Global Warming and the Power of God

Revelation 1:12-20

Dr. Jim Denison

In a month, the world will see The Da Vinci Code on screen, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard. Forty million books have been sold worldwide. This is a global phenomenon, and a global opportunity for us to tell the world the truth about Jesus Christ. Across the coming weeks, we’ll do just that. His Revelation to John will be our guide.

Why do we need the real Jesus today, more than ever? Why do you?

Why we need the real Jesus

The week’s news was not inspiring:

On Tuesday, thousands in San Francisco turned out for the centennial of the greatest disaster their city has ever known. It was April 18, 1906 at 5:12 a.m. when the San Francisco earthquake struck. A three-day fire engulfed much of the city. Newsweek estimates that the same earthquake today would kill 4,000 and leave 690,000 homeless. When will the “big one” hit again?

Wednesday’s local news reported that a truck driver was asleep in his rig at I-20 and Lancaster when a knock came on his sleeper compartment door. Two armed men were there. They forced him to drive his truck a few blocks, where they stole 100 gallons of diesel fuel. With oil over $70 a barrel, it may be a “sign of the times,” as the reporter said.

On the moral front, The New York Times reports: “a federal judge ruled Tuesday that Kansas law did not require health care workers to report to the authorities sexual activity by people under age 16” (NYT April 19, A16). And we learn that “two Duke lacrosse players were arrested after being indicted on charges of raping a woman who performed as a dancer at a team party last month” (NYT April 19, A1).

Meanwhile, Addwaitya, the giant tortoise thought to be the world’s oldest living creature, died recently at a Calcutta zoo at around 250 years of age. Robert Grimm, the man who helped popularize baby carrots as a health snack, died the same week of a heart attack. He was 54.

And we learned the grim news that 30 million bags were lost by airlines globally in 2005, of which 240,000 were never returned to their owners.

But that’s not what everyone was talking about in Dallas. Record heat hit us this week, with highs over 100 on Monday and Tuesday. So what? Global warming, that’s what. It certainly seems to be so. 2005 was the hottest year in a century. Nineteen of the 20 hottest years on record have occurred since 1980.

Time magazine recently profiled the issue in stark terms. The article begins: “No one can say exactly what it looks like when a planet takes ill, but it probably looks a lot like Earth. Never mind what you’ve heard about global warming as a slow-motion emergency that would take decades to play out. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is upon us.”

One scientist says, “Things are happening a lot faster than anyone predicted. The last 12 months have been alarming.” The journal Science recently predicted a rise in sea levels by as much as 20 feet by the end of the century.

What causes the problem? As we burn fuel for energy we dump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, where it traps the heat that flows in from the sun, raising global temperatures. Ice sheets at the poles, which normally reflect 90 percent of the sun’s heat back into the atmosphere, melt. Then they become sea water, which traps 90 percent of the heat it receives and heats the earth. Meanwhile, mountain snows which usually melt in spring and provide water during the summer are melting sooner, so that the water is gone when it is needed most. The droughts which result devastate forests which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Frozen lands thaw, releasing trapped carbon into the air. And so the cycle continues.

As a result, the amount of the earth’s surface afflicted by drought has more than doubled since the 1970s. Polar bears are drowning as warmer waters melt their ice floes. And what is happening to us?

Cyclone Larry exploding through Australia at the beginning of the month; wildfires from Texas to Indonesia; Hurricane Katrina and now her descendants due to arrive in less than two months. The number of severe hurricanes worldwide has doubled in the last 35 years, while the wind speed and duration of all hurricanes has jumped 50 percent. Global warming is leading to increased risk of heatstroke, asthma, allergies and infectious disease.

These are frightening days. What difference does faith make in the face of such fear? Last week we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This week we learn why.

How to find the real Jesus

John “was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (v. 9). The year is AD 95, and John is an elderly man. He’s been preaching and pastoring for 60 years, and is the last living apostle of Jesus.

The Romans must silence his voice, but they’ve learned that martyring Christians only spreads their faith. So they’ve banished this man to the one place where there’s no congregation and no city and nothing he can do for Jesus.

