A Sermon on The Revelation to St. John (Rev. 21:1-6)

Year C, Easter 5 (Rev. 21:1-6)
St. Anne’s Episcopal, Conway
May 18, 2025
Video starts at 17:45

In the name of the Creating Father, Conquering Son, and Life-Affirming Spirit. Amen.

Good Morning –

Throughout the Easter Season, we have been reading through excerpts from the Book of Revelation. The author of Revelation identifies himself as John of Patmos. The writer is probably not the “John” who gives his name to the Gospel or to the Letters, but is probably a member of the community founded by John the Apostle.

 A few years ago, if you had asked me my least favorite book of the Bible, I would have readily told you it was the Book of Revelation. No other book has been more misunderstood and misquoted, and has been such a great source of theological mischief. Most of the Early Church rejected the book, and Martin Luther initially refused to translate it for his Bible. They didn’t like it, and I didn’t like it.

Three years ago, my Tuesday evening study group finally prevailed on me to lead a discussion on Revelation. I only agreed because we had already discussed every other book in the New Testament. After working through Revelation over 16 weeks, I fell madly in love with the book and John’s vision.

Revelation is not simply about the conflict between the early church and the Roman Empire. It’s not merely about eschatology or the end times. Rather, Revelation is about the present. John’s vision is about our struggles with the evil powers, enslaving systems, and the spiritual darkness and death that we all face here and now. It’s about the promise of the gospel and the work of Christ within our lives, our communities, and our world, in making all things new.

Revelation is not about actual events but a mystical, mythical, metaphorical understanding of the spiritual warfare taking place in each of our lives. Revelation tells us the evil is being conquered, humanity is being redeemed, and a new creation is being brought about – not through the force of arms, but through the Blood of the Lamb, and the testimony of his followers. It is the Gospel in graphic-novel format.

Revelation is about spiritual warfare between the forces of good and the forces of evil. To be clear, evil is never equal to the Good, but it’s more like a parasite or a cancer that disrupts the Good and must be excised.

Let’s look at the Who’s Who in Revelation.

In the spiritual battle that Revelation gives us, the forces of evil are led by Satan. In Hebrew, “satan” means the accuser or the adversary. “Satan” is the person who brings a legal complaint. But in Hebrew mythology, The Satan is the embodiment of those spiritual forces that are adverse to the Kingdom of God. So that Hate is the Satan of Love, Exclusion is the Satan of Inclusion, Oppression is the Satan of Justice, Retaliation is the Satan of Forgiveness, Hostility is the Satan of Reconciliation, and we can go on and on.

Revelation gives us the Beast of the Sea with ten horns and seven heads. On the one hand, this Beast simply represents the Roman Empire. (Ten Emperors up until that time, sitting on the seven hills of Rome.) But at a deeper level, the Beast represents all political, economic, and social systems that create and thrive upon oppression, degradation, and exploitation.

We have the Beast of the Earth (who has 666) and the False Prophet. These characters deceive and mislead the people of the earth and the kings of the earth into worshipping the Beast of the Sea so that they follow the Beast and not Christ. The Beast of the Earth and the False Prophet mislead us to fight for the systems of this World. They cause the people of the world and our leaders to mistake oppression for peace, degradation for goodness, and exploitation for love.

Finally, we have Death and Hell. It is Death that has jurisdiction over all those who are adverse to the Kingdom of God and who participate in the Beastly systems of this world and actively seek separation from God. It is Hell that is the great repository of all of us who are subject to Death, and where the image and likeness of God that we all bear is slowly eviscerated.  

Arrayed against these parasitic spiritual forces of evil are the forces of Good. The Good Guys are led by the Lamb, who was slain and sits upon the throne. The People of God are not led by a Chuck Norris, or a Dirty Harry, or a Braveheart Jesus. We are being led by the crucified Christ, who forgave his murderers from the Cross and who taught that we must put away our swords, that we cannot return evil for evil or violence for violence, but that we must forgive our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. The Lamb is worthy because it was slain and died, not because it is strong and powerful. The only strength and power it has lies in its humility and obedience.

In this spiritual battle, the Lamb does not wield a sword made of iron but only the sword that issues from his mouth. The only weapon that Christ and his followers have is the witness concerning his Passion and Resurrection. In Greek, the word “Witness” is “mar-tees.” The word “testimony” is “mar-tear-ian” which is where we get the word martyr. The Lamb and its followers are only armed with the witness, the testimony, and the martyrdom of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

And so the Battle of Revelation is joined. The spiritual powers of wickedness, through their opposition to God’s Kingdom, their beastly social, economic, and political systems, and their lies and deception, cause the people of the earth and the kings of the earth to rise up against the Lamb and his Church. And from Revelation 6 to Revelation 20, the War rages across the heavens and throughout the Earth.  

