[0:00] palm, palm, palm must be a reason take out your Bibles with me please and turn to the book of Revelation one more time are you excited?
[0:18] here we are we made it we got it all figured out okay good so yeah so we'll just read the whole book and then we'll talk about it right?
[0:50] that's this is our last time Lord willing last week we took a look at the final four all right the final four chapters the final battle the final return of Christ the final city et cetera et cetera so we reviewed that now we're taking a bigger step back and we're going to look at the whole forest the whole book not all the details there are a lot of details we've been there so now we want to look at what should this book do to us?
[1:33] you know we don't want to have have spent a year looking at this marvelous book and walk away and think okay so I got some ideas on what's going to happen in the future I got a chart and by the way I got a chart in there that's free it's all good you can color it change it whatever you want to do that's not our goal our goal is to come away from this and say okay what has God done to me in this showing me all this how does this change my perspective how does it impact my heart now that I know this he's revealed these things okay so Lord willing hopefully we can come to some of that so let me just read the opening here it's been a little while since we've read chapter 1 so let me just read chapter 1 through 1 through 8
[2:34] I think that'll be sufficient that'll give us more time so if you're able please stand as we read from Revelation chapter 1 verses 1 through 8 1 through 8 the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near John to the seven churches that are in Asia grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from
[3:50] Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings on earth to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priests to his God and father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever amen behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him even so amen i am the alpha and the omega says the lord god who is and who was and who is to come the almighty so reads his word let us pray father grant us your perspective today as we take a step back and look at the whole revelation that you've given us help us to take it into a package today where we can walk away to know what to take away from this there's so much lord and we want to value all that you've shown but today show us lord how all of this changes us how you intend for it to change us we pray for these things in your glory in christ's name amen please be seated so have you ever gone on your little computer and pulled up the google satellite just for curiosity and zeroed in on your address you ever done that you ever done the satellite view so I wonder what it looks like from up there you know because I drive in and you know and it looks like this from my perspective what does it look like from up above and it's kind of interesting and it's kind of like oh oh that's what my neighbor has in their backyard no no you just see a different perspective it's a bigger perspective you see how far away the lake is you see how far away the church is it's a whole two blocks then you see you know where the roads are and where the roads curve oh I didn't know the road curve that much and uh you just get a whole different perspective it changes a little bit of okay when I drive home now
[6:27] I know oh yeah I remember how it looks from above so no so um today that's kind of what we're doing we're taking a step back we're looking at a bigger view and asking what's the big picture here what are the major perspectives to take away from our time in this book revelation gives us transformed perspectives okay transformed perspectives that we do not have with natural eyes it tells us what things really are behind the scenes what we call the world revelation calls the harlot yeah and you know so and et cetera right so it shows us a different perspective not everything is as it seems there's something underneath the layers that we see that God is showing to us and that changes our perspective and if these perspectives grip our hearts deeply they will transform our responses to our trials to people around us to our enemies to our
[7:44] Lord Jesus it makes a difference how we view things okay so let me give a brief introduction question if that's possible for me to do how do we read this unusual book it's called the revelation it's revealing what soon take place it's a book that is to be seen pictures pictures pictures images right itNINGNING!
[8:10] NINGNINGNINGNINGNING!NINGNINGNINGNINGNING And so we see these pictures all the way through.
[8:41] We see lampstands in chapter 1. Why are there lampstands? Well, Jesus tells us what the lampstands are. The lampstands are churches. Oh, that's how he views a church. The church is a lampstand.
[8:54] It's a light in its community. Okay, we're not just a church, an organization. We're a lampstand. That gives away what our purpose is.
[9:04] Why do we still exist? Because he tells the churches, right? Hey, if you do not repent of this, I'm going to remove your lampstand. You're the whole reason you exist.
[9:16] Okay? We do lots of things, but why we exist is a light. We are a light of Christ. Okay, so lampstands, stars have different meanings.
[9:29] Beasts, right? Harlot, bride, all these images. And then there's numbers. We see numbers all over the place. Numbers count in Revelation. There's seven of this, seven of that, seven of that.
[9:41] Seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven. There's seven everywhere. Why? Because seven is the number. It's the number God decided was what would distinguish every week.
[9:53] Seven days, six days and one day. That's the order of creation. That's a complete week. That's a complete week. That represents our whole time period, which God has divided for us.
[10:05] Six days you work, one day you rest. And you start over again. It's a rhythm of life. So seven, seven, seven churches. So he's writing the seven churches. That's not all the churches. That's not, they're just representative.
[10:16] They're a, they're a complete representation of all the churches in the first century and all the churches today. We can find ourselves in each one of those churches or in particular some of the churches more than others.
[10:31] Okay. So, so numbers, seven, 12, and then divisions of 12. 144 is 12 times 12. Right. So everything's kind of like numbers. What's the, what's all, so are we looking for seven of this?
