Revelation chapter 1 verses 1 through 8. Today is the introduction of the book of Revelation. And those of you guys who have done inductive Bible study through any part of the Bible, can you lower the volume a little bit? Ah, okay. If you have done any inductive Bible study through any book of the Bible, you'll know that the introduction has quite a few things that are hidden in there that if you do a little bit of research, you'll find out that it kind of points to the introduction and what to look for the rest of the book.

And Revelation especially. Because as you're going in, you're going to, obviously, you know, we're expecting to get lost in some of these passages. So we're going to get in there and we're going to be asking about the color of the different horses and different trumpets and the bowls and what do they mean.

So it's extremely important for us to understand the big picture. Because if you at least don't have the big picture, when you get confused with the details, then you're really going to be lost. Okay, so the introduction is extremely important. Let me pray first and then we'll jump in.

Gracious and loving Father, we thank you so much for this evening. And we pray Father God that as we study through your Word, the things that you've revealed Father so many years ago, and so many people have dove into this book trying to understand the application, what it means.

We pray Father God that you give us diligence that we would not just passively be listeners, but actively digging through your Word to understand your Revelation, why it was revealed and what you desire of us, Lord God, for those who are studying. We pray that the introductory statements, Lord, would make a lot of sense to us and give us things, Lord, that would help us point to the things, Lord, that the future studies would be able to be better understood because of it.

So we pray that you would help us in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. All right, so if you look at the beginning of the letter in Revelations chapter 1 verses 1 through 8, there's obviously two sections and hopefully you had enough time to look at it before you came.

Again, any study, and I'm going to say this again, probably as often as I can, any study that you're going to, you're really trying to glean from, if you just come in passively to listen, I guarantee you, you're going to obviously get less. The more you put in, the more you're going to get out of it.

Book of Revelation, I told you this in Isaiah. Isaiah, if you just kind of casually come in, a lot of that stuff is going to go over your head. You already know that Revelation is not a book that you can just read casually. You can't just kind of flip through one page and say, okay, I get the gist of it.

You really have to wrestle through what he was saying, where it's headed, in what context of history is he talking about, or else it's just going to sound like red horse, white horse, you know, black horse, and death and life, and that's basically all you're going to get, right?

So I really want to encourage you. I'm giving you those questions as a pointer, so there's kind of a highlight, but I really want to encourage you to go in there and dig. Dig verse 1, 2, 3, 4, and ask the right questions, because this book was not meant to be just skimmed over, right?

And I don't think any book was meant to be skimmed over, but this book in particular, he wrote it and revealed to it in such a way that those who are diligently seeking, and searching, and asking, they will find the answers, right? And those who are just casually, it's almost kind of hidden.

It's kind of like the reason why Jesus spoke in parables. He said for those who have ears so that they can listen, and ask, and search, they will have to go the extra step to find out what the meaning of the parable was. And he said those are given so that revelation may be given to you so you would have a deeper understanding of it.

But those people were just casually listening. It's actually hidden to them, right? In Revelation, the apocryphal writing is exactly like that, right? If you casually listen, I guarantee you that it will go over your head. So again, this is my encouragement to you to really dive into this book.

And some of the greatest treasures in the Scripture are things that are at least superficially hard to understand. But when you actually see what's revealed in it, you're going to find that this will help you to connect a lot of other parts of the Bible that you may not, you had maybe had a vague understanding of.

Okay? All right. So we're going to look at the prologue. The very beginning, it starts with the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. We're going to get a little bit deep into that.

But the first part of it, everybody have your outline, right? Okay. When he says the revelation of Jesus Christ, right? Does this mean the revelation about Jesus Christ or revelation coming through Jesus Christ? I just want you to think. I'm not expecting any answers. I usually don't expect any answers.

Right? Is it revelation of Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ, or is it saying revelation through Jesus Christ? If you read the commentaries, there's, you know, there's pages written on why they think it is about Jesus Christ and why they think it is through Jesus Christ. But I don't think it necessarily has to be one or the other.

The broad outline of the introduction is going to be about the revelation of Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ, and revelation that is obviously coming through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the author, ultimately the author through the Holy Spirit. So if you look at the first few verses, it will give us a brief outline of how the revelation came to us.

The order of the revelation that we see first, not to Christ, right? Revelation came from God to Christ. I think I got another. Okay. It's not there. It's actually here. All right. In a few seconds, it'll come up. Okay. I want to read a passage in Amos 3, 7 through 8.

It says, "For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets. The lion has roared. Who will not fear the Lord God has spoken? Who can prophesy?" So in Amos and all the other prophets, God says, before he does anything, he makes sure that revelation is first given.

So the book of Revelation basically was not meant for it to be hidden. Right? So a lot of people think like, oh, the book of Revelation, he kind of wrote it in code so we won't understand. That was not the intention at all. In fact, from the very get-go, it says, this was a revelation.

God is intending for us to know what he is saying. But he said it in a way where it requires work, it requires seeking him out. Right? So the order of what we see in the revelation is that God revealed through his son Christ. Christ reveals through the angels and then angels reveals through John.

And then in the end, John reveals to the seven churches. So you can say, in a sense, that God is speaking through these various channels. And this is the typical way that God speaks. Again, in certain circles, or maybe even us, we will sometimes say, God told me this, God told me that.

