Chain of Authority

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, we uh are taking a moment in the book of Revelation, and um we are still in chapter one and verse one, and uh I want to focus on uh uh where it talks about the chain of authority or the chain of command, command. Excuse me, the chain of authority or the chain of command, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly take place, and he sent and 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. Now, first off, I want to point out is that again, uh God assures us that this is the disciple John. This is John who uh wrote the Gospel of John. And how we know that? Because he says he is the one who bore witness to the word of God, he was the one who walked with Jesus. And in fact, in John's Gospel, the very first, it says the word became flesh and uh we beheld his glory. And so um this is again uh signifying or testifying to that that this is John, the one that walked with Jesus uh for those three, three and a half years. But we see uh uh a progression of authority that I think is extremely important, and obviously God thought it was important because he puts it in here immediately. He says that it's God's God's prophecy, these are God's dates and times and things for what's going to happen to the world, the deed to the world, and all that's going to happen is in God's hands. We will see that in a more dramatic way in chapter 5 of Revelation. But right now he says it's in God's hands, and then God delegates that revelation, which is the book of Revelation, that prophecy, the coming times, he delegates it to uh Jesus. Then Jesus delegates it to what he calls his angel, his messenger, and then his messenger delegates it to John, and then John delegates it to the rest of the church. And in fact, God says that's why he gave it to Jesus so that it would get to the church and that the church could be educated in this. Now, why is it so important that we see this delegation of author authority? Well, first off, is that God wants us to know there is a line of authority because one of the things that Adam lost in the garden was he lost the authority that he had here on earth. He turned and the God of this uh earth, the God of this world became Satan because he he he delegated or he turned over his um his right, his authority uh to the enemy when he ate the forbidden fruit, him and eve. So now we see that there is a line of authority, and and we need to know that the that the body of Christ has authority, we have authority. And here God now wants the body of Christ to have the authority of understanding what is going to happen in the last days, what the plan is. The other reason is that this adds authenticity to revelation. And why is that? Because some of the last things that Jesus said to uh his disciples, and and John was there at the time, was written in Acts chapter 1. Before he ascends, all right, remember he meets with his disciples, and his disciples say, Uh, Lord, will you at this time uh restore the kingdom to Israel? And then Jesus answers them, and I and I want to give you that in the New Living Translation because it really uh nails home the point of what we're trying to make here that's going on in Revelation chapter 1. He says, He, Jesus replied, The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. Jesus told the disciples, you're not to know the book of Revelation. You're not, you're, you're, you're not supposed to know these times and dates. It's only in the Father's authority, it's only in the Father's power. I not even at this time did Jesus have those dates and times. But what's happening here in chapter one, right off the bat, is that Jesus, God, wants us to know that He did, that He now delegates that authority to Jesus so that Jesus can get it to the church because now it is time for them to know these dates and times. And so that is delegated to them so that they can know this. And uh it adds authenticity uh to the uh scriptures. God bless you and enjoy the journey.