SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road.
SPEAKER_01: He's the ruler of the kings of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Just camp on that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: That President Obama, Net Yahu, these great leaders of the nation, the world, they're gonna be held accountable to this king, who's the king of the earth, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we're gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be on the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We're starting Revelation tonight.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Apocalypse.
SPEAKER_01: And the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said this about Russia.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great quote about Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Soviet Union is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
SPEAKER_01: And in many ways, the book of Revelation, the apocalypse, is sort of like that.
SPEAKER_01: It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
SPEAKER_01: It's so convoluted in some ways by many commentators' view of it that even a guy like John Calvin, who is the great systematic theologian of the Reformation, never did a commentary on the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And it's really sad because we're going to see starting tonight, and then we're going to see it seven times in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: No other book of the Bible actually promises you a blessing but the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians doesn't promise a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians, Romans, as beautiful as those books are, and they're all infallible, and they're all inspired by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Only the book of Revelation actually promises to the reader a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: No book of the Bible takes such a high view of Jesus Christ as the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: No book of the Bible takes such a high view of the Scriptures as the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Out of 404 verses, 278 allude to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: No book of the Bible so reveals the majesty and the power of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: No book of the Bible so describes heaven.
SPEAKER_01: You guys realize, and I've told you this before, that if your kids have ever asked you what's heaven like, take them to Revelation chapter 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_01: There's no other place in all of the 66 books of the Bible that describe and give us a view of heaven like Revelation 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_01: No book of the Bible describes the end times in more detail.
SPEAKER_01: It is detailed about the great battles.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about seals.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about the work of turmoil of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: This book will describe the great tribulation, the rapture of the church, but preeminent, and don't miss this, preeminent is the description of our great and powerful Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory and majesty, like a cosmic pageantry.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see pageantry at Easter.
SPEAKER_01: These guys have been practicing now for weeks, the kids.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a really awesome Easter program planned with kind of a bluegrass worship sound and about 50 or 60 kids up here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But nothing compares in the majesty and the glory of the greatest pageant in all of human history as it's described here in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Seventeen times we will switch back from heaven to earth in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: There are 44 separate visions in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Like, likeness, in other words, it looked like is used 21 times, 22 times.
SPEAKER_01: I saw, John saying, I saw something, 60 times.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, 30 times.
SPEAKER_01: The word great, for like great famine, great earthquakes, 84 times.
SPEAKER_01: The number seven, fifty-four times.
SPEAKER_01: Angels are referenced seventy-four times.
SPEAKER_01: The entire book is visions of signs, of heaven, of earth, of tribulation, of earthquakes, in this majestic pageantry, which we call the apocalypse.
SPEAKER_01: And it's important to understand that, and this is, you know, I've seen very few commentaries on this, but when I first taught Revelation a number of years ago, I had just concluded Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was really into Genesis at the time.
SPEAKER_01: So we had done Genesis, we'd done a year, I think a year and a half in Genesis, and then we spent the next year, year and a half in Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be in the book of Revelation, you guys, for about a year to a year and a half.
SPEAKER_01: And it's important that you understand the two most maligned books in all of the Bible are Genesis and Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: There's no other place where we're human critics and what and what we call higher criticism.
SPEAKER_01: See, my dad was Lutheran, and in the Lutheran church, he went to Philadelphia Theological Seminary after graduating from Duke.
SPEAKER_01: And when he got there, German higher criticism was really at its apex at that time.
SPEAKER_01: And German higher criticism began to go after the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation about 75 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And it's still true today.
SPEAKER_01: So Genesis and Revelation are powerful.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say, I'm going to give you this is not from me.
SPEAKER_01: This actually comes from a great preacher of the past named Harry Ironside, but he called it the great circle of truth.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to jot that down.
SPEAKER_01: The great circle of truth of Genesis and Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: I would say it this way: the two most powerful books of the Bible are the capstones of the Bible, and that's Genesis, the beginning of all things, and Revelation, the end of all things.
SPEAKER_01: In this great circle of truth, with the beginning of Genesis and ending up with what I would call kind of the apex of truth, with the book of Revelation, Satan has done his greatest attacks.
SPEAKER_01: So your kids, if they're in public schools, and in some cases even charter schools and private schools, have been influenced by evolution.
SPEAKER_01: Evolution is the foundation for popular modern science today, as you know.
SPEAKER_01: Well, no other book, but Genesis so spearheads the issue of a literal six-day creation.
