Revelation 2,8-11. 2nd Last Sunday in the Church Year

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Revelation 2,8-11   5712

Vorletzter Sonntag des Kirchenjahres  071; 26. S. n. Trinitatis 

Gregory Thaumaturgus (the Wonder-worker), Bishop of Pontus. † 270 

18. November 2012

1. O Lord Jesus Christ, as the Church Year draws to a close, we are reminded of our sinfulness and our failure to live sanctified lives full of good works for our neighbors. We have no excuse for the weakness of our flesh, and so we do fall at Your feet with humble and repentant hearts, trusting in Your compassionate mercy to forgive us of our failures, assuring us that we are justified in Your sight and sending to us the Holy Spirit who will indeed mold us into sanctified Christians complete with good works.   Amen. 

2. Jesus said to the Apostle John: „And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the First and the Last, who was dead and came back to life: I have known your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the blasphemy of those saying that they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into jail, in order to tempt you and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one conquering will never ever be hurt by the second death.’“  

3. The glorified and ascended Christ Jesus gave the last-living apostle, the beloved John, his apocalypse for the comfort of the Church. During the era of the apostles, the Church experienced varying degrees of trials, persecution and tribulation. The Deacon Stephen was the first martyr in the era of the apostles; he was the first of those Christians who would die on account of the blessed name of Jesus Christ. For three hundred years first the Jews and then the Romans spilled Christian blood in the hopes of stemming the inexorable victorious march of the Christian faith. 

4. Christians in the 21. century still experience varying degrees of persecution and tribulation. Palestinian Christians, who trace their ancestry back to the 1. century Church, face struggles at the hands of occupying Israeli forces. African Christians face slavery or death at the hands of their non-Christian neighbors. American Christians have begun to face trials of conscience as their rights to the free exercise of religion are encroached upon. 

5. To encourage the 3. Virginia Convention meeting in March 1775 to join the cause of fellow American colonies and colonists already fighting for freedom from King George III and the British Empire, Patrick Henry gave his soaring oratory that ended with his famous phrase: „Give me liberty or give me death!“ You and I as Christians have a long and privileged history of actually enduring and living freedom of faith or death. 

6. John recalls the majestic title that Jesus bears as the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came back to life. Just as Jesus endured suffering and death, so too will we as Christians who bear His Divine Name. Jesus tells us: »You will be hated by all for My Name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household« (Matthew 10,22.24-25). 

7. Thus Jesus tells us that in this earthly life we will, merely because we are Christians and associated with Jesus, endure suffering, persecution, tribulation and even death. Such trials tax our religious resolve. The temptation is to flee from suffering, to fold under pressure and relent, to bargain and compromise, to even renounce Christ Himself in order to remove the trials that press heavy upon us. We are not the first to face such temptations, for Christians of every generation have struggled with the dilemma as to whether they remain faithful to Christ and His Word or do they buckle under the pressure of the world and join the pagan throng. Remember how even the apostles, when face to face with Jesus’ arrest, suffering and crucifixion, all but the beloved John flee and forsake Jesus. Thus in our lives we have all forsaken Jesus in time of tribulation, sought the safety of our body and given up Christ so that we might save our own skins. 

8. Where we fail to stay true to Christ Jesus during suffering, persecution and tribulation, there is one, yes, the One, our Lord Jesus Christ who faithfully endured suffering, persecution, tribulation and especially death for us and in our place. After all this, Jesus rose from the grave. This is why Jesus appears to John in his Apocalypse in radiant, resurrected glory. Jesus announces Himself as the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came back to life. When He commissioned His apostles, Jesus comforted them, saying: »Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear God who can destroy both soul and body in hell [1]. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.« (Matthew 10,28-33). 

9. Jesus exhorts us to steadfastness: » Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. The one conquering will never ever be hurt by the second death«, which is eternal damnation in hell. Look unto Jesus. Put your faith in Him. Jesus has suffered the first death, which is the physical death of the body. We will all die; it is the final result of this world’s trials and tribulations. Death, however, is not end. Suffering and persecution are not the final words in this fallen world. Jesus did indeed die, but He rose from the grave. He is the first fruits of the glorious resurrected body. Christ’s victory is your victory. His resurrection is your resurrection. Death has no dominion over Him, and therefore death has no dominion over you. Trust in Christ, for He is your eternal life. Look unto Christ, for He gives you the crown of everlasting life, which is the crown of righteousness (2. Timothy 4,8). 

10. Jesus is your Source and Strength. This life is a marathon that requires the Christian runner to have endurance and and finish the race with our eyes on Christ. Our reward is the victor’s crown that is made from the pure gold of justification on account of Christ. For you who hope in Christ you have the promise that your first death transits you to the second life, which is everlasting life in the presence of the Triune God, the angels and archangels and all the Christians who have gone on before you. You have the blessings of this promise now by faith. You are righteous, you are justified and you are conquerors, all in and by Jesus Christ who is our crucified and risen Lord.  Amen. 

 11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Righteousness Judge, give us the certainty of salvation so that in this life we are assured of our forgiveness and in the life to come will join all of creation in renewed glory.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

¹ gehenna. When hell is referred to as the abode of the damned in body and spirit after the final resurrection and judgment, then that place of torture is designated as gehenna in the Greek and should always be translated as „hell“ or „gehenna“ in English translations (cf. Luke 12,5). Of significance is the fact that gehenna comes from the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom which means „Valley of Hinnom.“ This valley lay south of Jerusalem and was the city garbage dump where fires were always burning. Jesus compared „hell“ to this valley by referring in His teaching to the „gehenna of fire“ (Matthew 5,22; 18,9).