The Book of Revelation - Session 2 of 24 - A Remastered Commentary by Chuck Missler

We are in the study of Revelation.

The book of Revelation.

And we're are in the second session. We

had a little introduction in the

previous section, sort of reviewed a lot

of broad principles.

We have quite a few new people, so

you'll be gratified to know there will

be quite a bit of review as we get

started. And we're going to focus still

on chapter 1.

So, you really by joining us in this

session, you'll be able to catch up

pretty quickly. And

so, it's the apocalypse.

It's the catastrophic end crisis of our

present age. So, it takes attracts a lot

of attention.

And of course, it's going to involve the

spectacular appearance of the King of

Kings taking over his global empire. He

paid for it on the cross. He takes

possession of it in this a astonishing

book.

We're also going to see the internment

of Satan into the Abusso and all the

we'll get into all those spooky aspects

as we get into that. And of course,

we'll deal with the millennial return on

the earth

and the reign of Jesus Christ. That's

very controversial.

I think it's unfortunate of course that

probably nine out of 10 of the

denominational churches

don't believe in a literal millennium.

That's their view. They have their

reasons, but we have a different view.

We'll try to explain some of those

things and we'll share with you why we

hold the view we do.

And I might mention right here, it's not

our desire to create controversy or to

sell a particular viewpoint. What were

our real goal here is to get you to do

serious study

of the Bible in general and this book in

particular

as a serious student. We will share our

views and why we hold those views, but

all underscoring it all all along the

way, we encourage you to do your own

homework.

And of course, we will see the final

insurrection and the abolition of sin.

And a new heaven and a new earth.

Interesting.

A new heaven as well as a new earth.

The redemption is involves far more than

just

you and me personally. Far more than

just the believers. There's far more

going on here.

But just to reiterate the fundamental

foundation of this ministry hinges on

two discoveries. The first discovery is

that this book that we these 66 books

that we glibly call the Bible

are actually 66 separate books that were

penned by over 40 different guys

over thousands of years.

The discovery is that we now discover

it's an integrated message system and I

don't mean just thematically. Every

detail, every number, every place name,

even the mathematical structures

underneath the text

exhibit very skillful design. That's the

first discovery.

The second one derives from that. That

design had to emerge from outside

space-time

because it anticipates things before

they happen in structure as well as

content.

And that implies that the author of

these segments

emerged from outside our constraints of

time itself.

Once you discover those two things for

yourself, it will change your whole

perspective

of the Bible and

it will lead you to an awe that's

essential to really understand it.

Now, the central themes of course, the

Old Testament is an is an account of the

nation. The New Testament is the account

of a man. A very specific man.

The creator himself became man.

And of course, his appearance is the

central event of all history.

And you know, Mel Gibson did a fabulous

job with his movie The Passion

in in its graphics and its in in in

aspects of it, but it fails to really

communicate who he was.

The crucifixion of Christ was not a

tragedy, it was an achievement.

Dozens and dozens of prophecies

fulfilled on that one day

that were written centuries before.

He died to purchase you and me.

And the good news is he's alive right

now as we speak.

And our most exalted privilege is to

know him. That's what the Bible's all

about. That's what these sessions are

all about. So, this is by way of just a

warm-up. But let's do something with our

presuppositions. We all bring to this

evening various presuppositions. Let's

first of all recognize God means what he

says and says what he means.

And that sounds so simple, but it's so

fundamental.

The Bible is an integrated whole. Every

detail is there by design and

nothing is trivial.

All things are there for our learning.

We're going to show you a lot of things

that seem trivial at first, but

hopefully show you why they're not

trivial at all.

And God of course is his own

interpreter, not Chuck Missler

or some radio preacher or whatever. God

himself. And our challenge is to find

out what he really means. Now,

in the early days of my ministry, I used

to make everybody put this at the top of

their notepad. I think I'll do this

again and this is a a warning in Acts

17:11.

Paul leaves the Thessalonians, goes down

to Berea and he speaks of the people

down in Berea. He said, "These were more

noble than those in Thessalonica." And

both groups accepted him broadly,

but the Bereans he said were more noble

than those in Thessalonica in that

they received the word, the word of God,

with all readiness or openness of mind.

But they searched the scriptures daily

to prove whether those things were so.

That's where Luke is telling you don't

believe anything Chuck Missler tells

you. Check it out for yourself.

And and my intent is to get you to

study, not to accept my particular

views. I share my views in the sense

they may be helpful, but also that you

will know where at least I'm coming

from. You may not agree, that's fine. Do

your own homework.

Now,

there are different views of this book.

There's the preterist view. They say

that the meaning of this book was good

only for the time it was written, the

era of John and so forth. That's their

view.

There's also another view that's closely

related, historical view, that this has

all been historically completed.

And those are views you'll find books

written with that perspective.

A larger number of books probably are

are regard the entire book as

allegorical.

The fight between good and evil and all

these things are just allegories. Some

people would call that the idealist

view.

And there are allegories in the

scripture of course, but this goes far

beyond just that.

The fourth view and the one we obviously

are embracing is what some people would

call futurist. We believe this Bible is

what it says it is and it said the book

of Revelation claims to be prophecy and

we believe it is. In fact, I think we

can demonstrate it as we go. But these

are four classic views you should be

aware that there are different views.

The book of Revelation itself claims to

be a prophetic book

in many many places, more than just a

few I've listed here.

Why prophecy? We're all interested in

prophecy.

Well, the Old Testament has over almost

2,000 references to Christ's rule on the

earth, not just his first coming.

There are so many references to his

first coming, that's why many of the

Jews when he made his appearance didn't

recognize him because they're so fixated

on the

Jesus the son of David.

They speak of

the

Messiah ben Joseph, the suffering

servant as a different guy.

No, they never realized it was both the

same guy. There are 17

of the 39 books of the Old Testament

that give prominence to the event. And

uh

The New Testament of course is has 216

out of 216 chapters

there are 318 references to the second

coming of Christ. Not the first coming,

the second coming.

And it's mentioned in 23 of the 27

books.

And the the three that don't mention it

are

a little single chapter books written to

an individual, doesn't fit the context.

So, it's a very dominant dominant issue

and so,

See, you and I tend to presume that

tomorrow be like yesterday.

Next week like last week. Next month

like last week. We tend to linearly

extrapolate life. It's natural.

And we we tend to have a linear

presumption in mathematical terms. Well,

the Bible says quite otherwise.

For every prophecy

relating to his first coming, there are

eight prophecies of a second coming.

It has far more visibility than even the

first coming.

Well, we're going to go through chapter

1. We started a little bit last time.

The first three verses I think we

touched on. That's the introduction to

the book.

And from 4 to 11, we have a salutation

and the occasion. What caused John to

write this book?

But then 12 to 18 is a vision of Jesus

Christ, the risen Lord.

And that may surprise you to study it

carefully.

Then we have something that's unique to

this book. I don't know of any other

book in the Bible that has an outline.

Usually that's the teacher assigns you

to do an outline of the book you're

studying.

John gives you an outline to the book in

verse 19. We'll take a look at that.

And then we have a prep. The last verse

is a preparation for your next few

sessions chapters 2 and 3.

But the introduction we'll start with

the revelation. Notice it's singular,

not plural.

The revelation of Jesus Christ which God

gave unto whom?

Unto Jesus Christ. Think about that a

minute. Many people read that first

sentence, don't realize what it's

saying.

The revel the unveiling of Jesus Christ

that God gave to whom? To Jesus Christ.

The Father gave the Son. Why? To show

unto his servants things which must

shortly come to pass.

That word shortly or quickly, we'll run

into that a lot in the book. It comes

from a Greek word, the same Greek root

from which we get the word tachometer.

And what a a better translation really

would be suddenly.

It doesn't mean shortly in the sense

it's going to be the day after tomorrow.

But it when when one thing happened,

they're all going to come right quickly

together. It's they're grouped in a

sense. That's really the intent of I

believe I believe of the passage.

To show unto his servants things which

must suddenly come to pass and he sent

signified it signified it by his angel

unto his servant John.

It was given to Jesus Christ and he sent

and signified it. What do I mean by

signified? Rendered it into signs.

Uh idioms, uh emblems, what have you.

And he signified it by his angel or

messenger unto his servant John who bare

record of the word of God and the

testimony of Jesus Christ and of all the

things he what?

