Revelation chapter 1 its all about King Jesus

Chapter 1 opens up by introducing us to King Jesus. In this episode we will discuss King Jesus and the promises he has for us.--- 

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to the Takeaway, where we teach through the Bible, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, to help you understand God's Word so that you can have a more intimate relationship with Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

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Hello, welcome again to the Takeaway, where I'm your host, Pastor Harry Barrens, and on today's episode, we would be looking at Revelation chapter 1. I want to welcome you as we go through this book, as this is a wonderful book of the Bible to go through, and I am excited to be teaching it. We're going to be going through this chapter by chapter and verse by verse, and I'm just going to be breaking down the detail and helping you have understanding. My end goal today is not to make you a theologian or anybody, but um to help you have and understand how to enter into a more intimate relationship with Jesus. That is and always will be my goal as a pastor, is to first and foremost help you either enter into a relationship or to grow your relationship with Jesus so that you can know the Father's will for your life. That is my goal. I'm not hiding it from you, and I'm excited to get started with our teaching today to help you understand the Word of God. Let's get started. In verse 1 through 3, we read the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel, his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. So, first you need to understand this book comes with promise. It's the only book in the Bible that comes with promise, and promise from Jesus Christ. We will learn what those promises are, but God has many, many promises for us. And to enter into the promises of the Lord, you have to first enter into a relationship with the Lord. And you have to enter into that relationship, submitting your life with Him as your Lord and King, and following His will and His desire for your life. And with that come promises that we'll talk about later. There's also a curse that comes with this book, and that's found later also in chapters 22, where it says, if anyone adds to the things of this book, I will add the plagues mentioned it to him in it. That again we'll read later on, but there's a lot of destruction in this book, and uh there's definitely some heaviness that comes with it to be accurate, to be true, to not change or to add or take away anything from this book, which is my hope and my desire to stay true to that. Um he also talks about soon. So this is interesting, as most people know, uh even if you don't, you know, at the very least, know that this is a very old book. Um we're going back nearly 2,000 years uh since this was written by John. And you know, he uses the word soon here. So what does this mean? Is it soon to him? Is it soon to that time? And you would think if somebody told you something was going to happen soon, that you're thinking in the near term, you're probably thinking in the matter of hours, days, or weeks, um, definitely not even maybe months, but then you get into years, decades, centuries, or millennia, you're not thinking that that's soon. So what does it mean when he says soon? Well, it indicates a couple possible things. First, that the events about to be described will take place soon, um, in the sense that they're next in prophetic events. So the next things to take place in God's timeline. You have to remember God is outside of time, he is not bound by time, um, and time doesn't mean anything to God, it means something to us. So prophetically, it could just be that these are next events to take place. Uh it also has another option, and the there's a word, the Greek word tacos, if I'm saying that right, um, that could be translated as soon or shortly. That's the word being used here. It can also be rendered as quickly or suddenly, which would mean that when these things take place, they will happen quickly and suddenly. So when we see the beginning of these events, they will roll out in quick sequence. Um, I believe it's both of those things that they are soon in spiritual term, in the sense of uh God's timeline, that they're the next events we know, like for the 2,000-year church age that has been going on, that prophetically nothing has happened up until 1948 when Israel was re-established as a nation again. Um, that was the beginning of prophetic events starting to take place. Since that time, uh, they have been rolling out quite quickly and increasingly we've been seeing more and more prophecy fulfilled, or at least the stage being set for more and more prophecy to be fulfilled that we're going to read a lot about in this book. So there you go. Moving on. In verses four through five, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, these are real churches. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits, excuse me, from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth. So, what are the seven spirits? You some of you probably have never heard of seven spirits of God or the seven spirits that are before the throne. You're thinking the most you've ever heard of is the spirit of God or the Father, Son, and Spirit, and you never heard of these seven spirits. Like, okay, now I got the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and now I got seven spirits. Like, what's the deal here? Well, in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 2, Isaiah talks about these seven spirits and it kind of identifies them for us. And he says, You have the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of knowledge and power and understanding, counsel, and the fear of the Lord. This is like the wholeness of God or completeness of God, of his characteristics, of who he is, um, the fullness of him. Um, you know, the number seven, we're gonna see it a lot throughout this book, uh, all the way going back to Genesis. Seven is a number of completion. Um, and there's just lots and lots of sevens. So back in Genesis, you had the six days of creation on the seventh day, God rested. It's it was a number of completion. Uh, it's a number that just is repeated a lot. Uh moving forward to the next verses to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him, even so, amen. So, one of the first questions is who is he making priests and a kingdom, right? Well, he's talking about true believers here. In uh Peter chapter 2, verse 9, he says, We are a royal priesthood. And in 2 Timothy 2 12, he says, We will reign with him. So we are going to be a royal priesthood, we are going to be rulers and reigning with Jesus in the millennial kingdom when he comes at the end of the tribulation, as we'll see at the end of this book. But it's important for you to know that if you are a true believer, your purpose is to rule and reign alongside Jesus. So that should be exciting. Um, who are those who pierced him? Well, this would be the Jewish people, or this would be the nation of Israel, as the leaders of Israel are the ones who um asked for him to be crucified. Uh the crowds, if you remember in the gospels, were saying, crucify him, crucify him. Well, they didn't want him, they rejected him as their Messiah, and they're the ones that pierced him. Well, as we're gonna see later on in later episodes, that the tribulation period that we're coming into here is all about the redemption of Israel. God's gonna bring that to completion, and they are gonna see him. Like the whole world is not gonna just see Jesus, but he says, even those who pierced him, like there's a very specific purpose. Like the Jewish people are gonna see him come in and they are gonna be so sorry when they do. There's gonna be genuine repentance as a nation, and that's God's plan and purpose as we go through this book. It's it's important to hold on to that truth and to remember that. Verse 8, moving on. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and its testimony of Jesus. So here you have John, he was banished to Patmos um for sharing the testimony of God. This is equivalent to being thrown in prison, to being put in jail. Um, and just like Paul was put on house arrest in Rome, you know, they were condemned for sharing the word of God. Uh I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyartira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Now the voice like a trumpet indicated a loud voice. He says, like it didn't say it was a trumpet, he said it was like a trumpet. And you could just imagine a trumpet going off. This was a loud, authoritative voice. It grabbed his attention. Verse 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow, his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like a roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. Whew! What detail we have here. And keep in mind again that John is doing his best to explain what it is he's seeing. The word like is used a lot here, so we have to take that into context as we try to understand what we're seeing. First, what are the seven lampstands? Well, we're gonna see later in verse 20 of chapter one here that it's the seven churches that are in Asia, and we're gonna get more descriptions of that. Chapters two and three is all about these seven churches. Um, but he makes it very clear that that's what it is. Who is in the midst of the lampstands? Well, this is Jesus. Jesus is in the midst of the lampstands. What's he, and again, the lampstands represent what the churches? Jesus is in the midst of the churches. Um, the long garment, the golden band, the white hair, the eyes like fire, and the feet like brass, and all these different details, what do they all mean? What is John trying to say when he's describing the characteristics, the physical characteristics of Jesus as he looks upon him? Well, there's actually meaning to all these things. So the garment itself is a priestly garment, um, a garment of a king. And if you read Exodus 28 and 29, uh particularly 28 verse 4 and 29, verse 5, you could get a description of the priestly attire that is being worn there. If you want to go back and look into that, the golden band is a priestly band, it's around his chest. It's something the priest would have worn, uh, indicates a high priest or a priest, um, and they would have been wearing this in this time, so it indicates that he's a priest. The white hair, what is the white hair a symbol of? I mean, we think this is probably where we get the idea that God is old or ancient, and he's just this old man with all this long flowing white hair, but that's that's