The Example of the Lamb

Title: The Example of the Lamb

Reading Amount: Revelation 12:1-13:18

Central Verse:

Let anyone who has an ear listen:

If you are to be taken captive,

Into captivity you go;

If you kill with the sword,

With the sword you must be killed.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

But they have conquered him by the

Blood of the Lamb,

And by the word of their testimony,

For they did not cling to life even in the

Face of death.

Revelation 12:9-11

Central Truth:

Victory for a believer comes not from violence but from the victory that the Lamb attained and how well we follow that example.

Food For Thought:

Note the only mark of a true believer is not accepting the mark of the beast. Salvation doesn’t have anything to do with a confession of faith contrary to what many modern theologians say.

This section continues with the fact that evil is just a parody of God. We see an evil "trinity" the dragon represents Satan. The beast from the sea represents the Roman government particularly Nero. Note that Nero has a mark like he's been slain, there was also the tradition that Nero would come back again. This is all an allusion to the Lamb who was slain. The final part of the "trinity" is the beast from the land. This beast has several possible interpretations one is that it is the local representation of the Roman government. Another is that it is the priest of the emperor cult and a final interpretation option being John's opponents in the church. I feel that it is a combination of all of these, the point is they are all "speaking" for God while not actually causing or helping faith.

Gematria - the use of numbers to represent a persons name. 666 is the numerical representation of Nero Ceasar's name or the alternate number which is 616 (found in some manuscripts) would be the Greek form of the name while 666 is the Hebrew form. This was not meant to be "code" speech to hide what they were talking about but a way of showing the incompleteness of the Roman government and how it is at odds with God.

Connections:

According to Revelation the only appropriate response to violence and discrimination is reliance upon the Lamb of God who has conquered evil. Recent history has shown us that this way of living and conquering evil is viable and alive. We see in the testimony of Martin Luther King Jr. someone who lived and sacrificed why? Because God sacrificed for him. We also see the testimony of other faiths such as Gandhi who resisted British imperialism with non-violent practices.

Historically speaking there has been only one group of Christian's since the early church to constantly reject the idea that to be Christian involves violence, and that group is the Mennonites. We can actually point to the time in the early church where violence became an acceptable expression of the Christian faith. This happened with the conversion of Emperor Constantine and Christianity was no longer a fringe movement in the Roman Empire but it became a major power. When Christianity became coupled with power we lost sight of the example of Christ and instead wanted to see victory through violence instead of victory by sacrifice.

How are Christians to react to violence? The reactions throughout history have been varied. The earliest responses in the church were to be martyred, that is killed for the faith. This is an expression of the sacrificed lamb. The lamb sacrifices all for us and show's us how we are to sacrifice for him. Also in the early church, if you were a member of the military and went off to war when you returned you had to engage in a time of repentance and reflection on what you had done in military service. Besides being ahead of its time in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorders it was also a reminder that the way of our faith is not through the sword, as Jesus reminded Peter in the gospels, but through the cross and suffering.