His Perfect Love

Matt VanderVen: If you walk out of here this morning and you remember two things. Worship God, right? Two words, one thing really. Worship God. Who are you worshipping? What are we worshipping? What has been occupying your thoughts lately?

That's a real test. He says where your heart, where your treasure, He tries to warn. What are the things you're thinking about? What are we worrying about? What are we spending the time trying to budget, figure out, afford? Gosh, do we worship God?

This is His perfect love. The word goes out. It's what real love looks like in truth and prayer. This is His perfect love.

Guest (Male): From Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore comes another edition of His Perfect Love. Online at HisPerfectLove.org. We began our journey through Revelation back in March of last year, and today and tomorrow, we aim to complete it.

You might think of this as the parting words of God to all of humanity, and it ends in grand fashion with hope, encouragement, and truth. Here's Pastor Matt VanderVen with today's message.

Matt VanderVen: Hard to believe the end of the book of Revelation. It's been such a wonderful journey that God has brought us through in this time, our second time through the book of Revelation as a church. And He ends it so perfectly as only Jesus could, with encouragement, with hope, with truth.

And it's an epilogue, if you think about it. It's really His closing remarks that He begins in verse 6. This is starting the last section of sections in the book of Revelation. And He sends His angel specifically to show the things that must take place. And He comes to John and He comes with such reverence, this angel, and such majesty in how he heralds the Word of God.

In this final section that we have here, he brings it to him in such a beautiful, glorious way that John looking—at this point, he's already seen angels in visions. He's heard of the different things. He saw the angel fly, as it would be a vision, across the entire earth spreading the Gospel. He didn't feel this need to bow.

But this final epilogue that he brings to John, John is so humbled that he literally, out of natural instinct, goes into a posture of worship. And that's why I don't really believe that it's far-fetched that when Jesus says very accurately, "Every knee will bow," He's not just talking about born-again believers.

Every knee of every human being that was ever created from the beginning until the dawn and completion of time will bow a knee. They will confess that Jesus is Lord. It's not a matter of debate in heaven. It's not something where Jesus is insecure and looking for confirmation. He knows who He is.

His love endures in spite of all of the doubt and wickedness and evil in hope to bring light to where there's darkness. And so it makes sense that in this passage, John breaks it for us apart. These words are faithful and true. How many times has Jesus said that? He's reminded us, "Look, these things are faithful."

He even describes Himself that way. Remember, Jesus said, "I am faithful and true." Those are interesting words. He says, "And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place." Now, remember, God is outside of time. We're in time.

So when He says "shortly," many of you are sitting here going, "But Pastor, that's AD 95 when the book of Revelation was given." But if you took 6,000 years and you just take a few thousand, is that pretty short? Yeah, it is to the Lord. We see in other passages similes or metaphors where a thousand years is like a watchman, a four-hour shift.

God's giving this idea that He's outside of time and creation, but the idea here is He wants us to know He's coming quickly. He wants us to have that heart of immanence. It's going to happen at any moment. Again, in the last few passages, these are really parting words from Jesus.

These are His parting words to you and I and to all of humanity, to the church, and to those that are not saved. He wants to leave them with these last moments, these last breadcrumbs of what He can speak about. He speaks in veracity or verification. He speaks in a blessing because we see that here. And then He also speaks very clearly of a warning.

That's important. Jesus ended in this way with those three main things. Again, veracity, blessing, and warning, and in that order, by the way. Because if we believe who He is and we believe on Him—the veracity—then the blessing necessarily follows. Anybody who understands that wants to receive the blessing of Jesus Christ because He's a good God that wants to pour that blessing out upon you.

But those who reject Jesus, well then the very next thing must come as well, and that's the warning. Understanding that the gift and the decision that you make in this life, while this world is temporal, it has eternal consequences. He's not sugarcoating that. He's not hiding from that.

That's real love. Real love is to come to each and every one of you, come to every single human being and say to them, "I love you. God the Father, I've given you my Son, and unless you receive Him as your Lord and Savior, you will not be with me in eternity." We live in such a relative age where everybody wants to do things different ways—our way, other ways—and it's all just supposed to work out because I have my opinions, you have yours.

It's all just supposed to come together. I used to use the saying that it's like chocolate and mashed potatoes, except for this year, somebody actually made chocolate mashed potatoes and said, "Pastor, try it." And I did. I don't want to use that example anymore because it's not good.

