Revelation 1:1-8 “The Alpha and Omega” transcript

Okay, everyone, we're gonna get started. So, let's all stand and praise the Lord together. And kids, I know you know these songs, so do them like you did at VBS, okay? >> [music] >> I tried all my life, but I [music] just can't win the fight. I'm slowly drifting back. [music] Just when [music] I read how I met a man and I didn't know he told me that I was not [music] lift me [music] up, turn me around. Kiss my feet on solid [music] ground.

I thank the master. I thank the savior because he healed my heart. He changed my [music] name forever free. I am not the same. I thank the master. I thank the savior. Thank God. [music] Not [music and singing] what I see. My doubts [music] are burning. My cash [music] so long my mind [music] burning in bitterness. You can't just keep it moving. No, you ain't welcome [music] till I was truthful. I see how you save my soul.

Found it way back. Oh, [music] lift me up. Turn me around. [music] Place my feet all. I thank the master. I thank [music] the savior. Because you healed my heart. You changed my name. Forever free. [music and singing] I am not the same. I thank the master. I thank the savior. I thank God. Lost another one. I am free. I [music] am free. I am free. I lost another one. I am free. I am free. I [music] am free. lost another one and I am free.

I am free. I am free. I lost another one and I am free. I [music] am free. Pick me up. [music] Turn me around. Place my feet on solid ground. I thank the master. I thank the Savior because [music] you healed my heart. Change my name forever free. I am not the same. I thank the master. [music] I thank the savior. I thank God. [music] Let everything [music] that is breath praise the Lord. [music] Praise the Lord. Let everything that is breath praise the Lord.

[music] I foround [music and singing] [music] [singing] the waters my enemy drown as long as I'm breathing [music] my water [singing] isn't is to praise the Lord. [music and singing] Oh my soul. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. I'll praise [music] when I feel [singing] it and I'll praise when I don't. I'll [music] praise cuz [singing] I know you're still in control. My praise [music] is a we sound. My praise is the shout [music] that brings Jericho down.

[singing] As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord. [music] Oh my soul. Praise [screaming] the Lord. Oh my soul. [music] I won't be quiet. My God is alive. How could I keep it inside [screaming] the Lord? Oh [music] my soul. I'm free cuz you're sovereign. Cuz you're way [music] cuz you rose and defeated in the rain. I'm cuz you're faithful. Peace cuz you're true. [music] Cuz there's nobody [singing] greater than you.

I cuz you're sovereign. Cuz you cuz [music and singing] you're rosy defeating the way. I cuz you're faithful. Cuz you're true. Praise cuz there's nobody greater than you. Praise the Lord. [music] Oh my soul. >> [singing] >> Oh my god [music and singing] is alive. How could I keep it inside? I won't be quiet. My God is alive. How could I keep it inside? [music] I won't [singing] cry. My God is alive. How could [music] I keep it inside?

Praise for those. [music] >> All right. >> Amen. All right. At this time, kids can go back to your Aana classes. Parents, please go ahead and take them. If you checked them in, go ahead and and take them back. Make sure they're checked in. While the kids while the kids are going back, we're gonna sing one more song together. In my [singing and music] in my in my failures [singing and music] now, your great love will [singing and music] lead me through.

You are the peace of my joy. Oh, [singing and music] you are the peace of my joy. [music] In the silence [singing] you won't let go. [music] In my questions you tr [singing] will lead me through. You are the peace I tr [music] house my lighthouse [music and singing] shining in darkness I will follow you oh my lighthouse [music] my [singing] lighthouse I will trust pro you He sings you. Oh, see [music] you so you see you [music] know what [singing] tomorrow with each [music] morning I rise and see.

My love of [singing] love will lead me [music] through. You're the peace my [singing] you [music] are the peace my [music] house. My [singing] house shining in the darkness. I will follow [music] you. My house. My house. [music] I will trust the promise. You will carry me. Sure. [singing] >> [music] >> Saint [music] far before us. [music] You're the brightest. You will lead us through the storms. Far before us, you're the brightest.

[singing] You will lead us through the storms. [singing] My lighthouse. My lighthouse. [music] Shining in the darkness. I will follow you. Oh, my lighthouse. My house. I will trust the promise. [music] You carry me safe to shore. Sure. [music] Chase, [music] man. All right. At this time, onward grades six through eight can be dismissed. Everyone else take a chance to say hi to one another this evening. That was the most fun ever.

Good evening everyone. How's everybody doing tonight? We'd like to uh go to the warden in prayer and just just remember on Friday at 911 uh with the families and uh the lost uh what a devastation to our country. Um pray for our country today and and moving forward. Shall we bow our heads in prayer? Lord our heavenly father Lord we just thank you for today Lord. Lord we thank you for the earlier with the food and the blessings and uh all the families getting together and talking about you Lord.

Lord, we ask you be with the Wana kids in the back singing praises and uh to your name. Be with all the ministry leaders, Lord. And uh Lord, be with Pastor Jeff as he delivers the message to us tonight. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Thank you. All right. Good evening everybody. Are you guys ready for the book of Revelation? >> It's easy to find. You just got to turn right. last book of your Bible. And I was thinking about it.

We're actually continuing the a series. It's called the apocalypse. We're gonna be we're gonna be doing it for the next I don't know until Jesus comes back. >> So because it might I mean we you never know. Actually, there's 22 chapters. If I did one a week, it's very likely Jesus could come back, you know, by then. But uh wouldn't it be the best book to be in if that happened? Well, Revelation chapter 1, I'll give you a second to turn there.

Tonight is really just going to be an introduction. We're going to look at the first eight verses. And what I want to do is I'm going to try my best to keep the pace, but but not rush it. Is that possible? [laughter] Because there's so much meat. And um this is a book I've been studying since I was young. Um I taught through it probably 15 years ago. And uh and even since then, there's so much that I've learned. I don't know if anybody really ever masters this book.