not the indication here. Yes, he's eternal, yes, he's ancient, he's the ancient of days, but the reality is that white is a symbol of purity and of freedom from sin. Now, Isaiah chapter one, verse eighteen, it says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool, pure, clean, purified. There's nothing in it, there's no stain. Um, so it indicates purity. In uh Leviticus chapter 19, verse 32, it says, You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man. So there's age. Uh talks about honor and respect to those who've been around the block. Um, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord. Proverbs 16, 31. It says, Gray hair is a crown of glory, it is gained in a righteous life. There's experience there, understanding, knowledge. Um, it's a natural crown. So as we get whole older, you know, that gray hairs they should indicate wisdom that you have experience from great life. So this white hair indicates all these things. Now, the eyes like fire. You're probably getting a picture of Jesus with flaming eyes, like he's got flames flying out of his eyes. Um, and and and that's it, it's not the picture. The reality is that the eyes pierce the heart and they see everything. Their eyes like fire. So he's trying to explain like what is it about Jesus' eyes? Did you ever have somebody or something, like an animal or something, look at you and their eyes just pierced you? You know, I have this dog, and when he looks at me, sometimes I just feel like he's looking at my soul, you know, and that's the idea. It's a penetrating type eyes that can see deep into you and see through you. In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 13, it says, And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. There is no lying, there's nothing that can be hidden from them. These eyes pierce. You you can't fib your way out of anything with Jesus. He sees right to the core of who you are, all of it. And not just when we see him, but he sees you now who you are. Uh now the feet like brass, the feet like brass is a description of a person who is able to stomp out any opposite opposition, uh, leaving nothing but ashes behind. In Malachi chapter 4, verse 3, it says, And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. The two-edged sword that comes from his mouth. In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, it talks about this sword, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. When God speaks, when Jesus speaks, it pierces, it convicts, it changes, it brings life, it is true, it is holy, it cuts, like there is nothing like the word of God. And it's important to understand it's not just talking about when he speaks, right? Because he is the word of God, it's talking about the word of God, the Bible, right? This is the Bible, like this is God's word. And if you are a follower of Jesus, first and foremost, if you want to know God's will for your life, this is it. It's the word of God. So study it, know it, understand it if you want to enter into a more intimate relationship with Jesus. Now, the voice, like many waters, it cannot be ignored. So you ever stand next to a waterfall and it's roaring and the water's coming down and it's loud and the earth is moving, you can actually feel the rumble of it, you can feel the air moving, the atmosphere is different. When you're in its presence, this is Jesus. When we are going to be in his presence, when John was in his presence, this is what he's describing. Like when Jesus spoke, it grabbed his attention. The atmosphere changed, everything around him changed. It was felt. It was felt. I can only imagine when Jesus walked this world, when he healed, when he spoke, like people gave him attention. I can't help but think they felt his words because they were life-giving. And that's the power of his words that come from his mouth. Um in Ezekiel chapter 1, verse 24, it says, And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of atonement, like a sound of an army, the sound of an army. I mean, you're talking about thousands and thousands of men and horses marching forward, the rumble. That's what he's talking about. He's like, This was earth-shattering feeling when he spoke. Ezekiel forty-three, two says, And behold, the glory of God of Israel was coming from the east, and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. Verse 17 we read, When I saw him I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death in Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery, the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Now we'll get more detail in the chapters to come, but you know, we already know the seven lampstands indicate the seven churches, but what about these angels now? Who are these angels of the seven churches, right? Excuse me again. Well, first, the fact that the stars are in Jesus' right hand. It indicates that they are important and under his authority. The right hand is a sign of his strength and control. Jesus explains to John that the stars are the angels of the seven churches. Now, an angel is literally a messenger. That leads us to a question: Are these human messengers or heavenly beings, right? They could be guardian angels. It doesn't say they are, or they aren't. They could be messengers, spiritual messengers, but most likely they are the pastors or the bishops, right? It um