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Revelation 1
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It's time. Alright. Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. We are here tonight at Rob and Vicki's home in Bremerton to study the book of Revelation. It'll be our first night. If you missed tonight, well, there'll be archives. Vicky will archive it for you, and you can you can check it out. And for those of you that are homesick tonight, we're gonna pray for you that the Lord will heal you, and we're gonna have a time of worship. We already had a meal, and and so let's pray. Father, we come before you. And, we commit this night into your hands, and we ask that you'd bless us, Lord. You fill us overflowing. Thank you for the revelation, Lord, the unveiling of your son, Jesus Christ. We're so excited at what you have for us tonight. And, we do lift up those who are sick, and we pray that you as the great physician would bring healing to my good sin and to Sally and to Joe and help my wife, Kathy, with her cold and others with the with the upper respiratory problems that they're having. Thank you that Thomas Poole is getting a good bill of health. He's healing up, and we just pray you continue to heal those that are sick. And, Lord, we thank you that that we're moving forward, that we're moving forward. We're getting closer to the mark of the high of the prize of the high calling to God in Christ Jesus. So bless, Lord. Pour out your spirit. In Jesus' name, pray. Amen. We good? Who is that? Okay. Thank you, sir. Alright. Book of Revelation chapter one. Okay. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the sweet time that we could worship you and fellowship and have a nice meal together. And Lord, we're so excited what you have for us tonight. As we open this book, Lord, we know it's just loaded with blessings. And, Lord, we pray that you would bless us, that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit is wanting to say to us and to say to the churches today, Lord. We don't wanna walk in darkness, Lord. We don't wanna walk halfway. We wanna go all the way. We wanna enter into all that you have for us, Lord. So we pray that you'd be our teacher, and we pray, Lord, that we would be able to give a answer to others, Lord, of the reason of the hope that's within us, Lord, as we're looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. So blessed, lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Alright. This book was written in about 8095 by John the beloved, and John the beloved is James and John. And James' brother was killed in Acts chapter 12. He was one of the first martyrs after Stephen in chapter seven. And of the 12 apostles, all of them are dead by this time by AD ninety five. John's the last one left, and emperor Domitian of the Romans Roman Empire is in command and and he's compelling Christians to worship him as, you know, as deity to worship. So you'd have to take a piece of some incense and go into one of the pagan temples and say, Caesar is Lord. And if you didn't do that, the church refused to do that. So in the first two centuries, it's estimated close to six million Christians died by refusing the various 10 waves of different Roman emperors that impose this upon compulsory worship of of the Roman emperor. And so they refused. Now John, it says that they tried to boil him in oil and he didn't boil. And so they put him on the Island Of Patmos. Island Of Patmos is in present day Turkey, and this island is about 10 miles 10 miles wide. Let's see here. 10 miles long, six miles wide. And and so John's there, and the lord has him. He's the one that wrote the gospel of John. He's the one that wrote first, second, and third, the epistles of John. And now the lord has given him the book of Revelation to record. And so this revelation stems from the father to the son to an angel, a named angel, and then to John. And then John is writing this down for us. And the first three verses is the introduction, and and we'll see the salutation in verses four through nine. But notice verse nineteen, first of all, to see the outline of this book. Many feel that this is a very difficult book to understand, but he says, write the things which thou has seen. And that's chapter one. John's gonna give us the vision of what he's seen as he's up in heaven, as he's taken like in a time machine. I think he I think they used a DeLorean. I'm not sure, but he's he's up there, and he's getting a vision. And the Lord is showing him a a picture of Jesus, a vision of Jesus. And so write the things which thou hast seen, chapter one, the things which are, so you got the past tense, the present tense. The present tense is the church age, chapter two and three, write the things which are. And then he says, and the things which shall be hereafter. So hereafter is the Greek word, so it'd be after these things. Write the things which you've seen as you're up in heaven, chapter four and five, where the church in chapter two and three is up in heaven after that. There's no more mention of the church after that. And then and so he's he's divided into three sections, the things which you have seen, the things which are, which is the church age, and and then the things which shall be hereafter. And in Revelation four verse one, John's called up to heaven and showed shown things that would be hereafter. It says here chapter four verse one. After this, I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up here and I will show thee things which must be hereafter, after the church age. So the church is in heaven with the four and twenty elders in chapter 24. The church is in heaven in chapter five where the line of the tribe of Judah, John's weeping. Nobody's worthy to open the scroll and lose the seal. And then in chapter six, we have the things that are hereafter after the church age, all the way to chapter 19, which is the tribulation period, the seven year tribulation period from the seven seals that are open, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowl judgments. The midpoint of the tribulation period starts in chapter nine, and at that midpoint goes into ten, eleven, twelve, and and thirteen. And then after that, we have the second half of the tribulation period culminating with the return of Jesus Christ in chapter 19. And then we have after the the tribulation period, we have what's called the millennial period of time. So Revelation chapter 20 talks the thousand years six different times, and that's a thousand year messianic rule and reign of Jesus Christ upon the earth. Be the end of the times of the Gentiles when Jesus returns, he's gonna rest control of the planet from the from the antichrist, the beast, the false prophet, you know, and from the devil. And it's a time for the nation of Israel to be dominant upon the planet, and Jesus is gonna rule and reign from Jerusalem as king of kings and lord of lords. He's gonna rule and reign with a rod of righteousness for a thousand years. And David as his prince and the nation of Israel in the land, Gentiles are gonna repopulate at that time. Satan's gonna be grabbed by an angel and put into the abyss where he's gonna stay for a thousand years. And at the end of that thousand years, Satan's gonna be loose for a little season, and he's gonna tempt those that are that are a part of the rebellion against God at the end of the millennium. And then in chapter twenty one and twenty two, we have another section which is called the eternal state. So in chapter one or or the overview of the book of Revelation, there's no direct quotes out of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation, but there are over 550 references to the Old Testament. So in the first 20 chapters, things that we're learning in the first 20 chapters are referenced in the Old Testament. So when we're looking at, say, the nation of Israel being in the land, we can look at, say, Revelation 11 and and we can excuse me, Isaiah 11, and we can see the messianic picture, the picture that was given to Isaiah, a description of the millennial kingdom, a description of the messianic kingdom where the wolf and the lion and the little child leading them and, you know, the the curse is reversed And and Jesus rule and reigning as king of kings and lord of lords and all. And and so we can see that the old testament prophets were prophesying to the future age of the messiah, but what they didn't see is they didn't see the church. So Paul in Ephesians two said the church was a mystery once hidden, now revealed. That's why the disciples were looking for Jesus to set up his kingdom in his first advent his first coming. So they didn't see in Daniel nine twenty seven that he'd be cut off, that he'd be rejected. They didn't see that. And so it was really hard for them to get their head around when Jesus kept saying that, you know, I'm gonna go to the cross and be crucified. I'm gonna be rejected. And they just couldn't get it. Well, they did get it after the resurrection. After the resurrection, they finally it clicked. They weren't afraid anymore, and and they began to go out and share the gospel in what we call the dispensation. So the Old Testament dispensation ceased, and this dispensation after Pentecost presently where we're at now is that of the church age, and it's a dispensation of grace that continues even into the tribulation period where God, by his grace, there's great revival that takes place during the tribulation period where God continues to save people. So Revelation twenty one and twenty two are the only new aspects in the Bible that weren't revealed, let's say, in the Old Testament. They weren't revealed in the Old Testament. So we have a greater revelation. So when we study this book, the laws of hermeneutics would say that we let the Bible teach the Bible. So