The Cradle that Rocked the World, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. It may not feel to you like love. It may feel like things are out of control, but I can assure you, I've seen the cross, I've seen the resurrection, and I've seen the final season, Revelation 1. And I can tell you, it's love.

It don't feel like love, but it's love because God is love, because Jesus was love, because we saw that when we saw Jesus. Hello, and welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. We're reflecting again on Christmas today, but it's also important to remember that this season may not be a season of hope for everyone. Thankfully, however, there is a vision of Jesus beyond the cradle that will help us remember his love and power and worship him in the midst of trouble. Today, Pastor J.D. continues to look at the book of Revelation and reveals why, when we face trials, we need more than good advice or sympathy or miracle. We simply need more of Jesus.

So let's rejoin him now for part two of a message he titled, The Cradle That Rocked the World. Jesus has always had the power that you see demonstrated in Revelation 1, always had it. It's just that during his ministry on earth and during our day and in John's day, part of that power had been veiled.

Every once in a while, it breaks out, and you see it. For example, I was thinking this week about one of the quaint little miracles Jesus did that everybody's like, oh, isn't that nice? And let's talk about this on vacation Bible school. The feeding of the 5,000. Okay, I read an article this week by scientists talking about how much power it would have taken to create the food to feed the 5,000.

Right? Because it says that Jesus pretty much created this food out of thin air. He created matter out of thin air. And we know that matter can neither be created or destroyed, matter and energy. So you had to use energy to create the matter.

So this guy calculated that if every one of the 5,000 ate eight ounces of food, which is a pretty conservative estimate, using Einstein's famous theory that E equals MC squared, he came up with the concluded that the amount of energy necessary to create that much matter to create food to feed the 5,000 would be equivalent, get this, to all the electrical power available on earth, working at 100% output, 100% of the time for four years straight. Go back and read John six. Jesus does it without even breaking a sweat. The point is the power is always there. You just can't see it. It was veiled.

And now here it is. Revelation one unveiled in all of its splendor. So the question is, why is Jesus appearing this way now to John? Listen, it's because Jesus's plan right now is not to deliver his church from persecution and pain. Jesus is not showing up to John with the news. Hey, John, don't worry. Don't worry, man. It gets better.

It's not going to get better, at least not in the short run. So instead, Jesus shows John his power, his majesty and his love so that John can hope in that power, majesty and love in the midst of this kind of tribulation. You see in times of persecution, you don't need a sentimental Jesus who simply makes you feel warm at night.

A Jesus who is one part genie, one part therapist, one part life coach, and the rest warm blanket. You need, in the midst of tribulation, you need a Jesus who is sovereign over all the other powers that are at work in the world. Watch what happens next.

Watch what will happen. Verse 17. But this Jesus laid his right hand on me and said, fear not, John.

I'm the first and the last. And John's like, if Jesus is first, that means he's there at the beginning. And if Jesus is first and he's God, that means he'll be there at the end. And if he's God present at the beginning and God present at the end, I'm pretty sure he's God that's in charge of the middle part as well. Right? If Jesus is going to be the last one standing when it's all said and done and he was the first one before it began, then I'm pretty sure that he's in control of what's happening now.

So watch how he unpacks this. Verse 18. I'm the living one. I died.

Behold, Jesus said, I'm alive forevermore. I conquered death and I've got the keys now of death and Hades or hell. You realize that the one who has the keys has the power. Earlier this year, I was going to a conference at a hotel, one of these hotels where they have the really nice rooms where some people will pay a lot of money. And so it valets its cars.

Right? And so, you know, have you ever noticed that these hotels, that if you drive a really, really nice car, they'll park it right up front, so everybody can see how expensive the cars are, the people who stay at the hotel. And if you drive cars like the ones I rent, they park them way back in the back of the garage.

So they're walking into this hotel and there's a Lamborghini. I try to respect people's privacy. I really do. But I mean, come on, dudes.

It's a Lamborghini. So I'm over there. I'm looking in.

I'm trying to get every way. Look at that watch. It's amazing. All this. All of a sudden, as I'm like, you know, this far from it, things starts up.

Nobody in it. I'm like, what just happened? Right? I look over and there's a dude leaning up against the back wall. He's got the little, you know, electronic starter in his hand. What's he trying to tell me? He's like, bro, you could admire that power all you want, but you ain't going anywhere in it.

