E01: Introduction

In this first episode, we set the stage for the entire series. We'll discuss the landscape of Revelation, its purpose, and the nature of biblical prophecy as a whole before diving into the first five verses to uncover the foundation of God’s message to the churches. This episode provides the context and framework needed to understand the rest of the series.

Transcript

Michael Berry: Well, I should say right off the bat, since you have pushed play on this study, thank you. I really mean that. Thank you. At this point in the life of this idea that Jesus has placed on my heart to help people understand the book of Revelation, you are likely someone I know and someone I have a relationship with through ⁓ church or work or friendship or family and especially family as there is a high likelihood that the only person listening to this is my mom. ⁓ I just want to share my gratitude and appreciation that you have even been willing to start this study merely because of our relationship and you value in some way shape or form what I may have to say about this wild but unbelievably beautiful book in God's holy scripture. And that is incredibly valuable to me and I am thankful for your influence in my life and the impact you have had. And so again, I will say thank you. Really what follows is the culmination of about three and a half years of personal study that began during the most difficult season of my life. It was a season that captured me in a depression so deep that there were days I didn't see the value of my life and what I could add to the world that could be positive in really any Anyway, and you don't really understand depression. remember watching depression commercials when I was kids. Like, that just doesn't make sense to me. Why? How do people do that? How are people like that? But you really don't understand depression until you live it. And it is a it's a living hell and it is ultimately a trap. It's a mixture of physical, emotional and spiritual emptiness that wraps you up and you can't get out of it by yourself. You have to have a lifeline or lifelines to pull you out. And my lifelines were a patient and loving and understanding ⁓ wife, a supportive family, a trustworthy community. had a God-honoring church, a scripture-grounded counselor, and above all else, ⁓ a persistent and kind savior. who pursued me in a way that only he knew how. And he reached into the very depths of my spirit and my soul and spoke words of worth and love and peace and gentleness as he administered his grace to all three, my body, my psyche, and my spirit. And he chose to do it first and foremost with the words of Revelation. I know I'm getting deep with you about 30 seconds into this session, and I promise it isn't all this deep, isn't all this dark, but I do have to take you to a place that's even a little bit darker. because I want to show you the depths of the love of our God. When I was six years old, I was sexually abused by a good friend of mine on multiple occasions. Like said, this is going to hit hard, and ⁓ it's not all like this, I promise. that moment and those moments of my life broke me. It fractured my spirit and it fractured my soul into a million pieces like little confetti. And for the rest of my childhood, the rest of my teenage years, I didn't know how to process it. I didn't know how to cope. I didn't know how to heal. And I went down some pretty dark paths, really all on my own. trying to just hold all this and keep my life moving forward. from some of the earliest memories of my childhood, that trauma struck me like an arrow lodged into my body. And if you picture trauma in that way, an arrow or even multiple arrows just stuck into your body, shot from an enemy, what we do in order to simply move on with life and have some semblance of normalcy is is just break off that arrow that sticks out of the body and you leave the arrowhead inside. And that's what I did. That's what we have to do in order to function and move on in the world. And I just broke the arrow off from the arrowhead of this wound. and tried to put the pieces of my life back together. Now the arrowhead stays lodged within, right? It was still in there, there was still pain and every movement, right, every time you brush up against something, you know, the pain is there and that's what happens with trauma. so deep within the core of who I was spiritually and emotionally and psychologically, because of that trauma, it forced a question. really trauma forces us to all ask this question in various ways. force me to ask the question, God, what are you doing? Or more commonly, why? God, why did this happen? And I wrestled with this subconsciously and I bounced between really three answers. And they're all answers that I'm sure that you have bounced from in your journey in life or specifically if you've ever dealt with trauma. Those three answers is number one, God has caused this pain and evil in my Number two, God is powerful enough to have stopped this pain and this evil, but he didn't care to. Or number three, God cared and wanted to stop the pain and evil, but he wasn't powerful enough to do so. And I bounced from those three answers for my entire life. And while these are not at the top of our consciousness, every moment we're awake, they impact how we live. A.W. Tozer has a quote, and he says, what you think of God is the most important thing about you. What you think of God is the most important thing about you. If you think about those answers deep enough, you come to some pretty rough conclusions about who you are and how you have to navigate this world. And I just want