Trusting Jesus No Matter What - The Alpha and The Omega, Part 2

I've had a lot of people over the years ask me this question.

Why does the Bible talk about the beginning of wisdom or knowledge as the fear of the Lord? Well today, I'm not even going to tell you. I'm going to show you what the fear of the Lord is and how it connects to His love. You don't want to miss it. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well in just a minute, we'll wrap up our new series, Trusting Jesus No Matter What. We hope Chip's teaching has guided you to build a lasting and unshakable faith. So if you'd like to help others deepen their relationship with God, take a minute after the message and share this series with someone in your life.

You can do that through the Chip Ingram app or by downloading the free MP3s that you'll find at livingontheedge.org. Thanks for spreading the word on how Living on the Edge impacts your life. And with that, here's Chip with part two of his talk, The Alpha and the Omega. He begins in Revelation chapter 1 verse 12. I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And among the lampstands was one, are you ready for this? Like the Son of Man dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash across his chest. His head and his hair were like white wool as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. And his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.

His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. First and foremost, you would be terrified, and I would be terrified. And we're going to find that John is terrified. What I want to do is I want to go through quickly and go through what those are, tell you what they mean, and then we'll circle back around and talk about what's the implications for us in a world that's desperate for hope. The general appearance is the Son of Man. And what's that mean? It means I am the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the sovereign ruler of all people and nations.

Men of every language will worship me. Second picture is his dress. He's robed with a golden sash. Basically this is, I'm a greatly honored one who exercises all authority and judgment as a once and for all high priest, judge, and king, prophet, messenger of God. His head and hair, white as wool. The implication, I am the holy eternal one who is before all things, the all-wise, all-knowing God of time and eternity. This is that picture of him in Colossians chapter one.

The white and wool is a picture of holiness, of purity. He knows all things. He is all-wise. He sees the end from the beginning.

You don't have to worry. I'm the one who's going to bring about the best possible ends in the best possible way for the most possible people for the longest possible time. Notice his eyes are a blazing fire. It's this, I'm the righteous judge of all the earth whose judgment is just because I see all things as they are, not as they appear to be. And what you'll find as he begins to talk to all those churches in chapter two and chapter three, you think you are wonderful and clean and I see you as naked and needy. In other words, this is the Jesus that he looks at me and he knows what's in my heart. He knows my motives.

He knows I might say this, but maybe privately I mean that. And he's the one that when people say some things about me that may be not true at all is the one who sees all and puts his arm around me and says to you and says to me, you can trust me. I'll take you through this. This is Jesus the judge. You don't hear much about that anymore but we really need to remember that we will give an account even as believers for our life, for our salvation? No. For reward?

Yes. And this judge also will be, you think of your friends and my friends and our neighbors and maybe co-workers that don't know the Lord. He is the judge of all the earth and there will come a day when he will separate the goats and the sheep, those who trusted Christ and those who don't, those who say thy will be done Lord and those who say my will be done. And in his grace and in his honoring of people's will, there'll be people apart from Jesus forever and ever and ever. And part of what he's saying to John is it may be hard but you need to understand I'm the righteous judge.

It'll be fair because I see all things. But it's a motivation both for believers but it's also a motivation for those outside of Christ for us to care and to share and to love and to reach out and not be intimidated by the world that we're living in. Well then you go to his voice of many waters. I'm the one who spoke the world into existence out of nothing and I uphold it by the word of my power.

Old Testament, New Testament, a lot of people are saying I don't know where God is. I don't hear Jesus is saying like a rushing water if you've ever been near Niagara Falls or a huge waterfalls. He's saying John I'll tell you what, my word, my truth, it's going to go on all the earth, every tribe, every nation, every tongue. No one's going to miss out.

They'll know who I am. And then he goes on in the right hand are the stars. The stars are messengers. They're in his right hand position of honor. Commentators are torn. Is that the lead pastor of the church or is there an angel over each church?

I don't know the answer to that. Here's what I know is he's in the middle of those lampstands and those lampstands are his church and he's here to support us. He's going to give oversight and he's going to give protection. And then out of his mouth a two-edged sword and you know there were two kinds of swords in those early days. A small flat sword and then it was used in close combat and that's this one. And it's the same sword that's used in Ephesians 6 where the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, this isn't the written word or this isn't even logos.

