Jesus is Our Hope (Revelation 1:12-18)

The following sermon is from Faith Bible Church, located in Murrieta, California.

More information about Faith Bible Church is available at www.faith-bible.net

Every day is different than you plan.

This service is no different than that.

Yesterday, I woke up with big plans.

I had three big projects I was going to work on at my house.

I had coffee, I made eggs, I read the Word, I went outside.

The air is cool, you know this if you were outside yesterday morning.

It was beautiful out. I started gathering all the materials.

Three trips to the garage, and I had everything laid out.

At that time, I bent over to pick up this small hand tool,

and as I straightened up, I heard and felt,

It was not in the tool, but in my back.

And the most searing pain shot from like here, down.

And I immediately cried out, such that my daughter, who I thought was asleep, heard me.

And all of my lower back muscles began to tighten.

I began to feel clammy.

I tried to keep standing and started feeling dizzy with your vision constricting.

Have you ever been this? This is lousy start to the morning.

And so worried that I would fall asleep, I started to cry.

I started to fall to the ground. I lowered myself to the ground,

which is good, because I no longer felt any energy in my legs.

And it was as I lay on my back in the gravel,

that I realized all of my hopes for the day were done.

There was nothing that was going to get accomplished.

And it took about 20 minutes of rest and painkillers

for me to kind of wobbly stand up

and walk like a very old,

person

back to my house

and then slowly recline on a sofa

for the rest of the day.

Now I know some people dream of a Saturday spent on their sofa

and think this would be glorious.

And it is not the Saturday I expected.

It is not the Saturday Beth wanted.

And I'm happy to say I'm moving quicker today.

I'm doing much better.

I'm not on painkillers, at least right now.

But I think you know that feeling of the day going different than you expect,

of the hopes you have for something not being met.

Maybe you asked someone out and they said no,

or you asked for a raise and got nothing,

or you've been praying even for a pregnancy

and just another month goes by.

We all know the pains of crushed hopes.

In fact, across California,

one in three people this week will experience crushed hopes

because that's the average number of people who buy a lottery ticket in California.

And I don't know if you realize it,

but you are not going to win.

You have better odds of finding a ticket on the ground and winning.

There are, I just read, these are fun stats,

300 times more likely to be struck by lightning,

than to win the Powerball.

That's good.

You're 707 more times likely to die from a hornet,

wasp, or bee sting than to win the Super Lotto.

And you're, this is my favorite,

2100 times more likely to die from constipation than to win Mega Millions.

That is a failed hope.

But everybody who buys one has a bit of hope,

a dream of making it big,

an illusion that's not going to come to pass.

Life is filled with failed hopes.

From your childhood, maybe to your wedding day,

to your retirement party,

there are disappointments.

There are disasters.

There's unmet expectations and unrealized hopes.

And life, life can be hard.

It's not easy.

And scripture, again and again, for this reason,

calls us to fix our hope,

on Jesus Christ.

To fix our hope on Jesus Christ.

I didn't get to put them into your outline,

but you can just read scripture after scripture.

Romans 15, 13.

May the God of hope fill you so that you abound in hope.

2 Corinthians 1, 10.

On Him we've set our hope.

1 Timothy 4, 10.

We fixed our hope on the living God.

Hebrews 12, 2.

We're called to fix our eyes on Jesus.

1 Peter 1, 13.

Fix your hope completely on the great God.

Jesus is the place to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The hope of a Christian is Jesus.

That is where we set our hearts.

That is what we set our hope on.

No matter what is going on around us,

He's the one we can trust in.

He's familiar with our trials.

He knows us.

He knows how we're made.

He knows our temptations.

He understands our weakness.

Jesus is the one we can hope in.

Whether it's the time when your last child is headed to school

and the house just feels empty,

or you have a meeting scheduled with the oncologist

and the future feels unsure,

when you're dealing with an aging parent

and they're in assisted living and angry,

when you're at work

and you see job cuts happening in your company,

there's a lot to cause us to depend on Jesus.