[10:42] No, it just, it's representative. Numbers are representative. It's also a letter. John is to write these, all of this down as a letter to seven churches.
[10:55] By the way, he had to write it seven times. You know that? Imagine that. You probably knew it pretty well by the seventh time. Okay, let it see. Okay, here we go. Two, seven.
[11:06] So it's letters, right? So it's a vision, but now he's writing in the letters to communicate it to seven churches. And the, and the letters are exhortations. They're not just giving you information.
[11:16] They're calling us to do something. They're calling us to conquer. To the one who conquers, I will give. All right. And they conquered by the blood of the lamb and by their testimony.
[11:33] Okay. Conquer. That's the theme of the whole book, I believe. To those who conquer. So why do they have to conquer? Because the church is under attack. So he's writing to churches who are under attack.
[11:45] Some of those attacks are obvious. Some of those attacks are not obvious. They're very subtle. All right. So we're under attack, but do we feel like, oh, set up the barrier? No. But we just heard what was signed into law.
[11:59] That's a big attack. Do we feel it? The beast. The beast. Okay.
[12:11] And then there's an expectation. There's an urgency to this, to this book. I've always thought, and I, I've always thought just, okay, it's distance. It's way distance. It's way, it's not relevant to today.
[12:22] Oh, the first letters, those are good. But then everything else is future. But he keeps saying this, soon, soon, soon, soon, soon, soon, soon, soon, soon. Near, near, near, near, near. And every generation of Christians has understood that.
[12:40] The apostles of the first century believed he was coming soon. And that motivated them. And reading the signs of this book, it is.
[12:51] The signs are in every generation. Okay. So, enough of me. One more thing I want to point out. I just want to make a couple of comments about the chart.
[13:02] I'm so proud of the chart. It works so hard. Got colors and everything. Isn't that cool? So, you put this up on your wall. Hide it away in your Bible. Put it in a folder and never look at it again.
[13:14] I don't care. But all I wanted to point out from this. This is all the work we've done over the year. Okay. So, we've built this chart gradually as we've gone through the chapters.
[13:26] And so, here's what we got. All I want to do is point out five things. From a satellite perspective, I just want us to see five things. One, there are seven scenes. Scene one, chapters one through five.
[13:38] Scene two, chapter six. So, scene two is the seals. Scene three is the trumpet. Scene four is the visions. Chapters 12 to 14. Scene five are the seven bowls.
[13:49] Scene six comes to chapters 17 and 18. Just those seven words of justice against Babylon, the harlot. And then, finally, scene seven, which we reviewed last week.
[14:01] Chapters 19 through 22 are the final finals. Right? They're the end. The seven ultimate visions. The seven visions of ultimate reality. The final everything. Okay?
[14:11] So, that's one thing I want you to see. Secondly, I want you to notice there's green. See the green words? Green means go, right? Green means growth, right? Right?
[14:22] I got the right color for this, right? God makes things grow and he paints them what color? Green. Someone told me that green means envy. I said, no, no, no, no. That's not what God created.
[14:33] No. Green means growth. Green means go. Our straw lights go red to green, right? That means go. Okay. Sorry. I'm spending too much time explaining green. So, green means growth.
[14:45] It means our responsibility. So, each scene has a nuance of that. The first scene is repent. Each church or five of the seven churches are told to repent.
[14:57] Each of the churches are called to conquer something. Okay? And so on. So, you can see there is a picture of that action, that growth for us in the green letters in each scene.
[15:09] Okay? Thirdly, I want you to see at the bottom of each scene is worship. I want you to know that in every scene there is a worship scene. Except for scene four.
[15:23] No. Sorry. Except for scene six. There's a worship scene. And if you add them all up, there's seven worship scenes. Seven. I don't know why. Seven. Just because, you know, it came out to seven.
[15:34] So, there's worship. I only point that out because one of the things I think we're tempted to miss in this book is how important worship is. Because we get so caught up in all the details and all that.
[15:46] But it's like worship just keeps breaking out. And the worship scenes, in a lot of ways, interpret the book for us. They tell us what's important.
[15:58] You know, the first worship scene, chapter four and five. Oh, who's going to open the seals? And it's the Lamb. No, it's a lion. No, it's a lamb. Right.
[16:09] And so, we're told the significance. So, those are just important to keep in mind. Four. See the orange colors? Isn't that pretty orange? Those are the pictures of the church.
[16:23] The church has many pictures. Begins as lampstands. We're lights. But we're also martyrs. We're also the 144,000 who are safe and sealed.
[16:35] We're also the multitude from every race and nation. We're also the witnesses. Right? We're also the offspring of the woman, et cetera, et cetera.
[16:46] We're also the bride and the seed. So, just that's all. See, what's left? Oh, five. Final judgment. Just want you to note from scene two through five, each of those scenes end in the final judgment.
