Revelation 9:20

All the other people, the ones who had not been killed in these plagues, did not repent of the things they had made. They did not stop worshipping demons—idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.

Idolatry is the most serious of offenses in all the Bible.

This is because it is at the root of all evil, of any kind of wrong in the world, for idolatry is giving anything too high a status. It is elevating something or someone to a priority level which only God deserves and can satisfy.

Worshipping created things more than the Creator never leads to an abundant, full, and joyful Life—Life for which we are meant to live out. The only way to enjoy this kind of Life is to place God at the center of it. That is simply the only way it works.

“Worshipping” is bowing in the form of offering your time to something, offering your thoughts to something or someone, offering reverence to status this world deems worthy of our attention, and all of this inordinately, disproportionately in relation with what we are designed to offer to God.

We make sacrifices at the altar of comfort, on the altar of looking good—not just physically, but socially as well, the altar of pleasing others, the altar of work, and on and on.

The scary thing in this passage is that these people, after seeing a third of the earth wiped out, still refused to turn away from their idols, which are really demons.

Anyone who knows anything about addiction realizes that we can keep chasing our lusted after object of affection no matter what warning signs we see, no matter what it takes to keep feeding the insatiable desire that has taken over us.

Your idols will always lead toward doom and away from God.

Always.

The Spirit gave me a vivid vision a couple of months ago of me opening a window, and a bunch of evil birds flying in the house, surrounding and disturbing my wife and our daughters.

This is what we do when we pursue anything more than God. We open a window, allowing all sorts of bad influence, energy, and spirits in on us and those around us. We give permission to evil spirits to stay with us.

Revelation 8:13

Then I looked, and I heard a lone eagle flying in mid-heaven, and calling out loudly.

It is when we look for God that we hear him.

Going through our days on auto pilot, seeing only the world around us, we miss much.

But living our day looking for God, in everything, in everybody, seeing the unseen realm, we hear from him who is behind it all. This gives meaning to the most mundane day and situation, for God is always speaking, always has something for you.

Sometimes when I gave the liturgy at church, I would remind people not to listen to the pastor, but listen rather to the Holy Spirit speaking through the pastor. That kind of attention causes you to listen differently, with less judgment.

I have heard from God through all sorts of people and situations….when I’m looking.

When I’ve been sick, I always end up watching televangelists for some reason, and I’ve received the most wonderful words from God through them. We all know the reputations they have, but it’s not about them. I’m not saying they’re all on the up and up, just that God will speak to you through anyone or anything. It is many times up to you to look for him.

God will speak to you through a cheesy song, an offensive billboard, a blade of grass, even a politician or mega-church. The mistake we make is tuning out when we encounter something we don’t like, or deem unworthy and incapable of having anything of value for us. We stay at the surface and miss a whole world of depth underneath.

Look for God everywhere today, so that you might hear what he is saying to you, no matter the medium.

Don’t make things up.

Simply look and listen.

Revelation 7:9-10

After this I looked, and lo and behold a huge gathering which nobody could possibly count, from every nation and tribe and people and language. They were standing in front of the throne, and in front of the lamb. They were dressed in white robes, holding palm branches in their hands.

They were shouting out at the tops of their voices, “Salvation belongs to our God, to the one who sits on the throne, and to the lamb!”

What is really striking to me as I go through Revelation, is how it is clearly all about the greatness, worthiness, and awesomeness of God and of Jesus Christ, way more than being some mystery puzzle book begging to be unlocked and figured out twenty centuries later.

As I read through, I am set ablaze with reverence for our very worthy-of-all-worship God. I couldn’t care a whole lot less about what everything exactly means or represents.

Maybe when I’m done kneeling and worshipping before the throne of the Lamb, I’ll care more about diving in to some of the imagery, but I’m good for now.

May we not lose sight of the appropriate extolling nature of Revelation.

Revelation 7:11-12

All the angels who were standing around the throne and the elders and the four creatures fell down on their faces before the throne and worshipped God.

“Yes! Amen!” they were saying. “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen!”

These angels, elders, and four creatures give us an excellent source of devotional meditation if we’re ever in want of what to do with our time with God!