It's one of those books that is has become just a treasure in my heart because there's so much about the book of Revelation that uh not only talks about the future and and the fact that God is in control and the future is in God's hands, but it also reveals a lot about the character of God, it reveals a lot about the heart of worship. And so, there's so much to learn. There's so much to glean. And this is a book that comes with a promise and a special blessing as we'll see tonight that when we read it, when we hear it, when we read it, and when we keep it, and we treasure it in our hearts, there's a special blessing.

And so my my prayer is that as I teach through this, I'm going to try to keep it as simple as possible so that you guys will be able to go back and read this and understand the book of Revelation because I actually don't think it's that complicated to understand it once you kind of get once you start to decode it a little bit. Uh and you know, typically on Wednesday nights, we go through Old Testament. We go through the Old Testament.

We've been doing it for a while. We've been going through we we went through Genesis back when we planted the church. And then once we started Wednesday evenings, we started just going through the Old Testament from Exodus all the way. We did Exodus, uh, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and we were going to pick it up in 1 Samuel and then go to 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, and we are going to do that.

We're tableabling that right now because I did the math and in four years I taught through all those books. It would be another 15 years before we got to the book of Revelation at that point. And um with all the things going on in the world and so many people have questions and so much confusion around the book of Revelation, I just thought, you know what, let's let's just let's go to the end and and and understand actually we're not taking a break from the Old Testament.

You know why? Because the book of Revelation is actually an Old Testament Bible study. It's got so many Old Testament passages. We'll see several of them even tonight in the first eight verses. But one of the reasons we go through the Old Testament is because it enriches our understanding of the New Testament. And most of the scripture was written to people that had a real understanding of the Old Testament. And so that's why we go through the Old Testament.

Revelation is really is really pulling on a lot of the Old Testament prophecies and illusions. And it's talking about future things yet to come. And so, uh, let me just kind of give you a quick synopsis of the book. And I'll start with verse one. It says this, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Revelation actually the word is apocalyppsis in the Greek for revelation. That's where we get the word revelation or apocalypse.

And that's why sometimes the 7year tribulation period is termed the apocalypse because this really is the apocalypse of John. But it's actually the whole book of Revelation is the unveiling. That's what apocalypsis means. It means the unveiling of Jesus Christ which God gave to show his servants. And some people, you know, scholars debate. If I read commentaries, if I read one more commentary where they're just arguing the whole time, I don't know what I'm going to do about it.

But anyway, they're all arguing like, does is it is it the revelation of Jesus Christ or is it the revelation from Jesus Christ about the future? And I'm like, yes, it's both, right? Like, why are we arguing? Why does it have to be one or the other? It's actually both. We will learn about the future and all the things that are going to happen, but it's also going to show us a lot about Jesus in this book. We're going to see him revealed in his glory.

You know, when he came the first time, he came in humility. When he comes the second time, it is going to be in full glory. And we're going to see that even in chapter one next week. We'll get into it. Um, but the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. And so, we're going to look at this. When it says what must soon take place. I want you to notice that because the word soon doesn't just mean soon in event status.

It means soon in the sense of imminent. It could happen at any moment. It is ready like a mouse trap that is set that could go off at any moment. And I believe every generation since Jesus rose from the dead was is to be and still to be living as though Jesus could come back at any moment. And the the events recorded in this book could begin to unfold at any moment. In fact, the the word soon, it actually means this idea of starting and then continuing like a like a dominoes.

You guys ever play dominoes when you were a kid or actually set them up? And so just one domino goes down and that it unleashes the whole thing. That's the idea here that the stage is set. And I don't know if this verse is more relevant than it's ever been, but I think it is because if soon means soon, then soon is very soon, right? Like 2,000 years ago, if that was soon then, then it's much more soon now, right? At any moment, it could take place at any moment.

But notice to show his servants what must soon take place. In other words, this is talking about future things. And he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. So this is where we learn that the writer of this the one who penned this book is John the apostles. You could just bring it up the the first slide. I just want to show you the writer is John the apostle. This is the apostle one of the 12 apostles.

One of the top three like remember there was Peter, James and John. You guys all know Peter, right? Wrote the book of Peter and first second Peter. He was the guy that walked on water. And then James and John were brothers. You remember James was actually the first of the 12 apostles to get martyed in the book of acts. But John, his brother, uh, ends up being the one that lives the longest. Isn't it interesting? Two brothers, one is the first to die and one's the last to die.

And and it's just an interesting picture to see how, you know, none of us know what God's going to do with us in our lives. And none of us know how much time we have. John didn't know, but apparently uh Jesus, I mean, not apparently, Jesus knew that John was going to be the one that was going to live. In fact, remember when Peter was walking along when he was getting restored and and Jesus starts telling Peter about the day he's going to get his arms stretched out and Peter turns around.

He's like, "Hey, what about him?" And he points to John and Jesus is like, "Hey, um, what do I do with him? What's that to you? You follow me?" You know, all of us are called by God in a in a different arena, different area. We have a different story for our lives, but Jesus is the one writing our story. But Jesus um called John to write this and it was in his old age. In fact uh most scholars agree that this was written in between 90 and 95 AD during the rule of the emperor dimmission.

Now there is some debate. Some people believe in an early uh date which would be around 62 to 68 AD under Roman uh the Roman emperor Nero. Um, but that's more of a a minority view. And the reason is because there's a lot of internal and external proof that would uh cause people to believe that this has actually been written between 90 and 95, which it's believed that John was about the same age as Jesus, maybe a little bit younger.