[17:01] So, we're seeing a repetition. Okay? Scene two ends with actually two views of the end. The sixth seal, where we see the cosmos, everything is gone, and then a symbolic finale in seal seven.
[17:17] Each of those scenes end with final judgment of some kind of catastrophic end. Okay? And then scene six and seven really kind of zero in on the final.
[17:29] Right? So, scene six is zeroing in on Babylon itself, how she is judged. Right? And then, of course, scene seven is the ultimate, the final judgment, the final battle, and then our final victory.
[17:45] So, that's all I want you to see from the chart. Have fun with that or not. So, let's get to the review. Taking a grand overlook today, reviewing the apocalypse.
[17:57] What has this book done to us? What should it do to us? Okay? And so, I want to lead this in this way.
[18:09] How can it change our perspectives? And I just want to take three areas. Okay? Try to manage this. It is a book that changes how we view a lot of things.
[18:21] It changes how we should view ourselves and our situation. It changes how we should view our enemy. So, what this book calls the beast.
[18:34] And the harlot. Changes how we should view the world. And it changes or it magnifies maybe how we should see our Jesus.
[18:47] Because I was overwhelmed as I did the, as kind of went through the whole book and looked at all the descriptions of Jesus. You know how many there are? Nope, not seven.
[19:01] Sorry. 144. No. Like 31 or more. Different descriptions of Jesus. And it's like, how big is he?
[19:12] How awesome is he? Is he just Jesus? No, he's the almighty, the beginning and the end. He's all of us. Okay, so that's what I want to do.
[19:24] So, first of all, how does it show us how to see our situation in true perspective? So, let me give you the quick snapshots that you have there.
[19:37] I just kind of wrote out some brief things there so we can kind of see it in a nutshell. How is the church described? What are the snapshots? What are the pictures of the church? Okay, so chapters one through three, we're the lampstands.
[19:48] We're the imperfect church on earth. Right? And then chapter six, we're the martyrs. We die daily. Not just physically martyrs, but we are, as Paul said, we die daily for Christ.
[19:59] We pay a price for our choices to stand with Christ. All right? Chapter seven, we're the 144,000 who are safe and secure. We're sealed, right? We're safe from God's, all the judgments that happen.
[20:12] We're safe. We're sealed. But we're also vulnerable. We're also vulnerable. Okay, so there's two pictures. We're living between two worlds. We're part of the next world and we're part of this world.
[20:23] So, we're living between that. And then chapter 11, we're the two witnesses who are absolutely invincible until our mission is done. Right? We're just invincible.
[20:37] I love that picture. And then chapters 12 to 14, we're the offspring of the woman who are at war with the dragon. And actually, we're the prey of the dragon. We're being hunted by the dragon. Right?
[20:48] So, chapter 12 goes to it. He goes after the woman. Okay, he doesn't get the woman. Now, he goes after her offspring. Oh, he doesn't get them. Now, he goes after the other offspring, which are all believers.
[21:00] Right? And how does he do it? Well, he uses these servants that he has. A beast from the sea and a beast from the land. And we have the descriptions of who those are. So, we're the witnesses.
[21:11] And we're the offspring. Chapter 20, we're kings. We're kings reigning with Christ in heaven as priests. So, we're king priests. Right?
[21:21] Our names are in a book. And then the whole story ends. Chapter 21, 22. We began as the imperfect church on earth. And in glory, we'll be the perfect church. Here, we have lots of flaws and errors and sins to repent of and issues to deal with.
[21:38] In heaven, we're safe, secure. We're beautiful. So, we're living between those two worlds. Okay. So, set up. Now, I want to hear from you. Okay.
[21:48] So, just looking at that first area. Was that too much? There's a lot here. Just trying to not narrow it down. So, how do we see our situation through perspective?
[22:01] So, when you hear all of this, all that we are, what does all this tell you? What's the perspective?
[22:14] What perspective do we gain in all this? In all that we are? There's confidence in definitions as to who we are.
[22:26] Okay. Yeah. God sees us. We're not just a gathering of people. We're the pride. We're the witnesses. We're the lampstands.
[22:37] We're the martyrs. Yeah. What else? Witnessing. Witnessing. Yeah. And what does that look like?
[22:50] It could be verbal. It could be physical. So, according to the chapters where he writes to the churches as the lampstands, what are his concerns with those churches? Does he tell them you need to go out and preach?
[23:05] No. How does he talk about their witness? What's important? How does he define that? See, we read in, right? According to what churches do today.
[23:16] But I don't care what churches do today. What does Jesus say? So, we really learn as we look at those seven churches, what is he concerned about?
[23:27] Right? Seven churches. Two of them. Only two have no reprimand. So, five of seven in the first century under the apostle John.
