back to indexWed Bible Study - Revelation Lesson 2
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Revelation chapter 1 verses 1 through 8. Today is the introduction of the book of Revelation. 00:00:13.000 |
And those of you guys who have done inductive Bible study through any part of the Bible, 00:00:20.400 |
can you lower the volume a little bit? Ah, okay. If you have done any inductive Bible 00:00:26.440 |
study through any book of the Bible, you'll know that the introduction has quite a few 00:00:33.120 |
things that are hidden in there that if you do a little bit of research, you'll find out 00:00:36.320 |
that it kind of points to the introduction and what to look for the rest of the book. 00:00:40.920 |
And Revelation especially. Because as you're going in, you're going to, obviously, you 00:00:46.680 |
know, we're expecting to get lost in some of these passages. So we're going to get in 00:00:50.360 |
there and we're going to be asking about the color of the different horses and different 00:00:53.600 |
trumpets and the bowls and what do they mean. So it's extremely important for us to understand 00:00:58.560 |
the big picture. Because if you at least don't have the big picture, when you get confused 00:01:03.580 |
with the details, then you're really going to be lost. Okay, so the introduction is extremely 00:01:07.720 |
important. Let me pray first and then we'll jump in. Gracious and loving Father, we thank 00:01:17.600 |
you so much for this evening. And we pray Father God that as we study through your Word, 00:01:24.640 |
the things that you've revealed Father so many years ago, and so many people have dove 00:01:29.600 |
into this book trying to understand the application, what it means. We pray Father God that you 00:01:34.920 |
give us diligence that we would not just passively be listeners, but actively digging through 00:01:40.240 |
your Word to understand your Revelation, why it was revealed and what you desire of us, 00:01:46.240 |
Lord God, for those who are studying. We pray that the introductory statements, Lord, would 00:01:52.120 |
make a lot of sense to us and give us things, Lord, that would help us point to the things, 00:01:57.040 |
Lord, that the future studies would be able to be better understood because of it. So 00:02:03.080 |
we pray that you would help us in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. All right, so if you look at 00:02:07.680 |
the beginning of the letter in Revelations chapter 1 verses 1 through 8, there's obviously 00:02:13.720 |
two sections and hopefully you had enough time to look at it before you came. Again, 00:02:19.320 |
any study, and I'm going to say this again, probably as often as I can, any study that 00:02:25.400 |
you're going to, you're really trying to glean from, if you just come in passively to listen, 00:02:30.080 |
I guarantee you, you're going to obviously get less. The more you put in, the more you're 00:02:34.120 |
going to get out of it. Book of Revelation, I told you this in Isaiah. Isaiah, if you 00:02:38.320 |
just kind of casually come in, a lot of that stuff is going to go over your head. You already 00:02:42.440 |
know that Revelation is not a book that you can just read casually. You can't just kind 00:02:46.400 |
of flip through one page and say, okay, I get the gist of it. You really have to wrestle 00:02:50.280 |
through what he was saying, where it's headed, in what context of history is he talking about, 00:02:55.960 |
or else it's just going to sound like red horse, white horse, you know, black horse, 00:03:01.920 |
and death and life, and that's basically all you're going to get, right? So I really want 00:03:06.120 |
to encourage you. I'm giving you those questions as a pointer, so there's kind of a highlight, 00:03:12.080 |
but I really want to encourage you to go in there and dig. Dig verse 1, 2, 3, 4, and ask 00:03:17.200 |
the right questions, because this book was not meant to be just skimmed over, right? 00:03:22.720 |
And I don't think any book was meant to be skimmed over, but this book in particular, 00:03:26.880 |
he wrote it and revealed to it in such a way that those who are diligently seeking, and 00:03:31.920 |
searching, and asking, they will find the answers, right? And those who are just casually, 00:03:37.620 |
it's almost kind of hidden. It's kind of like the reason why Jesus spoke in parables. He 00:03:41.520 |
said for those who have ears so that they can listen, and ask, and search, they will 00:03:46.360 |
have to go the extra step to find out what the meaning of the parable was. And he said 00:03:50.400 |
those are given so that revelation may be given to you so you would have a deeper understanding 00:03:55.040 |
of it. But those people were just casually listening. It's actually hidden to them, right? 00:03:59.720 |
In Revelation, the apocryphal writing is exactly like that, right? If you casually listen, 00:04:04.760 |
I guarantee you that it will go over your head. So again, this is my encouragement to 00:04:08.360 |
you to really dive into this book. And some of the greatest treasures in the Scripture 00:04:14.400 |
are things that are at least superficially hard to understand. But when you actually 00:04:19.140 |
see what's revealed in it, you're going to find that this will help you to connect a 00:04:23.160 |
lot of other parts of the Bible that you may not, you had maybe had a vague understanding 00:04:27.320 |
of. Okay? All right. So we're going to look at the prologue. The very beginning, it starts 00:04:31.400 |
with the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to show his servants the things that 00:04:37.920 |
must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. We're 00:04:41.920 |
going to get a little bit deep into that. But the first part of it, everybody have your 00:04:47.360 |
outline, right? Okay. When he says the revelation of Jesus Christ, right? Does this mean the 00:04:56.460 |
revelation about Jesus Christ or revelation coming through Jesus Christ? I just want you 00:05:10.220 |
to think. I'm not expecting any answers. I usually don't expect any answers. Right? Is 00:05:16.660 |
it revelation of Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ, or is it saying revelation through 00:05:22.260 |
Jesus Christ? If you read the commentaries, there's, you know, there's pages written on 00:05:31.940 |
why they think it is about Jesus Christ and why they think it is through Jesus Christ. 00:05:37.180 |
But I don't think it necessarily has to be one or the other. The broad outline of the 00:05:43.700 |
introduction is going to be about the revelation of Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ, and revelation 00:05:49.940 |
that is obviously coming through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the author, ultimately the author 00:05:55.500 |
through the Holy Spirit. So if you look at the first few verses, it will give us a brief 00:06:01.340 |
outline of how the revelation came to us. The order of the revelation that we see first, 00:06:10.100 |
not to Christ, right? Revelation came from God to Christ. I think I got another. Okay. 00:06:23.940 |
It's not there. It's actually here. All right. In a few seconds, it'll come up. Okay. I want 00:06:40.900 |
to read a passage in Amos 3, 7 through 8. It says, "For the Lord God does nothing without 00:06:45.700 |
revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets. The lion has roared. Who will not 00:06:50.460 |
fear the Lord God has spoken? Who can prophesy?" So in Amos and all the other prophets, God 00:06:58.060 |
says, before he does anything, he makes sure that revelation is first given. So the book 00:07:04.220 |
of Revelation basically was not meant for it to be hidden. Right? So a lot of people 00:07:11.060 |
think like, oh, the book of Revelation, he kind of wrote it in code so we won't understand. 00:07:16.700 |
That was not the intention at all. In fact, from the very get-go, it says, this was a 00:07:20.660 |