He’s on Patmos, a crescent-shaped island 37 miles off the western coast of Asia Minor (Turkey today). Its 25 square miles consist mainly of volcanic hills and rocky terrain. John is there in “suffering”–the word means “oppressive affliction” and pictures the grinding of wheat and crushing of grapes. This elderly man is working the mines of this barren island, digging out its soil and carting it to the quarry. It’s backbreaking work, living in chains, sleeping on the bare ground of a cliffside cave. If ever there was a place to fear the future, it was on this Alcatraz of the ancient world.

But the Christ of Easter is also the Christ of Patmos.

He’s there “in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest” (v. 13). This was the robe of the High Priest of ancient Judaism. No longer a criminal condemned by Caiaphas–now he has replaced him on the throne of the nation.

“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire” (v. 14). This is an Old Testament image of eternal age and wisdom. No longer a carpenter from Galilee, but the omniscient Lord of the universe.

“His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters” (v. 15). Bronze was the strongest metal known to the ancient world. The rushing roar of a waterfall was the loudest noise possible in his day.

“In his right hand he held seven stars” (v. 16a), signifying the angels or pastors of the churches (cf. v. 20). The churches were facing persecution, suffering, and destruction at the hands of Rome, but they were actually in stronger hands than any the Emperor could imagine.

“Out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword” (v. 16b). The Roman soldier wielded a short, sharp sword with double edges, with which the Empire conquered the world. Jesus’ word is more powerful than their strongest weapons.

“His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (v. 16c). The sun was the brightest single light in the ancient world, but this divine face shown brighter still.

The Christ of Easter could appear through locked doors and show his crucified wounds to Honest Thomas. The Christ of Heaven can appear anywhere on earth and show his glorified majesty to any believer on any Patmos. Even yours. Even today.

Do you need a High Priest to forgive your sins and wipe away your guilt? An omniscient Lord to guide your future and direct your steps? An omnipotent God of bronze feet and roaring voice to give strength to your frail soul? A sheltering hand to hold you in the teeth of discouragement and defeat? A word to strike down the temptations of the world? A light to guide your darkest night?

Then come to Jesus today.

It took me nearly 20 years of Christian faith to realize that Jesus Christ is as alive and real today as when he walked on this earth in his physical body. I can have a personal relationship with him which is just as real as any other relationship in my life. He can speak to me, listen to me, be with me, help me, just as any one of you can. You can have a personal, transforming relationship with him right now.

In fact, you must. Christianity cannot be lived successfully without his forgiveness, wisdom, power, shelter, word and light. You and I are incapable of knowing God’s will, growing spiritually, sharing our faith, building the church, or honoring God unless he empowers us. Human words cannot change human hearts. Your life and mine will matter not at all to the course of human history unless it belongs to him.

Conclusion

What is your Patmos today? What about the future causes you the greatest fear in the present? Do we have any hope but Jesus?

We can turn him into a Da Vinci Code spiritual mortal, keeping him and his word at church, separating “religion” from the real world and treating our faith as a hobby. But none of that changes who he really is. Not a wonderful teacher, but the risen and glorious Lord. As C. S. Lewis reminds us, the man who denies the sunrise doesn’t harm the sun–he just shows himself a fool. I can call you gods and him a man, but that doesn’t change the fact that we are men and he is God.

We can trust ourselves, but we will inevitably fail each other. If global warming doesn’t kill us, disease or disaster or accidents will. The death rate is still 100 percent. Science cures polio, but then must battle AIDS. If the bird flu doesn’t become an epidemic, something else will. Our lives are finite, frail, and fallen. And then we die.

Self-reliance is the religion of our culture. It is Satan’s great strategy for our day. Try harder to do better. Make religion a part of your life, to be sure. But don’t get carried away–all things in moderation. Be sincere in your beliefs and tolerant of others, and we’ll all get along. While the world dies.

Meanwhile, Jesus is standing here, at your side, right now. Hear his Spirit say, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (vs. 17-18). The Christ of Easter is the Christ of Patmos. Your Patmos. Right now.

My first visit to Patmos was on a Sunday morning. Our group was asked to wait outside for a few minutes. Then we were escorted into John’s cave with its low ceiling, volcanic rock, dark and dingy walls. The very place where Jesus revealed himself to his best friend.