SPEAKER_01: And it's in that creation, it's within the creation of man that we come to this incredible promise in which the Lord says in Genesis, he, it doesn't say Christ, but parenthetically we could say Christ, he shall bruise your head, speaking of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: So if there's one book of the Bible that Satan would not want us to be reading, studying, and become knowledgeable of, it'd be the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the same with the book of Revelation, because it's in Revelation that we see the ultimate demise of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: We see his destruction, we see the glory in the last three chapters of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And we see the new heavens and the new earth coming down.
SPEAKER_01: So Harry Ironside, writing in 1920, said this.
SPEAKER_01: Go through the testaments until we come to Revelation, the book of last things, and lo, we find that it dovetails perfectly into the book of Genesis, thus perfecting the inspired ring.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what he means: the book of Genesis is no less than paradise lost, and the book of Revelation is no less than paradise regained.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis gives us the creation of the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation gives us a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_01: That heaven and that stream coming out of Jerusalem, you'll go fly fishing there and always catch a 20-inch plus rainbow trout every time.
SPEAKER_01: A new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis gives us an earthly paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation gives us a heavenly paradise.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis, we see the first Adam and his wife set over God's creation.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation, we behold the second Adam and his bride ruling over a redeemed world.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis, we learn of the beginnings of sin with the introduction of the serpent.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation, we see the end of sin and the serpent cast into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis, we see the city of man.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation, we view the city of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, folks, we are in for an exciting journey.
SPEAKER_01: You guys pumped?
SPEAKER_01: I've really been excited about this.
SPEAKER_01: So let's open up to Revelation 1.1.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start there, and we're only going to cover a few verses here at the beginning tonight, and then we'll pick it up next week.
SPEAKER_01: The revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I think I stop there.
SPEAKER_01: The revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So this is not a revelation of John, but a revelation of and a revelation by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is a revelation given to John.
SPEAKER_01: And I was doing some research on Patmos this week.
SPEAKER_01: And the island of Patmos, they have the Cave of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: They call it the Cave of John or the Cave of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And one of these days I'm going to go there.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that Patmos is considered one of the most idyllic cities in the world?
SPEAKER_01: It's only 3,000 inhabitants.
SPEAKER_01: And it's only 13 square miles, the whole island.
SPEAKER_01: But it was a volcanic, nothing was there except an imprisonment, a colony of slaves of Rome at the time John is there.
SPEAKER_01: But he's in this cave, they believe, and he had this revelation.
SPEAKER_01: John Wolford, which is the main commentary that I'm using, John Wolford's The Revelation of Jesus Christ, says this.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning, don't miss this, unveiling, uncovering, manifestation, or disclosing of a reality that previously has not been revealed.
SPEAKER_01: So the Old Testament is the revelation of the coming Messiah through prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: The New Testament Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is the earthly, and I would say almost the earthly power and humiliation of Jesus Christ as he goes to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: The epistles are the letters written about the theology of how to walk in sanctification in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But the book of Revelation is unique in that it is the majesty, the power, the glory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, not in humiliation, but in victory and in power.
SPEAKER_01: Now don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: This to me is the most exciting.
SPEAKER_01: I read Revelation like, I don't know, eight or ten times over the last few months, just reading it, reading it, reading it, reading.
SPEAKER_01: And it and it hadn't hit me quite to the degree that at this time, maybe because of what I've been through over the last two years.
SPEAKER_01: And after our series that we did, the series at the beginning of the year on reigning in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Revelation is in a time of deep, deep persecution.
SPEAKER_01: This book is about being an overcomer.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: On the practical side of the writing of Revelation for us today, it is for overcomers.
SPEAKER_01: It is not necessarily for those walking in victory.
SPEAKER_01: It's for those that are walking through difficulty who have decided that the reigning and ruling power of Christ is going to be exhibited in their life and they're going to be an overcomer through turmoil.
SPEAKER_01: It is an unveiling of the last days.
SPEAKER_01: It is the unveiling of the last days.
SPEAKER_01: It's divine intelligence of the last days from God the Father, from Jesus to us, so that we can see even what's happening in our world today and be aware, oh, that God's God's setting things up.
SPEAKER_01: And it gives us revelation into Luke 1, Mark 13, Matthew 24, and 1st and 2 Thessalonians.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I would also add Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: As to those areas, those books and those verses that have been given to us that have been hidden in ages past, we have an unveiling, we have an apocalyptic understanding through apocalyptic literature of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It is the unveiling of the final battle.
SPEAKER_01: Only in the book of Revelation do we have the word Armageddon.