So that would make him around 90 85 to 90 years old during this time. And he was an old man. And that was an old man considering back in that day um you know the average lifespan of people in that day of men in that day was around 50 to 60. So he's ancient in their day you know but he's the last living witness at the time when it comes to those apostles that had walked with Jesus and so he had a lot of credibility. But one of the reasons and I don't want to lose you I I don't want to get into the weeds too much but I do want to just spend a minute on this.

One of the reasons that um I believe in the later date and why it matters um again some people would say the early date is between 62 and 68 AD under Emperor Nero. Um the majority of people say it's between 90 and 95 under dimmission. Um the reason is there's some internal evidence even in the book of revelation. One of those things is the book of Ephesians. Remember Ephesians is written by the apostle Paul. Well, that city Ephesus is a letter.

There's a letter that Jesus actually sends to them in chapter two to the church of Ephesus. So, this is the same church, but it's interesting in chapter 2, as we get into that, we'll see that by this time, the church of Ephesus had lost their first love or they left their first love. They've gotten really regimented. They're very doctrinally correct, but they're very unloving. But if you think about it, um, in AD60-62 is when Paul writes the letter to the Ephesians.

So think about this. If if Revelation was written from 62- 64, that wouldn't leave a lot of time for the e for the Ephesian church to turn to a really unloving church. Especially since in 62, Paul writes it to to Ephesians. And the main emphasis that Paul gives to the to the people in in the book of Ephesians is all about God's love, right? The emphasis is love. So, if anything, they're going to need a couple years to grow in his love, not to decline in his love.

What would make way more sense is if it was in 92 AD, 30 years later, or whatever time that might have been. uh 30 to 35 years later would give them plenty of time to be cold and lacking in love and it would place Ephesus three decades later we'll get into it when we look at chapter 2 three decades later after Paul writes the letter to the Ephesians and this seems more likely and there's a couple other things Leodysia is another church mentioned in chapter 2 there's seven churches mentioned that were literal churches in this day that apply to all churches of all time but the church of Leodysia the lukewarm church.

Jesus rebukes them because they are relying on their wealth and their riches. But what's interesting is if this was an earlier date that was written uh in 62 to 68 AD, if you look in history, Leodysia from external evidence, Leodysia suffered a devastating earthquake in AD60. And it caused the rebuilding of the city that spanned a period of 30 years. Yet, Revelation 3 says that they are rich and not in need of anything.

So, a late date makes this much more sense because an early date would be like writing a letter to New Orleans right after Katrina happened, saying, "You guys aren't in need of anything." It wouldn't make any sense from an internal and an external perspective. Uh, Revelation 1:9 also says that John was exiled to the island of Patmos when he receives this letter. And we don't have any evidence of Emperor Nero exiling anyone to Patmos.

If anything, he was just burning people, killing people, throwing them to the lions. But we do have evidence of dimmission uh exiling people to uh the island of Patmos. In fact, we know dimmission banished Flavia Dumatila to an island for her faith in Christ in AD5. And so the question would be why would Nero execute Paul and Peter yet banish John? Again a later date makes more sense. And even in revelation 213 uh it says that Antipus of Pergamum was martyed for his faith in Christ.

And tradition external evidence records that Antipus was roasted alive in AD 92 in a brazen bull-shaped altar. So if that's what the historical tradition says, then it's most likely that this was written after 92 AD. The strongest external evidence is Aranius, one of the Christian writers around AD 180. He said this while discussing Revelation. He says the apocalypse or this vision that John got was not it was seen not very long ago toward the end of the reign of dimmission.

I could give you a lot more. Come up with me afterwards. I'll give you a lot more stuff. But the point that I just want to make is I actually believe this is later. This is in ' 90s. The 90s this is in the 90s AD. And uh what that means is there's a lot of time that has gone by since the churches that have been established. A lot of them by Paul uh have become sort of you know it's become normal. A lot of their kids grew up in the church and a lot of their families just kind of that's all they knew. they, you know, and I was thinking about this church, you know, it's like, I don't know, 15, we're going on 15 years and and how lively it's been since the beginning, but we're kind of entering into that phase where a lot of our kids have grown up here and this is all they've known.

Many people when they started coming to this church back in the day were getting saved and it's like it was all new and everything else. And so there's going to be some application when we start to look at some of these things that as the years go by, we need to make sure as we get into it, and I'm kind of preaching on chapter two already. I'm sorry, but uh as the years go by, we can get lukewarm, our love can grow cold if we're not careful.

And Jesus wants to correct every church through every generation to make sure that we don't get our love that our love doesn't grow cold and that we don't get lukewarm. Amen. >> All right. So the writer is John most likely between 90 and 95 AD this is written and where it is written is on the island of Patmos. Let me show you where the island of Patmos is. That little yellow circled area and to the right are these seven churches of Asia Minor.

And so you got Pergamum, Thyroy, Sardis, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Ephesus, Leodysia, and then Patmos is over to the left where John is exiled. And tradition also tells us that uh John was basically operating and functioning as an apostolic overseer of all the churches throughout the region of Asia during this time. And so it would make sense that he's the one that would be bringing this message to the seven churches in Asia, which was at this point the epicenter of Christianity.

Now uh I want to show you this. The key verse in Revelation is Revelation 119. This is very interesting. If you want to know, you can you can look at verse 19 and and draw a little key next to it. But this is the key to understanding the whole book. Verse 19, it says, "Write therefore what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later." So we see three things there. It outlines the book in three ways. Right?

Therefore, what you have seen, that has to do with chapter 1. Write what is now. That's going to be chapter 2 and chapter 3 known as the church age. What's current? and what will take place later that is after chapter 2 and three which is the church age everything yet future will be from chapter 4 to chapter 22 and so I actually take that approach as I read the book of revelation there are a few different approaches that people will take and have taken over the years and and I think it's good to hear all sides I just want to let you know like where I'm coming from is a futuristic perspective that I actually believe that this book is yet future when it comes to chapters 4 through 22 that this has not happened yet.