revelation. God is intending for us to know what he is saying. But he said it in a way 00:07:26.020 |
where it requires work, it requires seeking him out. Right? So the order of what we see 00:07:33.780 |
in the revelation is that God revealed through his son Christ. Christ reveals through the 00:07:41.620 |
angels and then angels reveals through John. And then in the end, John reveals to the seven 00:07:49.340 |
churches. So you can say, in a sense, that God is speaking through these various channels. 00:07:58.980 |
And this is the typical way that God speaks. Again, in certain circles, or maybe even us, 00:08:06.440 |
we will sometimes say, God told me this, God told me that. But the usual, it doesn't mean 00:08:11.740 |
that God can't do that, or that God doesn't do that. But the typical way that God reveals 00:08:16.900 |
himself is usually through his servants. And here he clearly spells out that it is through 00:08:21.980 |
Christ, Christ through the angels, angels to John, and then John to the seven churches. 00:08:28.180 |
So one of the questions that I want you guys to contemplate and think about, and I think 00:08:31.620 |
it's one of the discussion questions, why does God not reveal all of this directly to 00:08:35.900 |
us? Why does he go through Christ? Why the work of the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit 00:08:43.680 |
only able to do something that God cannot do? And that's why he hires him or gets him 00:08:48.580 |
to do that? Is the Holy Spirit not able to speak to all of us? I mean, the Holy Spirit 00:08:52.580 |
is also omnipresent. Why does he use these channels to reveal these important things 00:08:58.140 |
to us? I'm not going to answer that. I want you guys to think about it. Because this is 00:09:03.720 |
the typical way that revelation usually comes to us. God uses his particular servants and 00:09:09.380 |
raises them up so that they would go and disseminate this information. He says that the revelation 00:09:19.300 |
came to John to the seven churches. And so the first three chapters we're going to be 00:09:23.740 |
looking at the characters of the seven churches and the meaning of that. So we're just going 00:09:28.220 |
to touch upon it today. And we're going to dive a little bit deeper into it next time. 00:09:32.700 |
Because next time he's going to go directly into that. But why the seven churches? Why 00:09:40.660 |
not the 30 churches? Or why not the 15 churches? If you know anything about that area, Asia 00:09:45.860 |
Minor, how big is Asia Minor? Some of you guys who know the biblical geography. Is it 00:09:52.660 |
the size of Florida? How big is Asia Minor? Land wise. Just a rough guess. Or you have 00:10:06.980 |
no idea where Asia Minor is. I know some of you guys know where Asia Minor is. Remember 00:10:11.180 |
in Paul's second missionary journey, he was about to go to Asia Minor. The Holy Spirit 00:10:16.860 |
tells him not to go there. And then he crosses over and then he goes to Philippi. So that 00:10:23.500 |
whole region he said not to go. Basically the size of Asia Minor would probably be about 00:10:30.520 |
two thirds of the United States. It's about a half of Turkey. So if you know the size 00:10:36.780 |
of Turkey, Turkey as a nation is huge. Land mass wise is huge. So majority of Apostle 00:10:42.340 |
Paul's missionary journeys took place in this area. Right? So he's at the island of Patmos 00:10:50.260 |
across the ocean, which is the short distance on the island. He's been basically banished 00:10:57.860 |
to the island of Patmos for doing work in Asia Minor. But in that whole area, this letter 00:11:02.940 |
is written to only seven churches. Now were there only seven churches at the time? No. 00:11:09.900 |
Even in the scripture itself, it mentions other places. Like I think I mentioned Troas, 00:11:14.780 |
Colossae, Hierapolis. I mean there are many other churches that are mentioned that Paul 00:11:19.260 |
does not mention. So why does he single out these seven churches? Again, we don't know 00:11:23.660 |
the exact answer for that. And again, I had a map but I can't show it to you for technological 00:11:29.100 |
reasons. Okay. But one of the theory is that if you look at the map of the seven churches, 00:11:36.140 |
it is kind of connected to each other. So the ancient history, or at least the roads 00:11:46.220 |
that the Romans built, that every single one of these cities were not small towns. They 00:11:50.420 |
were big towns and they were the most heavily populated. Therefore the trades and the commerce 00:11:56.980 |
was very active. So you'll notice that not only Apostle Paul, but all the missionary 00:12:03.060 |
work that is done in the early churches typically targeted big cities. It would make sense, 00:12:09.300 |
humanly speaking it would make sense because that's where the most concentration of people 00:12:13.380 |
were. So if Apostle Paul was to come and preach the gospel, he'd want to preach it to as many 00:12:18.100 |
people as possible. So the early church, in order to maximize their effort, they targeted 00:12:23.980 |
these large cities. So every one of these seven churches that we'll get into when we 00:12:29.160 |
actually dive into those texts are churches that happen to be significant in size because 00:12:35.540 |
of where they were. And there were easy roads that traveled between these cities that the 00:12:40.700 |
Romans built for that purpose, for business purposes. Okay. So again, this is not a fact, 00:12:46.940 |
but this is again, educated guess, I guess, by the scholars that this is probably the 00:12:52.940 |
reason why these seven churches are targeted. But the number seven also is significant because 00:12:58.220 |
whenever the Bible mentions the number seven, it signifies something perfection. Right? 00:13:04.660 |
These are the seven churches of Christ. And so there's symbolic reason behind a number 00:13:10.060 |
seven, but there's also practical reasons that these churches probably were larger than 00:13:14.900 |
average churches. The revelation from Jesus Christ is given to His servants for the purpose 00:13:25.040 |
of revealing it to others. Now that's a question that I proposed to you in the beginning. Why 00:13:29.940 |
was revelation given to John? In fact, it wasn't just John. If you look at the passage, 00:13:38.260 |
it says, "He made it known by sending His angels who bore witness to the Word of God 00:13:42.180 |
and to His servants," in plural. Right? So he says, "The revelation is given to all of 00:13:50.660 |
His servants, but in this particular situation for the churches, it is given to John." So 00:14:00.340 |
if you look at it, the revelation given to His servant, or in particular John, is strictly 00:14:05.940 |
for the purpose of making it known to other people. So when we talk about the good news, 00:14:11.620 |
it's meant to be spread to those who will continue to spread the news. Right? So if 00:14:18.140 |
we ask the Christian, if we're coming to God asking, it's like, "I'm just curious. I'm 00:14:22.620 |
just curious to know who God is. I'm just curious." But a typical pattern that you will 00:14:28.860 |
see in the Scripture is God reveals Himself to people who are ready to reveal Himself 00:14:34.140 |
to others. Because that's the purpose of revelation. The purpose of revelation is not just for 00:14:41.260 |
an individual. That's why the Gospel, the term Gospel, the good news of the cross, euangelion, 00:14:49.740 |
there's a deliberate use of that word for a particular purpose. Because the Gospel was 00:14:54.220 |
given with the understanding that it's meant to be spread. The Gospel saves us. It is the 00:15:02.620 |
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. First to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 00:15:07.780 |
So when Paul says, "First to the Jews," it means that the Gospel first came. The news 00:15:11.500 |
spread among the Jews because God has been preparing them to receive the Gospel message, 00:15:17.900 |