But that was what I was really trying to emphasize, is that we like chocolate, many of you like potatoes or mashed potatoes, but you bring the two together. It's that idea of the pervasiveness of humanism. I really believe this latter section of Revelation was meant for the very time we're living, where a doctrine of humanism is being espoused from the ivory towers of every, and I do say every, even the Christian ones.

Please understand that because I've started going on some of the Christian websites and these universities. I'm going to say it's every university. I've not seen one yet where it's not the humanism of the day. It's interesting because there's a lot of good being done. Please don't miss that and don't misunderstand.

There is a lot of good being done in a lot of Christian universities, but there's also this pervasiveness of our audio and video matching. Jesus is the only one that can stand before all of us and say, "My audio and video matches perfectly." Does everybody see that? That is how He begins this last section.

He's saying there's no fraudster here. There's no problem with genuineness and truth. No, this is all faithful and true. If you haven't been paying attention for the last 22 chapters, He's saying, "Listen up, this is my final epilogue for all of you." The angel declares to John that all he has received, that he is to put this all in writing and it is a matter of fact and it's dependable.

Jesus' words are reliable and He's telling us it's going to happen. It's not a matter of debate. Then He tells us these things must shortly take place. "I'm coming quickly." The angel reminds John here of the suddenness of these events, that Jesus Himself confirms He's coming, and when He comes, it's going to be quickly.

It's the same thing that if you're a student of the Old Testament Scriptures, which I pray all of you are, as we go through Isaiah midweek. I want you just to think back to God's word to Israel when He told Judah—even before that, even Israel in the northern tribes—He said, "I'm bringing judgment. It's coming because of your idolatry," and He foretold of an Assyrian invasion.

Then we see the kings. If you read 1st and 2nd Kings, you read 1st and 2nd Chronicles, as we have together as a church body, we see just as we get so close to when God is going to bring the Assyrian judgment right around 700 or so BC, how quick it actually happens.

It goes from where it seems like things are moving, there's judgment that's being brought, God's bringing warning. But then within a matter of less than a hundred years, it amplifies to the point of where there's no stopping the northern tribes and their idolatry. They're going to do what they're going to do, and God is going to bring the swiftness of that judgment so fast.

He takes the kings, He takes the nation, and He immediately brings them right into judgment. Then just in case we weren't paying attention, He does the same thing with Judah. But He's long-suffering. He gives Judah almost 150 to 160 years to also repent, saying, "See, look at your family, the northern tribes. Do you not see what I've done and what I'm doing?"

He says, "Watch." And we've looked at it as a study. You look at the years from the latter kings and the timelines where it was 40 years, 30 years, and then it starts to cycle where it's very quick—10, 5—and then next thing you know, I call it the downward spiral. Judgment hits in 605 BC and then concludes in 586 as far as bringing all of Judah and the tribes of the south into captivity.

It's nothing that God hasn't done before, this judgment. It's not something that God hasn't declared before through His prophets. And now Jesus Christ is telling you and I, He's been telling the church, pay attention. This is going to take place. It's a fact. It's going to happen, and it's going to happen very quickly.

It's not something you're going to necessarily anticipate or be able to necessarily know. As I've said before, we don't know if we have tomorrow. Today is the only thing that's guaranteed. Maybe somebody here is saying, "But Pastor, why does it seem so long? He said this again 2,000 years ago."

The word "quickly" in the Greek is not the same word for our word "quickly." Maybe that's part of the misunderstanding. In the Greek, this word isn't like we would say, "Oh, I'm coming quickly." Do you know what it means? It means exactly what I've been trying to explain. It's "suddenly."

The Greek translation for this word, if you want to write that in, the idea is "suddenly." That's a better translation into the English of what we would use today. Suddenly. And yet He still wants to keep all generations expectant, watching and ready for His return. Then He says, "Blessed is he who keeps the word."

Look at verse 7: "Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." The blessing here reminds us of the prophecy that He's going to continue to keep His word, and the main intent of the prophecy is to lead us to trust and obey God.

He wants us to see that, apply His truth to the way we live. The question that everyone needs to answer here this morning in all love is, do you believe Jesus? Do you believe what we just read in Revelation? I really want you all to take a moment. It's not just a cursory question.

How you answer this is going to determine a lot of where you will spend eternity. Do you believe Jesus is a God-man of His word? Do you believe He's a God-man of His word? Do you believe that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end?

Do you believe that He is the only begotten of the Son of God? That He came to remove sin—past, present, and future—for each and every human being that would willingly come to Him, not perfect, broken. That He would lift you up out of the miry clay and set you on a firm foundation and renew your whole life.