Right? That thing belongs to me. I got the key. And if I'm the one with the key, that thing ain't gonna go anywhere unless I go or unless I give it permission to go. What Jesus is doing is Revelation 1 is saying, John, you may feel overwhelmed by that power, but I'm the one with the keys right here. And not a thing happens with that power outside of my control or outside of my permission. It's all my servants now just serving my purposes. And what that means, John, is that the power of the empire, Nero's power, the power of Domitian or the powers at work in our life, the power of our government, the power of Hollywood, the power of your boss, the power of cancer.

It's all just an illusion. He holds the key. Proverbs 21, the heart of the most powerful king is like a river in the hand of the Lord.

He turns it whatever way he chooses. The logic is if God is in control of even the wrath of simple man and in control of the hearts of the most powerful kings, then surely he's got everything else under control in your life as well. Ephesians 1, I memorized this chapter a couple of years ago with some buddies, and there's one phrase in Ephesians 1 that I cannot get out of my mind.

One phrase that bounces around in there all the time and just shows up in the most random times in my consciousness and comes out, it seems like, just when I need it. And it is this phrase in Ephesians 1, 11. We have been predestined, Paul says, according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will. Now, y'all like you, I got some questions about what predestination is all about.

I really do. But there's two things in that verse I do understand. Number one, God's got a purpose in my life and that he is using all things in my life, everything according to that purpose, which means there's not one stray molecule. There's not one stray cancer cell. There's not one stray spouse, not one stray child that is not under his ultimate control. Or here's another one, are not two sparrows, Jesus said, sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. The very hairs of your head are all numbered, right? I mean, for some of you guys, that's much easier now for Jesus than it used to be.

But the point is you don't get much more micro than the birds in the air and the hairs on your head. And Jesus is saying, yet not even one of them is going to come out or fall down apart from the will of your father. Now, I want to be very, very careful here because I am not saying that God is the one that is making all these things happen to you. We live in a fallen world, in a world where people get free choices and a world that is under the curse of sin.

And the result of that is that a lot of people do a lot of terrible things to each other. And I'm not saying that God is the one that is behind those things. What I am saying is that Jesus promises that none of those things, not one of them, are outside of his control. And he promises to use, to redeem every single one of them as a part of his perfect purposes in your life because he holds the keys to death and hell. Like John, you might feel like you are upon the precipice of tribulation. Like John, you might feel like the purposes God is pursuing are a mystery to you. And they might remain a mystery to you until eternity.

But the resurrection of Jesus and this vision of Jesus in Revelation 1 assures you that there is a purpose that Jesus is pursuing and he will not fail to fulfill any of it. I've heard it described before like a tapestry. You see these ginormous tapestries in these castles in England or Germany or somewhere like that. And they're just beautiful in their intricacy and there's not any strand that seems out of place. Just this beautiful work of art until you look at the backside of it. And the backside looks like a chaotic mess with strings going every possible way. What looks like order on one side looks like chaos on the other. John's life feels like chaos. It feels like strands are going every direction. And what Jesus is showing John is that there's coming a day when I flip it all over.

And when I flip it all over, you'll see that not one strand was out of place. That I was doing what I was doing in the world to reveal the beauty of my perfect son. I was revealing his church in the world and I was revealing Jesus in you and all things that were working in your life were working to that glorious end. That is the vision that God gives to us and to John in the mistribulation. You see the world that you and I live in now, the world we live in now is characterized by Jesus's first coming. And what was Jesus's first coming like?

What was it like? We expected, everybody expected it would be like Revelation 1. That's what they thought Jesus was going to come like, but he didn't. He came as a baby in a manger, born in poverty, born under a system of oppression.

One of the worst that had ever existed. Jesus was a victim of injustice. Jesus's parents had to flee their homeland as refugees for the first several years of Jesus's life. Every single day of Jesus's life, he lived under the subjugation of Rome. That is still the epic of history that we are in. Which means that like Jesus, we will many times find ourselves in hardship.