The following is from William Barclay’s commentary which I found inspiring:

They ascribe blessing to God; and God’s creation must always be blessing him for his goodness in creation and in redemption and in providence to all that he has created. As a great saint put it: “Thou hast made us and we are thine; thou hast redeemed us and we are doubly thine.”

They ascribe glory to God. God is the King of kings and the Lord of lords; therefore, to him must be given glory. God is love but that love must never be cheaply sentimentalized; men must never forget the majesty of God.

They ascribe wisdom to God. God is the source of all truth, the giver of all knowledge. If men seek wisdom, they can find it by only two paths, by the seeking of their minds and by waiting upon God—and the one is as important as the other.

They offer thanksgiving to God. God is the giver of salvation and the constant provider of grace; he is the creator of the world and the constant sustainer of all that is in it. It was the cry of the Psalmist: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Psalm 103:2) Shakespeare said that it was sharper than a serpent’s tooth to have a thankless child. We must see to it that we are never guilty of the ugliest and most graceless of sins, that of ingratitude.

They ascribe honor to God. God is to be worshipped. It may be that sometimes we may come to think of him as someone to be used; but we ought not to forget the claims of worship, so that we not only ask things from him but offer ourselves and all we are to him.

They ascribe power to God. God’s power never grows less and the wonder is that it is used in love for men. God works his purposes out throughout the ages and in the end his kingdom will come.

They ascribe strength to God. The problem of life is to find strength for its tasks, its responsibilities, its demands. The Christian can say: “I will go in the strength of the Lord.”

There is no greater exercise in the life of devotion than to meditate on the praise of the angels and, to appropriate to ourselves everything in it.

Revelation 6:16-17

“Fall upon us!” they were saying to the mountains and the rocks. “Hide us from the face of the One who sits on the throne, and from the anger of the lamb! The great day of their anger has come, and who can stand upright?”

If your boss, teacher, spouse, or a police officer wants to have a word with you, it can be terrifying if you realize that you have not done what you’re supposed to do, or crossed them, or broken the law.

Encountering God can be scary for those who have lived their own way, without much or any consideration for God.

And this is not due to sin per se, because sin has been dealt with through Jesus Christ. But because of not accepting the wonderful gift of that chasm being bridged, so that we may enjoy unbroken fellowship with God, it will be terrifying to meet God—really for the first time—with nothing to say for yourself, nowhere to hide, fumbling for the words to explain why you did not live in close connection with the One who gave you your very life, the kindest, most loving God who has given you every chance to live a meaningful and joyful life in relationship with Him everyday.

In that situation, even a lamb is scary as hell.

Revelation 5:13

Then I heard every creature in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, and in the sea, and everything that is in them, saying,

“To the One on the throne and the lamb

Be blessing and honor and glory

And power forever and ever!”

Throughout the New Testament, we see that our unity comes through our agreement on the absolute greatness and awesomeness of Jesus Christ.

Christian unity is rooted in Christ.

(Duh)

It doesn’t come from having so much in common, or trying really hard to get along because we’re supposed to, but by our common bond in knowing and accepting who Christ is and what he has done.

Though we have many denominations, cultures, emphases, we should definitely be agreed upon the worthiness and work of Christ.

I have been to different kinds of churches, different denominations, but wherever Christ is magnified as Master, as Lamb who was slain for us, I feel right at home, and unified with all those praising him, no matter how different we might be.

I was at a Presbyterian church last Sunday seeing my Christian friends from Ukraine (it’s not the Ukraine by the way), Andrey and Oksana. We have a deep bond in Christ from many miles away because we agree on who he is and what he has done for us. I felt strengthened as we praised God together and shared what he is doing across planet earth.

I have Christian friends with whom we don’t see eye to eye on politics or eschatology (end times), but we agree on Jesus Christ as Lord of the universe and sacrificial Lamb, therefore all is good, truly.

If we cannot get excited in praising God together, and reveling in all he has done for us, then Christian unity will be an impossibility.

Revelation 4:11

“O Lord our God, you deserve to receive glory and honor and power, because you created all things; because of your will they existed and were created.”

This verse, I find, is one of the greatest summary statements in all of Scripture.

My dad had me memorize this verse as part of my discipleship about 25 years ago. And I am so thankful, for it is such a centering statement on a grand scale.

May this be foundational for us, an anchor point to return to often.

