Our scripture text this evening is from Revelation chapter one. We'll be reading the first eight verses, and we're gonna look in particular at verses four through seven. We're continuing to work our way through the shorter catechism. Actually, you may have seen it in the back, but there's a stand in the back that has just a one-page handout that includes the Shorter Catechism, the Larger Catechism, and two questions and answers from the Heidelberg Catechism. It might be helpful to have those near you. It's not necessary, but I'm going to refer to all of them this evening. But it's in particular, as we consider Westminster Shorter Catechism 23, that we're looking at Revelation chapter 1. So let me read that question and answer, and then we'll turn to the Scriptures. Westminster Shorter Catechism 23. The question is, what offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer? The answer is that Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation. I think we'll see all of that, actually every single phrase from that answer laid out before us as we look at Revelation 1. So let's now turn to God's Word, Revelation 1, verses 1 through 8, and remember that this is God's Word to you. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants, the things which must soon take place. And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant, John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ. the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priest to His God and Father. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. And thus ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. So I was trying to think about how to look at the scriptures and where to go in the scriptures to consider a question that is somewhat comprehensive about the work of Jesus. There are passages that speak of him as a priest and others that speak of him as a prophet and some that speak of him as a king, certainly many that describe him as Christ and Redeemer, but It seems as if in verse 5 of Revelation 1, we actually have prophet, priest, and king all laid before us as part of who God is as our Redeemer. He's the faithful witness. He's the prophet. He's the firstborn from the dead. What He purchased by His death and His perfect sacrifice. And He's the ruler of the kings of the earth. And because He does all of those things perfectly well, He is the one who loves us and releases us from our sins. He's our Redeemer. And so we're going to consider all of those things this evening. But I want us to in a particular context, the context to which John writes in the book of Revelation. As I was considering the book of Revelation and thinking John begins in the way he does, it was remarkable to think about how similar the book of Hebrews and the book of Revelation are. It's maybe helpful for us to think about some of the similarities. They're two of the longer, more complicated, theologically complex books in the whole of the New Testament, and yet they're both to a persecuted, threatened church whose faith is in persecution. Their lives are in danger. And those we hear in Hebrews 12, verse 4, they have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. That possibility of shedding blood and laying down their lives for Christ and for the gospel is very real. It's for that reason that in Hebrews 12 verse 3, the Holy Spirit tells them, He exhorts them, He encourages them, don't lose heart. Because it would be so easy to lose heart in the circumstances in which they find themselves. And that's true as well for the churches to whom the book of Revelation is written. And with those similarities in mind, complex theological instruction to a church that's persecuted and threatened, it's worth noting the answer to that persecution and threat that's provided in both letters. It's the same answer that in the midst of real persecution and the temptation to lose heart and even to give up the gospel, the good fight of faith, The answer the Holy Spirit gives in both cases is to look to Jesus. The book of Hebrews says over and over again, Jesus is better. He's better than Moses. He's better than Joshua. He's better than Abraham Pick, the Old Testament hero. And Jesus is better than all of them. He's even better than this strange character Melchizedek. There's instruction in Hebrews. There's warning about apostasy and a call to perseverance. But the melody that's sung over and over again in Hebrews is simply this, that Jesus is better. That's what a persecuted church needs. to hear. In Revelation, the same melody is sung over and over again. In fact, I think we can say that in Revelation, the warnings and instructions are less than in Hebrews, and that the melody of Jesus Christ being better is louder and maybe even stronger. This is the major theme that the Holy Spirit communicates to John and that John communicates to the church that in the midst of persecution and difficulty, what they need to do is to know more of Jesus. Isn't that what we see in verses 1 through 3? This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the apocalypse, the unveiling, not of the future heavens and earth. That's not the theme of Revelation. The theme is that it's unveiling more and more of who Jesus is. He goes on in verse 2 to say that John received and believed the testimony of Jesus. Even when it talks about the Word of God that John receives, We're reminded that this is the last book of the whole of the Scriptures. This is God's last word, if you will, about Jesus. So that the book of Revelation, not as so many misunderstand it, it's not so much about knowing what the future heaven and earth will be