SPEAKER_01: And I've been to that valley, the Valley of Megiddo, and seen that valley where that great battle will take place.
SPEAKER_01: No other book of the Bible so describes in detail the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: No book of the Bible so in detail describes the earthly reign of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is the unveiling of who Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: Now don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: The names given in the book of Revelation about Jesus Christ are amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you chapter one alone.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter one of Revelation, here's the names of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He's the faithful witness, firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: I like that one.
SPEAKER_01: I really like that one.
SPEAKER_01: He's the ruler of the kings of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Just camp on that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: That President Obama, Netanyahu, these great leaders of the nations of the world, they're going to be held accountable to this king who's the king of the earth, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The one who loved us and has washed us, the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come.
SPEAKER_01: And the Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: And the title most often used of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation is the Lamb of God 28 times in 22 chapters.
SPEAKER_01: The revelation of Jesus Christ, the apocalypse, unveiling, unraveling of confusion, and giving us an understanding of what God's going to do in the last days.
SPEAKER_01: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel 12, 9 says this.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're going to see, we're going to cross-reference Daniel a lot over the next year, the 70th week and the issues of the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting that in Daniel chapter 12 we read, seal up until the end times.
SPEAKER_01: Here in Revelation, almost dictating, and it's interesting when you read different commentaries about the view, there's no other book of the Bible that almost appears to be dictated by Jesus straight to the writer.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's a revelation of Jesus Christ, and it's Jesus Christ speaking to John.
SPEAKER_01: And in Daniel, he says, seal up this prophecy until the end times.
SPEAKER_01: But here in Revelation, he starts with, show his servants.
SPEAKER_01: Show his servants.
SPEAKER_01: So this is not a book for unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a book for curiosity seekers.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not a book for critics.
SPEAKER_01: It's a book for the faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't this interesting?
SPEAKER_01: Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: So in Daniel, he says, seal it up to the last days, Daniel 22, excuse me, Revelation 22 says, do not seal the words of this prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: So for some of you, this will be a fresh new revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Who here has done an in-depth verse-by-verse study of the book of Revelation?
SPEAKER_01: Who's done that?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so maybe a quarter or less of you.
SPEAKER_01: So for many of you, this is going to be fresh and new stuff.
SPEAKER_01: This is a revelation in how to live during times of stress, persecution, and difficulties.
SPEAKER_01: So he says this the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants, which God gave him to show his servants, things which must shortly take place.
SPEAKER_01: The early church really believed that they were living in the last days.
SPEAKER_01: We see evidence of this throughout the New Testament letters.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said in 1 Corinthians that the time is short.
SPEAKER_01: The Thessalonian letters speak of the coming of Christ being soon, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 2.
SPEAKER_01: There was this sense in the early church that were pilgrims and sojourners.
SPEAKER_01: Peter wrote, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims.
SPEAKER_01: The phrase, shortly come to pass, has been controversial through the years.
SPEAKER_01: For those, and I'm not going to go into the there's really about five different perspectives of how you translate and interpret the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: My notes, which I believe you may have in the app, actually has those five in there, but I pulled them out because I still had way too many pages.
SPEAKER_01: So you can look at what those are, but that there's a preterist view, there's a present-day view, what we call an idealistic view and a symbolic view, and I'm going to take a futuristic view on the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: So shortly come to pass in the Greek has the idea entechi, which means quickly or suddenly coming to pass.
SPEAKER_01: So indicating speed and brevity.
SPEAKER_01: So when he speaks of, when he speaks of shortly taking place, listen closely, it's the idea that as these particular signs and these particular things begin to happen on the earth, the coming of the Lord will come speedily.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it'll be like a snowball effect.
SPEAKER_01: Things are going to begin to fall into place and happen quickly.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you just look at the presidential primaries and the reality show, which is the Republican side.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really, it's a reality show.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what it feels like to me.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody making fun of each other and just ripping on each other and everything.
SPEAKER_01: If I had to bet my bottom dollar, that this is what would have been happening six months ago, I'd have said, you're nuts.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody had told me an avowed socialist who's really never had a job, would be on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: Who lived in a sugar shack, got his first paycheck at 40, and he's in the running.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You're crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And people are voting for these guys.
SPEAKER_01: I'm shocked.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest with you, I'm shocked with what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: The inability to think by the American people is phenomenal to me.
SPEAKER_01: Even Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, something's going on.
SPEAKER_01: Have you felt that?
SPEAKER_01: Are you experiencing that?
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't, you need to get out more often.