He saw. We're going to be constantly

confronted with visual images. Many of

those images will be idiomatic. We'll

get to that when we get there, but this

is this is the this isn't a a abstruse

philosophical paper. It's a drama that's

going to unfold before his eyes.

Now, the basic units, you know, if we

talk of written language, what's the

basic unit of written language? An

alphabet. If you were to take Greek or

Russian or English, you have the first

thing you got to master is the alphabet.

It's the basic units of written

language. If you're going to study

sound, uh Josh and the guys that do the

editing of

of the tapes deal with very elaborate

software that breaks the sound in into

its individual phonemes. It's the

smallest element.

If you have an image, most of us are

familiar with the vocabulary of images

today because of digital cameras. What's

the smallest element of an image? A

pixel.

These are elements. Well, what's the

basic unit of meaning? Not sound or

language, but meaning. It's called a

sememe in in information sciences. It's

the smallest image. It comes from the

Greek word semaino or sema, which is

translated a mark, but that same Greek

word as used in this book uh over 4,000

times is the basic unit from which we

draw in science, the basic unit of

meaning.

And that means semaino, to give a sign

or signify, to indicate, or to make

known. It's the basic element of that.

Now, the book also has a promise in it

that is unique in the Bible.

Nowhere in the Bible is there the

the audacity

to say, "Read me, I'm special." No book

in the Bible

reaches that far. Many places say, "Read

the Bible." But only one book has, if I

use the term audacity or chutzpah, if

you will, uh to say, "Read me, I'm

special." This book says, "Blessed is he

that readeth and they that hear the

words of this prophecy."

You can't find that appellation on any

other kind of any other passage in the

scripture, I don't believe.

And keep those things which which hear

these the words of this prophecy and

keep those things which are written

therein for the time is at hand.

Now, one thing you'll notice all through

the everybody that's anybody that's

looked at the book of at all, even

superficially, realizes there's sevens

everywhere. We're going to be confronted

with seven churches in the next few

sessions.

We're going to have seven seals of a

book, a roll a scroll open, the major

part of the book. Seven trumpets will be

blown, seven bowls. In in fact, this

heptadic structure, the seven seal

scroll, um

has We'll always notice, by the way,

that of the scroll of these this

heptadic structure, there'll be six

things a break and then a seventh.

There are six seals sealed one at a time

and then there's a change of subject. It

says it's almost as if as a reader needs

to catch your breath. And we have a

chapter seven thrown in there on another

subject and then we have the seventh

seal which leads them to seven trumpets.

And again, we have six trumpets

and then we then we have a little

parenthetical series of chapters that

change the subject before we pick up

that seventh trumpet again and we go

through and we have bowls being bowls of

wrath being poured out. And even there,

there's a little one-verse parenthesis

between the sixth and the seventh. But

this this heptadic structure, heptadic

or sevenfold structure, is all through

the book.

There are seven lampstands, seven

spirits, seven stars, seven lamps, seven

title pages, seven promises to the

overcomers, seven horns, seven eyes. It

goes on. Seven angels. We'll talk a lot

about those in a little bit. Seven

thunders, 7,000, seven

heads, seven crowns, seven plagues,

seven mountains, seven kings.

There are seven beatitudes. Blessed is

he that readeth and they that hear. We

saw one already, a

beatitude, a blessing. Blessed is

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord

in chapter 14. Blessed is he that

watcheth keepeth his garments in chapter

16.

How many

beatitudes? Seven again. If If you ask

you how many and you answer seven,

you'll be right, you know,

more often than not.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in

the first resurrection. Blessed is he

that keepeth the words of the prophecy

of this book. That same promise that we

saw in verse three is repeated in

chapter 22 verse seven.

Blessed are they that wash their robes.

There are seven of these.

There are more subtle sevens that most

people would miss unless you're really

watching for them. There are seven

features in chapter one. There are seven

letter divisions. Not only the seven

letters, each letter there are seven

elements that make up the letters. We'll

look at that. There are seven personages

in chapters 12 and 13. A woman, a man

child, a red dragon, a seven-headed

beast, a false prophet, Michael the

Archangel, and then the lamb. There are

seven players in this drama that is

summarized for you in chapters 12 and

13.

There are seven years of judgment. There

are seven I ams of Jesus Christ.

And there are seven doxologies in

heaven.

Seven new things at the end.

I don't think you could list all the

sevens.

I've listed I've close to a hundred of

them and I think and I have the feeling

that if you look, you never end finding

more and more subtle ones, but sevens

always emerging. There's another thing

that you should be familiar with as a as

a serious Bible student. That's what we

call types.

The more contemporary vocabulary would

call it a model.

But the classical literary word is is a

type. Uh

the Abraham's offering of Isaac in

Genesis 22 is the classic uh type. The

Akedah, the Jews call it.

Nebuchadnezzar's image, the fiery

furnace, is a is a type of the

tribulation and so forth in the minds of

many.

The whole book of Ruth and the

redemption of the land, uh

the Ruth is full of as aspects of that.

The whole book of Revelation is modeled

for you in the book of Joshua. If you

study the book of Joshua, how it's

structured, where another Yehoshua

dispossessed the land of its usurpers on

the behalf of the people of God and so

forth. It's astonishing to make a list

of the parallels in structure of Joshua

and book of Revelation. And the

tabernacle. Those of you who studied

Exodus carefully, they're studying the

tabernacle. It's materials, its

dimensions,

uh and the architecture all speaks of

Jesus Christ personally. It's a fabulous

study to get into. And uh

the brazen serpent is another one.

Remember the brazen serpent? We'll We'll

examine that one later this evening to

show it make another point. But these

are all types, as we call it. Uh

idioms. You know, there's an idiom

Abraham was called the friend of God,

you may recall. And because of that, God

reveals to him as a symbol of that

friendship what's going to happen.

Remember in Genesis 18 and so forth. So,

Abraham was called a friend of God,

okay?

Who in the New Testament was called a

friend of God?

The disciples, right.

And so, it's interesting. So, we see

linkage both in the Old New Testament,

the concept of friendship with the

concept of letting you know what's

coming. See?

Well, let's take that one step further.

Um which prophet in the Old Testament

was called the beloved prophet?

Daniel, sure, exactly. And uh who And of

the disciples, who was called the

beloved disciple?

What do they have in common? Apocalyptic

writings.

Isn't that interesting that I mean not a

big deal, but you see the patterning I'm

suggesting here. Okay.

The other Now, one of the questions

we'll all have is how do you keep from

getting deceived? How do you keep from

getting down the wrong path? One way is

to rely on the whole counsel of God.

Always put Christ in the center of it

and we'll we'll show you how that works

as we go.

Uh Peter even warned us that we have

something be even better than being an

eyewitness. That's the more sure word of

prophecy.

Jesus challenged us in John 5, "Search

the scriptures and they are they which

testify of me."

He said, "Search the scriptures in which

you think you have eternal life. They're

they which testify of me." So, Jesus

Christ is what the Bible is all about

from cover to cover. And so, if you have

a problem you can't figure it out, put

Christ in the middle of it and see what

happens.

In Psalm 40, he says, "The volume of the

book is written of me." And indeed it

was.

And testament and Revelation itself is

going to identify the testimony of Jesus

is the spirit of prophecy, all prophecy.

And we pray for this every time we say

the Lord's Prayer.

It's astonishing that how many

denominational churches use the Lord's

Prayer in their services.

And when you say, "Thy kingdom come,"

what on earth do they mean? They're not

sure, frankly.

Because what we're praying for is

exactly what Revelation's all about.

And we'll move on.

We'll find certain phrases occur again

and again as sort of markers through the

book.

This phrase thunders, voices,

lightnings, and an earthquake. It occurs

not once, four times. It causes certain

partitions that we'll take a look at

when the time comes.

And there's doxologies.

And they start off small and they It's

like a symphony. It builds up in

crescendo. First, it's glory and

dominion in verse in chapter one. Then

it's glory, honor, and power in chapter

four. Blessing, honor, glory, and power,

four different things in five. Finally,

it gets to how how much? Seven, of

course. Blessing, glory, wisdom,

thanksgiving, honor, power, and might.

Okay? And if you're going to

Let me Let me put you at ease. We're not

going to examine each one of those and

how they differ. Okay? We'll let you do

that on your own. What's the difference

between blessing, glory, wisdom, you

know, they're very similar and yet

they're different. I'll let you do your

own word studies. Let's move on.