to kind of walk through some of those ramifications because we don't oftentimes think about these things as deep, ⁓ but they impact the way we move. around in our world, and in our lives, and in our relationships. And so some of the ramifications of these answers, if we take the first one, you know, God has caused this pain or this evil in my life, then really we treat trauma as a test or as a punishment. And here's how this shows up. Well, that circumstance happened because I sinned. Or you'll hear comments like, well, you know, God just gives his greatest battles to his toughest soldiers. Or, you know, Jesus won't give you more than you can handle, sweetie, you got this. OK, thanks, Ethel. And that conclusion leads to the life question, well, what did I do? For me at that age, it just... led to, well, you must be a terrible person at your core. And honestly, that's something I still struggle with, but it leads to the life question, what did I do? Let's take the second one. Well, God can stop pain and evil, but he didn't want to. Why not? Well, he cared that guy of cancer. He saved their marriage. He provided her a job that is fun and pays really well. Why won't he do that for me? And it takes us to a place of self-doubt and shame and worthlessness. And it leads us to the life question. What is wrong with me? Let's take the third one. Well, God cares. I know he cares about me, but he couldn't stop the pain and the evil in my life. I think any of us want to be in this place, but it makes God not God by definition. You know, he becomes tiny, he becomes insignificant, and it leads to essentially functional atheism. And you start asking questions, okay, well, who is looking out for me? Nobody. And if nobody is looking out for me, then I have to. And it leads us to the life question, am I enough? Am I smart enough? Am I strong enough? Am I good enough? Am I rich enough? Am I capable enough? Am I lovely enough? And I really need to be, because if I'm not. I do not stand a chance in this world. And if you notice... Who is at the center of each of those questions? Me. And you. And I bounced from each of these three answers like a pinball machine my entire life until 2023 when I studied Revelation for the first time. And for the first time, Revelation presented me with a fourth avenue. a road that was fixated on Jesus, a road that honors my story, and a road that is filled with grace and truth and love, a road that is filled with purpose as I heal and as I work through this life. Revelation fundamentally changed my relationship with God. It changed how I viewed Him, how I interacted with Him. It changed who I believe He is. Revelation changed me and my life. now. That is why I'm here, because I want you to experience that too. I want revelation to deepen your understanding of who God is and how you interact with Him. I want revelation to deepen your view of Jesus and His work on the cross and the grave and His ongoing work through the Spirit. I want revelation to shape and mold you and change you like it did for me. That is my prayer for you as we walk through this glorious book together. And you might be asking, well, Michael, how did that do that for you? How did it do that for you? Because I thought Revelation was about the future. I'm not going to tell you all of that now. We're going to have to, we're going to have to build that over the course of this study. But I will say, if you enter into this journey, with an open mind and an open heart. I believe you will be transformed, not in the future, but in the present as you tune into the Word of God, His Spirit will attend to your heart and breathe fresh oxygen into your spirit. I really believe that's the journey we're headed on in these sessions. And we'll start that journey today in chapter one, where we'll just read a few verses into chapter one, ⁓ and then the next session we'll get into the rest of chapter one and chapter two and three. But before we jump into the actual words, ⁓ I have to lay some groundwork for us ⁓ to set us up well for the coming sessions in this study. And so, I do want to just lay some of the groundwork of this session and these sessions to really kind of help you gain the most out of what we'll be jumping into in a bit. So just some groundwork for this study. The first thing is really you need to read Revelation. That might go without saying, but you need to read Revelation probably once through at least before you continue on, before we really jump into the rest of these sessions. It's almost mandatory, I would say. I can't make you do anything, but ⁓ it's gonna be so important. And maybe if you don't read the whole thing, maybe read the... chapters that we'll be discussing in the session, you know, before you play the session. But I'll leave that kind of up to you, obviously. ⁓ But really, you need to read Revelation, otherwise this isn't really going to land. The Scripture will transform you. That is the promise, not my words. I'm just gonna work as a guide, as someone who's coming along beside you, but the scripture, the words of Jesus is what is transforming. And so you only get that by reading. So that's the first thing I would say. ⁓ The second thing I would say, these sessions, this isn't going to be a few thoughts thrown together with some application. It's not gonna be... very sermon-esque, really. It's going to fall somewhere between a Sunday school class and a college-level course. I'm not a professor. I don't have my master's. ⁓ So it's not going to be a college-level course, obviously. But it's going to be a little more intense than just your ⁓ average study, ⁓ mainly because