But the usual, it doesn't mean that God can't do that, or that God doesn't do that. But the typical way that God reveals himself is usually through his servants. And here he clearly spells out that it is through Christ, Christ through the angels, angels to John, and then John to the seven churches.

So one of the questions that I want you guys to contemplate and think about, and I think it's one of the discussion questions, why does God not reveal all of this directly to us? Why does he go through Christ? Why the work of the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit only able to do something that God cannot do?

And that's why he hires him or gets him to do that? Is the Holy Spirit not able to speak to all of us? I mean, the Holy Spirit is also omnipresent. Why does he use these channels to reveal these important things to us? I'm not going to answer that.

I want you guys to think about it. Because this is the typical way that revelation usually comes to us. God uses his particular servants and raises them up so that they would go and disseminate this information. He says that the revelation came to John to the seven churches. And so the first three chapters we're going to be looking at the characters of the seven churches and the meaning of that.

So we're just going to touch upon it today. And we're going to dive a little bit deeper into it next time. Because next time he's going to go directly into that. But why the seven churches? Why not the 30 churches? Or why not the 15 churches? If you know anything about that area, Asia Minor, how big is Asia Minor?

Some of you guys who know the biblical geography. Is it the size of Florida? How big is Asia Minor? Land wise. Just a rough guess. Or you have no idea where Asia Minor is. I know some of you guys know where Asia Minor is. Remember in Paul's second missionary journey, he was about to go to Asia Minor.

The Holy Spirit tells him not to go there. And then he crosses over and then he goes to Philippi. So that whole region he said not to go. Basically the size of Asia Minor would probably be about two thirds of the United States. It's about a half of Turkey.

So if you know the size of Turkey, Turkey as a nation is huge. Land mass wise is huge. So majority of Apostle Paul's missionary journeys took place in this area. Right? So he's at the island of Patmos across the ocean, which is the short distance on the island. He's been basically banished to the island of Patmos for doing work in Asia Minor.

But in that whole area, this letter is written to only seven churches. Now were there only seven churches at the time? No. Even in the scripture itself, it mentions other places. Like I think I mentioned Troas, Colossae, Hierapolis. I mean there are many other churches that are mentioned that Paul does not mention.

So why does he single out these seven churches? Again, we don't know the exact answer for that. And again, I had a map but I can't show it to you for technological reasons. Okay. But one of the theory is that if you look at the map of the seven churches, it is kind of connected to each other.

So the ancient history, or at least the roads that the Romans built, that every single one of these cities were not small towns. They were big towns and they were the most heavily populated. Therefore the trades and the commerce was very active. So you'll notice that not only Apostle Paul, but all the missionary work that is done in the early churches typically targeted big cities.

It would make sense, humanly speaking it would make sense because that's where the most concentration of people were. So if Apostle Paul was to come and preach the gospel, he'd want to preach it to as many people as possible. So the early church, in order to maximize their effort, they targeted these large cities.

So every one of these seven churches that we'll get into when we actually dive into those texts are churches that happen to be significant in size because of where they were. And there were easy roads that traveled between these cities that the Romans built for that purpose, for business purposes.

Okay. So again, this is not a fact, but this is again, educated guess, I guess, by the scholars that this is probably the reason why these seven churches are targeted. But the number seven also is significant because whenever the Bible mentions the number seven, it signifies something perfection. Right?

These are the seven churches of Christ. And so there's symbolic reason behind a number seven, but there's also practical reasons that these churches probably were larger than average churches. The revelation from Jesus Christ is given to His servants for the purpose of revealing it to others. Now that's a question that I proposed to you in the beginning.

Why was revelation given to John? In fact, it wasn't just John. If you look at the passage, it says, "He made it known by sending His angels who bore witness to the Word of God and to His servants," in plural. Right? So he says, "The revelation is given to all of His servants, but in this particular situation for the churches, it is given to John." So if you look at it, the revelation given to His servant, or in particular John, is strictly for the purpose of making it known to other people.

So when we talk about the good news, it's meant to be spread to those who will continue to spread the news. Right? So if we ask the Christian, if we're coming to God asking, it's like, "I'm just curious. I'm just curious to know who God is. I'm just curious." But a typical pattern that you will see in the Scripture is God reveals Himself to people who are ready to reveal Himself to others.

Because that's the purpose of revelation. The purpose of revelation is not just for an individual. That's why the Gospel, the term Gospel, the good news of the cross, euangelion, there's a deliberate use of that word for a particular purpose. Because the Gospel was given with the understanding that it's meant to be spread.

The Gospel saves us. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. First to the Jew, then to the Gentile. So when Paul says, "First to the Jews," it means that the Gospel first came. The news spread among the Jews because God has been preparing them to receive the Gospel message, even from their Old Testament history.

Everything about the Jewish culture and their history and everything that they experienced was for the purpose of the Gospel to come and make sense to them. And then when Christ came and was resurrected, now He's opening the door for the Gospel to go to the Gentiles. So the very significance of what we're doing, the very purpose of this revelation is not so that we can come and say, "You know what?