From the presidential race to interest rates to aging,

there's a lot that can lead us into despair.

If you look at the church nationally,

if you look at the last year for us,

it can feel discouraging at times.

And the book of Revelation is written at a time

when the Christian church felt far more hopeless

than we have.

Than we have a right to today.

It was in a far worse position.

It was written roughly 60 years after Jesus' death.

Christianity was not a worldwide religion at that time.

It was powerless, it was persecuted,

and it was discouraged.

It was a small group in a large empire.

There were only a few believers alive at this point

remaining who had seen Jesus.

And the Christians who did gather

for worship felt on the border of extinction.

Today we feel like we live in a post-Christian world.

They lived in a pre-Christian world.

It was not ever a legalized religion at their point.

They had no freedom of worship.

Christianity was subversive.

They were actively persecuted.

They didn't know what the church would become.

They didn't know how many days it would last.

They didn't know how many more days they themselves had.

There was no modern missionary movement.

There was no internet to stay connected with one another.

No ability to call or text others.

It was easy to feel powerless, to feel discouraged,

to feel attacked, to lose hope,

and to even compromise your beliefs and your witness.

That's the situation that John, the apostle,

is writing to and in.

And while the book itself describes what will happen in the future,

it's really written for this one purpose.

To give Christians hope.

To give us hope.

We have the book of Revelation to give us hope.

Now tell me why the book of Revelation exists?

To give us what?

I heard the front row. How about in the back?

Why does the book of Revelation exist?

Are you in the shade back there?

That makes me feel better. Thank you.

Now I know you're listening back there.

So where do we find hope?

Well, it's in Jesus Christ.

And the book of Revelation pushes us to see that hope grounded in Jesus Christ.

More than any other book,

the book of Revelation shows us Jesus Christ in his glory.

He's shown as the risen Lord, the slain lamb who is a lion.

He stands in heaven soon to return.

He crushes his enemies.

He rescues all of God's children.

He is the one in whom we can hope.

And so this vision that comes to the apostle John,

is recorded so that our hope in Jesus Christ would remain strong.

And today I just want us to look at the very beginning of the book.

The very first chapter.

The very first beginning vision that John has.

And after this beautiful doxology at the very beginning,

John gives us an account of the vision he saw.

And you can open up in your Bible, Revelation chapter 1.

That's where we're going to be.

And his vision begins with the sight of Jesus.

A sight intended to give hope to John and to us.

To be reminded that all true hope comes from Jesus.

And in verses 12 to 18,

we're going to see three ways that Jesus gives us hope.

It is through his position, his appearance, and his words.

All recorded to give us hope.

The first thing we see, verses 12 and 13,

is that Jesus stands at the center of the church.

Jesus stands at the center of the church.

His position, where he is, is there.

It's identified by John in order to give us hope.

In verses 9 to 11, just before this,

John tells us where he is when this happened.

He's on the isle of Patmos.

Long story short, this is Rome's version of Alcatraz.

He's away on an island, locked away.

He's imprisoned there for being a Christian.

This is during the reign of Jesus.

This is the reign of the emperor, Domitian.

We tend to think of Nero as the worst emperor.

Congrats, Nero was the craziest.

Domitian was the most aggressive about persecuting Christians.

There had always been a cult of worship around the emperor.

Domitian actually seems to have been the first to believe he was really divine.

He had coins mended that proclaimed himself God.

He had altars set up in towns, forcing everyone to worship him.

And if they didn't, they would be taken outside the town and crucified.

Church history records that prior to arriving on the isle of Patmos, Alcatraz,

John had already been boiled in oil for being a Christian, but he had survived.

And so, he'd been banished here.

And John now is writing to churches across Asia, much of the Middle East today,

that are experiencing persecution.

