Text: Revelation 1:1—20

Topic: How to go on when life seems to be over

Introduction:

• Illustration: Hayford treasures personal letters from five famous people.
• Revelation is a personal letter from Jesus to his church.
• Illustration: Hayford describes three tragic situations faced by people he knows.
• This letter is not a revelation of prophecy or information, but of Jesus.
• This revelation of the person of Christ keeps the problems of life in perspective.

• Illustration: Patmos was a Roman penal colony, a forsaken place.

We can never be bound so that the Spirit can't lift our soul with hope.

• Through the Spirit, we can transcend our circumstances into God's presence.

We can never lose when Jesus writes the end of our story.

• Since Jesus is the first and last, whatever we're in must only be the middle.

We can never fear because Jesus is closer and more powerful than we think.

• Revelation 1:12—16
• No one knew the earthly Jesus better than John, yet he is overcome with a sense of the majesty of the Savior.

We can never face anything God's power cannot take us through.

• The wounded feet of Jesus have become feet of dominion.
• Illustration: A young pastor felt forsaken by God and unable to trust him.
• Nothing we face is unanticipated by God's plan or unsurpassed by his power.

• The stars in his right hand are his people.
• Philippians 2:15

Conclusion:

• This revelation of Jesus is for those at the end of time or the end of their rope.
• In the middle of our time, space, problems, Jesus is here.