like, but what is Jesus like? And for a persecuted and threatened church tempted to give up, this is what they need to know and remember. They need to grow in their understanding and deepen in their reliance on Jesus, who is beautiful and majestic and strong and sufficient in every circumstance. that God is bigger and better and greater than any persecution or threat that they face, And I think that's how we should understand this question and answer in the catechism that we're considering, that Christ as our Redeemer executes the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, and is a state of humiliation and exaltation, that for us to grow in perseverance and faith and obedience, we need to deepen in our knowledge and in our reliance on Jesus. so that though you and I might never face the kind of threat and persecution that the church faced, to which John writes, and friends, my prayer is that you never face that kind of persecution. Yet still, we understand the Christian life to be one of struggle, taking up our cross daily, fighting sin daily, putting to death the habitual sins that so easily entangle us, giving up comforts, to fight the good fight of faith, battling the lust that we all struggle against, giving generously to others when it would be so easy to hold on to our possessions to serve our own interests, speaking and testifying to the glory of Christ and the good news of the gospel, even when it costs us relationships and reputation. always facing each and every day the temptation to choose lust and comfort and ease rather than godly living, generosity, and righteousness. And we're daily tempted. The question that we're constantly asking is, how can I personally I need to hear so that I can grow in faith and continue in perseverance until that day when Jesus returns. And what we find in Revelation is that what we need is not first commands, that we need those, not motivational speeches, but a bigger knowledge of our God, a deepening understanding of our Savior, a growing reliance on Christ to know God and to know His Son. And that's our aim tonight. and considering the opening of Revelation and several questions and answers from various Reformed catechisms, our goal is to gain a deeper knowledge of the greatness of the triune God, and in particular the greatness of the eternal Son of God, a deeper understanding to arm ourselves to persevere in the good fight of faith. And we're going to do that by just considering two points tonight. First of all, a big God, and secondly, a perfect Redeemer. So first of all, a big God. That's what we find already in verse 4. After a brief preamble with a statement of purpose and a short introduction, John begins his letter, like all the letters of the New Testament, with a greeting and a blessing. And listen to it as it begins in verse 4. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. begins as a very normal New Testament greeting with a promise that meets the challenge at hand. It begins like many, grace and peace. And imagine, as a persecuted church that's knowing very little peace and much disruption, how joyful you would be to hear this greeting from your God. Grace and peace. It meets their circumstances and their challenge head on. But the greeting grows. In fact, it's larger than most of what we find in the other New Testament epistles. What do we usually hear? We hear, we started with this evening, grace and peace from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. But what we find in Revelation is from verses four to eight, this extended greeting and blessing guaranteed for us because of who God is. He reminds us, the Holy Spirit speaking through John reminds us that this blessing, this promise of grace and peace is secured by no ordinary God. By no small God. He's reminding the church in a simple broken world that God is bigger than all of them. That God is big enough and great enough and strong enough and sufficient to not just promise blessing, but to secure that blessing of grace and peace for the people of God. And so we see this blessing come from God in three persons. First of all, we see it come from the Eternal Father. Notice how He's described in verse 4, Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come. He's the God who is. He is your God. He's for you right now. He set His love upon you before the foundation of the world, and by faith in Christ, nothing can separate you from His love, even right now in the midst of persecution. He's God who establishes your steps. for your good. He is the God who reigns right now in every place and over every circumstance. He's the God who is, but He's also the God who was. who spoke the world into being by the very word of His power, who created and fashioned men and women in His image with knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and with dominion over the creation that He had made. Who, this God, who, when Adam failed, made a way of salvation and peace with God through a Redeemer. This is the God who made promises that he always keeps, including the promise of that Redeemer, who establishes a seed through a woman. And throughout the whole of the history of the Old Testament, we see him maintaining and accomplishing his promises through that seed. He's a God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's a God who preserved his people through slavery in Egypt, through wanderings in the wilderness, who stayed with them in faithfulness even in the midst of their countless rebellions, who was with them in exile and even over 400 years of silence until that day in history when he sent his son, who by his life and by his