The book of Revelation is a really interesting book of the Bible, and I believe that a lot
of people look at it as being too mysterious or too confusing to understand.
And I think when you slow down and you really pay attention, there's a lot of the book of
Revelation that we can understand.
Now considering the fact that the book of Revelation is filled with a lot of different
metaphors, visions, things that are talking about the future, some of it's going to be
a little bit of speculation on our part until it actually comes to fruition.
And I don't believe that we're supposed to know everything.
But there's plenty that we can know.
And so it's important for us to at least study these books and to understand as much as we
can in the Bible.
And the book of Revelation reveals a lot of things about the end times.
It makes clear a lot of things that are going to happen in the future.
And it's best if you want to learn about future prophecy to use the book of Revelation.
Other books are not going to be as clear, they're not going to be as revealed, they're
not going to have as much just plain language in regards to events that will happen.
And additionally, considering the fact the Bible has so many prophecies that have a dual
fulfillment, we don't always know exactly certain aspects whether they've already been
fulfilled or they will be.
And so the book of Revelation kind of gives us a little more clear understanding of what's
going to actually happen in the future.
Now not all of the book of Revelation is future.
Some of it has already happened.
And so we kind of have a mixed bag when we have the book of Revelation as far as where
we are in our timeline.
But you know this book is named after basically this first phrase.
It says "the revelation of Jesus Christ" and that's the title of the book.
It's called Revelation because of that.
And sometimes if you look in a Spanish Bible, if you look at you know maybe our reign of
Valerio Gomez 2010, it'll say like apocalypsis.
But that's the basically the root Greek word and it means revelation.
And so that's why sometimes you know we kind of think of the word like apocalypse maybe
when we hear that kind of word.
But they are similar and it is obviously rightly translated here as the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
Now verse one goes on to say the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to
show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it
by his angel unto servant John.
So there's a lot of things that need to happen in a very timely manner.
Notice it says things must which shortly come to pass and we're supposed to send this
particular epistle to seven churches.
It's going to explain that here in just a few verses but these seven churches are going
to be directly affected by the preaching that's found in the book of Revelation and it's important
that they get that message in a timely manner because the things that are going to happen
are going to happen very quickly.
That does not mean this phrase found here does not mean everything in the book of Revelation
is going to happen in a short period of time but rather certain things described to these
seven churches those things are definitely going to be happening shortly thereafter.
And you know later when he's explaining how to write this you know write this down or
what information needs to be described he's going to say that hey there's some things
that also need to be talked about that are going to happen in the future so not everything
is right now.
Look just skip ahead to verse 19 for just a second and look what it says write the
things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be here
after.
Notice there's kind of a multi-layer here of information we talk about the word of revelation
not everything is on the exact same timeline.
So that's kind of important to recognize here at the very beginning.
Another thing that's interesting and I think that it's always good to slow down and pay
attention to these when they pop up is another allusion to aspects of the trinity in the
sense that notice what it says here in the verse verse the revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him.
Now Jesus Christ at this point in time has already resurrected he's in his resurrected
state he's in his glorified state yet notice that God the Father is still giving things
unto the Son and still you still have this dynamic between the Father and the Son even
post the death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and you have God giving
things unto the Son.
Now it's not even just limited to this period in time there's things in the future that
talk about this dynamic between the Father and the Son and because of these pronouns
it gets a little bit confusing but basically what the Bible is saying is that God gave
something unto Jesus and Jesus wants to give it unto his servants and then it gets a little
more granular and says Jesus sent it by an angel unto his servant John.
So you kind of have the Bible saying that this word, this testimony was from God to
Jesus to an angel to John and then of course from John to who?
The seven churches which are in Asia right?
And then of course plenty of people from that point to now transcribed, recorded the Bible,
copied it and then we have it today too.
And this is just kind of how God works that he transmits his word through multiple messengers
and that it's not always just direct messaging or straight from God's mouth to you but rather
it may go through a channel of several different individuals.
And you would say well anybody that plays the telephone game knows that sometimes the
message gets corrupted along the way.
But what's incredible about the Bible and the word of God is that even though God uses
multiple channels to direct his word, he can still get it to us in a pure fashion.
And that's pretty incredible when you think about how many different hands this message
is kind of going through because, again, if you play the game telephone, boy, it does
not take very many chinks in that armor to go ahead and just totally dissolve the message
or replace the message or say all kinds of wacky and goofy things.
And so, you know, it's interesting how God chooses to deliver this particular message
and he does it through Jesus, through an angel, to John, and then from John to other Christians.
And then, of course, we have it transmitted to us as well.
One thing that's interesting, again, in kind of connection with this idea of the Trinity
is how God is delivering the message, like, in the sense that he's the one where the message
originates and he's giving it to Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ is considered the Word of
God.
And, you know, there's an interesting mystery when it comes to how God communicates and
he speaks the Word of God and how Jesus Christ literally is the Word of God and how he also
communicates the Word of God.
And we kind of see, you know, this dynamic.
And what's kind of interesting is Jesus Christ, even in his earthly ministry, oftentimes is
making it clear that the words he's speaking aren't really his, they're his father's.
And you know, it kind of, this particular verse kind of gives us a little bit of a sneak
peek in what we're talking about, where it's similar, where it's saying, you know, God
is the one that gave this message to Jesus and Jesus is delivering this message.
And yes, he is the Word of God, but this did not originate with Jesus, it originated with
God.
And so we want to understand that God is the one who speaks these things and it's His Word
as well.
Look at verse number two, the Bible says, "Who bear record of the Word of God and of
the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw."
So we notice that this is considered the Word of God, who bear record of the Word of God.
You know, this isn't just man's word.
This isn't John's word.
This is the Word of God.
And I like that phrase, we often talk about the Bible as being the Word of God.
And you know, sometimes you hear a lot on the internet or from Pentecostals or Charismaniacs.
They like to tell you that God told them something.
But here's the thing, if God told them something, that would be the Word of God.
And my question would be like, where is that written down?
Because you know, we don't see this phenomenon that you experience of God just constantly
communicating all these random people and it's not found in the scripture.
It's not found in the Bible.
And so we have John bearing record of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus
Christ and of all things that he saw.
You know, it's not like John said, hey, God kind of privately messaged me, but I'm not
going to tell you about it.