even from their Old Testament history. Everything about the Jewish culture and their history 00:15:22.020 |
and everything that they experienced was for the purpose of the Gospel to come and make 00:15:26.620 |
sense to them. And then when Christ came and was resurrected, now He's opening the door 00:15:31.980 |
for the Gospel to go to the Gentiles. So the very significance of what we're doing, the 00:15:40.180 |
very purpose of this revelation is not so that we can come and say, "You know what? 00:15:45.100 |
I didn't study revelation. I don't really know what's going on in revelation. So I should 00:15:48.140 |
know it. I'm a Christian. So I should know it." That is not the purpose of revelation. 00:15:54.060 |
Of course we should know it. Scripture has a completely different meaning when you are 00:16:03.020 |
studying it for the purpose of sharing it. Now I have the exact opposite problem. My 00:16:11.740 |
problem is everything I study, I study for the purpose of sharing. That's my problem. 00:16:18.220 |
So ever since I started preaching, I wrote in the very beginning of my Bible to make 00:16:25.140 |
sure that you study this for yourself. Make sure you study this for yourself because my 00:16:29.960 |
natural inclination whenever I study is like, "Okay, this makes sense. This would make sense 00:16:34.300 |
in Bible study. This would help me to preach the message." But having said that, if you 00:16:43.220 |
don't study the Word of God with the intention of sharing in the Great Commission, there's 00:16:48.660 |
a huge chunk of the Bible that won't make any sense to you. Even if it makes sense to 00:16:53.540 |
you logically, you will never understand the heart of God. Because He's writing these things 00:16:59.340 |
like, "Why does the church need to be pure?" Of course we want to bring more honor and 00:17:06.620 |
glory to God. Because the whole purpose of the church is to shine His light so that the 00:17:13.740 |
world may see who He is and that the world also may come and worship Him. And if our 00:17:20.260 |
hearts and our mind and our intention is not engaged in the Great Commission, the Word 00:17:24.440 |
of God, there's going to be a disconnect from God's intention and you're just going to hear 00:17:29.860 |
His words, but you're not going to hear His heart. So when we study the book of Revelation, 00:17:35.460 |
the purpose of the study of the book of Revelation is not so that you can say, "Well, I know 00:17:39.700 |
what the black horse is. I figured out what the trumpet is or the bowl is." Right? I guarantee 00:17:46.620 |
you you're going to come out more confused. I'm already telling you, you're going to come 00:17:51.100 |
out more confused if that's our approach. The reason why we study the book of Revelation 00:17:57.300 |
is to know Christ. It's going to be a revelation of who Christ is. And because of our knowledge 00:18:05.300 |
of Christ, our knowledge of Christ, that it is for us to live soberly, eagerly anticipating 00:18:12.040 |
for His coming. And then to encourage other people to remain sober and then bring other 00:18:17.180 |
people to Christ as well. Right? So any Bible study that is disengaged with the Great Commission 00:18:24.500 |
is not going to make much sense. It's looking at, you know, like an instruction manual with 00:18:28.940 |
no intent of ever making any furniture. Right? You only look at the manual, you only look 00:18:35.500 |
at that because you have intent of making something. And that's the purpose of Revelation. 00:18:40.660 |
Revelation was given to Apostle Paul, to John, to all these disciples so that they may spread. 00:18:46.740 |
And those who heard the message immediately went and told other people. And we're 2000 00:18:51.100 |
years removed, but that purpose is never going to change until when? Until He comes. Right? 00:18:58.660 |
Where does it say that? Matthew 24. Right? He says, until the gospel has gone to the 00:19:04.340 |
remotest part of the world, until all the nations have heard, then the end will come. 00:19:10.080 |
So until that happens, in other words, that hasn't happened yet. 2000 years later, it 00:19:14.020 |
still hasn't happened yet. Until that happens, until the church is actively engaged in spreading 00:19:19.740 |
this news to the remotest part of the world, and every nation, every tribe hears, He says 00:19:24.260 |
the end will not come. So Revelation is for that purpose. Right? Is to reveal His truth 00:19:30.260 |
to get us to go and get us to share. It is given to show His servants what must soon 00:19:43.460 |
take place. Now the idea of soon, I'm not going to get too much into this today. There's 00:19:48.420 |
a sense of urgency. Did you catch that? Right? Now you may read that and say, well, I can't 00:19:53.700 |
understand if they were the first recipient that they thought maybe Jesus was going to 00:19:57.140 |
come tomorrow. 2000 years later, do we still have that sense of urgency? Is this relevant 00:20:01.860 |
today? And you can see why some people would read that and say, well, this must have been 00:20:07.180 |
written for the first century people. Because it didn't happen soon. So if it was soon, 00:20:12.520 |
it must have already happened. So we're looking at something that already happened and it's 00:20:16.220 |
not in the future. Because if it's in the future, how can it be soon? Right? Why would 00:20:21.260 |
there be a sense of urgency if it didn't happen after 2000 years? Yes? I hope you asked that 00:20:29.300 |
because that will tell me that you were studying and wrestling with it before you came. Okay? 00:20:33.820 |
Why would there be a sense of urgency studying this book? Right? Because the whole purpose 00:20:40.340 |
of this Revelation is to give a sense of urgency so that His people will live with a sense 00:20:47.060 |
of urgency. Right? Whether He comes tomorrow, whether He comes 1000 years later, He is coming. 00:20:54.740 |
Right? He says to us 2000 years may seem like a long time, but to God, it's a split second. 00:21:01.960 |
So part of the way we understand the soon is that everything that needed to happen before 00:21:09.260 |
the end is about to come, for the Son of God to come, to live as a human being, to suffer, 00:21:17.020 |
to die, to resurrect, to give the Holy Spirit, to renew the covenant. Everything that needs 00:21:23.820 |
to happen for the end to come has happened. So it could have happened 1000 years ago. 00:21:29.580 |
It could have happened 2000 years ago. So the question that the readers of Peter was 00:21:33.900 |
asking is that we thought He was going to come right away. Right? If Jesus said it is 00:21:39.860 |
finished, why didn't He come right away? How did He answer that? Don't worry, I'm not expecting 00:21:51.860 |
an answer. I just want you to think about it. How did Peter answer that question? Because 00:21:57.380 |
everybody is talking with a sense of urgency. He is coming. Paul says that it is his hope 00:22:02.500 |
to preach the Gospel. Right? And he is praying that the Word of God may speed with urgency. 00:22:09.740 |
So in the early church there was a sense of urgency. How do you and I have a sense of 00:22:13.500 |
urgency 2000 years later? When the real issues that we are dealing with is getting promotion, 00:22:20.300 |
paying our bills, right? Buying a house at the right time. Why would there be a sense 00:22:25.780 |
of urgency? He hasn't come in 2000 years. How did Peter answer that? I'm trying to see 00:22:42.140 |
if anybody, anybody is, any hint? I think you know. What did He say? So that more people 00:22:54.940 |
may come to Christ. Right? In essence, in summary, that is what He says. 2000 years 00:23:00.900 |
of being patiently waiting for sinners to repent to come to Him. So that more people 00:23:05.380 |
can come. So that more of the Gospel may spread to the more remotest parts of the world. That 00:23:10.700 |
is what He said. He said if He came 2000 years ago, we wouldn't be here. Our parents wouldn't 00:23:16.460 |