God is worthy of everything simply because of who God is, for creating everything as we know it, and for everything holding on to existence due to God’s will.

Everything was made by God, for God.

This is also one of the most humbling verses in all the Bible. Whenever you’re feeling some pride coming on, just make a stop here and allow yourself to be put back in place.

You might read this whole chapter today. It’s kind of frightening—in a reverential awe sort of way.

We need reverential awe for our Master and Creator who is so beyond above us, that it should cause us to tremble when we direct all our focus upon God, even if we are only able to do so for a few seconds, or perhaps a whole minute.

“Worthy are you our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and by your will they were and were created.”

Revelation 3:1

I know what you have done. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

You are not your reputation.

Trying to live up to a reputation proves futile eventually.

But performing for an Audience of One, living in the truth that Christ knows what’s in your heart and which you can’t hide from him, is ultimately satisfying.

As you do this, you live more and more for Christ, and less and less for others, less for your reputation. It’s not that you consciously don’t care what people think, but over time, you don’t even think about what other people think of you or your decisions—in a healthy way.

I think this is one of the things Christ saves us from—enslavement to living up to others’ expectations. As some of you may remember, one of the top five regrets of dying people is that they wished they had lived a life true to themselves, and not according to what others expected of them.

Living to please Christ will ensure a life true to yourself, to your true self, because you live true to that which you came from.

True to who you came from.

True to who instilled your very identity.

So today, as you make your minute by minute decisions which form your life, make them based on pleasing Christ, the One who knows why you do everything you do anyway.

Revelation 2:9

I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

I’ve been to some churches of Satan.

Not in the way in which that probably sounds.

Churches who have lost their First Love (v.4), are promoting principles, programs, and good works, or the community itself, before they are promoting the person of Christ himself.

Some churches are more pleasing to Satan than to Jesus, I believe. If the devil can keep people from being in love with, and reliant on, Jesus the living Christ, then he is quite pleased with his bad self.

Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Satan works with the flesh—our human powers without divine assistance or guidance. Satanic influence can infiltrate churches, no matter what their name or claim, through keeping them reliant on their own power, away from prayer, psychologizing, forgetful of the Cross.

Always remain aware of what your church is promoting most, promoting first.

For Christians who gather, there is the Cross first; everything else, a very distant second, flows from that.

Ok, I must admit that I’ve been sitting on those “Little People” playset pictures for over two years, dying to use them, and am giddy to finally have the chance!

Revelation 1:17

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though I were dead.

He touched me with his right hand. “Don’t be afraid,” he said.

It is when we fall at Jesus’s feet, in realization of just who he is, that we are touched by him.

Throughout Scripture, this is the response to a true encounter with greatness, with Divinity, with our Creator.

You’re not moved to trembling, falling down on your face, or uncontrollable silence by an encounter with a mere idea, but with a person of greatness.

And you’re typically not falling at Jesus’s feet when you’re debating intellectually on who he might be.

But when you realize just who Jesus is, as described in this chapter, you can’t help but react in dumbfounded submission. Something in you permanently shifts. Reality has been shaken and discovered to be different than you thought.

When you see him, you will fall at his feet.

Then you are awake.

Then you are alive.

Believing will lead to seeing, and seeing will lead to submission.

3 John 9

I have written something to the assembly. But Diotrephes, who wants to be the most important person there, refuses to acknowledge us.

So-called Christian leaders who lack humility, who want to be the most important, who desire attention, who do not submit to authority, are not true Christian leaders.

It does not matter what Church they are part of, what ministry, what seminary.

Diotrephes was a church leader with some authority. The passage does not say he was off in his doctrine or lacked in leadership, but where he was lacking was most important–charity and humility.

As C.H. Dodd put it: “There is no religious experience which does not express itself in charity.”

I’ll leave us with some commentary by William Barclay because it’s really good, straightforward, and needs no clarification from me. (This comes right after the Dodd quote):

That is why, for all his powers of leadership and for all his dominance of character, Diotrephes was not a real Christian, as John saw it. The true Christian leader must always remember that strength and gentleness must go together and that leading and loving must go hand in hand. Diotrephes was like so many leaders in the church. He may well have been right, but he took the wrong way to achieve his end, for no amount of strength of mind can take the place of love of heart.