Image Is Everything - Conclusion

 

            What does this construction look like?  Consider the following quotations:

 

“We deplore efforts to… seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.

 

“The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of candid and explicit humanism.

 

“Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.

 

“It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.

 

“Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.”

 

The above quotations are from the Humanist Manifesto, written in the 1930’s and signed and endorsed by many religious, political, philosophical, scientific and educational leaders.  In fact, one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto was John Dewey of Columbia University, whose educational beliefs permeate our public education system and of our universities.

 

          Who is at the center of the above quotations?  Man is.  We are the center of it all.  To those who scoff at the book of Genesis, can’t you read the writing on the wall?  Don’t you see that the above quotations from the Humanist Manifesto are exactly the line of thought presented by the serpent to Eve?  The idea that there can be true self-knowledge without God is not a product of the Enlightenment, it is not a product of what we might call “modern thinking,” it is a product of the dragon.

 

          Whose image do we worship?

 

          A true Lamb and a false lamb.  An image of God and an image of man.  A Lamb to be followed and a beast to be followed.

 

          If the patterns of our minds and hearts were placed on the overhead for us to see, what image would appear?  The image of man or the image of God?  The mark of the beast or the name of the Lamb and our Father God?  The worship of Jesus Christ or the worship of ourselves?

 

          We are called not to a religion but a relationship, a relationship with Jesus Christ that results in the restoration of the image of God within us.  Paul writes:

 

>RO 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

 

 The word that we translate “transformed” in this verse is the word we use for what happens when a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, it is the word “metamorphous.”  When we follow the Lamb wherever He goes, when we are obedient to Jesus Christ, when we enter into a relationship with Him and live where He lives on Mt. Zion, we experience the restoration of the image of God within us and the patterns and images of this world begin to fall away in our hearts and minds and they are replaced by the image of God in Christ.

 

          As our minds are renewed we are metamorphosed, transformed, into the image of God, we are lifted out of the deep well with the slippery sides of self-absorption into a relationship where the name of the Lamb and of His Father are written on our minds.  Now in the Scriptures names speak to us of natures, and so the nature of God in Christ is restored to our hearts and minds. Paul writes to the Corinthians:

 

          2 Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

 

          And he further writes to the Ephesians:

 

          EPH 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

 

          What would our archeological study conclude?  That image worship and sacrifice ceased with modern man?  Or that modern man has simply internalized his image worship and his sacrifices?  That modern man still offers his fellow citizens, offers himself and offers his children on the altar of the god of self-exaltation, self-gratification, self-fulfillment and self-worship?  Would it conclude that man has taken the number 666 and written it on his mind, his heart, his religion, his education, his science, his philosophy, his economy, his government?

 

          But of course, the more important question, the most important question for us is, “Whose image do we bear?  The image of self or the image of God?” “Whose nature lives within us?  The nature of fractured and rebellious man or the nature of the Lamb?” “Who do we worship?  Do we worship self, and by extension the dragon and beast?  Or do we worship our Creator God and the Lamb who has borne our sins, given His life for us and who has conquered death?”

 

          Yes, image is everything.  Who have you given your life to?  Whose image do you bear?

 

          Whose image is transforming you this morning?   

                   

 

Image Is Everything - Part 2

 

    Now let me make a couple of interpretive comments before we get to the heart of the matter.  There are many approaches to the book of Revelation and to specific passages within Revelation, since this is not a classroom, I’m not going to take the time to talk about different approaches, but I do want to make some points.

 

           Mt. Zion in 14:1 speaks to us of where God dwells.  These 144,000 are living their lives where God is.  They aren’t putting off their obedience and fellowship with God until some pie – in – the – sky futuristic experience, but they are living with God in the present, in the eternal present.  That is an experience in Jesus Christ that we all can know.  That is one of many differences between having a religion and a relationship.

 

           The number 144,000 is a symbolic number that speaks to us of completeness.  That is, the Lamb is going to have a complete number of people follow Him and His work on earth won’t be finished until He is finished gathering His firstfruits.  In verse 4 we see this group called firstfruits. James 1:18 “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”  God’s people are spoken of as firstfruits in the Scriptures.

 

           The idea that this group hasn’t defiled itself with women isn’t talking about sexuality.  In fact, this group is made up of men and women, girls and boys.  Instead this image speaks to us of the fact that this group has remained faithful to the Lamb.  In the book of Revelation, the image of women is used to portray unfaithfulness to God and promiscuity with the dragon and the beast on the one hand, and on the other hand we have the woman who is the Bride of Christ, pure and spotless and faithful, with which the book of Revelation culminates.  The book of Revelation is an equal opportunity employer and there are many images of men in the book that are evil.

  

          We’ve got a contrast in chapters 13 and 14, a contrast between the beast and his followers and the Lamb and His followers; a contrast between the false lamb and the true Lamb; a contrast between the mark of the beast and the name of the Lamb. 

  

It is important to remind ourselves that chapter and verse divisions did not exist when the Old and New Testaments were written, they were added much later for ease of reference, and while chapters and verses can be useful they can also be harmful and this is a case in point.  If we simply stop reading at the end of chapter 13, we miss the author’s intent to see the contrast found in chapter 14.