We will find ourselves to be the victims of injustice, suffering, we think unnecessarily, subject to the powers of Rome. And listen, people who try to tell you that being a Christian means escaping all of that, they're not telling you the truth. So Jesus pulls back the veil. He just pulls back the veil for John really quickly. And he gives him a glimpse of who he is because he died for John and because he overcame death for John and because he holds the keys and because he's the one standing at the end. He says, John, you can know in the middle part that I'm faithfully working out all my purposes, or you might say it this way, because he's the one standing at the end, I can sure be sure you've got a plan in the present.

Because he was there at the beginning, because he's there at the end, I know he's in charge in the middle. I had a friend who told me the other day, he says, hey, we were talking about what shows we were watching on TV. He's like, man, I'm watching this show. You ever seen it?

It's called 24. I'm like, bro, where were you the entire decade of like 2000 to 2010? He's like, oh, you've seen it. I'm like, yeah, we've all seen it. He said, man, it's great. I was like, what season are you in? He's like, we're in season three. My wife and I said, has Jack died yet? Now you might think that that's cruel, but y'all, I mean, he's 10 years behind. That ain't nothing on me on that, right? And so I was like, he's like, he dies. I'm like, yeah, he dies.

Right? And I feel good because, you know, there's like 19 seasons of this. My wife and I, we were four or five years behind because we're kind of late adopters and stuff like this. And people were talking about it. So we're like, well, let's watch it. So back then we couldn't just stream it on Netflix because it wasn't as advanced. So you had to get the actual boxes with the DVDs in it. Y'all remember this? And so I got like five seasons from somebody, five seasons in the box.

And my wife and I, we planned this couples retreat where we could go and work on our relationship for four days for nine to 10 hours straight. We watched seasons of 24, just worked our way through these things. And I remember, I think it was season three if my memory is right. Middle of season three, Jack dies. Or do you think he dies?

And I remember my wife and I just like looking at this thing. And I was like, I paused it and I'm like, I think he just died. And Veronica's like, I think he died too. And I was like, and I looked at it because beside me, beside the chair, I reached up and I put, because it was season four and Jack's face was on the front of the box. And season five, picked up season, Jack's face was on the front of that box.

I'm like, Veronica, Jack's face is on season four and season five. I think something sinister is afoot, right? He looks dead.

He ain't really dead. Because the bad guys look like they're in charge right now, right? They look like they got Jack in a bad way, but the bad guys aren't the ones writing the script.

Somebody else wrote the script and the people that wrote the script put Jack on season four and season five, which tells me he's going to be fine. What Jesus is showing John in Revelation 1 is, hey, final season, my face is still the one on the box, okay? So it might look like the bad guys are in charge right now, but they ain't writing the script.

I'm writing the script and it looks like they're in charge, but I'm the one that's in charge because I'm on the front of the box. We'll return to our teaching in just a moment. But before we do, I wanted to ask you to look ahead to 2024 for a moment. Here at Summit Life, our eyes are always looking forward to opportunities to bring the greatest kingdom impact. And we'd like to invite you to do the same. Maybe it's amplifying the gospel message in your neighborhood through a Bible study or by praying for those who are planting churches across the globe. Or maybe it's by joining with us as a gospel partner so we can share Summit Life broadcasts in more communities every day. Our goal is for everyone within our listening audience to put Jesus first in their lives and you can be a part of that vision. When you become a partner, we'll send you our 2024 daily planner. It includes a Bible reading plan with one New Testament and one Old Testament chapter per day. And it focuses on some of the teaching passages and books of the Bible that you'll hear taught on Summit Life in 2024. Consider partnering with us in the new year by giving us a call at 866-335-5220.

Or you can visit JDGrier.com. Now let's return to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD Greer here on Summit Life. So what Jesus says to John is like, look, John, look at me. Look at me.

Look at my face. I am more powerful than you could ever imagine. John, look at me. I died for you, which means you know that I'm committed to you and I've got the keys to death and hell. John, you might not understand what's going on in your suffering. You might not understand what your suffering means, but you can know for sure what your suffering doesn't mean.

It doesn't mean that I've lost my love for you or my compassion. It doesn't mean that I've lost control because you saw my compassion demonstrated on the cross. You see my power in the resurrection.

You see it demonstrated here in Revelation 1, so take that option off the table. John, look at me. John, I use my greatest power to save you.

Of course, I'm not going to abandon you. John, if I did not spare my life to purchase you from slavery to sin, I'm not going to withhold my power in pursuing my purposes for you. So, John, what are you afraid of? John, are you really afraid of Caesar? You think Caesar is winning?