No, if anybody is given the Word of God, they're supposed to share that to everyone.
Just like the Bible says, you know, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word
of God.
Well, I guess sometimes people want to wiggle out of verses in the scripture.
So they'll say, oh, well, that's just written to the Jews, or that's just written to Paul,
or that's just written to Timothy, or that's just written to the church at Ephesus.
You know, when the Bible says that women are supposed to keep silence in the churches,
that was just that one church because their women were screaming across the aisle to the
men.
No, no, no, no.
It's every church.
It's every person.
You know, the Word of God is not for just one person.
I know there's an epistle called Timothy and Paul wrote to Timothy, but you know what?
That was for us too.
And so when God speaks his word, while it might be directed to John, it's not like it's
just John's.
No, it's everybody's word.
And so it's the Word of God is supposed to be given to everyone.
That's why it's important that John bear record of the Word of God and of the testimony of
Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.
He didn't hold anything back.
He's not, you know, he's giving us all the information that God is telling him to give
us.
He's not trying to hide it and keep it selfishly, but rather he wants us all to benefit from
this particular testimony.
Another thing that's kind of interesting about the revelation of Jesus Christ and, you know,
about this chapter, you know, John is kind of the human instrument used here, but there's
really not a lot of information or hardly any about John.
You know, when we read the book of Revelation, it's not just like this big diatribe about
all the things, like John's going to get a Ferrari next week and John's going to do this
and John's going to do that, you know, it's about other people, isn't it?
It's about other churches, it's about Jesus, it's about the end times, it's like, it's
not just this like long monologue about all these cool things for John and it's not like
focused on John, whereas again, all of these people that get words, special words from
the Lord, isn't it always like a selfish message?
It's always about them, what they're going to do and their accolades and all this stuff.
Whereas we see this word that's delivered unto John is about a lot of other people.
It's about other things and the future and it's concerning other individuals.
So I just think that that's kind of interesting that we think about.
Look at verse 3, "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy
and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand."
So again, we see a sense of urgency.
It's mentioned again, right?
Things that are shortly come to pass.
The time is at hand.
Some of this information is really important to get into the hands of individuals right
away, especially considering in a few chapters, we're going to be talking about a few different
churches and it's like, "Hey, you've got to be faithful for like 10 days."
That's a pretty time-sensitive message.
You know what I mean?
Like, "Hey, you've got like a specific amount of time that you guys are going to be going
through a situation, so it's important to get this message to them right away so they
can know, so they can deal with this, so that it affects them."
It's like, "How good would this be if they were delivering it by UPS and they got it
next year?"
I say UPS because they suck at delivering these days, you know, I don't know.
You say like, "Hey, two-day shipping," and it's like three weeks later, you're like,
"What's going on?"
That wouldn't have been very good, right?
You get a message three weeks later, it's like, "Hey, this expired 10 days ago," like
the message.
This is a pretty important message to have, right?
So it's important that they get this, and again, there's a blessing to reading the Bible.
There's a blessing to hearing the Bible being preached, and there's a blessing to keeping
the Bible.
You can't just do one of these.
One of these is not sufficient.
It's not just sufficient to just read the Bible.
It's not just enough just to hear the Bible.
You need to also do the Bible.
You need to read the Bible, you need to hear preaching, and you need to keep God's commandments.
You need to do all three, and that's where you get that trinity of blessing from God,
from reading it, hearing preaching, and doing it.
And a lot of times people only do one of these.
Maybe they only do the hearing, right?
They just listen to sermons.
And look, that's great.
There's nothing wrong with listening to sermons, but you know you're missing out on a lot of
blessings when you don't read too.
And then of course you're going to really miss out on a lot of blessings when you don't
do the Word of God either.
Then there's some people they only read.
They don't listen to sermons, they don't go to church or any of that kind of stuff.
And then of course they're probably going to be less motivated to do what?
Keep it.
And virtually there's probably no one that's keeping God's commandments and doing the things
when they're not reading it or hearing it.
I mean show me the Christians that are like, "I never read the Bible and I never go to
church but boy am I on fire for God."
You know it's just like, it doesn't really happen.
Those people are like the people in these fake churches or something where dirt's coming
out of their eyes or whatever.
I don't know.
They don't even know what they're doing.
They're blind.
They, in fact, many times they do the exact opposite of what the Bible says.
The Bible says like, "Don't let your left hand know what your right hand doeth."
And they're bragging about all the alms that they give.
Right?
And they're making long prayers.
And they're going, they're basically just, they're going to church and calling their
pastor Papa.
Father, you know.
It's just like, it's like you're doing everything the Bible told you not to do and it's pretty
obvious because you're not reading and you're not listening to preaching so you're not
keeping it.
Okay?
It's pretty straightforward instruction.
I think that it's just, it's hard to do it.
You know, a lot of people just don't understand that Christianity in many ways is a very simple
religion.
It's very simple as far as instruction and it's just that people just don't want to
do it.
And there's all this stuff online like, I've got the secret to marriage.
I've got this special book of how to have a great marriage.
I have a special book to have more intimacy.
I have a special book on parenting.
I have this special seminar and it's like, "Look, it's really not that hard.
There's not like this special esoteric knowledge.
I know how to be a successful Christian.
You have to come to my seminar.
Pay me $500."
All right.
You ready?
Read the Bible, listen to preaching and follow the commandments.
All right.
I'll take your money now.
I mean, it wasn't hard to know what to do.
You know what's hard is waking up in the morning and reading the Bible.
You know what's hard is dragging your butt to church.
You know what's hard is when you're presented with an alternative to serving God, when you're
presented with temptation, when you're just tired and lazy and apathetic, or the flesh
is just ruling and you just say, "I just don't want to serve God," and you give into that.
It's hard to do it.
It's often not that hard to know what to do.
And again, why show up at church?
Because sometimes we need that refreshing, that renewing, that reminder of, "Hey, I need
to do this."
You know, some people are like, "Oh, I went to church and I heard, you know, I already
know everything."
Okay, well are you doing it though?
Well, no.
Okay, well then it sounds like you need a reminder.
Seems like you need someone to tell you to do it again, right?
And that's what we need.
We need that constant reminder, that constant renewal, that constant refreshing, a chance
to kind of recharge our spiritual batteries because during the week your flesh batteries
were getting charged up.