the text is just so difficult. ⁓ It is a difficult text. ⁓ at the end of the day. It's so far removed from our way of thinking, we really have to be diligent ⁓ in our study. So this is going to be a little bit more intensive ⁓ than maybe you're expecting right off the bat. Third thing I think that is important is have a Bible that you don't mind writing in or a notebook for you to take some notes as we go along. There's gonna be some things that I'll encourage you to underline or circle or whatever it may be or take some notes. ⁓ So that's going to be helpful for you. And really, you know, I think I would say this, as we launch into this, my highest hope is that you are able to listen to this with with your Bible open, a cup of coffee in your hand. I've got one right now in my hand. And I hope you do that as well and you find a space of calm and silence so that you can focus. I think that's going to be how you'll get the most out of this. However, I also know that we live in a busy world and life comes at you fast. Calm and silence are hard to come by, especially if you have kids. So at the very least, ⁓ read the book outside of our sessions together and then maybe play it in the car on your way to work or maybe if you're running or walking or whatever, ⁓ that's another idea. ⁓ But obviously you're gonna do it however you need to do it. But ⁓ the depth of Revelation really demands some careful attention to these scriptures. And so I think you might have a difficult time understanding if you're not also reading along or not in a quiet space to kind of saturate yourself in the scripture. So that would be the third thing I was going to say. And then the fourth, if you're going through this, will you please email me and let me know? Eventually, this is meant to be a class and that's a two-way street and we can go back and forth and ask questions and all that sort of stuff. with this setup, it's a one-way street ⁓ and you're just getting all Michael, you know? I don't get any of you on the other end of this. And so ⁓ I want to be able to help you wrestle with this book. want to... help if you have any questions or if I'm not being clear on anything. That's another that's another disadvantage of this. I don't necessarily know if I'm not being clear. I really think I am. I hope I am. But there are going to be times I'm sure when I'm not as clear as I need to be. So I want to check in on you. I want to pray for you. But also, if you have questions, shoot me a text, shoot me an email. I want to know. And I want to be clear and I want to answer anything that you that you may have questions on so The fifth thing is there is going to be a script for this thankfully We all have AI now ⁓ So AI is going to strip this out and so for those of you who are more visual and would want to read along I'll have that on the landing page for this as well And so that's really kind of the nuts and bolts of it. A little quick outline of this study. We're going to go through this book, really verse by verse. There's going to be a few places we may skip over here and there, but really we're going to take it verse by verse, chapter by chapter as we go through. So there's going to be, of course, this intro, and then we'll jump into chapters one through three. There are going to be some supplemental sessions that are going to be in the middle of this sessions. We're going to look at, you know, questions like why, why symbols? Why are there so many symbols in the book of Revelation? We're going to look at the rapture separately outside of the, you know, the chapter by chapter walkthroughs. We're going to look at Israel's future, Daniel seven, we're going to look at the antichrist, all of this we're going to go through. And so That's kind of the lay of the land. You'll have your chapter by chapter kind of sessions, and then you'll have a few ⁓ supplemental sessions outside. hopefully that's all clear. If you have questions, let me know, please. ⁓ And so with all of that being said, I'd like to kind of jump into some of the groundwork of the book itself. I want to kind of... show you the landscape of the book of Revelation because unlike other books, know, Philippians, let's just say Philippians, there's not many views of Philippians. There's like, it's like you read Philippians and it's like, okay, this is what Philippians says, right? That is not the case with Revelation. There are a bunch of different interpretations of this book and I'll kind of lay those out here shortly, but Just some things that you need to be aware of as it comes to the landscape of Revelation is, number one, that this is a prophecy of Jesus. ⁓ I'll jump into that here in just a little bit, but what does prophecy actually mean biblically? We're going to look at that. It's also apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature uses symbols and allusions. There's a heavy reliance on the Old Testament. ⁓ And so that's important to know about the book. ⁓ Something you may not know is that not everybody views Revelation the same, like I mentioned earlier. There's really kind of four main interpretations of the book of Revelation, and this is where you might want to have a notebook to take some notes, because it'll be hard to remember after you, you know. press pause or press stop on this, but there are four interpretations of Revelation. And so the first interpretation is called the historicist interpretation. That's a hard word to say, historicist interpretation. But Revelation is seen in this interpretation throughout church history. So they look at Revelation and they say, well, This kind of this seems like it's talking