could just be the overseers, the elders of these churches that this book is going to go out to. And Jesus is holding them in his right hand, he protects them and he guards them. In John chapter 10, verse 28, it says, No one can snatch them out of his hand. And that's good to know. Because if you are a believer, you cannot be snatched. Now, what is it that we want to take away from this book today? What is it we want to take out of this chapter as we close out for today? First and foremost, this is probably a different view of Jesus than you've ever had before. You've probably always had the long flowing hair, the gentle Jesus holding the lamb, playing with the children, sitting on a rock at the Last Supper or whatever, talking to his disciples, and just gentle, loving, kind, and healing. And that's beautiful. That was the sacrificial Jesus that was here on this earth. This view of Jesus that we write about today is a completely different view of Jesus. That was Jesus and what he had to do when he was here so that we could relate to him, so that he could bring the perfect sacrifice and that we could be saved. But that's done and over with. That's past tense. He's in heaven now, and he's king of king and lord of lords. And this is the picture. This is the Jesus we are going to meet. This is the Jesus we're going to see. We're not going to see Savior Jesus like we saw in the gospels, like that. We're not going to meet that Jesus. We're going to meet the Jesus that has eyes that pierce our hearts, that pierce our souls, that when he speaks, we're going to fall down from the power of his words. We're going to be cut to the heart. Like we are going to truly experience the fear of the Lord when we fall before him. And hopefully, the fear of the Lord that you experience is the fear of awe, is the presence of God. So that's the view of Jesus that you should have. This is the Jesus that we serve. So does this change anything for you? You know, many people only know, again, Savior Jesus. They're like, Yeah, I've accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior or whatever, but they never consider Jesus as Lord and King of their lives. And the reality is that Jesus wants us to submit our lives to Him. And He wants us to submit our lives not only so that we be saved, but so that we can have an abundant life. It says in John chapter 10, verses 7 through 10. I'm going to read a couple verses here. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. And here it is. Would you like to have life abundantly today? The life that Jesus promises that you can have. You can starting right now, if you've accepted him as your Lord and Savior, or you would like to accept him as your Lord and Savior, then enter into a place where then you pursue, you become Jesus' disciple, you submit your life to him, and learn and understand the word of God. Listen to go to a Bible-teaching church. Listen to pastors and teachers that teach the word of God for what it is, so that you can better understand God's will and desire for you, so that you can enter into the promises that He has. I promise you that He will give you an abundant life, that you will have joy in all circumstances, that everything will change for you, not because your world changed, but because your perspective changed. Our life is not our own. It belongs to somebody and it doesn't belong to you. Somebody or something owns you right now. I suggest that it's Jesus that you give your life to, and he will break the chains of anything that is holding you down or anything else that is trying to control you or manipulate you. Let him be your Lord and Savior. Will you pray with me today? Father, we thank you so much for your word and for your revelation. We thank you for this picture and this view of Jesus, of who he is and what he offers and gives to us today. I pray for anybody listening that they would accept you, Jesus, as their Lord and Savior, that they would just humble themselves now, that they would repent of their sins, say, Jesus, I am sorry. Please forgive me for the things that I have done wrong, for I am a sinner. Please come into my life, be my Lord and be my Savior. I want to follow you the rest of my days, and I want you to lead me into this abundant life. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being holy and true and just. Change us with your word. We pray in your precious name. Amen. If you've prayed that prayer with me today, you are now my brother or my sister in Jesus Christ. You have entered into the kingdom of God, and this abundant life can begin today. So please find a church to plug into. Get good Bible teaching. Continue to follow our podcast as we teach the Word of God chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And we bring the context and the definition from the Word of God. I don't use my own interpretation, at least I try to avoid that at all at all possible. And um thank you for following us today. Next week we'll be looking at uh chapters two and three. We'll be entering into that, and we'll be going through the seven churches in the next couple chapters, and we'll get to see more about uh the promises that Jesus has for us as his church, as his bride, and how do we enter into that? How do we receive that? So please join me in following episodes, and I look forward to seeing you then. Thank you.