And so it's important to kind of get that spiritual renewal.
And again, you know, you would say like, "Oh, I've already read it."
Well sometimes it's good to hear it too, because again, when you hear someone else preach,
sometimes you hear things differently, see things differently, understand things differently,
your ideas are challenged, maybe you'll even have the Spirit speak to you.
I know me personally, when I listen to other people read the Bible or preach the Bible,
I'm constantly thinking of new things or new ideas are coming into my mind, or sometimes
it just really helps me understand something even better, and they may not even set it
directly.
Plenty of people even come up to me after my sermon and they say, "Hey, while you were
preaching this, I thought of this, or this verse came to mind, or this idea, or whatever."
And it's like that's just how God works, is that many times He just wants you to just
kind of put that first step out into the water, and then He'll spread the Red Sea for you.
Then He'll spread the Jordan for you, but you just kind of have to take that first step
of faith.
And then He's ready to communicate to us the Word of God and help us to understand these
things better, but those that aren't even going to church, they're not learning anything.
Those aren't reading, they're not learning anything.
And of course, we live in a time that's very important, too, and so it's important for
us to know the Bible better and to listen to preaching and to keep the commandments,
you know, because our lives are just as important as these people.
Verse 4, "John of the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you in peace from
him which is and which was and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are
before his throne, and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten
of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, on him that loved us and washed
us from our sins, in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his
father.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.
Now John's writing the seven churches which are in Asia, and he first blesses them with
peace, and then he kind of gives a lot of different attributes to Jesus and kind of
talks about them.
It says first of all, from him which is and which was and which is to come.
Very important understanding the deity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is not a
created being.
That Jesus Christ was he that which is.
You know he's the great I am.
Before Abraham was, I am.
You know Jesus Christ is from everlasting.
So Jesus Christ in the past, before his incarnation, he could just be described as is.
There was never a time where Jesus wasn't is.
He just always is.
But there was a break in the chain of is for Jesus Christ wasn't there.
So what does that break, and which was?
Somehow he is and was at the same time.
What does that mean?
Obviously, it's an allusion to the fact that Jesus Christ died and he was for a period
of time.
But then what happened?
And which is to come, he resurrected and he's going to come back again.
Okay, so Jesus is the one that is, was, and is to come.
And notice it also says from the seven spirits which are before his throne.
Now this is kind of an interesting thing, and I mentioned this at the beginning, but
I don't think that we're going to necessarily always understand everything.
But there's still some things we can understand.
When it talks about the seven spirits, this is alluded to and described in many different
ways.
You say what are the seven spirits?
Well they're most likely what Isaiah chapter 11 describes, it kind of gives us seven different
spirits and the Bible talks about candlestick having kind of the seven branches kind of
representing the seven spirits and they're before God's throne and there's a lot of
different mentions of these seven spirits.
But one thing that I think this just kind of makes me think of and it's not necessarily
directly related but it's just kind of similar is I just think of the Holy Spirit in a particular
context because we have you know this picture of a candlestick and what does a candlestick
do?
Obviously a candlestick gives light and a candlestick burns fire.
Now often especially in the times past they would put oil on the candlestick and then
they're lighting the oil on fire.
Now when we have a Christmas service we like to do a candlelight service and what we typically
do is we kind of have just one candle that we light first and then from that we light
every other candlestick, right?
And so it's just from like one flame you get the flame for every single candlestick all
at once and that flame can spread and can grow and everything like that.
And you know to me this is similar how the Holy Ghost is pictured.
You know the Bible says in Acts chapter number two that the Holy Ghost kind of is likened
under fire because there's like cloven tongues and there's like fire above the heads of the
early disciples picturing them speaking in other tongues.
How come that never happens in the Pentecostal churches?
How come they don't have literal fire coming above their head or whatever?
Yeah, good luck.
But when we look at this candlestick it has this fire and it's kind of evenly distributed
amongst the seven.
And what this makes me think of is again the Holy Spirit in the context of since I've believed
on Jesus Christ I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.
He's inside of me.
But He's not just inside of me.
He's also inside of you.
And so in one context you could see how there's like two instances of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have two believers, well one of them has the Holy Spirit inside of them and another
believer also has the Holy Spirit inside of them.
Kind of similar to how you have the two candlesticks and you light one with fire and then you put
that fire on the other one.
Now you have two flames of fire.
It's still the same fire but there's two instances of it.
And really it's interesting how the Holy Ghost can be with me right now and I have a special
relationship with Him.
He can also be with you inside of you and having a special relationship with you as
well.
So this kind of goes to the mystery of how God is omnipresent in the sense that He can
be everywhere and He's not limited necessarily to one particular location.
And I think that's kind of what's also being alluded to.
You have seven spirits, right, and it's kind of pictured, you kind of have this multiplicity.
And I think it's also to kind of allude to the idea of how God can be in more than one
place at the same time, can't he? How the Holy Spirit can be in multiple places, multiple
locations at the same time. Now, of course, us as humans, we can't do that. You know,
we can't separate ourselves and be in two different physical locations at one time.
But I believe that Jesus can do this, and I believe the Holy Spirit can do this. You
know, you see very clearly that Jesus Christ, when he's on earth, talks about the Son of
Man which is in heaven. It's like how is Jesus on earth, yet he's in heaven? How is it that
Jesus Christ is in heaven with us, and yet later in the book of Revelation it's going
to talk about how people are burning in hell in the presence of the Lamb and of the Holy
Angels. Okay, so in some way, God can be in multiple locations. And in some way, the Bible
describes God as being on my present. Because, you know, whither can I flee from my spirit?
You know, and whither, you know, if I go down to hell, he's there. If I go up to heaven,
he's there. So like, to some degree, God kind of has a lot of different ways to understand
his presence. In one way, God's everywhere, in some sense. In another sense, God can be
in kind of like multiple locations at once. But then in other ways, God is located in
one location as well. And I don't want us to ever get this idea like only one of those
things can be true. No, all of them can be true. We just may not fully grasp it and understand
it. Keep your finger here, and I want to show you a couple other places, but go if you would
to Matthew chapter number six for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter number six. And again,
I'm not sure when it comes to the Father. I would assume that the Father can do whatever
He wants to, that in some way the Father could be in multiple locations at once, like the
Spirit or Jesus. But for the most part, the Bible alludes to the Father as being in the
same place at one time. Like He's usually just in one location. That does not mean He
doesn't travel because the Bible talks about Him traveling in a cloud, coming down from
heaven, covering Moses' face. So there was interactions where God is definitely moving
His location. Does that mean He was still in heaven in the same location and it's just
Him being in two different locations at the same time? I can't answer that. I don't know.