[23:40] These are under his shepherd. These are his flock. Five of seven are hurting. Are needing to repent. Are needing to correct something.
[23:51] At least two of them are in danger of losing their existence. Okay? No perfect church in the first century. So, what are the things that he addresses to those five churches?
[24:05] What does he care about? What is he looking for? They're different than what the church today talks about looking for. Okay? Their love for him.
[24:17] Right? Are they holding fast his name? Or do they deny his name? So, that's what the witness is. Do they hold fast his name? And hold fast his word? Or do they deny his name? How does that look?
[24:28] I don't know. It depends where you live. Okay? But that's witness. Do I hold fast his name? In other words, am I taking the stand if I have to take the stand?
[24:42] Am I willing to pay the price? Because some of those churches paid a price. Right? They lose their marketplace. They lose. Some of them, Antipas lost his life because he stood for not worshiping Caesar.
[24:56] And he wouldn't go to the festival. So, what does that look like in our world? See? What are the compromises? What are the corners to cut? Right? In order to make business go versus stand for Christ.
[25:09] Might be that. So, we've got to kind of not read into what does witnessing look like. We need to take it, draw it out of those chapters. But what does he talk about?
[25:20] What things concern you? And then I have to go to the Holy Spirit and say, okay, how does that look for me today? How does that look for me in my business? How does that look for me in my work? How does that look for me in my neighborhood?
[25:31] Right? In my school, when Polis signs this thing, what do I do with that? How do I respond to that? By the way, how does that identify him? First thing I thought of when I saw the picture of Polis smiling, signing the kill all this slaughter of the innocents?
[25:47] There's Herod. Herod's back. Who's Herod? He's the false prophet. He's the one. He's not the major king, but he works under other kings. And he's spreading.
[25:58] He's twisting our morals. And he's twisting our values. And he's telling us, this is important, not what God says. It's exceedingly evil. You are right on the button. So anyway, so what are we looking at here?
[26:13] What else about the church? I don't know if I'm on the right target here, Pastor, but I am looking at this as we are supposed to be chosen people that are living in a world that exists with maybe the evil one that the Lord has allowed to be in charge.
[26:36] We have to endure the many challenges. We have to accept whether we will have enough of the courage to accept the fight to stand strong in our faith or else to not stand strong in our faith.
[26:57] Right. And that's going to look different for every church because for those seven churches, that was different. Some of them had a harder, right, and some of them was more of a subtle issue.
[27:12] Some were letting false teaching in, and others were doing well. Ephesus was doing really well at their teaching the truth, but they lost their love. Right. And another church had no truth, but they had a lot of love.
[27:26] And they're just as dangerous. So it's not one or the other. It's both. So we can get out of bed. So it depends on our situation. How does our witness look?
[27:39] Right. If we're under severe attack, we might have to take a stronger stand. If we're not under an outright attack, then we're, okay, I have to respond in a different way, but I still have to stand.
[27:51] Right. And individually, we have to talk to the Holy Spirit. Okay, what is, okay, Lord, what does that mean for me? Do I need to take a stronger stand at my job or in my community?
[28:04] Or do I have a responsibility of what Polis just did? Yeah, yeah, we can respond this way. That's a good response. That's a clear response, right, to support life.
[28:15] But beyond that, well, God calls different people differently. So I don't get a black and white answer.
[28:25] I have to go, you know, walking by the Spirit is not, you know, law. Walking by the Spirit is, okay, Lord, how do I do this one? You made me a certain way.
[28:35] How do you want me to respond? It might be totally different than how Diane responds. Right? So what do you got, Diane? So when you're on that thread, it's a submission of our wills.
[28:50] And the letters to the seven churches, because they come first, is rather, to me, significant because they all represent certain portions of our personality, our father and the church.
[29:09] And many times how we respond to certain things. And I think it's very wonderful, too, because they're not just Jews.
[29:22] They're Gentiles. So for the first time, we have a combined audience that one would not understand, possibly the Gentiles would not understand all that is being said.
[29:36] But this book is so beautiful and marvelous and perfect in threes and sevens and twelves. Yeah. It gives the whole history of God from beginning to end.
[29:50] But in speaking to the churches that are the conduit, the new vessel, the new bride city on this earth, within each one, there's a pinpoint of, yes, this is what I have a problem with you.
[30:07] Mm-hmm. But he, the victor, is going to get this, this, this. Right.
[30:18] There's always a promise to each one who overcomes that, right? And it's a beautiful image of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I'm like, what you should, your goal is.
[30:29] Yeah. In chapter 22, I found, and I may be off on this, but it seems to me that the letters to the churches in chapter 22 are a closure.
[30:43] They're a round circle. Mm-hmm. Because what's offered in 22 is a promise that's offered in all the letters.
[30:53] Yeah, if you notice on the chart page, there's the last seven thing, is that pattern of the whole church. Right. See how the whole book is designed as a seven, right?
