Together in Christ: 'We Will Reign with Him!' — Revelation 3:21

I was blessed to have a great friend and talented worship minister, Ken Young, join me in a grand adventure. We presented the book of Revelation over two weeks in our Sunday worship experience. On the first Sunday, we covered Revelation chapters 1-3. This first week, we focused on the seven churches and how they speak to every church, addressing our struggles, strengths, weaknesses, failures, and vulnerabilities. We sang a great deal, prayed, read passages from Revelation, took Communion focused on Jesus being at the door and wanting to join us, ^[1] and then I spoke in three short bursts to share insights. The following Sunday, we covered the remainder of Revelation (chapters 4-22). Once again, we sang a great deal, prayed, read portions of Revelation, took Communion focused on the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, ^[2], and I spoke three times during the passage of the service. These worship experiences were fast-moving, so I could not get bogged down in the minute details — which is how I believe we are to read the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John! We sang old hymns from Revelation, and Ken wrote five or six new ones. I worked on slides to add drama and clarity to the unfolding story. We kept all but the youngest children in our worship assemblies to experience Revelation with us. We had learned many of Ken's new songs at a family retreat the previous summer, and several of them became some of our children's favorite songs to sing.

After the services, I asked several different ages of children and teens what they thought the message of Revelation was. Most of our children could all tell you the basic gist of Revelation in words like this: "Satan is evil, a mean dragon trying to destroy God's people and His churches. Jesus promised that we would win if we were strong and faithful. He promised to come back and destroy the dragon's power, we will have a big party with God, and we will never be sad or die again."

We were delighted with the results of this multi-sensory experience and its impact on all ages. Our people sang, confessed the truth with Scripture, prayed, shared Communion, and celebrated in anticipation of the defeat of evil, death, sin, and hell. We rejoiced in the victorious Jesus Who is coming for us to share in His glory. We remembered that our job now is to remain strong and faithful, trusting in Jesus' promised victory for us. Times may be challenging, but if we stick together and live for Jesus, 'we will sing and shout the victory"^&nbps;[3] with the angels of heaven. More than that, our verse today reminds us that we will reign with the Lord Jesus on His throne with Him! Our shared relationships with Jesus and each other give us the strength to endure to share in this great, eternal victory! Paul told this to Timothy, and we take it to heart:

So I am willing to endure anything if it will bring salvation and eternal glory in Christ Jesus to those God has chosen.
 
This is a trustworthy saying: "If we die with him, we will also live with him. If we endure hardship, we will reign with him. ^[4]