He'd been given a vision of the future so that his hope,

and the hope of God,

and the hope of the churches in Jesus Christ would remain strong.

And the opening scene of this vision is Jesus.

So look at Revelation chapter 1 verse 12.

John says,

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.

And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,

and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man,

clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

This is the resurrected Son of God standing amidst seven golden lampstands.

From creation forward, seven is the representative of completeness.

And verse 20, if you just skip down a little bit,

you'll see the seven lampstands are said to be symbols of seven churches

that would be described in chapters 2 and 3.

So you've got Jesus standing in the midst of these lampstands,

which are pictures of the church.

And the message is really simple.

It's that Jesus is at the center of the church,

which is really a message we need to hear.

As a church, this has been a tough year for us.

We are waiting to move into a building that's entirely done.

We're literally waiting just on the city to finish their stuff.

We thought we'd be done by now.

We have people, we have ministries who are scrambling

because we'd all assumed we would be in by September.

With all that's happened with Chris,

we've had more questions and conversations about the future than ever before.

We used to joke about what happens when Chris dies,

which is not a joke anymore.

He's not dead.

And so we've had to talk through what our plan is.

As we figure out the future, we will tell you.

We'll be clear. We don't ever hide things.

We are always open books.

You can always come talk to us.

But as a church, we've had more trials and tests in the last year than ever before.

It's easy to grow discouraged.

It's easy to see doubts grow, to lose trust,

whether that's in the church or even personally.

Maybe you feel like Jesus has gone away from you.

He's distant from you.

He's unaware of what's going on and the struggles that you have.

The Apostle John wants you to know that he's right here in the middle,

that he's present, that he's watching.

You see how he's described.

It says that he's one like a son of man.

This is a reference back to Daniel 7, verse 13,

one who is the ancient of days,

the one who rules all things.

He's clothed, in our passage, in a long robe,

which marks a person of distinction.

It would be typically the clothing of a king or a prophet.

He's got a golden girdle or a belt around his chest,

which is a priestly reference.

It's what the high priest wore a sash like this in the Old Testament.

So John sees this man, clothed in the robe of kings and prophets,

with a priestly belt around his chest,

who has the appearance of the Savior described in Daniel,

who's given dominion, glory in this kingdom.

In other words, you have this priestly king standing in the midst of the churches.

And what's remarkable,

there's no indication that the churches know it.

As a parent, I'm sure if you're a parent,

you've done the thing where you sneak in

and watch your kid when they don't know it.

We do this, of course, when they're asleep.

As a baby, you go in, you check on them, they have no clue.

Later in life, sometimes that's the happiest time,

as you walk in and look while they're sleeping.

The time when it's just,

peaceful and all is good in the world.

Other times, you find them when they don't want you to find them.

They're in the kitchen,

sneaking stuff they shouldn't be, right?

And you have the joy of surprising and startling them.

They think nobody's looking.

Jesus here is watching the churches,

and he's watching over them,

though there's no indication in the text

that they see his presence.

And when you read Revelation chapters 2 and 3,

the descriptions of the churches,

you see churches that are persecuted and oppressed,

that are questioning what they were taught,

some that have lost their first love for Jesus,

others that are tolerating sin,

and in each case, their hope in Christ is being tested.

They're under trial.

In some cases, they've fully traded it away,

some had forgotten that he was present,

that he was watching,

that he would make things right.

And it's possible that you just personally have done the same.

You've served so much

that it's become your identity

and you've lost your first love.

You've done so many good deeds

that you've forgotten why.

Or you've grown tired

of having to defend the gospel to your family.

Maybe the question is,

how many questions of a podcaster

have led you to doubt that the Bible's true?

Or it could be that a love of money

or a lust of the flesh

has become the real satisfaction of your life.

When you lose sight of Jesus

at the center of the church,

you begin to lose hope.

You begin to place your hope

in what you're doing,

or in some fix or worldly solution

to your problems,

rather than in Jesus.