There are people that will take a historical view of the book. Many of them in the Predtoist camp uh will say that all of this got fulfilled before 70 AD. I don't believe that, but there's some people that believe that. Uh others will say it's more of an allegorical approach to read it that it really doesn't mean all of these plagues are literally going to happen and all of these things are literally going to happen.

It's just an an analogy or an allegorical way of explaining sort of the kingdoms and everything else. and Jesus won't really rule and reign physically. It's talking about the rule and reign in your heart. I actually disagree with all that. I actually believe Jesus is coming back to rule and reign physically. And I believe that we are going to rule and reign with him physically because that's what the Bible says in the Old Testament.

And there's so many reasons why. I'm not going to get into it. I just want you to know that I'm taking a futuristic approach through this book. Um and and uh you guys are free to argue and disagree. You're free to be wrong if you want, but anyway, uh I'm just sort of kidding. But anyway, uh but the the outline is what you have seen chapter one. So that so that's what we're going to look at over the next couple weeks.

What you have seen, we're going to see the the risen Jesus that he died and he rose again for us. We're going to see him. And then what is now that's chapter 2 through three the church age the seven churches which represent all churches of all time but also literally these literal churches and there's a lot of there is a lot of figurative language but I believe this is figurative literal in other words there's figurative ways of speaking about something that will literally happen when it says there's a beast that is the antichrist it doesn't mean a literal beast it means a figural it's a figurative picture of a literal man that will come on the scene.

Does that make sense? So that's how that's how we're looking at it. And so it'll make a lot of sense if you understand it that way. And then everything that takes place from chapter 4 through 22 is yet future. What will take place later? And this is a unique book in the fact that it is one of the few Bible books with a prologue. Verses 1 through three. There's this interesting prologue. Usually you start on verse four in an epistle or a book. it'll say Paul uh to the church of Galatia or it'll say John to the but you know and like it says in verse four John to the seven churches but there's this prologue where there's an interesting thing that's written first to make sure that you understand how precious this book is and it's it comes with a blessing on the front end and it comes with a warning on the back end.

So let's read this. I want you to see the the blessing. It says in verse in the rest of verse one, it says, "He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John." Verse two, "Who testifies to everything he saw." That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. By the way, the book of Revelation is the word of God. Amen. It is the word of God. You don't have to doubt it. But look at what it says in verse three.

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy. and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near. And again, I don't know if this is if there's ever been a time where it's been more relevant to read that verse that the time is more near than it is. Again, if 2000 years ago the time was near, how much more today is the time near for us to take to heart the words of this book.

So notice the blessing in the front end, but then on the back end, what you'll see is in Revelation 22:18 is there's a warning. It says, 'I warn everyone. And you can flip there if you want, but I'll just bring it on the screen. Revelation uh 22:18, he says, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll. If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. So don't add anything to it.

That doesn't mean that you can't draw a key. You guys are like, "You just made me draw a key. I'm going to No, you're not going to get the plugs. Don't worry." The point is, don't tamper with this. And actually, what I believe what this is a hint of is to say there's a couple things that we'll get into this when we get in like three years when we get to the end of the book of Revelation. No, I'm just kidding. Um, maybe.

But, uh, the end of this, I think there's a little hint here to show us what the end times will be like. Because notice the plagues described in this book will be added. Well, listen. The plagues are described in this book haven't happened yet, which tells me that this is an indication that the book of Revelation will be changed during the tribulation period because the people that change it will be dealing with the plagues of the book.

Isn't that interesting? This is one of the reasons why I actually believe in an old school paper Bible. By the way, I'm not against digital stuff, don't get me wrong. But if everything is digital and all you do is digital, all it takes is somebody to get control of all the digital things and change it in a minute. And if we don't have paper things that we can actually look at that can't be tampered with and we don't we don't get the word of God in our heart and underline it and write it down and even need to leave our Bibles for the time when we might not be here anymore so that people can know there's coming a day where the where this book will be changed and everybody that is during the tribulation period which I don't believe we're going to be here.

I believe we're going to be with Jesus during this time. But everybody during this time is going to be diving to anybody that maybe even wants to know what's actually happening and will need the book of revelation to understand what's happening. And if all it is is digital, I guarantee you it will all be changed. So it's interesting to think about it in that way. One other interesting fun fact is that there it this book is unique in that the entire book is what's known as a kayazm which I don't know if you can read that.

Probably not. But if you look at the bottom, like the center piece there, that's like chapter 12, the very center, which means that the verses mirror from the center out when it comes to sort of illusions that it makes. Now, I don't know about you, but you can't, if you're a person, you know, a 90some year old guy in the ancient days writing on a pen on a scroll, I don't think you they didn't have AI back then, right?

I don't think he could have made it this perfect. This is the fingerprint of God on the book of Revelation. It's pretty wild. And so I believe the book of Revelation is chronological. Yet at the same time there are parenthetical chapters like chapter 12 that point backwards and chapter 11 and 13 are sort of mirroring and contrasting and comparing and you work backwards. It's amazing how beautiful this book is designed.

It has the fingerprint of God all over it. Um so let's just look at verse three one more time. I want you to notice and then we'll just kind of work our way down. And if you guys if your eyes start to glaze over, if you start to get confused, just raise your hand and we'll land the plane. Okay. Um, we probably won't, but anyway, blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy. So, if you fall asleep, you're not going to be blessed tonight, right?