about that in church history And this really seems like it's talking about the Reformation in church history and so they kind of piece Revelation with church history and that's where it gets its name the historicist interpretation ⁓ The second is what's called the idealist interpretation. I don't know exactly why it's called this ⁓ But essentially in this interpretation, Revelation is really more symbolic and therefore it speaks to the church about physical and spiritual realities in our world in every age of the church. If you're in 1592, Revelation speaks to that church then, it speaks to the church now, it speaks to the church, it'll speak to the church in 2040, you know, it's that It's all symbolic and therefore can be applicable to every ⁓ point of church history and church future, really. Then there's the preterist interpretation, or called preterism, and this is the view that Christ has already come back, essentially, and we missed it. Honestly, this is not ⁓ a view that is held ⁓ much. It's ⁓ borderline heretical, if not fully heretical, ⁓ but it's the view that Christ has already come back. We missed it and ⁓ tough luck kind of. ⁓ I honestly haven't studied this interpretation much ⁓ because of some of those points that I made. ⁓ And then the last one is what's called the futurist interpretation. And this is the dominant view in the American church. Really think, ⁓ you know, everything in Revelation is going to happen in the future. And there's different versions of the futurist interpretation, you know, different views essentially of how that futurist interpretation is going to be carried out. There's premillennialism, there's progressive dispensationalism, and then there's dispensational premillennialism. I know those are big words. They all revolve around what the millennium in chapter 20 is really all about. Of course, we'll get into that when we get to chapter 20. But really, progressive dispensationalism, excuse me, ⁓ dispensational premillennialism is kind of the main thread. that we'll see in interpretations. That's the left behind series ⁓ type interpretation. And so if I were to boil these down into questions, the historicist is asking, when did revelation happen? The idealist is asking, how is revelation happening? The preterist is asking, what happened? you know, already. And then the futurist is what will happen? How will revelation happen in the future? ⁓ And so that futurist point, and like I mentioned, the ⁓ dispensational premillennialism, I want to touch on that ⁓ really for a moment because like I mentioned, this is a left-behind ⁓ type ⁓ philosophy of how to interpret the book, and it really is that there are different dispensations of how God has moved in our world. So, you know, he started out with a dispensation, or you could think of an era, you know, if you're a Taylor Swift fan, an era of how God has worked throughout his world, but that's a dispensation. So, there has been the dispensation of Israel. then when Jesus came on the scene, that switched to the dispensation of the church and that God is faithful to both in those camps. But we are currently in the church dispensation. And one day, He will rapture His church out of the world. This will usher in a seven-year tribulation marked by the emergence of the Antichrist and some of the global terrors that that we read about in Revelation. And all of this will happen until Christ's second appearance. When Christ comes back ⁓ the second time, this ushers in the new millennium where Christ will rule with ethnic Israel and those who come to Him during the seven-year tribulation. He'll rule for a millennium. And then at the end of that millennium, Those of the church age will come down from heaven and reign with all in the new heaven and the new earth. And so that's kind of the quick lay of the land for the futurist position, particularly the dispensational premillennialism position within that futurist position. So everybody confused at this point? ⁓ Hopefully not, hopefully that was clear. And that's why I said, email me if it's not clear. But the futurist viewpoint is really focused around this question. What is the future of the world? But really, what is the future of Israel within God's plan for the future of the world? And we'll take a deep dive into this question in one of those supplemental sessions that I mentioned. But for now, what you need to know is that this is one of the most important aspects of the Bible and Christianity. What do we make of Israel's future? And it's an important question because God made a lot of promises to Israel. He made some promises to other nations as well, but obviously Israel being His people, He made a lot of promises to them in the Old Testament, promises of future reconciliation and restoration. And this futurist view is trying to answer, what do we make of those promises now that Jesus has come and the church is here? And that is why the church in this understanding of Revelation is raptured out of this world. It happens in chapter four. It's raptured out of this world. God is wanting to get them out so that he can bring ethnic Israel to repentance. And the theory goes, it will take some pretty significant events to make Israel repent. When they do, then they get their land back and the promises of God are fulfilled from the Old Testament. And here's where the rubber meets the road. If Israel is still God's chosen people and he has a plan to bring them to repentance, then modern events can be seen as helping to restore or protect Israel and thereby help to bring about God's promises, or hinder God's work in the world. And that is why