death and by his resurrection secured and accomplished all the promises of God for the people of God. He's the God of us. And it's also the God who is to come. He's the God who has already placed all things under the feet of his risen son with the nations who are at that very moment persecuting the church as the footstool under Christ's feet. He reigns over all things, even working through the evil actions of men and women, overruling in such a way to make them work for the good of His people. And He's the God who will come again in final judgments. where he will punish the wicked forever, and when he will fully and finally vindicate those who believe and trust in his son, bringing them into unbroken and everlasting fellowship with him. This is the God who makes this promise of grace and peace. And just in case we need more reminders in verse eight, he almost comes back to the same thing, but says it in a different way. He's the alpha and the omega. In other words, he's the A to Z and everything in between. He's the almighty God who is bigger than your problems, and bigger than your suffering, who ordains and overrules for your good in mercy and grace and peace in all things. And isn't that what the book of Revelation is all about, really? It's not so much about the future, but it's a reminder that God is the sovereign God over all of history, past, present, and future, that there's nothing outside of God's control, that every power, even every evil power, is subject to the rule of the God who makes this promise to you. Grace and peace promised from the eternal and everlasting Father. but it's also from the Spirit. Notice how it's described in verse four, this grace to you and peace comes from seven spirits who are before his throne. It's a strange phrase, right? The seven spirits before the throne of God. If we were in a series on the book of Revelation, I'd take a long time and kind of slow down here and consider what's promised here, but we're gonna do it quickly. Hopefully we can do this in a way that it satisfies your curiosity to say, does he really understand what he's talking about? But what's being promised to us here is that this blessing, this promise of grace and peace is secured to us as well by the Spirit of God. And notice the seven spirits, it holds before us a number that we find all through the scriptures and especially in the book of Revelation. It's a number of completeness, of fullness, This is the filling and fulfilling of all that's promised to us when the Father says, I'm sending my Spirit to you. In Luke 24, this is the promise of the Father. And this is also the Spirit of all of His power, this sevenfold Spirit. We hear it described in Isaiah 11, verses 1 through 3. Listen to the list. The Messiah receives the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom, and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and fear. Seven. Seven-fold spirit. Not because those are the only things he brings, but as a reminder that everything that the spirit possesses is poured out upon the Messiah. And for those who are in Jesus, they receive the fullness of that same Spirit. It's the Spirit that rested on Jesus at His baptism and equipped Him so that He could say in the synagogue, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And then sit down. and say, all that's fulfilled in me. And that same sevenfold fullness of the Spirit rests and fills, rests in and fills up the church of Jesus Christ. And this is where you're just going to have to bear with me and hope that I understand what I'm talking about. But the word seven and its connection to the Spirit and to light is all over the first couple chapters of Revelation, the seven churches in verse four, the seven spirits before the throne in verse five, the seven lights in chapter four, verse five, and chapter five, verse six, the seven horns and the seven eyes. And I think in all of them, we hear a fulfillment of what's promised in Zechariah four, that God exercises saving power, not by might, not by power, but by my spirits. And it's by that Spirit that He restores Jerusalem and the temple at that period in history, but all as a promise and a looking forward to the day when He would accomplish His salvation as the Spirit applies the work of Christ to the people of God and to the church of the living God. And that same Spirit fills and strengthens and purifies and supplies the church with everything they need in life, promise us here is that by that Spirit, God the Father and God the Son, answer the promise that was made to us in Jesus, that God is with you always, even to the end of the age, that he will never leave you nor forsake you, so that you can say, of whom shall I be afraid? What can man do to me? So that when you face persecution and resistance and trials and temptations, you do so not with fear, but you persevere by faith. Preserves and protects and blesses you with grace and with peace. Grace to you and peace from the eternal Father. Amen. the Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." Notice that this is a blessing from the triune God, one God and three persons, all three persons as promises and securers of the blessing that belong to the people of God. But notice as well how different this particular blessing is from other blessings that we find in the scriptures. We're gonna end with a benediction today that talks about the love of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, roughly equal, right? And how it's described. But notice the inches of print given to Jesus in this particular text. He's telling us that this is the keynote. This is the great