be here. Our great grandparents wouldn't be here. Right? He said the purpose of His patience 00:23:22.260 |
is so that the fullness of number of people entering the kingdom may be fulfilled before 00:23:28.020 |
He comes. So that sense of urgency to get the Gospel out, whether He came 100 years 00:23:32.420 |
ago or 3000 years later, isn't any different. Right? Because every generation is responsible 00:23:41.420 |
for that generation. The previous generation cannot preach the Gospel to our generation. 00:23:46.360 |
And our generation will not be able to preach the Gospel to the next generation. So all 00:23:50.620 |
the people that are alive today is our responsibility. So there is a sense of urgency. So the first 00:23:57.780 |
century people who read this, it is urgent for them. And it is urgent for us because 00:24:03.860 |
how many people do we have? 7 billion people. Right? Remember what He says, Ezekiel, if 00:24:09.660 |
I tell a sinner that judgment is coming and I tell you to go tell him and you don't tell 00:24:16.580 |
him, what does he say? He says he will be judged for his sins, but you will also be 00:24:20.860 |
judged for your sin for not obeying. If I tell you to go tell that sinner to repent 00:24:26.300 |
and you tell him to repent and he doesn't repent, that sin is upon him, but you are 00:24:31.780 |
guiltless because you've done your part. Right? It's no different for us. This revelation 00:24:39.340 |
that He gives us, there is a sense of urgency because every single day we live around people 00:24:48.220 |
who are going to hell. You believe that? We confess to believe it, right? But do you believe 00:25:01.500 |
that? And I think that thought should sober us. That thought should cause us to think 00:25:07.500 |
deeply on the things that we believe, on the things that we are studying and applying the 00:25:11.780 |
things that we are studying. Right? Or else that sense of urgency is not going to exist 00:25:17.340 |
in our heart. Again, I say all of this because if you read the scripture, it's not just the 00:25:22.460 |
book of Revelation, every letter that is written, there is a sense of urgency to get the gospel 00:25:26.900 |
out. Paul is writing Romans because he is trying to get to Spain. He never gets there, 00:25:32.380 |
but his whole reason why he is writing this. Paul's ministry lasted maybe no more than 00:25:38.820 |
like 15, 16 years. Right? All the scriptures that we are reading, all the churches that 00:25:46.980 |
he planted, everything that he did, it was within 20 years. Our church has been around 00:25:52.300 |
20 years already. He did all of that. Why did he do that? Why did he live like he was 00:25:57.540 |
going to die tomorrow? Because there was a sense of urgency. He needed to get the gospel 00:26:03.820 |
out. There was a sense of dire need that he is going to come soon, that we need to do 00:26:09.380 |
everything that we can. That's why Paul said, "If you are going to run the race, run to 00:26:14.140 |
win, not to just sign up, not to just say, 'I got a number,' but run to win." I say all 00:26:22.500 |
of this because that's how this book starts. Right? That's how this book starts. Again, 00:26:27.740 |
I'm going to get into a little bit more next week because he's going to pile it on some 00:26:31.420 |
more. Okay? When he says these revelations have been given, it teaches us that these 00:26:40.700 |
are not random events. It's God's preordained things that are going to take place. These 00:26:52.160 |
are not just looking down the future and say, "Oh, I wonder when or how this is going to 00:26:55.900 |
happen." These are preordained. That's why he is revealing these things. The content 00:27:05.180 |
of his revelation is a record of what John heard and he saw. It reveals what he saw and 00:27:15.100 |
heard and not necessarily what he understood. Now keep that in mind. Okay? And I'm going 00:27:20.260 |
to put the next one up there so you can just fill in the blanks. Again, typically when 00:27:30.120 |
we're reading scripture or any document that's removed from us in our culture, in our language, 00:27:35.080 |
we have to contextualize how the early church would have understood this. Right? So when 00:27:40.600 |
we see these images, we naturally may ask, "Why doesn't God make it clear?" Right? Because 00:27:49.320 |
to us, if we want something clear, we want him to spell it out, write it out, describe 00:27:54.240 |
it for us. Because you and I live in a written culture where the highest authority in our, 00:28:01.040 |
where we live, is a contract. Right? You describe what the contract is and what the details 00:28:07.040 |
are. You do your part and this is my part. Right? And then even when we go to school, 00:28:12.000 |
we primarily learn through written word. We read things that were jotted down, we write 00:28:16.280 |
that and then nothing is certain until it is written down and it's signed. How do you 00:28:21.600 |
communicate these things to people who don't know how to read? Right? Again, understand 00:28:29.640 |
in the first century, majority of the people, majority of the people in the church did not 00:28:35.200 |
know how to read or write. Those of you who've been to India with us, you know, every time 00:28:39.360 |
we go, we have to contextualize the things that we say because even the pastors, I would 00:28:45.040 |
say, I don't know exactly what percentage is, but even the pastors, many of them have 00:28:49.240 |
not been educated beyond third grade. So even third grade, at least they can read, at least 00:28:54.120 |
some can read and some can write. But if you run into somebody who's sitting there and 00:28:58.880 |
trying to understand what you're saying and they've never been taught how to read, never 00:29:03.040 |
been taught how to write, your communication has to be very different. Right? Because a 00:29:09.320 |
lot of times it's not verbal. Right? So our denomination came up with the way to share 00:29:14.480 |
the gospel where it involves a lot of play acting. Right? But in our generation, or at 00:29:21.880 |
least where we are, we kind of look at that as like, oh, we're trying to sensationalize 00:29:25.720 |
the gospel, we're trying to make it attractive. But if you're talking to people who don't 00:29:29.200 |
know how to read or write, that's the best way to communicate. Right? Isn't that the 00:29:34.240 |
way we communicate to children? Because they're not able to verbalize their thoughts. When 00:29:39.880 |
they sing these songs, they're not able to, like, we sing, it's like, oh, well, revelation, 00:29:44.080 |
like, we're caught up with God. And a lot of these doctrines have meaning for us. But 00:29:48.440 |
with children, they don't know. So when we say caught up, we say caught up. Right? He 00:29:53.760 |
was resurrected. He's like, you resurrected. So we do all of these things to, so that the 00:29:58.600 |
kids could see the physical action and they can visualize and say, oh, that's what it 00:30:03.840 |
means. Right? So it's an extra step that we take to reveal something important, especially 00:30:08.440 |
to people who don't know how to read or write. Right? So if you see what it says in verse 00:30:14.880 |
2 and verse 11, it says that all the stuff that is being written down here are not things 00:30:20.680 |
necessarily that he heard. It's things that he saw. Now, it doesn't mean that he didn't 00:30:26.320 |
hear. He also heard. But basically, this is, the book of Revelation is a document of the 00:30:32.800 |
things that he saw, a vision that Christ showed him of what is going to take place. So it 00:30:39.400 |
doesn't tell us that John himself understood what he was writing. Right? We don't know 00:30:45.720 |
if he understood or he didn't understand because he doesn't explain. He just tells us, he saw 00:30:51.160 |
Jesus, he has eyes of fire. He has hairs of wool. Right? He has feet of bronze. And we're 00:30:59.800 |
