SPEAKER_00: We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel.
SPEAKER_00: And welcome to our second week, studying through the last book of the Bible, the book we call Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Our study is called The Hope of Glory.
SPEAKER_00: And today we'll finish up chapters chapter one, looking at verses 9 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to remind you that Revelation is at one and the same time three different genres of literature.
SPEAKER_00: It is apocalyptic, that means it's divinely sourced, so it's divine revelation versus human discovery.
SPEAKER_00: And all of the Christian faith, of course, is based upon that.
SPEAKER_00: God taking the initiative to reveal himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's prophecy as well, second kind of literature that we see in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: Forthelling and foretelling.
SPEAKER_00: Prophecy did both of those things.
SPEAKER_00: It was thus saith the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was God speaking to point out sin and call people to repentance or to inform them about something.
SPEAKER_00: Other times it was God foretelling the future.
SPEAKER_00: This will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: You can look for this to happen.
SPEAKER_00: And Revelation has a bit of both, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: So it is apocalyptic, divinely sourced.
SPEAKER_00: It is prophetic.
SPEAKER_00: That is, it is God speaking into our situation and the situation of the seven churches that we'll read about in the next coming chapters.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the third kind of literature.
SPEAKER_00: It's an epistle or a letter, ancient epistle, also an encyclical letter, you might call it, where there is a writer of the letter, there are recipients to the letter, there's some occasion for the letter, and some purpose or intent of the letter.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put up on the screen for you also our overall outline, just to remind you of that, which we studied last week.
SPEAKER_00: If you hadn't seen the uh uh or or watched the uh sermon from last week and you might want to go back and catch the full intro, but here's a little bit of it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna outline the book this way, these seven visions, if you will, selections of um the way God speaks to um John the Apostle, through an angel, through Jesus, through God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: There's this this uh chain of conveyance, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: But chapters one to three are the seven churches and the letters to them.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter four through chapter eight, verse one, the seven seals, chapter eight, verse two through eleven, the seven trumpets, uh, chapters twelve through fourteen, the battle against Satan, chapters fifteen to sixteen, the seven bowls, chapters seventeen through nineteen, the downfall of Babylon, chapters twenty through twenty-two, new heavens and the new earth.
SPEAKER_00: So what are we gonna look at today?
SPEAKER_00: Today we'll look at sort of an intro or a setup, if you will, for the seven letters that will go to the seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: Those are found in chapters two and three, but today, verses nine through twenty of chapter one will be the setup to that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh here we're told quite a bit about revelation and about Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so about the book, we're we're gonna be told today where the visions were experienced.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be told why John was on the island of Patmos.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be told what day of the week it was and under what conditions he received these visions, to which churches the letters were to be sent, and uh we'll also talk about the nature of the author's connection to those churches.
SPEAKER_00: Let me put a map up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: This will give you an idea of um the lay of the land, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Now the uh colored regions uh would translate to our modern day uh understanding of what is Western Turkey.
SPEAKER_00: So uh if you look down in the lower left quadrant of the map, you'll see a very tiny little white uh word Patmos, and that is in an area of islands that uh off the coast of Western Turkey, what is Western Turkey today?
SPEAKER_00: Ephesus is there, and you'll see how the uh from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum to Thyatara, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea forms a bit of a horseshoe, if you will, and it was indeed an ancient postal route in Roman times.
SPEAKER_00: What we'll find as we go through these two these uh two chapters of seven letters is that these churches were facing three difficulties: persecution, error, and sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so from three different realms of life, great difficulty pressing in on the churches.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the persecution was physical and material, the error was intellectual and doctrinal.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they were they were shaken, if you will, in every kind of way, just much like many of us feel from time to time in our own lives, going through the suffering that we go through and the trials that we go through, but also tempted to sin.
SPEAKER_00: And um uh as we read through these letters, we'll see that Christ speaks to them uh in really all three of these categories, both to encourage and to exhort.
SPEAKER_00: And the analysis of these seven letters is really wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to, uh we'll begin with the letter to Ephesus next week, and then we'll take two letters a week after that.
SPEAKER_00: John Stod has said, as we look around the world today, the same pressures are harassing different churches.
SPEAKER_00: In some areas of the world, open hostility to the gospel is accompanied by physical violence.