 

          Two images.  The image of God and the image of the beast.  Two strains in the flow of history, in the flow of philosophy, in the flow of education, in religion, in science, in government…in all of life.  The image of God and the image of the beast.

  

          God makes us in His image.  The serpent, the enemy of God, the dragon comes alongside us and asks, “Did God really say these things?”  The serpent would have us believe that we can be greater than we are.  He would have us believe that we can attain to a greater image.  He offers us the intoxication of an independent autonomous life without God, in fact he seduces us with the idea that we can be like God.

  

          We are made in God’s image, and in that respect we bear His likeness, but we think we can do better and so we go our own way…and the image that we once bore we fractured…and in our descent from that image we have become like the man fallen into what seems like a bottomless well with smooth slimy sides, trying constantly to pull ourselves up only to slip further down.

  

          How many times in the past few weeks have I been asked if we’re living in the book of Revelation, if we’re living in the tribulation period?  How many times am I asked about the number 666?

  

          Last week I suggested we not look outside for the beast but inside, inside our hearts, inside our minds, inside these temples.  Yes, the flow of history will see the beast and work of the dragon personified in some form, but if I don’t recognize what’s going on inside of me, I’ll never recognize what occurs outside of me.

  

          Now the number 7 in Revelation often represents perfection or completeness.  It is associated with the perfection that we find only in God.  The number 6 is a less than perfect number, a number that falls short of perfection.  Man was created on the 6^th day.  When a number or word is repeated in the Bible it is done so for emphasis and to convey the fullness of an idea.  For example, heavenly beings in the Scriptures cry out to God, “Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty.”  The repeated word “holy” is showing that God is perfect in holiness or full of holiness.

  

          We have the number 666, meaning that the self-exaltation of man in his rebellion and imperfection has reached a crescendo.  Man’s worship of himself, a worship empowered by the dragon and the beast reaches a point where it can go no farther, man finally constructs his ultimate tower of Babel.

to be continued...

 

Image Is Everything - Part 1

 

Image is everything

This was preached the third Sunday after 9/11. Can you see that the previous message was a setup for this message? Can you see the linkage of the two messages?

 

 

September 30, 2001; Revelation 13:11 – 14:5.

Robert Withers, Becket, MA

 

          A few years ago, tennis star Andre Aggasi was in a television commercial for Nikon Cameras.  The commercial portrayed Agassi as the slick successful unconventional tennis pro that he is with the punch line spoken by Agassi “image is everything.”  Of course that was a double entendre in that “image is everything” was tied into Agassi’s public persona as a tennis player, which supposedly is translated into success on the tennis court, and of course, the issue when buying a camera is the quality of image that the product will produce.  So the phrase “image is everything” carried two meanings with it.

  

          There is a catalog company that also has retail outlets by the name of The Sharper Image.  It’s a place where you can purchase items for the person who has everything, like a $50 gold-plated toothpick.  The idea is that if you want to enhance your image all you need do is purchase something that is unique and different, something the average person wouldn’t own, and that owning and flaunting unusual items will give you a “sharper image” in the eyes of your peers.

  

          Few products seen on television are presented in terms of functionality but rather in terms of image.  About the only products that deal straight up with functionality are those miracle cleaning products that will take grape juice, mustard, and Kool Aid out of your carpet within 30 seconds, but wait, if you order within the next 10 minutes you’ll get a second order free and a special video on raising iguanas.

 

           Few, if any, automobile advertisements are based on the functionality of cars but rather the images they portray.  We have images of power, images of comfort, images of elegance, images of durability, images of cowboys, images of race car drivers, images of social and financial success, and of course, images of sexuality.  Somehow automobiles have been transformed from the basic Model T to personal statements that convey something about the owner. 

 

          Imagine that we are a team of archeologists from another planet.  We are sent here to research the role of images on earth.  We begin our research with ancient cultures.  We view the Babylonian, the Egyptian, the Aztec, the Mayan, and the Inca, to name but a few.  We uncover representations of gods in the form of statues, woodcarvings, mosaics, and monuments.  Since many of these representations are in population centers we conclude that they were a focal point of ancient life.  As we dig deeper, we discover that sacrifice played a part in ancient mankind’s relationship with these representations, these images.  Some of these sacrifices were of crops, some were of animals and others were of humans; of men, women and children.

  

          No doubt these sacrifices were meant to appease the ancient gods.  No doubt as we progress in our study of earth things will get better.  No doubt – we think - as civilization develops, mankind will move beyond the worship of images.

 

           Our passage this morning speaks of two images, two imprints.  The first is the image of the beast.  We touched on this last week.  We have two beasts and a dragon in chapter 13, and the second beast, which appears as a lamb, in other words it has the image of a lamb, causes men to make an image of the first beast, the antichrist.  Notice that the second beast, the false prophet, causes men to make this image.  We saw earlier in chapter 13 verse 4 that the world worships the beast.

  

          Then in chapter 14 we see another group, a group that is not a part of the common flow of humanity, a group that does not worship the beast.  This group does not carry the mark of the beast on or within themselves, but on the contrary have the name of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and the name of His Father written on their foreheads – in their minds. As opposed to worshipping the beast, this group follows the Lamb wherever He goes.

to be continued...