going to see that next week. Right? But he's just seeing a picture. Like Jesus shows him 00:31:05.600 |
a vision and he's just writing down what he's seeing. And remember, what he is seeing is 00:31:13.240 |
in heaven. Right? These are things that are not things that he can readily identify. So 00:31:21.440 |
if you read the book of Revelation, he'll use a lot of imagery and he says, like. Right? 00:31:26.920 |
And you'll see that also in the Old Testament prophets. It was like this. It was like that. 00:31:31.640 |
Because they don't have anything specific. Right? So somebody who lived, let's say, even 00:31:37.200 |
200 years ago. They come to Los Angeles and they start walking and they start describing 00:31:45.000 |
what they see. How do you think their description was going to be? You think they're going to 00:31:50.240 |
say, I saw an automobile that runs on gas. Right? And these roads were paved and they 00:31:58.200 |
had lines and they had drivers and they were turning left or to the right. Is that how 00:32:02.040 |
they would write it? They wouldn't know this. They wouldn't know how to write that. Because 00:32:06.840 |
they don't know what an automobile is. They don't know what a cement pavement is. Right? 00:32:12.020 |
They're going to say stone. If they had carriages, they say, I saw like strange carriages that 00:32:19.840 |
are taking them down the road. Right? These people were dressed funny and they were very 00:32:25.640 |
fast. Right? So they're going to describe what they're seeing with what they are able 00:32:33.320 |
to describe. So Revelation is a written down document of what John saw. He may have seen 00:32:43.880 |
a nuclear bomb. Right? And he said a third of the heavens disappeared and wormwood and 00:32:48.760 |
so many Christians have gone through and studied how wormwood, that's a nuclear center out 00:32:53.640 |
in Russia. And so he must have been talking about that. And if you look at it, it could 00:32:58.600 |
be like what would happen that you and I could relate to that can destroy a third of the 00:33:03.960 |
earth? It must be the nuclear bomb. We don't know that for sure. But imagine if you've, 00:33:09.360 |
you know, the greatest weapon that you had was a spear. Right? And that's the closest 00:33:14.840 |
thing that you can relate to. And then you see a vision of an explosion and massive hundreds 00:33:22.480 |
of thousands of people just being slaughtered all at once. Like how would he describe that? 00:33:26.920 |
Right? So a lot of the book of Revelation is just him looking down the line and he doesn't 00:33:32.720 |
fully understand or he doesn't have the capacity to even explain. He's just jotting down what 00:33:37.600 |
he sees. Right? So in some sense it is hidden, but the whole purpose of it is not to be hidden. 00:33:45.200 |
He actually shows him the picture. Right? Now, because you and I live in a verbal society 00:33:53.700 |
where written documents, if you want something clear, you want it written down so I can read 00:33:57.160 |
it. Right? In an oral tradition, your communication, ability to memorize, what other ways would 00:34:08.680 |
be a necessity or better way to communicate if you didn't know how to read or write? Songs? 00:34:21.000 |
Yes. Songs. And that's exactly what they did in the early church. They sang the Bible. 00:34:27.880 |
Anybody ever go to a Jewish synagogue? No reason to, unless you're in a seminary. If 00:34:34.560 |
you ever visit a Jewish synagogue, about 80% of their worship is just singing. It's from 00:34:39.680 |
the tradition that was passed down from the synagogues. So they would basically take a 00:34:43.620 |
portion of the Torah and they would just sing it. So it's kind of weird to me. And it's 00:34:48.280 |
not like the songs that we sing where it has a beat, it sounds a lot like the music we 00:34:53.400 |
listen to on the radio. It just sounds like chanting. Because they're just reading and 00:35:00.120 |
chanting. So everybody would chant along and that's how they went through scripture. Right? 00:35:05.560 |
Or they would draw. I would think, if there's one skill that I really wish that I knew how 00:35:10.560 |
to do is drawing. Because I think there are certain things that are better drawn, that 00:35:16.200 |
you can see, than maybe verbalize. You know what I'm saying? Anyway. So again, the reason 00:35:24.360 |
why I say all of this as an introduction to the book of Revelation is to give you the 00:35:27.800 |
mindset of where we're going. Right? To give you a picture of why was this revealed in 00:35:33.160 |
this way. So that even when things get difficult, just picture yourself watching this from a 00:35:39.160 |
first century Jewish man. He's looking at something that may have happened 2,000 years, 00:35:46.000 |
maybe 3,000 years down the line with all the technological advances. And that's what he's 00:35:49.920 |
seeing and that's what he's jotting down. Okay? So the purpose of Revelation, he says, 00:36:02.440 |
to bless all who reads aloud the words of the prophecy. I put verse 8, but it's not 00:36:09.800 |
verse 8. Verse 3. Okay? So I made a mistake there. It's verse 3. To bless those who hear 00:36:24.080 |
and ultimately bless those who keep what is written in it. So obviously we can understand 00:36:32.840 |
to bless those who read aloud the words of the prophecy, because that was the primary 00:36:37.960 |
way of what? Sharing. Right? When they received Paul's letters, somebody had to stand in front 00:36:44.000 |
of the synagogue and read it out loud. Right? So it was meant to be read. And then for people 00:36:49.280 |
to hear. And then ultimately, why do you read it and why do you hear it? Right? Verse 3. 00:36:55.620 |
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of his prophecy and blessed are those who 00:36:58.640 |
hear, who keep what is written in it for the time is near. So the whole purpose of reading, 00:37:04.760 |
the whole purpose of hearing is to what? To keep. Right? So again, this exercise of studying 00:37:12.960 |
the book of Revelation or any book of the Bible, the ultimate goal is not simply to 00:37:16.760 |
know. It's to keep, to walk, to obey. Right? So the purpose of the book of Revelation is 00:37:25.400 |
not to simply reveal, it's to get us to move. Right? What should be the end conclusion of 00:37:34.360 |
knowing that judgment is coming? Pretty obvious, right? Move. Tell people. Hopefully it will 00:37:45.800 |
create a sense of urgency to get out, to bring people to Christ. So that's why he says the 00:37:52.320 |
purpose of it is to read, to hear, and to keep. Part B. We talk about Revelation from 00:38:04.040 |
Jesus Christ. Now we're going to be talking about Revelation about Jesus Christ. I'm sorry. 00:38:10.600 |
So if you look at verse 4, it starts out by saying, "John, to the seven churches that 00:38:17.400 |
are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come." So 00:38:23.240 |
this section, verse 4 to verse 8, basically is a revelation of Jesus Christ, about Jesus 00:38:28.520 |
Christ. But if you look at verse 4 and verse 8, it begins and ends the same way. Right? 00:38:36.120 |
Look at verse 4 and verse 8. So it begins by declaring God to be who was, who is, and 00:38:42.320 |
who is to come. Verse 8, "I am the Alpha and Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who 00:38:47.320 |
was and who is to come, Almighty." So you see these as two bookends. Right? Before he 00:38:54.240 |
goes into describing who Jesus is, he reminds the reader of God who was, who is, and who 00:39:02.120 |
is to come. And then he concludes it by saying, don't forget that he's the Alpha and Omega. 00:39:07.680 |
He basically has another exclamation mark and he reminds them again of who was, who 00:39:12.200 |
is, and who is to come. Right? Now why do you think he does that? Think about if you 00:39:25.360 |
are writing this letter to a group of people who are suffering for the name of Christ. 00:39:31.920 |