And when your sight of him is lost,

life begins to feel overwhelming.

And hope begins to fade.

Problems seem larger.

And change just feels impossible.

Like it could never happen.

But the truth is,

what Revelation shows us here,

is that Jesus,

our priestly king,

is standing nearby and present.

In the very midst of the church.

He is present.

He is everywhere.

His position gives us hope.

Next we see that not only does he stand

at the center of the church,

but that he is more powerful

than we can even imagine.

His appearance brings us hope.

Look at verse 14.

John says that the hairs of his head

were white.

Like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were like burnished bronze.

Refined in a furnace.

And his voice was like the roar of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars.

From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.

And his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

Now as a total aside,

this passage is a great place to be reminded

that a key to interpreting the book of Revelation

is this one thought.

Like is not is.

Right?

When we see the word like,

we recognize that it's symbolic language.

He's trying to be the best descriptions he can

of something that he saw,

but it's not the same thing.

And he uses like here over and over.

It was like white wool.

It was like snow.

It was like a flame of fire.

Like, you know, on and on.

Like the sun.

So what is he saying?

What's the meaning of this appearance

which is intended to give us hope?

Well, in the Proverbs,

gray hair is a crown of wisdom.

It's not what he's got.

This is white.

Which I might tend to think of as holiness and purity.

But the actual connection is back to Daniel chapter 7,

which a number of these are drawn from,

where we see the Ancient of Days,

as in your notes,

took his seat and his clothing was like white snow

and the hair of his head like pure wool.

The intent John has is to communicate Christ's deity.

That John is not looking at an animal,

an angel, but Jesus himself.

His eyes are like a flame of fire.

Which, and this is really interesting to get this,

if you just turn over to the book of Revelation,

we get more information on the meaning of this description of Jesus

as you look at each church.

You may never have noticed it if you read Revelation 2 and 3,

but every description to a church is preceded by a description of Jesus Christ.

And that description informs

and helps you interpret what the issues are within the church.

They're connected.

And so what you see in verse 1,

you can just see these,

we won't go through them all.

Verse 1,

Jesus is the one who holds the seven stars

and walks among the lampstands.

Verse 8,

Jesus is the first and the last who was dead and has come to life.

Verse 12,

Jesus is the one with the sharp two-edged sword.

Each description of Jesus has a particular significance

and bearing for the church.

So what does it mean that Jesus has

eyes like a flaming fire?

We'll look at verse 18.

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write,

the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire

and his feet are like burnished bronze,

he says this.

We won't read it all, but here's the summary.

TLDR.

When you read the verses written to the church in Thyatira,

the issue is that they're tolerating sin inside the church.

There are professing Christians there

who love sin.

And that clarifies what we read earlier in Revelation 1,

verse 12.

What does it mean that Jesus has flaming eyes?

Well, his eyes symbolize his omniscience,

that he sees everything.

And the flames picture his wrath

to the ungodly within the church.

That's the picture here.

It means that Jesus is aware of everything happening.

He is never blind to it.

He sees everything.

So whether you're a Christian,

whether you are suspicious of what your child is up to,

Jesus knows.

You may doubt what your spouse is telling you,

but Jesus sees everything.

You may think that only you know what's really happening,

but you don't.

Jesus does.

You may think that no one sees you,

but Jesus is aware.

And the flames signify that judgment

that will come to those who persist in sin.

His feet have that same glowing quality

and symbolize his judgment.

Because in ancient times,

kings sat on elevated thrones

so that they were above those who they were judging.

That the people who would come in

were visibly under their feet.

And the feet of a king came to symbolize his authority.

And Jesus' red-hot, glowing feet

picture him ready to exercise his authority

in divine judgment.

That bronze is the same bronze that was used,

actually, it's the same metal that was used

in the construction of the altar in Exodus 38.

It describes his holiness and the readiness

that he has to judge.

You go forward and his voice is like many waters.