Although John’s vision of this War is mystical, mythical, and metaphorical, the War is real. The Battle envisioned in Revelation is the Battle that we fight every day. As Paul writes in Ephesians 6, our struggle is not against flesh and blood; it’s not against other people created in the image of God, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness.

Every day, we confront forces in opposition to God’s Kingdom. Every day, we confront beastly and oppressive social, political, and economic systems. Every day, we confront those forces that seek to deceive and mislead us and the whole world.

But the War that Revelation speaks of takes place not only out there in the world but in every human heart – mine and yours. I know that in my life and in my heart, I struggle against the satanic forces of hate and exclusion, oppression, retaliation, and hostility. Every morning when I read the newspaper, these satanic forces attack me. My guess is that they attack you as well. Each of us, in our own way, participates in the Beastly systems of this world. Even those who gain power through these systems of oppression and exploitation become subject to and imprisoned by these very systems.

And then we get to Revelation 19 and 20. Like all great stories, this one, too, ends with the last grand final showdown between the force of Good: the Lamb, the angels, and the saints, and the forces of Evil led by Satan and the Beasts, and followed by the people and the kings of the earth. There is a last Engagement. A last great Conflagration. A last great Battle.

(Slow) And at the end, the spiritual forces of evil, the wickedness that rules this world, are defeated. John’s vision of Christ’s victory is that Satan, the Beasts, and the False Prophet are bound and thrown into the Lake of Fire. And at the end, Death’s jurisdiction ends, and Hell is emptied of its contents, and Death and Hell are thrown into the Lake of Fire. All the stands in opposition to the Kingdom of God. All of the oppressive political, social, and economic systems of this World. All that obscures the image of God in each of us. All of this is defeated. All of this is destroyed. All that is not Good is excised by the Lamb of God that takes away the Sins of the World.

<pause and breathe deeply. 1, 2, 3.>

John now has the vision we read about today in Chapter 21.

John’s final vision is of a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth that had been ruled by the spiritual forces of wickedness have passed away.

The sea, which in Jewish thought is the place of chaos and disorder, is no more.

The new Jerusalem descends from heaven, prepared as a Bride for the Lamb.

God is intimately present with us and intimately present within us.

Death is not more. Hell is no more. The opposition to God’s Kingdom, both out there and within our hearts, is no more. And the Beastly systems of the world are no more.

And the Voice says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Not that “I have” or that “I will” but that “I am presently making all things new.”

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the vision that John has. The message of the Gospel is not “Where will you go if you died tonight?” Rather, the message of the Gospel is that our Crucified and Risen Lord is victorious. Evil is being and will be defeated; it is only a temporary condition and it will not prevail. In Christ, God is making all things new, not only me and you, but all of us, and all of creation.

In these verses today, John tells us, in his own crazy, mystical way, what Resurrection is, and the message that the Church proclaims. John’s vision is what we, as the people of God, are about. It tells us the foundation of our faith and the source of our hope.

As our sequence hymn says:
“Behold, behold I make all things new,
beginning with you and starting from today.
Behold, behold I make all things new,
my promise is true for I am Christ the way.” (Behold, I Make All Things New, John Bell, MHSO #47)
This is the life to which you are called. This is who we are – a Resurrection People of God.

Two concluding points. First, as the reading of Revelation continues next week, John’s vision is that the new Jerusalem is a walled city with twelve pearly gates. But the gates are never shut. And through those gates walk the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth. You see, once Satan, the Beasts, and the False Prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire, their hold over the nations and their leaders disappears. Those who once fought on the side of spiritual evil against the Lamb and the Church are now also found in the New Jerusalem. John’s vision is that they are in the City, beside the River of Life, and eating of the Fruit of the Tree of Life for healing and reconciliation. John’s vision is that all things, even those who were deceived and fought for Satan and the Beast, are present in the New Jerusalem. This is why we cannot judge or condemn anyone, because they, too, will be fully reconciled with God.

Finally, as you may know, Jesus’s ministry in John’s Gospel begins in Cana. It starts at a wedding feast where the wine, the symbol of God’s blessings, never runs out. Revelation ends with this same feast. A celebration of the union between Christ and his Church, between the Lamb who takes away the sins of the World, and the World whose sins have been taken away. This Feast is timeless and eternally present. It sees its greatest expression in the Last Supper on the day before the Crucifixion.     

Every Sunday, you are invited to this Feast. When you come forward for communion today, you are communing not only with those here at St. Anne’s, but all the saints that have gone before and all the saints that will come after. You are communing with the Lamb of God who has conquered the evil powers of this world. You are communing with him who makes all things new.

When you receive the Bread and Wine, know, that at that moment, you have entered the New Jerusalem. At that moment, know that Christ has secured the victory for you over all spiritual wickedness in this world and that God is making you into his new creation.

AMEN.

Background:
* Tuesday lessons on The Revelation to St. John.
* Reviving Old Scratch, p.10.