Worship. There's all kinds of songs in

here. Holy, holy, holy in chapter four.

Worthy art thou. That's repeated so many

ways in so so many places.

And it goes on. There How many different

uh

worship songs are there?

Seven. Good for you. Okay, good guess.

Yeah. All right. Oh, one thing I always

love about four four hallelujahs. There

are four hallelujahs in the New

Testament.

There are 24 hallelujahs in the Old

Testament.

And as often as the case, when you put

them together, it's always a multiple of

seven.

There are many multiples of seven that

only occur if you put the Old New

Testament together. It's almost like

they're stitched together because of

that property. The heptadic structure

again. But we'll move on. There are four

things out of place in the Book of

Revelation. And it's we're going to get

put them in the right place.

Israel is not in the land. It gets gets

the land in in the Revelation. The

church is on the earth. It belongs in

heaven.

The lamb is not on his own throne. He's

on his father's throne.

He's going to take the throne that

Gabriel promised Mary in Luke 1. David's

throne. He's going to take that.

And Satan is loose and he'll be bound.

So, these are all corrections or

resolutions that take place.

There are three women in prominent in

the book. The wife of

Jehovah or however you want to pronounce

it.

She is summarized in chapter 12. That's

not the church.

I'll show you why when we get there.

It's Israel.

The

church isn't it's the virgin bride, the

bride of Christ. She's portrayed quite

differently.

If the woman chapter 12 is

is

the church, she's in big trouble.

Cuz she's a virgin bride that's

pregnant.

The idiom doesn't quite work, okay? And

for a lot of other reasons, too. No, the

virgin bride is the bride of Christ

that's in the book. And there's the

third that's the harlot, mystery

Babylon, the woman who rides the beast.

Don't confuse the woman with the beast.

She rides the beast. They're different.

We'll get deal with that when we get

there.

So, that's a quick look at what we

talked about last time with a little bit

of a review. Let's get to the salutation

and the occasion of the book.

Revelation of Jesus Christ which God

gave unto him to show unto his servants

the things which must shortly come to

pass. And he sent and signified it by

his angel unto his servant John. This is

the John that the Apostle John. He will

show up five times in this specifically

referring to himself in this book.

Who bear record of the word of God, the

testimony of Jesus Christ, of all things

he saw. And uh

Okay. And we took that. Okay. John

is it's it's like sort of a memo from me

to you. John, which

to the seven churches which are in Asia.

The word Asia, by the way, is not the

continent of Asia. You and I use the

term to speak of the Far East.

Here it's being used as a province of

the Roman

Empire.

The province the the province of Asia,

now we might call it Asia Minor, is

essentially the western 2/3 of Turkey.

So, that was that was a province in the

Roman Empire called Asia. And he John is

writing to seven churches which are in

Asia.

Says grace unto you and peace. That's a

very common word. To a Greek, you say

grace, charis, very common comfortable

greeting. And to a Jew, you might say

shalom or peace.

So, they can be viewed as just

comfortable salutations.

But not in the scripture

because they're each one is a profound

theological statement.

And I won't get into From here we could

launch into a whole sermonette on what

do we mean by grace?

That's getting what we don't deserve,

right? And there's a whole aspect to

that.

But also peace.

Getting peace with God is what it's all

about.

We win and he wins in this

resolution. And and we could go through

both of those terms. The easy way to do

that is just pick up a commentary in the

Book of Romans and it'll go into all of

that for you. But grace unto you and

peace.

From whom?

From him which is and which was and

which is to come.

Who would that be?

God. Okay, we'll leave it at that for

the moment. From the spirit seven

spirits which are before his throne.

We have the from from him from him which

is and which was to come. And from the

seven spirits and from Jesus Christ who

is the faithful witness, the first

begotten of the dead, and the prince of

the kings of the earth.

And I'll go on that in a minute.

You have you suspect right away that

what you've got here it sounds like the

Trinity, a father, son, and the Holy

Ghost, right?

You got him which is, which was, and

which is to come, which one can argue is

God God in general or God the Father

specifically.

I'll get back to the seven spirits in a

minute. And from Jesus Christ.

Now, when you see Jesus Christ who he is

the faithful witness, first begotten of

the dead, the prince Here's three

identifiers of Jesus Christ. He is the

faithful witness.

He's the first begotten of the dead. And

he's the prince of the kings of the

earth.

These are not only true and and justify

a great deal of discussion on each one

that I'll spare you tonight, but you I

think they're self-evident. But I want

you to notice that these labels are

identified with Christ and will be used

of him throughout the book.

So, later on the book when it says the

faithful witness or if it says the first

begotten of the dead or if it says the

prince of the kings of the earth, who is

he talking about? Here's the linkage. If

you're a computer programmer, this is

like the data division. Usually a

program up front you set up the

identities, what you mean by various

things that you're going to use later.

It's exactly what's happening here.

It's interesting that each of these

phrases have three tenses, a past,

present, and future.

God which was, which is, and which is to

come.

And each one of those are allusions from

elsewhere in the New Testament.

God which was is mentioned in Colossians

1 and John 8 and elsewhere there other

places.

Then we have Jesus Christ. I said he's

the faithful witness, that's past,

that's been done.

He's the first begotten of the dead,

that's now.

And he's becoming in this book the

prince of the kings There's a future.

So, each one of these has a past, a

present, and a future. Do you get the

feeling?

And obviously we take each one and

elaborate, but your notes will have the

verses, you can chase those down

yourself, okay?

Unto him that what? Loved us, washed us

from our

sins in his blood, and made us kings and

priests. There again, it's past. He

loved us. It's interesting that in the

Bible when God says God loved us, past

tense. So, what do you mean past tense?

He loves us now. Absolutely.

But when it says he loved us, past

tense, what is it referring to?

Anyone?

Oh, I got you. What? What is What?

Right on. Gold star. Absolutely, the

crucifixion.

That's a term you'll notice it

carefully. Every time you find that God

loved us, past tense, it's allusion to

the cross, okay?

Unto him that loved us, that's past.

That washed us from our sins in his

blood, that's today, every day.

We're washed through the water by the

word, according to Ephesians.

And in the future, what's the book all

going to show us here? He made us kings

and priests. He's made us, but we become

the kings and priests. So, there's a

past, present, and future. And then

we're going to find when we get to verse

19, the outline of the entire book is in

the same tenses.

Past tense, the things which you have

seen.

In other words, when you get there it'll

be it will have been the visions of

Christ. The things which are, that is

the seven churches and we'll come to

that at the end of the day.

And the things which shall be meta

tauta, after these things. So, again we

have past, present, and future.

It may shock you to realize

that there are these same three tenses,

past, present, and future, in your

salvation.

That may disturb some people.

Well, I have been saved. What do you

mean by that? I have been removed from

the penalty of sin. It's a positional

statement. I'm no longer subject to the

penalty of sin. I have been saved, past

tense. You with me so far? Okay. That

technically would really be called

justification, but I won't go down the

theological path here.

There's a present tense. I'm being saved

every day. What do you mean by that? I'm

saved from the power of sin. Past tense,

penalty of sin. Present tense, power of

sin. That's operational moment by moment

by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by

my flesh.

If men are in my flesh, I've blown it.

I sin.

But if I'm walking moment by moment in

the spirit, then I am being saved from

the power of sin. That process, that

continuing process is called

sanctification.

Okay? There's a third, and that's I

shall be saved

from the presence of sin.

Sometimes called the redemption of our

body.

So, there's three tenses of being saved

also. And you can get in a lot of

trouble by being too absolute when you

see the word saved. You could be saved

from a burning building, it's got

nothing to do with the subject we may be

talking about. You follow me there? So,

there's three tenses, I'll leave you

leave you with that.

The other thing I like to highlight is

how important

the subject is we're dealing with. You

know, there's two major events in God's

achievement list, and one is the

creation of the universe, and the other

is the redemption that we're dealing

with here. Which one's more important?

Well, how do you tell?

Well, one way you can measure something

is how much space in the Bible is is

devoted to it.

Well, space, you got in the in the

creation, you've got two chapters in

Genesis, not bad. You got a few Psalms

and a few chapters in Job, several

chapters in Isaiah, and that's about it.

You've done it, pretty much.

How many chapters are

devoted to the redemption? The whole

Book of Genesis.

Book of Exodus, Book of Leviticus, the

whole Torah in fact. Joshua, Ruth, the

prophets, the gospels, they're all

having to do with the with the

redemption.