SPEAKER_01: You really do.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's some bizarre stuff happening right now.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: However you vote, I can understand it.
SPEAKER_01: I can see pros and cons on all the sides.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so don't, I'm not ad, I don't know who even who to advocate except Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I wish Jesus was running for president, but he's not.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is it's a it's a good example to me of what they mean by things shortly taking place.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we're seeing.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's so exciting.
SPEAKER_01: We're in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: In this year, while all this is happening.
SPEAKER_01: Super Tuesdays, a few days away.
SPEAKER_01: And God led us to do this because I want to prepare your hearts that when these things begin to take place, it's going to have a snowball effect.
SPEAKER_01: Things are going to begin to happen rapidly.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got to be right with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: You guys need to be in one of these one-hour prayer rooms.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be praying and seeking the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be preparing yourself and your heart and your marriage and your family and your parenting for the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you what I think are four apocalyptic indicators right now.
SPEAKER_01: Four apocalyptic indicators that I see scripturally and experientially.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, abortion.
SPEAKER_01: I believe abortion is an apocalyptic indicator.
SPEAKER_01: The reason I say that is because if you young people in this room, 25 and below, are the last generation, full generation before the coming of the Lord, Satan tried to take you out.
SPEAKER_01: Starting around 1973, he began to take out a generation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what our numbers are.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're at 55 million or 60 million or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: There's 55 million less young adults and even a little uh into the 30s and 40s there that were taken out by abortion.
SPEAKER_01: And if Satan, knowing that that might be the last generation as he sees the signs in the book of Revelation himself, in the book of Daniel, has used abortion to try to knock out a generation.
SPEAKER_01: So number one is abortion.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the increase of signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: The increase of signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: Both false signs and wonders and true signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: As we studied, many of you were a part of this, when we were studying the book of Joel, I shared again and again this concept in the last days, the rise of lawlessness and also the rise of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: The rise of the sons of Satan and the rise of the sons of God.
SPEAKER_01: God is raising up a signs and wonders church.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen people in this church healed, healed of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't make sense, but they've been healed.
SPEAKER_01: We are seeing healings in many parts of the world, even in this country, through cults that's satanic and demonic, and it has bondages associated with it.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna see Matthew 24, Jesus talking about the last days.
SPEAKER_01: So you will see the rise, the increased rise of false as well as true signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, the apostate church.
SPEAKER_01: The apostate church.
SPEAKER_01: We know that many are going to fall away.
SPEAKER_01: This work of the enemy, which so affected the liberal, I would say the main line, neo-Orthodox liberal churches, starting in really the 1950s, moving into the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you go into most Lutheran churches, you go into most Methodist churches, you go into even most Roman Catholic churches today, and they're empty.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there'll be some old folks there.
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, yeah, I talked to the pastors, I know.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the priesthood, I was on a, we were on a flight back from Iowa this week, and I sat next to a Catholic guy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Man, there's like no priests in the Catholic church.
SPEAKER_01: That's where you're gonna have to start ordaining women because they don't have any men.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, what's the problem?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Is it a single issue?
SPEAKER_01: You can't be married and all that.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is there's no anointing and power of the Holy Spirit in those churches.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, those that are word and spirit churches are growing.
SPEAKER_01: They're growing.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what to do with all the spirit-filled people that are coming up.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see a church now among the evangelicals that's jettisoning the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: As we've looked at some of the issues related to same-sex marriage, as we've seen issues related to stuff related to drugs and other areas that have come come about over the last, I'd say, 20 years, we are watching evangelical churches that have no hermeneutic scripturally to support.
SPEAKER_01: So they're jettising the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jettising the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And then fourthly, this is really exciting, the worldwide preaching of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said this: the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world, and then the end will come.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't it be exciting that God would raise up through the road hundreds, if not thousands, of young men and women who want to go to the world and plant churches, who want to go to the world to unreach people groups and reach them for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't it be exciting to be a part of the last mop-up campaign?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that'd be so cool.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, to hit Normandy for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You know, to have D-Day for the Lord, and let's finish this thing up.
SPEAKER_01: And there'll be a lot of casualties.
SPEAKER_01: There'll be a lot of casual the greatest casualties, the most casualties in World War II were at Normandy and beyond.
SPEAKER_01: The last year of World War II.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that the most deaths occurred during that time, comparing all the other four years combined during World War II when we hit Normandy.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: We the word witness in the Greek means martyria.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we get the word martyrdom.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually in our passage here.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we are gonna see worldwide persecution, but we are gonna see signs and wonders happening through the gospel being preached.