because we know there's 550 references in the Old Testament from the book of Revelation reaching back to the old, Sometimes people will say, well, I don't know what that means and so I'm gonna spiritualize it. I'm gonna make it into a, you know, an allegory or whatever. And in some cases, it is a type or or symbolic of something. Like for instance, when we're here in chapter one, we're gonna see that there are stars and and seven stars. I saw seven golden lampstands in the midst and seven lampstands in the son of man and also seven stars. Well, you go down to verse 20 and it says and it interprets it for you. And it says, the mystery of the seven stars which thou saw in thy sight in thy right hand and the seven golden lampstands. So the seven stars, he tells you, are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which thou saw are the seven churches. So you got seven angels that are over over the seven churches and stars as we saw in Revelation or we see in Revelation 12. One third of the stars fell with Lucifer. So it's a symbol of angels, that word star. And the lampstand or light stands, light bears is symbols, and the book of Revelation tells you what that symbol is. So you don't have to guess what does this mean. And then, like, let's say we're in chapter nine and there's some locust coming out of the abyss and they're they've got wings like a locust and then they've tails like scorpions. You don't need to impose upon that that that's helicopters. You don't need to do that. That would be present day trying to figure out, hey, what what's that mean? And nowadays, the commentator guys would say, I think it's drones. You know how drones are gonna be used in warfare? Must be drones. Well, why would why would the devil or anybody be storing up drones out of the abyss? You know? Those are demons. Those are demons that have been incarcerated there since the time of the flood, and they're gonna be unleashed upon people on the planet. And the picture there is, you know, they're like locusts. They're like dragons. They're like scorpion tails and stuff. And so so that's the way we try to interpret things as we use the bible to interpret the bible. That's the that's the best the laws of hermeneutics of interpreting, observation, interpretation, application of of the word of God. And so people say, oh, pastor, you you quote a lot of verses. You bring in a lot of verses all over the bible. That well, that's why I do it. Amen. But if you're a person that's never studied the old testament, then I'm speaking Chinese to you. You know? And so what you need to do is become a student of god's word and just sit back, let your hair go back as I'm speaking too fast, and listen to the tape later. Otherwise, you don't have a desire to learn, and you're not gonna impose upon me your level of understanding. It's my job to elevate your level of understanding. It's my job to teach you. It's not your job to say there's too much scripture, and I you talk too fast, I can't blah blah blah blah. Well, then read the Bible. Read the Bible and you'll get to you'll become familiar. It might take you a year, but what I've discovered is even even the small amount that you gather and walk out of here with is far more than you're getting anywhere else. And you might as well you might as well enjoy what you are getting. And what I've discovered is that there's something that I don't understand and it it's kinda bothering me, even even to this very day, if there's something I don't understand, I can't stop until I study and try to find out what that is. I don't just blow it off and say, oh, well, it doesn't matter. No. It bothers me. So I gotta stop. And if I'm thinking of something tonight or if I hear a bible study and I I don't quite understand what that guy's saying or why would he say that, I'll I'll keep that mental note, and then I'll go back when I get to my study helps, and I'll begin to look at it. And I'll say, alright now, this is what he was saying, but this you know, it it's either pro or con. It's either true, I agree with it, or or I don't based upon what I discover, you know, in the word of God. But I don't just blow it off and say, oh, well, it doesn't matter. No. It does matter. I wanna know. I wanna I wanna wanna keep learning. And so so he says, the revelation of Jesus Christ. In the Greek, there is no definite definite article with the the here. So a better interpretation would be a revelation of Jesus Christ. And this is the Greek word apokalupsis, which means of an unveiling or an appearing. And so Uncovering. Uncovering is another way. Yeah. You could say uncovering. And and so it's an unveiling of Jesus Christ, revealing of Jesus Christ, and so no definite article in the original Greek manuscript. So a revelation of Jesus Christ, which god, so god the father, gave unto him, unto the lord Jesus, to show unto his servants. Hopefully, you and I are servants. Right? And don't you love how the Lord says, my servant Job, my servant Moses, my servant Bernie? It's a privilege to be a servant of Jesus. Things which must shortly come to pass. And so we're looking at a sense of eminence. The rapture can happen at any moment, and many people don't like to hear the term the rapture. They don't like to deal with the rapture of the church, a Latin word from the Greek word harpazo in first Thessalonians four sixteen. And and so the the doctrine of the eminency of Christ means that Christ could come at any moment for his church. And so we have to differentiate between the second coming of Jesus and that of the rapture. When it says shortly, what it means is when this thing starts to happen, when he says, behold, I come quickly, people say, well, it's been two thousand years and he didn't come yet. No. It means in the Greek sense, it means that when it starts to happen, it's gonna happen quickly. And so let's say the kickoff point to the tribulation period is you fill in the blank. Signing of the peace The signing of the peace treaty. So right now, we would have what's called birth pangs. Right? Birth pangs? And the birth pangs will be the things leading up to the signing of that peace treaty. And they'll increase in intensity, and they'll accelerate. So it'll get harder, more intense, but also quicker, faster, these birth pangs. And we're watching birth pangs presently with a one world economic system developing, a one world government system developing right before our eyes, and a one world religious system developing right before our eyes. And so in times past, what we read in Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18 would be impossible. There's no way a government could impose upon all the people on the planet that they couldn't buy or sell without a mark on their right hand of their forehead. But it is possible today. It's absolutely possible because of the technology that's been made available. Right? And that technology that we know about, many times people tell us we're forty years they're forty years more advanced than we know. So I recently read where the AI chips and everything that's being used presently is on the verge of being made obsolete for the new stuff that's coming out. And so with the satellites that are low flying satellites all over the globe it's around globe. Right? All over. And Right. And all the different technological advancements allows them so that they can have that omniscience, you know, that they desire. You know, a pseudo where they wanna know everything that everybody's doing and omnipresent where they nobody can hide from it all. I read an article years ago where the Afghanis, they and a lot of them had to go back to passing notes to each other because the technology that we have that from our satellites could listen in and watch and and everything. And they actually with heat heat censored weaponry, they actually discovered that they could take those solar blankets that we have and wrap themselves in a solar blanket with one of their wool rugs over them, and then our heat seeking trying to find where they are out there couldn't find them. So, like, Debbie and I were talking, there are people that are gonna make it through the tribulation period, and somehow they're gonna find old technology, old means of undermining what the devil thinks he's he's omnipotent. You know, he's all powerful that nobody can evade him. Our god, nobody can do that with him. He's he knows everything. He is everywhere, and he's all powerful. And so but the devil's gonna do his best to try and bring that on, and and we can be so incredibly excited because we're we're there. And if you're putting your hope in this world, you're betting on the loser because this world is gonna lose. Yep. The politicians are gonna drive us to the brink of insanity, to the brink of of destruction. Jesus said, except those days be short and no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, Jesus intervenes to save the nation of Israel during the time of the tribulation period. They've got their champion. They got the antichrist. They got their technology. They got everything they want. They got domination over the common people, the globalist, and yet they can't stop the hail bombs. If a if a bird hits the cone of a airplane, it dents it severely. Right? Look at the technology. God's gonna bring out a 100 pound hail bombs to bomb the planet. How deep can you go to evade from that? In Revelation six, the globalists who are building billion dollar bunkers right now and all over the planet, huge amount of tunnels and ability to travel underground presently, they're gonna be trying to hide from the wrath of the lamb underneath the earth when god is is ripping on this earth with earthquakes and volcanoes and hail bombs and pestilence and war and and the whole thing. And so it's not a place that you wanna be. And so the good news is is Jesus come to seek and to save those who are lost. Without him, we have no hope. And so Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servants, God wants us to know. God doesn't want you to be in the dark. God doesn't want your pastor keeping you in the dark that you don't know these things. 