The all the epistles, that's what

they're hammering. And of course the

Book of

Revelation is the climax, which is the

reason I bring these up.

Well, another way to measure something,

how important is it? What did it cost?

The price of the creation?

Which breathed from his nostrils.

He called it into existence.

As astonishing as it is, as

as majestic as it is,

it's something God could do

our vernacular would be with the snap of

his fingers.

What about the redemption? What did it

cost him?

Cost him his son.

Heard a recent message by Joe Fosh that

really moved me.

He had a son that was badly in need of

emergency treatment in the hospital.

And full of blood, and I won't go

through the details, but he gets to the

emergency and they didn't they weren't

ready to deal with him right away and as

his father, he had a fit.

He explained to them that if they didn't

deal with him right now, they're going

to need emergency care.

And he he recounted the pain of a father

seeing his son.

We had you know, Gary had a situation

like that here among our so forth.

What Joe Foss did, he presented the

creation of the crucifixion

from the father's point of view. I never

heard that. Never thought about that

before.

You know, as a father

you'd gladly trade places with your son.

As they spit on him.

As they rammed him through six illegal

trials.

And you go through the whole crucifixion

from the father's point of view.

That he forebear intervening.

Why? For you and me.

For you and me. But can you imagine the

agony of the father

seeing his son

put through

that. Anyway.

Let's move on.

John to the seven churches which are in

Asia, grace be unto you and peace from

him which is, which was, which is to

come, the seven spirits.

We took the first and third. We didn't

take this other one.

I personally believe that the seven

spirits are an idiom

of the Holy Spirit. An Old Testament

phrase of the Holy Spirit. There are

other people have different views. They

suspect the seven spirits are the seven

angels.

The seven spirits which are

There are prominently seven angels

mentioned.

There are seven churches each have an

angel. We're not talking about them I

don't believe. But the seven trumpets

and the seven bowls will be administered

by seven angels. And there's some people

that see those seven angels as the key

players. And they may be right. But

uh

I personally notice in Isaiah chapter 11

is that we have the sevenfold Holy

Spirit mentioned there.

The spirit of Yahweh Yahweh the so

respond him, the spirit of wisdom,

spirit of understanding, spirit of

counsel, spirit of might, spirit of

knowledge, and the spirit of fear of the

Lord. There's seven elements.

And

there are a number of us, not not not

universal, but number of us that that

see that as the sevenfold expression of

the Holy Spirit.

There are others that argue that these

the last six are in three pairs and that

this really represents something else.

And so they may be right.

Uh we'll we'll leave that with you. But

there I I'm intrigued that there are in

fact seven elements there. It's a

sevenfold. And that also makes that

thing a a a allusion to the Trinity.

But moving on, unto him that loved us,

washed us from his from our sins in his

own blood, and hath made us kings and

priests unto God his father. To him be

glory and dominion forever and ever.

This is

John finishing his salutation that opens

his letter.

But he uses this It makes makes an

interesting remark here that he hath

made us kings and priests.

We're going to make a big thing of that

when we get to chapter five four and

five.

Because there are only three people that

are kings and priests.

You may recall all through Israel the

kings were of the tribe of Judah, the

priests from the tribe of Levi. And they

were to stay separate. A couple of

occasions they were crossing that line

and it was a no-no.

Kings and priests in Israel were

separate

mandates.

There are only three people in the Bible

that are both. Melchizedek is singled

out in Genesis 14 and and elaborated in

the

in the in a couple of places in the

Psalms. And then the book of Hebrews

makes a big thing of that Melchizedek

was a king and a priest, very unique.

The only other In fact, the other one is

Jesus Christ.

He's a king and a priest.

There's a third.

And that's identified right here.

You and I

if we're believers in Christ

hath made us kings and priests.

And that's going to be an important

identity piece forthcoming. So I call to

your attention now.

Then John continued, "Behold, he cometh

with clouds. And every eye shall see him

and they also which pierced him."

Sounds like an echo from Zechariah 12:10

so forth.

"And all the kindreds of the earth shall

wail because of him. Even so, amen."

Do I hear an amen?

Amen. Okay, good.

And

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and

the end ending," saith the Lord, "which

is and which was and which is to come,

the Almighty." Boy, I love that.

Love that.

Book of Revelation

will

will deal in superlatives in every

direction.

And the ultimate superlative is his

majesty.

I am Alpha and Omega. I think most of

you realize Alpha is the first letter of

the Greek alphabet, Omega the last

letter.

In the Hebrew you'd say the aleph and

the tau. In the English you'd say the A

and the Z. But the same you get the

idea. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the

beginning and the ending.

Which is, which was, which is to come,

the Almighty.

Now John starts the That was all by his

opening

breath.

Verse nine. "I John

who also am your brother and companion

in tribulation and in the kingdom and in

patience of Jesus Christ

was in the isle that is called Patmos

for the word of God and for the

testimony of Jesus Christ." This is the

occasion he calls attention. It's John.

He's going to refer to himself five

times

um

in if in this book alone.

Uh there was fashionable some scholars

have tried to attack the the the

authorship of John, but it that that is

easily shredded. It's very clear

uh competent scholars agree there's no

doubt that that he wrote it and so

forth.

So we have to waste time on that issue.

Um

John of course was born of Bethsaida to

Zebedee and Salome. He had a He was the

probably the younger of two brothers. Um

and they were fairly well off. Salome

ends up being a major financier of

Christ's ministry later on.

Uh they were Galilean

He's John was a Galilean fisherman like

his father. In fact, he was in partners

with his brother and with Peter and

Andrew in the fishing business. They

even had um

servants. So it was not a trivial

enterprise.

And so uh uh He was an early disciple of

John the Baptist to begin with.

And of course something else about John

most people don't realize, he apparently

was very well connected. Not only to

come from a

a a a non-trivial family financially,

but he also knew the high priest and

also knew Nicodemus somehow.

So he's he's apparently comfortable with

these people. So he's well connected for

whatever reasons.

He also turns out to be one of the inner

circle of Jesus Christ. There were 12

disciples, but three of them were really

insiders in a very special way. Three of

them, Peter, James, and John. Peter and

the two brothers, James and John.

Were at the Mount Transfiguration. We've

talked a little bit about that to to

today again.

They were also the three that were

allowed in when Jesus raised Jairus's

daughter

in Matthew nine.

The three of them

and Andrew along with them were the were

the ones that Jesus gave a confidential

briefing on the second coming to, called

the Olivet discourse.

And also the three of them were closer

to Jesus in Gethsemane. They were all

disciples were there, but three went

closer with Jesus as he went a little

further. And so you you really get the

if you watch your gospels, you see a

number places where James Peter, James,

and John are

uh are the closest

three to the Lord. And of course John,

this is interesting. Jesus assigns the

care of his mother not to his brothers.

He had several of them.

But to the Apostle John.

And that becomes important to us. He

wrote And John I believe wrote a letter

to her that you have in your Bibles.

It's called Second John.

Read it and come to your own

conclusions.

And John ultimately after this event of

Patmos

he was on Patmos because of Domitian,

but then when Domitian dies, he's

released and he goes to Ephesus and and

sets things in order and then retires.

Now if you look at a map

between

In other words, west of Turkey but east

of of Greece is the Aegean Sea. And

there's a little island there. It's

really part of Turkey today called

Patmos.

And if we zero in on that a little

better

about 24 miles offshore

um the

uh

for all it's 24 miles I should say from

from the coast of Turkey. It's about 40

miles from Miletus which is the port

side of the peninsula from Ephesus is

this island this island called

Patmos. If you're if you're from

California you spend any time on

Catalina, it's very very similar both in

shape in agriculture and in distance

from the from you know, one's 24, one's

26, but that's not equivalent. It it's

it's all Catalina's also sort of

crescent shaped and very similar if you

spent time there. But anyway, that's

Patmos and

a penal colony at the time.

And so he was exiled by Domitian which

means he wrote the book apparently about

96 AD. This is an important thing. Many

so-called scholars will try to tell you

it was written a lot earlier than that

cuz they have their axe to grind. Turns

out you can pretty well demonstrate it

was written um uh

at the end of the first century. Very

late in John's life, very late in that

century. John leads lives

uh

to be pretty old. Uh Domitian is the

brother of Titus who's the one that

destroyed Jerusalem. Um

Hippolytus has uh spreads this rumor

that he's first plunged in boiling oil

and then sent to the isle of exile.