[31:03] The seven scenes come out, and the book unfolds one, it's a chiasm, which you can appreciate. It comes out one way, and then in the middle of the book is that war, right?
[31:15] We go back to the first century, Christ is born, there's the war of the ages begins. The dragon attacks Christ, then he attacks Christ's mother, who is the church, and then he attacks the offspring, etc., etc.
[31:29] That's the ages, right? So then the book unfolds, kind of reflecting what it's already been through. So it begins with that prologue, which we read this morning, right?
[31:43] And it ends with an epilogue, which reflects the same thing. I'm coming. Soon, soon, soon. Right? And then everything in between is reflecting what was earlier. It's just incredibly brilliant work.
[31:56] It is. Yeah. But it's setting out also the two choices we have. Yes. Is it not? It's making perfectly clear. You have two choices.
[32:07] Yeah. It's not about the when and the where. It's really about, okay, how do I respond? Because this is all going on. It's already going on. It's been going on since the first century.
[32:18] Right. Drag is at work. The beast has been at work. It's not reserved for the end. Before. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a brilliant presentation of our two choices and what we have at our disposal to make the choice, the right choice.
[32:34] Yeah. And he's given us these pictures of, okay, seeing what we're really dealing with. Yes. Here's what our enemy really looks like. Yes. I know they call themselves this and they dress up all, you know, the world is all beautiful, dressed up in these pearls and all these things.
[32:47] But here's what she really is. Exactly. She's a seducer. Right. And here's what your government, your worldly government, not every government, but your worldly governments, this is what they're really, they're really a beast.
[33:00] One of the things that is kind of more clear to me through the study of Revelation is the normalcy, both corporately, historically, and individually, of spiritual battle.
[33:21] Mm-hmm.
[33:51] And his spiritual warfare is part of our lives, part of our history, and it's an ongoing thing that we have to stand, and sometimes aggressively or in a spiritual sense.
[34:07] And that's one thing that's brought home to me by this book. Yeah. Very clear. Yeah. The attack is through deception, primarily.
[34:18] Sometimes it's physical, but primarily it's through deception. Right. The flood out of the dragon's mouth, right, going after the church, which the earth swallows up because they buy the lie of the dragon.
[34:30] The church is protected from that because we know the truth. We don't buy everything the dragon says, right, through his servants or whatever. Yeah.
[34:40] Yeah. Okay. Let me move on. We can keep coming back. But it not only shows us our situation, true perspective, how we live between two worlds, but secondly, it shows us how to see our enemies in their true colors, which we've kind of been talking about already.
[34:58] Our enemies who serve the dragon. And it's very clear from chapter 12, the dragon is the main enemy, but then he uses servants. He uses governments, world rulers, and then under that, he uses what he calls now false prophets, those who are the spin doctors, those who make the government look good.
[35:22] You know, they work all together, and they also work through the world. So you've got the three enemies, you've got the beast, symbol of worldly power of government, who promise salvation.
[35:32] They promise hope for you. They promise to fix your problems, right, but they have ulterior motives. Yeah, do you trust the government to save you? Do you trust the government programs to fix your problems?
[35:45] Many do, right? So, but they make those, so, and then you have the false prophet who works for the beast, right? These are leaders who promote religious deception, end up changing values and morals, right?
[36:03] That's what made me think of Polis. That's exactly what he's doing. He's functioning in the false prophet role, or a minion of the false prophet, whatever you want to call it, right?
[36:15] He's promoting a change of values. He's promoting a change of morals. Now this is okay. Before it was here.
[36:27] Now it's right up to birth and beyond. That's Herod. I don't care about life. Let's make it convenient for us.
[36:39] Right? So that's the message of the world. That's the message is whatever you want to hear. And we see a lot of churches falling into it. Let's preach what people want to hear. Let's preach what makes people come.
[36:51] Let's get the crowds, because that, and you don't get the crowds if you don't say what they want to hear. And you got to keep saying that, because, you know, we want something palatable.
[37:01] Especially nowadays. Now we're used to not going to church. See, how do you get people back? Well, if your goal is to get people back, that's probably the wrong goal.
[37:12] Well, is it, or is your goal to go love people? And if God brings them back here, great. If he brings them somewhere else, that's great. Right? We're still lampstands either way.
[37:24] So you got the false prophet, and then you have the prostitute. She's the seductress, right? She's the idolatrous allure of material affluence, social acceptance.
[37:37] In other words, the love, what John calls in his letters, the love of the world. Right? And now we have new opportunities. This world and all its cosmetics dressed up all pretty now has new opportunities in our world of the Internet, cyberspace, Bitcoin, you know, whatever.
[37:52] There's more and more opportunities to, you know, hope that the world will save me. So anyway, so there you go.