Why did we have to wait? Because 20 centuries ago, John won his fellow prisoners and jailers to Christ in that cave. And now, 20 centuries later, their descendants are still worshipping there. Every Sunday for 2,000 years. That’s what God did with John’s Patmos.

What will he do with yours?

The Da Vinci Code Jesus

Revelation 5

Dr. Jim Denison

The Da Vinci Code is the most controversial book of this generation. Never before in American history has a bestselling book so defamed biblical Christianity. The movie version will only fan the flames.

It is crucial that you know the truth behind the fiction, for the sake of your own soul and spiritual health. And for the sake of those you know. The book and movie give us an unprecedented opportunity to talk to friends and neighbors about the controversy and the One at the heart of it all. But we have to know the truth before we can give it to those we care about.

We’ll start today with the central issue of the book and the controversy: the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The Da Vinci Code Jesus

Dan Brown centers his plot in two so-called experts: a Harvard professor of religious symbols named Robert Langdon and an English historian named Leigh Teabing. Mr. Teabing makes especially astounding claims against Jesus:

“Until that moment in history [at the Council of Nicaea, AD 325], Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal” (p. 233, emphasis his).

It was Emperor Constantine who made Jesus a divine figure, according to Teabing: “By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable” (p. 233). Making Christ divine “not only precluded further pagan challenges to Christianity, but now the followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves only via the established sacred channel–the Roman Catholic Church” (p. 233, emphasis his).

In conclusion, “It was all about power…Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of Church and state. Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power” (p. 233, emphasis his).

This position should not surprise us, according to Teabing. A character named Sophie asks, “And I assume devout Christians send you hate mail on a daily basis?” Teabing replies, “Why would they?…The vast majority of educated Christians know the history of their faith. Jesus was indeed a great and powerful man. Constantine’s underhanded political maneuvers don’t diminish the majesty of Christ’s life. Nobody is saying that Christ was a fraud, or denying that He walked the earth and inspired millions to better lives. All we are saying is that Constantine took advantage of Christ’s substantial influence and importance. And in doing so, he shaped the face of Christianity as we know it today” (p. 234).

Here’s the summary: “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false” (p. 235, emphasis his). I have never read a more devastating indictment of Christianity’s central affirmation that Jesus is Lord. Made in the guise of a supposedly reputable historian, claiming that “the vast majority of educated Christians” agree with him, it is easy to see why so many readers have been confused and misled.

Is there objective evidence for biblical Christianity and its affirmation of the divinity of Jesus Christ? Absolutely.

The historical Jesus

We can start with Scripture itself. God’s word contains the most astounding claim to divine authority ever uttered, when the resurrected Christ states: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). “All” authority–so that we have none. In “heaven” and on “earth,” the entire universe. He possesses all the divine authority there is.

But you’d expect the Bible to make that claim. The Koran claims that the Muslim Allah is the one God; the Book of Mormon presents the central truth claims of that religion. Is there evidence outside of Scripture that early Christians did not see Jesus as a “mortal prophet” but worshiped him as God? Is there non-biblical evidence that Mr. Brown is wrong and the Bible is right?

Consider Tacitus (AD 55-120), the greatest ancient Roman historian. In his Annals he writes (ca. AD 115): “Christus…suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition broke out” (Annals XV.44). “Superstition” makes clear the fact that the followers of Christus believed something miraculous, not simply that he was a great human teacher.

Pliny the Younger was a Roman administrator and governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor; 2 volumes of his letters are extant today. The tenth of his correspondence books (written around AD 112) contains the earliest non-biblical description of Christian worship: “They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ as to a god.” Note that they worshiped Christ as God, not merely a religious teacher or leader. And they did so in AD 112, not AD 325 after Constantine.

And what of early non-biblical Christian records?

Clement of Rome (AD 95) repeatedly refers to the “Lord Jesus Christ.” He also promises a “future resurrection” on the basis of his “raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead” (24.1).

Ignatius (AD 110-15) refers to “Jesus Christ our God” (intro. to Ephesians). To the Smyrnaeans he writes, “I give glory to Jesus Christ, the God who has thus given you wisdom” (1.1).

