Handed over by God Alive@5 12.5. 191 Sam 5:1-12; Rev 1:9-20
Audio: https://www.daleappleby.net/index.php/mp3-sermons/51-recent-sermons/943-the-hand-of-god
Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzNXlnBahSY
Introduction
The Lord has been impressing things upon me which, at one level, I would rather not know. Last week, the Lord spoke to me in such a way that I was stunned for several hours. These are the things I want to expound tonight. Their seed goes back to Dale’s preaching from Acts 4 a few weeks ago when the persecuted Church fervently prayed, “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”” (Acts 4:29-30). A little later we read how, “many signs and wonders were regularly done…by the hands of the apostles.” (Acts 5:12). In union with the hand of God the early church was bringing forth a mass of healings, miracles, conversions and an outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 3:7; 11:21; 19:6; 11). This is a pattern for our time deeply embedded in scriptural testimony to the plan of God.
Old Testament
In the Old Testament the hand of God is a hand of power, by “a mighty hand” God struck the Egyptians and delivered his people (Exodus 3:19-20; 9:3; Deut 4:34; 5:15). The same hand crushed the Philistines and their god with “deathly panic” and terrible plague (1 Sam 5:1-12 cf. Amos 1:8). The natural relation between the covenant people and the hand of God is protective, saving action (Ps 31:5, 15), but when the irresistible pressure of his hand comes on the prophets they are constrained (1 Ki 18:46; 2 Ki 3:15; Isa 8:11; Jer 15:17; Ezek 3:14, 24; 37:1) to prophesy judgements by the same hand against idolatrous Israel. The elect of God cannot presume that he will always stretch out his hand to save,
“Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?….Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isa 50:2; 59:1-2). “I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross and remove all your impurities…..the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still…. As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols…11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols?”” (Isa 1:25; 5:25). The hand of God was repeatedly laid upon Israel for her purification and ultimate restoration.
Paradoxically, understanding their people could not handle the fierce displeasure of God, the same hand of the Lord turned the prophets into intercessors. Witnessing impending dreadful destruction Amos pleads, ““O Lord GOD, please cease! How can Israel stand? He is so small!”” (Amos 7:2, 5). All of these things were written for our instruction (Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:6-11), that we might believe that the powerful actions of the hand of God have not essentially changed and respond accordingly. Jesus’ life shows us exactly how.
The Life of Christ
Submission to the hand of God the Father is the core identity of the Son of God as he repeatedly explains to his disciples that he must be handed over to sinners to be crucified (Matt 17:22; 20:18-19; 26:2; cf. Matt 27:18,26; John 18:36,19:11, 16). Only in the light of resurrection glory could the apostles accept this radical action of the Father towards his chosen Messiah (Luke 23:35). Peter preaches at Pentecost, “this Jesus, handed over according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” (Acts 2:23). And when opposed by the same leadership who had Jesus executed they prayed, “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” (Acts 4:26-28). The hand of God sovereignly enacts the will of God in assembling evil powers to destroy Jesus so his glory might be released (Luke 24:26).
But Jesus was never passive, whatever the Satanically inspired rulers of the world were doing God’s Son was actively submitting to the infinitely higher authority of his Father. (It was something like this that made the martyrdom of Christians in the Roman arenas a manifestation of the victory of Christ.) His was a dynamic obedience unto death (Phil 2:8). ““No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”” (John 10:18 cf. Matt 26:53-54). The climax of Jesus’ submission to the hand of God comes at the point of death, “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46). The outcome of submission to God’s mighty hand working through the hands of sinners is resurrection life. Peter preached this at Pentecost, “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up” (Acts 2:23-24). Then his exhortation to the Church, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” (1 Pet 5:6), explains how we share in the death and resurrection of our Lord. These great realities are most profoundly symbolised in the visions of Revelation.
Visions in Revelation
The book opens with a vision of the exalted Christ where John sees, “In his right hand he held seven stars…. (which are) the angels of the seven churches” (1:16, 20). The whole Church is in the crucified hand of the Lamb of God where he also “holds the seven spirits” (Rev 3:1). This means that the power of the cross and the power of the Spirit are in the closest possible relationship in the Body of Christ. The infinite power in the holy hand of “the King of kings and the Lord of lords” (Rev 17:14; 19:16) means he controls the destiny of all things, in, around and for the Church (Eph 1:22).
in Revelation 5 the glorified Jesus is “the lamb, standing as slain” who receives the scroll of human destiny “from the right hand of him who sits on the throne” (5:6-7). Hereafter, the Lamb sets in place of sequence of events whereby a sequence of malevolent powers are “permitted/given authority” to traumatise the earth (Rev 6:2, 4, 8). This begins with the dreaded “Four Horseman of The Apocalypse”, conquest, war, famine and death. The Church must understand that whatever forces assail us subject to the sovereign authority of the Lamb of God. Since Jesus is “the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8) we should understand that every “handing over”, whether of individuals (Rom 1:24, 26, 28), nations or supernatural powers in contained in Christ receiving from the Father his own handing over to death. The sway of the Lamb is unlimited and irresistible. It is within this framework that the convictions I received whilst out praying (4.5.19) must be understood. These consists of three scenes from Revelation concerning a “beast”.
The first is in the vision of the two witnesses, symbolising the faithful confessing church, “And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,” (Rev 11:7; 17:8 cf. 13:1, 7). The ascension language used of the arising beast is that used of the ascension of Jesus, so he is a counterfeit of Christ (Acts 2:34; Eph 4:8). His rising out of a bottomless pit symbolises extraordinary supernatural power. This seemingly impossible feat speaks to us today of the progressive elevation of anti-Christian power in the West.
