18. The Story of the Song II

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Few books of the Bible have been chopped into unrelated pieces to the extent that Revelation has been. To most teachers of these things, the overcomings have nothing to do with the seals, which have nothing to do with the trumpets, which have nothing to do with the two witnesses, which have nothing to do with the firstfruits, on and on.

The purpose of a pattern is to take things that seem unrelated at first look and to show how those things are part of a seamless and complete whole. The pattern of the Tabernacle does that for the breadth of the gospel, but it is the pattern of story that brings all the disparate elements in Revelation into a sharp focus.

The Rule. By all definitions of story, Revelation 12:10-11, “now is come the Kingdom,” – “and they overcame him,” is the center and rule, the climax of the entire Bible story. Nothing in John’s vision is to be approached separately from the fourth ruling verse of the Bible, coming out from Genesis 1 – Subdue!

Out from that rule, then, we were enabled to see that the seven overcomings, preparing us for the Victory of the climax of the Story, are out from Paul’s gospel, “My strength is made perfect inside of your weakness.” That is, the overcomer is one through whose inabilities, the abilities of Jesus are perfected and revealed.

Expecting. This understanding, then, allowed us to see Jesus’ action, “I write upon you My new name,” as the key by which everything in God’s story is turned into its true meaning. Then we saw that Jesus’ new name is the nature of the Lamb who “was” slain, but is now and always alive.

Jesus’ claim that He is writing upon us the name of the Lamb, out from death and now alive forever, defines for us the statement, “Sit at My right hand – from this moment expecting” (Hebrews 10). This transfer, then, of the role of the hero from Jesus to us, enables us to know what John 6 really means. We become what we eat!

A Through Song. The meaning of God’s story, then, is known only by knowing this great transfer, from transubstantiation to metamorphy, from Jesus writing upon us His new name to our being just like Him by seeing Him as He is.
We could say it this way. The gospels are Jesus’ story. The epistles are the transfer. And John’s vision is us, from Jesus to us. Here is the heart of that transfer in the epistles. – By this we have known love, in that He set forth His soul for us, for our sakes, and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for the sake of our brothers and sisters.

The Song of the Lamb is a through song, it is sung through others for the sake of all.

To Be Like Jesus. To be like Jesus is to care for His Church in the same way that Jesus cares for us. Jesus sings His song through us. We, then, sing our song back to the Father THROUGH our brothers and sisters, and for their sakes. To be like Jesus is to return to the Father with another believer in your arms, with one by one and with all together. I know through all the depths of my spirit right now that this is true.

Let’s return now to our explanation of the story of the Song to see how it makes John’s vision crystal clear to us.

A Review. We have the layout of this Jesus Secret page already. Let’s begin this second half of the patterns of story with a review of the three boxes of the first half. Those boxes were, “The Pattern of Story,” “The Issue,” and “Two Stories as One.”

Stories, their meanings and patterns, are well-known to us. The issue of God’s story is that an invisible God is known by hearing a Spirit-Word that must be believed by humans. The tension of God’s story was created by the lies the serpent and Adam told themselves and each other. The resolution, then, is Jesus, proven faithful and true as every Word God speaks, a primary theme of John’s vision.

One Seamless Story. Because Jesus never believed the lie, technically, He is not the “hero” of God’s story, and thus God told Him to sit at His right hand until someone else completes the Story. The second story, coming out from the first, is the Church through whom Jesus proves that God speaks the Truth.

The present action of Jesus, in writing His name upon us, is a transfer of His story to ours, becoming one seamless story of Christ. We then turn and sing the same Song of the Lamb through our brothers and sisters, just as Jesus does through us. The driver of God’s story in John’s vision is our watchcare over the Church.

Our Second Page. The first box on the second Jesus Secret page is titled “A Story in Two Arenas.” We hope to see how the Story of Christ is told inwardly as union with Christ and outwardly as the revelation of Christ through His Church. The second box is titled “The Transfer.” Here we will look more closely at this incredible transfer of the role of the hero in God’s Story from Jesus to us.