certain political groups are more bent toward aligning or not aligning with Israel and their current status and their interactions with the world. And a study of Revelation, so it goes, sheds light on that belief and that interpretation. To offer another perspective, other interpretations hold the view that God's promises in the Old Testament to Israel were fulfilled in Jesus who then becomes the benefactor of all those promises and thereby redefines what it means to be Israel. Israel is now redefined around who Jesus is and now it extends to the people who he has invited to be part of his kingdom, both Jews and Gentiles. So therefore the ethnic nation of Israel is no longer at the center of God's plan, both now and in the future, unless they put their faith in Jesus as God's Messiah, which is the invitation extended to them now, not in the future, now, just as the invitation to Gentile peoples. You can see the difference in perspectives and how these kind of clash. And so with all of that being said, I want to progress cautiously here because I know some who are listening have studied this book and come to your own conclusions and I want to honor that. Some of you have read the Left Behind series and there's maybe an emotional tie to those books because they may have brought you comfort or clarity or deeper understanding of God. And I want to honor that. These differing views. have caused a lot of division in the church. And that is not my goal. There are Bible-believing, God-honoring people on all sides of these interpretations. And so my goal is not to divide, but it is to explain. Also, my view of Revelation isn't necessarily popular. In our day, that is. The futurist view is the dominant understanding of revelation in end times events currently, but it hasn't always been. And I want to be upfront here because it could be disappointing to some of you. The futurist interpretation, the left behind kind of picture is not the position I hold. You know, I mentioned earlier that revelation changed my life now. The futurist interpretation relegates 80 percent of Revelation to the future because the rapture, like I mentioned earlier, supposedly takes place at beginning of Chapter four. And that means all of us who are trying to understand this book better here and now are gone by the time any of the major stuff happens in the book. I remember when I was ⁓ when I was in college, ⁓ I got the opportunity and I don't I can't I can't think. remember where this happened. I think it was maybe in my psychology class. ⁓ But I got the opportunity to try on what's called dementia goggles. Maybe they're glasses, dementia glasses, but ⁓ these dementia goggles are meant to help you understand ⁓ what someone who is in the early stages of dementia really goes through. And oftentimes we see somebody who's who's experiencing dementia and we just think they're discombobulated or disoriented. But what a lot of times is happening at the beginning of dementia is that their vision is so discombobulated, so blurry, it's kind of amazing because these dementia goggles are meant to kind of show you what it's like. It's not just that things are blurry, it's that they're out of place, they're doubled. It's just so odd. ⁓ And I remember putting these on and you had to do some like basic tasks with them. ⁓ And it was so difficult. You had to have so much concentration just to kind of move about. ⁓ And it was really eye-opening because it was... it was really easy to see how someone could get lost and confused if that's what they're, if that's what they're experiencing. It was really easy to understand how they got lost and confused. Their vision had become so messed up that they forgot, you know, why they walked into the room. Well, why did I even come into this room for? can't, I get to, it so, it is so difficult to move around. And so when we look at at these situations, we see disorientation. But what is going on is actually a lack of clear vision. That is what I believe has happened to the American church when we come to Revelation. Our view has been so distorted by things outside of scripture. It's like we have dementia goggles on. And when we actually get to the words of the book, we're confused as to why we're even there. And so I'm going to aim the discussion of this study towards an understanding of this book from a first century perspective. How did this letter from John impact Christians in the first century? And as a result, how does it impact every Christian's life throughout every century? Just like the rest of the books in the Bible. And obviously it goes without saying, but I'll say it, you are allowed to disagree with me. I'm not perfect. I want this to be a place of openness. Obviously you're listening. I promise to listen to you. If you reach back out to me with questions or even some pushback, I promise to listen to you. But I also have really good reasons for interpreting the way I interpret and some really good reasons why you might want to do that as well. But if you have a contrary opinion, I want you to be heard. And so please feel free, like I mentioned, to reach out to me. I want to work through this with you guys. So now that I've dashed some of your hopes about knowing what's going to happen in the future, let me explain where I'm coming from. I believe the book of Revelation is less concerned with the rapture, with Antichrist and the tribulation. And it is much more concerned with how you and I understand our world today and see our role within it as the church in order to deliver Christians a specific message in every century and in every culture. So here's what I think