared himself to be, I am that I am. Moses said, who are you? I am that I am. And that was God applying the the Hebrew state of being verb to himself. State of being verbs in English is am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been, right? The idea is that he's got this always existing nature. Yahweh is and he was and he always will be. Revelation 1 verse 8 seems to be the equivalent of that declaration of I am that I am look at it. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending says the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty. The letters alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. If we were going to say something similar in English, it would be, I am everything from A to Z. There's nothing that came before God, and there is nothing that's going to outlast God. He is everything from beginning to end. He's the A to Z, the alpha and omega. And so the phrase goes on, I'm the beginning and the ending. All things began with him and all things will end with him as he sees fit. This creation began with the word of God speaking into the void nothingness and creating the heavens and the earth and saying, let there be light. Creation is going to end with God, the eternal word, being the light of Yahweh's new creation. Now I don't want you to imagine as you look there visually at verse eight that, you know, the Apostle John was writing this and he had a red sharpie that he could pick up and uncap when he wanted to. But the translators of the King James Version here have wisely included this red letter distinction to say, these are the words of Jesus. I'm the alpha and omega, I'm the beginning and the end. To understand with perfect clarity that these are the words of Jesus, you can glance over at the end of Revelation in chapter 22, verses 12 and 13. It says, Behold, I come quickly. Clearly, that's Jesus speaking. And this is what he says, Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me and to give to every man according to his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. So the alpha and omega, the beginning, the end, the first, the last, it stresses this always existing nature of Jesus. He's the eternal word who existed in the beginning with God as God. And there's another little phrase in verse 8 which seems to repeat this idea again, but in reality it's saying something just a little more. It says, which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty. The is and the was and the is to come is repeated. You can see that in verse 4 also. There, John was using it as a title for Jesus in order to greet these churches as he's writing to them. In verse seven, this title for Jesus tells us he's even more than always existing, right? Is is obviously a statement of the present, Jesus in the present, though he is at the right hand of the Father, is the same Jesus who came in the flesh. He is right now. He was and that he always has been. Jesus did not begin his existence when he was born in Bethlehem. He's eternally been God and he was born in flesh. But we're missing the point if we read this, which is to come part, as only a statement of saying that Jesus will exist forever. That's true, but that's not what John intends here, I think. This is a statement of purpose. A purpose which John has stressed through this entire introduction. He is to come. He is coming. The saving work of Jesus in the past and the present work where he intercedes on our behalf at the right hand of his father is not all the work that Jesus has planned. He's not done. He is to come. He is coming back. And when he comes back, it will be visible. Every eye is going to see him. It's not gonna be a secret. It'll be sorrowful. for the repenting Jews and for terror-filled unbelievers, and it's going to be powerful. He's returning for a purpose, and that purpose is going to include, in verse eight, revealing himself as the Almighty. The word Almighty there is this neat word. It's the Greek word pantokrator. But I think the reason it's neat is because in John's day, as he's writing this to the original audience, the Roman emperors referred to themselves as autocrator. Auto means self, and so autocrator is one that rules himself or who rules by himself. But Jesus says he's the Pantocrator. Panto is the prefix that means all. So the emperor can claim to be self-ruling, but Jesus says, look, I'm all ruling. Everything is under me. His power extends to the ends of the earth. His authority is going to be expressed over every tribe and every nation. His sovereign command will be declared and obeyed in every crack and crevice of this world until every knee bows to Him as the Pantokrator, the Almighty who rules over all the world. When we get to verse nine, We'll see that that's when John actually starts sort of the meat of the book. But before that, before getting into this vision that he had and this description of the future and the plan of God, John is certain, look, you need to know this. Before the explanation of all the details and how it's gonna happen, you need to believe that this is going to happen. Jesus is coming and Jesus is almighty. And so as you go from here on in the darkest moments of this book, as they start to unfold, and there are some dark moments in this book, and you wonder, well, how could this possibly work out? Don't forget, this is leading up to Jesus is coming. It's all working after the counsel of God's own will until the moment that Jesus, the Almighty King, returns in his glorious appearing. And that is our blessed hope.