Suffering and the Kingdom (6) - John

Commitment to enduring through suffering is a major theme in the Book of Revelation. John understood that endurance of suffering brings in the kingdom.

Your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus (Rev 1:9).

The kingdom does not come through Christians gaining political power. Rather, as Christians follow Jesus example and take up the cross of suffering, the political powers will collapse, allowing the Kingdom to emerge. This is a mystery that few Christians understand. Patient endurance in the face of evil opens the way for the destruction of evil.

John’s main reason for writing the letters to the seven churches was to encourage them to endure through their suffering. When modern readers focus on the faults of the various churches, we miss something important. Jesus is encouraging his people to endure suffering in the face of hostility from the greatest manifestation of evil that will ever appear on earth.

You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary (Rev 2:3 Letter to Ephesus).

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev 2:10-11 Letter to Smyrna).

He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels (Rev 3:5 Letter to Sardis).

I know your deeds…. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown (Rev 3:8,11 Letter to Philadelphia)

Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God... I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. 13He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev 3:8,12-13 Letter to Philadelphia)

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev 3:21-22 Letter to Laodicea).

This last is an amazing promise. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God’s throne. As Christians persevere through suffering, they are seated at the right hand of God.
John explained that Jesus overcame evil by dying on the cross. The Holy Spirit will bring in the kingdom through a church that follows Jesus example.

They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them! (Rev 12:11-12).

This seems like a paradox, but the people of the Lamb experience victory, when they are willing to die for their faith, and do not shrink from death. The fullness of the Holy Spirit dwells in such a church that rises to the right hand of God by suffering.