You got to you got to hear, right? Here's you reads the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear it and take it to heart what is written in it. Like I I I'm sad when I hear Christians say, "Oh, the book of Revelation. I don't like that book." book and everything. I'm like, man, you're missing out on the blessing that is promised right here. Like, you should be reading it. You should be hearing it. You should be taking it to heart.

When it says taking it to heart, it's this understanding of heeding it. Um, keeping it uh heeding its content as treasure. And this is a blessing. What we'll see is there's so many sevens in the book of Revelation. And this is the first of seven biatitudes found throughout the book of Revelation. And I'll give them to you. I'm not going to read them all to you, but Revelation 1:3 is the first of seven biatitudes or blessings.

You know, in Matthew there's bless bless like the blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, right? Those are called biatitudes. Actually, the book of Revelation has seven biatitudes and this is the first of the seven. The other ones are found in chapter 14:13, chapter 16, verse 15, chapter 19, verse 9, chapter 20 6, chapter 22:7, and chapter 22 verse14. God scatters seven blessings of biatitudes throughout the book of revelation.

And this is the first of those seven that there is a blessing when we read the words of this prophecy. When we hear it, Jesus is going to say over and over again to the churches, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. You got to you got to read it. You got to hear it. And you got to keep it. You got to treasure it with your heart. And so there's a special blessing that God gives to each and every one of us.

Now let's look at verse four. It says John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Again, these were actual literal churches during this time. But again, seven is a symbolic number in the Bible that will constantly mean completion and perfection. So even though these are seven literal churches, we know there was many more churches even in that day. Uh but but this is representative of all the churches of all time.

And we'll get into that when we get into chapter 2 even more. But I want you to notice that just back up to verse one because I want you to notice that it's written to the seven churches, but specifically to the servants that are within the churches. Because notice it says, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his what? Servants what must soon take place." He made it known by sending his angel to his what?

Servant John. So John says, "I'm one of the servants." And this book was written to the servants. And so I wonder if he's really just, you know, reminding them or reminding himself that that's what Jesus said that we were supposed to be above everything else that we were called to be servants, [snorts] right? And the word servants is the word dulos. It's the it's the understanding of bondervant in the Greek. It's the word dulos. means someone who is willing to give their rights to the king to to surrender their rights to the rule of the king to to allow themselves to be the servant of the king and that's what he's saying and I wonder again when he says to show his servants m what must soon take place you know Jesus gives a whole bunch of parables after he runs through in Matthew 24 some prophetic teachings and he goes through even the tribulation period and then he backs up and he says says, "Now I tell you, when all this stuff's going to start, it's going to be like the days of Noah when people are eating, giving, drinking, giving in marriage and all these things, and it's going to be business as usual, and no one's going to know the day or the hour.

And it's going to happen in a moment, right? He he's saying like, you need to be ready." And he gives these series of parables. And one of the parables that he gives is actually found in Matthew 24 right after this teaching. And he says, and I'm going to read it to you in verse 44. It says, "Therefore, you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming in an hour. You don't expect who then is faithful and wise. Who then is a faithful and wise what?

Servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season. Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. Right? We're going to see in a minute that we are going to rule and reign with Christ. He's going to make us ruler over all of the things of the kingdom. But if that evil servant says in his heart, "Ah, my master's delaying his coming." In other words, if you adopt this mentality that you know Jesus isn't coming back anytime soon or even if he is, he it's been a while so it's not going to happen anytime soon.

He says, 'If my if if if if a servant begins to adopt this mentality that my master delays his coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he's not looking for him and at an hour he's not aware of. Then Jesus tells two more parables in chapter 25 which have the same thrust. One is of a of uh the 10 bridesmaids awaiting the bridegroom.

And it says in verse 5, the bridegroom was a long time in coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. And five of them were ready and five of them weren't. And then he tells another one in Matthew 25 about different talents that are given. And he says, "After a long time," in verse 19, notice that, "After a long time," in Matthew 25:1 19, "The master of those servants returned and settle accounts with them." And so, both of these parables, Jesus is alluding to the fact that it will be a long time, even in the book of Matthew, that you need to be ready at any moment.

But there may come a day where people begin to think, "It's been a long time. Maybe he's really not coming back." So don't fall into the category of my lord delays his coming because that puts us in a dangerous position to not be ready for him when he returns. So the bless the blessing and the promise is to the churches and it's to those who are servants that we have to always remember we are servants awaiting his return.

And so verse four, it says to the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace to you. And this is this is like the two pedals on the bike of the gospel. Grace and peace, right? You always see these two things together. You can't have peace without grace, right? And grace always comes with peace. You want to have peace with God, you need God's grace in your life, right? By default, we are enemies of God because we are sinners and we stand before a holy God as guilty and at enmity.

But it is Jesus that puts us at peace and he gives us his grace so that we can have his peace. And notice that this grace and peace which you could just say the gospel is it's coming from us from and I want you to see this in verse four and five. It's coming to us from the trinity from the father spirit and son. Let's look at this. Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come. That's the father.

Him who is and who was. Him who was and who is and who is to come. That's a way of speaking about eternality. By the way, Jesus or um Moses in the Old Testament was God revealed to him in the burning bush as the I am or the everexisting eternal one. The one that is ever present. And this is a way of God explaining himself as one who not only is currently but he was and he's yet to come. And I think there's two two ways to think about that, right?

Any of us like we we exist, we are, but we want we at one time weren't, right? And there's a coming a day in this lifetime where we won't be. God never had a moment where he wasn't, where he won't be, and where he isn't. Right? Am I confusing anybody? Right? So all of us we have like before us we had parents and before our parents they had parents. God didn't have any of that. He's the eternally existing one, right? So he's uh he's outside of all time, but he's also present in time right now in our moment.

