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Hope.
Everyone needs to know hope. Not the modern wish-upon-a-star understanding of hope. Sandy could recall one of those rare occasions Cassie was able to talk her into church. The pastor had preached a sermon on Titus 2:13:
“waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”
Not because he was preaching topically with seven sermons of hope or anything. It was just that he was preaching from the Paul’s letter to Titus and that was where he had landed on that Sunday. He explained that the original word for “hope” in the text would be better understood to us modern English speaking people as “expectation” and not “wow, I sure hope this happens.” So our “blessed hope” was indeed a more powerful and sure expectation. The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is a sure thing that we look forward to.
Those words had been lost on her. She did not hear. She had not that hope at the time in her heart. Now she did! It was such a duality, this conflict of emotions, seeing the evil of the world and its end and the people in the path of both the damage of evil and the scalpel to excise the cancer. The blood and the beauty.
The pastor went on to another verse on the same subject of Christ’s return in 1 John 3:
“2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”
She got stuck at that third verse in her mind for the remainder of the sermon. Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. She had figured she was a good person so she must do just fine purifying herself. Even as she had thought this thought, recollections of not so pure things one by one flooded her memory. She had missed, for the most part, the portions about how the purification process is not perfection but an attempt to do so to please Christ, not to get saved. This letter was not written to unsaved people looking to find out how to gain salvation and please God. No, it was about what your true love for God, if you truly are His and love Him, looks like. It looks like you doing your best to live in a way that is pleasing to Him, because He is coming again and that is your hope, your expectation.
Sandy again thanked God for His enduring, never-ending mercy and His patience with her. She was thrilled with the prospect, that hope, that expectation and this time, they could actually go to a calendar and mark it within a couple days exactly when that would happen. Events were offered, she knew, in even greater detail in the middle of Revelation exactly what things would happen that would tell them in years, in months, in days, how much time remained.
It made her smile. It felt good to have something to smile about.
Gary looked at her as if she were crazy, saying, “Are you okay?”
She chuckled and assured him, “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just recalling what keeps me going, that blessed hope.” She went on to explain. He seemed to understand anyway. She noticed he had his Bible open and asked him what he was reading.
“Oh, just you know, after that business back there I guess I need some hope too that something positive is in store for us. I think you put your finger on it though. However horrible for however long, the ending will be, literally, glorious. I was rereading those versus about the Satanic army of two-hundred million about to beset the earth, but I also was reading ahead…”
“Wait. Sorry to interrupt, but if you have something you found encouraging, maybe the others should hear this too.”
He nodded and hit the button that opened the channel to Andy and Nathan. They sounded like they needed something positive after all this; so first, Sandy shared her memory of that sermon that Gary thought might dovetail into what he was reading
after this next event with demonic hordes.
“So jumping ahead to the very next chapter it looks like God decided John needed a break too. If some of this is difficult for us to witness, imagine being John two-thousand years ago trying to make sense of what he was seeing. So that brings us into Revelation 10, another of those parenthetical chapters that steps us for a moment out of the chronology of real-time events. God sidelines John for a bit in another vision. In this one, John finds himself at the beach. I don’t think he had any time to sip Mai-tai’s, but hey, it’s the beach. So anyway, sorry about that, he is at the beach and beginning verse one:
“’Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.’
“So much for John’s peaceful sunbathing. It doesn’t say who this might angel is, and I won’t speculate. The loud voice like a lion roaring that made all the thunder could have been the Lion of Judah himself, Jesus Christ. Probably, since this has been his show ever since the beginning of the book, which is after all about the revealing, Revelation, of Jesus Christ.”
Andy piped in, “Seems to make sense.”
Nathan added, “I remember once being at the zoo as a kid. Families had to have been about three-deep at the lion habitat. It was magnificent. It was a huge habitat arranged to look like the African wild with all the rocks and trees. There must’ve been a half dozen lionesses in there. Suddenly, from under the shade of a tree in the corner, stood this great big magnificent male lion. He stood and began to stretch. Everyone gasped, he was so magnificent. Then he began a series of short roars and one big one.
“It was indescribable. Children huddled into their parents. The parents flinched, some of them holding their ears. Some kids began crying. I didn’t. I stood amazed. Oh, I get that whole thunders analogy John makes here, oh yes I do.”
“I wish I saw that,” Eva said.
“Me too!” said Sandy.
Andy urged, “Please continue.”
“Okay, so John is at the beach, angelic spectacle, loud thunderous voice says seven things from Heaven. Then:
‘4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”’
“Talk about anti-climactic,” Gary said.
“What a jip!” Nathan added.