This is a reference to Ezekiel, chapter 43, verse 2.

And that passage describes the Lord's glory

returning at the end of the millennial kingdom.

It's not the babble of this quiet brook-type noise of water,

but it is the crashing of waves

on the north shore of Hawaii sound.

This is a big sound, right?

This is an overwhelming sound.

His voice carries power.

It carries authority.

And in his right hand it says he holds seven stars.

Verse 20 describes those as representatives,

messengers, representatives of each church

who are under his control.

They say that they're held in his hand,

which would mean that they're protected,

but in his right hand it means that they're under his control.

They're under his authority.

And from his mouth is this sharp two-edged sword,

a sign of judicial authority.

That same sword shows up in chapter 2, verse 12,

in the letter to the church of Pergamum.

And there we see where it said that Christ will judge

those who attack believers

and those who seek to destroy his church.

Last part of the description is that John sees Jesus' face

like the sun shining in its strength.

And this actually mirrors what he would have seen

in the transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17

when it says there that his face shone like the sun.

An overwhelming brightness that conveys something of his glory.

So here's this picture.

And we've just kind of hastily, quickly gone through it.

John sees this glowing, priestly king,

his hair, his head, his eyes, his feet, his face,

all shining with strength, with authority, with power.

He's standing in the middle of all of the churches,

watching what's happening, ready to judge.

His eyes see everything.

His feet are set. He's unwavering.

This is not the Jesus you see on kids' coloring pages.

Right?

This is not that Renaissance-era Jesus.

This is a different Jesus than the one we often get pictures of.

This is a man in whom you can be confident.

This is a man who you can trust to get it right.

This is a king who has full authority.

This is one from whom darkness flees.

This is one who holds the leaders of the church and the world in his hand.

This is one in whom you can rest your hope.

In whom you can be fully confident.

And so to the churches then and now

that have believers who compromise,

who had Christians that tolerated sin,

who had non-Christians that were plundering the church,

to churches that are strong in doctrine and lack love,

to people who profess to know Christ

and by their deeds, their actions, show that they're dead,

to pastors who worry about the state of things,

to families who've forgotten that Jesus will return.

This is all just in the context of Revelation 2 and 3.

Jesus says, I am here.

I'm here!

So to faithful Christians

who see compromise, who see toleration of sin,

who see hypocrites, who see spiritually lukewarm,

who look with their families with concern,

who worry about church members whom they love,

and you grieve and you despair,

and you've been crying out to God,

John just wants you to know that Jesus is more powerful

than you can even imagine.

He is more powerful than you can imagine.

That's the second point.

His appearance brings hope.

He's not ignorant of what's happening.

He stands in the middle of the church

He sees everything going on.

He sees what we do not see.

He judges perfectly.

He is never wrong.

You can trust Him.

He's worthy of our hope.

I don't know where you try to find hope if it's not Jesus.

I look online.

There's 250, 2.5 million articles about how to find hope.

Right?

You can find hope in autism.

You can find hope in diabetes, in prison.

You can find hope in Maui, which is where I would like to find hope.

It's a joke.

I'd rather choose Jesus.

Maui might be second.

You can find hope in adversity, hope in grief,

or my favorite, you can find hope in a veterinary career.

Those are all top page results for some reason.

But really that simply tells me how much grief we feel in the world.

How much pain our family, our neighbors,

our friends go through.

How everyone is searching for relief from the worries of this life.

More than a Sunday at church, more than a time of singing or a good cry,

Jesus stands at the center of the church, though unseen.

Jesus has the authority of the Creator ready to right every wrong,

and He knows you.

Better than any other, He knows you.

Hebrews 2 says He's made like you.

He's a faithful high priest.

Revelation is written to secure our hope in Jesus as our Savior.

That our hope would be placed solely in Him,

and not in Maui, or a veterinary career, or anything else.

We need to know that Jesus stands at the center of the church.