But one thing I do know is that when the Bible talks about God and talks about the Father,
it talks about Him being in a location. Now look what it says in Matthew chapter number
six, and this is Jesus teaching us how to pray. He says, verse nine, "After this manner,
therefore pray, our Father, which art in heaven." Notice the opening. This is the first words
out of Jesus Christ's mouth in prayer to God is He's identifying God with what? A location.
And yet so many people today, for some reason, they believe that God cannot be in a location.
Like location and God is incompatible or something. That somehow God is just an essence that does
not exist in a single location. Because by saying that God's in a location, we're claiming
that we're limiting God or something. But that's silly. Because identifying God being
in a location doesn't limit Him. If I said Jesus Christ, or if I said this, the Holy
Spirit is dwelling inside of me. Am I limiting the Holy Spirit and where He can be? Or am
I identifying that the Holy Spirit is inside of me? But you know, that doesn't mean the
Holy Spirit is not necessarily inside of you too. And when the Bible says that God the
Father is in heaven, that's not limiting Him to heaven or to a spatial location, but it's
identifying Him with a spatial location. And it would be silly to me that if I could go
to heaven, and that's where the Bible says that God is, and then I can't see God or
experience God, or there's no one there, like that would be kind of confusing. That'd be
confusing if I'm in heaven, and I'm like, "Our Father, which art in heaven, where is
He?" "Oh, you ignorant person, you. He's just in essence. He doesn't exist anywhere.
He's everywhere." Well, then that kind of ruins the whole point of this opening line
of the prayer. Like, how is that the opening line of this prayer if God is literally nowhere?
He's just everywhere. Now, again, I'm not undermining the fact that God's everywhere.
He is. The Bible does say that. The Bible says that God's everywhere, and yet at the
same time it also identifies God as being in a location, doesn't it? Wouldn't it be
a little bit meaningless if the Holy Spirit is literally everywhere to then say He's dwelling
inside of you? Because that would have meant that He was dwelling inside of you when you
were unsaved. And everybody that's unsaved, He's dwelling inside of them too. Wouldn't
it make more sense that in some ways God is spatially located as well? That there's actually
a presence of God that can be discerned? I mean, when the Bible talks about people leaving
the presence of God, is that just a phrase or does it actually have meaning to it? And
I think this is important when we're talking about, hey, the seven spirits of God. What
is that? I don't know exactly what all that means. Of course, we could identify in Isaiah
several different spirits. Go back to Revelation 1. We can identify several different spirits.
We can identify a location with this because the Bible talks about them being before His
throne. Interesting that the Bible alludes to something located before His throne. Where
do you think that is? Isn't that in heaven? Where our Father, which is in heaven, is at?
But again, that would be pointing to the fact that God is in a location, isn't He? God is
somehow in heaven and the seven spirits are in heaven. Does that mean the seven spirits
are limited to a spatial location in heaven? No, the seven spirits can also be in multiple
places at one time as well. And so when we look at the things of God, even though they're
identified with a location, we're not limiting them, we're identifying with the Bible saying
and we're recognizing the spatial locations that the Bible describes and we're identifying
that, you know, this is what Jesus said. You know, how could I ever be wrong repeating
the words of Jesus? Our Father which art in heaven. Oh, you simpleton, you think God's
in heaven? Yeah, because Jesus literally said it. Well, that's not what he meant. Well,
that's not what I meant, you know. It's like these people, some people get so smart, they're
smarter than God, you know, and it's like beware of this person that has gotten so smart
that you can't even understand the simple reading of the text, okay. The simple reading
of the text is pretty clear. There really is seven spirits which are before his throne,
you know. Now, does that mean they're limited to that location? No. Just like I don't believe
the Holy Spirit is limited to one location either. He can be in a lot of places at one
time, just like fire. Could I really say, like, if I said, "Hey, there's fire on my
candlestick." Does that mean that fire is limited to that one location, or can fire
be in a lot of different places at one time, can it? So in the same way, I believe, you
know, we can understand how God can be in multiple places at one time. We can say, "Hey,
there's light on in my bedroom, but is light limited to my bedroom, or can light be in
a lot of places at the same time?" And so we can understand that God can be in a lot
of different locations and a lot of different ways, yet at the same time, we're not going
to fully grasp that because we are pretty limited in where we can be at one time. Look
at verse 5, "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten
of the dead." So Jesus Christ is the first resurrection and the glorified state. Of course,
there are other resurrections mentioned in the scripture, but He's the first begotten
in the sense of being given that glorified, resurrected state. All those who are resurrected
before and after Jesus, they came back into their old body. They're coming back into their
old man. They're not been given that resurrected, glorified body where Jesus Christ is the first
fruits and He's the one that has been glorified and transfigured already. "And the prince
of the kings of the earth," notice He's the ruler over everyone, "on Him that loved us
and washed us from our sins in His own blood." You know what gives us forgiveness of sin?
His blood. Nothing else. That's the only thing that can wash our sins away. You know what
doesn't wash away your sins? Repenting of your sins. You know what doesn't wash away
your sins? Trying to live a good life. You know what doesn't wash away your sins? Soap
and praying, asking for forgiveness. You know what washed away your sins? The blood of Jesus
Christ. And of course Jesus then also made his kings and priests unto God and his father
to him be glory and to men forever and ever amen. Now I believe the Bible teaches in the
New Testament we've been made a spiritual priesthood. We're a royal priesthood. You
can find this in a lot of places in the scripture. And I think it's accurate to say that every
believer is in some capacity in the priesthood. And really in the priesthood you're just a
servant. You're just kind of a servant of Jesus Christ and we all have our different
roles. Even within the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament, which is different,
not everybody had the same role. Not everybody was the high priest. Not everybody dealt with
the sacrifices. Not everybody was granted access to the temple. Some people just literally
carried stuff. So, okay, the same works in the New Testament. Not everybody's going to
be given the exact same role, the exact same office, the exact same job. But you know,
you can at least carry something, right? Can't you carry the gospel out when you go soul
owning? Can you at least do something for the work? And we're in that priesthood. Now
when it comes to kings, you know, I'm not really sold on what that particularly means,
but personally I don't think it's necessarily everyone that's being alluded to here. I think
what it's just basically saying is us as a group, us as a collective, some of us are
kings, right? He's made us kings. Not that every single person's a king. Then it's like
who rules, right? Now, maybe it's literal. It's in the sense that we're going to have
so many people in the millennial reign that we're all going to be rulers in some capacity.
