Revelation Day 40 - The Heart of Ordinary Faith

DAY 40
The Heart of Ordinary Faith
Revelation 14:1-5

How can we hold on to the Way of Jesus in the face of pressure and propaganda?

We’ve said that the two beasts of Revelation 13-14 - The Sea Monster and the Beast of the Land - symbolize Roman pressure and propaganda. They are possible in every generation until Christ returns. We’ve also said that Pastor John prescribes ordinary faith as the antidote to help us hold on to the Way of Jesus.

There’s a big clue about ordinary faith in Rev. 14. In the middle of these wild things rampaging all over, John again takes another worship break. Rev. 14 opens with that vision of the Lamb, standing on Mt Zion with an army of battle-ready saints. These Christians were killed by the monsters but have actually won because they never gave up on Jesus. The confusing line in v.4 about virginity isn’t really about sex. According to scholar Tom Wright, it’s probably a symbolic way of saying that these saints “are permanently ready for the real battle.” In the Old Testament, soldiers got ready to fight by avoiding normal, everyday activities, even marital sex. These saintly soldiers are always ready to fight the monsters. 

These resurrected Christians model for us the heart of ordinary faith. This army isn’t geared up with swords and guns. Their weapon is a praise song. 

For John, worship is the heart of ordinary faith. Worship includes singing praise, prayer, preaching the gospel, offering God our gifts, breaking bread at the Lord’s Table, repenting of sin in baptism, fellowshipping with church family, and being sent to witness and serve. Worship then works its way into every corner of life. Ordinary faith helps us survive the Wild Things and their political swamp. If we stubbornly hold on to these acts of worship, we’ll find that ordinary faith has extraordinary power against pressure and propaganda. 

This extraordinary power is two-sided. 

On the one hand, ordinary faith protects us from being defeated by the pressure and propaganda. We might lose money, family, or friends as we cling to Jesus, we might even lose our lives in our gentle resistance to the Wild Things, but we won’t lose our selves. We won’t lose Jesus. And in the end, the Lamb will overcome the Wild Things. 

On the other hand, ordinary faith protects us from using pressure and propaganda like the Wild Things. The Church is always tempted to bully the gospel into people. European colonizers tried it in the Americas. Southern churchgoers tried it on slaves. Even in many nations today, some are tempted to marry God and government together to force people to be righteous. “Christian Nationalism” is very popular in some groups of people.

But, dear ones, we’ve already lost if we think we can force people to follow Jesus. Jesus forces his Way on nobody. Ordinary faith is our weapon. It has extraordinary power. Worship is the most practical, the most effective, thing we can do to hold on to the Way of Jesus.

REFLECT
Where does worship fit into your picture of the Christian life? How might worship prepare you for spiritual battle?

PRAY
Jesus, you are the Lamb of God who overcomes all God’s enemies. I love you and I worship you. Make me - make your Church - ready for spiritual battle. Never let us wander from your Way. Amen.