I didn't study revelation. I don't really know what's going on in revelation. So I should know it. I'm a Christian. So I should know it." That is not the purpose of revelation. Of course we should know it. Scripture has a completely different meaning when you are studying it for the purpose of sharing it.

Now I have the exact opposite problem. My problem is everything I study, I study for the purpose of sharing. That's my problem. So ever since I started preaching, I wrote in the very beginning of my Bible to make sure that you study this for yourself. Make sure you study this for yourself because my natural inclination whenever I study is like, "Okay, this makes sense.

This would make sense in Bible study. This would help me to preach the message." But having said that, if you don't study the Word of God with the intention of sharing in the Great Commission, there's a huge chunk of the Bible that won't make any sense to you. Even if it makes sense to you logically, you will never understand the heart of God.

Because He's writing these things like, "Why does the church need to be pure?" Of course we want to bring more honor and glory to God. Because the whole purpose of the church is to shine His light so that the world may see who He is and that the world also may come and worship Him.

And if our hearts and our mind and our intention is not engaged in the Great Commission, the Word of God, there's going to be a disconnect from God's intention and you're just going to hear His words, but you're not going to hear His heart. So when we study the book of Revelation, the purpose of the study of the book of Revelation is not so that you can say, "Well, I know what the black horse is.

I figured out what the trumpet is or the bowl is." Right? I guarantee you you're going to come out more confused. I'm already telling you, you're going to come out more confused if that's our approach. The reason why we study the book of Revelation is to know Christ. It's going to be a revelation of who Christ is.

And because of our knowledge of Christ, our knowledge of Christ, that it is for us to live soberly, eagerly anticipating for His coming. And then to encourage other people to remain sober and then bring other people to Christ as well. Right? So any Bible study that is disengaged with the Great Commission is not going to make much sense.

It's looking at, you know, like an instruction manual with no intent of ever making any furniture. Right? You only look at the manual, you only look at that because you have intent of making something. And that's the purpose of Revelation. Revelation was given to Apostle Paul, to John, to all these disciples so that they may spread.

And those who heard the message immediately went and told other people. And we're 2000 years removed, but that purpose is never going to change until when? Until He comes. Right? Where does it say that? Matthew 24. Right? He says, until the gospel has gone to the remotest part of the world, until all the nations have heard, then the end will come.

So until that happens, in other words, that hasn't happened yet. 2000 years later, it still hasn't happened yet. Until that happens, until the church is actively engaged in spreading this news to the remotest part of the world, and every nation, every tribe hears, He says the end will not come.

So Revelation is for that purpose. Right? Is to reveal His truth to get us to go and get us to share. It is given to show His servants what must soon take place. Now the idea of soon, I'm not going to get too much into this today. There's a sense of urgency.

Did you catch that? Right? Now you may read that and say, well, I can't understand if they were the first recipient that they thought maybe Jesus was going to come tomorrow. 2000 years later, do we still have that sense of urgency? Is this relevant today? And you can see why some people would read that and say, well, this must have been written for the first century people.

Because it didn't happen soon. So if it was soon, it must have already happened. So we're looking at something that already happened and it's not in the future. Because if it's in the future, how can it be soon? Right? Why would there be a sense of urgency if it didn't happen after 2000 years?

Yes? I hope you asked that because that will tell me that you were studying and wrestling with it before you came. Okay? Why would there be a sense of urgency studying this book? Right? Because the whole purpose of this Revelation is to give a sense of urgency so that His people will live with a sense of urgency.

Right? Whether He comes tomorrow, whether He comes 1000 years later, He is coming. Right? He says to us 2000 years may seem like a long time, but to God, it's a split second. So part of the way we understand the soon is that everything that needed to happen before the end is about to come, for the Son of God to come, to live as a human being, to suffer, to die, to resurrect, to give the Holy Spirit, to renew the covenant.

Everything that needs to happen for the end to come has happened. So it could have happened 1000 years ago. It could have happened 2000 years ago. So the question that the readers of Peter was asking is that we thought He was going to come right away. Right? If Jesus said it is finished, why didn't He come right away?

How did He answer that? Don't worry, I'm not expecting an answer. I just want you to think about it. How did Peter answer that question? Because everybody is talking with a sense of urgency. He is coming. Paul says that it is his hope to preach the Gospel. Right? And he is praying that the Word of God may speed with urgency.

So in the early church there was a sense of urgency. How do you and I have a sense of urgency 2000 years later? When the real issues that we are dealing with is getting promotion, paying our bills, right? Buying a house at the right time. Why would there be a sense of urgency?

He hasn't come in 2000 years. How did Peter answer that? I'm trying to see if anybody, anybody is, any hint? I think you know. What did He say? So that more people may come to Christ. Right? In essence, in summary, that is what He says. 2000 years of being patiently waiting for sinners to repent to come to Him.

So that more people can come. So that more of the Gospel may spread to the more remotest parts of the world. That is what He said. He said if He came 2000 years ago, we wouldn't be here. Our parents wouldn't be here. Our great grandparents wouldn't be here. Right?

He said the purpose of His patience is so that the fullness of number of people entering the kingdom may be fulfilled before He comes. So that sense of urgency to get the Gospel out, whether He came 100 years ago or 3000 years later, isn't any different. Right? Because every generation is responsible for that generation.