I don't know the answer to that question entirely, and I'm not going to say that I do for sure,
but I kind of lean towards the idea that it's just saying as a population, as a whole, as
a body of Christ, he's made us kings and priests. Some of us are kings, some of us are priests
in these different capacities in different positions, but I don't know that it necessarily
means everyone. I do also believe that every man is just the king of his household, but
I don't think that that's necessarily in view of this verse. That's just, you know, basically
what the Bible teaches about authority. But isn't it interesting that at least some of
us have been made kings, if not all of us, and for sure all of us have been made priests
when we deserved hell, literally. I mean, we deserved hell, wrath, and judgment from
God. And He's flipped the script so much that now we get to have positions of authority
and we're lifted up. I mean, the Bible says that we're going to judge angels. In some
ways we're going to be over. We're going to help Jesus Christ literally rule the nations.
And so in many ways, you know, we have a really lofty position that has been granted unto
us. And you say why? Because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Again, it's like, of course
we understand though, God's going to put those who were faithful and served Him and followed
the commandments best in these highest positions that we have here. But at the end of the day,
even just getting that position was by the blood of Jesus Christ. None of us earned it
in that capacity. None of us deserve to be a king or a priest. And it's only by His mercy
we get that opportunity. Within the mercy of God, He's going to then reward those who
were the most faithful. The Bible also tells us that we've been made priests unto God and
His Father. Notice Jesus is not the Father. He has a Father. And notice this Jesus that's
being mentioned here in the book of Revelation is not the Jesus that's incarnate on the earth.
This is the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. And He still has a Father. And you know what?
We're priests and kings unto God and His Father. Why? Because we're the sons of God. You know,
just like Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we also get to be made like unto Him and we
too share. We're brethren with Him and we become sons of God. And so we have a Father
which is in heaven. And of course the Father is in full authority. Look at this, "To Him
be glory and dominion forever and ever." Amen. So who has the ultimate dominion according
to the Bible? The Father. The Father has the ultimate dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Verse 7, "Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also which
pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him, even so, Amen."
Now what kind of stuck out to me in this verse that I've seen this verse a lot and I think
about it, just because the Bible says every eye shall see Him, but notice what it says
in verse 7, it says all kindreds of the earth. You know, kindreds is kind of what it's alluding
to often as nations or families of the earth. But notice it's not like, "Oh, but there's
this one country that's going to really love Jesus coming back." No, no, no. What does
it say? "All kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." You say, "Which nation
on earth is a godly nation? They're all going to wail. They're all going to wail because
of him." And that's kind of funny when you think about it. Like, there really isn't such
a thing as a physical nation that enjoys the return of Christ. Now, if that's important,
why is this important? Okay, because we believe in what's called replacement theology. And
what does replacement theology teach? It teaches that there is no longer a physical nation
in which is the children of God, but rather a spiritual nation. Therefore, all physical
nations are going to wail because of Him. There's not this special nation called Israel
and physical Israel is going to be all excited when Jesus Christ comes back. No, physical
Israel is going to wail because of Him. Physical Palestine is going to wail because of Him.
Only Russia and China and guess what? America, folks, is going to wail because of Him. And
what is kind of making it clear is that there's not going to be, there will not be a nation
as a whole that just loves and worships Jesus Christ. You know, this bringing in the Kingdom
movement is not going to happen. It's just every nation is just going to always hate
Jesus Christ. And this, they're going to all wail because of Him. Even so, amen. Verse
8, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and
which was and which is to come, the Almighty." So He gives us a lot of descriptors of Jesus
Christ, Alpha and Omega being the beginning and ending letters of the Greek alphabet.
And so He's just basically kind of alluding to the fact that He is everything. He's the,
of course Colossians Chapter 1 makes it very clear that He consisted before all things.
And John 1 tells us that He created all things and there wasn't anything made that wasn't
made by Him, okay. So He created everything. He's the beginning. He's the ending. And of
course He has the exact same kind of description here, which is and which was and which is
to come, the Almighty. So we have Jesus Christ being alluded to here similarly as verse 4.
Verse 9 of the Bible says, "I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for
the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." So John, I like that he starts it
up, "who also am your brother." Now who's the book of Revelation written to? The saved.
You know, I guess some people they like to use a certain verse in Revelation to get people
saved and it's like, "Behold I stand at the door and knock and if any man let me enter
in." It's like that's not a salvation verse because he's already talking to brethren folks.
And so you've got to be careful how you interpret the Bible here and what we're talking about.
He's also a companion in tribulation so pre-trib is already over. And in the kingdom I like
his patience of Jesus Christ. You know we've had to be pretty patient when you think about
it. Why is he in the Isle of Patmos? For the word of God and for the testament of Jesus
Christ. You know the reason why Christians should get in trouble is because of the Bible.
Not for any other reason. The reason why people should hate us is because of what the Bible
says, not what we say, and for the testimony of Jesus. Verse 10, "I was in the Spirit on
the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet." Again, alluding to
the fact we can't change our spatial location like God and like other things. And so he
has to kind of go into a spirit realm in order to basically travel these great distances
and see these great visions effectively. What does that mean? I don't know again. I don't
know if that means that he's just having a vision, a spiritual vision while he's presently
located or if his spirit's literally leaving his body and he's traveling to a lot of these
visions. I don't know. I kind of allude to the second one based on chapter four because
if you look at chapter four verse one it says, "After this I looked and behold the door was
open in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking
with me which said, 'Come up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.'"
So in chapter four it kind of seems like he's changing locations. But again, he's not going
to be changing locations physically. If you just take your physical body and shoot it
straight up into the air, pretty soon you're going to turn into ice and suffocate and die.