you'll ⁓ experience as we go throughout this study. You are going to gain a greater understanding of scripture in God's plan for the world from the beginning. You're going to understand and have a greater knowledge of the workings of our world and the patterns of deception and evil within it, both physically and spiritually. You're going to have a greater understanding of what God is asking of you in your life as a member of His kingdom right now. And I believe you're going to have a greater understanding of the hope we have in Jesus, which culminates in a renewed creation that we call heaven. That is what Revelation is after. So if I had to align with an interpretation, I would be more in the idealist camp. ⁓ As I was explaining this to chat GPT, apparently there's a fifth camp called the eclectic interpretation. I don't know how they get that name either. Maybe it's just eclectic. That's kind of, don't know. I have no idea. ⁓ But this is more in the line of GK Beale, ⁓ NT Wright. My alma mater, Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri, is more kind of in that eclectic interpretation, whatever it's called. ⁓ What it does is it's kind of blend some of these together. You're going to see bits of history ⁓ throughout because you'll be like, ⁓ yeah, that's exactly what that would have looked like, you know, as the church would have been walking through maybe something like the Reformation. ⁓ But you're going to see, there are some... some aspects of future. We're going to see heaven. We're going to see the future that we have ⁓ in front of us. ⁓ There's a great big deal of idealist interpretation within this as well, ⁓ as this is a very spiritual book. And I think it captures the true intention of Jesus' message to his people. And so maybe this excites you. I hope it does. ⁓ Maybe you're frustrated that this is going to be different than you expected. I would just ask you simply this. Give me a few moments of your time in this session and at least one more, if not two or three more, and come back and just have an open, open month. With all of that being said, let's jump into the first handful verses in chapter one. You're like, okay, yeah, it's, I don't know how much it was. Was it been 35, 40 minutes, something like that? I'm not sure. But let's jump into chapter one. We won't meet Jesus just yet, but this does set up the rest of the book. And so, without further ado, Revelation chapter one, verse one. 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 to a servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus, 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. I really wanna hone in on that word prophecy there. You there's a large misunderstanding what prophecy or prophesying actually involves. know, we think of a Star Wars type prophecy. know, Anakin Skywalker was prophesied as the one to bring balance to the force. And so, you know, in the very first ⁓ episode, you know, episode one, you know, Is this the one who is to bring balance to the force? Right? Of course, the latest trilogy shows that force was never balanced by Anakin, as was prophesied, so it was wrong. But nonetheless, we think of prophecy as a foretelling, as a prediction of the future, right? And the Bible does have that, you know. There's Micah 2, where it's prophesied that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. know, Isaiah, the Messiah will be born of a virgin. or Hosea, out of Egypt I have called my son. And those things, of course, came to fruition at the birth of Jesus and the few years afterwards. And I think that type of prophecy gets all the headlines. But the entirety of the biblical ideal of prophecy is actually much larger. And the idea of predicting the future involved with prophecy is really just a minor sliver. In fact, Only about one-fourth of prophecy in the Bible is predictive, 27 percent, and that is a small sliver in the overall theme of prophecy in the Bible. So I think we have a tail wagging the dog scenario here. So if it is not primarily predicting the future, what is prophecy exactly? I think a better definition of biblical prophecy is this. It's a declaration of God to his people concerning the present situation and it calls them to repentance and calls them out of a collision course with God's judgment. And so if we think about the book of Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Those are books about Israel's current rebellion. Of course, they're written during the exile. ⁓ And it's about their sin against God and God's declaration of coming judgment for their rebellion. And so this idea of rebellion is more than just falling short of what God wants. It's not like they're just trying their best and they're missing the mark. No, their rebellion is a determined defiance against God and his ways. And so what I want to do is I want to turn to an example, and we're going to do this by turning to Ezekiel. You're going to get tired of me saying, turn to Ezekiel, ⁓ because Ezekiel is, I believe it is the backbone of the book of Revelation. I believe that is where John and Jesus are driving or pulling all of their, not all, I shouldn't say all, a lot of their imagery out of the book of Ezekiel. And in Ezekiel, the word rebellion or rebellious is used 20 times in the book. The first five chapters includes eight of those 20 times. And so that is the foundational theme of the book. It's God's judgment, His prophecy. And so we're going to read in chapter five, starting in verse five, a little bit of what this idea of prophecy really involves and so ⁓ Ezekiel chapter 5 will pick up in verse 5 it says this thus says the Lord God this