Sermon April 19, 1998 First-Born of the Dead based on Revelation 1:4-18

He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Amen.

Psychologists often talk about birth order. They refer to the order in which children are born in their family as being helpful in understanding how their personality develops. The oldest child has to "break-in" the parents, and so develops differently than the second and third born. If there are five children, the fifth one enters a very competitive environment, where he must keep up with his older brothers and sisters. Birth order is possibly an influence in the development of one's personality.

Our text today says that Jesus has a first-born position in God's family. Jesus was the first-born of the dead. He was the first of the dead to come back to life. We remember Jesus' resurrection when He was born from the dead.

Yes, we continue to celebrate Easter today. Seven Sundays in total are set aside for the season of Easter, with today being the Second Sunday of Easter. We continue then to think about the Resurrection of Christ and its importance in our faith.

As you think about Christ's resurrection, you might wonder how He could be the first-born. After all, weren't others resurrected before Him? Sure, there was the son of the widow at Zarephath, whom Elijah cried to the Lord about when He died. 1 Kings 17 reports how this son was raised back to life. There are also the resurrections which Jesus performed before He Himself was raised at the first Easter. Jesus raised Lazarus and Jairus' daughter. Can we really say that Jesus was the first resurrected?

Yes, we can, because these others were restored only to their prior life. They were not resurrected into everlasting life. See, after the widow's son, Lazarus, and the daughter of Jairus were raised, they still died. Their resurrection was not to an immortal life. Jesus was resurrected to an immortal, undying life. Yes, Jesus still lives on and on and will never die. Neither will we when we are resurrected.

Jesus explains His resurrection to John in our text where He says, "behold I am alive for ever and ever!" No more death following this resurrection. He lives forever. Jesus' resurrection is the model for our resurrection. We too will be resurrected and live forever. What comfort the book of Revelation brings us.

I have noticed that some people react with great caution to the use of the book of Revelation. I have heard statements such as it is too scary, it is best not to read it, and it is all fiction and contains nothing factual. None of these are true. Revelation is the Word of God, intended for us to read and given to us for our blessing. Some have suggested that Revelation was written especially to give comfort to early Christians who were suffering persecution from the Romans for their faith. It is intended to be a book of comfort, because it shows that the believers in Christ will have a delightful outcome, even if they face suffering.

Verse 3 in chapter 1, just before our text, tells us Christians how to use Revelation: "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." Reading and taking to heart what Revelation says brings blessings.

How are we to understand the book then? We are to view in the same way as that verse just said, as words of prophecy. This book contains a message which is from God and oriented toward the future. The future was revealed to John in a special way, that is in a vision. John saw what was going to happen, as if it were already happening. It was sort of like a preview of a movie or TV show. It didn't happen yet, but God miraculously made it appear to John as if it were happening. In essence, the whole book is a single vision which John had, and this is why we call it Revelation, not Revelations. There was just one incident of things being revealed. John reported what he saw. This is what the opening two verses of the book tell us. "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw-- that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." In Revelation, John tells us what he saw. The report that John gives is the "word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Therefore, we ought to pay attention to it, just as we do to the rest of the word of God.

Revelation does contain quite a few details which are symbolic. The details don't always represent actual details of the events as they will occur in the future, but they may make us think of related things. This is a feature of the type of writing that Relevation belongs to, called Apocalyptic writing. Portions of Daniel and Ezekiel are also written this way. It can take a lot of study to determine the full meaning of these symbols and some are not well understood. It seems, however, as if the symbolic details in the book do not often communicate critical information to us, but only the details. You can read Revelation without worrying about exactly what the symbolism means and still understand the main part of the book. The comfort is still there, even if you don't know the exact meaning of the symbolism.

Jesus gives us comfort in Revelation by speaking of Himself as the first-born of the dead. He later also says He is "the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." He is the one who lives. Yes, He was dead, but see Him now as He is alive and will live for ever and ever. Not only will He live forever, but He holds the keys of death and Hades. This means He can unlock death and Hades. Death and Hades are used four times in Revelation, always together. The Concordia Self-Study Bible mentions in its commentary that Hades is the Greek place for the departed spirits, general equivalent to the Hebrew sheol mentioned in the Old Testament. The point here is that Jesus holds the keys to unlock these places and to release the dead. When He unlocks them, death will no longer have a hold on us. We will be resurrected into an unending life, never having to face death again. We gain comfort from this good news, as we await this resurrection.

God is introduced to us in our text with a special phrase: "Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come..." God is described as the one who is, who was, and who is to come. Perhaps you remember a few weeks ago when I explained the personal names of God, Ethyeh and Yahweh. This is the same meaning. This phrase, "who is, who was, and who is to come," emphasizes for us God's eternal nature. He has always been around and will always be around. We are not dealing here with some junior god who just got on the job, and our god is going to be around for the long haul. We are dealing with the real God here. Later He says the same idea in another way: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, while Omega is the last. He is saying He is around from beginning to end. He is the God for all things, from A to Z. And again, the one who is, was, and is to come; past, present, and future. He also says He is the Almighty.

Thinking of God as almighty doesn't always make us feel the most comfortable. He has all the might in the world. He rules over the kings of the earth. He holds the power. God's power can be frightening. This power can have an effect on people. This our text reports: "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him." This almighty God will come in such a way that every eye will see Him. No one will deny that He has come; no one will be unaware. Even those who pierced Him as He was nailed to the cross will see Him. Who will mourn when He comes? All the peoples of the earth will mourn at His coming.

All people will mourn at His return for they will realize they caused Him to be pierced. At that time, no one will be able to deny their guilt and their role in Jesus being crucified. Today, we can easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we are not sinful. We can make ourselves believe that we do a pretty good job of obeying God. Psalm 51 has David saying, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." We are all guilty of sin. And our sin caused Christ to have to be nailed to the cross. You and I pierced Him, because our sins nailed Him to the cross.

Being pierced and hanging on the cross killed Jesus. It also did something for us. He blood was shed, that is, He died, for us. He did it because He loves us. That is what our text is saying to us. "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-- to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen." His shed blood freed us from our sins. Being pierced resulted in our sins being released. Because of this, God is due our praise and glorification for ever and ever.

Because we are freed from our sins, we do not need to fear the Lord's coming. We will mourn, but then the Lord will wipe away every tear. We can stop being afraid.

Jesus appeared to John in his vision, and this caused John to fall at His feet as though dead. He was probably so afraid, He could think of nothing else to do. Jesus had appeared with all the signs of God's authority and power: the white head and hair, the long robe and golden sash, the eyes like fire, the feet of polished bronze, the voice of rushing waters, holding seven stars and the double-edged sword of judgment, and the appearance as bright as the sun. This symbolism is common to the appearances of God in Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel. At first John was quite afraid.

Then Jesus comforted Him. He placed His right hand on John and spoke to him. "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." Jesus comforts John because Jesus is God, the one who was around at first and will be around at last. He is also the one who shed His blood because He loves us. If God loves us enough to shed His blood for us, then we are in good hands. And again, John is comforted by Jesus' own resurrection. He was dead, but now is alive. He is the living one. He is not some dead idol of the world. Rather, He is living and will live for ever and ever. He unlocks the gates of death and Hades for us also. We too shall live forever because of the resurrection of the first-born of the dead, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.