This is a word called Rhema. It's when God speaks his word. It's when Jesus was doing spiritual warfare or when we do spiritual warfare and there's demonic activity. We take God's word like he did and we quote it and we quote it out loud and we command under the authority of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world. And we confront the evil in the world under control and you do something in the spiritual world and you do something in the physical world but it's rooted in God's word and you have an offense of power in the word of God. And so finally he goes on and he says his face is like shining as the sun and I have to believe that John, remembering, remember up on the Mount of Transfiguration, he got a glimpse of the glory of God.

Jesus, the word is metamorphosized and he let the light and the glory come out of him and they got a glimpse and then they heard the Father's voice and this is a moment where he's getting way more than a glimpse and all of this is to understand you got hope. There's a righteous judge. He's control.

He's going to bring about the right things at the right time. You need to hang tough. You need to keep trusting no matter what. And then John saw him and it says I fell at his feet as though dead and I can understand that. Then he placed his right hand on me and he said do not be afraid.

Why? I'm the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and behold I am alive forever and ever and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

And as I studied this I thought first of all there's tenderness in his touch. I'm in control and the worst thing that can happen to you is not dying. The worst thing that can happen to you is to stop believing. It's to let your faith waver.

It's to cave into the pressure and whether that's cultural pressure or actual danger, Jesus is saying I got your back. I'm for you. I'm the Lord. I'm God.

You've got this and you can trust me. And so as we look at this picture of Jesus and all that he's done, I'd like to go back to our chart before we take a moment and make some real personal application just by way of review. The question in Revelation chapter 1 verses 4 to 18 is why did he do it?

Why? And the answer is his focus was his mission. Jesus came to save the world. Jesus came to redeem the world. Jesus came to make things right.

Jesus blazed the trail and then called us to be a kingdom and priests and disciples so that now on the earth, just like when he walked on the earth, there would be light where there's darkness. There would be love where there's hatred. There would be truth where there's lies. And then his focus not as just on his mission, but his title comes clearly as the righteous judge. We all want justice, righteous, clear, fair. He sees everything absolutely as it is.

And finally, his action is to restore. I love if you would flip back all the way to Revelation chapter 21 and 22, you're going to find that there's a new heaven and a new earth and there's no tears and there's no evil and Satan is gone and sin is gone and death is no more. And everything that God longed to produce and develop in those first two chapters in that perfect environment in Eden, it's going to be infinitely better. And you say, well, Chip, how could it be better because it was a perfect environment? It's going to be better because we're going to understand the depth of God's love.

You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Before we hear the rest of Chip's message, let me remind you that we are a listener-supported ministry and your regular consistent gifts help us create this program, develop new resources and encourage pastors globally. Prayerfully consider becoming a monthly partner today. Then go to livingontheedge.org to give a gift.

And thanks so much for your help. Well, here again is Chip. If sin had never occurred and that's on us, that was our choice, we would never understand God's mercy.

We could never grasp his compassion. We're going to have a day where we really see ourselves for who we are. And we're all fairly nonchalant about this, but there's moments, don't you get, where you just realize how selfish you are. When I see my motives, when I see even in my best days, and I'm going to grasp and you're going to grasp in this new heaven and this new earth in a life that's not floating around on clouds, but in a life with the new heaven and a new earth and where those songs to be sung and culture to be made and work to be done in a perfect environment with the Lord Jesus Christ and no sin and no sorrow and connected to those who've gone before us in this absolutely perfect environment with an infinite God so we'll be learning forever and ever and ever and growing forever and ever and ever and have that thing that no matter how much we do well or succeed or a relationship gets great, there's always something missing that ends. It's perfect. It's great. It's right. And that's why he says hang in there.

Trust me. I have three questions that I'd like you to really think about. The first one is what emotion and thoughts come to your mind as you reflect on the Jesus of Revelation?