encouragement because Jesus is the yes and amen of God's promises. That God the Father and God the Spirit with God the Son secure the blessing but that God makes that promise especially clear in his son. And that's what we read about in verses five through seven. And I think what we're gonna see as we spend the rest of our time considering the glory of Jesus, who is a perfect redeemer, we're gonna see that in these verses, every single phrase of our catechism answer is laid out for us just in these few verses. Just look again briefly at that handout. the answer to question 23 of the Shorter Catechism. It really comes to us in three parts as it describes the work that Jesus does for us and for our salvation. First of all, it describes him as the Christ. Secondly, as our Redeemer, who executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, and is a state of humiliation and exaltation. Seven parts. And we're going to see them all laid out for us briefly and clearly here in Revelation 1. And all done in such a way that it encourages us and strengthens us in faith and obedience. And so we see here that Christ is a perfect redeemer. Again, look at verse five, it says, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Jesus Christ, that's a familiar way that we hear the second person of the Trinity, our Lord and Savior described. I wonder sometimes if we think about the significance of what it means that he's Jesus Christ. We might almost make the mistake of thinking it's his last name. John Shaw, Nigel Ewan, Joe Stafford, Jesus Christ. But it's not a name, it's a title. And it's a title that carries with it a promise. He's the anointed one. He's the anointed one. the promise of all the anointed ones that we read about. Prophets and priests and kings anointed with oil to serve the people of God and yet all of them at some point along the line fail and fall. But Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. Look at how our larger catechism talks about this. It says in question and answer 42, why was our mediator called Christ? Our mediator was called Christ because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure and set apart and fully furnished with all authority and ability to execute the offices of prophet, priest, and king. He's anointed with oil. He's not anointed with water. He's anointed with the Holy Spirit who rests upon Him. He's the promised Messiah. He's the fulfillment of all those anointed servants of the people of God in the Old Testament. He's the one to which they're all pointing. He's the one to whom the whole story is driving us. He's the main character, if you will, in the whole of the story of the Scriptures. One author describes Revelation in this way, that Revelation is God's last word to us about His Son. And I think that helps us to begin to understand the significance of the fact that John reminds us that he's the Christ. He's the main character from Genesis all the way to Revelation. He's the protagonist. He's the conquering hero, the victor of the whole of Scriptures, who accomplishes and secures all the promises of God. He's the one to which the whole of the Scriptures points. He's the one that the Old Testament anticipates. He's the one that's been waited for since Genesis 3, 15. You've probably heard this described before, but there was a sense in the history of Israel that when a son was born in the line of David, people would ask, is he finally the one? Is he the seed of promise that God gave to Adam and Eve, that promise of the one who would crush the serpent? And what John's telling us, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is that Jesus is the one. And when we hear him described as the Christ, as the fulfillment of all those anointed servants in the Old Testament, we hear as well this promise of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king. He's anointed as all of them, and he accomplishes the role of prophet, priest, and king perfectly as a fulfillment of all the promises of God. Don't you feel that tension in the whole of the Old Testament narrative? The anointed leaders of God, some of them are so horrible that we know they can't be the one, but they create a longing in us for someone better. A prophet, a priest, and king will be everything that God promised that the prophet, priest, and king should be. Even the good prophets, priests, and kings are never good enough. They carry the people of God this far, but only this far, and never far enough. Moses brings them to the entry point of the promised land, but he doesn't even get to cross and enter in. Joshua leads them into the promised land and wins all these great victories by the power of God. And yet at the end of Joshua, we're told that they possessed most of the land, but not all of it. They'd failed in what they were called to do. And David, the greatest hero of the Old Testament, at least I think many of us would understand him to be that way, failed miserably and horribly. so that even in the best of the anointed servants of the Old Testament, there is this longing for, this looking forward to that prophet, priest, and king who would accomplish everything that God had promised for the people of God. the whole of the Old Testament groans with the whole of creation for a better and a perfect redeemer, the prophet, the priest, and the king, who will finally and perfectly accomplish everything for the people of God so that they would have fellowship with God unbroken forever and ever. All that's tied up in this title of Christ. Jesus, the Christ, is the fulfillment of all the messianic promises and prophecies and shadows and images. He's