The movie and book The Time Traveler’s Wife tell the story of a man whose greatest challenge is his calendar. The man, Henry DeTamble, was born with a genetic disorder. This disorder causes Henry to time-travel. Usually during times of stress, Henry will disappear and then reappear, for example, five years into the future, or, ten years into the past, and then eventually make his way back to the present. Henry will often see younger or older versions of himself as he travels along his life’s timeline. Eventually, he falls in love a woman named Claire. Claire has to learn how to live with this man who floats in between present, past and future. It is the story of someone whose greatest challenge is his calendar.
The last book of the Bible is written to people who are also struggling with their calendar. We know this because of what the author, John, writes at the very beginning of this book. John wrote the Gospel of John the letters of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. He also Revelation. Let’s read some of the opening words of the final book of the Bible:
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev. 1:4-8 ESV)
We’re going to be in this text for four Sundays. Today, notice that John begins with a wish for those reading this letter. John desires them and us to have “grace” and “peace”—Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come…
This wish is actually the most common wish found the New Testament.
Have you ever thought about that? What’s does the Bible wish for me? If the Bible could make a wish for me, what would it be? Well, it wouldn’t be a wish for a new car or a super power. It would be a wish for grace and peace. In fact, fourteen of the letters in the New Testament begin with this wish—the wish for us to experience grace and peace (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:2; 1 Tim. 1:2; 2Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Pet. 1:2). Again and again what those who wrote the Bible most wished for us is grace and peace. They hoped that what we would experience as a result of our faith would be grace and peace.
Sadly, religious faith is not always associated with these two words today. For many people today, religious faith leads to condemnation not grace. And it leads to conflict not peace. But the faith represented in the Bible has always intended to produce in us and in the world around us grace and peace. The Bible’s greatest wish for us is that we’d have grace and peace. Those are the two words John wants to see on our calendars.
Sadly, these are often two of the very qualities that are missing ion our calendars. Who of us this morning wouldn’t mind a little more grace and peace in our hearts, and minds, in our schools, in our workplaces and in our families? Who of us wouldn’t mind a calendar filled with more of these qualities.
These are two of the qualities that were missing from those to whom John writes. John is writing to the “seven churches” that are in Asia (v. 4). In the ancient world “Asia” referred to the Roman province of Asia Minor, or modern-day Western Turkey. Christianity had flourished in this area. It was so abundant that a governor in the area once complained to the Roman Emperor that pagan temples were standing empty because everyone had become a Christian and no one was worshipping any longer in the pagan temples.
But those early days of popularity and growth for Christianity in this region soon gave way to darker days. In the closing years of the first century and the opening years of the second century, the time in which this book is written, worship of the Roman Emperor became very prominent in Asia. Christians were often forced to make sacrifices to and worship the Roman Emperor, who was considered to be a god. Those who did not engage in Emperor worship were punished.
John writes to seven churches where this type of persecution has been taking place. It’s suddenly become a lot harder to be a Christian in Asian. As a result, there’s little grace or peace on their calendar. There was very little grace and peace to be found on today’s page on the calendar. Why? Because of the persecution taking place.
Thus, John responds with some theology. This morning begins a new series called “The Truth About Life.” In this recurring series, we are exploring the Bible’s answers to six of the big questions of life:
1. Who is God? Theology
2. Who is Jesus? Christology
3. Who is the Holy Spirit? Pneumatology
4. What is the church? Ecclesiology
5. Who are we? Anthropology
6. What will happen at the end times? Eschatology.
And as we did in this series last year, we begin the series this year with the question of “Who is God?” We call that theology–the study of God. And when John writes to these Christians whose present is void of grace and peace, he responds with theology. Theology was never intended to be a dry and academic pursuit, something with no connection to the daily life of normal people. Theology, the study of God, was always intended to impact daily life in meaningful ways. Here, John responds to the trouble his readers are having in the present with theology.
So, his opening text begins with his wish that we would all experience grace and peace. He then reveals twice how we might do that. Twice (v. 4, 8) John writes theology – he tells us who God is. And who is God? God is “the God who is, the God who was and the God who is to come.”