How would that hit you? In fact, it's not just even the seven churches. They are experiencing 00:39:42.080 |
all kinds of persecution. But think about John himself. Right? He's at the island of 00:39:47.960 |
Patmos because he was put in boiling oil and they couldn't kill him. And out of fear of 00:39:53.080 |
their gods, the superstition, they basically banished him at the island of Patmos. And 00:39:57.160 |
island of Patmos, Google island of Patmos. Right? And I don't know what it looks like 00:40:02.240 |
today, but if you Google island of Patmos, it's known to be a desolate place where there's 00:40:06.400 |
nothing grows. So it's basically you throw your prisoners and people that you don't want 00:40:11.360 |
to execute, but you don't want to hear from, you just put them on that island. So imagine 00:40:14.480 |
how miserable John was. And I'm absolutely certain there was no medical care over there. 00:40:20.480 |
Right? So probably eating was difficult. I don't know if the Romans left food for them 00:40:24.920 |
or not, but imagine how miserable John must have been. John and the people who are receiving 00:40:30.740 |
this letter, the first 300 years of the church was probably the most heavily persecuted period 00:40:39.720 |
of Christian history. The first 300 years. And the first hundred years, and then the 00:40:43.520 |
tail end of the 300 years was intense at the very end. But Paul is writing during a period 00:40:51.340 |
when Nero began the persecution where you see all these pictures of Christians being 00:40:56.040 |
dragged into the Colosseum. It was during that period, 65 AD to about 95 to 100 AD. 00:41:02.140 |
And that's about the period when Paul is writing this letter. So to them, when you hear that 00:41:07.720 |
your God is and was and who is to come, what would that do for you? Typically when you 00:41:21.240 |
suffer, right? What's one of the greatest comforting aspects of our God? That He is 00:41:29.800 |
sovereign. Yes? Because everything seems out of control. It seems unfair. What people have 00:41:37.520 |
done, what is happening to you, why is this happening to me? But to know that our God 00:41:42.480 |
is absolutely sovereign, that He hasn't lost control, therefore He hasn't lost control 00:41:47.320 |
of you, right? It's a great source of comfort. So when He says Christ, before He goes into 00:41:54.720 |
Christology of who He is and what He has done, He says the God who is speaking to you, the 00:41:58.720 |
revelation that I'm giving to you is coming from who was, who is, who is to come. Who 00:42:03.800 |
was? Everything, think about how much time we end up talking, you know, just thinking 00:42:12.400 |
about maybe I should have done this differently. Maybe I should have done that. I should have 00:42:16.480 |
trusted Him. I should have just trusted her. And we replay back painful memories thinking 00:42:21.520 |
that only if we did this right, only if we did this wrong. But when we hear that God 00:42:27.360 |
was, right? Everything that has happened in the past that you can't make sense of, God 00:42:35.120 |
was. He was God then too. He's not just sovereign today. He was sovereign then. So if you're 00:42:42.400 |
a child of God, God was sovereign over all that stuff. All the stuff that you can't understand 00:42:47.480 |
that is unraveling in your life right now. I don't get it. I wish it wasn't so. But He 00:42:53.240 |
is. Right? I mean He's completely sovereign today. There's nothing that happens that is 00:42:58.360 |
outside of His control. No temptation that sees you but is coming to all men. But with 00:43:02.040 |
temptation God will provide a way of escape. Right? Meaning that God is completely sovereign. 00:43:08.440 |
That He hasn't lost control. God is and He is to come. Right? That everything that's 00:43:14.920 |
happening now, our fear of maybe if we don't do things right, maybe it's going to head 00:43:18.680 |
the wrong place and go out of control. God is sovereign in the future. So it's absolutely 00:43:25.240 |
important for us as Christians that our faith in God is firmly planted on His sovereign 00:43:31.640 |
plan, His sovereign power. Past, present, and future. And that's why I believe that 00:43:35.960 |
this beginning of the Revelation, the book of Revelation, starts out with Christology. 00:43:43.860 |
But even understanding of Christology is within the context of God absolutely being sovereign. 00:43:48.800 |
He was, He is, He is to come. He is the Alpha and He is the Omega. Right? I'm not going 00:43:54.260 |
to go into it today but everything that is said about God the Father is also repeated 00:43:58.520 |
somewhere else about Christ. Okay? But I'm not going to get into that today for the sake 00:44:02.480 |
of time. So I'm going to go through the list of things that He mentions about who Jesus 00:44:11.860 |
is. He is the faithful witness. Why is that the first thing that He says? There's so many 00:44:21.840 |
things that we can talk about God. But the first thing that He says, remember, whenever 00:44:26.920 |
you study the Bible, when you see a list of things, the thing that comes on the top usually 00:44:30.920 |
is there deliberately. It's not just a random list of qualities of Jesus that He just kind 00:44:37.200 |
of threw out and it just doesn't matter. Typically they didn't write like that. Whenever you 00:44:40.720 |
see a list, the first one, two, three, usually has some significance. So why is His faithful 00:44:47.280 |
witness the first thing that He says? One, this whole book of Revelation was about Revelation, 00:44:57.040 |
about Him. But Jesus Himself said, right, that when He was going to the cross, He didn't 00:45:04.000 |
say I'm going to save people. Even though that's what He was going to do, He didn't 00:45:09.400 |
say I'm going to die and resurrect so that they can have life. Even though that's what 00:45:12.000 |
He was going to do, what did He say? It's time to glorify, for the Son to glorify the 00:45:18.480 |
Father, to reveal the Father. In Hebrews chapter one, turn to Hebrews chapter one. I mean it's 00:45:27.520 |
right next door so you don't have to go too far. Those of you guys who know the book of 00:45:34.480 |
Hebrew, the whole book of Hebrews is Christology, is doctrine of Christ. He begins the book 00:45:41.400 |
by saying, long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 00:45:45.520 |
but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. So He breaks into Christology 00:45:53.360 |
and He said the reason why Jesus Christ was revealed and did everything was for what purpose? 00:45:59.560 |
To reveal the Father. So He drew near to us to reveal His Father. So He said, He said 00:46:08.240 |
oh you know we can follow you, the disciples said, only if you would show us the Father. 00:46:12.480 |
Remember what Jesus said? How long have I been with you and you still don't understand? 00:46:17.200 |
If you have seen me, who have you seen? You have seen the Father. So the primary goal, 00:46:24.080 |
if the Old Testament says of God, His primary purpose in human history is His glory. How 00:46:30.760 |
does He seek His glory? By seeking to save the lost. But His primary thing He says is 00:46:36.240 |
to seek His glory. If God's primary thing is to seek His glory, then wouldn't be the 00:46:42.320 |
primary thing for Jesus' ministry, first and foremost, is to bring glory to God, to 00:46:48.200 |
reveal Him. So there is a reason why the first thing that is mentioned about Christ is His 00:46:54.840 |
primary concern, and this may not sit well with a lot of people, because the way that 00:47:03.760 |
we heard the Gospel, the way that we have grown up learning about Christianity, the 00:47:08.680 |
primary purpose of Jesus is not you, and it's not me. That's not His primary purpose. His 00:47:24.520 |
primary purpose is to reveal the Father. Now when He is revealed, we are saved. When He 00:47:31.120 |
is revealed, we live, we have joy. But the primary thing that causes all of that is God. 00:47:38.640 |