That's just one of these traditions or

legends that's pretty well disputed by

most serious scholars.

Victor Ernest says that he was forced to

work in the mines located on Patmos. I

could not find any evidence of mines on

Patmos. I did It's another one of these

traditions that show up.

But Irenaeus, Clement, and Eusebius

all point out that after Domitian dies

um

that Trajan takes over that John returns

to Ephesus

sets the churches in order and he

retires there.

He really retires there.

Okay. Now we get into verse 10 and 11.

John starts the narrative. "I was in the

spirit on the Lord's day and heard

behind me a great voice as of a trumpet.

Saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first

and the last, and what thou seest, write

in the book and send it to the seven

churches which are in Asia.

And to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus,

Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and

Laodicea."

Well, let's take this apart. First of

all, on what day of the week

did was was John in the spirit to

receive this thing?

If you say Sunday, you flunk.

Good for you. We don't know that it was

Saturday, but it's a better answer.

We don't know the day of the week.

Everybody assumes, many scholars even

jump to the conclusion that when he

says, "I'm in the spirit on the Lord's

day,"

that that's what he's talking about.

Let's talk a little bit about that.

Um

is Sunday the Lord's day?

Most of us

if you've been in the medieval church

or the remnant after that church, after

a thousand years of indoctrination,

assume that Sunday's the Lord's day.

The the Sabbath, the Shabbat, was

ordained in Eden, in Genesis chapter

two.

Shabbat was observed before the law was

given.

In Exodus 16, when the manna falls, they

gather it on every day except Shabbat.

That's interesting cuz that's Exodus 16.

The law was given, the 10 Commandments

and all that, in Exodus chapter 20, four

chapters later. The point I'm getting at

is uh the the Shabbat, the the

observation of the Sabbath was ordained

before the 10 Commandments. The 10

Commandments say, "Remember the Sabbath

day." It's simply incorporating that

practice into the 10.

We know from Daniel 7:25 that the spirit

of the Antichrist, if not the Antichrist

personally, will seek to change the

times and the laws. How interesting.

Now,

if you look at a modern calendar, and I

have a picture here one of this year

from Europe,

and uh it's interesting on this calendar

that it starts on Monday, first day of

the week.

And they do that to make Sunday the

seventh day of the week. Really? That's

kind of interesting. You mean that

Monday's the first day of the week and

Sunday is the seventh day of the week. I

didn't know that.

Neither did the writer

of the Bible.

Because upon the first day of the week,

very early in the morning, they came

into the sepulcher. What day was that?

Easter Saturday? No, we call it Easter

Sunday, right?

And that's not just in Matthew 28:1,

it's Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20. It is

one of those few things that's recorded

in all four Gospels.

No, we need to understand

that

from the beginning, the um

uh

the the Lord's appointed day, by his own

definition, all through the Torah,

is uh

Shabbat, the seventh day. That's when

the Lord himself rested, and he honors

that day, and he calls that day an

appointment with him.

Well, we don't have to keep the Sabbath.

You're right, you don't have to keep the

Sabbath, I guess.

But it's his appointment. You're going

to miss it?

It's up to you. But anyway, so uh that

that's why many people get concerned

about that. Now, it's interesting, it

the Bible says many places, "Do not move

the ancient landmarks."

I never associated that with the seventh

day until a rabbi pointed that out to

me.

That's kind of interesting. That's a

very fundamental landmark

that we tend to move.

I'll point out something else if you

say, "Well, that changed that you know

that that that changed when Christ rose

from the dead."

Well, that's interesting because the

Lord gets back and sets up himself in

the millennial temple, according to

Ezekiel,

the millennial temple will only be open

on Saturday,

not on Sunday.

On Saturday, and you check that out in

Ezekiel 46:1.

On Sabbath and also on the new moon on

the month, the new moon.

So,

now, G Chuck, what are you saying? We

shouldn't worship on Sunday? No, you can

worship any day you like.

For a Christian, every day is holy.

And we on we worship those that worship

on Sunday worship to celebrate the

Lord's resurrection. Not knocking it.

Not knocking it.

But um

what we're supposed to do is show his

death until he comes. There's a

resurrection that validates the death,

but anyway, we could go down that path

if you like.

Paul does seem to take us off the hook.

He says, "Let no man therefore judge you

in meat or in drink or in respect of any

holy day or of the new moon or of the

Sabbath days, which are a shadow of

things to come,

but the body is of Christ."

So, don't let it become a big division.

But that what Nan and I try to do is

uh

observe in our own simple way

Shabbat, from Friday night through

sundown Friday through sundown Saturday.

We we have three rules.

Whatever we do, we do deliberately.

And we do together.

Rule two.

And the third rule is there are no other

rules.

My kind of deal.

And uh so, worship when you like, don't

let it be a point of division, but it's

interesting, the more you Anyone that

thinks it's a simple issue hasn't

studied it.

It's it's worthy of your own individual

study, come to your own conclusions.

But

John says, "I was in the spirit,"

obviously on the day of the Lord on

Patmos, but he also says it in three

other occasions, before the throne in

chapter four,

when he's carried away in the wilderness

in chapter 17, and then on a big

mountain in chapter 21. We'll deal with

that when we get there.

Now, the the verse 11 says as he says,

"I am Alph- Jesus said, "I am Alpha and

Omega, the first and the last."

Want to come back to that phrase in a

little bit.

"What thou seest, write in the book and

send it to the seven churches which are

in Asia.

To Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira,

Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea."

It's interesting that the entire book of

Revelation is like a cover letter that

is then sent I mean, it's sent with a

cover letter to seven churches.

So, it wasn't one church, it was these

seven all got a copy.

The seven churches which are in Asia,

again, that's the province of Asia, and

uh

they're not the only seven churches in

the province of Asia. Some scholars say

they were, that's not true. Yeah, we're

uh

Laodicea was right

virtually adjacent to Colossae and

Hierapolis, all of which are mentioned

in the Bible. That valley has three.

Why weren't the others mentioned? Why

these seven? We're going to come to

that.

Seven churches.

We'll come to that later. Let's go to

the verses 12 through 18. This is a core

part of chapter one. We touched on it

lightly last time. Let's go a little

more carefully. The vision of the risen

Christ.

John says, "I turned to see the voice

that spake with me." The one that said,

"I am Alpha and Omega." It was a voice

behind him, apparently. He turned to see

the voice that spake with me. And being

turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the seven

lampstands, one like unto the Son of

Man,

clothed with a garment down to the foot

and girt about

the paps with a golden girdle. Or

putting it another way, across the chest

with a golden uh breastplate kind of

thing.

Okay.

Seven lampstands.

Um

who is the Son of Man?

Jesus Christ.

That term is used of him again and again

in the scripture.

And uh encourage you to take a

concordance, chase it down yourself. We

could spend an hour just talking about

not only that phrase, what it means, but

also the way it's used in the scripture.

Uh the book of Luke's primary focus on

this on that very issue.

But here we actually see a

a a description of the risen Christ.

We see the risen Christ in the Gospels

when he rises from the dead. He has

breakfast there on the Sea of Galilee.

We don't get a description of him.

But here we do. We see him. He's clothed

with a garment down to the foot

and girt about the

the vest or the

with with a a golden

apparatus of some kind.

And we get more. His hair His head and

his hairs

were white like wool.

As white as snow. Here we have not only

the visual, but also the implication of

purity.

And his eyes

were as a flame of fire. Watch out for

that word as and like.

It's such and such is like this or such

and such is as. That means they're using

a simile.

You know what a simile is?

A metaphor is like a simile without the

as and like. They're a little more

difficult, but they're still figures of

speech.

But when you have the as or like, you

don't even have to guess, you know it's

a figure of speech. His eyes weren't a

flame.

His His eyes were as a flame of fire.

You know, and and um indeed, so you

And his feet like unto fine brass. It

doesn't say they were brass, they were

like brass.

But the image here is as if they burned

in the furnace.

So, they're molten bright, if you will.

And his voice

as the sound of many waters.

I think this is interesting contrast

here when you study Elijah. Remember how

he heard the voice of God? It wasn't in

the hurricane, it wasn't the wind, it

wasn't the It was in that still, small

voice.

And I think some of us often hear Christ

speak or God speak to us

in that still, small voice.

We're not talking about that here.

It's a roar of a mighty ocean.

His voice like the sound of many waters.

But let's take this term brass.