Your body can't handle that. You'd have to have a space suit, be a rocket or something,
and there's a lot of controversy on how far you can go. But I think you could make it
to the moon, so there you go. If you disagree with me, you can be wrong as much as you want.
But what I do know is you're not going to make it physically to the third heaven. So
I think it's obvious that that's the spiritual relocation that John is kind of experiencing.
Also it says in verse number 11, saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,
and what thou seest right in the book, and send it unto the seven churches, which are
in Asia, unto Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis,
and to Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea." You know, here's another thing I think is
interesting. Some people, you know, they get a little bit over the top with this idea of
independent fundamental Baptist churches, where they really emphasize this word "independent."
And it's like, this is a book of the Bible that was dedicated to seven churches simultaneously.
So you can't just get, I mean, if you're so independent that you don't even know anything
about any other church, you have no friends, like, I think you're making a big mistake.
Like I get that the churches should be autonomous, and that's what I mean by independent, but
that shouldn't mean that we don't know what's going on in other churches or have friends
or have a fellowship or care about other churches.
We should do that, you know, and again, this is seven churches that are all being written
to in the same epistle.
So you know, we too should care about other churches.
There's plenty of epistles that talk about the Apostle Paul alluding to other churches
and other congregations and giving money to other congregations.
The Apostle Paul talks about issues within church, like church discipline, and says like
how people know about this that aren't going to the church, and he himself knows about
it that's not going to the church.
So to some degree, it seems like even at that time without Facebook, they still kind of
knew what was going on, right?
They still kind of had some level of social networking and ability to understand what's
going on in other churches, and even though the letter, the epistle to the Ephesians was
a great letter to the Ephesians, it's not just for them, Corinth needs that letter too,
and Rome needs that letter, and Ephesus needs the letter to the Romans, and even a couple
of the epistles mention multiple churches where they're written to multiple churches.
So let us not get this idea of isolation.
We don't want to be isolated from a brethren or not care about other churches.
We want to love other churches, and there's nothing wrong with being great friends and
super connected to other churches, but ideally they would be autonomous, have their own pastor,
have their own angel.
And that's kind of what's alluded to in the next two chapters is there's the angel of
a certain church.
Meaning there's a leader at each church, but at the same time the churches are connected
in what way?
They all have the same upper shepherd, Jesus Christ, right?
They have the same overseer, they have the same bishop over their souls, which is Jesus
Christ.
So in some ways we're connected, and in other ways we're a little bit disconnected too,
right?
And the division of power is important.
We don't want to create the Catholic church all over again and create popes and stuff
like that, because all you have to do is corrupt a little bit of people and you can kind of
just destroy all of it.
So it's healthier, it's safer, and the multitude of counselors there are safe.
It's safer if we have a lot of independent churches that can do their own thing, but
at the same time they care about other institutions.
Verse 12, it says, "And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned
I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto
the Son of Man clothed the garment down to the foot and girt about the paps of the golden
girdle.
His head and his hairs were like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame
of fire, and his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice
as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword, and his countenance was, As the sun shineth in his stream.
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me,
saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.
So here we have a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's super clear, verse 18 makes it abundantly clear what we're talking about, because it
talks about He that was living, then was dead, and then He's alive forevermore, right?
Additionally, you know, it talks about one like unto the Son of man.
This vision, very interesting, you know, and again, some of this is for sure metaphor in
the sense that, you know, it talks about seven golden candlesticks, it talks about stars
and everything like that, and when you get to the end of this chapter, it tells you like
these things are kind of just representative of real things.
They're not necessarily, you know, again, this is a vision, so I'm sure John literally
saw seven golden candlesticks, and I think he literally saw seven stars, but this may
not be something that necessarily anybody else is ever going to see.
You know, we're not going to necessarily see seven golden candlesticks, they're representations
of things, but then when we talk about the vision of Jesus himself, the question is like
how much of this is a metaphor, or how much of this is just what Jesus Christ literally
looks like?
Well, I think it's interesting when we compare it with some other portions of scripture.
Now keep your finger and go to Revelation chapter 19.
Some people would love to tell you that if you read this passage, you'll realize that
Jesus is black, okay?
Now I didn't see anywhere where it said that Jesus is black, and they'll be like, "Oh,
well his hair is white as wool."
Well, let me give you a little secret.
Every single person that gets old, their hair turns white.
It's not, you can't tell me that someone's black, white, red, yellow, green, based on
them having white hair, because everybody's hair color turns white eventually.
Okay, so that does not prove what he looked like.
That doesn't prove that he was white, or Caucasian, or Hispanic, or black, or anything, because
you know what?
All of us can get white hair.
It's the whorehead, and it's just a picture of people being old, and how their hair ends
up turning white.
Jesus is alluded to as being the ancient of days in the book of Daniel.
So it makes sense that he's had enough time for his hair to turn white, okay?
And eyes flame of a fire, his feet shining like brass and fire, none of this gives an
illusion to any kind of skin color, okay?
So you know, he's saying, "Oh, you think Jesus is white."
I think that I don't care, number one, and number two, it doesn't prove anything.
And you say, "Well, are you against God being black?"
I don't care, number one, but I don't think he's black because frankly, he was born of
Mary and Mary wasn't black, okay?
And he's the root and offspring of David, and David wasn't black.
David had ruddy cheeks, David was going to be, you know, some variation of fair to kind
of probably light brown skin, most likely.
So you know, it makes sense that that's probably what Jesus looked like, okay?
Do I know for sure?
No.
Do I care?
No.
But am I going to ever agree to the fact that Jesus is literally black and black Hebrew
Israelites have the right religion?
No!
But isn't it funny?
That's where they'll go.
They'll take you.
If you're running a black Hebrew Israelite, they'll take you to Revelation chapter one
and tell you he's black.
It's like, didn't say it.
Didn't have anything like that.
Now, there's other visions of Jesus, and not all of them give all the same attributes,
but they repeat certain attributes.
Look at what it says in Revelation chapter 19 verse 11, "And I saw heaven open and behold
a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.
And in righteousness doth he judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire."
So again, that attribute is the same attribute that we saw in chapter number one, where his
eyes are as a flame of fire.
Now it says, if we keep reading, "And on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written
that no man knew, but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.
And his name is called the Word of God, and the armies which were in heaven followed him
upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth
a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, and he tread at the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."