SPEAKER_00: At others, the church is wrestling in intellectual combat with an insidious ideology or a materialistic philosophy with which it cannot come to terms.
SPEAKER_00: Elsewhere, the struggle is in the moral field, as the world seeks to cajole the church into conformity to its own ways.
SPEAKER_00: And so, from the book of Revelation, what do we learn?
SPEAKER_00: That's so well said by John Stott and so timeless uh struggle for the church.
SPEAKER_00: What is the message of the book of Revelation to the church then and now, uh, struggling as it does under these kinds of circumstances, persecution and doctrinal error, uh, tempted to sort of formulate its own idea of who God is and try to take on the role, if you will, or take the reins away from God and make it sort of a personal uh understanding of who God is, as opposed to the God who is really there.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and also tempted as we are to sin and to cave into the way the world thinks uh and acts apart from God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, under such pressures, back then and now, the church has always needed more than a materialistic solution, more than a motivational pep talk or philosophical argument, more than a set of moral rules to follow.
SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to religious thought, if revelation is nothing more than a prophetic puzzle raising more questions than it answers about future events, then it is cold comfort in comparison with what I believe the book of Revelation really is, which is a renewed vision of the risen, now reigning and soon returning Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, our King, who will one day welcome us to dwell with him in the house of Zion, to enjoy his abundance and peace, where we will indeed feast and weep no more.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's look at what this passage says and uh what it might mean to us.
SPEAKER_00: What was John's relationship with those who would read this letter?
SPEAKER_00: Um you'll you'll see that he calls himself brother and fellow partaker.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read through the text here uh for us.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me if you will, set your eyes on the page or swipe there on your device.
SPEAKER_00: I, John, your brother and fellow partaker.
SPEAKER_00: Uh some of your translations might say partner, and that's another great way to say it.
SPEAKER_00: In the three things, in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance, which are in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he says, I was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
SPEAKER_00: I heard behind me a loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet, saying, and you've got to imagine this being loud and sounding like a trumpet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what that, you know, a trumpet is.
SPEAKER_00: Is it like that?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yet words, you know, and uh uh I'm not I'm not sure how to do that, but certainly if it's loud, it's write in a book what you see.
SPEAKER_00: Send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and they're all named here, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis and Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.
SPEAKER_00: And I turned, John says, to see the voice that was speaking with me.
SPEAKER_00: And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_00: Now all of a sudden, you know, the what's audible becomes visual.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're really drawn in.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is really powerful.
SPEAKER_00: All right, seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_00: In the middle of the lampstands, one like a son of man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across his breast with a golden girdle.
SPEAKER_00: His head was and his hair were white like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like burnished bronze when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, like so hot, so heated up, it's it's it's being purified, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And uh his voice was like the sound of many waters.
SPEAKER_00: And in his right hand he held seven stars.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's visually, that's it's quite mind-blowing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
SPEAKER_00: And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as a dead man.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: And he laid his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Most often repeated command in the Bible, whenever God is speaking, or some messenger of God, whenever Jesus was speaking to his disciples and was about to do something really amazing, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: I am the first and the last, Jesus goes on to say, and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the one who has the keys has the power, has control, um, can let people in and let people out.
SPEAKER_00: I love this, this is so good.
SPEAKER_00: Write, therefore, the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things.
SPEAKER_00: He's been told to write twice now already.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a this is a writer who has been called, no, instructed, commanded, compelled to write the things that God is revealing to him.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all for our benefit as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's for these seven churches, but by extension, it's for us as well.
SPEAKER_00: And he's to write these things that he sees, the things which are, the things which shall take place, so the things that are currently happening and the things that are about to happen after these things.
SPEAKER_00: As for the mystery of the seven stars, he rolls right into an explanation, if you will, clarification for him of some of what he's just seen.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the Lord Jesus did so often with his disciples when he'd pull them aside after telling a parable, teaching it through a parable, everybody's puzzled, nobody can figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: And he he would pull his disciples, including John, he would pull them aside and explain the parable to them so that they would get it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh here he says, as for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and that clearly means this is Jesus here, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you saw them in my right hand.
SPEAKER_00: And the seven golden lampstands, he says, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is really amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, what a you know, what a whirlwind and a mind-blowing, opening vision that we have here, setting us up for uh the opportunity to read these seven lay uh seven letters to these seven churches uh in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Um let's look at this passage, what it what it says, what it might mean uh to us as well.