The previous generation cannot preach the Gospel to our generation. And our generation will not be able to preach the Gospel to the next generation. So all the people that are alive today is our responsibility. So there is a sense of urgency. So the first century people who read this, it is urgent for them.

And it is urgent for us because how many people do we have? 7 billion people. Right? Remember what He says, Ezekiel, if I tell a sinner that judgment is coming and I tell you to go tell him and you don't tell him, what does he say? He says he will be judged for his sins, but you will also be judged for your sin for not obeying.

If I tell you to go tell that sinner to repent and you tell him to repent and he doesn't repent, that sin is upon him, but you are guiltless because you've done your part. Right? It's no different for us. This revelation that He gives us, there is a sense of urgency because every single day we live around people who are going to hell.

You believe that? We confess to believe it, right? But do you believe that? And I think that thought should sober us. That thought should cause us to think deeply on the things that we believe, on the things that we are studying and applying the things that we are studying.

Right? Or else that sense of urgency is not going to exist in our heart. Again, I say all of this because if you read the scripture, it's not just the book of Revelation, every letter that is written, there is a sense of urgency to get the gospel out. Paul is writing Romans because he is trying to get to Spain.

He never gets there, but his whole reason why he is writing this. Paul's ministry lasted maybe no more than like 15, 16 years. Right? All the scriptures that we are reading, all the churches that he planted, everything that he did, it was within 20 years. Our church has been around 20 years already.

He did all of that. Why did he do that? Why did he live like he was going to die tomorrow? Because there was a sense of urgency. He needed to get the gospel out. There was a sense of dire need that he is going to come soon, that we need to do everything that we can.

That's why Paul said, "If you are going to run the race, run to win, not to just sign up, not to just say, 'I got a number,' but run to win." I say all of this because that's how this book starts. Right? That's how this book starts. Again, I'm going to get into a little bit more next week because he's going to pile it on some more.

Okay? When he says these revelations have been given, it teaches us that these are not random events. It's God's preordained things that are going to take place. These are not just looking down the future and say, "Oh, I wonder when or how this is going to happen." These are preordained.

That's why he is revealing these things. The content of his revelation is a record of what John heard and he saw. It reveals what he saw and heard and not necessarily what he understood. Now keep that in mind. Okay? And I'm going to put the next one up there so you can just fill in the blanks.

Again, typically when we're reading scripture or any document that's removed from us in our culture, in our language, we have to contextualize how the early church would have understood this. Right? So when we see these images, we naturally may ask, "Why doesn't God make it clear?" Right? Because to us, if we want something clear, we want him to spell it out, write it out, describe it for us.

Because you and I live in a written culture where the highest authority in our, where we live, is a contract. Right? You describe what the contract is and what the details are. You do your part and this is my part. Right? And then even when we go to school, we primarily learn through written word.

We read things that were jotted down, we write that and then nothing is certain until it is written down and it's signed. How do you communicate these things to people who don't know how to read? Right? Again, understand in the first century, majority of the people, majority of the people in the church did not know how to read or write.

Those of you who've been to India with us, you know, every time we go, we have to contextualize the things that we say because even the pastors, I would say, I don't know exactly what percentage is, but even the pastors, many of them have not been educated beyond third grade.

So even third grade, at least they can read, at least some can read and some can write. But if you run into somebody who's sitting there and trying to understand what you're saying and they've never been taught how to read, never been taught how to write, your communication has to be very different.

Right? Because a lot of times it's not verbal. Right? So our denomination came up with the way to share the gospel where it involves a lot of play acting. Right? But in our generation, or at least where we are, we kind of look at that as like, oh, we're trying to sensationalize the gospel, we're trying to make it attractive.

But if you're talking to people who don't know how to read or write, that's the best way to communicate. Right? Isn't that the way we communicate to children? Because they're not able to verbalize their thoughts. When they sing these songs, they're not able to, like, we sing, it's like, oh, well, revelation, like, we're caught up with God.

And a lot of these doctrines have meaning for us. But with children, they don't know. So when we say caught up, we say caught up. Right? He was resurrected. He's like, you resurrected. So we do all of these things to, so that the kids could see the physical action and they can visualize and say, oh, that's what it means.

Right? So it's an extra step that we take to reveal something important, especially to people who don't know how to read or write. Right? So if you see what it says in verse 2 and verse 11, it says that all the stuff that is being written down here are not things necessarily that he heard.

It's things that he saw. Now, it doesn't mean that he didn't hear. He also heard. But basically, this is, the book of Revelation is a document of the things that he saw, a vision that Christ showed him of what is going to take place. So it doesn't tell us that John himself understood what he was writing.

Right? We don't know if he understood or he didn't understand because he doesn't explain. He just tells us, he saw Jesus, he has eyes of fire. He has hairs of wool. Right? He has feet of bronze. And we're going to see that next week. Right? But he's just seeing a picture.

Like Jesus shows him a vision and he's just writing down what he's seeing. And remember, what he is seeing is in heaven. Right? These are things that are not things that he can readily identify. So if you read the book of Revelation, he'll use a lot of imagery and he says, like.