And Justin the Martyr (AD 150) repeatedly refers to Jesus as the Son of God (cf. Apol. 22). He also describes the fact that God raised him from the dead and brought him to heaven (Apol. 45).

We could go on and on. Evidence that the first Christians believed Jesus to be divine is simply overwhelming. The early Christians were absolutely united in their common affirmation, Jesus is Lord.

Teabing claims that “Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet” until “that moment in history” when Constantine and the Nicean Council declared him divine. But Teabing is simply wrong on the merits. The historical record conclusively proves otherwise. The “vast majority of educated Christians” know this to be the true story of our faith.

The heavenly Jesus

We’ve seen the Da Vinci Code Jesus and the historical Jesus. Let’s close with a glimpse at the heavenly Jesus, for he is the Jesus who will change your life today. Revelation 5 gives us the fullest picture in Scripture of Jesus as he is now. Every detail and dimension of John’s vision conveys something important about the nature and character of our Lord.

The chapter moves as a drama in three parts. Scene one: the Father holds an unbreakable seven-sealed scroll (vs. 1-4). We’ll discuss that scroll and its significance next week.

For our purposes, note that a “mighty angel” (perhaps Gabriel?) cannot break these seals (v. 2). “No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth” could do so (v. 3). This description encompasses all of creation. So John “wept and wept” because no one could break these seals and reveal the scroll’s contents (v. 4); clearly this matter possessed great spiritual significance.

Scene two: the Lion/Lamb takes the scroll (vs. 5-7). Jesus is here described as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” God’s word had predicted that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:9-10) and the line of David (Isaiah 11:1).

“Horns” were symbolic of strength; this lamb has seven, strength to infinity. He is the omnipotent God. “Eyes” symbolized knowledge; seven of them shows him to be omniscient. His omniscience is tied to the “seven spirits of God,” better translated “the seven-fold Spirit of God.” The Spirit who sees all that is–who is watching your worship and reading your mind right now. He is worthy to take the scroll, the word of God.

Scene three: all of creation worships the Lion/Lamb (vs. 8-14). The same elders and creatures which had been praising the Father (Revelation 4) now turn their worship toward his Son (v. 8). Each one has a harp, symbolic of musical praise (from this verse we get most of our concept of angels playing harps in heaven).

They are holding golden bowls full of incense (a picture from Jewish Temple worship); but this incense is “the prayers of the saints,” showing that God hears and keeps our prayers before himself.

Hear their praise (vs. 8-10). Hear the praise of the numberless angels who join their worship (v. 12). Hear the praise of “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them” (v. 13).

Not the “mortal prophet” of The Da Vinci Code, is he? A million men and women and children would not willingly die for a human religious leader, but that many in the Roman Empire chose to join the worship of this Jesus at the cost of their lives. And that was generations before Constantine “made Jesus divine.”

Will you join their worship today?

Conclusion

When last were you awed by Jesus? When last did you give him this kind of worship? You can attend church and miss Christ. Millions have, unfortunately.

I’ve toured the White House, but I don’t have a personal relationship with the president. I’ve seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but I’ve never met the queen. I used Microsoft Windows to type this sermon, but I’ve never spoken with Bill Gates. I love reading Tom Clancy novels, but I don’t know Tom Clancy.

Millions of Americans think that going to church makes them Christians, just as living in America makes us Americans. But it’s not true. Christians are people who worship Jesus with their lives, who have a life-changing personal relationship with him as their Lord. When last did you worship Jesus as heaven does today? When next will you?

A few years ago Lady Bird Johnson, the widow of President Lyndon Johnson, took her grandchildren on a tour of the Smithsonian. They came to that famous display of the First Wives in their inaugural gowns.

Mrs. Johnson was about to tell her grandchildren about her gown as it was modeled on her wax figure when a tourist said rudely, “Hey, lady, would you move out of the way? I’m trying to get a picture of Mrs. Johnson.” The real Mrs. Johnson politely stepped to the side so the man could take a picture of the wax figure. He snapped the photo and went happily on his way, never knowing that he missed the real person.

Have you met the real Jesus today?