A second thing that repeats in this particular passage is how there's a sword proceeding
out of his mouth.
Again, most likely in this context, probably a metaphor or some kind of a symbol.
I don't know how literal that is, but I want to go to a couple other places.
Go if you would to Matthew chapter number 17, go to Matthew chapter number 17.
There's another time where the Lord Jesus Christ is transfigured, and we kind of get
to see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ through obviously the scripture.
We don't actually have a literal drawing, but we just kind of get a little semblance
of what he looks like here.
Matthew chapter 17, look at verse 1, "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James,
and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured
before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."
So if we kind of cross-reference these few different stories or parts of scripture that
talk about Jesus' appearance, you know, we see that his face shines in multiple passages.
As bright as the sun, he's clothed in white raiment, white clothing.
So he's clothed, he has a shining face.
Two of them say that his eyes are literally like fire.
One says that his hair is white.
And then, of course, it kind of alludes to a sword that literally comes out of his mouth.
Now I don't know if the sword is necessary, how literal the sword is.
It's probably a metaphor, most likely.
But who knows, maybe like when he speaks words, it's like literally like somehow like a sword
going out and just destroys.
Because in Revelation 17, he literally destroys all these people with the sword that proceeds
out of his mouth.
So I don't know.
I don't know how it works.
I don't know what it looks like entirely.
But I would say this gives us the closest that we're going to probably get to what Jesus
would look like.
That he's going to be clothed, white raiment, his face is going to shine like the sun.
He's going to have most likely white hair, eyes is flame of fire.
And if we also take Revelation chapter one, his feet may look like shining, hot, fiery
brass.
Okay.
So that's the best guess as we're going to get to what Christ would look like if we experienced
him.
Now, usually when people say, "I went to heaven and saw Jesus," you know what they describe?
Nothing that I just said.
It's like this weird, long-haired, hippie, homeless person.
You know?
And it's like, if someone truly had an encounter with Jesus, I would expect for them to describe
these kind of things.
And to say like, "I literally fell down dead," right?
I didn't just like, we weren't just hanging out, drinking a Coke, and you know, playing
golf or something.
You know, as much as that, I would like to believe that, that's just not realistic, okay?
Go back to Revelation chapter one.
And you know, the Bible also said in verse number 18, that it says, "I am he that liveth
and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death."
Now, what does it mean to be dead?
Well, the Bible says the body without the spirit is dead, so that's one definition of
being dead, but go to Hebrews chapter number two, just go back a little bit, go to Hebrews
chapter number two, you know, the Bible says that for us, you know, we're not going to
experience death in some capacity, in some capacity we will experience death, right?
Our spirits are going to leave our bodies, that's going to happen, right?
But then there's another death that's talked about and alluded to in the Bible that says
that we're never going to experience, okay?
We've been passed from death onto life and, you know, in John chapter number 8, I want
to read a verse for you, but Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying,
he shall never see death."
So there's a death that Christians will never see and experience.
And what you have to understand is a lot of times the word death is just simply referring
to hell.
That's what it literally means.
You know, I believe in Revelation chapter 6 verse 23 when it says for the wages of
sin is death, that's talking about hell.
And if you think about the contrast in that verse, it says but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So it's contrasting eternal life in heaven with Christ with what?
Death and hell on the flip side, okay?
And for us that have been saved, we don't have to experience that death and hell.
We'll not even see it.
We'll not even know about it.
We're just going to simply be in heaven and eventually all those that are dead will come
get judged.
We'll see that, but I don't think that we're actually going to experience hell or see hell.
And yet Jesus, when it talks about Him, it talks about death.
It says in verse number 9, Hebrews chapter 2, "But we see Jesus, who is made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that
He by the grace of God should taste death for every man."
Now this is an interesting word coupled with death.
The Bible says that He should taste.
What does taste mean?
Taste implies a couple things, either you didn't eat all of it or maybe a short duration.
That's kind of what's being alluded to.
Well here's the thing, did Jesus only kind of die on the cross or did He fully die?
He fully died.
There's no way to really downplay the death of Christ on the cross.
It was a full death experience.
There wasn't anything about it that He didn't fully embrace or fully get.
I mean He really tasted it.
I mean you could see like if someone, you know, perhaps gets knocked out, like you go
unconscious and then later you die, that maybe you didn't get like the full death experience,
right?
As someone that's being tortured for hours and then just like your last breath giving
up the ghost.
I mean that's about as much as you're going to experience death physically, right?
So it would be kind of strange to throw in this word taste with the cross because if
we're talking about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, there wasn't a tasting.
It wasn't even a short thing.
I mean he was on the cross for six hours and that's not even including all the other suffering
that he went through leading up to this point.
And honestly, you know, death physically is but a moment in time, right?
Because you could be tortured for hours and then survive and you didn't experience death.
You could get hit in the face and not die.
You could, you know, be hung on a cross and technically not die, right?
So death is just but a moment in time.
Christ fully experienced that.
Christ fully embraced that.
He also suffered in many ways leading up to it.
So I don't see how anybody being honest with the text could use this word taste to have
anything to do with a physical death.
But what if we look at death in the other way we've talked about?
What if death here means hell?
Now did Jesus Christ go to hell for all of eternity or did he only go there for three
days and three nights?
Well, the Bible says for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the well's belly,
so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Bible says in Acts chapter number two that he was loosed from the pains of death.
And you know, when you look at Acts chapter number two, it's really clear that what it's
saying in the context of being loosed from the pains of death was the resurrection.
Well here's the thing, the resurrection did not loose Jesus Christ from the pains on the
cross because he's three days and three nights removed from that.
But you know what?
The resurrection would have done is it would have loosed him from the pains of hell if
he was in hell.
And if he was in hell for three days and three nights, wouldn't you say now, oh that kind
of makes sense if he tasted death, right?
And he tasted death for what?
For every man.
So he went there and experienced it for us so we wouldn't have to.
So that if we keep it saying, we're not going to see death whatsoever.
And then when we go back to Revelation chapter number one, when it says in verse number 18,
"I am he that liveth and was dead," what are we talking about?
We're talking about the three days and three nights where Jesus Christ's body was in the
grave.
His soul and spirit had left.
That's one definition of dead, right?