That's one to kick around, isn't it? For me, it's a mix. It's fear and comfort. The thought of being judged by someone who sees everything objectively, who's the God who's made everything, brings a sobriety to me. The second question is how does the certainty of Jesus' return and the challenge to his church impact your life and your priorities? See, this is like what really matters, right? Trusting Jesus no matter what. This is like, wait a second, you mean my career isn't the most important thing and having a great family is not the most important thing and my personal fulfillment and happiness isn't the most important thing? In other words, this is his story. There was a beginning of the world, a beginning of the universe, and there is an ending and there's a culmination. And I love C.S.

Lewis. He says, all of eternity is like this line and that tiny dot on that line is your or my little, little speck of time. And he just asked the question, are you going to live for the dot, the right now?

Are you going to live for the forever? Third question is how does the certainty of you receiving a resurrected body and living in a perfect new earth without suffering or sin united to Jesus and fellow believers impact your life practices? It's kind of like if you know for sure where you're going to land and what you're going to get, it kind of puts a new lens on these are my priorities. This is what's important.

This is what matters. And I don't know about you, but I try and take those and then I overlay them in my current life, my current actions, how I'm actually living my life. And Jesus then ends with an incredible invitation and a command. I love this and I'm so glad that our brothers and sisters in the past have been very faithful to this. Jesus' invitation is to join him in his rescue mission to save the world, to actually see people go from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, to actually be a conduit, in my mind sort of like a piece of PVC pipe where the grace of God runs through us by our words, our actions, our time, our energy, our money, where we are the light and love of Christ, first loving one another deeply and then reaching out and caring, meeting needs and then clearly sharing the gospel. His invitation is, as you go therefore, command, make disciples of all nations. Well, how? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you and here's the promise and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

You know, it's not going somewhere. It's literally, it's an adverb as you're going, as you're going to the store, as you're going to work, as you're out in the neighborhood, as you're leading one of your kids' teams, as you are in the marketplace, as you are just being you, make disciples. That's sharing the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ by your life and by your words.

And then baptism, certainly it's when people get wet, but it's really a picture of identification. Help people move from their cultural mindset of their old life that they have died with Christ, they've been raised with Him and this new identity connected to a body of people. And then as they get connected, teach them not to get smarter about the Bible, but teach them to obey what I said because what's the promise? If you abide in my word, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

And people long to meet people that are free, free of all the expectations, free of, in my case, workaholism or codependency, free from addictions, free of trying to live a life that pleases everyone potentially except the one who's most important. And so I encourage you, there's hope. There's hope because the end is clear and Jesus has said, I'm with you always. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you.

Don't confuse hope with it's going to be easy. He promised it would be hard. What He promised is you'll never go through it alone. In our last session, I read the first two commitments that Bill Bright and Henrietta Mears and Halverson made and they created this fellowship of the burning heart. And if you remember, the first commitment was about spending time with God every day, an hour. And the second commitment was they were going to live a pure life that they would be holy before the Lord.

And I want to read number three and number four because they make a lot of sense and they're a good application to what we've just heard. And number three is I'm committed to the principle of discipleship that exercise itself principally in the winning of the lost for Christ. Therefore, I pledge myself to seek every possible opportunity to witness and to witness at every possible opportunity to the end that I may be responsible for bringing at least one person to Christ every 12 months. And then the final commitment they made was I'm committed to the principle that Christian discipleship demands nothing less than absolute consecration or surrender. Therefore, I present my body a living sacrifice utterly abandoned to God by this commitment.

I will that God's perfect will shall find complete expression in my life and I offer myself in all sobriety to be expendable for Christ. This was a group of people that said, I'm going to trust Jesus no matter what. It doesn't take more brains than you have. It doesn't take more experience.

It doesn't take more knowledge. The kind of people that God uses are ones that understand he's the sovereign king, the high priest, the great prophet and the righteous judge and you see him clearly and no matter what you say, I can trust him. He's with me. He'll protect you.

He'll provide for you. So let's endure. Let's be that kind of Christian that changes the world just one at a time. Lord God Almighty, you're doing great things all around the world and you do it through very regular ordinary people just like us. Lord deliver us from our lethargy. Help us to grasp the clarity and the need of our time and to walk with you and to obey you and to receive your power that we might give love and grace to every single person that crosses our path. And so Father, I ask you right now in light of who you are, Lord Jesus, in light of what you've done, would you fill us afresh with your spirit? Would you make us the kind of Christians that would just come awake from our lethargy? That we would believe that you are the sovereign king, the high priest. Lord, that you are the very message of life and that you're the righteous judge, that we could trust you for everything. Would you fill us in such a way that we would be used by you, that we'd be available to you and we would surrender ourself fully to you.