That Jesus is more powerful than we can imagine.

And last, to know that Jesus has authority over life and death.

Jesus has authority over life and death.

His words bring hope.

When the Apostle John beholds the glorified Savior,

his immediate response is not joy.

Terror. Fear.

He falls on his face.

Look at verse 17.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.

And then he placed his right hand on me, saying,

Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last.

I am the living one.

And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

And I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Like pretty much every person in the Old Testament and new who beholds Jesus Christ,

his response is to fall on his face.

Abraham did this. Daniel did this. Ezekiel did this.

Even John at the Transfiguration did this.

When he sees the Son, he falls on his face.

He's on the floor. He has the response of Isaiah.

Right? Woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips.

I shall surely die, for I've seen God.

Ezekiel 1 has the same response.

It's over and over.

And the response of the Lord,

is do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid.

His words from that phrase forward are designed to give hope.

They're designed to comfort, to provide assurance.

What is it that Jesus says then to give hope?

Well, he says three things.

He says, I'm the first and the last.

I'm the living one who is dead and is alive forever.

And then third, I have the keys of death and Hades.

And that first, to say I'm the first and the last,

that first phrase is a really common way that God would describe himself in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 44.6 says,

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts,

I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God beside me.

This is just a simple statement of eternal divinity.

That John would know immediately he is encountering God.

He is speaking with and being led by the one true God, the eternal one.

The second phrase is a declaration that Jesus is the resurrected one.

He describes himself as the living one, the one who was dead and is now alive forever.

It's the same Jesus that John had been following in Israel and around the country when he was alive.

It's the one that he knew, the one that he already trusted.

The one who we see in the final phrase, had conquered death.

Because that one, when he says, I have the keys of death and of Hades,

describes how he has full control over death and those who die.

Keys, not just in Jewish thought, but even today, are a sign of authority and control.

When you buy a car, they make a big deal out of giving you the keys.

When you go to buy a house, the question you ask is,

when do I get the keys? When do I get the keys?

The ownership, the control, the authority for the place is symbolized still for us by keys.

They show that we're in control of that object.

And Jesus has the keys, the control, the authority, the power over death and Hades,

which is the domain of the dead.

Why should John be afraid? There's no reason.

Jesus is alive.

He holds the keys. He controls death.

Why should we be afraid? There's no reason.

Jesus is alive. He stands in the center of the church.

He has more power than we can imagine, and he has authority over life and death.

To a suffering church, a maligned church, a hurting church,

a church that's been wracked by attacks, Jesus' words bring hope.

That was the need of the early church in Jesus' day.

That's the need of us today.

So whether you're continuing to grieve over the loss of a loved one,

or maybe your heart races at the thought of your own death,

Jesus has the keys to death and Hades.

You can trust him.

Maybe you're worried about the progress of evil in our nation.

You feel like it's getting harder just to live in California,

to maintain your witness at work.

You just need to know that he is more powerful than we can imagine.

He is able to do more than we expect, and he is watching over us.

So we need to keep hoping in Jesus and stay faithful.

Maybe you've been hurt by the church or people in the church or its leaders.

You've lost confidence or trust over the years.

You need to know that Jesus stands at the center of the church.

He's here. He's watching.

He sees better than you do, and you can trust him.

Everything about John's sight of Jesus is calculated

to give Christians hope.

His position, his appearance, his words are all recorded

so as to give you hope.

And if your hope is in anything other than Jesus Christ,

you will despair.

You'll despair.

I will fail you.

Faith Bible Church is not perfect.

No church is perfect.

Your husband or wife will fail you.

Your marriage will never be perfect.

Your mother will fail you.

Your father will fail you.

Your family will never be perfect.

Your best friend will disappoint you.

And the next generation, they're just entitled.

That's a joke.

If any of us, if any person or anything is at the center of your heart,

it's the thing you've been hoping in and finding your joy in,

you're in deep trouble.