“I know, right?” Gary agreed. “Whatever John heard and was about to explain right here in this chapter, God put the kibosh on him writing it down and we don’t get to find out. But here is something interesting because, Sandy, I think you expressed the same conflicts all of us have been feeling. So in this vision, John gets this:
‘5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.’
“So this confirms for us that after this Trumpet we are about to endure next, events will begin to happen in rapid succession and that the Lion and Lamb of God is done with this foolishness and is about to lay down the final hurt on this evil. No more delay. So the Seventh Trumpet will sound and kick off the more serious and deadly Bowl Judgments, as we know. Just as God had announced before John in the Old Testament to the prophets and to the apostles like John here.
“’ 8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.’
“So the little scroll, I am guessing, is
the scroll, or a portion of the same scroll,
the scroll with the Seals the Lamb opened in chapter six. It’s the Title Deed to creation that the Lamb of God is worthy to open because he is the Creator of all things. This final bit is Jesus reclaiming creation with finality, and John is instructed to eat it. Suck it up, but it will be bitter-sweet. Is this not exactly the same as we are finding this? It is sweet as honey to the mouth. To talk of it, to taste the promise, the hope of his return and kingdom and glory is so, so sweet. But getting there leaves bitterness in our bellies.”
Sandy let out a breath, not realizing she had been holding one. She heard sighs from others as well. “Wow. That’s just… Wow,” was all she could say.
“That’s really good,” Andy said. “I think we can all appreciate that.”
“Yeah, except for that whole ‘don’t write that down’ part,” Nathan complained.
“Okay, so, there is just one more little verse we must read:
‘11 And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”’
“So, like John here,” Gary said, “we have more of the prophecy before us about many peoples and nations, languages and world leaders. In other words, the angel told John, ‘Okay, buddy, are you ready? Because you’re not done yet.’ And neither are we.”
Again, one of those protracted, contemplative periods followed. The channel was still open. They remained speechless and probably prayerful. It must be so for Andy began to pray:
“Father in Heaven, you are awesome God. You have made all things and are reclaiming what is rightly Yours. All belong to you and we are ever thankful You, O Lord, have called us to what has happened to us and around us for Your glory. Help us Lord to have the wisdom and understanding to continue and appreciate the glory that is somehow even in Your wrath, for it is the wrath of righteous judgment on an unbelieving world that has mocked and used Your Name in vain. Jesus’ Name has been little more than a swear word.
“Lord, forgive us when we stumble or doubt and give us strength that we never had to call upon before. Even so, Lord, we find our strength in You. Lord, in the Sixth Trumpet, those unbelievers that remain, will not repent. I guess that means our words will fall on deaf ears. O God, we will continue to go forth and find the places and saints you wish us to find and we will praise Your holy Name for as long as we have breath, for it is in Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen”
They all agreed, “Amen.”
A sound of surprise in his voice, Nathan said, “What. Hey, guys, I’m fooling with Cassie’s phone, again, all offline and no chip. But… I just found a folder here. Sweet Jesus! Are you ready, because I know you’ve all been missing good radio.”
He must have found a hidden music folder, for sweet piano came through the radio. It wasn’t stereo coming through that microphone, but for the beauty of it, Sandy may as well have been sitting in the middle of an orchestra. And a man’s sweet voice began to sing, a choir joining:
Do you feel the world is broken? We do
Do you feel the shadows deepen? We do
But do you know that all, the dark won't stop
The light from getting through? We do
Do you wish that you could see it, all made new? We do
Is all creation groaning? It is
Is a new creation coming? It is
Is the glory of the Lord to be
The light within our midst? It is
Is it good that we remind ourselves of this? It is
Is anyone worthy?, is anyone whole?
Is anyone able to break, the seal and open the scroll?
The Lion of Judah, who conquered the grave
He is David's root and the Lamb
Who died to ransom the slave
Is He worthy?, is He worthy?
Of all blessing and honor and glory?
Is He worthy of this?, He is
Does the Father truly love us? He does
Does the Spirit move among us? He does
And does Jesus our Messiah
Hold forever those He loves? He does
Does our God intend to dwell again with us? He does
From ev'ry people and tribe, ev'ry nation and tongue
He has made us a kingdom and priests to God
To reign with the Son
Is He worthy?, is He worthy?
Of all blessing and honor and glory?
Is He worthy?, is He worthy?
Is He worthy of this? He is, He is
Is He worthy, is He worthy of this?, He is
He is, He worthy, is He worthy, He is
[1] Words and Music by Andrew Peterson and Ben Shive © ©2018 Capitol CMG Genesis (ASCAP) / Vamos Publishing (ASCAP) / Adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com / Jakedog Music (ASCAP) (adm. by MusicServices.org) / Junkbox Music (ASCAP)
This hymn is found on YouTube as “Is He Worthy (Live at Sing! 2019) – Andrew Peterson