SPEAKER_01: And he sent and he signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all things that he saw.
SPEAKER_01: So John is the author.
SPEAKER_01: Four times the author refers to himself as John.
SPEAKER_01: He is the last of the Lamb's twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one still alive.
SPEAKER_01: John was well known to his readers at that time, and his spiritual authority was unmatched among the early church leaders.
SPEAKER_01: It's believed that he had been persecuted and beaten and boiled in oil.
SPEAKER_01: So capture this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a man, massive beard, probably.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't shaving a lot back then anyway.
SPEAKER_01: So, see, there's a real anointing on that, Nate, for you and your bass player, you know, Jeremy and everything.
SPEAKER_01: We need lots of beards up here, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna grow a beard because I can't.
SPEAKER_01: I've tried.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be cool like these guys, but the coolness factor in the beards passed to me by when I went through.
SPEAKER_01: But so he's here's this guy.
SPEAKER_01: If you can imagine, probably, if we could see into, if we were with John, from the neck down, he's scarred.
SPEAKER_01: Gross scars on his probably about a 95-year-old body, because he had been boiled in oil and lived, and he has this vision.
SPEAKER_01: He has this vision.
SPEAKER_01: All the all the church fathers, the early church, first 300 years, gave John the apostle, as the author.
SPEAKER_01: Thus, the phrase, witness to the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that.
SPEAKER_01: Bore witness to the word of God, which is martyrs.
SPEAKER_01: Martyr.
SPEAKER_01: John's the only one of the lamb's twelve, and I'm including the apostle Paul coming in later to take Judas' place, but of the lamb's twelve, he's the only one that we believe did not die, a martyr's death.
SPEAKER_01: He's on the island of Patmos, 13 square miles off the coast of Turkey.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting about John, I'll give you a little background on him.
SPEAKER_01: John later died after the revelation was written, and till his dying days, he took care of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_01: So he took care of Mary.
SPEAKER_01: If you remember when Christ was dying on the cross, he said, John, your mother, mother, your son, and gave John the care.
SPEAKER_01: And he took that seriously.
SPEAKER_01: And for the rest of his life, he took care of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and their graves are buried together nearby to each other.
SPEAKER_01: It's written during the reign of Domitian.
SPEAKER_01: The reign of Domitian.
SPEAKER_01: So between 81 and 96, the emperor of Rome was a man named Domitian.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought forth, following in the line of the emperors of that first century, great persecution upon the church.
SPEAKER_01: So, folks, this book is written during a time of great persecution.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you would say that right now you're going through some pretty hairy difficulties?
SPEAKER_01: This is the book for you.
SPEAKER_01: And if you didn't raise your hand, it's coming.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming.
SPEAKER_01: The early church fathers all believed in this date under Domitian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Victorinus, Eusebius, and Jerome all believe this was written during the time of Domitian.
SPEAKER_01: So the book of Revelation is to be an encouragement to be an overcomer.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women is to take you into these incredible symbols, some of it literal, some of it not literal, and say to you and me that even in the most intense times, the majesty and the rulership and the reigning power of Christ is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And it should be an encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: Take your eyes off your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Put your eyes on the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This book is not about the humiliation of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Revelation 4 and 5 alone.
SPEAKER_01: Show us Christ on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: He's on the throne, church.
SPEAKER_01: He's on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever becomes president of the United States, he's not coming off the throne.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in heaven worried about our political situation.
SPEAKER_01: He's not worried about our economy.
SPEAKER_01: You know what Jesus is praying for?
SPEAKER_01: He's praying for you and me and the Church of Jesus Christ that we would walk in the victory and the power of Jesus Christ daily here on the earth in the 21st century.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is he who reads.
SPEAKER_01: And those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near.
SPEAKER_01: Another way to say that, the time is going to happen rapidly.
SPEAKER_01: So three things.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed are those who read it.
SPEAKER_01: So, folks, even if you're just bored by this message tonight, just read it.
SPEAKER_01: You'll get a blessing.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is he who hears it.
SPEAKER_01: And then blessed are those who keep it.
SPEAKER_01: Three things.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it, speak it, live it.
SPEAKER_01: Gonna get blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Another translation of blessed is happy.
SPEAKER_01: Happy are those who read it, happy are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is going to happen quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Seven times we are told in the book of Revelation, church, that you'll get a blessing by reading it and hearing it and obeying it.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you've been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you're walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to fill out your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen again to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.