What I'm going to show you here is the

kind of thing I want you to do with your

own concordance. One of your most

powerful commentaries in the book of

Revelation is not somebody's commentary,

although I don't discourage you from

getting those, but is to get a Strong's

concordance or even or there are even

some better ones. Get a Get a

concordance, and when you find a word

like brass,

you can find out every place it appears

in the Bible,

and you can see how it's used to see

what it means.

You'll also discover for many of these

things the law first mention.

Where it's first mentioned is often

very, very important, but let's just

take this word brass. That should remind

you of this strange episode in Numbers

21. You may recall that the Lord sent

fiery According Starting in sorry, verse

six. The Lord sent fiery serpents

among the people, and they bit the

people, and much people of Israel died.

There's a preamble here why God is doing

this, but I'm going to set that aside

for now. These serpents are killing

people.

Therefore, the people came to Moses and

said, "We have sinned, for we have

spoken against the Lord and against

thee. Pray unto the Lord that he may

take away the serpents from us."

So, they're getting a a judgment. They

understand why they're getting it,

apparently.

And so, but can you pray can you can you

stop this thing?

And so, Moses prayed for the people.

Okay?

Now, God has lots of different ways he

could deal with it. He could make the

serpents go away. He could just stop

There's all kinds of ways you could

imagine. He does something weird. Really

weird.

Lord said unto Moses, "Make thee a fiery

brazen, turns out what, serpent and set

it upon a pole.

And it shall come to pass that everyone

that is bitten, when he looketh upon it,

shall live."

Moses made a serpent of brass and put it

on a pole, and it came to pass that if a

serpent had bitten any man, when he

beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Now, come on. That's pretty weird.

You're grateful that he did it,

but you've got to be asking yourself,

"What on earth is that all about?"

A A serpent is a symbol of sin.

A brass serpent on a pole up on a hill?

If I look at that, I'm cured?

That's got to be weird.

But here's the point that further.

You can read the rest of the Old

Testament and not get an answer on this

thing. What's this all about? In fact,

when you get to the days of Hezekiah,

that brass serpent is still hanging

around and people are worshipping it.

So, Hezekiah takes it and destroys it.

It's a thing of brass.

See, you say you have the same danger

with the Shroud of Turin.

The Shroud of Turin is dangerous if it's

real. I don't know if it's real or not.

Some people think it is. If it is, it's

dangerous. Why? Cuz people will start to

look to it

rather than God or Jesus or whatever.

But here we are. The whole test- We go

all the way to the end of the Old

Testament. This makes no sense

until

that night with Nicodemus.

When Jesus says something that Jesus

Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, who's a

ruler. He was the teacher of the people,

by the way. He was the top top teacher

at that time.

Jesus says to him, "As Moses lifted up

the serpent in the wilderness, even so

must the Son of Man be lifted up.

That whosoever believeth in him should

not perish, but have eternal life."

Suddenly, the fog lifts. Oh!

That's why God put a serpent on a pole,

because it's a type, an emblem in

advance

of the cross.

Did they know that in the days of Moses?

I don't think so.

They may have had some suspicions. He

may have had some insights not recorded.

But it makes no sense until Jesus

explains it to you. You with me?

Not only that, this

phrase that Jesus said here sets up

the most important verse the what most

well-known verse of the Bible. The next

verse.

For God so loved the world

that he gave

his only begotten son.

That whosoever believeth in him should

not perish, but have everlasting life.

How often we quote that?

That's verse 16. The The previous were

14 and 15.

For God so loved There again, past

tense.

How did he love us?

That he gave his son.

His only begotten son. That whosoever

believeth in him

should not perish, but have everlasting

life.

Verse 16. John 3:16. We all know it.

That's the kind But it's interesting

until that episode, there's no way you

can make sense of this brazen serpent. I

mention that not just because of the

point it's making. There's another

lesson here.

That's what we would call a macro code.

It's a code in the numbers

that anticipates something that hasn't

happened yet.

You see?

The design of that

emblem in Numbers 21 required the

designer to be outside the

dimensionality of time.

Who could see the end from the

beginning. Do you follow me?

The Bible is full of those. Some so

obvious, you miss them. That's one of

them.

Okay, let's move on.

It This had its start, by the way, in

Genesis 3. Remember what God said when

God is declaring war on Satan. He says,

"I'll put enmity between thee and the

woman." That is the Satan and the woman.

"And between thy seed and her seed. And

it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt

bruise his heel." The word bruise there

is a mistranslation. That word is shoof,

which can mean bruise or crush.

Well, let's move back to Revelation 16.

And he had in his right hand seven

stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp

two-edged sword, and his countenance was

as the sun shineth in his strength.

He had his right hand seven stars. No

problem with that one. We'll get to that

in a minute anyway. And out of his mouth

went a sharp two-edged sword. You know,

there are paintings in art museums

of Jesus Christ with a flaming sword

coming out of his mouth. The picture's

actually quite grotesque, cuz they took

that literally.

Well, Chuck, don't you take the Bible

literally? Yes, I do, but that's a

figure of speech.

Let me prove it to you.

What is a two-edged sword in the

scripture?

Hebrews 4:12. The word of God is quick,

that is alive, is alive and powerful,

and sharper than a two-edged sword,

piercing even the dividing of soul and

spirit, and of the joints and marrow,

and is a discerner of the thoughts and

intents of the heart. Therein lies the

frustration of the whole field of

psychology, cuz they can't discern

between soul and spirit. No way. Can't

possibly be done.

They can do what they want with the

soul,

but they can't discern the spirit, cuz

it says so. And there's a lot of other

reasons they can't. Anyway, the point is

that the the only only the word of God

makes that discernment.

And uh

two-edged sword again. Let's go to

Ephesians 6. Take the helmet of

salvation. Remember the seven elements

of armor?

All right. Take the helmet of salvation

and what? The sword of the spirit.

What's the sword of the spirit?

The word of God. Right.

And Revelation 3:16. He had his right

hand seven stars. Out of his mouth went

a sharp two-edged sword. And his

countenance, his face,

was was as

as again, the simile coming, was as the

sun shineth in his strength.

Well, wait a minute. When did that

happen in the past?

John would remember when that happened

in the past.

Okay? His countenance was as the sun. In

Matthew 16,

they were He says very

Let's let's start with last verse of

Matthew 16. He says, "Verily I say unto

you, there shall be some standing here

that shall not taste of death till they

see the Son of Man coming in his

kingdom." That ends chapter 16. Many

people wonder, "When did that happen?"

That's because you forget those chapter

divisions are man's convenience, not

part of

Verse 17 Chapter 17 says, "And after six

days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and

John, his brother, and bringeth them up

into a high mountain apart, and was

transfigured before them, and his face

did shine as what?"

The sun. Exactly. And his raiment was

white as light. The transfiguration of

Christ is, I believe, what he's talking

about.

So, his countenance was as the sun

shineth in his strength.

What does John do in Revelation verse

seven Chapter 1:17?

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet

as dead, and he laid his right hand upon

me, saying to me, 'Fear not.

I am the first and the last.' That's a

strange phrase.

We encountered it back in verse 11. I

didn't want to stumble over it then.

We'll pick it up now.

The first and the last. This is worth

jotting some notes down. Okay?

For lots of reasons, but one of the

things you will have your door Someone

will knock on your door.

I don't know if they'll be riding

bicycles, but they'll knock on your

door. And they will want to talk to you

about Jehovah God.

And if they do, you take them initially

to Isaiah 41:4.

Where Isaiah tells us who Speaking of

God, who hath wrought and done it,

calling the generations from the

beginning, "I am the Lord, the first and

the last. I am he."

You say, "Who is that?" Well, that's

actually they'll That's Jehovah God.

They're light lit up, cuz you

Take them to Isaiah 44:6.

"Thus saith the Lord God, the Lord the

King of Israel, his redeemer, the Lord

of hosts, I am the first and I am the

last. Beside me, there is no God."

Who's that? Well, that's Jehovah God.

They're with you now. They're You're

locked arm in arm. One more.

Isaiah 48:12. "Hearken unto me, O Jacob

and Israel, my called,

I am he. I am the first and I also am

the last."

Say, "Who's that?"

Well, now they're getting kind of What

that Come on. That's all the Jehovah

God. Good.

Then you go to their favorite book. They

love the Book of Revelation, right?

