3rd Sunday of Easter Year B Sermon

G’day! So good to see you! Now after an incredible 3 weeks revealing some of the weird stuff God had Ezekiel do to catch the Israelites attention. It was kinda funny to now be looking at a book that is certified weird by a lot of people. Aah; but before we go into the sermon just a couple things we need to know to help us understand the message in the book of Revelation. Firstly, the Hebrew word for Revelation means to “uncover something that was hidden” and the Greek word for “revelation” is ἀποκάλυψις (apokalupsis). Which is where the English word describing the ominous catastrophes or disasters at the end of time comes from. But in Greek, It simply means “to reveal something that was hidden.” So Jesus is revealing to John hidden mysteries about God and Himself, and even things the church thought was hidden from prying eyes (but that part is not in today’s message). And it resembles a word that describes God’s people in exile or living away from God’s land which was God uncovering or revealing His judgement to His rebellious people.
Secondly, despite it appearing at the beginning where Jesus gives his performance review of 7 churches; that they are the only churches with their particular issues! Seven being the number of completeness, therefore Revelation is a message to the whole church worldwide now and into the future!
And thirdly, After spending just that short time in Ezekiel and now reading Revelation chapter 4 I had it confirmed yet again just how much the Old and New Testaments match up! Truly the bible is amazing! For as I read Revelation’s chapter 4 I recognised the vision! Sure it’s not word for word the same! Which means it’s not plagiarised from Ezekiel! And if you have experienced a vision you will understand that it is like watching a movie except that you are actively involved in the movie, and yet you do not know the script and so are not in control or fully understanding what is happening! And the vision is highly personal for you! What we have in Revelation is John giving an account from his perspective as he too witnessed the vision Ezekiel saw! But John also sees this new updated version of the vision! Remember Ezekiel was well and truly before Jesus’ time! Jesus couldn’t be in Ezekiel’s vision! Whereas, John had been with Jesus right from the start of His ministry! And John had seen the risen Jesus! John thought he knew Jesus very well! The vision shows !!! but wait there is far more to know about the resurrected Jesus than what he had already witnessed! And today we modern people are so blessed for we can compare the two visions and get a bigger and better picture than by just looking at only Ezekiel’s vision of what an incredible God it is that we worship!