Again, the message of Revelation, the message of the whole Bible,

is that as Christians, our hope is in Jesus Christ alone.

And if you trust in any person or institution in the days ahead,

you are going to find yourself hurting and hurt.

If you stand before God and plead for mercy

because of your mom, your wife, or your church,

you will be eternally despairing.

Jesus is your only hope.

He's the perfect God who came as a man to live among us but without sin.

He did no wrong, and yet he permitted himself to be put to death.

He died and defeated death by rising again and returning to life.

He has the keys to death now.

And though you deserve hell for your disobedience to the one who created you,

Jesus offers you life.

He offers you full forgiveness for all of your sins,

for all of time, past, present, and future,

because when he was being put to death on the cross,

he took the wrath of God for the sin of every person who would believe.

So that if you put your faith, your hope, in Jesus, you're forgiven.

He knows life here is not easy.

He knows better than we even realize or expect

the pain and troubles of this life.

The things that you've hoped for that didn't turn out.

The things you've put your hope in that don't satisfy.

Revelation is written for the discouraged.

It's written for the powerless.

It's written for the persecuted.

So that we would be reminded and pushed

to put our hope in Jesus Christ and nothing else.

Back in 1800, long, long, long ago,

there's a true story.

There's a young boy whose parents owned a pub.

He was pretty much left to play in the streets.

Little Edward, he would be out there and going,

just having the time of his life.

And as he grew older, he was apprenticed to be a cabinet maker.

And it was quite by accident at age 15 that he heard the gospel.

And repented.

He was saved.

And he became a master cabinet builder.

Not a church leader or anything else for most of his life.

Just a faithful church member.

And as he would build cabinets, he would sing.

Sometimes he would even write his own lyrics.

And it was in his mid-30s, as he walked to church one day,

that this chorus formed in his mind.

And through the day, he built it out.

Writing down new lines.

And at the end of the day, he stuffed four verses into his pocket.

Time went on.

He kept working.

And the next Sunday, he went to visit a friend whose wife was ill.

And realizing as he went to close the time,

they were going to sing and to pray.

And he'd forgotten to bring a hymnal.

So he pulled out the scrap from his pocket.

And he sang.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ.

Sorry, Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame.

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Right, that's Edward Mote.

That song is what we're called to do.

It's what the book of Revelation pushes us to do.

To wholly lean on Christ.

To trust in nothing else but his blood and his righteousness.

This is the way we move through the hardships of life.

We hope entirely on Jesus.

And if that's not what you've done,

I'm just simply pleading with you to make it true today.

Father, we lift up our hearts before you.

And we want to come in full submission to your leadership.

To confess that we're prone to be too easily, quickly, and short-term satisfied

by things that don't give us lasting hope.

To be amused rather than satisfied.

To be entertained and not to think about the reality of eternity

and all that your son Jesus Christ has done.

Lord, we are thankful that your son stands in heaven ready to return.

That he is coming soon.

Many days it feels like it can't be soon enough.

Lord, we pray that you would help us to be faithful until that day.

And if there are people here who have not hoped in Jesus Christ,

Lord, I pray that that would change today.

That they would confess their sin.

That they would realize the failures of everything that they've sought to satisfy.

And they would find true satisfaction in your son Jesus Christ.

Knowing that he alone can save.

That he is ready, ready to execute judgment.

But as 2 Peter 3 says, Lord, it is your kindness that brings patience to his return.

Lord, we look forward to it.

And we pray that we would be found faithful when he does.

We ask this in your son's name. Amen.

Thanks for listening today.

Sermon audio from the last three years is available by podcast.

And a larger archive from Chris Mueller and Faith Bible Church can be found at media.faith-bible.net

And if you would, please leave us a review on iTunes. It helps a lot.

Thanks and have a great day.

Sermon audio from the last three years is available by podcast.

And a larger archive from Chris Mueller and Faith Bible Church can be found at media.faith-bible.net