SPEAKER_00: What was John's relationship with those who would read this letter?
SPEAKER_00: He calls himself, I'll put this up on the screen for you, brother and fellow partaker.
SPEAKER_00: These are terms, this is a term of endearment and a term of commitment and partnership in three things in tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: Um tribulation would be suffering, ordeal, agony, and the very real experience of the believers on the ground in that day, as if indeed John is writing during the reign of uh Domitian, 81 to 96 A.D., where persecution of Christians was widespread, not just in Rome, like during the time of Nero, uh, 54 to 68 A.D., but now uh Domitian, who's demanding emperor worship, and anyone that says Jesus is Lord uh would run the risk of losing their life, because Domitian demanded that they say Caesar, Caesar Domitian is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So he is their brother and their fellow partaker in this tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: He's secondly their brother and fellow partaker in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is simply this they see themselves not limited to being a part of the Roman Empire, um, but rather uh they see themselves in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, um, under the sovereign rule of the same king, King Jesus, who is Lord, uh, as do we.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're in the world, but they're not of it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, he was on the island of Patmos, and yet he was in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that about uh uh about this as we read it.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that there are really there's more than one reality of which we're a part of.
SPEAKER_00: As God has revealed it to us, we're always uh we have a sort of a dual citizenship, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we live in this world, but we are members of an unshakable kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we we we submit ourselves and belong, lock, stock, and barrel, all of who we are belongs to him uh who holds all of human history uh in it's in his hands, uh, because he is indeed Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, uh he is their brother and fellow partaker in perseverance, not merely passive, um, but rather a patient endurance, uh, a faithfulness uh as they endure all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows he's part of the kingdom of heaven, not just kingdom of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so as he, and these three things are inextricably tied, as you can see, because if you're suffering uh in the material world, if you're if you're suffering persecution in the very physical realm, um, you're gonna need to know that you're a part of another kingdom and that you submit to another king.
SPEAKER_00: And that will help you to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: And in this perseverance, again, it's not just sort of a grin and bear it, it's not just sort of a uh a tolerate toleration of higher tolerate tolerance for pain, it's a stictuativeness.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is an active hope in God and a trust in God with tenacious resolve, uh uh offering, standing with one another and self-sacrificing love with faithfulness, with backbone and courage, as the church has done down through the years.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you bought into some version of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, the book of Revelation, nay, the entire Bible uh probably won't appeal to you.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're interested in living your life as part of the great adventure in union with Christ, uh by denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following him, buckle up, John says.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to John, buckle up, uh, because following Jesus will include these things.
SPEAKER_00: And yet there will still be much hope because Christ is our hope in life and death.
SPEAKER_00: Much hope, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's been victorious over the grave.
SPEAKER_00: Much hope because there's an eternity and an unshakable kingdom that we're a part of.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and nothing that can happen in this world can take that away from us because we belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: John is writing this, remember, as he's getting this vision, he's not out on an island vacation somewhere in, you know, the you know, sort of the the Greek Isles on some luxurious, you know, resort.
SPEAKER_00: He's on a prison island of Patmos.
SPEAKER_00: He makes it clear this was not a writer's retreat out overlooking the beach in a perfect little, you know, kind of a beach house and all that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: He's not doing some kind of luxurious Mediterranean, isolated vacation thing.
SPEAKER_00: His convictions regarding Jesus Christ as Lord, they actually were so obvious to Caesar Domitian and to the ruling authorities of the day that it convicted him, in their eyes anyway, the evidence was enough to convict him that he got sent to prison.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about isolation, talk about losing all your creature comforts, and in the midst of that kind of an existence, here comes God with this vision that he gives to Jesus, to give to an angel, to give to John, that he might pass it along to the servants of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder sometimes about myself, is there enough evidence?
SPEAKER_00: Would there be enough evidence to convict me if allegiance to Christ were indeed illegal during our own day and time?
SPEAKER_00: Um how about you?
SPEAKER_00: Um these are these are difficult questions for us sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: What's the condition of Johnny was in the spirit on the Lord's Day?
SPEAKER_00: What might that mean?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have to think about these phrases.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just throwaways.