The third box is “The Song of the Lamb.” The Song of the Lamb is being just like Jesus inside this present world in depths we have never imagined. It is sung by those who “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”

Inward and Outward. The unfolding of God’s Story, as He proves to all that He is Good and True, as He brings all out of insanity and into giving thanks, takes place in two arenas at the same time.

The first arena is always inward, individual, and personal. – Christ lives inside of your heart through faith. The second arena is outward, the Church, both universal and each local gathering together – the Church which is His Body, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all. The first arena is union with Christ; the second is the unveiling of Christ. The first is a merger of Jesus’ story with each one personally; the second is Father made known.

THEY. The stories of these two arenas are always taking place simultaneously. One never blocks or overshadows the other. Source and outflow are of equal importance.

Consider THEY in John’s vision. THEY are members of the woman clothed with Jesus. Each one of THEM knows the weaving of their story and Jesus’ story together. Each one casts down the accuser in their own heavens and out from their own personal relationship with the Father. Yet THEY are also the Life of the knowledge of God coming out from the Church. And THEY are the protectors and providers for that Church as she brings forth Life into all creation. THEY know all three in perfect harmony.

From Union to Community. As we have noted, John’s gospel is primarily concerned with the inward story of our union with Christ. John’s epistles are primarily concerned with the transfer from Jesus to us and from inward to outward. And John’s vision is primarily concerned with the outward arena of God’s story, the entire Church in all heaven-earth, the establishment of Communities of Christ throughout human habitation, and the Father filling His fully prepared House with Love Revealed.

At the same time, John’s vision is a description of the character of the heroes, a setting out of the plot lines, and a view of the Victory won over every opponent of Christ.

Unraveling the Falsehoods. The complexity of the lying that took place as Adam and the serpent entered into agreement together then becomes a vast complexity in the unraveling of all those falsehoods. The tension of God’s story is that, in every instance and manner wherein God is accused of being not-good and not-true, God will prove that accusation false. “That You may be justified inside Your words, and will overcome when You are judged.”

God will do this through THEM. Who are THEY? THEY are clearly defined in John’s vision. – Whosoever will; whoever wants to be THEY will be THEY.

Establishing the Plot Lines. What does this mean? It means that the battle to prove that God is always Good and always True takes place inside our own souls at the same time that it takes place inside our interactions together at the same time that it takes place in our Victory over the world. That gives us a story in three arenas, however, and so it is.

My goal in these two pages is to establish clearly the plot lines of the Story as we go forward through the unfolding of all the things ahead in John’s vision into the fabric and experience of our present days.

A Story in Two Arenas. The unfolding of God’s Story is told inside each of us first, as union with Christ, and then it is made visible through our walking together as each local Church as the revelation of Christ. Our own personal story of Christ is made complete when we know Jesus in every moment of our lives, yet it includes placing every person with whom we have interacted into the Father. The inner message of the Scroll cannot be read outwardly, however, until the observer sees many walking as one, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. The story we tell together is the Father revealed.

THEY in John’s vision are also the firstfruits of Christ, the ones who tell God’s story, who sing the Song of the Lamb. We are part of THEY because we want to be, giving ourselves to God for the sake of others. We are members of that Church who put the Lord Jesus upon all that we are. We are the life of the knowledge of God coming into the knowledge of all. We refuse all accusation, not just for ourselves but for all our brothers and sisters. And we establish Communities of Christ throughout human habitation, protecting, providing, and being Mercy, that Father might fill His House as Love Revealed. 
The Victory. The transfer of the Story from Jesus to us is the most wondrous element in the Bible. Redemption is everything Jesus does to get us to agree to be just like Him. Salvation is the Story now coming through us.

If God is DETERMINED to prove that He is always GOOD in every circumstance of our lives and that He is always TRUE in every Word He speaks to us, then must that proving not begin with individual people? And must that declaration NOT, then, go out from those who find God always good and always true into the hearing and acknowledgement of others? This is the issue and the Victory.

The Baton. Now, Jesus’ ability made complete inside of our inability, that is, transubstantiation-metamorphy, that is, Christ lives inside of our hearts through faith, is almost the entire topic we have studied from John 1:1 to Revelation 5:14. More than that, we see the power and absoluteness of this transfer of Jesus to us taking place in the seven overcomings beyond what we have ever known.