2% of the churches teach prophecy. Shame on you guys. Shame on you. Yeah. Shame on the people for not demanding. The only way the pastors get away with it is that the people let them get away with it. That's the only way. Right. And the way that the people reject me for teaching it and trying to keep you aware prophetically where we're at, that shows their heart. It shows they really don't wanna know. It makes them uneasy. They get they get anxious. They get filled with anxiety, and and it's showing their hand. It's showing their heart. It's showing that they're very much in love with this world. When somebody calls this doom and gloom, excuse me, the return of Jesus Christ is doom and gloom? You don't wanna know how close we are to his soon return? Oh, I'm worried about my kids. You'll never have to worry about your kids in the millennium. You know? Come on. You think you can protect them from these from these demons? So he says to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified, which means to indicate or to give a sign by his angel and his servant John. So it's from God the father to the son to the angel to John. John's entrusted. God has entrusted this book, this revelation to you. From John to you now. From God the father to God the son to an angel, angels that delivered the Old Testament to Moses. Right? To an angel that's delivering this to John, John the beloved, or some guys like to call him John the revelator. And 201 times in the bible, we have the the ministry of the messengers who are called angels. 97 times in the New Testament, 51 times in the book of Revelation, the book of Revelation speaks of angels. We had the angel Gabriel in Daniel chapter eight verse 16. We know Michael the archangel also is active. We don't know this angel, who this one is, but I'm sure you could speculate and do a YouTube prophecy on it. I don't know. But I'm not. Because there's a curse to whoever adds or subtracts from this book. Let me go there for you. I wanna want I want you to know this curse. So he says, verse 19 of chapter 22, and if any man shall take away from the words of this of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in the book. Boy, you don't wanna take away. Right? You don't wanna add or take away. You wanna just let it speak. Let it just just let God's revelation speak. And so who bore witness? So John's providing a record. He's making a record. We're gonna testify. Every time we partake a communion, you do testify until he comes. You and I are testifying that Jesus was crucified, that he's buried, that he raised himself from the dead, and that he's coming again. We we're testifying. So who born witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ? The volume of the book is written of him. The entire bible is his story. Jesus said, do you think you have eternal life? Search the scriptures and then they testify of me. You know, the bible speaks of him. And so the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. So John has a vision. John is caught up in the heavenly realm, and the Lord has given him a vision, and he's recording it. So blessed the word blessed means, oh, how happy. Blessed is he that reads. And a lot of people say, I've never read the book of Revelation. So you've got the book of Genesis was to the book of beginnings where everything began. The book of Revelation is teaching you how everything ends. Now my wife, Kathy, when we're watching a movie, she can't stand it if she doesn't know if that person if that guy and that girl are gonna get back together again. She just can't stand it. So while we're sitting there and we're speculating and wondering, she's on her phone reading ahead of time. I know what happens. I know what happens. She loves to know the end of the story. And and I'm like, don't ruin it. Don't tell me, you know. Went oh, we went to the movie. We saw it. And then they tell you the plot. You know, they tell you what happened. Well, this case, the Lord wants you to know. He doesn't want you to be in the dark. He wants you to know how it began, and he wants you to get to know Jesus, and he wants you to know how it ends. And I like how pastor Barry Stagner, you know, he's quoted as saying, I love that quote. Is there any problem that you face today that the rapture wouldn't solve? Yeah. Amen. Right. Come on. Don't you want it to end? Jesus. Don't you want it to end with the return of Jesus? Amen. That's awesome, isn't it? So blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of this prophecy. So if you're a pastor that can't rightly divide the word of God, So you're instructed as a pastor from the apostle Paul. Hey, pastor Timothy. Study to show yourself approved under God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Right? You can be ashamed if you don't do that, if you don't study. A pastor should be a student. Right? But if you if you're brand new pastor I'm a brand new pastor and the book of Revelation, you know, intimidates me. It bothers me. Well, read it yourself. And then it says, read it out loud. Right? The blessing's gonna be they that hear. Just just read it. The word of God's powerful. Just read the bible. Read it out loud to one another. Blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of this prophecy. Now Jesus is gonna say over and over again in chapter two and three, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. Not everybody out there with ears on their head can hear what the spirit is saying. Mhmm. That's a big part of the problem today for me as a pastor is my greatest frustration is trying to awaken people that are asleep, that are deluded, that are deceived. That's why Jesus said this time would be a time of great deception. Be not deceived. Take heed that no man deceive you. And so you spend a lot of time, maybe too much time, worried about people that can't hear. And it's so refreshing. It's so exciting to be with a group of people that is effortless because the lord has given them ears to hear. Now in first Corinthians chapter two verse 14, it says that the natural man understands not the things of God neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. So in many cases, what we're running into is we have people in our churches. On the one hand, they might not be saved. They're still natural. On the other hand, they're babes in Christ, and they are still on the milk, but a baby really wants to grow. Little Toby came over today, and he's walking, and he walked through the churchyard there, you know, at church in the aisle, and all that. It's so fun to watch these little guys. And, you know, I I look at Judah, and he's so big. He's so old. And I'm like, Kathy and I both said, thank god Wayne and Brittany never stopped having them because we keep getting to see all these kids at all these stages. You know? And Toby, man, he's all over milk and then he goes from milk to ice cream. Did you ever see a kid eat ice cream? Man. And well, don't tell his mom that. But but then then they get into solid food And you don't, you know, you don't necessarily have to coax them, force them, you know, to eat. Their appetite increases, especially if they exercise, if they get some exercise. Right? So maybe part of the problem with people in the church today is number one, they're not saved. Secondly, they're babes, and they have a poor diet of milk for forty years. Right. Don't they ever reach a place of being lactose intolerant? Don't they want some meat, some veggies, some things like that? And then the next thing is they don't get any exercise. They aren't sharing the gospel with anybody. They aren't going out making disciples. They're just sitting there thinking that church is all about them and what do I get out of it, you know. And but when you go exercise, then no longer are you the Dead Sea with a flow into your life but no outflow. Rob and I were talking about that earlier, outreach. A lot of churches are ingrown. They they look inwardly. Very healthy church is a church that has outreach, that wants to reach people in the community with the gospel. And so you and I are the ones that the Lord is sending out to sow into water, and God will bring the increase. But blessed are they that that read and they that hear the words of this prophecy. So we're getting to know how everything ends. It's written in ninety five AD. It's 2025 right now, and we got this book here right in front of us. And the lord is letting you know that prophecy is not a dirty word. It's not a bad word. 2% of the churches in America teach prophecy. 