What is John doing? He is describing God using the calendar. Why? Because John knows how much we all struggle with the calendar. There are always places in the calendar of our life where we do not experience grace and peace. It would be nice to be able to go into whatever calendar software you use, and to type in “ grace and peace” as a recurring event which would pop up every day of every week of every month of every year on your calendar. Raise your hand if you’d like grace and peace to be present every day on your calendar. But the truth is there are long weeks and months and years when grace and peace never appear on our calendar. So John describes God as a God of the calendar, the whole calendar—present, past and future. Let me explain.
First, John describes God as the God of the present. John wants us to know that God is a God of the present: God is. Everyone say this: “God is.”
John begins with the present because that seems to be the great struggle for the readers of this letter. It is likely that they are experiencing the same struggle that we experience when it comes to the present. Our struggle with the present is that we tend to hold on to the past or head into the future. We tend to believe that today will never be as good as the glory days of yesterday. Or we tend to believe that today will never be as bright as the bright lights of tomorrow. We will never experience the grace and peace that we once experienced in those glorious moments in our past. Or we will never experience grace and peace until we get a little further down the road.
It is easy to conjecture that these readers were feeling this way. The present was filled with persecution. It is easy to see that they might think the grace and peace could never be found in today. It is easy to think they might be trying to hold on to yesterday, wishing for the grace and peace that was theirs when the Christian faith was popular and applauded by the culture. Or perhaps they were daydreaming of sometime in the future when the persecution would end and grace and peace finally be theirs. Regardless, there was no grace and peace on today’s date.
The week I was writing the first draft of this sermon I was in contact with a Highlander struggling with many health issues. She’d been in and out of the doctor’s office for weeks. Still, there was little relief. She was in pain constantly and couldn’t seem to shake it. And, frankly, she was becoming miserable. She couldn’t seem to find any grace or any peace in the present.
In response, John says that God is the God of the present. That’s what he means when he describes God as the God who is. This is, in fact, the primary name God gives Moses in the Old Testament. When Moses asks God’s name, God says, “I am.” It’s another way of saying, “God is.”
And because God is, grace and peace are possible with respect to the present. John is saying that grace and peace are possible today. Even if today is nothing like those glory days of yesterday. Even if today seems to pale in comparison to the promise of tomorrow. The present, even with all of its pain and problems is a place on your calendar where grace and peace can appear. Why? Because God is. God is here now. God is present now. God is loving now. And he is capable of bringing you grace and peace in the present.
Not all of you can do this, but if you can, would you do something for me? Take out your mobile device on which you keep a calendar. Or take out your paper planner or paper calendar. Find today’s date. And enter this on today’s date as an all-day event: “Grace and Peace.” Would you do that for me? God is the God of today. The God of this very moment. And that means it’s possible for you to experience grace and peace today.
But our troubles with the calendar go beyond just a struggle with the present. Many of us also struggle with the past. Our struggle with the past is that we tend to regret the past. We look at the bad things done to us. We look at the bad things done by us. And we wish that we could have a second chance at that past. We wish we could undo all that was done to us or all that was done by us. We wish we didn’t have to carry around the baggage of all those previous letters in the alphabet. We wish we weren’t weighed down by all those raggedy pages of the calendar that have turned behind us. And thus we can’t find grace or peace with respect to our past.
The week I was working on the rough draft of this sermon, I met someone who, for a long time, had been weighed down by her past. There had been a time when religious people shamed her for her past and, as a result, she was weighed down with guilt. She’d managed to work through it, thankfully. But there was a time when the past was not a source of grace and peace.
John wants us to know that God is not only the God of the present. He is also the God of the past. That’s what he means when he describes God as “God was.” God is not only the God who is. He is also the God who was. God is the God of the past: God was. Everyone say this: “God was.”
- When that coach, or that school or that boy or girl overlooked you, God was.
- When you made that first decision to smoke that drug, God was.
- When that man hit you or that parent beat you, God was.
- When you were hungry or lonely, God was.
You may look back on your past and think that it was God-less. The truth is that it was God-full.
- In the midst of every problem, God was.
- As you experienced every pain, God was.
- In the disaster or the disease, God was.