Nonetheless, here we are talking about story and about two stories as a relay race. When we say that Jesus ‘passes the ‘baton’ to us, we mean the authority and place as the hero of God’s story. We must know the task Jesus Himself carries and fulfills, but now living as us.

A Transfer of Sending. We are heading into the final showdown. We know Victory only as we know the utter fusion of Jesus and us together in purpose, in sending, and in authority. – “I send you in the same way that the Father sent Me” (John 20). This transfer of the sending is what I am calling “the passing of the baton.”

We want to turn our focus, then, upon that which is ahead of us in the next few years, the final years of this age, knowing that everything is now Jesus through us together. And when we say “we together,” we are speaking of all who are firstfruits, most of whom we don’t presently know.

Our Purpose Is for Others. Simba defeated Scar, not as a struggle for power, but that he might bring life and blessing to all who belonged to him. Thus the purpose of our defeating all that opposes Christ is to bring the knowledge of God as life and blessing to our Christian brethren.

God gives us life that we might give that life to our brethren (1 John 5) just as He gave Jesus life to give to us. God saves us from all that is death that we might give the full knowledge of a personal redemption to other believers, just as Jesus knew all salvation from death for our sakes. Every moment we experience over the next several years is Jesus out from us for the sake of all who belong to Him.

The Authority of Light. We affirm our brethren just as God affirmed Jesus – “You are My beloved Son,” and just as Jesus affirms us.

I think, though, that the biggest deal is the authority of light, to bring our brethren into honesty. I used to think that exposing the various lies in the world was important. That happens, but it’s not our focus. Each one obsesses over a different set and coloration of all the lies available. Our authority is to set forth for all to see the great value of honesty, of placing all our wrongness, whatever it might be, into the light inside of God. This is the second witness of Christ.

The Transfer. Jesus completed His part of God’s Story, becoming the Lamb that was slain but is now alive into the age. Then Jesus sat down inside the right hand of God, from then until now expecting. This expectation of Jesus is the transfer of the Story to us. We are witnesses of Christ, that through us God demonstrates to all that He is Good and True. Jesus writes His name upon us that we might be just like Him. Then He says to us, “I send you in just the same way the Father sent Me.” Jesus expects us to bring all things into the giving of thanks.

Salvation is God’s Story now coming through us. We declare that God is Good in every circumstance of our lives and True in every Word He speaks to us out from the gospel. We gather into Christ Community so that the writing within might become the writing without, read by all, that Father might be known as our love for one another. As we go forward in Victory, we defeat all that opposes Christ to bring the knowledge of God as life and blessing to our Christian brethren. We receive life and salvation and truth that we might give the same to our brothers and sisters.

A Song Together. The Song of the Lamb is the song of our lives, but sung as a return to the Father, that is, reciprocity. Yet the Song is not just our individual song, for Christ is a many-membered body. Much Christian worship is one individual, looking inward, and thanking God for his or her own redemption. That is good and necessary, but it is not the Song of the Lamb.

The Song of the Lamb is a family song, we together, coming out from walking together through hard places, loving one another, and yet still singing for the sake of others. In The Lord of the Rings, it’s not the hero, Frodo, but rather, the fellowship, many together that compels the reader.

Every Stumbling Step. The story we sing is Jesus through every stumbling step. It is not the moment of victory, as important as that is, that is most satisfying to an observer of a story, but rather the character arc, the maturing of the primary characters.

In War and Peace, the moment when Jesus reveals Himself to Natasha Rostov, in the depths of her agony, it means so much because the reader has been with her every stumbling step of her way. In Pride and Prejudice, the moment when Darcy and Lizzie speak their love for each other in humility and truth means so much because the reader has known every clash of pride and prejudice in the whole story.

The Real Story. The real Story is not defeating the accuser, but becoming just like Jesus, we inside of Him and He inside of us. This is the Story people will be lining up to hear forever and ever.

Yet the real Song of the Lamb is when we place that same character arc upon our brothers and sisters all across the world, when we line up as Jesus to hear their story of Christ. Here is an oft-repeated bridge in our Song. – “Tell me how Jesus is found inside every moment of your life story.” I did not know it before, but that has to be why I wrote my life story as I did, in response to Jesus saying to me, “Daniel, tell Me how I am found in every moment of your life.”

