Blessed is the one who reads aloud this sermon and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near. And I need you to hear this: If things were as they seemed, education wouldn’t be necessary.[1]

I say this because John thought he was hearing from Jesus—and he was! He talks about it in chapter 1. Yet in chapter 5, he looks and sees Jesus as the Lion of Judah. Then he looks again and sees a lamb. This is vitally important and suggests that we, too, might need a second look at things. For if things were as they seemed, education wouldn’t be necessary.

We can test this out. It’s easier to say, “Halloween is evil.” Or “Halloween is demonic.” It sure seems that way for some folk. There’s a stock letter going around that quotes 1 John 1:5: “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” Then it states that Halloween represents darkness and evil to the author and explains how their children are terrified of jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, and all things representing death.

They’ve been taught that Halloween is evil. Maybe you’ve heard this, too.

Never mind that jack-o-lanterns are Celtic and were meant to scare away evil. These gourds were originally put out to guide folks home as it was getting darker earlier. Can you think of a more neighborly thing to do? Or how we observe the holiday in our times: Kids get dressed up in characters they’re really excited about—or funny puns.

I saw someone dressed up like they were going to a sports game. They had one of those gigantic foam fingers and their shirt said “Ceiling.” They were dressed up as a ceiling fan. Love it.

As a reward for all this, we hand out candy. It’s a little bit of heaven on earth. We take a break from fearing our neighbors and instead embrace community: opening our doors to what first appears to be something else and instead finding our neighbors’ kids.

But that’s a long paragraph of education versus the three words “Halloween is evil.” It’s short and sweet and memorable. “Halloween is neighborly” doesn’t quite have the same punch.

It’s almost as if stupid has better marketing than intelligence. I don’t know why this is. Authors are out there taking great liberties, writing a form of Christian horror based on Revelation. Yet actual scholars like Dr. Greg Carey are largely unknown.

It’s easier to say that Revelation is about the end of the world than to say it’s about the beginning of a new one. It’s easier to say that Revelation predicts the future than to wade through the symbols to unlock the call to faithfulness.

In John’s time, good citizens demonstrated their loyalty by offering worship toward Rome. Every household had its household gods. Social groups like trade guilds and burial societies had their own patron deities. Public events would feature pledges to the emperor and prayers to the appropriate gods.[2] Here’s the problem: any Christian who wanted to do business or advance in society had to figure out—do I participate, or do I withdraw out of exclusive devotion to Jesus?

The answer for John of Patmos is absolute purity and keeping one’s garments sparkling white. Yet it’s hard when the culture is going one way and you’re called to go the other. It’s easier to cave to peer pressure.

I’m sure your parent figure once said to you, “Well, if everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you?” Looking at the headlines these days, it appears that yes. Yes, we would jump off a cliff.

It feels like free speech is under attack. We see politically motivated violence on the rise. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, reported that from 1975–2022, left-wing extremism accounted for 65 attacks, Islamic extremism for 143, and domestic right-wing extremists for 391.[3] The definition of right-wing terrorists here includes those motivated by white supremacy, anti-abortion beliefs, involuntary celibacy (incels), and other right-wing ideologies.[4] NPR recently reported that 30% of Americans now believe political violence is acceptable.[5]

I’m not okay with that. With any of that. With a judge’s house getting burned to the ground—it’s a scary time indeed.[6] I’m sure there are headlines keeping you up at night. There are things you’re worried about and feeling all the feels.

This worship series was sparked by more than a few of you coming up and asking me, “Do you think this is the end of the world?” The world is always ending—and being born anew. Yet that’s no comfort. Many of us have anxiety about the future. What’s going to happen?!

Out of that anxiety, people interpret Revelation to be about the future. They treat it like an astrology chart, tarot reading, or some means of predicting the future—even though that’s not prophecy. Prophecy is about consequences: “If you keep sinning, this will happen.” It’s not about predicting the future like a soothsayer or medium—those, in fact, are outlawed in Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6, and Deuteronomy 18:10–13.