Lord, the world just seems to be in such a mess. And so like John, we pray, oh God, please help us. Please strengthen us. Please make us the kind of Christians you want us to be. And Lord, we need each other and so I ask that you'd help us to encourage each other day after day that we might walk with you in a way that just changes our little world so that you change your big world. And I pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, the Alpha and the Omega, is from our series Trusting Jesus No Matter What. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute.

In many cities around the world, there are buildings specifically engineered to withstand severe disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. Through this 10 part series, Chip played off that idea to help us build an unshakable faith that can endure any challenge. We pray you learn that the strength of our faith is rooted in an accurate view of God.

Because when we see Jesus more clearly, we'll be able to fully trust him no matter what. Let me encourage you to go back and revisit any part of this series by going to livingontheedge.org. That's livingontheedge.org. Well, Chip's with me in studio now to share a special word with all of you.

Chip? Thanks, Dave. Before we go any further in today's program, I want to tell you something positive. God is moving on a global scale. There are so many people that are eager for spiritual nourishment. We've seen the doors fly open literally across the world.

I mean, in the last year I've been in Germany, Brazil, Manila, Africa. In fact, here's a quote from an African pastor. James writes, I attended the high impact church training here in Nairobi recently and I frequently visit your website. I thank God for the awesome resources here. I'm also prayerfully studying the book, True Spirituality, becoming a Romans 12 Christian.

Thank you so much. Here's what I want you to know. It's your consistent monthly support that helps us reach people like James. In fact, this year on the ground, we will teach and train over 170,000 pastors across the world. It takes a lot of money and a lot of resources and it's so worth it because when a pastor changes, the church changes. When the church changes, communities get radically transformed.

Here's what I'd ask. Would you join the movement? Would you help us help pastors become disciple-making pastors?

Your monthly support would literally make a huge impact. Will you pray about that and then do it today? Good word, Chip. Here at Living on the Edge, our vision is to see a movement of Christians living like Christians for the glory of God and the good of all. And as Chip just said, we believe ministering to pastors is crucial to that mission. You can help us reach these global church leaders by becoming a monthly partner. Learn more by going to LivingOnTheEdge.org or the Chip Ingram app. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org or the Chip Ingram app.

Thanks in advance for your support. Well, with that, here again is Chip. As we wrap up today's broadcast and actually get to wrap up the whole series, this has been a deep study. And I think sometimes the way we view Jesus is just a little bit Bible story, sort of unconscious picture of how we grew up thinking about Jesus. And trusting Jesus meek and mild with the children coming on his lap is a great and accurate picture of his love. But I think somehow we lose the Jesus of power and exaltation and the King of Kings and the judge of all the earth.

And I think it's that Jesus of the epistles that combines with the gospels that gives us the full picture of Jesus. And at the end of the day, you don't trust a part of Jesus. You trust Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God.

And I want to encourage you to get the MP3s to download the notes and go through this study. I can't think of anything that will build an unshakable faith that will help you to trust God more than saying, you know, I'm going to study this. And it might even be something that you say to some other people, hey, why don't we listen to this, jump in the notes together. And here's what I'm going to tell you. You focus on the person of Jesus and get clearer and clearer and clearer on who he is. Your faith will grow because faith isn't about how much you have. Faith is about the object of your faith.

And the Bible is very clear. We don't know what we'll be like, but this is what we know, 1 John says. When we see him, we will be like him. And as you see him more clearly, what a journey, what a way to be transformed is to see Jesus accurately. So I hope it's been a great study for you. I have super enjoyed teaching this and just want to tell you, let's keep pressing ahead and know this.

We can trust Jesus no matter what, because we can have an unshakable faith. Thanks, Chip. Well, if you want to go back and listen to any part of this series or get your hands on the message notes Chip mentioned, go to the Chip Ingram app. It's an easy way to get plugged in with our resources or pass them on to others. We long to see every Christian living like a Christian, and the tools available through the Chip Ingram app can help. Check it out today. Well, from all of us here, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.