I think there's another thing to think about when it comes to God, and that is the God who was is the God who is today and will be. And I think about it like this. You ever wonder like is God ever going to show up in a way that he did back in the day? like back when Moses like when when the plagues happened and the Red Sea was split like that God who was that God is currently here but he there is coming a day where he is going to show up in that same way that he did back in the day.

Amen. In fact, in the book of Revelation, this is a lot there's a lot of illusion to those sort of that exodus happening all over again that just like the people of Israel that were captive to the Pharaoh of Egypt were set free by the blood of the lamb of the Passover and they were exodused across the the the Red Sea onto the shores to go to the promised land. There is coming a day where we will all take our great exodus.

Amen. where we will be set free from the pharaoh of this world and land on the shores of eternity. So he is the god who is who was and who is to come. So that's the father and it also says from the seven spirits before his throne and that is another uh figurative way of speaking about the holy spirit. In fact, this is an illusion to Isaiah 11:2. And Isaiah 11:2, it says, "The spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding.

The spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." Talking about the Holy Spirit that will rest upon Jesus. But notice the spirit of the Lord, it's like the center of this sevenfold manora. In fact, when it says the seven spirits, it's actually in the in the in the original Greek, it's sort of like a heptad or we might call it a um a heptinity, which is just a way of saying this is a a a unity of seven that the spirit of God is is again speaking of the fact that it is the spirit of the Lord and from without the spirit with with the spirit of the Lord comes wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord.

And again the number seven is uh symbolic of the fact that it is perfect and complete. That the Holy Spirit is perfect and complete. And we will see that show up again. In fact, the seven flames that sit on the seven candlesticks which represent the church is symbolic of the fact that the church is to be spiritfilled with the sevenfold spirit of God. And those seven uh spirits will be blazing in chapter 4 before the throne of God because the spirit will be removed when the church is now before the throne of God when the 24 elders will be there.

We'll see the spirit of God will be there before his throne at that time. Now, this is from the Father and from the Spirit and from the Son because notice this in verse five. It says, "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth." Let's just stop there and just pick away at that for a minute. Jesus Christ is the faithful witness. You ever like, let's just get practical for a second.

You ever you ever been at work or somewhere out in the world and you realize you you kind of like misrepresented the gospel and you blew your witness? You ever felt bad about it? Anybody ever have a moment like that where you're like, "Man, I just kind of lost my temper. I wasn't really a faithful witness in that moment." You know, Jesus is the faithful witness that he always only did what the father wanted him to do.

Everything that he did in his life was faithful to the witness of what what a person should be. Right? And as believers, we should be like Jesus. Our aim should be to be faithful witnesses in the world in which we live. But Jesus was the faithful witness. And so we look to him and we understand he's the faithful witness and he's the example that he's the pioneer of our faith that we're to keep our eyes fixed on. So he's the faithful witness and notice the firstborn from the dead or as some of the older versions say the only the the first begotten from the dead.

Now you might be asking like what does that mean? Like, wasn't there other people that were resurrected from the dead? How could he be the first one that was basically born from the dead or resurrected from the dead? Well, we know who in the Bible do we know even in Jesus own that was resurrected by Jesus himself, Lazarus, right? Well, why wasn't he the first one? Because wasn't he like the f? Well, there were many resurrections in the body in in the Bible, but none of those resurrections were resurrections with a new body.

Every one of those resurrections were resurrections with an old body that eventually would die again. But Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead where he actually put on and was given a new glorified body. And the Bible actually promises and 1 Corinthians 15 is full of this that promises that we will all get resurrected bodies one day too. Right? So Jesus is the first born among the dead just basically means he's the first one with a resurrected body.

He was able to walk through walls and show up at any moment and just appear and disappear. That means that, you know, first John says that when we see him, we're going to be like him. That means that we'll be able to do that, too. Like, I am hoping that I'll be able to go visit the planet Jupiter and gravity will not affect me, right? I mean, why is there all these planets and galaxies other than to show the glory of God?

Because I think we're going to have all eternity to do some fun things and we won't even need spaceships. But anyway, he is the firstborn from among the dead. In other words, he's the one that defeated death. And he guarantees that anyone who puts their faith in him will defeat death. And we'll eventually have glorified bodies. Well, one day we will have no more tears, no more sickness, no more pain. The old former things will pass away and all the new will come.

All because of him. Because he's the one who defeated death. And notice, he's the ruler of the kings of the earth. A lot of people think they're in charge of this world, but Jesus ultimately is the one that's in charge of it all. He's the ruler of the kings of the earth and he will rule and reign one day and he will sit on his glorious throne. And now I want you to see the rest of this verse, verse 5, it's such a precious verse.

It says, "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood." You know, out of the whole book of Revelation, you know what the greatest revelation you can get from the book of Revelation? It's the revelation of his love for you and for me. If you haven't gotten the revelation of the fact that Jesus loves you and how did he prove his love for you? It was on the cross. You know, it was on the cross. Like, think about how much he loved you.

It says, it says that it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross. That when he went to the cross, like he was willing to endure some of the worst pain. Like I don't know. I like we all love a lot of people in our lives, but I don't know if any of us have been, you know, laid on a cross with with nails pound through our hands for someone yet. I don't know how many of you would be willing to just take a cat of nine tails with the with a whip to your back and allow all the flesh to tear off your back while your while your arms are are tied to a post.

And all you'd have to do is just say, "Okay, I'm I'm I'm guilty or whatever to get him to stop." But he doesn't. He's like a lamb silent, you know? I mean, his his hands are tied behind his back and they put a pillowcase over his head and they start saying, "If you're really a prophet, then prophesy which way the next punch is coming." And they just way lay him one after the other. I don't know if any of us would do that for somebody else.