And you come down to verse 17. I fell at

his feet as dead, and he laid his right

hand upon me, saying unto me, "Fear not.

I am the first and the last." Say,

"Who's that?"

Well, that's Jehovah God. Had to be.

Same guy, right? Okay.

And you go to verse Well, 11 I talked

about. We mentioned that before. I'm

Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,

so forth.

And then you get to verse eight. I

usually save this one for last.

"Unto the angel of the church of Smyrna

write, 'These things saith the first and

the last,

which was dead,

and is alive.'"

Whoops.

Who's that?

And you can't escape that that's Jesus

Christ.

He obviously died and rose from the

dead, but he's also

the same guy, the first and the last. He

is Jehovah God in their in their

vernacular.

And we go to verse chapter 22. Uh "I'm

Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the

end, the first and the last." There he

is again.

The one that bothers them, of course, is

chapter 2:8, "Which was dead and alive."

They all stumble on that one, unless

they have a twist that they can throw at

you. So, we've got this mentioned four

three times in Isaiah, four times in

Revelation. How many times do you see

first and last? Anyone want to guess?

Seven. Okay.

All right.

And it's interesting that two of them,

verse 18 and verse

chapter two verse eight, he was dead and

I'm alive. That's his boast. That's his

identity.

The risen Lord. Okay.

So we looked at the vision chapter one.

It's got seven features. The hair on his

head is a virtually a quote from Daniel

chapter seven verse nine.

Hair as white as wool and all that

business. Okay. His eyes as a flaming

fire. Okay. That's all through the New

Testament at least four three times in

the New Testament once in the Old

Testament.

His feet, which is a symbol of his walk,

right?

Brass judgment, we talked about that.

The brazen serpent, we

you can put your notes on that.

His voice as many waters is a phrase

used twice by Ezekiel once by Daniel

chapter 10.

His on his right hand are seven stars

and seven lampstands in the It's

interesting we're going to talk more

about these stars and lampstands, but

notice something strange. They're in his

hand.

And yet he's in the midst of them.

I don't think you can draw that.

But you're going to understand it.

You see we are in his hand, in his

protection. And yet he he's among us.

Where two or three are gathered, he's

among us, right?

His mouth two-edged sword, we covered

that.

But it what his mouth does it judges the

unbeliever in John 12.

It smites the earth in Isaiah 11 and the

Antichrist is consumed by his word by

words of his mouth in 2 Thessalonians 2.

So his mouth is an nontrivial instrument

of war.

His countenance as the sun, that gives

you seven of those. Okay.

Okay, now we get to the verse that's

going to be very important to you. You

want to really understand this verse if

you're going to understand the book of

Revelation.

And that's

chapter one verse 19.

He John is instructed to write the

things which thou hast seen.

No problem. What had he seen by verse

19? He had seen the risen Lord. He saw

the vision of Christ. That's what he had

seen. Write what you had seen. He just

did. Chapter one.

The things which are

and the things which shall be hereafter.

See we got past, present, future tense

structure here again.

Okay, write the things which thou hast

seen, that's the vision of Christ which

occupies the bulk of chapter one.

Write the things which are, the things

which are existing right now. That'll

turn out to be chapters two and three.

There are seven churches that can

receive seven letters. And I'm going to

suggest to you right up front

that the most important part of this

entire book is chapters two and three.

Chapters four on have a lot of

fascinating insights and material. Don't

misunderstand me.

But you're going to watch that from the

mezzanine, I believe. I'll show you why

I believe that.

But the part that affects you and me

today, tomorrow, and next week,

whatever, is chapter two and three. You

need to understand You may not be able

to figure out who the

trumpets are, what the bowls are,

what these strange creatures in chapter

nine are about. You don't care.

Cuz you'll watch that from the

mezzanine.

From a rooting section.

No, the part that affects us is chapters

two and three.

Cuz after and then we have that which

follows after the churches.

And uh

so we're going to focus primarily on

chapters two and three in the next

several sessions.

And that then leads to the last verse of

chapter one, the preparation for

chapters two and three.

Mystery

Jesus continues, "The mystery of the

seven stars which thou sawest in my

right hand and the seven golden

lampstands." Colon, it's not even a

complete sentence. It's sort of a title

in a introductory title.

"The seven stars are the angels of the

seven churches

and the seven lampstands which thou

sawest are the seven churches."

You with me so far?

Okay.

Question.

Where are the lampstands in chapter one

right now?

In this in the imagery of the of the of

the of chapter one. Where are they?

On the earth. You got it.

You're going to find them in heaven in

chapter four.

Many people overlook that. It's not a

big proof. I'll show you some other

things that make it more conclusive. But

just understand the consistency here.

The seven lampstands represent Why

lampstands? Cuz they are light bearers.

What's the church's mission? To bear the

light. The Israel was supposed to bear

the light. That's why the menorah is

today the symbol of Israel.

Not the star of David on their flag,

that's an emblem, fine. The official

symbol of the state of Israel is the

menorah, the seven-branch candlestick.

Why? Well, for lots of reasons, not the

least of which it represents their

mission to be a light to the world. They

were intended to be the proclaimers of

the of the of the creator and the

redeemer.

Here we have seven lampstands.

Seven churches. Are there more than

seven churches? Of course, there are

dozens of churches. One of the

assignments I want you to think about

between now and the next session, why

these seven?

If you're a student, I'd have you make a

list of the churches in the New

Testament that are not.

You can you can come to 20 or 30 of them

that aren't mentioned. Where's the

church in Jerusalem? The church at Rome?

The church at Antioch was the primary

base camp for the proclamation of the

gospel of the Gentiles.

Not mentioned here? You can you can

mention you'll think of a lot of Lister,

Derby, there's a bunch of them.

Why these seven? We'll talk about that.

Okay.

Seven churches, the things which are.

Why these seven?

Each

letter

has a peculiar phrase in it. There's one

phrase, only one phrase, that occurs in

each of the seven letters. It's a

closing phrase to the letter.

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what

the Spirit says to the churches."

By the time you go through chapters two

and three, you'll be tired of hearing

that, so to speak. Okay? Cuz it's there

on every letter.

There I'm going to suggest to you

for your own confirmation, you figure

out for yourself, but there are four

levels

of interpretation or application

of these seven letters.

The first is they are local. They really

were churches operating at that time. In

fact, Sir William Ramsay

conducted an intensive archaeological

investigation.

Skeptically at first, totally convinced

when he was finished, that these

churches not only were actually existed,

they had local problems that the letters

were relevant to.

And we'll talk about some of that as we

go through the four letters or seven

letters.

But they had they were literal churches

in John's day that needed the Lord's

counsel.

Okay.

That one's a no-brainer. We got it so

far? Okay.

There I'm going to suggest they're

admonitory

to all churches. Notice what it says,

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what

the Spirit says to the churches."

See, all seven letters were sent to all

seven churches.

Yes, one was addressed to Ephesus, but

they were all supposed to read and learn

from it.

Another was dressed to You see, you

follow me?

Churches is in the plural, which means

"He that Let him hear what the Spirit

says to the churches." Plural. They're

all supposed to watch all of them. You

got it? So there must be lessons there

appropriate to the churches in general.

And we can suspect

that since there are seven churches, in

some sense they embrace all churches.

Once you learn those seven letters

in depth,

you can profile every church

in terms of percentages.

Every church has some elements of all

seven letters, even the uncomplimentary

ones.

But different churches have you They're

Oh, this one, they're 70% X and only 10%

Y. You You know, you follow what I'm

saying?

The The seven become a sevenfold

space in which you can map any church.

Some good, some bad. They're all there.

So it's important to understand. They're

report cards.

Okay.

But this phrase also says, "He that hath

an ear." How many of you in this room

have an earlobe? Can I see a show of

hands?

Then this letter These letters, all of

them, are written to you.

I know Philadelphia's written to me, but

no, what about the others? Okay.

Okay.

So they're homiletic, that is, they're

personally they're

they're intended for personal

application. This is not something I'm

contriving, that's embraced in the very

language of the letters. We tend to

overlook it because they're addressed to

a particular church. No, it's addressed

to the church you're going to, whichever

it is, in some degree. And it's also

addressed to you personally.

Personally. So you see why this becomes

the most important part of the entire

book. Okay.

But now there's a fourth part

that I hope you will take it skeptically

at first, but I'm going to suggest

before it's over you may be absolutely

stunned with the next one.

And that is

these seven letters

will outline a profile

of 2,000 years of church history.