Right? And you'll see that also in the Old Testament prophets. It was like this. It was like that. Because they don't have anything specific. Right? So somebody who lived, let's say, even 200 years ago. They come to Los Angeles and they start walking and they start describing what they see.

How do you think their description was going to be? You think they're going to say, I saw an automobile that runs on gas. Right? And these roads were paved and they had lines and they had drivers and they were turning left or to the right. Is that how they would write it?

They wouldn't know this. They wouldn't know how to write that. Because they don't know what an automobile is. They don't know what a cement pavement is. Right? They're going to say stone. If they had carriages, they say, I saw like strange carriages that are taking them down the road.

Right? These people were dressed funny and they were very fast. Right? So they're going to describe what they're seeing with what they are able to describe. So Revelation is a written down document of what John saw. He may have seen a nuclear bomb. Right? And he said a third of the heavens disappeared and wormwood and so many Christians have gone through and studied how wormwood, that's a nuclear center out in Russia.

And so he must have been talking about that. And if you look at it, it could be like what would happen that you and I could relate to that can destroy a third of the earth? It must be the nuclear bomb. We don't know that for sure. But imagine if you've, you know, the greatest weapon that you had was a spear.

Right? And that's the closest thing that you can relate to. And then you see a vision of an explosion and massive hundreds of thousands of people just being slaughtered all at once. Like how would he describe that? Right? So a lot of the book of Revelation is just him looking down the line and he doesn't fully understand or he doesn't have the capacity to even explain.

He's just jotting down what he sees. Right? So in some sense it is hidden, but the whole purpose of it is not to be hidden. He actually shows him the picture. Right? Now, because you and I live in a verbal society where written documents, if you want something clear, you want it written down so I can read it.

Right? In an oral tradition, your communication, ability to memorize, what other ways would be a necessity or better way to communicate if you didn't know how to read or write? Songs? Yes. Songs. And that's exactly what they did in the early church. They sang the Bible. Anybody ever go to a Jewish synagogue?

No reason to, unless you're in a seminary. If you ever visit a Jewish synagogue, about 80% of their worship is just singing. It's from the tradition that was passed down from the synagogues. So they would basically take a portion of the Torah and they would just sing it. So it's kind of weird to me.

And it's not like the songs that we sing where it has a beat, it sounds a lot like the music we listen to on the radio. It just sounds like chanting. Because they're just reading and chanting. So everybody would chant along and that's how they went through scripture. Right?

Or they would draw. I would think, if there's one skill that I really wish that I knew how to do is drawing. Because I think there are certain things that are better drawn, that you can see, than maybe verbalize. You know what I'm saying? Anyway. So again, the reason why I say all of this as an introduction to the book of Revelation is to give you the mindset of where we're going.

Right? To give you a picture of why was this revealed in this way. So that even when things get difficult, just picture yourself watching this from a first century Jewish man. He's looking at something that may have happened 2,000 years, maybe 3,000 years down the line with all the technological advances.

And that's what he's seeing and that's what he's jotting down. Okay? So the purpose of Revelation, he says, to bless all who reads aloud the words of the prophecy. I put verse 8, but it's not verse 8. Verse 3. Okay? So I made a mistake there. It's verse 3.

To bless those who hear and ultimately bless those who keep what is written in it. So obviously we can understand to bless those who read aloud the words of the prophecy, because that was the primary way of what? Sharing. Right? When they received Paul's letters, somebody had to stand in front of the synagogue and read it out loud.

Right? So it was meant to be read. And then for people to hear. And then ultimately, why do you read it and why do you hear it? Right? Verse 3. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of his prophecy and blessed are those who hear, who keep what is written in it for the time is near.

So the whole purpose of reading, the whole purpose of hearing is to what? To keep. Right? So again, this exercise of studying the book of Revelation or any book of the Bible, the ultimate goal is not simply to know. It's to keep, to walk, to obey. Right? So the purpose of the book of Revelation is not to simply reveal, it's to get us to move.

Right? What should be the end conclusion of knowing that judgment is coming? Pretty obvious, right? Move. Tell people. Hopefully it will create a sense of urgency to get out, to bring people to Christ. So that's why he says the purpose of it is to read, to hear, and to keep.

Part B. We talk about Revelation from Jesus Christ. Now we're going to be talking about Revelation about Jesus Christ. I'm sorry. So if you look at verse 4, it starts out by saying, "John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come." So this section, verse 4 to verse 8, basically is a revelation of Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ.

But if you look at verse 4 and verse 8, it begins and ends the same way. Right? Look at verse 4 and verse 8. So it begins by declaring God to be who was, who is, and who is to come. Verse 8, "I am the Alpha and Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, Almighty." So you see these as two bookends.

Right? Before he goes into describing who Jesus is, he reminds the reader of God who was, who is, and who is to come. And then he concludes it by saying, don't forget that he's the Alpha and Omega. He basically has another exclamation mark and he reminds them again of who was, who is, and who is to come.

Right? Now why do you think he does that? Think about if you are writing this letter to a group of people who are suffering for the name of Christ. How would that hit you? In fact, it's not just even the seven churches. They are experiencing all kinds of persecution.