When God is glorified. In fact, when we become the center, we actually suffer. So He says 00:47:46.400 |
He is a faithful witness. His primary thing that we see about Jesus, it causes us to see 00:47:51.320 |
who God is. He is the firstborn among the dead. John 3, 16 is a passage where it says 00:47:59.960 |
Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son. The word "the only begotten" is "mano genei," 00:48:07.640 |
meaning the only one. So it's not, a lot of people say, "Oh, He's the only begotten Son." 00:48:13.720 |
And they focus on the begotten, but the purpose of this word is to say that He is primary, 00:48:18.800 |
He is the only, there is no other like Him. But the word that is used here is "protocol," 00:48:25.480 |
which means firstborn, first compared to others who will follow. Meaning, primary identity 00:48:33.600 |
of Christ is to be a faithful witness of His Father, to bring glory to His Father. Then 00:48:41.280 |
He is firstborn among the dead. And how did He do that? He was crucified, He was resurrected. 00:48:47.440 |
And when that happens, Him being the firstborn coming out, reveals the Father, and then many 00:48:53.160 |
others will follow Him to do the same. So if He is described as the firstborn, that 00:49:04.280 |
means all of us are second, third, fourth, fifth born. That's the way that this is used. 00:49:09.720 |
Meaning that as He was resurrected from the dead, we will all be resurrected. And so in 00:49:15.000 |
some sense, all of us receive partial resurrection because we are saved and we are also being 00:49:21.520 |
saved. So if Jesus' whole existence, or at least the way He described to us in priority 00:49:28.720 |
is to be a faithful witness of God the Father in His new life, what is our goal? Obviously 00:49:35.400 |
the same. Our new life is not so that, "Hey, you have a new life, now go do whatever you 00:49:41.080 |
want." And people use the Christian liberty and they apply it completely opposite of what 00:49:48.000 |
Jesus meant. Or at least how it is used in the Bible. Christian liberty is to free us 00:49:54.600 |
from our sin so that we can glorify the Father. It has nothing to do with, "Now it is my life, 00:50:00.280 |
I can do whatever I want, since I don't have a penalty of sin." Like it is Christian liberty. 00:50:03.840 |
And anybody who says, "Don't do this, don't do that," is a legalist. That has nothing 00:50:08.400 |
to do with Christian liberty. We are liberated for what purpose? So that we may be bound 00:50:13.840 |
in righteousness. He is the ruler of the king. So again, as we are going through all of this, 00:50:23.400 |
I want you to put on the mindset of somebody who is suffering. What would this mean to 00:50:29.520 |
John, who just can't wait to die? Rome is not in control. He is the one, He is the king 00:50:40.680 |
above the kings. Jesus is ultimately sovereign. He loved us and the way He loved us is He 00:51:03.480 |
freed us from our sins. You notice how His love for us is letter D, not A. Again, I don't 00:51:18.080 |
want to read more into it than it is, but I think it is worth noting. Because like I 00:51:22.160 |
said, whenever there is a list, there is a list for a reason. Of course He loves us. 00:51:27.920 |
Of course He died for us. But His primary is to glorify the Father. What is interesting 00:51:36.040 |
here is a tense that is used. If you look at verse 5, it says, "If any of you lacks 00:51:42.560 |
wisdom, let him ask," where am I? Revelation 5, it says, "And from Jesus Christ, a faithful 00:51:52.800 |
witness, the firstborn among the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who loves 00:51:58.080 |
us and has freed us from our sins by His blood." So the word love here is in the present tense 00:52:03.720 |
and the freed is in the era tense. So it is two separate tense using the same sentence. 00:52:09.640 |
Now significance of that is that proper understanding of it is Christ loves us continuously, meaning 00:52:17.640 |
that His love for us is ongoing, continuous. But the reality of that love specifically 00:52:23.160 |
is expressed through His sacrifice for us, through the redemption. So what brought Him 00:52:32.440 |
to give His life for us, ultimately is love. Because love is a constant, but the expression 00:52:37.640 |
of that, the era tense basically means something that happened specifically, an event that 00:52:41.880 |
took place that has its effect today. That is the era tense. The present tense is ongoing, 00:52:47.240 |
continuous. So the fact that John writes it, or the revelation comes to us in love in the 00:52:53.840 |
present tense and freed us in the era tense is significant, meaning that Jesus Christ 00:52:59.200 |
does not need to save us over and over and over again. Because He loved us when He said 00:53:04.840 |
it was finished and we confessed our sins and He forgave us of our sins, it is a past 00:53:09.760 |
event that has its effect today. So salvation does not need to be repeated over and over 00:53:14.800 |
again. Now again, think of it as, if you are suffering under the Roman rule, right? I mean 00:53:30.800 |
persecution under the Jews were horrible, right? They got stoned, dragged out. But the 00:53:36.720 |
persecution when the Romans decided to persecute them, that is when it got really ugly. Because 00:53:41.200 |
all the power that they had, right? All the reach that they had, they had nowhere to hide 00:53:45.720 |
from the Romans. You could hide somewhere from the Jews, but not from the Romans. I 00:53:50.080 |
mean they were the superpower. You can't run from them. So He is saying that He is the 00:53:54.920 |
King over all the kings. And He made us Himself the kingdom. So they are not in the kingdom 00:54:01.400 |
of Romans. He is now, because He delivered us, now He is under the rule of the real King, 00:54:05.800 |
the King over all kings. And the whole book of Revelation, again just practical application, 00:54:15.880 |
before we get all caught up in the meaning and application of all of this, the end conclusion 00:54:20.600 |
of the book of Revelation is to tell people who are suffering under intense persecution 00:54:25.400 |
of the Roman government, saying that no, the real King that you may not see, He is in charge. 00:54:33.040 |
The Alpha and Omega is in charge. Because of what Christ has done, you are under a new 00:54:38.260 |
King and you are in His kingdom and you have been made kingdom of priests. Right? So our 00:54:49.000 |
whole goal of sanctification, evangelism, church building, disciple making, all of it 00:54:53.520 |
is so that His kingdom may come. And that is the primary meaning of the prayer, the 00:54:59.840 |
Lord's prayer, is a prayer of surrender. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as 00:55:06.880 |
it is in heaven. And as a result of that, glory and dominion ultimately belong to Him. 00:55:20.440 |
So again, if you or John sitting on the island of Patmos, suffering, maybe not able to eat, 00:55:28.680 |
just excruciating pain, and he is writing, glory and dominion ultimately belongs to Him. 00:55:36.640 |
Right? And he is writing this thing. So what do you think he is thinking about? I think 00:55:42.600 |
it would give him tremendous hope. Right? That His Savior has won the battle. He is 00:55:54.080 |
just waiting for it to be consummated. Right? It's done. He is not watching to see, I hope 00:56:01.640 |
Christ can conquer Rome. Right? That's not how the book of Revelation ends. He is not 00:56:07.120 |
writing this thing, saying like strategizing what the church needs to do. He is not telling 00:56:11.960 |
the church, strategize and do this and this is how you make disciples, this is how you 00:56:16.200 |
plant church. That's not what He says. He says, this is going to happen. Despite you, 00:56:22.680 |
despite me, this is going to happen. Right? Who would have thought 2000 years, if you 00:56:28.840 |
study church history, humanly speaking, the church should have died in the first century. 00:56:35.040 |