Telling the Story Together. And so I say to you, dear reader, tell me the story of how Jesus is found in every moment of your life. Yet you will discover the same thing I discovered: you cannot do such a wondrous thing without speaking good grace into and giving thanks for every single person with whom you interacted through all your days. You cannot find Jesus in every moment without also taking all whom you have known back to the Father with you.

And when we tell such a story together, walking together in the hard places, then we are singing the Song of the Lamb. This is how we view what’s coming in John’s vision.

Turning on the Lights. A huge part of the Apocalypse is to turn on the lights, that is, to bring all to honesty and to the giving of thanks.

LIGHT is a people who together find God GOOD in every moment and circumstance and who find God TRUE in every Word that He speaks. LIGHT is a people who together, give themselves to the Father for the sake of others.

As is said of Noah, by this the world is condemned, that is, shown to be without excuse, that is, brought to honesty. “I was wrong, please forgive me,” is the only beginning of any return to the Father.

Going Forward. This Song of the Lamb, then, “And we also, for the sake of our Christian brethren,” is how we will sing our way through every topic coming up in Revelation.

We will sing this Song through the breaking off of the seals, through the sounding of the trumpets, through the second testimony of Christ, through the Ark of the Covenant made visible, through our care for the Church, through our victory over the beast, through the dark things of the final moments before the dawn, through rescuing all out from Nicene imagination, all the way into the Victory of the Lamb and the establishment of Christian Communities all across the earth, Jerusalem now come.

The Song of the Lamb. The Song of the Lamb is a through song; it is always sung through others for the sake of others. Jesus loves us by setting forth His soul for us; we turn and love our brothers and sisters in the same way. Jesus sings His Song through us; we sing the same Song back to God through our Christian brethren. Our Song is a together Song, a Song coming out from the commitment of Christ Community. We know one another through every stumbling step of our way together.

We speak to one another, “Tell me, my brother, my sister, how Jesus is found in every moment of your life. Tell me how Jesus and you together have carried all whom you have known back to the Father with joy.” It is this stumbling through darkness together, this carrying of a Jesus-with-us proven faithful and true through all opposition, that is the wondrous meaning of God’s great Story. As we tell such a Story together, walking together through the hard places into all Victory, we are singing the Song of the Lamb. As we place our actions into honesty, into our God, regardless, so the value of walking in the light is made visible to all. We go forward into our care for the Church, into the Apocalypse, singing the Song of the Lamb.

Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “We Remove the Seven Seals.” For that lesson, read all of Revelation 6 and verse 8:1 in the JSV. The entire page will be a deliverance prayer. For that reason, we will use an “Ask and Believe” box that will fill most of the page. Inside that box we will pray seven short prayers casting the demonic seals of unbelief and refusal from off the Christian church.

And I watched when the Lamb removed one of the seven seals. – Remember, Jesus is seated, waiting. This action depicts the transfer of Jesus, now become the Lamb as us.

Let’s Pray Together. “Lord Jesus, You have asked us to share with You how You are found in every moment of our lives. We have done so with Joy, placing every person with whom we have ever interacted into the Father together with You.

“Now You send us, Lord Jesus, with the same purpose, to ask our Christian brethren to recount their own story of Christ, Your being made full and complete inside their own stumbling way. You send us, Lord Jesus, to bring all into the giving of thanks, into Your Eucharist.

“Lord Jesus, You have made us now the ‘heroes’ of Your Story, that we might share with You the precious wonder of carrying Your people through the darkness and into life.

“Lord Jesus, You have given us Life that we might give that same Life to our Christian brethren. – Brothers and sisters, you are filled with all that Jesus is so that you might know that God your Father shares your life with you.

“Lord Jesus, You have saved us from death, that we might show our brethren that they also are redeemed, full and complete, that they also might walk with no consciousness of sins. – Be reconciled to God, dear Christian, for God already fills you with all of His fulness and flows out from you as rivers of Life.

“And Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves to Your Church, to walk together in the devotion of Christ Community, sharing our lives together daily, that all Your people might see the Salvation of God, that all might enter into You.”