But think about John himself. Right? He's at the island of Patmos because he was put in boiling oil and they couldn't kill him. And out of fear of their gods, the superstition, they basically banished him at the island of Patmos. And island of Patmos, Google island of Patmos. Right?

And I don't know what it looks like today, but if you Google island of Patmos, it's known to be a desolate place where there's nothing grows. So it's basically you throw your prisoners and people that you don't want to execute, but you don't want to hear from, you just put them on that island.

So imagine how miserable John was. And I'm absolutely certain there was no medical care over there. Right? So probably eating was difficult. I don't know if the Romans left food for them or not, but imagine how miserable John must have been. John and the people who are receiving this letter, the first 300 years of the church was probably the most heavily persecuted period of Christian history.

The first 300 years. And the first hundred years, and then the tail end of the 300 years was intense at the very end. But Paul is writing during a period when Nero began the persecution where you see all these pictures of Christians being dragged into the Colosseum. It was during that period, 65 AD to about 95 to 100 AD.

And that's about the period when Paul is writing this letter. So to them, when you hear that your God is and was and who is to come, what would that do for you? Typically when you suffer, right? What's one of the greatest comforting aspects of our God? That He is sovereign.

Yes? Because everything seems out of control. It seems unfair. What people have done, what is happening to you, why is this happening to me? But to know that our God is absolutely sovereign, that He hasn't lost control, therefore He hasn't lost control of you, right? It's a great source of comfort.

So when He says Christ, before He goes into Christology of who He is and what He has done, He says the God who is speaking to you, the revelation that I'm giving to you is coming from who was, who is, who is to come. Who was? Everything, think about how much time we end up talking, you know, just thinking about maybe I should have done this differently.

Maybe I should have done that. I should have trusted Him. I should have just trusted her. And we replay back painful memories thinking that only if we did this right, only if we did this wrong. But when we hear that God was, right? Everything that has happened in the past that you can't make sense of, God was.

He was God then too. He's not just sovereign today. He was sovereign then. So if you're a child of God, God was sovereign over all that stuff. All the stuff that you can't understand that is unraveling in your life right now. I don't get it. I wish it wasn't so.

But He is. Right? I mean He's completely sovereign today. There's nothing that happens that is outside of His control. No temptation that sees you but is coming to all men. But with temptation God will provide a way of escape. Right? Meaning that God is completely sovereign. That He hasn't lost control.

God is and He is to come. Right? That everything that's happening now, our fear of maybe if we don't do things right, maybe it's going to head the wrong place and go out of control. God is sovereign in the future. So it's absolutely important for us as Christians that our faith in God is firmly planted on His sovereign plan, His sovereign power.

Past, present, and future. And that's why I believe that this beginning of the Revelation, the book of Revelation, starts out with Christology. But even understanding of Christology is within the context of God absolutely being sovereign. He was, He is, He is to come. He is the Alpha and He is the Omega.

Right? I'm not going to go into it today but everything that is said about God the Father is also repeated somewhere else about Christ. Okay? But I'm not going to get into that today for the sake of time. So I'm going to go through the list of things that He mentions about who Jesus is.

He is the faithful witness. Why is that the first thing that He says? There's so many things that we can talk about God. But the first thing that He says, remember, whenever you study the Bible, when you see a list of things, the thing that comes on the top usually is there deliberately.

It's not just a random list of qualities of Jesus that He just kind of threw out and it just doesn't matter. Typically they didn't write like that. Whenever you see a list, the first one, two, three, usually has some significance. So why is His faithful witness the first thing that He says?

One, this whole book of Revelation was about Revelation, about Him. But Jesus Himself said, right, that when He was going to the cross, He didn't say I'm going to save people. Even though that's what He was going to do, He didn't say I'm going to die and resurrect so that they can have life.

Even though that's what He was going to do, what did He say? It's time to glorify, for the Son to glorify the Father, to reveal the Father. In Hebrews chapter one, turn to Hebrews chapter one. I mean it's right next door so you don't have to go too far.

Those of you guys who know the book of Hebrew, the whole book of Hebrews is Christology, is doctrine of Christ. He begins the book by saying, long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.

So He breaks into Christology and He said the reason why Jesus Christ was revealed and did everything was for what purpose? To reveal the Father. So He drew near to us to reveal His Father. So He said, He said oh you know we can follow you, the disciples said, only if you would show us the Father.

Remember what Jesus said? How long have I been with you and you still don't understand? If you have seen me, who have you seen? You have seen the Father. So the primary goal, if the Old Testament says of God, His primary purpose in human history is His glory. How does He seek His glory?

By seeking to save the lost. But His primary thing He says is to seek His glory. If God's primary thing is to seek His glory, then wouldn't be the primary thing for Jesus' ministry, first and foremost, is to bring glory to God, to reveal Him. So there is a reason why the first thing that is mentioned about Christ is His primary concern, and this may not sit well with a lot of people, because the way that we heard the Gospel, the way that we have grown up learning about Christianity, the primary purpose of Jesus is not you, and it's not me.

That's not His primary purpose. His primary purpose is to reveal the Father. Now when He is revealed, we are saved. When He is revealed, we live, we have joy. But the primary thing that causes all of that is God. When God is glorified. In fact, when we become the center, we actually suffer.