[38:04] So how do we respond to this, this view of our enemies? You know, they're not as they appear. They look friendly.
[38:15] They look, they say the right words. We elect them into Congress, whatever. We put them up there. We hope they're going to really keep their promise, even though we know they won't. But we try to, you know, lesser two evils or something.
[38:29] I don't know what we're doing. But we don't have a king. At least we get some choice in it, right? But, so how do we respond to all this?
[38:43] How do we respond to this perspective? Knowing who our enemy is really helps to identify what our strategy is going to be. Absolutely.
[38:54] Yeah, did you know our enemy works through the government? Some of you have known that all along. I didn't always know that.
[39:07] That's the strategy. Whether it was Herod with Jesus and the Pharisees in Jesus' life. There's the one beast and the second beast.
[39:18] To first century, it's the government of Rome. They come across the sea, right? To infect Asia. And there it's, and Rome, Caesar does some wonderful things in Asia.
[39:31] He rebuilds some cities for them. There's a cost on the other side. Didn't tell you all of his motives because now you worship me. And then he has the imperial cult, right?
[39:42] That's enforcing you worship Caesar. And that also means, you know, you pay a little bit and you also participate in the immoral celebration that we have. Et cetera, et cetera.
[39:55] Right? So, during the Reformation, they called the Pope the Antichrist. Say, oh, no, no, he came later. No, no, he was right there. I bet you Luther and Calvin were right on the money.
[40:10] That Pope was evil. And the one, you know. They didn't care what scripture said. They didn't care what scripture said. Isn't that part of the false prophet, though, too?
[40:21] Yeah. Is what the false prophet within the church. Well, whether you want to call them, they're beastly. Right. Right? They just called it, you know, the Antichrist persona. But doesn't it make it more important for us to know whose we are?
[40:36] Who's which one? And who we stand for and what we stand for. The word. Knowing the word. Because isn't that trickier when you have someone who's standing before you in church and is manipulating?
[40:55] Or now TV, I guess? Yes. Well, and like you just said, people are used to not going to church. And so they're being indoctrinated. We're being told that the marginalized people are those.
[41:07] They don't have a voice. And they're the transgender population. Or they're the homosexual population. And we need to give them a voice and give them rights. And we need to. So everything is so spun and so twisted.
[41:20] Right, right, right. And people that aren't hearing anything else, that's all that they see is we have to embrace them and embolden them and help others. And for me, that's.
[41:32] And it's happening on the elementary, like tiny little kindergarten level. So that when these little congressional brains, that's all they're hearing. So how does that happen? And it doesn't just happen, it happens by, right, government down.
[41:46] But then it's also. It's happening. Or it's opening doors for them. We're letting it happen. Because we don't recognize our enemy. Right. And so I think that's, it kind of goes exactly with that.
[41:56] So we have to be able to. Oh, it's the day we're living in. We've got to just, you know, do it. We have to live with it. We have to live with it. Well, and there are people's communities that are responding to that, pulling their kids out.
[42:09] But is that the answer? Because some of the other people don't have to be able to. Well, it's one answer. Right. So they're not just living with it necessarily. Because that's what I do. I call my kids. Right. So that's, we have to keep asking it. So what do we do?
[42:21] What's our responsibility? Yeah. Right. Right. Do we fight this? Is this something we fight? Is it? Right. We have a lot of issues, though. Which ones do we?
[42:32] Right. So where's our lampstand? That's why we have to go, okay. Oh, I like that guy's idea. Well, it might be a good idea for him and for their church, but is it an idea for our church? So God may want us to deal with some of this thing in a very unique way.
[42:47] The only way we're going to know that is go to him. Right. Okay. Show us. Who are we? What's our call? We have an opportunity with this school right here. So that's awesome.
[42:59] Right. So, okay. That, I bet, is part of what we do since he opened that door. Right. So we just keep asking, okay, Lord, are we on the right track? Is this, okay, do we change this?
[43:12] And sometimes we just have to wait for him. He doesn't give us a quick answer or something. Usually he doesn't give us a quick answer. Sometimes he knocks us up by the head by saying, oh, by the way, I want you over here again. We go, oh, it's open.
[43:24] Oh, yeah. Okay. Yes, Lord. Yeah. I think you just hit a very key point with your words. God may want us to. I think in anything that we do, we have to be extremely careful that we're not working by our own feelings or whatever.
[43:44] I may not like something, but if I stand up and attack it, that may not be what God wants me to do. God may just want me to try to educate people on the truth as far as I understand it.
[43:58] I don't know. But you're right. We have to go to him and keep him as number one. What is his plan with all this stuff going on in the world right now? What is his plan?
[44:09] We don't know that. But we have to be careful to tread lightly. So remember Nehemiah. Right? How does Nehemiah begin?