SPEAKER_00: Surely it's a special uh way of saying something, um, because he he's given these amazing seven visions, and we end up with this amazing book.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does it mean that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day?
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, like I said, anybody practicing social distancing or isolation, like John was in a prison island of Patmos, which is largely volcanic rock.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's not a big island.
SPEAKER_00: It's I think it's 10 miles long and at the widest point, maybe about six miles.
SPEAKER_00: But but this is a place they sent prisoners, you know.
SPEAKER_00: This is a place they sent criminals.
SPEAKER_00: And from what we understand, he, from what tradition, church tradition tells us, he's there for about a year and a half.
SPEAKER_00: Um, put there by Domitian, released later by Emperor Nerva, who follows after Domitian.
SPEAKER_00: But I would think that during all of that time, this must at least mean that John is able to spend some time in prayer and in the scriptures, or at least recalling the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, they had a great ability, uh, much more so than we do, for oral tradition back then and for the memorization of scripture, way more than we do.
SPEAKER_00: Um we have we have to have our devices, we have to have our little books, you know, to be able to remember.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know phone numbers anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I used to be great at memorizing phone numbers before speed dial.
SPEAKER_00: But now, man, I don't, I don't, I don't know anybody's phone number.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't, not even sure I know my phone number.
SPEAKER_00: But I just know that I push for speed dial or I tell, you know who, hey Siri, call this person.
SPEAKER_00: Um, or or the other one around the house here that listens so well.
SPEAKER_00: And if I say her name right now, all of our devices would go off at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but John, you know, he has this memory uh and and he he makes some reference to almost every book of the Bible here in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: So we know he knew his scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the last of the New Testament books written.
SPEAKER_00: So he's likely familiar with the writings of the Apostle Paul, likely familiar with the four gospels.
SPEAKER_00: And this is it's just a wealth.
SPEAKER_00: He's a he's like a wealth of both Old Testament and New Testament knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, I find myself asking questions when I read things like this.
SPEAKER_00: He was in the Spirit on the Lord's day.
SPEAKER_00: What do I need to do to get myself?
SPEAKER_00: Not so much having some vision experience, the sensational activity.
SPEAKER_00: Aspect of it.
SPEAKER_00: But to actually be in the Spirit, to live my life in communion with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: To put myself in a position to be able to hear from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Again, not seeking the thrill of some sensational experience, but seeking Him for Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Because I love Him and I want to commune with Him.
SPEAKER_00: What would that take for you?
SPEAKER_00: What would that take for me?
SPEAKER_00: Notice in John's mind and heart, he was, I mean, his mind and heart were literally blown wide open.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're actually told there in verse 17, he fell as though dead at Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I would too if I saw all of this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh as he struggles through verses 10 through 17, you can count them up.
SPEAKER_00: He trying to describe, because Jesus tells him, write what you see, right?
SPEAKER_00: And um so he's as he's doing all of that uh in verses 10 through 17, what we have is is him describing what he sees.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so hard for him to do that, poet that he is included.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean he's he's a theologian, he's a pastor, he's a poet, he and he and he has all of those gifts, but he has to revert to or resort to the comparison word like, you know, I'll put that in in sort of air quotes for you, but you can count them in your own Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's he he's doing it like eight times.
SPEAKER_00: And that just means his mind and heart are so blown, he has to use comparison terms.
SPEAKER_00: He has to say things like, I heard a voice like the sound of a trumpet.
SPEAKER_00: I turned to see this voice, and uh and there in the middle of the lampstands he saw that he saw was one like a son of man.
SPEAKER_00: His hair was uh and his head were white like white wool, like snow.
SPEAKER_00: His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on and on it goes because his mind has been literally blown.
SPEAKER_00: And it says here, uh, and I'll put this up on the slide for you John fell at his feet as a dead man.
SPEAKER_00: What a proper response, similar to what we read about all the way back in Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: Again, these um references to the Old Testament just remind us John really knew his Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Daniel 8, 17, so he came near to where I was standing, and when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face.
SPEAKER_00: But he said to me, Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.