27% of the Bible is prophecy. Again, what will a pastor say when he stands before God and God asked him, why didn't you let them know of my coming? Why didn't you prepare them for the time of my coming? I don't wanna answer that. The apostle Paul was with the church of Thessalonica for two weeks and he taught them prophecy. They're two weeks old in the Lord and he's teaching them the rapture. And I come across people all the time that visit our church and they say, thank you pastor. I've been a Christian x amount of years and that's the first time I heard the doctrine of the rapture. It's a doctrine that a lot of people hate and a lot of people are making fun of us. They're mocking us. But you know what? They too are fulfillment of prophecy. Mhmm. Because Peter said, in the last days, scoffers would come. And they would mock and they'd say, well, where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues, you know, from the beginning as it always has. And then Peter says, oh, they're willingly ignorant, not knowing that one day is a thousand years. Thousand years is one day with the lord. The lord's not willing, not slack concerning his promises, but is long suffering, not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. So God purposely allows two thousand years in the church age to save as many people as he can. Right? Right. If he had come back couple years you know, a hundred years ago, we wouldn't have made it. Right? Mhmm. So he's purposely delaying his coming, unwilling that any would perish, that all would come to repentance. And then it says in keep, and this word keep means to watch. So blessed are they that that read, that hear, and then watch. Your response is to watch. Watchmen on the wall. In Matthew twenty four forty two through 44, Matthew twenty five thirteen, Jesus said to watch. Be a watcher. Keep this word. Be aware. Be aware spiritually and prophetically. Be aware. When you hear of the digital ID, that's watching. You're watching the world in which you're living and you connect that to Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18 and you use that as a means of trying to wake people up that the Bible is eternal. The Bible is written outside of time, and God is letting us know before it happens what's going to happen. That's where they can put their faith and trust in a god that's eternal. And false gods can't do that. The devil can't do that. He doesn't he he can't predict the future except in the sense that he reads it in the bible. And he keeps those things which are written in it for the time is at hand. And so be ready. Be watching. Be like the the in Matthew 25, you know, the 10 virgins. Five are wise, five are foolish to keep, to be watching would be your saved. The oil's in you. Oil's there. You're full. You're ready. You're looking for the groom to come for his bride. And he says, John to the seven churches which are in Asia. So this is Asia Minor. And when it says the seven churches, seven is a number of completeness. So it's it's it's speaking of the seven churches literally in the in the literal sense. These are seven real churches that we're gonna read about and and so on to Asia. So let's look at verse 11. To Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. So these are seven real churches, but seven is number completeness. So it also speaks of the church as a whole because at this time, there was more than just seven churches. So these seven churches are in the area of Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey. And on a pastor Chuck trip to Israel, Kathy and I, in about 1990 must have been around '93, we went to Israel and to Turkey. And we got to go walk through these seven churches there. And let me tell you, there was there were no Christians. Muslim domination. There were buildings. There were some buildings. The Blue Mosque and later became known as Constantinople, but post Christian era there. But during this time, there's Church at Colossae, Church at Philippi, church of Antioch, churches in Rome. And so there's other churches, but it when they use when you see the word seven, it speaks of the numbers of completeness. So it's a it's an address to the local churches, but also extending to the church as a whole. It also extends the application when we're in chapter two and three of you and I personally because we're the church, temple of the holy spirit, the singular. And then it also speaks of the church throughout history. So when we get there, we're gonna see that the church and the time frame that we're living in is the church of Laodicea, which is the apostate church of the last days right before the return of Jesus. The church apostasizes right before the tribulation period. We're in a period of apostasy right now. That's why only 2% of the churches teach prophecy. Why? Because the bible foretold that the church would fall away, that there would be a great falling away or a departure. And so the apostle Paul warns of this in first and second Timothy. And in Thessalonians chapter two verse three, Paul wrote that there'd be a great falling away, and it's a Greek word apostasia. Apostasia, to fall away means to fall away from the truth, and it also has a stronger emphasis upon where it's actually rebellion against God. So there's this heart that's turning from god and not wanting the truth, not wanting not wanting to study the bible, not wanting prophecy. Instead, they won't endure sound doctrine, but they heap it themselves teachers having itching ears. They want feel good messages, and they want the pastors to give them feel good messages. And they don't want to hear the word repent. They don't wanna hear about sin. They don't wanna hear about hell. They want it to be feelings, sensual, sensual entertainment and stimulation. And so and one of the characteristics of an apostate church is it's a powerless church. You don't see lives being transformed and changed. Alright. So John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Now it's a time of war and the salutation is grace and peace. Siamese twins. Right? Grace is god's unmerited favor. What's the acronym for grace, Thomas? Fear? Fear. No. The acronym, grace. Make it an acronym. Riches at Christ's expense. Debbie has it. Debbie doesn't talk loud enough. God's riches at Christ's expense. Yeah. Praise. That's right. Alright? Yeah. That's acronym. God's riches at Christ's expense. Alright, buddy. Don't forget it. Next time I call on you. Okay. Right. Forsaking all I trust in. Okay. So grace is unto you and peace. So in a time of tremendous turmoil, Domitian is coming after these Christians. Domitian the emperor, John's gonna talk about in tribulation, not the tribulation period, but they're in tribulation according to John sixteen thirty three where Jesus says, in this world, you will experience tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. So in that time of tribulation, when the government's not paying you anymore and there's no more food, no more food stamps, no section eight, and not only that, but you're being you're being corralled up and taken away because you mentioned Jesus. You know? That's where it's going. Right? Social media and the censorship, and you're gonna be a criminal just for having a bible pretty soon, just for speaking up. So grace and peace from him and who is him? Jesus. He's the prince of peace. Amen. The prince of peace is promising you grace and peace. Right? Yeah. Ain't that great? From him, the world can't give that. The drugs, the alcohol, the all the stuff that the world tries to use to bring you peace of mind, peace of heart, tranquility. It's a fruit of the spirit as we studied Sunday. It comes from God. It stems from God. So peace from him who was, who is, and who is to come. And so it speaks of speaks of his who was, who is, who is to come, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his his second coming, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. Seven, again, the number the number of completeness. So in this sense, we wanna look at the seven spirits according to Isaiah chapter 11 verse two that this is alluding to the holy spirit. So we're going to see the trinity here mentioned. And and so we have the holy spirit, the second person of the trinity, and who are before his throne, Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead. Now when it says first begotten of the dead, it's not the first one of of one, two, three. It's first in in preeminence priority, Like in Colossians chapter one verse 18, by him, you know, all things consist, and he has the preeminence. Let me read that for you. Colossians one eighteen. And he is the head of the body of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead in all things that he might have the preeminence. So it speaks of rank. He's numeral uno, speaking of of Jesus. And and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, Jesus said, you and I are his witnesses. We're gonna testify of him. We're baptized, you know, in his name and are the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. And so he's the first begotten of the dead. He has the preeminence. The prince of the kings of the earth, he's number one. So we're gonna see here that when he first came, he came as a prophet. He was crucified as a prophet. He ascended to the right hand of the father and he's presently ministering as a priest. He ever lives to make intercession for us. What we're reading here is the next role, the next position that we're getting a picture of is him as king of kings and lord of lords, ruling Iranian as as as a king. And so the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us, notice it's in the past tense. So where's that point us to? The cross. Anytime the devil confuses you or compels you to doubt god's love, remember, for god so loved you, god will always remind you and I of his love because of the cross. Right? We're more than conquerors through him that loved us. Right? We know that all things are working together for good for those who love god and are called according to his purpose. He has a purpose. So unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins. That word wash, you could, we know we're washed in the blood of the lamb. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son continually cleanses us of all unrighteousness. But another word here that ties in with washed is loosed. He loosed us from our sins and that we receive forgiveness. Right? In his own blood. And so at the cross and the devil hates to hear about the blood of Jesus. I don't talk to the devil, but if you ever do and he's giving you a hard time, there's a story of Martin Luther was greatly tormented by the devil, and the devil would come to the edge of his bed and torment him at night and stuff. And at one point, he threw his ink blotter at him. He'd write they have ink well, you know, and he threw it at the devil and he mentioned the blood. And once he mentioned the blood, the demon fled, you know, when you mentioned the blood of Jesus Christ. So they overcame him in Revelation 12 by the the word of their testimony and love not their lives unto death. Right? It's always in the blood in the blood, his blood, the blood of Jesus, and has made us a kingdom. So we are a kingdom. The Lord's made us a kingdom. In his kingdom, when he rule and reigns, we're part of that kingdom. He's made us priests. And the priests are those who are gonna serve the lord and minister under those other people that are growing in the millennium. We're gonna minister under them the things of god. All those gentiles and people that are repopulating the planet, you and I have a responsibility in the millennium as a part of that kingdom. We're gonna be priests of the Lord. We handle the holy things for them. And God and his father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And so we see his his power, we see his position, And when now we come to his promise. And this is the theme of the book. Verse seven. Behold, he cometh with the clouds. Now Matthew 24, we're told he comes with the clouds. And the clouds is the Shekinah glory. The nation of Israel, during the heat of the day, God would cover them with a cloud with his presence. At night, with glory, with fire. Right? And so he's coming with the clouds, not the chemtrails, the Shekinah glory. And I love clouds. I love God's clouds. You know? I love real clouds. You know? We took a picture the other day over in Port Gamble, and there were real clouds behind us off the water and the mountains in the back. That's beautiful. But what's been crazy the last, I don't know how many years, twenty years maybe, is we used to have these really deep blue skies to look at. Uh-huh. And now you can have a really nice day here in the Pacific Northwest. They're doing it everywhere, even in California. But maybe the ocean marine air blows it away a little bit. But in any event here, you can have a really hot nice day, you can look over there and you can see Mount Rainier. And, man, it feels like it's gonna be sunny for a month. Like, growing up as a kid in the summer, it's sunny for three months. We used to have the sunny all year, really, but but you have the June the June cloud cover, the marine layer that would burn off midday, you know, in June. But August is like a month where it's hot. It's on. You know? And here, and all over Montana, everywhere, they got the chemtrailing going on Yep. Back and forth, back and forth. When you see that, you know, and you start to watch it, and it starts to spread, and it gets silvery. It's like a silvery cloud thingy. And there's ways that they use harp, and they used microwaving and different heating up of the ions in the clouds. And they can cause rain. They can cause storms. They can weather war is a real reality. It's a reality. But even even during the time of World War two, they were developing the ability to use weather as a weapon. And and they've been using it against us, man. I'll tell you. But Jesus come with real clouds. The Shekinah glory of God is the real deal. But he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him. So we we see his his every eye shall see him. How's that gonna happen? It's not gonna be a technological phenomena. Right? He's he's he's gonna be everywhere. Right? Every every eye, every person is gonna be able to look up and see the second coming. And they also who pierced him who is that speaking to? The Jews. So every eye is gonna see him. So he's not coming like in. He said, don't listen to them, Matthew 24, if someone says, hey, we found the Christ and we hid him in a cave. You know? False Christ and false prophets and false shepherds and stuff. Don't don't listen. My coming is gonna be every eye is gonna see me. It's not gonna be done under the radar. And and to those that pierced him. So in Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10, those that have pierced him, they're gonna realize they're gonna start to mourn. And it says here that people are gonna mourn during the tribulation period. And as they mourn, you're gonna hear the nation of Israel cry out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And they're gonna recognize, oh, we crucified our messiah. The Antichrist tricked us. He's not our messiah. Donald Trump's not our messiah. Whoever else you might think is favorable to the nation of Israel that they call Cyrus or a friend of Israel, whatever. They're due by the antichrist to sign this treaty with them. In midpoint, he declares himself to be god, demands to be worshiped as god. But praise god for the nation of Israel, they don't give in to him. And they he breaks that covenant and and they flee. The one third remnant flees when he overthrows Jerusalem. And at the area of Basra in Isaiah 63, Petra, Mount Seir, the nation of Israel, a one third remnant's been preserved there, and and they who pierced him. Then it says, and all kindreds of the earth, every nation, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation of the earth shall wail. There's a mourning going on. Everybody mourning. Everybody on the planet is starting to repent, starting to turn because of him. Even so, amen. He says, I'm the alpha and the omega. What's that mean? So he's the a to z. He's omniscient. He knows everything. He knows absolutely everything. And if you were to take Isaiah 41 verse four, Isaiah forty four six, Isaiah forty eight twelve, Revelation twenty one six, and Revelation two verse eight, is it? Two verse eight. Yeah. And you look at I'm the alpha, the mega, I'm the first and the last. He's eternal. And he's we could say he's omniscient. He knows all things. Alpha, omega, he knows it all. You're gonna go to chat GPT. You're gonna go to AI, you're gonna try and ask questions. He's the alpha, omega. He knows everything. Right? Knows it all. He's the beginning and the end. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. Everywhere. All of history, all of time, Jesus is there. Who is, who was, who is to come? The almighty. The almighty means he's omnipotent. Who is, who was, he was crucified, who is to come, he's coming again. And he's coming this time. He's not gonna be riding a little donkey. It's not no donkey show. Right? He's gonna be on a white horse. Horse of war. It's war. Right? And this word almighty is found 57 times in the bible and it means almighty sovereign. He's absolutely in control. Boy, I love that. I wanna give the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the almighty. I wanna give him control of my life. I wanna surrender control. I wanna bow my will to his will because he's omnipotent. Is there any problem you're facing that he can't fix? And he says, and I, John, also am your brother and companion, notice in tribulation. Not the tribulation, but in tribulation. And the apostle Paul said in acts fourteen twenty two that we through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And Paul just experienced being stoned to death. Right? And he goes right back into Lystra and Derbe and Iconium and shares the gospel with these people. And he's letting the people know the reality of being a Christian, it's not your best life now. Your best life's coming soon. But the reality is being a Christian means you're probably inviting more heartache into your life during this life. You're inviting more persecution, more hatred, more tribulation, pressure that's gonna come upon you, but you have the holy spirit to help you grow through it. And and Jesus promised in John sixteen thirty three that in this world, will have it's a promise that's not in your promise jar, but you could put it there. You will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. And you're gonna be an overcomer too. We are overcomers already. We're more than conquerors to him that loved us. In the tribulation, in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, so we're already a part of his kingdom, the patience, the long suffering. And John's there on Turkey, and he's he's exiled there. He's gotta be patient and wait upon the lord. I was in the aisle that is called Patmos. Now why is he there? Is he a criminal? Did he do something wrong? Did Job do something wrong? No. Did Jesus do something wrong that he had to hang on that cross? Did John the Baptist do something wrong? Did he lose his head? No. Did the apostle Paul, was he beheaded because he was a a enemy of the state? Well, yeah. But did he do something against god? No. No? Jesus told and Stephen told him, which of the which of the your fathers? Which of the prophets did not your fathers kill? That's part of the that's part of the plan. So one of the things we do when we're going through difficulty is we ask ourselves, how were the apostles treated? Were they treated like you're being treated? How were they treated when they shared the gospel? If you pull out Fox's book of martyrs and you look at the death of all of the other 11, all of the other apostles, you'll see they died violent deaths of martyrdom because they were doing what Jesus told them to do. And Jesus said if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. And you can expect for your mom to be against the daughter and the daughter against the mom, the father against the son. Homes are gonna be divided. He said I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. And a man's enemies would be those of your own household, your own community, people are gonna turn on you because Jesus is a divider of men. So today when you're watching the Charlie Kirk memorial and you're watching the MAGA and the effort to merge all the religious systems together in the in the voice with the thrust, with the theme of doing good. We're gonna do good. We're gonna step out abortion. We're gonna feed the homeless. We're gonna we're gonna do good no matter what religion we are. As soon as you mentioned Jesus is the only way, as soon as you say, well, what are we gonna do about sin? Sin, we're doing good. Well, what about sin? All have sinned and come sure of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And God commended his love or demonstrated his love towards us and that we were yet sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. And whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Don't you guys wanna be saved? And Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father but by me. Jesus said, I am the alpha, the omega, the beginning, the end. Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life. Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. Jesus said, I'm the door. Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd. He's the great I am I am. They picked up rods to stone Jesus in John eight when he said that. He didn't come to bring peace but a sword. He's the one that causes the demons and people to hate you. It's illogical. It's irrational the way people get so angry when you mention that Jesus is the only way. And that's that's just part of the club that we're in that we signed up for. How is Jesus treated? How are the disciples treated? How have Christians been treated throughout history? Jesus promised us. They hate me, they're gonna hate you. Now we need to add one more thing. Jesus said, woe unto you when all men speak well of you. So if you've got a lot of worldly friends and a lot of people and you're real popular with the world as a Christian, Christian entertainer or whatever, politician, football player, pastor, and you've got a lot of the world liking you, I can't picture Jesus going to Washington DC, yucking it up with those guys, playing golf with them, and then turning around and giving him a congressional medal of honor. I don't see it because he'd go in there and turn over the tables. He'd expose them. They would hate him the way that the pharisees and the religious leaders hated him, which was a part of the government. And so he didn't go yuck it up with Herod and with Pilate and the Roman people in that way. He went for the sinners and he rebuked the religious hierarchy, the religious governmental people and exposed them. He said they're white walled sepulchres full of dead men's bones and he was a threat to their business. They had a religious business, the money changers and all. And boy, they hated him. And they even said in John 12 after he raised Lazarus from the dead, this guy jeopardizes our standing with the Romans. And Caiaphas said it's expedient that one man would die for the nation, signifying that Jesus would die. They're they're they have a conspiracy against Jesus. And the CIA tries to after JFK is killed, they try to say these people are conspiracy theorists. All through the Bible, people are conspiring to assassinate people all through the Bible. So I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, so he's not set apart from it. I'm in it, man. And then the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word now why am I there? I'm there for the word of god. I'm in trouble because I stood on the word of god. Our daycare was shut down because we stood on the word of god. The state told us do not teach these kids with the Becker curriculum. You've gotta put them in the head start reading program. And we said, no way. We're not doing that. And then they put us in another meeting. They said it again. And it didn't register with me. It didn't register. It's like, this is a no brainer. There's no way I would do that. And then they lied and came up with a reason to shut the day care down. And then afterwards, a lawyer told me that was gonna buy the day care. He went in a precept meeting to restart it and they told him. We told him twice to not have those preschoolers and that abecca curriculum, that Christian curriculum. We weren't gonna fund the indoctrination of children is what they told him. And he told me that, and I did the old, well, God will defend us. And he has in a different way. And so, but it was for the word of god. So one of the one of the things there is, what if I was being persecuted, as Peter said, for being a criminal? What if the persecution I was receiving or being treated bad was something I deserved because I've been being bad? The daycare what if the daycare got shut down because a child was molested? That would have really freaked me out. That happens in daycares everywhere, and they stay open. Do you know they stay open? Mhmm. That that's something that won't get you shut down. And we never had any parent complain about our treatment of the children. It was the state that saw us as a threat. So if we're shut down for something noble or if we're shut down because of the word of god, that's a righteous reason. That that's a good thing. We're in we're in good company. And he says, and for their testimony of Jesus Christ. Yeah. We were testifying to Jesus Christ, and the world doesn't like it. And I was in the spirit. So he's it's on the lordy day. He's in the spirit. He's in the spiritual realm. He's caught up in the spirit. Happened to him again in chapter four verse one. So I was in the spirit. So we have this picture of John being on earth. The picture of the book of revelations on earth. Then it's in heaven. It comes back down to earth. It goes back up the picture of heaven. Chapter four and five is in heaven. Chapter two and three is on earth. The church delayed the scene all. And so John's saying, I'm I'm caught up into heaven. Paul said, I knew a man whether in the body or out of the body, caught up to the third heaven. Third heaven is God's throne. The first heaven is where the birds fly. The second heaven is where Elon Musk goes. Space space ports. Right? Right? And I don't know if he's gone, but oh, here they go. So I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. So it doesn't mean it was the Sabbath. It's the lordy day. It's a day when when I'm spending time with the Lord. And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am the alpha and the omega. Now he's hearing the lord speak. I am the alpha, the omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest so John has a vision. John the revelator, he's writing down what God is revealing to him, what he's hearing, what he's seeing, his eyewitness testimony. I'm writing in a book and send it from the seven churches unto the seven churches which are in Asia. So he's he's got a responsibility. Write this down. Record this. And Peter tells us that the holy men of God, the the transmission of this word is God breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Means it's God breathed. And so the way that it transmit us, it came from the angel to him. They're transmitting it to him, and he's taken and he's understanding. He has the faculties to understand word for word what God is saying, and he's recording it in the words that God gives him to record it in. So in the original manuscripts, which we don't have here, the original manuscript in Greek that John had, it wasn't in Greek when he had it, was it? What would it be in New Testament? Yeah. Maybe Greek. Yeah. Written in Greek. So he's got this in Greek. And so the the autographs are infallible and inerrant inspired word of god. The infallible, inerrant word of god through translation, taking it from this, and then it's gotta go through all the Catholic, you know, era, the dark ages, gotta come to 1611 and Tyndale's gonna die because he wants to translate it into English and translating the Greek into the English is a crime that you're gonna die for Tyndale. And later in 1611, King James allowed the King James Bible to be translated from Greek into English, and then you've got it in German and French and all the languages of Europe. And the Wycliffe Bible translators dedicated themselves to try and bring it into every tongue that the Bible would be translated all over the world, that everybody would have the ability to read and understand God's word. Sometimes they have a a a an error, but the error is never in in in copying and translating. There can be errors. There are errors, but not in any essential doctrines. They're usually little minor little things that once you know they're there, you can explain it and correct it. You can bring correction with with maybe a knowledge of the Greek language or knowledge of the Hebrew language. You can say, well, this word that was translated by the translators to this, but it it's closer to this. And alright. So I turned to see the voice. So you got Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyratira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and under Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake to me, and being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And these are lampstands with cups of oil that you would fill up. And it's the Greek word luchina or light bearers. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man So now we get this picture of Jesus here. He's gonna describe the lord as we saw in Daniel, a picture of Jesus, very similar here. And so he's got a vision of Jesus here. So write the things which you have seen, the vision that he had of Jesus. Write the things which are the church age, chapter two and three. Write the things which shall be here after. After what? After the church age, the church is up in heaven in chapter four and five. The tribulation starts in chapter six with the opening of the seals, goes on to chapter 19, which is Armageddon, the second coming of Jesus. Right? And then we have the church coming back with him in chapter 19. Chapter 20, we have the millennium, the thousand year rule and reign of Jesus. Chapter twenty one and twenty two, the eternal state. So that's the that's the In reading. That's the verse 19 outline to divide this book up. So seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to his foot. So this is a picture of him in his kingly role. We talked about him as a prophet in his first coming, executed on the cross. All prophets are killed. Right? And then we see him as priest up in heaven. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He's seated at right hand of God in his priestly role, and he's a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews. And so in the midst of the seven lamps, there's one like the son of man with a garment down to his foot and girded about the breast with a golden girdle. Daniel ten five, we saw that. And so we see his humanity. We see his his purity here. His head and his hair were white like wool and white as snow, so the purity that's there. His eyes were like a flame of fire. So the second sub theme of this book is judgment. His eyes see everything. They're like on fire where where they're judging everything. Everything that's every hidden thing, every silent secret thing is gonna be shouted from the rooftops. The wicked dead when they stand before God, the great white throne judgment, the video's gonna start. This is your life. This is your life. Yep. Yeah. And nobody nobody can evade the truth or have any excuse about what they did while they're in their body whether they're good or bad. It's right there. Irrefutable proof. And and so white as snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet like fine bronze, and his feet like fine bronze, they burned in a furnace and so he's the one that stepped on the serpent's head, crushed his head, and defeated all principalities and powers. He triumphed over them. And his voice like the sound of many waters, like a waterfall and his victory. He's the living water. He's the living water. Amen. And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword. And so down in verse 20, we see that the stars are angels and and the sharp two edged sword is what he uses in second Thessalonians two to defeat the antichrist. He destroys the antichrist in his second coming when he comes except those days be short, no flesh should be saved but for the elect's sake. And the nation of Israel is in Petra, and the antichrist with his armies are converging, coming against them. And they they cry out to God, bless is he that comes in the name of the Lord, and they begin to mourn, and they confess. They do the mourning. The godly saw the least of repentance. They know that they pierced him. Zechariah twelve ten. They begin to mourn. They cry out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. That's their confession and their plea. And as they confess their sin, the Lord comes, returns, and stops the antichrist according to Psalm two. Oh, how the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing against the Lord and against his anointed, but the Lord last from heaven. The devil is there with the antichrist, the false prophet, and the armies, and they're trying to destroy Israel, the woman in Revelation 12 that flees and the dragon chases after her. And the earth opens up and swallows the army up, And then Jesus comes according to second Thessalonians two, and he destroys the antichrist with the brightness of his coming and the sword of his mouth. All he he doesn't need any help from any angels. He doesn't need any help from you and I. You and I get to help him. We're privileged to help him presently in this dispensation. We're privileged to help him in the millennium Right. To be a part of his kingdom, to have a function within the kingdom. And people talk about, well, when I retire, what I'm gonna do? I'm doing what I would do if I was retired. I'm not old enough to retire if if I was, theoretically. You never retire. You know, what would you do what would you wanna do? I like to serve Jesus. So in the millennium, what would I like to do? I wanna serve Jesus. There's nothing more fun than serving Jesus, watching watching people get blessed. And, I mean I have a question. No. Not now. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah. At Armageddon, he's gonna come with the clouds, with the Shekinah glory. And also in Matthew 24, you tie that in, and you tie it in like we said in second Thessalonians two. Where is he coming back to? The Mount Of Olives or Petra? Petra. Petra. He's coming back to Petra to rescue the remnant. One third. The woman, the one third. Zechariah thirteen eight nine. Then he what's he do after that, George? He wipes them out with the sword of his mouth. Yeah. And he the blood is high as the horse's bridle, and he's trampled out the vintage. His garment his outer garment's all bloodied and from trampling out the vintage, the blood is high is the horse's bridle. He comes across the 200 mile battlefield and makes his victory, his triumphal entry into Jerusalem through the Mount Of Olives. And then the Mount Of Olives cleaves. Yeah. Yeah. And so the error I believe people make is in Acts chapter one when the angel said to those that saw Jesus ascend after forty days. Right? He says the same Jesus which you've seen in this manner go shall come in like manner. It doesn't mean to that location. It means he's gonna come. You're going up, he's gonna come back in the same way with the clouds. So and as we tie in other verses, we know where he needs to come back to. It's there at Petra because the devil's chasing with the antichrist, the armies, after the nation of Israel. Right? So but that's a good question over there, whoever that was. Is that Rochelle? Yes. Rochelle. Alright. You can ask questions anytime. Right. Right. In case you don't know me, you can laugh. It's alright. K. Alright. So so picture of him here, and his eyes are penetrating. Penetrating eyes. He sees everything. It's scrutiny. Nothing evades him. And maybe you've met people that they look at you and you think they're just looking right through you. You know? How do they know? So god gives some of us gifts of word of knowledge, word of wisdom. And the lord, you know, you see Peter when he's looking at Elimas the sorcerer, he knows exactly what that guy's about. You know? The lord gave him a word of knowledge about Elimas. You and and could see through him. And his feet like the bronze as if it burned in a furnace and his voice like the sound of many waters like Niagara Falls. And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword. So Hebrews four twelve tells us the word of God is living and powerful. And sharper than a two edged sword. And And and I forget the rest of it. So living is a living. Right? His word is living. It's not dead. Word of god is living and powerful and sharpening to the sword, dividing us under a soul and spirit. So what's man made up of? Body, soul, and spirit. Right. This sharp sword that the Lord has is like a doctor's scalpel to cut into our lives and to pull out those tumors and pull out the things that need to be extricated. Right? He's able to convict us of sin where we need to hear from the Lord and it's sharper than any two edged sword dividing us under soul and spirit and joint marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's god's omniscience. He knows everything. So sometimes as a pastor, I get really, really discouraged. You? I I don't believe that. Alright. Just scratch that. I don't. Just look at me who you envision me to be. I like that. Alright. Alright. We'll move on. And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was as the sun shines in its strength. So the clouds speak of his glory. The brightness also speaks of the Shekinah glory of God. And so he's clothed in light. Adam and Eve were clothed in light. When Moses came down from the mount with the with the 10 commandments, his face shone bright. Right? But his was what we call an afterglow. And Moses put a veil over his face because he was worried about COVID. He wanted to love his neighbor. So he put a veil over his face. And Paul tells us in the in the letter to the church at Corinth that he did it so the people couldn't see the fading glory. It was fading. And so we need to go to the lord daily, daily, daily to have that that countenance be brightened and partake of the bread of life. We we it's a fading glory if we don't go every day. Right? And we wanna be under the spout where the glory pops out. Right? That's an oldie. Yep. Oldie. His countenance was as the sun shines in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. Now that is a description all through the Bible of a person that's close to Jesus. It's always humility. It's always he's holy and I'm not. Mhmm. Amen. So think of people who had the same reaction in the Bible. Think of this as think of for a second. In Isaiah chapter six, who had an encounter with God, a vision of God? Isaiah? Right. In the year that king Uzziah died. Right? And Uzziah king Uzziah died earlier, he usurped the role of a priest. But he's a king, and the king's not to do the work of a priest. And when he went in there, the priest tried to stop him from offering the incense, and he wouldn't listen, and he became a leper. Right? They they rolled him out of there. Well, Isaiah says, chronologically, to give you a time frame when this happened, he said, in the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the lord and his train filled the temple. Right? So he sees the lord in his glory. Right? And then what's his reaction? I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. Job in chapter 42, when the Lord began to speak to him, he said, I abhor myself. I repent in dust and ashes. Peter, when the Lord says, cast the net on the other side, and it and they fished all night, but and the nets were all full. And Jesus said, I'll make you a fisher of men. Peter said, away from me from a sinful man. Right? And