You say, "Chuck, that's speculation."

Yes, it is.

It's conjecture in part.

But you'll be able to make your own

conclusions before we're through.

But I'll put this right up front. If the

letters were in any other order, that

wouldn't be true.

In the order that they're in, once you

understand them, they lay out the

history

of the church on the planet Earth.

Now I know some people say, "Well, the

church, you know,

the old story about the the

the elder that comes to the pastor and

says,

'They're chewing gum in the sanctuary.'"

Pastor says, "No, no, the sanctuary is

chewing gum."

In other words, we are.

So and yes, the church,

you know, we're we're the temple of God

and all that. Yes, but here the term

church is being used for these

geographical churches, churches as we

tend to use the term, not as buildings,

but as

uh assemblies that are in various

locations. Okay.

Okay. Now here's their prophetic

profile. We've got

Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thy Sardis,

Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And I'm

going to suggest before it's over that

each one of these churches have a not

only a history, a future.

And that future is reflected in the

letters in a way that's astonishing. The

more you know about this, the more

astonishing it'll become. So, that's my

challenge to you because between now and

next session, I want you to read Your

general assignment is to read the entire

book of Revelation between each meeting.

It's not that long. Don't Don't groan.

But I certainly want you to read

chapters 2 and 3, all

both chapters before next session for

some reasons.

But I want you to really understand

the first seven verses of chapter 2.

But we'll get

You're going to discover that each of

the seven letters has seven How many How

many design elements would be in each

letter? Make a guess. Seven. Good guess.

Good guess.

The name of the church will turn out to

be meaningful to the letter.

What a coincidence.

The title Christ uses of himself is

relevant to the letter.

Not when you first read it. When you

understand the letter and you go back,

you realize Jesus chose of the many

titles of himself, he picks the one that

particularly relates to the problems in

that church. You follow me?

There is It's a report card. There's a

commendation.

You did these things well.

Well done here, here, here, and here.

Great. Good. Well done.

Then he has the concerns. Whoops.

You got to work on this area or that

area. It's a report card.

Then there's an exhortation. It's

obviously consistent with that. Here's

what I want you to do. Here's your

remedial assignment, right?

And then there's a promise to the

overcomer. Each letter has this little

uh you know, promise to the overcomer.

The overcomer will get this or that.

Some something special. Each one's

different. Each one There's seven

different ones.

And then he has this close this peculiar

closing. He that hath an ear,

let him hear what the Spirit says to the

churches.

These seven elements

are the seven basic elements of all

seven letters. Here's the thing that

makes it a little complicated. You'll

discover that in the first three

letters, the close

the promise to the overcomer is not in

the letter, it's in a postscript.

It comes after the letter's finished.

That's kind of weird. And it's

consistent in the first three letters.

Why?

In the last four letters, the promise to

the overcomer is in the body of the

letter.

What's that got to do with anything?

Um you'll also discover two of the

letters

have nothing good said about them.

Whoops.

Two of the letters have nothing bad said

about them.

That's wild.

But here's the more important part.

Every one of the recipients of all seven

was surprised.

The guys that thought they were doing

well weren't.

The guys that thought they weren't doing

well were.

And the lesson is

that we don't really have the ability to

second-guess our own report card.

Let's find out what how Christ's report

card reads of our church or more

specifically us personally. That's why

we're going to get into this with some

substance.

So, we have these churches' report

cards, seven of them. And uh we'll talk

about each of the names and we'll talk

about each of the

um titles that Christ uses. Each one's

different. And we'll go through each one

of these and we'll also obviously deal

with the structure when we get there.

Now, just just back up and wrap it up.

The New Testament is in the Old

Testament concealed.

And the Old Testament is in the New

Testament revealed.

The Old Testament closes with

unfulfilled prophecies, unappeased

longings,

and so forth. That Old Testament is

incomplete in itself.

And what it lacks is right there in in

the New Testament.

And we believe it's prophetic. Over

8,000 According to one categorization by

J. Barton Payne is in something we

biblical prophecy, he catalogs over

8,000 predictive verses in the Bible on

almost 2,000 predictions on over 700

different matters.

And we live in a day where there are

major themes unfolding. Israel,

Jerusalem, the temple, Babylon,

Russia or Magog,

the rise of China, European superstate,

ecumenicalism,

the move towards a global government,

the rise of the occult. These are all

trends

that are clearly converging to a climax

and each one of them is mappable in

terms of Bible prophecy.

And that's why I always like to throw

this up as a challenge. One last

challenge. You heard me before, but I'll

put it up again.

And if you accept the challenge I put on

the screen, you flunked the course.

I want you to skeptically attack or

challenge this preposterous

assertion.

That you and I are being plunged

into a period of time about which

the Bible says more than it does about

any other period of time in history

including the time that Jesus walked the

shores of Galilee or climbed the

mountains of Judea.

That's absurd. More than the gospel

period? Yes.

I believe you and I are going to be are

being plunged into a period of time

the Bible says more than it does even

about the gospel period. Now, to

challenge that

audacious statement, you got to do two

things.

You got to find out what the Bible says.

Not what Chuck Missler says or your

favorite prophecy club or whatever. What

the Bible says. Find out what it says.

Part one. Part two.

Used to be hard, not today. Find out

what's going on.

You won't on the 10:00 news, even on Fox

News. You got to do better than that.

You can

Find out what's really happening.

On the internet, talk radio,

proprietary news. There's all kinds of

ways, all kinds of resources available.

Find out what the Bible says. Find out

what's going on. The more you know about

the Bible and the more you know about

what's really going on in the world, the

more you'll can observe

the convergence of these things into the

ultimate climax.

But the ultimate issue is that you and I

are in fact in possession of a message

of extraterrestrial origin. We'll see

that manifestly in the book of

Revelation.

It portrays us

as both the participants and the objects

of an unseen and invisible cosmic

warfare.

Whether you know it or not, you are in

it, in the middle of it. You're on enemy

turf tonight.

And our yours and mine, your eternal

destiny and mine depends on our

relationship with the ultimate victor in

that conflict.

But I peeked ahead.

We win.

And where do you Where do you stand with

respect to him? That's what this is

really all about. Now, for the next

session, here are your assignments. Read

the entire book. It's not that book. I

want you to by rereading it, rereading

it, grasp the an overview of It's really

a symphony. It's very

uh interwoven.

Examine chapters 2 and 3 cuz that's

going to be the primary uh

area of inquiry of the next few

sessions.

Outline the first seven verses of

chapter 2 if you can. I've given you the

outline. I've given you seven elements.

Structure them.

Just just write out the verses, but part

part you know, partition them in terms

of those seven elements.

And you I know that I'm asking you to

summarize the Ephesians, which is the

first of the seven letters, the book of

the letter to the church of Ephesus.

Summarize their report card.

And we'll go into Acts 20 and some other

background as we look at that next time.

Acts 20 You want to read Acts 20:16-38.

That was the middle to the end of the

chapter.

And you may also want to take a look at

Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. It's

one of the most rewarding

of all the Epistles. Sometimes when I'm

in an airport and I got a few minutes

before the plane goes and I'm not sure

what else to do, I'll just pop my Bible

and read the book of Ephesians.

There's a couple of reasons. That's just

That's right up there cuz I know no

matter what

my mind's been on, whatever hassles I've

had, that pulls me out of it and it is

so high-flying.

It is so awesome.

And there are so many subtle surprises

in that book.

That letter. So, I encourage you. Those

six chapters is no big deal.

Let's stand for a closing word of

prayer.

Father, we just praise you for who you

are. We thank you

that in your kingdom there are no

accidents, no coincidences, that we're

all here right now by your divine

appointment. We do pray, Father,

that your purpose would be accomplished

in each of our lives. We do pray,

Father, that as we enjoy this incredible

tour de force that we call the book of

Revelation.

We thank you

for its edification. We thank you for

its excitement. We thank you for its

majesty. But above all, we thank you for

Jesus Christ. And we

We pray, Father, as we enter the seven

letters that you would use them to speak

to each of us

personally, individually. Help us to

understand

those seven report cards.

And thus, Father, help us to repair

our own

that we each might be more fruitful

stewards

and above all, more pleasing in your

sight. As we commit ourselves

into your hands.

In the name of him which was and is and

shall be forevermore.

Yeshua,

our Lord and Savior,

our King of king and Lord of lords,

in whose name we do pray. Amen.

Mhm.