The only legacy Caesar is going to leave on earth is a cheap pizza place that's going to hub itself out of a gas station. Nero? Like, really, you're afraid of Nero?

John, did you know that one day your name will be the most common name for young boys in the English language, the most populated or the most spoken language on earth? Nero? People will call their dogs Nero and they'll name their sons John. Don't be afraid of Nero.

Look at me. I've got the keys to death and hell. I've got the keys to death and hell. Do you not think I can control cancer? I've got the keys to that, too.

Hey, you think I don't know that you need a job? I've got the keys to that. Look at my power.

Look at my control. Look at my love. John, why do you doubt? You know the thing I probably most love about the apostle John? There is no other Bible writer, Old or New Testament, that teaches us more about the love of God than John.

Paul was the early church's greatest theologian, no question about it. But not even Paul holds a candle when it comes to John teaching us about God's love. Paul talked about Jesus's death on the cross and he explained it in terms of God, you know, restoring right and justice and God's glory and stuff that's really important.

How does John talk about it? God so loved the world, God just couldn't get over you. And so God gave his only son because he wanted you to be with him in eternity. 1 John 3, 1, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. 1 John 4, 8, God is love. God is love. And those who know God, those who encounter God, they encounter that kind of love.

Now here's what I want to ask John. How could you say that? Right, I mean, because Patmos didn't feel like love.

Did it? The emperor didn't feel like love. Nero didn't feel like love. His being boiled in oil didn't feel like love. Yesterday didn't feel like love. Today doesn't feel like love.

Tomorrow doesn't look like it's going to be love. How could John say God is love? Well, John tells you, 1 John 1, That which our eyes have seen and our ears have heard and our hands have handled, I have felt the warmth and the embrace of Jesus. I have sensed the tenderness of his friendship. I have seen the love in his eyes. And yeah, I know right now it doesn't feel like love, but it is love because I saw him and I know him. And then I saw him in Revelation 1, and I saw that he was standing over all these powers on earth, and there was not a single power that was not under his control.

So I know it looks like he's not in control, but he is. And it may not feel to you like love. It may feel like things are out of control, but I can assure you, I've seen the cross, I've seen the resurrection, and I've seen the final season, Revelation 1, and I can tell you, it's love. It don't feel like love, but it's love because God is love, because Jesus was love, because we saw that when we saw Jesus. You see, I have this sense that this morning, this weekend, some of you need to see Jesus this way.

Some of you. So you come in here, like I said, with just these storm clouds of tribulation. Going into this season, and you really, really, really want to hear me say, you want to hear me say, hey, you know what? God's going to end all this. If you're a good Christian, you'll do what you're supposed to do. God will take all these clouds of tribulation away. But you understand, that's not necessarily true.

At least not in the short run. Right? I mean, God is a miracle working God. I've seen God heal the sick. I've seen God repair marriages that everybody thought was beyond repair. I've seen God bring back children who are wandering away.

I've seen God do some incredible things. But I know, I know that sometimes when you pray, God doesn't make the storm clouds of tribulation disappear. And see, you need a theology that accounts for that. You might think you want a theology that promises, that if you're just a good person, then God will remove all the problems in your life.

But here's the thing. You'll never actually come to know Jesus that way. And that's why Jesus allows us sometimes to go through these times of tribulation. Because James 1 says it is the tribulation of your faith. The trial of your faith that actually produces patience and faith in you. And that it's when you go through this kind of thing that you learn how dependable Jesus really is.

And you start really pressing into him. So count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you go into tribulation. Don't bemoan Jesus or don't bemoan your lack of faith.

You should count it joy because God is using that time to take you deeper into him and to teach you to know something that is better than a great job and better than great health and better than a great marriage. And that's Jesus himself. And you'll never know that if you don't go through this storm of tribulation. Isaiah, the prophet, says that what God wants from us is he wants us to be oaks of righteousness. I love that imagery of an oak. An oak is a really strong tree, right? Usually when a hurricane comes through, it's not the oaks that are the ones that are torn down.

There's a reason for that, they say. And that is because an oak has this way it's wired up that whenever a storm comes, it makes the root of that oak tree go a little bit deeper. It's kind of unique among trees.