Right? Humanly speaking, Nero's persecution should have squashed Christianity. Right? 00:56:43.280 |
There were 10 known intense persecutions, the first 300 years of Christianity, and that's 00:56:48.800 |
when Christianity grew the fastest. That's when it went to Europe, it went to Asia, it 00:56:54.480 |
went to the Middle East. Right? These guys, I mean think about it, this is before planes 00:56:59.000 |
and Facebook and all this stuff. They literally just got on a tiny boat, traveled half a year 00:57:05.300 |
to go somewhere where they don't speak the language to preach the gospel. Right? During 00:57:10.920 |
a period when they, I mean humanly speaking, it should have been completely squashed. And 00:57:15.400 |
the only reason why we are here today, and again I'm just talking about persecution, 00:57:20.240 |
but if you look at the false doctrines, the corruption of the church, the Pope himself 00:57:25.960 |
who represented God, at least to the people at that time, he had more power than kings. 00:57:31.800 |
He was basically selling salvation for money. This wasn't the one guy. This is all his disciples, 00:57:39.920 |
everybody underneath. How long did this happen? Hundreds and hundreds of years. False doctrines. 00:57:46.600 |
Somebody would stand up to preach the right gospel, they would burn him at the stake. 00:57:51.720 |
Somebody wants to translate the Bible so that the common people can read it, they would 00:57:55.240 |
burn him at the stake. So the church was killing their own prophets, just like the Israelites 00:58:00.100 |
were doing. So if you look at human history, the Israelites, the church, right? And even 00:58:07.280 |
today, right? How few people know what is contained in this book. Even though thousands 00:58:14.560 |
of people attend church every single Sunday. You would think humanly speaking, if we weren't 00:58:18.800 |
part of it, we would remove ourselves like this is not going to make it. How many times 00:58:23.620 |
in human history did they say that this is going to destroy Christianity? And 2000 years 00:58:28.760 |
later it's still thriving. And the only reason why is because Jesus said, I will build my 00:58:33.880 |
church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Because He is, He was, and He 00:58:38.920 |
will be. Because He is the Alpha and Omega, not you and me. So imagine if you're John 00:58:44.560 |
reading this and writing this, this is a huge comfort, huge strength to him. He doesn't 00:58:50.440 |
say this might happen. He says this is going to happen. This is how human history ends 00:58:55.440 |
because of Christ. He's coming in the clouds. This is again prophesied in Daniel 7, 13 to 00:59:06.920 |
14. And as we're going through the book of Revelation, we're going to be referring quite 00:59:10.260 |
a bit to Daniel 7. So if you're one of those studious people that kind of want to get ahead, 00:59:16.640 |
I encourage you to go through the book of Daniel. Okay, in particular 7 through 9. Again, 00:59:25.400 |
I have it all in my middle. Let me see if it comes up. It might come up after we're 00:59:31.440 |
done. And then it says, all will see and wail because of Him. This wailing is not repentance. 00:59:48.680 |
This wailing is, they finally realize that all that was said was true and that there's 00:59:54.920 |
no way to turn back. Right? So when Christ comes, He's going to come to redeem His church, 01:00:04.160 |
but He will also come to bring judgment. So His coming is a double-edged sword. It is 01:00:13.040 |
a comfort for those who are suffering for the name of Christ, but He will, but is also 01:00:19.720 |
a final judgment for those who are standing on the wrong side. All right. All right, I'm 01:00:45.440 |
going to conclude and I know some of you are probably sick of me saying it, but I'm going 01:00:50.800 |
to say it again. Okay? Why did I choose to jump into the book of Revelation? Because 01:00:57.320 |
this is not the easiest book to study. I have to study twice as hard to understand and to 01:01:03.680 |
present this, so it's easier for me to jump into something else. But the reason why I 01:01:07.440 |
wanted to study the book of Revelation is for everything that I've already said. Our 01:01:13.640 |
primary struggle in our walk with God is lukewarmness. Let's be honest. Right? Because I struggle 01:01:21.480 |
with it. Because it's easy. Christianity is easy. And I'm not saying that it has to be 01:01:27.000 |
hard or God, like you know, like hit yourself in the morning just so that you can understand 01:01:31.640 |
the suffering with Christ. But the temptation to just kind of go along. Just get to next 01:01:40.000 |
Sunday and just do my part. I hope you realize just how dangerous that is. It doesn't feel 01:01:49.960 |
dangerous. Right? There's no warning signs. There's no immediate consequence. But I hope 01:01:58.080 |
you realize just how dangerous that is for someone who confesses the gospel that we profess 01:02:04.720 |
to believe. That we study the book of Revelation and it's a revelation of His judgment coming. 01:02:12.480 |
And to study it, not as a novel, not for entertainment, but something that's going to happen. And 01:02:20.080 |
then to have it not affect us deeply. And then live our lives like the rest of everybody 01:02:26.160 |
else in the world. Just how dangerous that is. That we have these seeds that are being 01:02:35.720 |
planted. Some don't understand so they don't come. Some have superficial fruit, but as 01:02:43.160 |
soon as first testing comes, they disappear. But the third soil that bears some fruit, 01:02:50.800 |
that has memories of being passionate for God. At one point was sold out for Jesus. 01:02:58.120 |
But the worries of this life, the concerns for our families, for the future, is choking 01:03:04.400 |
our faith. And then what is the end result of choking our faith? It doesn't say they 01:03:09.820 |
limp into the kingdom. It says they die. Right? So a step before we die is lukewarmness. 01:03:21.020 |
That's why lukewarmness is so dangerous. I'm not saying that we need to yell and scream 01:03:25.180 |
and dance and show like, oh yeah, look how on fire I am for God. But you know your own 01:03:30.300 |
heart. You know how distracted you are. You know the things that you think about when 01:03:37.020 |
you're not at church. Things that make you mad. Things that make you sad. May have nothing 01:03:41.620 |
to do with God. Right? And my hope is that as we study through the book of Revelation, 01:03:47.780 |
at least this Revelation, He who reads it out loud, who hears it, who keeps it, that 01:03:56.440 |
we would come under the Lord's blessing. Let me pray for us and then ask you guys to break 01:04:01.020 |
up into your small groups. We have discussion questions. Oh, I have it there. Okay. Take 01:04:09.500 |
a picture of this. And then you can break up into your groups and just spread out throughout 01:04:14.180 |
the church. But let me pray for us and then find your small groups and spread out today. 01:04:20.660 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. I thank you so much for Lord God for our church, 01:04:26.740 |
that even in our struggles that we have each other. Help us Lord God not to be awkward, 01:04:32.580 |
to spur one another on, that our love for you may not simply be a Facebook post. Help 01:04:41.000 |
us Lord God to live daily, wrestling and struggling with our own heart. That we may be surrendered, 01:04:47.740 |
that we may confess our love for you, that even in our weakness Lord God, that we would 01:04:51.620 |
have no other place to turn but to you. I pray that your living word would judge the 01:04:57.700 |
thoughts and intentions of our heart. Help us to see the glimpse of the glory of the 01:05:02.460 |
gospel of Jesus Christ, that we may love you with all our heart. Remind us again Father 01:05:09.260 |
God how temporary this world is, that we may follow you and you alone. In Jesus name we