Certainly there are consequences to sin, we understand that, but there's also hope in the fact that there is a spiritual rebirth that comes for every single believer in Christ, and He can make all things new. And that's not just a once. Even for the backslidden, He can make things new.

If you're sitting here this morning, but you don't know, Pastor, things I've done, I've ruined my life, I've destroyed everything... Do you know how big your God is? Do you know how big Jesus is? To the depth of whatever you could have done, His love and His work on the cross far exceeds anything a mere mortal could do on this earth.

Because it's unconditional perfect love, and He was perfect and sinless. And all He's asking you to do is believe it. It's almost akin to what He says if you just go back to Revelation chapter 1. He's beginning the book this way, and look at verse 3, and He's concluding the book this way.

"Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near." It's interesting that God has to repeat Himself. He's doing it for me, right? We all need to hear that over and over again. We need to read that over and over again.

Look at verse 8 and 9. "Now I, John, saw and heard." He's saying, "Look, I am a witness, this visually, audibly, I've seen the things I'm telling you. I am an eyewitness to these things through visions of what is coming." "Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things."

He was so broken but also so elated of the good news that he literally finds himself on the ground in a posture of worship. Then he said, "Then he said to me, See that you not do that, for I am your fellow servant," an angel, a fellow servant. "And of your brethren the prophets," you're a human, you come of the lineage and line and oracle of God, "and of those who keep the words of this book."

He says, "I want you to understand a really, really, really important fact and point here. Worship God." If you walk out of here this morning and you remember two things. Worship God, right? Two words, one thing really. Worship God. Who are you worshipping? What are we worshipping?

What has been occupying your thoughts lately? I mean, that's a real test. He says where your heart is, where your treasure is. He tries to warn. What are the things you're thinking about? What are we worrying about? What are we spending the time trying to budget, figure out, afford?

Gosh, do we worship God? Because He says if we just put our eyes on the Lord, all these other things would be added unto us. Seek you first to the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you. He's just telling us, He's giving us the answer.

John is corrected for worshipping the angel and, again, this isn't the first time. We know he has done this one other time. So it's the second time, and it says very clearly, Revelation 19:10 he did the same thing. But the fact is John is overwhelmed, he bows down before the angel in worship.

John just wants to worship. He knows that it's warranted, but it's incorrectly placed. That's something that I think can happen to us today too, isn't it? We know we need to worship, and we know worship is warranted, glory unto God, but it's incorrectly placed.

Can we just be really transparent and honest with each other this morning? I hope we always can. How many of you worship your children? We need to talk about that. How many of you worship your children? How many of you put your children in a place where you worship them and they're everything that captivates you?

Do you spend the same time with Jesus as you do with them? Or the way that you think and worry about them, do you think and pray unto Jesus the same way? Wait a minute, that's heavy, man. How about your spouse? Do you put your spouse in that place?

I'm only going to the things that are what I would say more difficult because I think most of us understand Mammon. Materialism—it doesn't mean we don't struggle with it, but we clearly know that's a very clear—we don't worship our vehicles, we don't worship our houses, we don't care about those things.

They're going to burn. Safety, yes, we want a safe home, we want a safe car, those things are all good. We want to be wise, right? Wise servants of what God's entrusted us with, but we don't worship them, right? Most of us can, okay, we're Christian, we can do that.

But boy, what about the things that we hold near and dear that are so close to us? How about our friendships? Do we care more about what other people think of us than what we think Jesus thinks of us? Are we more interested in disappointing Jesus than we are in disappointing our friends?

Our temple, the body, right? How many of us are wise to the things we put into this body, how we take care of our health? Or if we're being honest, especially around this season, a lot of times people say I keep putting food in my mouth and next thing you know, I'm not feeling well and things are starting to happen. They don't understand because... but do you not understand that that's a form of sabotage?

Because God wants to use you and He created you to be a healthy vessel that can carry the Word of God forward. But when we compromise and we sin and we're gluttonous, are we not doing the same thing? I'm just touching on very few things because I'm trying to say most of us will find one of those things that we will be honest with God and say that yes, we want to worship our Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, but we so quickly and incorrectly place it on the wrong thing.

I know you're thinking, well, Pastor, I didn't come here to get browbeaten this morning. I'm not browbeating anybody. I said we. I'm not browbeating anybody. I'm just making it real because at the end of the day, sometimes I think we need that conviction to remind us.

Jesus deserves all of us. He deserves all of our hearts. He doesn't want us compromising. He doesn't want us becoming workaholics. We need to become Jesus—can I use the term they used to use when I was growing up—Jesus freaks? That was the term. It meant you were so in love with Jesus that you were marked by Him, that that literally was what people identified you as or with.