As there are two ascensions in the New Testament, so there are also two lambs, the Lamb of God (John 1:29; Rev 5:6) and another beast with “two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon” (Rev 13:11 cf. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10). This speaks of false prophecy coming forth with compelling authority in a mode of apparent compassion. Such as speaking on behalf of victims and minority groups e.g. LGBT+, which have been oppressed by the structures of Christianity. (The Cardinal Pell case embodies this impulse.) Liberal Christianity and the political “left” have been swept up by this beast.
Finally, there are two resurrections to supernatural life in the New Testament. The first is that of Christ, for example, “‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.” (Rev 2:8). The second is that of the beast “wounded/mortal wound lit. “plague of death” by the sword and yet lived” (Rev 13:14 cf. v. 3, 12). The language used is that of the Lord’s resurrection, once again the beast is a counterfeit Christ. The plague language harkens back to the plagues of Egypt, and the stubborn wickedness of Pharaoh. In this case however the defeat of demonised authority seems reversed. This image speaks of the unprecedented revival of the anti-Christian power in previously Christian nations during our lifetime.
In the overarching plan of God the purpose of the ascended, lamblike, resurrected counterfeits of Jesus (cf. Rev 17 of the Coming of the beast), is “to make war on the saints and to conquer them” (Rev 13:7). This conquest of the Church is sovereignly “permitted/allowed” by God (Rev 13:5, 7, 13-15 cf. 11:7; 12:17; Dan 7:21). To understand such things calls This requires a “wisdom” (Rev 13:18; 17:9) that shines only through the cross of the Lamb (cf. http://cross-connect.net.au/about/cross-connect-vision/ ). The Church under the Roman Empire understood that it was for her purification and holiness (Rev 1:9; 2:2, 3, 19; 13:10; 14:12) that God’s hand came upon her under the form of a beast like Nero or Domitian or Diocletian, severe as this might have been.
In all her political and legal efforts to defend her civil and religious rights the Western Church has not yet understood that the wrath of beasts isn’t rational. What did the million dollars the Anglican diocese of Sydney put into the “No” campaign about same sex marriage achieve for the cause of the gospel? Does that mean we supposed to do nothing? Of course not, we are to wisely share in Jesus’ active submission to the Father in being handed over to an unjust death.
I was chatting with someone who has contacts in Sri Lanka during the week. In one church where 25 children were gathered 15 were killed and the rest are in hospital. The Sunday School lesson for the day asked the children whether they would be prepared to die for Jesus. Since the bombings, mosques and temples have offered their facilities for Christians to have their Sunday services. The Catholics, the principal target of the terrorists, are standing up and declaring they are willing to die for Jesus. (After all this is a vital part of their tradition.) God’s hand is on Sri Lanka and he is honouring his Church with an immeasurable wisdom.
If the Australian Church is truly to reign with the Lamb we need to see that the purpose of rise of secular humanism, cultural Marxism, identity politics etc. in the plan of God is to oppress us so that through our faithful endurance the holy beauty the victory of Christ might be revealed (Eph 3:10). When we have wisdom and insight into this mystery, we, like the heavenly beings throughout Revelation (4:8ff; 5:11ff; 19:1-8), will magnify the Lord with ceaseless praise.
I mentioned earlier that when the Lord began to speak to me about the beasts of Revelation I was stunned for hours. What stunned me, and its not easy to put into words, is that the God ordained power of these anti-Christ manifestations, the “given over” to ascension, lamb-ness and resurrection (cf. Rom 1:24, 26, 28; 2 Thess 2:11; Rev 17:17) is of such an order that it cannot be impeded, resisted or overcome by any natural means. (For it is in proportion to the original authentic events.) Paul tells us in the time of the coming of “the man of lawlessness” when people refuse to accept the gospel, “God sends them a powerful delusion, so that they may believe what is false” (2 Thess 2:11 cf. 1 Ki 22:22; Ezek 14:9), this handing over is irresistible. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:31 cf. Acts 13:11). Any Christian attempt to defeat beastly powers by political, moral or monetary means will almost certainly be infected by the very corruption of what it seeks to oppose. Only the loving power of the crucified and ascended Lamb with whom we must be in holy communion is incorruptible. This releases in the Church a willingness to suffer and an extraordinary prayer (cf. Acts 4:29-30) that releases heavenly fire on the earth (Rev 5:8; 8:1-5 cf. Luke 12:49)
Application and Conclusion
The future of the Church depends on conformity at the deepest level with Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. This is an unprecedented level of fellowship with the life of Christ in his saving actions (Phil 3:10 etc.). Only such painful and glorious sharing in Christ (Rom 8:17; 2 Cor 1:5; 4:7-12; Phil 1:29; 3:10; Col 1:24; 1 Pet 4:1; 5:10 etc.) can produce fruit able to resist the present tide of evil (Rev 12:15). The Lord is working, locally and globally, to build a city of God within the city of this world (Gal 4:26). At the centre of this holy city must be the inimitable sacrificial love of the slain, healed, risen and ascended Lamb of God (Rev 5:5). Let us obey Peter’s exhortation, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” (1 Pet 5:6). Until this becomes the prevailing disposition across the churches the Lord will continue to hand us over to Satanic powers for a cleansing from sin in ways of which we are ignorant (1 Cor 5:5; 1 Tim 1:20 cf.1 Cor 11:29-32). Only an active submission can release the glory of the Lamb of God in the beauty of his Bride (Eph 5:25-27; Rev 19: 7-8).