So He says He is a faithful witness. His primary thing that we see about Jesus, it causes us to see who God is. He is the firstborn among the dead. John 3, 16 is a passage where it says Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son. The word "the only begotten" is "mano genei," meaning the only one.

So it's not, a lot of people say, "Oh, He's the only begotten Son." And they focus on the begotten, but the purpose of this word is to say that He is primary, He is the only, there is no other like Him. But the word that is used here is "protocol," which means firstborn, first compared to others who will follow.

Meaning, primary identity of Christ is to be a faithful witness of His Father, to bring glory to His Father. Then He is firstborn among the dead. And how did He do that? He was crucified, He was resurrected. And when that happens, Him being the firstborn coming out, reveals the Father, and then many others will follow Him to do the same.

So if He is described as the firstborn, that means all of us are second, third, fourth, fifth born. That's the way that this is used. Meaning that as He was resurrected from the dead, we will all be resurrected. And so in some sense, all of us receive partial resurrection because we are saved and we are also being saved.

So if Jesus' whole existence, or at least the way He described to us in priority is to be a faithful witness of God the Father in His new life, what is our goal? Obviously the same. Our new life is not so that, "Hey, you have a new life, now go do whatever you want." And people use the Christian liberty and they apply it completely opposite of what Jesus meant.

Or at least how it is used in the Bible. Christian liberty is to free us from our sin so that we can glorify the Father. It has nothing to do with, "Now it is my life, I can do whatever I want, since I don't have a penalty of sin." Like it is Christian liberty.

And anybody who says, "Don't do this, don't do that," is a legalist. That has nothing to do with Christian liberty. We are liberated for what purpose? So that we may be bound in righteousness. He is the ruler of the king. So again, as we are going through all of this, I want you to put on the mindset of somebody who is suffering.

What would this mean to John, who just can't wait to die? Rome is not in control. He is the one, He is the king above the kings. Jesus is ultimately sovereign. He loved us and the way He loved us is He freed us from our sins. You notice how His love for us is letter D, not A.

Again, I don't want to read more into it than it is, but I think it is worth noting. Because like I said, whenever there is a list, there is a list for a reason. Of course He loves us. Of course He died for us. But His primary is to glorify the Father.

What is interesting here is a tense that is used. If you look at verse 5, it says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask," where am I? Revelation 5, it says, "And from Jesus Christ, a faithful witness, the firstborn among the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth, to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood." So the word love here is in the present tense and the freed is in the era tense.

So it is two separate tense using the same sentence. Now significance of that is that proper understanding of it is Christ loves us continuously, meaning that His love for us is ongoing, continuous. But the reality of that love specifically is expressed through His sacrifice for us, through the redemption.

So what brought Him to give His life for us, ultimately is love. Because love is a constant, but the expression of that, the era tense basically means something that happened specifically, an event that took place that has its effect today. That is the era tense. The present tense is ongoing, continuous.

So the fact that John writes it, or the revelation comes to us in love in the present tense and freed us in the era tense is significant, meaning that Jesus Christ does not need to save us over and over and over again. Because He loved us when He said it was finished and we confessed our sins and He forgave us of our sins, it is a past event that has its effect today.

So salvation does not need to be repeated over and over again. Now again, think of it as, if you are suffering under the Roman rule, right? I mean persecution under the Jews were horrible, right? They got stoned, dragged out. But the persecution when the Romans decided to persecute them, that is when it got really ugly.

Because all the power that they had, right? All the reach that they had, they had nowhere to hide from the Romans. You could hide somewhere from the Jews, but not from the Romans. I mean they were the superpower. You can't run from them. So He is saying that He is the King over all the kings.

And He made us Himself the kingdom. So they are not in the kingdom of Romans. He is now, because He delivered us, now He is under the rule of the real King, the King over all kings. And the whole book of Revelation, again just practical application, before we get all caught up in the meaning and application of all of this, the end conclusion of the book of Revelation is to tell people who are suffering under intense persecution of the Roman government, saying that no, the real King that you may not see, He is in charge.

The Alpha and Omega is in charge. Because of what Christ has done, you are under a new King and you are in His kingdom and you have been made kingdom of priests. Right? So our whole goal of sanctification, evangelism, church building, disciple making, all of it is so that His kingdom may come.

And that is the primary meaning of the prayer, the Lord's prayer, is a prayer of surrender. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And as a result of that, glory and dominion ultimately belong to Him. So again, if you or John sitting on the island of Patmos, suffering, maybe not able to eat, just excruciating pain, and he is writing, glory and dominion ultimately belongs to Him.

Right? And he is writing this thing. So what do you think he is thinking about? I think it would give him tremendous hope. Right? That His Savior has won the battle. He is just waiting for it to be consummated. Right? It's done. He is not watching to see, I hope Christ can conquer Rome.

Right? That's not how the book of Revelation ends. He is not writing this thing, saying like strategizing what the church needs to do. He is not telling the church, strategize and do this and this is how you make disciples, this is how you plant church. That's not what He says.