But, you know, Jesus did. He loves us that much. He proved his love for us. And he loves us. The Bible says that, you know, in Ephesians that if we could just grasp how high, how wide, how deep is the love of God. It's it's it's immeasurable from every direction you could think of his love. If you could just get a grasp of his love, it would change you. And this is the thing that's changed my life that I've understand that I feel like I'm starting to understand it even more in in my life is his love for us.

And and the greatest revelation that we can get out of the whole thing of revelation is the fact that he loves us. And he's freed us from our sins by his blood. Notice by his blood. Now I think we hear the term blood in our day. I always used to be confused as a kid whenever we hear the song like how many of you remember growing up the song, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Such a great song.

I just remember when I was a kid just being confused by that cuz I'm like well wait a minute like if I get blood on my clothes it's going to stain my clothes and so like you know like it just doesn't make any but you have to understand again the Old Testament the biblical way they would think of things is blood represented life being given and so this is really what it means is the reason that we get cleansed and we get freed from all of the penalty of all of our sin that the reason that we can stand before God completely washed clean and completely freed from all of our sin and the penalty that comes is all because of his blood.

Because he gave his life on the cross for us. Because he loved us that much. Because he wanted us to be with him for all of eternity. And he was willing to go through all that pain for you and for me. And he had you on his mind when he went to that cross. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. And notice in verse six, some more about Jesus. He's made us to be a kingdom and a priest. See, that's your future.

See, your past and your present is loved by God, forgiven by God, but your future is a king and a priest. When it says kingdom and priests, this is this idea of the fact that you are royalty unto God. The Bible, well, again, I' I've said this a few times tonight that we are going to rule and reign with him. that we are not only priests, which is a way of saying we get to show people God. We get to be the a special group of those who would be able to be ministers unto a holy God, but we're also a kingdom.

We're also royalty unto him. Do you realize you're a king's kid and you're royalty to him? We are God's royalty and we are God's special servants. And we will see the symbolic picture of that when we see the 24 elders. Uh that will show us a figurative literal picture of priestly kings on 24 thrones around the main throne that they will have crowns. They will have thrones. They will be a kingdom of priests serving before the Lord. casting their crowns before the Lord representative of you and me who have been redeemed and set free from all of our sin.

But we'll get into that when we get into chapter four and chapter 5. And so at verse six, he says he just goes into this what we would call a doxology. And by the way, when you have a proper um theology, it should always lead you to a amazing doxology. And a doxology is just a way to glorify God. And see, when John thinks about the fact that he's been loved by Jesus and freed and forgiven of all of his sins, and one day his future is he's going to be a king and a priest and in the kingdom forever to serve his God and father.

He just breaks out into a praise and he says, "To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen." >> Amen. >> You wonder if you ever wonder if amen's biblical. There it is right there. There's only like a couple people that usually say amen when I say amen. So, you got to be more like those couple people, right? So, can we all try it? Amen. >> Amen. To him be glory and power forever and ever. >> Amen. Right? Amen means so be it.

Means I agree. It means yes. This is so amazing because he is the one who deserves all glory and power forever and ever. God the father, God the spirit, God the son. And then it says this in verse 7. Look, he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen. You got it right. Let me try that again. Look, he's coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.

Even those who pierce him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen. >> Now, I want you to think about this. The these are actually two verses that he's alluding to here. These are two Old Testament verses. One is from Daniel chapter 7. Um, and in Daniel chapter 7, uh, the verse is spoken of by the prophet Daniel. I don't have it. I don't believe I don't have it right here, but you can go back and look at it.

And it's it's the picture of when uh when the Messiah will come and it says that there will be thrones set in place and one is the son of man will come on the clouds of heaven and he will uh make his way into the heavenly court scene and all the books will be opened and he will have his way. That is the illusion in in verse 7 here when it says, "Look, he's coming on the clouds and every eye will see him." Now, we're going to see when this moment happens, it's going to be in Revelation chapter 19 that he is going to come on a great white horse with the armies of heaven behind him.

It says, and I believe that will be you and me at the end of his second coming, at the end of the seven-year period, every eye is going to see him. At the beginning, not every eye will see him. At the beginning, he is going to come in a flash, in a twinkling of an eye to take us out of this place. But at the end of it, I want you to notice, every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, which is another illusion.

Uh it's the book of Zechariah. You could look it up on your free time, but even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. I want you to notice this is how I know that this is speaking of at the end of the tribulation because it says that when every eye sees him all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. See when we see him we will not be mourning. >> We will be rejoicing.

The minute we see him face to face there will not be any more mourning in that moment. But the people of this day will be going through some of the greatest suffering that they've have ever known at this point. And all the people of the earth will mourn. And this is a key to understanding the book of Revelation that we will constantly see from chapter 4 all the way to chapter 19 during the tribulation period. You will see people of the earth, earth dwellers is what they're called, and people of heaven.

We will see a heavenly scene where people will not be mourning. People will be praising and we will see the earthly scene. Well, people will be below mourning. And the reason that they're mourning is because they are going through judgment. And it is so that God will be able to shake the earth to get their attention to give them chance after chance and year after year before the finality of it. But make no mistake, he is coming with the clouds.

And there is coming a day where every eye will see him. There's coming a day where he is not just going to come back like he he came his first time riding on a donkey in humility, but his second time he is coming on a white horse. Right? Right. And I love to I love to think about it like he's not coming on a on a blue donkey or or a red elephant. It's not going to be a political party that's going to take that's going to fix this world.