SPEAKER_00: And this is just amazing when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: So, as uh Estat reminds us over and over again, uh, this vision of Jesus was deafening to his ears and dazzling to his eyes, and his mind is just blown.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this exalted Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what John tells us as he saw uh and heard from, saw Jesus and heard from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In the middle of the seven lampstands, for instance, there's Christ at the center of what he later tells us represents the churches, the seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: The lampstands do, okay?
SPEAKER_00: They don't have there, the light doesn't come just from the lampstand, but rather the candle in the lampstand.
SPEAKER_00: So we are the ones that um are like a city on a hill, a light that cannot be hidden, but the light's not our own.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reflected light.
SPEAKER_00: It's the light of Christ and the light of God.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is at the center of the seven lampstands.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is at the center of the church.
SPEAKER_00: He is the heart of the church, he's the head of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there are many different ways that we try to describe uh what seems to be indescribable about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh John uses the term son of man, which was indeed the most often used self-reference of Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever he would uh talk about himself, especially in Matthew's gospel, he would call himself the son of man.
SPEAKER_00: And Jews of that time would have heard Daniel chapter 7, verse 14, clearly messianic.
SPEAKER_00: Uh clearly Jesus was saying to that first century uh Jewish mindset, I am Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He's clothed in a robe and sash, symbolic of the high priestly role.
SPEAKER_00: His head and hair were white like wool, symbolizing the ancient of days, uh, which would be another uh reference to Daniel's vision of God from Daniel chapter 7, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: His eyes here are described like a flame of fire, and his feet burnished bronze and furnace.
SPEAKER_00: All this recalling Daniel chapter 10, verse 6, the image of the heavenly being, as well as images of purity and purification uh for before the temple uh sacrificial uh rituals.
SPEAKER_00: Um here we see, here we read that his voice was like the sound of many waters, which recalls Ezekiel's vision of the return of God's glory to the temple in Ezekiel 43, 2.
SPEAKER_00: Um, here we're told that uh Jesus is holding the seven stars in his hand, and that the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: And some interpret this these to be actual angelic or heavenly creatures, others, uh, since the Greek word for angel is uh minister, um, others think that this might be a reference to the pastors or the leaders of the seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, which is it?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think either are probably acceptable, uh, reasonable interpretations.
SPEAKER_00: Um therefore I'd I'd say uh it's the leadership or the influence of of each of those seven churches.
SPEAKER_00: He's making sure that um they are are spoken to, and uh you'll see that they'll be encouraged and exhorted as well, whatever the stars may actually be.
SPEAKER_00: It is more important that they're held in Jesus' hand because he is the one who holds us fast.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and each of the seven churches have needs, uh needs to be encouraged, needs to be exhorted.
SPEAKER_00: And he reminds them that he holds them fast in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's beautiful, a great reminder that even in his nail-scarred hands, Jesus holds us fast as well.
SPEAKER_00: Out of his mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_00: This most certainly a reference to the messianic uh image from Isaiah 49 2.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to remember that uh Jesus uh when he came did not come merely as a as a sort of a comforter uh life coach or sort of a counselor.
SPEAKER_00: Those are fine professions for people to be in.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to understand that Jesus is not only that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think a lot of times we tend to focus on that, those aspects of of God.
SPEAKER_00: When we say God is love, we tend to, in our day and time, many people tend to think that that means he's just rubber stamping everything we might want to do.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is if God really loves us, um, God doesn't just rubber stamp everything.
SPEAKER_00: He did, because we have a tendency to want things that aren't good for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as a loving father, as a loving heavenly father, um, he doesn't want for us those things that would be destructive for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so his voice uh coming out of his mouth, he's got this um this sword.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that sword is an image perhaps of dividing between right and wrong, rebuking chastisement when it's necessary, because he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: Um, his face shines like the sun, we're told here.
SPEAKER_00: This is beautiful, too.
SPEAKER_00: Um it his face uh like the sun is too bright to look at itself, but by the light of the sun, that's how we see everything else, right?
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: So it's that same kind of paradox with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Too amazing, too, too brilliant for us to look at his glory and see it, um, just looking straight at it.
SPEAKER_00: But by his glory, and throughout all of creation, we see his glory, and it's part of his glory that gives us even eyes to see.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it gives him, gives, brings him great glory when we not only see his glory writ large in in all of creation, Psalm 19, um, but also start to think about and and experience the wonder that leads us to worship him because of his great glory.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's put the slide up on the screen that says, Who is this exalted Christ?