He says, this is going to happen. Despite you, despite me, this is going to happen. Right? Who would have thought 2000 years, if you study church history, humanly speaking, the church should have died in the first century. Right? Humanly speaking, Nero's persecution should have squashed Christianity. Right? There were 10 known intense persecutions, the first 300 years of Christianity, and that's when Christianity grew the fastest.

That's when it went to Europe, it went to Asia, it went to the Middle East. Right? These guys, I mean think about it, this is before planes and Facebook and all this stuff. They literally just got on a tiny boat, traveled half a year to go somewhere where they don't speak the language to preach the gospel.

Right? During a period when they, I mean humanly speaking, it should have been completely squashed. And the only reason why we are here today, and again I'm just talking about persecution, but if you look at the false doctrines, the corruption of the church, the Pope himself who represented God, at least to the people at that time, he had more power than kings.

He was basically selling salvation for money. This wasn't the one guy. This is all his disciples, everybody underneath. How long did this happen? Hundreds and hundreds of years. False doctrines. Somebody would stand up to preach the right gospel, they would burn him at the stake. Somebody wants to translate the Bible so that the common people can read it, they would burn him at the stake.

So the church was killing their own prophets, just like the Israelites were doing. So if you look at human history, the Israelites, the church, right? And even today, right? How few people know what is contained in this book. Even though thousands of people attend church every single Sunday. You would think humanly speaking, if we weren't part of it, we would remove ourselves like this is not going to make it.

How many times in human history did they say that this is going to destroy Christianity? And 2000 years later it's still thriving. And the only reason why is because Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Because He is, He was, and He will be.

Because He is the Alpha and Omega, not you and me. So imagine if you're John reading this and writing this, this is a huge comfort, huge strength to him. He doesn't say this might happen. He says this is going to happen. This is how human history ends because of Christ.

He's coming in the clouds. This is again prophesied in Daniel 7, 13 to 14. And as we're going through the book of Revelation, we're going to be referring quite a bit to Daniel 7. So if you're one of those studious people that kind of want to get ahead, I encourage you to go through the book of Daniel.

Okay, in particular 7 through 9. Again, I have it all in my middle. Let me see if it comes up. It might come up after we're done. And then it says, all will see and wail because of Him. This wailing is not repentance. This wailing is, they finally realize that all that was said was true and that there's no way to turn back.

Right? So when Christ comes, He's going to come to redeem His church, but He will also come to bring judgment. So His coming is a double-edged sword. It is a comfort for those who are suffering for the name of Christ, but He will, but is also a final judgment for those who are standing on the wrong side.

All right. All right, I'm going to conclude and I know some of you are probably sick of me saying it, but I'm going to say it again. Okay? Why did I choose to jump into the book of Revelation? Because this is not the easiest book to study. I have to study twice as hard to understand and to present this, so it's easier for me to jump into something else.

But the reason why I wanted to study the book of Revelation is for everything that I've already said. Our primary struggle in our walk with God is lukewarmness. Let's be honest. Right? Because I struggle with it. Because it's easy. Christianity is easy. And I'm not saying that it has to be hard or God, like you know, like hit yourself in the morning just so that you can understand the suffering with Christ.

But the temptation to just kind of go along. Just get to next Sunday and just do my part. I hope you realize just how dangerous that is. It doesn't feel dangerous. Right? There's no warning signs. There's no immediate consequence. But I hope you realize just how dangerous that is for someone who confesses the gospel that we profess to believe.

That we study the book of Revelation and it's a revelation of His judgment coming. And to study it, not as a novel, not for entertainment, but something that's going to happen. And then to have it not affect us deeply. And then live our lives like the rest of everybody else in the world.

Just how dangerous that is. That we have these seeds that are being planted. Some don't understand so they don't come. Some have superficial fruit, but as soon as first testing comes, they disappear. But the third soil that bears some fruit, that has memories of being passionate for God. At one point was sold out for Jesus.

But the worries of this life, the concerns for our families, for the future, is choking our faith. And then what is the end result of choking our faith? It doesn't say they limp into the kingdom. It says they die. Right? So a step before we die is lukewarmness. That's why lukewarmness is so dangerous.

I'm not saying that we need to yell and scream and dance and show like, oh yeah, look how on fire I am for God. But you know your own heart. You know how distracted you are. You know the things that you think about when you're not at church. Things that make you mad.

Things that make you sad. May have nothing to do with God. Right? And my hope is that as we study through the book of Revelation, at least this Revelation, He who reads it out loud, who hears it, who keeps it, that we would come under the Lord's blessing. Let me pray for us and then ask you guys to break up into your small groups.

We have discussion questions. Oh, I have it there. Okay. Take a picture of this. And then you can break up into your groups and just spread out throughout the church. But let me pray for us and then find your small groups and spread out today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening.

I thank you so much for Lord God for our church, that even in our struggles that we have each other. Help us Lord God not to be awkward, to spur one another on, that our love for you may not simply be a Facebook post. Help us Lord God to live daily, wrestling and struggling with our own heart.

That we may be surrendered, that we may confess our love for you, that even in our weakness Lord God, that we would have no other place to turn but to you. I pray that your living word would judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Help us to see the glimpse of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we may love you with all our heart.

Remind us again Father God how temporary this world is, that we may follow you and you alone. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.