That's not going to be it. The kingdom of God, Jesus on a white horse is the only thing that's going to fix this world. And he says in verse eight, and we're going to end here, I am the alpha and the omega. Most of your Bibles, a lot of your red letter Bibles are going to have this in red because this is I believe Jesus actually speaking here. But notice it says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God. And I believe this is Jesus." And I'll show you why.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. And that's the culmination of the Trinity, the Father, Spirit, and Son. Probably all speaking at once here. But I want to show you that this is actually something that Jesus says that if you go all the way back to Revelation 22:13, Jesus actually says this very same thing. He says this, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." And Jesus uses three phrases that parallel titles together.

In fact, Jesus is going to use that phrase in a couple verses from now when he meets John and he puts his hand on him and he says, "I am the first and the last." He's going to say that. But the the idea of the alpha and omega, the first and the last and the beginning and the end are really the same idea with a little different nuances. We'll we'll get into it, but the alpha and omega, these were the Greek uh first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

So, we have in the English alphabet A and Z, right? And that's that's the Lord's way of saying like everything from A to Z I have control over that I am going to make sense of it. Like you might be in your BC D time right now and it might make no sense, but there's coming a day where when you get to your Z, you'll look back from A to Z and you'll realize that I actually made a a beautiful story out of your life and I redeemed you and I showed you and so so he says, "I am the first and the last and and the beginning and the end and the alpha and omega." And here he says, "I am the alpha and omega." And what he's not saying, he's not just saying like, "I was there at the beginning and I'll still be there at the end." He's actually claiming sovereignty over the entire story of human history.

That what what's being said here is God is the the one that is over everything like everything originates with him within God's purposes. Everything ultimately reaches its appointed conclusion in him. speaking of his internality, his eternality. Again, he's basically saying, "I'm the God of the present, the past, and the future. And I know what's going to happen even before it happens because in my world, I've already been there, and nothing's too hard for me because I am the almighty God." Notice when it says the Almighty.

That is the word panor in the Greek, which literally means he who holds sway over all things. So, here's what you need to know as we get into the book of Revelation. We talk about future things. When we talk about future things and what's to come, this is one of the things that we need to hold fast to and treasure in our hearts. And this this is the thing we we should be reading and hearing tonight is that God, no matter what happens in the future, God is holding all things in his sway.

And everything is going to happen ultimately according to his sovereign plan. Amen. In other words, we don't know what the world holds, but we know who holds the world. We don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future. It's in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. And he's got you in his hands, believer in Jesus. And so you don't have to fear. You don't have to worry. He says, "I'm the alpha and omega who is and who was and who is to come, the allmighty." And again, this is an illusion to Isaiah 44:6 where it says, "This is what the Lord says, Israel's king and redeemer, the Lord Almighty.

This is Yahweh God. He says, I am the first and I am the last." Jesus uses that title for himself. The title of Yahweh God for himself. Apart from me, there is no God. And so, here's the practical application as we come to a close tonight is that our lives are not just random happen stance. That's not what our life is about. The stuff between the A and the Z may may not make a lot of sense, but God is going to redeem the stuff between the A and the Z.

So, you think about it like this. History isn't my story. It's not your story. It's not America's story. It's not Rome's story. I mean, I know there's a guy named Rome here. I'm talking about the Roman Empire. Like in Paul's day, it's not like Rome. Rome is running the world. Nope. Nope. Jesus is the ruler of all the kings of the earth ultimately. And he is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. It's his story at the end of the day.

It's history is his story. Amen. And he was there before it began. And he is sovereign while it unfolds. And he will be victorious when it ends. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word tonight. And I pray that we would be able to settle our hearts around this amazing truth of who you are. Lord, as we Lord, as we face this great book and we read this book and we hear its words, Lord, may this become a treasure to our hearts to hold on to it dearly because you are the God who is the almighty one.

Lord, you have all power and all control. And even when things aren't making sense, Lord, your word says that you are going to work it all out for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose. So God, we place all of our concerns and all of our questions in your hands right now tonight and we surrender them to you. May we be those servants that are waiting for you. May we not fall into the category of thinking that you delay your return, but living as in any moment you could come back and all of these things could unfold.

May we have an eternal perspective. And Lord, we just ask that you would get the all the glory for all the good things you do, Lord, in this in and through this study. We just pray this in Jesus name. Amen. We'll pick it up here next week. Let's all stand. You are [music and singing] here moving in our midst. I worship you. [music] You [singing] are here working in this place. I worship you. You are here [music and singing] moving in our midst.

I worship you. [music] I worship you. You are here [singing] working in this place. [music] I worship [singing] you. I [music] worship you. You are way maker, miracle worker, promise [music] keeper, light [singing] in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. [music] You are way maker, miracle worker, promise [music] keeper, light in the darkness. My [singing] God, that is who you are. You are here [music] touching [singing] every heart.

I worship you. [music] I worship you. You are [singing and music] here healing every [music] heart. I worship you. I worship you. [music] You [singing] are here turning [music] lives around. I worship you. I worship [singing and music] you. You are here bending every [music and singing] heart. We worship you. [music] Worship you. You are way [music] maker, worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that [music] is who you are.

[singing] You are way maker, miracle [music and singing] worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. [music] That is who you are. That [music] is who you are. That is who you are. >> [music] >> Even when I don't see it, you're working. Even when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. Never stop. [music and singing] You never stop working. Even when I see you're working.

Even [music] when I feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. Even when I don't [singing] see it, you're working. Even [music] when I don't feel it, you're working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never [music] stop working. You see, you're working. You feel [music] working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never way [music] maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

[music] My God, that is who you are. You are way maker, miracle worker, [music] promise keeper, light in the darkness. My God, that is who you are. That is who you are. That is who you are. [music] That is who you are. That is who you are. [music] That is who you are. That is who you are. [music] That is who you are. [singing] That is who you are. Amen. All right, have a great week. Well, spring, don't forget to pick your kids up from Moana.

And if anybody needs prayer, please feel free to come forward. God bless.