the one who fulfills and accomplishes all the promises of God to save his people, to deliver them from their enemies, to defeat sin and death and Satan forever. And the point of the whole of scriptures is to fix our gaze on Jesus as he's revealed, as he's testified to, as he's unveiled as the answer and the hope of all history. He's the Christ. And as the Christ, then we see that he perfectly fulfills the role of prophet and priest and king for the people of God. We see that in verse five, first of all, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. He's the faithful prophet. He came speaking the word of God and he came ready and willing to obey God's word perfectly. and in so doing proved himself to be a fully sufficient Savior. You hear the echoes of his prophetic ministry in all different ways as he's described in the New Testament. He's the Word made flesh sent from the Father to communicate the truth of the gospel and what it means to become a son and daughter of the Most High. He entered into the synagogue and spoke with such authority that they said no one speaks like him, not even the scribes and the Pharisees. He's the one described in Hebrews 1, verses 1 through 2, as the fulfillment of the prophets. God spoke in the past through his prophets, but in this day, he's spoken finally and fully in his Son. And Jesus even said of himself, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and everyone who comes to the Father must come through me. But notice it describes him as the faithful witness. He's the one who keeps on speaking the word of God, no matter what persecution or trials or suffering he might face. Just turn briefly to the gospel of John. Listen to how he describes himself in answer to a question that comes to him from Pilate. This is Jesus knowing that he's on the way to the cross. He's fully aware of where he's headed. He knows that this conversation won't keep him from the cross. He's on his way there to suffer and to die. But Pilate says to him in John 18, verse 37, he asked him this question. So you are a king? And Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king, for this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. In other words, he's a king and a prophet, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice, the voice of the faithful witness. And then he proves it on the cross, doesn't he? as he speaks those profound words that are a great comfort to all those who trust in him, it is finished. He persevered to the end, all the way to the cross. He loved his own to the end. And in so doing, he proved himself to be exactly the Savior and Redeemer that we need. Just as an interesting side note, it's We find in the rest of Revelation that those who belong to God by faith in Jesus follow in his footsteps as those who testify to the truth, who are witnesses to the truth. And then that same word is used to describe them as those who are even willing to die for the truth. Martyrs. It's the same word that's translated witness. Jesus remained faithful all the way to the cross and through the grave to his resurrection. By faith, we in Christ can persevere in continuing to speak the truth of the gospel because he is a perfect prophet and a faithful witness for the people of God. But he's also, as it goes on to say, the firstborn of the dead. He's not the first who died. He's not even the first who was raised. But he's the one who defeated death and who won victory over the grave. He's the second Adam who laid down his life of his own accord so that the grave could not hold him, so that on the third day he walked out in his own power and in his own strength and proclaimed victory over sin and death and Satan. And we see that portrayed for us so beautifully in the book of Revelation. He's most often described as the Lamb. the Lamb who was slain, and the Lamb who was raised. And in Revelation 5, as they're looking for someone to open the book and the scroll so that they might know the promise of salvation that comes from God, who do they see but a Lamb who was slain? who opens the scroll and who accomplishes salvation for the people of God so that Revelation 5 ends with a worship service around the throne of God with the Lamb right in the middle as they sing praise because he's worthy to receive it. He's the one who, by his death and resurrection, conquered death. He's the firstborn of the dead. And by so doing, he showed himself to be the high priest that you and I need, who offers not sacrifices every year because they do not really cover sin, but offers one final sacrifice that covers the sins of all those who trust in him. So he's a faithful witness. He's a prophet. He's the first born of the dead, the high priest who accomplishes salvation for the people of God. And it goes on to say he's the ruler of the kings of the earth. Remember what Jesus said of himself as he's. He's encouraging his disciples before he ascends to heaven and is in the Great Commission, he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He's described as a fulfillment of Psalm 110, as the one who has the nations at His feet. He's the promised Son, who rules nations with a rod of iron. He's been given the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess. He's King of kings. He's Lord of lords. And he's a conquering king who's defeated the grave and won victory for the people of God. He's the perfect prophet, priest, and king, the one promised in the Old Testament, and the prophet we need so that we might know redemption of sins and fellowship with God. Notice how the Heidelberg Catechism describes Christ and his anointing. This is again on