Summary
Passage – Revelation 1 Introduction – Looking to the future – When we assume vision is simply our preferred future, we make the huge assumption that we can see the future even though that future is far away. If we’re going to “engage a vision”, we need to bring the far off future close enough so we can see it in high definition colour. Live fully in the present but always with the future as a close vision. What we need is to live into the future. God calls us and we follow. The right vision is critical and having it as clear as possible is critical to fulfilling our mission. We see vision in people such as Abraham, Esther, David, Peter, and Paul, and we also see it in the book of Revelation with the vision given to the apostle John. Revelation – We’re asking…what was John’s vision and how clear was it? What did he see? (What do we see?) As we are living in the present reality of earth, we need to STOP and look at heaven. This is how we make choices now based on future vision. Having a vision that works is about having enough belief in a certain kind of future that it changes your actions now. Vision is about Worship – Keep your worship in the right place for the future. Remember who you see— namely Jesus.
- Keep your worship in the right place.
- Have your worship affect your actions.
As we do this, the future becomes clear. In God’s perspective time is compressed, and John sees both the future and the present clearly. What we see in the future determine our present actions. As the adage goes, “live in light of eternity.”
Worship and action are always tied together. In Revelation, John looks and sees Jesus and that changes his worship and his actions. Things are always happening on earth, sometimes hard or bad things, but John keeps looking up at Jesus and at the future hope of Jesus. John sees the end— that God wins. We can know the distant future if our eyes are on Jesus.
The question: – What do we see? Where are we looking for our worship? How do we live today? If our vision gets clouded our decisions will start to change. We will stop investing in the clear future and our eyes remain fixed on the present.
Our challenge – Maybe what we’re currently doing tells us what we really see and worship. We need a holy discontent because of the great needs in our world and a desire to look at Jesus to see our vision and change our worship and our actions.
About the speaker
David has served as the Regional Director for Fellowship Pacific since 2007. He is passionate about developing an interdependent culture within the churches of Fellowship Pacific, with an end goal of seeing every church succeed in both reaching people with the good news of Christ and in building quality disciples of Jesus. Learn more.