It’s easier to say it’s about the future than to deal with the whole scroll and seven seals business. We also have seven churches the letter is addressed to. Seven lampstands around Jesus. Now seven seals. We know seven. The original audience understood the significance of seven—perfection, sabbath, a complete cycle. This scroll would tell what is to happen in this cycle. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth can read it—except the Lamb standing as if slaughtered.

The Lamb has seven eyes and seven horns, and there are the seven spirits of God. That’s weird stuff. But to the original audience, it would be evocative. They would understand the meaning behind these symbols. Right now, we understand the difference between a “butt dial” and a “booty call.” A butt dial is an accidental call from your pocket; a booty call… is not that. But 25, 50, 1,000 years from now, people won’t know the difference. John of Patmos is using symbols his readers would know that we might have lost.

Seven eyes: always watching (Zechariah 3:9; 2 Chronicles 16:9).
Seven horns: fullness of power (Deuteronomy 33; Psalm 89; Daniel 7).
The harp and golden bowls are objects used in worship.
A “new song” signals a new era—hymns were written to mark special occasions: a new king, a new high priest, or like we did at our bicentennial, or when we wrote our vision prayer for our mission statement to “welcome, love, and serve” in 2013.

You have been educated now. Now you know.

It’s easier to say, “Revelation is about the end of the world” than to say, “Revelation is about resistance.” Because that leads to another question: resistance to what?

Anything anti-Jesus.

Well, like other religions or Mormons and such? No. John is trying to comfort the hearers of his letter. He reminds them that Jesus is in charge. Yet his reign is not like earthly kings and queens who rule from the business end of a spear. Who exploit workers and enslave people. Who ruin the earth through extractive economics. Jesus does the opposite. Stands with the poor and outcast. Who beings peace everlasting. Who restores and makes all things new, for any theology that doesn’t factor in the restoration of creation is too small.

All this to say that the Peace of Christ is greater than the Peace of Rome. While Roman imperial rule might be the standard of the day, Christ has already won out against those forces. It’s not the imperial eagle that wins—it’s the sacrificed Lamb. John thought it was a lion at first. But it’s a Lamb. Hardly a conquering image—but it works.

Maybe the way to say it is how the Rev. Benjamin Cremer wrote:

“We want the warhorse. Jesus rides a donkey.
We want the eagle. The Holy Spirit descends as a dove.
We want to take up swords. Jesus takes up a cross.
We want the roaring lion. God comes as a slaughtered lamb.
We keep trying to arm God. God keeps trying to disarm us.”

All this to say… Resist. Resist, my family in faith. Resist.

Resist the temptation of violence—politically and spiritually. Resist and persist in love. Revelation gives us the Lamb: a symbol of the victory of God in Jesus Christ. Christ who says to love our neighbors and our enemies.

One last bit of education: Have you noticed that every group has its own word for outsiders?

For the Jewish folk, it was Gentiles—from the same root as “genus,” meaning “of the same family/type.” For the Romans, it was barbarian—usually used toward Germans, but largely for anyone who wasn’t Roman. We’re hearing a lot about illegals these days.

Each group has a word for outsiders.

For Christians, we too have a word. It’s neighbor.

I want you to beware of any form of faith that treats others as demons to be driven out or hell-bound sinners to be converted… and not neighbors to be loved.

Works Cited

[1] Sermon in Six Words or less: Education is necessary

[2] Greg Cary, Faithful and True, page 24.

[3] That’s Not Right Politics, Instagram post on 9/17/2025.

[4] https://www.cato.org/blog/politically-motivated-terrorist-killings-united-states-answering-critics

[5] https://www.npr.org/2025/10/01/nx-s1-5558304/poll-political-violence-free-speech-vaccines-national-guard-epstein-trump

[6] https://time.com/7323442/south-carolina-judge-diane-goodstein-house-fire-trump-political-violence/