SPEAKER_00: He is the one that says, Do not be afraid, just as he did on the Mount of Transfiguration to this same one named John.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, James, and John on that mountain with Jesus, the Mount of Transfiguration, when he had one foot in the heavenly realm and one foot still in the earthly realm, and he was there talking with Moses and Elijah, and the voice from heaven said, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, James, and John were right there.
SPEAKER_00: So, John here, getting this same vision, this idea that here is this Jesus speaking to him from the sort of heavenly realm, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: This this eye full of just mind-blowing, eye-popping, heart thumping visuals, and this voice that sounds like a trumpet.
SPEAKER_00: And what comes through all of that, what cuts through, the very first thing that cuts through to the one who falls dead, John, falls dead at Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_00: The very first thing that happens is Jesus touches him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17 says, His right hand upon me.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Do not be afraid, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you're going through.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll take the time to pause, to bow before him, to quiet everything in such a way that you can feel his hand upon you and hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Do not be afraid to you.
SPEAKER_00: When the disciples heard this, Matthew 17 tells us they fell down to the ground and they were terrified.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, Get up and do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: John would have been the one to have heard that, and he would have recalled Jesus saying that to them many, many times.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this exalted Christ?
SPEAKER_00: He's the first and the last.
SPEAKER_00: Um, Jesus uh makes this claim that he is the same personal God as the God of the Old Testament, the God of Israel, who spoke through Isaiah in Isaiah 44, 6, put it up on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_00: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: I am the first and the I am the last, and there is no God besides me.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me in Isaiah 48, 12, O Jacob, even Israel, whom I called, I am he, I am the first, and I am also the last.
SPEAKER_00: And so here in Revelation 1, Jesus is saying something John would have been familiar with, being familiar with the prophet Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, I'm the same one as the God of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: I am, and Jesus made that very claim when John, when he was on earth, and John was following him around, listening to his teaching, and Jesus would say things like, I and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_00: If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And so here in this vision, again, John is being comforted to not be afraid, but to trust in Christ, to trust that Christ indeed is God, that he's the Alpha and the Omega, that He's the one that has the power of life and death.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm getting ahead of myself.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this exalted Christ?
SPEAKER_00: He's the living one.
SPEAKER_00: He was dead.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, he's alive forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: All of this meant to restore and renew John's vision and our vision of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's both the lion and the lamb.
SPEAKER_00: Many today, I think, prefer one image over the other.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but Christ is actually both, and we must hold them both in our minds and our hearts when we think of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of people prefer uh Jesus as lamb or Jesus as lion, you know, depending on sort of the disposition of your heart and uh and the way that you've sort of been schooled or trained to think.
SPEAKER_00: But we need to remember he is both.
SPEAKER_00: Um, both together will move us uh away from the error of attempting to control the lamb or to declaw the lion.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the exalted Christ?
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that says, I have the keys of death and of Hades.
SPEAKER_00: So here's Jesus with the keys, and he got those keys.
SPEAKER_00: When?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he went to the cross, and we're told in the Apostles' Creed, even, uh, he descended into hell, and he literally took to grab the keys to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And when he left, you know, the the gates of hell will not prevail against us.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus actually has the keys to life and death.
SPEAKER_00: This is profound when you think of this.
SPEAKER_00: He has the keys of death and of Hades.
SPEAKER_00: He has the power, the control.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that can free us from the power of death.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he's the one that can bring us out of uh the a destiny prescribed in Hades and bring us into a destiny uh prescribed to be with him forever, to live with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we declare that Christ is our hope in life and death.
SPEAKER_00: Let me close with this quote from Eugene Peterson, Reverse Thunder.
SPEAKER_00: A few paragraphs into the revelation, the adrenaline starts rushing through the arteries of my faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm on my feet alive, tingling.
SPEAKER_00: It is impossible to read the revelation and not have my imagination aroused.
SPEAKER_00: So, folks, I hope you have been stirred today.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're getting excited about moving forward into the rest of this book as we look to that first letter that we'll read and study together next week, the letter to Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: Um, read ahead and remember to keep your eyes on Jesus as we go through all of these amazing images in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we believe that revelation will lead us away from worry and deeper into wonder and worship.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the name of the Lord our God.