is Jerusalem I have set her in the center of the nations with countries all around her and she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations and against my statues more than the countries all around her for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you, therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold I, even I. am against you, and I will execute judgments in your midst, in the sight of the nations, and because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and all your abominations, Before I will withdraw, my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst. A third part shall fall by the sword all around you, and a third part I will scatter to the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them. That is biblical prophecy. That is why the prophets are called to declare that current state of affairs with a promise of judgment because of those current state of affairs. yet. Biblical prophecy never ends in judgment. judgment is merely a transitory step or a warning. Biblical prophecy always ends in restoration. If there is repentance, there will be restoration. If the offending party will turn from their current path of rebellion and choose a path of faithfulness, there will be restoration. That is the point of prophecy. to turn a rebellious people back to a gracious God. You could even say it this way, prophecy is revelation. Wait, what? Yeah, prophecy is revelation. It is a revealing of what is currently happening. It's a revealing of who God is, and it's a revealing of what he requires of his people and his promise of restoration if they repent. And all throughout Ezekiel is this prophecy, and it culminates in the popular image, you've probably heard of it before, of the Valley of Dry Bones. And you find it in chapter 37, or in chapter 37, and specifically in verse 11. This is what God says, then He said to me, He's saying to Ezekiel, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off. Therefore, prophesy. and say to them, Thus says the LORD God, Behold, I will open your graves. I will raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live. And I will place you in your own land and then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it declares the Lord. And so you see there is an offer to Israel if they repent and come back to God they will receive restoration. And the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy will be found in Jesus, will be found in His church, but it was born out of the current state of rebellion in Ezekiel's time and actually has its roots ⁓ back in the garden with Adam and Eve. That's where rebellion, a turning from God in His ways, really started. And so we'll get more into that as our study moves forward. know, Ezekiel, like I mentioned, is huge in Revelation. But for now, this is the understanding of prophecy I really want you to take and marinate on. It's not necessarily a prediction of the future, although there is an aspect of that within. But more accurately, it is a declaration of God against His people. and their present situation, it involves a call to repentance before they get to His judgment. And if they repent, He will restore. And so, with that in mind, when the churches that John is writing to here in Revelation, ⁓ here they hear chapter one, verse three, know, blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, They're going to expect a declaration of God about their current situation. And it may involve a side of repentance that they need to adjust the way they're living. And so that is what we are seeing. That's what we're going to see in the book of Revelation. There is a current state of affairs and God has a purpose and God has an expectation of his people and God is calling them to repent and come back to him and if they do, they will be restored. And here's the beauty of this prophecy of Revelation and it's threefold. This is on the other side of the cross from the Old Testament, right? So the recipients of this prophecy are not a wayward people without a desire to repent, but a spirit-filled church with hearts of flesh, not stone. with people who are seeking Jesus and just need to be refocused or even refined. And so it's much more gentle in nature because it's Jesus walking among his church or walking among his lampstands as we're going to see later in chapter one. So that's the first point. The second point, in this prophecy, Jesus is going to reveal the realities of our world. And so it's a declaration, remember, of what is currently going on, what are the current state of affairs. And so he's going to reveal the realities of our world, both the seen and the unseen. So this prophecy is not merely a call to repentance, but it is a disrobing of the powers at work against his church, both physical and spiritual. And so this prophecy gives a new understanding to his people and what he's going to do is charge for them to overcome and to conquer. And then last, this prophecy is overwhelmingly meant as an encouragement and a comfort to remain faithful against those enemies and a call to worship as the one who is actually in control is going to reveal more of himself and how he is working in this world. And so, with that, we'll end our session here. which sets us up to launch into the rest of chapter one where we will meet Jesus for the first time in this book. And I will tell you, Jesus is different this time around. And I'm actually thankful for that because as much as I need the Jesus depicted in the gospels at His first appearance on this world, I also need the Jesus of revelation. And I think you will too. So I'll see you next time.