that handout, Heidelberg Catechism 31. It says, why is he called Christ, meaning anointed? And the answer is because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief prophet and teacher who perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance. Not only that, but he's our only High Priest who has set us free by the one sacrifice of his body and who continually pleads our cause with the Father. And then lastly, he's our Eternal King who governs us by his Word and Spirit and guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us. He speaks the Word of God to us in such a way that our hearts born from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. He offers a perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins so that we would be freed from the guilt and power of sin. He keeps us and guards us by His death and resurrection as a conquering King. He's an anointed Christ, a prophet, priest and king. And for all those reasons, he's a perfect redeemer. And isn't that how he's described at the end of verse five in this response of praise? It says to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood. Not a beautiful transition. He's a powerful God. He's a loving God. He's a conquering king who stoops down and loves his the perfect high priest who was willing to go all the way to the cross out of love for his sheep. He's the prophet who, with the same powerful voice by which he spoke the world into being, speaks in such a way that we know his voice and we follow him. I saw this quote earlier this week from John Newton, and it says this. I think it's so helpful. He encourages us in this way. He says, read the scripture, not as an attorney may read a will, but as the heir reads it, as a description and proof of his interests. Isn't that what we find here in verse five? A reminder that he's not just a powerful Messiah, but he's a Messiah who stoops low to love, to redeem, to rescue and release his children. To release us from the grip that sin, death and Satan once held over us. And to translate us into the kingdom of light. Notice he doesn't just release us from our sins. It goes on to say he's made us to be a kingdom. The King of kings and Lord of lords has worked in such a way by his death and by his resurrection that he makes us princes in the kingdom of God who rule and reign with him, who with him will crush the head of Satan, as we're told at the end of the book of Romans. But not just a kingdom, but also a priest to his God and father. He transforms us in such a way, washes us clean by his blood and prepares us in such a way that we can offer acceptable sacrifices to God as priests who serve the priest Jesus. And though it's not in this text, he prepares us as well to give prophetic witness to testify to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He makes us like him. by the power of His redemption. Again, Heidelberg Catechism 32, it asks, why are you called a Christian? And it says, because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in His anointing. I am anointed to confess His name, Prophet, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks, a priest, and to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity. Our Savior, by his redemptive work as the anointed Christ, prophet, priest and king, so transforms us and translates us that we become kings, priests and prophets in the kingdom of God. And how does he do this? He does it in his humiliation. By the shedding of his blood, as we see. In verse. Verse five. And he does it as well in his exaltation. Isn't that where this blessing ends? Behold, he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen. So what kind of response should we have as servants and followers, children of the king? Let me suggest just three as we close. First of all, we should weep in joy and repentance. I think we see that in verse 7 by way of contrast. Describes his coming in the clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. It's using language from Old Testament texts and prophecies. And then it says all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. The mourning that we see in verse seven, it seems like is the sorrow and mourning that come from those who did not bow the knee to Christ until it was too late and so face his everlasting judgment. And this text is calling us to respond to Christ in such a way that instead today we would weep and mourn over our sins with grief and hatred and sorrow over our sins. We would turn to Christ. Weep. We should also praise. It's not what we see all over Revelation. We see it even here in this text. After verses five and six, John describes the glory of Jesus. He responds in the only way that you possibly could. He gives him praise. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. So we weep in sorrow over our sins, repent in repentance and confession of sin. We respond in praise and worship because God's were to receive it. And then. Like the saints to whom John wrote. We're called to persevere by faith. Until he comes with the clouds and you and I, by faith, see him as he is until that great and glorious day, we respond in faith and obedience as those who are servants of the king. Let's pray. Lord, would you give us grace to respond in this way to the glory of Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, that we would indeed respond in confession of sin and repentance, that we would respond in faith and in worship and in obedience, and that you would strengthen us to do that as we deepen in our understanding of and reliance on Jesus. our prophet, priest, our king, and our redeemer. We pray in his name, amen.