Because God was, grace and peace are possible with respect to the past. It doesn’t matter if you go back five years or fifty. God was present on each date. And this makes it possible to have grace and peace with respect to the past.
Not all of you can do this—but if you can, would you do something for me? Take out your mobile device on which you keep a calendar. Or take out your paper planner or paper calendar. Find a date far back. A year away if you can. A month or week away if that’s all you can do. And enter this on that date as an all day event: “Grace and Peace.” Would you do that for me? God is the God of the past. Every day of the past. And that means it’s possible for you to experience grace and peace with respect to your past.
But our trouble with the calendar goes beyond just our struggle with the present and the past. Many of us also struggle with the future. Our struggle with the future is that we fear the future. We are afraid of what we may find written on the pages still to be turned on the calendar of our life.
The week during which I wrote this rough draft I met with a man at his apartment building. He was trying to make some end-of-life decisions. And as we talked about them, he became more and more anxious. “I’m afraid of what’s ahead,” he said. “I wish I could know for sure what’s going to happen if I do this,” he said. He faced the future with fear.
Some of you new graduates or new parents or new grandparents may feel the same. So much is changing. You may feel some anxiety about what’s going to be written on your calendar a month from now, a year from now, or five years from now. We often face the future with fear.
But John wants us to know that God is not only the God of the present and the past. He is also the God of the future. That’s what John means when he describes God as the “God who is to come.” God is a God of the future: God who is to come. Everyone say this: God is to come.
- Whatever page of the calendar is to come, God is also to come.
- No matter what else is just around the corner, God is also just around the corner.
- No matter what else maybe written on the calendar tomorrow, next week, next
month, you will also find God written there.
And that means that grace and peace are possible there as well.
Not all of you can do this—but if you can, would you do something for me? Take out your mobile device on which you keep a calendar. Or take out your paper planner or paper calendar. Find a date far ahead. A year away if you can. A month or week away if that’s all you can do. And enter this on that date an all-day even: “Grace and Peace.” Would you do that for me? God is the God of the future. Every day of the future. And that means it’s possible for you to experience grace and peace with respect to your future.
You need to know that other things are vying for a spot on your calendar. John is writing this letter in the context of alternatives that would like to get on your calendar.
- The language John uses to describe God was also used to describe pagan gods. At Dodona, women prophets chanted, “Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be.”
- There was a statue of Athena-Isis in Egypt with the inscription, “I am all that has been, and is, and shall be.”
- There is an Augustan-era monument from Eleusis that mentions a statue of Eternity (= Aion), the deity who remains forever and “who is and was and shall be.” (56-67 Oster Seven Congregations in a Roman Crucible).
John uses this same language, language that was used to describe other gods. Why? It’s because John wants to acknowledge that there are other options trying to get on your calendar. People were claiming that grace and peace could be found at various places on the calendar if you worship this god or follow this deity. The same is true today. All sorts of options are being offered today. If you’ll just put this or that on your calendar, you’ll have some grace and peace.
But John comes along to say there is only one source of grace and peace. It comes in the Lord God. He alone has the capacity to be present on every page of your life’s calendar.
That is really the point of the final word John uses to describe God:
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Rev. 1:8 ESV)
God is Almighty. As Almighty, God alone has the capacity to bring grace and peace to your calendar. God alone has the might, the power to be present on every date so that he can give you grace and peace.
This is one of John’s favorite words for describing God. Nine of the twelve occurrences of this term in the New Testament are in Revelation (here; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7,14; 19:6,15; 21:22; the other three are in Ro 9:29; 2Co 6:18; Jas 5:4.) God is Almighty.
And that’s a good thing. Because grace and peace don’t come easily, do they? They have to be fought for. They have to be battled over. The war over what’s going to be written on your calendar is intense. And it takes a pretty mighty God to fight all of those away and find a place for grace and peace on every day of your calendar.
Here’s what I want you to do this week: Begin each day by thanking God for his ability to bring grace and peace to you today. He’s already promised you that grace and peace. So, this week, begin every day by acknowledging that he is present today and therefore he can give grace and peace today. He is the God who is, the God who was and the God who is to come. And he’s come to make sure you get the grace and peace you need.