[44:20] He hears of the disaster. He hears of destruction. He hears. It just breaks his heart. And he pours out his heart to the Lord. That's where he started. Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.
[44:31] And by the end of his prayer, he's like, okay, give me. Now I know what I got to do. I got to go to the king. So give me success. Right? I might die, but you know. He takes it one step at a time.
[44:41] Right? So that's what we do. So here we've got some disaster. Okay. Lord, if that breaks our heart, that'll take us to the Lord. And as we pray and we wait upon him, he'll show us through.
[44:54] Maybe not me, but he might show Debbie. He might show somebody. You know, he might together we're a body. Right? So he works through all of us. What does that look like? Yeah, Dan. You look at this and I think we recognize that these tribulations, we're going to suffer these tribulations on earth.
[45:13] And we recognize that. But, you know, about tribulation, you look back at one of my favorite verses is Romans. We're there as to exult in our tribulation. Crazy guy, isn't he?
[45:23] Because they know that perseverance and character and hope. Perspective. Right? So it's that perspective of, yeah, we have this, but you have to understand that.
[45:34] Where's it going? Where's it going? And, you know, Jesus set the bar for us. The world keeps moving the bar. Yes. But we know where Jesus set the bar. And it's so easy and natural for us to, you know, again, Nehemiah.
[45:47] Okay, I love Nehemiah because there's some great pictures there. So they build the wall halfway and they stop. Because from a human standpoint, all they can see is, oh, there's still all this rubble.
[46:00] There's still all this rubble. What do we get? There's still all this rubble. And Nehemiah says, dude, you're halfway done. Take your eyes off the rubble and remember who called you to do this.
[46:14] And then, boom, they get all charged and redo because he changes their focus. Yes, there's rubble. Yes, there's opposition. Because Nehemiah tells about that too. Opposers come.
[46:24] Naggers come. Right? And so it's like, okay, refocus. Remember who our orders are from. Sanballat isn't our guy. Okay? So, right.
[46:36] And that's what I think Revelation causes us to do. Because our eyes can so focus on, oh, look at all this trouble. All this, oh, what do we get? Oh, I'm done.
[46:48] I can't fix the world. Oh, but I'm not supposed to fix the world. I'm just part of this flock. And this is where he called me.
[47:00] And so, what do you want me to do here? Well, I've got some people across the street I want you to meet. Gotcha. Okay? Whatever. I've got some neighbors in here. It's not big.
[47:13] I don't think we're supposed to. No, sorry. I want to get on one of my pet peeves. All right. Okay, last thing. And we can still go back to all this. But I want you to see this.
[47:24] Because this one blew me away. It shows us, thirdly, not only, you know, how to see our situation, how to see our enemies, but how to see our Savior. How to see our champion in his true color.
[47:36] And it didn't hit me until I kind of went back and wrote all this down. I was like, okay, start at chapter one. Who is Jesus? What are his names? How do we see Jesus? Is he timid?
[47:49] Is he an absent ruler? Has he lost control? I mean, the world's gone nuts. He must have. Does he not care? Who is he?
[48:00] All right. So let me just read to you who he is. Do you know who this guy is? According to chapters one through three, he's Jesus Christ. The first and the last. The living one.
[48:10] The faithful witness. The first from the dead. The ruler of kings. The alpha and the omega. He was and is and is to come. He's the almighty. He's the son of God.
[48:22] The holy one. The true one. The amen. The beginning of creation. Have you heard of this, Jesus? He's the lion of Judah. The lamb who was slain. Our redeemer.
[48:32] Our savior. Our shepherd. He's the child of the woman. Who is also the ruler of nations. Who ascended before God. Do you know him? He's the faithful and true.
[48:43] The word of God. The king of kings. And the lord of lords. And he's the husband of the bride. The beginning and end. The bright morning star.
[48:55] He's Jesus Christ. He's not just Jesus. I mean, how does that impact you?
[49:07] I got one name. Right? Right? And one kind of title thing. Description. Is the beast any match for Jesus?
[49:25] Does the dragon even have a chance? No. It's just a dragon. Just a serpent.
[49:35] He's just a, he's created. And his time's ticking. Jesus is alpha. And omega.
[49:49] He's there from the beginning to the end. He's planned it all. He's executing it all. His timing is perfect. So when I'm in my trials.
[50:02] How do I think of him? Revelations calls me, you know, when I'm with different people that aren't believers.
[50:12] I like to just throw out. I mentioned this before. You know, when we talk about all the junk going on in the world. I like to just say, my king is on his throne. I'm so glad my king is on his throne.
[50:26] And they can respond to that however they want. I think, what are we talking about? King is your... I'm not worried. There's somebody who's sovereign overall.
[50:37] He knows exactly what he's doing. How's it impact you? What other thoughts do you have here? Yeah.