Kindly the angel's so kind. He reminds John that only God is to be worshipped and that both the angel and John, humans and angels, they're both servants of God. And just as you and I are all there to keep the words of this book, we're to keep the words of this book.

God has made it clear that no created being should ever be worshipped. No created being. You contrast that with Jesus. Hebrews 1:6 tells us that Jesus should be worshipped and not angels. Matthew chapter 8 verse 2, chapter 14 verse 33, John chapter 9 verse 38, and certainly Jesus is to be worshipped and not men, right?

He says, "See that you not do that." Don't ever assume by title that someone is correct in their doctrine, teaching, or practice. Just because it was an angel, John was told don't bow to the angel. You only bow to God, Jesus Christ alone. I will say it more clearly here.

You don't even bow to a pastor. You don't bow to another man but Jesus. Jesus is who you put your eyes on. Men will fail you. I've said it since I stepped in this pulpit 11 years ago. I will fail you. And if your eyes are on me, then you will be sorely disappointed.

But if your eyes are on Jesus, you will never be disappointed because Jesus will never fail you. Now, that's not a cop-out. That's not meaning I can go do whatever I want. I can't, and that's not how that works. But please, that's what happens in so many churches is that people put their eyes on the pastor.

In other countries, they literally will come up and kiss the ring or the finger or the hand of the pastor or a bishop or a pope or something like that. And God is telling us that that adoration only belongs to Jesus Christ, not a mere man.

We see the Apostle John is corrected. And the angel rejects—what's he doing? The same thing we ought to do. This is a lesson and an object lesson for us. The angel rejects pride. Did you all see that? He rejected pride. How many of you love it when somebody shows you a form of adoration?

I don't mean just love, but somebody comes up and they pat you on the back or they say, "Boy, you're just so smart, or you're so handsome or pretty, you're so gifted, you're so this," and you're like, "Nah, not really. Oh, really? Come on. You can do better than that. You're what? Sorry? I couldn't hear you. One more time?"

You know the lessons I had, my pastor when he was alive, he taught me well. My pastor's dad's still alive. Do you know that you would try to catch him after service, you'd spend a few minutes, he would stand up front and then very quickly he would disappear?

Do you know why? It wasn't because he didn't love people. He loved people, loved the flock, loved the body of Christ. He's given his whole life. He's almost 90 years old. He still travels to India, everywhere, loves the people of God, wants to encourage, and he's a modern-day Paul in my opinion.

But the thing he taught me early on is, "Matt, you got to be careful." Because whether we want to admit it or not, all of us like a little bit of praise. And if we're not careful of that, it sneaks in subtly and next thing you know...

That's why none of you—so many of you have been so gracious to give words of encouragement over the years. "Oh, the message," or "Oh, the Word of God." And we always—you always see me direct it back to Jesus or I direct it to the Lord.

And it's not that I'm not—I'm thankful for your encouragement, but I'm also a vessel that realizes, and I will declare before you openly as I hope every one of you would, I can do nothing good of myself. I hope you all understand that and have that same opinion of yourselves. You can do nothing good.

You don't even have a good single thought. All right, that's real, real love here this morning. Not a single thought. It's only through the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. And therefore where does all glory and honor belong? Unto God Almighty. Amen?

Guest (Male): Amen to that. All glory and honor to Jesus Christ. You're listening to His Perfect Love and Pastor Matt VanderVen's final study in Revelation. He'll finish it up tomorrow. You can hear this study from Pastor Matt VanderVen again when you visit HisPerfectLove.org.

Catch up on what you may have missed at HisPerfectLove.org. Look for us on OnePlace.com and most of the major podcast platforms. The Calvary Chapel Harrisburg mobile app is another great way to listen to Pastor Matt's messages shortly after they're delivered. We can help you get started when you visit HisPerfectLove.org.

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Pastor Matt would love to hear from you. Tell us the station you listen to and how you're helped by this ministry. Email us there at the website HisPerfectLove.org. We want to invite you to join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30.

We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. We're located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. Go to CCHarrisburg.org for more information. Don't miss the conclusion to Revelation. We'll have that for you next time on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt.

His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Let the Word go out, the perfect love of Christ to shine. Our lives will shout. I am my beloved's and He is mine. Every heart is in His hands. We'll never stop reaching out. This is His perfect love. The Word goes out. This is what real love looks like in truth and prayer. This is His perfect love.