It makes it press that root in deeper. And so as an oak goes through more and more storms, its roots get deeper and deeper to eventually it can withstand some of the worst hurricane winds because of how deep its roots go. When God says, I want you to be an oak of righteousness, what he's saying to you is I don't want you to be blown apart by every storm that comes along. I want you to be able to walk into tribulation and say, he's better. He's faithful.

He's bigger. And I know this because I've been through this hour of tribulation. And yeah, God eventually brought me out of it, but it didn't happen when I thought it was going to happen, but it's better. You don't get stronger in Jesus sitting on a beach. You get stronger going through a storm that's not mountain tops, high reading books, listening to podcasts that makes you strong.

And Jesus is walking through these kinds of places of trial. Now, listen, I acknowledge to you, I acknowledge that these problems that many of you are going through right now are real. Cancer is real and it could take you out. Divorce is real and it can take you out. A spouse abandoning you can take you out. Addiction is real and can take you out. Abuse is real.

It can take you out. Losing a child is real and it can take you out. I'm just here to tell you that Jesus is real too. In fact, he's more real than all those things and his power is above all of those things. And every once in a while, Jesus will do to you what he does to John. He'll just give you a glimpse. And so I'm eventually going to bring you out of this and the day is coming where eye is not seen, nor is ear heard, nor is entered into the heart of man, but God has prepared for those who love him and I'll wipe away every tear out of every eye.

And it's going to be awesome. But for right now, what I'm going to give you is a glimpse of who I am. And you're going to see who I am. And you're going to see that in the midst of this trial, you can trust in my sovereignty and my love. Listen, I'm not trying to give you some little quick spiritual one-size-fits-all band-aid to slap on your problem.

I get that some of you have problems that are very complex and some of you need professional help. I'm just trying to say that what John gets invited into is a vision of Jesus that is above, that is bigger, that is stronger than all the powers that are against him. The Christian counselor, Larry Crabb, says, I love Revelation 1 for counseling because on the island of Patmos, Jesus did not give John relief from dire circumstances. Instead, he gave John an unforgettable vision of the son of God. Stop shouting at your tribulation, start gazing at your savior because the key to victory, the key to overcoming tribulation, listen, is worship. Worship is a vision of Jesus that is bigger than the problem. It's a vision of Jesus and his love when it doesn't feel like love. Worship is a choice that you make in the midst of tribulation that says, I believe even though I don't feel it, I believe Jesus is who the cross and resurrection tell me he is.

It's a choice. Worship is a weapon that God gives you in the midst of the worst tribulation to rise above it. You are listening to Summit Life and a message titled The Cradle That Rocked the World from Pastor J.D.

Greer. Well, Pastor J.D., this time of year is really critical for ministries like Summit Life as we look to close the books on 2023. And I think for a lot of people, that's kind of surprising because they don't really know what all is involved in funding a ministry like this one. Yeah, Miley, did you know that we are now on the air in 42 different states in the United States? You know, radio is one of those things that unless you're involved in the industry, you probably don't realize how much goes into producing these programs. I mean, there's obviously just kind of what we're doing now, the production of it, the recording of it and the editing and all that kind of stuff. But then there's also just the main thing is what it costs to be on the air.

You're not hearing commercials during these things. It's listener funded, which means it's your generosity that allows us to be on the air. And that's kind of how the gospel should go forward, right?

I mean, it's the people who are listening to it shouldn't be the ones paying for it. It's those of us who know the gospel. We're the ones who are investing into a ministry like we know Jesus has invested into us so that others can hear. So we would love to have you join us in that mission. It could be a one time generous year end gift. It could be becoming a gospel partner. Maybe you already are a gospel partner and God will put it in your heart to consider adding an extra year end gift or to increase your monthly giving. I want you to consider, if you would, becoming a partner with us to reach even more people with a gospel. As always, go to JD Greer dot com slash donate and you can find all the information on how to do that there. Thanks, JD. As our way of saying thanks for your support, we'll get you a copy of our exclusive resource. The twenty twenty four Summit Life Day Planner call 866-335-5220 or give online at JD Greer dot com. I'm Molly Bidevich. Thank you for joining us today. And we'll return to the Book of Revelation next time. So be sure to join us Thursday here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.