so when you see somebody that acts like they're really tight with Jesus and they're filled with pride, you know that God says he resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. They're very far from God. They're self righteous. They're pharisaical. They're judgmental, and they're very, very far from God. Don't grumble. Be humble. That's it, buddy. Can I use that? Yeah. Alright. I got the Thomasisms. Alright. You should write a book, Thomas. Maybe. I'm writing one. I'm writing lyrics. Songs. And so a sharp two edged sword and his countenance was like the sun shines in its strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his hand upon me saying unto me, fear not. I am the first and I am the last. And sometimes John will fall at the feet of angels and the angels say, stand up. Revelation 19, stand up. Worship God. You don't worship angels. But you can be so afraid when an angel appears to you. Right? If an angel came into this room, it might be kinda scary. And we might not wanna look. We don't wanna put our head in the in the carpet. You know? But don't worship him. So and if he receives worship, then you know he's not a holy angel. Don't worship more am I. Do you understand that? Mhmm. A holy angel will tell you don't do that. Amen. Worship God. An unholy angel, when Satan appears as an angel of light or a minister of righteousness, he will receive the worship Moronite. As a as a counterfeit. So be very careful of that. Fear not for I am the first and I am the last, so his eternity, he's eternal. And and I'm he that liveth and was dead. So he's the eternal one. He's the resurrection and the life as he told Mary and Martha. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me though he are dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believe it's not this, I'm he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I'm alive. Forevermore. And you're never gonna die. Do you know that you're never gonna die? You and I are never gonna die. We're gonna we're just gonna move. We died in baptism. We're just moving. You're gonna move out of this body into your new glorified body. You're gonna be more alive than you've ever been. Amen. To be asked for the bodies to be present with the Lord. That's why the early church didn't fear the threats of anybody. You're doing me a favor. I'll be with Jesus. So I'm I'm alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of Hades and of death. And so he's the conqueror. He and and he doesn't even have to fight with the devil. He just sends an angel to grab hold of the devil and throw him into the abyss. You know? The devil's just a fallen angel, created being. That's all he is. He's not the opposite of God. But he wants to be worshiped. And here's our outline. Now write the things which thou has seen, chapter one, a vision of Jesus, and the things which are, chapter two and three, the church age. Call it the church age. And and that and after chapter five, the church isn't the word church isn't even mentioned. So the church after chapter two and three, the church is in heaven in chapter four and five. And so the church age ends and the church is raptured and taken to heaven. And we see the church in heaven in chapter four and five. And then write the things which shall be hereafter which is in the Greek, which means after these things. After what things? After the church age. So the church age ends according to Romans eleven twenty five when the fullness of the Gentiles come in. Blindness and part has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. And we're waiting for that last person to come in to the church, and that ends the church age. The church the rapture of the church does not start the tribulation period. We have to keep reminding people this over and over and over and over. We have to keep teaching people the difference between when the lord's speaking of Israel and when he's speaking of of the church, two distinct different groups, and when he's speaking of the rapture and that of the second coming, when he's speaking of tribulation and the tribulation with a definite article. So a good example is in first Thessalonians chapter five, the way that you differentiate with the pronouns, us and we and they. And so we're children of light, and that day that day is not the rapture. According to John Piper, he thinks it is. It's the day of the lord, the tribulation period. That day will not overtake us unaware because we're children of light. Now the rapture, it's imminent. We don't know the day or the hour. So as children of light in first Thessalonians five, we're aware. We know the tribulation period's being built. All the beast system that the beast is gonna need is pre being built, the preparation for that for that period of time. And so we can see the wars, the rumors of wars. We can see the projection of pestilence and famine and diseases and things, and we can see the hatred of men. We can see that nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, the ethnic groups where they're trying to get all of us to hate each other. You know? And and so that's the tribulation period from chapter six on the 19. In chapter 19, the lord Jesus returns, and Jude tells us he returns with his bride, the church, with 10 thousands and thousands of his saints. We know where he returns to is to Basra. We know where he crosses through Armageddon, through the Valley Of Jehoshaphat, up the Mount Of Olives into the city. We know there's a seventy five day interval because we just studied it in Daniel chapter 12. Blessed he comes to the twelve hundred thirteen hundred and thirty fifth day. And twelve hundred and sixty days from the time of the abomination of desolation where the antichrist in in second Thessalonians two and Revelation 13 when the antichrist declares himself to be god, demands to be worshiped as god, and people are compelled to worship the image of the beast from that day is twelve hundred and sixty days to the second coming when the lord Jesus returns. And and then chapter 20 is the great white throne judgment at the end of the we'll we'll back up. At the end of the tribulation period before the millennium, the Old Testament saints are resurrected. The tribulation saints are resurrected. The two witnesses have already been resurrected and ascended up to heaven. That completes the first resurrection. And then we have the wicked dead all incarcerated in in hell. And then the sea gave up the dead, and hell gave up the dead. They stood before God, Revelation twelve one through 15 at the great white throne judgment. And that's the end of the millennium, the thousand year rule and reign. And the the according to Revelation 21 through three, the antichrist and the false prophet are already in hell in the Lake Of fire, and the devil is in the abyss. And after the thousand years, the devil is put in the lake of fire. Then the wicked dead who've been judged by god at the Great White Throne are thrusted into the, lake of fire. And then we have the new heaven and new earth, Revelation twenty one and twenty two, the eternal state. So Peter reminds us that this earth is gonna burned up with fire, and we have a new heaven and new earth ascending out of heaven coming down to the earth. And we have the tree of life, and we have you and I there with golden streets, and the whole picture there, Revelation twenty one twenty two, is the eternal state. So there's the outline. So the mystery of the seven stars, he tells you, which thou sawest in my right hand in the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels. And remember, stars, you can use that over and over again when you come to word star. Almost every time it refers to angels. In re Revelation 12 verse Revelation twelve, one third of the stars fell with Lucifer. And so that was in Isaiah 14 with the fall, the five I will statements of the devil when he fell. A third of the angels went with him. We call them today demons or fallen angels. And so the seven stars are the are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which thou sawest are the seven churches. And so light bearers. Alright. Rochelle, anybody else any questions? When will we be taken up? I'm writing that book. I'll let you know. I got a question. Verse four, Revelation one four. Why is John capitalized? His all his name is all in capital letters, John, in the King James. I, John, to the seven churches. His name is all capital letters. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe emphasis. Maybe his position. Maybe emphasis. Yeah. Emphasis. Yeah. That's a good find. Yeah. I, John, he's testifying, making a testimony. The things which thou hast seen, things past. Okay. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for the interest that people show concerning your word and and the time that we could spend. And, I wish more people were interested. I wish more people would discover the wonderment, that just the beauty, the blessing of being students of your word and and prophetically, Lord, the way you prick our hearts and stir our hearts, and we get so excited about the future, so excited about your soon return and and our future. You're teaching us, Lord, how everything on this earth ends and how eternity begins. And, Lord, we thank you that your kingdom isn't of this world. Your your kingdom's already begun in our hearts, Lord. And we're already watching you rule and reign in and through us, Lord. We're a part of something that's eternal, that for good, Lord. And so, Lord, I just pray more and more that you give us opportunities to share with people of the hope that's within us, Lord, of of your soon return and making things right. And we thank you for the cross as we look back, and we thank you for the hope that is ours, Lord, you soon return. So blessed, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