[51:00] Yeah. It actually gives me a piece. Because even though we have to exist in this world of all the trials, of all the pain, and the good and bad, and so on and so forth.
[51:13] So, he's in charge. He's our king. He already has it covered. I don't have to worry. The battle and the war is won.
[51:26] All I have to do is have my faith. Not saying that it is going to be easy. Oh, no. And it's not denying the horrible things going on.
[51:39] But we hear of this, all these innocents are going to be slain. And all these innocents are going to be slain. Just wipe out. These little images of God.
[51:52] And I guess, okay, wait a minute. He's on his throne. This didn't surprise him. It's not any different from the first century in Caesar. They wiped out.
[52:06] Abortion was incredible back then. Not as humane as today. So, it's nothing new. The church has been dealing with these horrible things all through.
[52:21] So, how do we respond? Yeah, and it does. It's like, because when I just kind of put all that down and I read it all, I'm like, whew! Whew!
[52:32] He's big. Can you even have a lion? Do you never have a lion? No. He's a lion and a lamb. And that reminds me, okay?
[52:44] So, when he is on earth, he's a lion. So, did he just kind of wipe out his enemies? Did he just kind of prowl through? No. No.
[52:54] He's the lion, but how did he serve us on earth? How did he win? As a lamb. He fought the battle as a lamb.
[53:07] And that shows us how we fight the battle, too. We're not lions. We will reign with him, but we don't function as it.
[53:18] We function as lambs. Like Paul says, I die daily. Led to the slaughter. I paid this price. I paid this price. I paid this price. This cost me a year. I lost my reputation.
[53:30] Lost my name. But man, what I've gained for what I've lost, I know him.
[53:41] And so, that's the perspective we have to fight through. Because we can get so, you know, here's my problems now. And oh, man, it's getting worse.
[53:53] Right? My job has turned to this. You know, that's life. We can get so absorbed in issues we've got to deal with, which we do.
[54:05] How do I get through that? Okay. Take my eyes off the rubble. Remember who's called me. Who's in charge. Who's... Any other thoughts?
[54:22] Maybe we should try remembering. Just thinking. On the Lord Jesus Christ.
[54:33] I think Dan said it. I don't want to put words into his mouth or add to what he said. Oh, he doesn't mind. Go ahead. He's used to it.
[54:44] No. I apologize. But it's... We should remember the scriptures description. Yes. And carry that with us.
[54:56] And it's default. Yeah. It's sort of an active faith. A proactive faith. Oh, yes. Yes, we have to be active. Not just walk through and say, oh, yeah, Jesus.
[55:07] So blessed is the one who keeps the words of this book. Guards the words because they're important.
[55:18] These words are faithful. You can count on them. And they're true. So, okay. This is what I... These words are really, really important.
[55:31] And Revelation is unique from the other books of the New Testament. Because it's a picture book.
[55:44] And it's a pop-up. No. That's what we should do. We should make Revelation into a pop-up. Oh, here comes Apollyon. Okay. Yeah. Bunyan already did that, didn't he?
[55:56] So, yeah. What's the word say? Do I really trust? Is my view of Jesus the same as revealed and portrayed here?
[56:09] Do I think of him in all that splendor? Of course, I don't do that every moment or anything. But some of those titles and names mean more in some minutes in some times than others.
[56:25] That he's my shepherd wiping my tears. Or he is the almighty whom I fear also. Right? So, yeah.
[56:40] Hadn't it been fun? So, next week, Lord willing, we go, we're going to celebrate Easter, right? So, we're going to go to the book of Easter.
[56:54] Ecclesiastes. You're like, what? You'll see. It's a good message. Not all is as it seems.
[57:06] There's a very, very important reason this book has been in the canon and never challenged. We read it to you. What's this doing in there?
[57:18] So negative. It's wrong with Solomon. A lot wrong with Solomon. Anyway. So, we'll have some fun. I think it's an incredibly relevant message for our age.
[57:33] Of course, it is for every age. But our culture is saying these very things. Right? So, how do we answer them? I think this book will give us some clues.
[57:44] How do we talk to people about what's going on? And how do we talk about meaning of life? And what's worth? Is anything worth anything? Right? So, a little plug.
[57:54] Okay. Any other? Any? All right. Overwhelmed?
[58:04] Too much? Thinking? Yeah. That's good. Let's pray. And we'll continue.
[58:15] Father, thank you for this incredible book. Lord, and we're aware. Lord, we're very aware. We haven't picked up everything. But we hope, Lord, that you're pleased that we have picked up what's important.
[58:30] What's big. And we trust, Lord, that you fill in the blanks for each of us. And help us walk away, Lord, not from this study as, oh, I've learned some things.
[58:43] But particularly that it might impact us. That the perspectives stick with us. and help us evaluate our situation, our enemies, and particularly our beloved Jesus.
[59:01] So in that we pray in Christ's name. Amen.