And then another definition of dead is that the soul and spirit was in hell and that
he tasted death for every man.
But then what happened?
He resurrected and he says, "I am alive forevermore, amen," and have the keys of hell and of death.
And again, kind of signifying that he's unlocked two different things, physical death and he's
unlocked hell.
So not only do we get to live forever, we get to live forever and not be in hell.
Because, you know, the people that die and aren't saved, they still live forever, but
they live in hell forever.
The Bible says, "Their worm dieth not, where the fire is not quenched."
That's a scary thing.
I mean, the worst part of hell is the eternal nature of hell.
Like, you got there five minutes ago, and it's like, "How long am I going to be here?"
Forever.
You know, like, some of us, when we go to our in-laws, the only hope we have is that
we're going to leave.
But imagine you check in and you're in-laws, and it's like, "How long are we here?"
And they lock the door.
Forever.
It's like, "Nooo!"
You know.
The DMV, it eventually closes.
But it was like, "You're here forever!"
It's just like, that's the worst part about hell, most likely, is just how long it is.
It's a forever punishment.
The choices that we're making in this earth are eternal choices.
Eternal consequences.
Things that affect people forever.
And Jesus Christ literally got the keys of hell and of death so he could take people
from that torturous punishment forever.
The Bible's really clear on this.
People get mad about Jesus Christ going to hell.
I don't know why.
Like, oh, well that's horrible for him to suffer that way.
It was horrible for him to suffer on the cross too.
It's not like that was great or awesome.
And why is it that he could not suffer now?
They'll say, well, he is eternal life.
But doesn't the Bible say he was dead?
Now here's the thing.
According to Jesus Christ, when he talks about other individuals and they allude to Isaac
and Abraham and Jacob and all these people, they say they're dead and then Jesus Christ
is saying like, God's not the God of the dead, but of the living.
So according to Jesus Christ, when Abraham died physically, he didn't actually die.
He just changed locations.
He's just alive in heaven.
So if Jesus Christ died physically, the moment he died physically, he was just in heaven
still, he never was dead.
There was never a time when you could say he's dead, but you know what you could say
he was dead because he was in hell for three days and three nights.
So to have that actual classification actually means something for him to say I was dead.
It's not like I just changed location.
They'll say well the dead there just means that he was absent from his physical body.
That's kind of weird because honestly that's like better.
Like being absent to depart and to be with Christ is far better.
Like being absent from that body wasn't really a negative thing.
For us, we're going to be rejoicing.
And so to have this classification of being dead, it implies something negative which
is what?
Hell.
As he was living before without a body, right?
I mean he didn't have a mortal body in heaven before the incarnation and he wasn't classified
as dead.
So he's a spirit without a body or he's living in heaven without a body and it's fine.
So something changed.
What was the thing that changed?
He's in hell.
That's what changed.
He's alive, then he's in hell and then he's alive forevermore.
And some people would say like, well how does eternal life die or whatever?
Well here's the thing.
I think that Jesus Christ can be in multiple places at the same time.
So Jesus Christ, wall on earth, according to the Bible, is in heaven.
Jesus Christ, when he looked at the thief on the cross said, "Today thou shalt be with
me in paradise."
Okay.
So I think that Jesus Christ was in heaven when he was on the cross.
And I think that Jesus Christ was in heaven when he was in hell.
And I think that in the future, when the Bible talks about those being in the lake of fire,
presence, you know, in the presence of the Lamb, somehow he's with us and he's with
them there in hell or whatever.
And I don't think he's suffering, you know, in that state, so don't hear me wrong.
But in some way, God and Jesus Christ and the Spirit, they can be in more than one place
at one time.
You say, how does that work?
I don't know.
But I don't have to worry about that.
Okay.
But what I do know is the Bible gave Jesus Christ a location, and that location was the
center of the earth.
It was hell.
And he resurrected.
Okay.
And you know what?
He's in heaven.
And he's going to come back.
Okay.
How could, how could Jesus Christ not have a spatial location when he's telling the
disciples like, "If I don't depart, then the comforter is not going to come."
And how does the comforter not have a spatial location if he's saying, "I have to depart
for the comforter to come if the comforter is already there."
Right?
I mean, how come God is constantly describing himself as being in locations when he's not?
It makes sense that he's in lots of different locations.
He's at which locations?
The ones the Bible's saying.
Okay.
Like the comforter coming, the comforter dwelling inside of me, the comforter dwelling
inside of you, Jesus Christ literally being in heaven.
But in some ways Christ is with us.
You know, doesn't the Bible say, "And I'm with you always, even unto the end of the
world."
And doesn't the Bible say, "Where two or three are gathered together, there I am in
the midst."
You say, "How does that work?"
I don't know.
But you know what?
Christ is here in the room with us.
But in another way, Christ is in heaven, okay.
So you say, "Well, how does that, how does that make sense?"
Well, I'm not God, okay.
When you, when you become God, you let me know, okay.
And I won't want to talk to you, all right.
Look at what it says in verse 19, "Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things
which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden
candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which
thou sawest are the seven churches."
So again, very clear that some of this vision is a vision, right.
I mean, he has seven stars, but I don't think that when we go to heaven, we're going to
see seven stars in Jesus' hand, you know, he has the seven golden candlesticks.
I don't know that we're going to really see that.
I think those were just representations of things, but the picture of Jesus, it's probably
what Jesus really looks like, okay, to some degree, at least in this particular state.
So we want to be careful when we study the book of Revelation, because again, some things
I think can be understood somewhat literally, and other portions are going to of course
be metaphorical.
And you say, "Well, how do you know which one's right or wrong?"
Well again, that just comes to studying, comparing spiritual with spiritual, and this is just
how the Bible always is.
Now, you know who I'm not going to ask which parts are literal and which parts are metaphor?
Catholics, the Church Fathers, Matthew Henry, some bozo online, okay?
And there's this big movement for people to say like, "Oh, well the Church Fathers disagree
with you on this particular issue," or you know, "You're so ignorant, Pastor Shelley.
You haven't studied the theology in divine simplicity.
You don't understand that God is just an essence.
You think that He's spatially located.
What a fool.
The Church Fathers didn't agree with that."
And I'm thinking like, okay, well let's think about the Church Fathers for a second, okay?
The Church Fathers think that we have to literally eat the body of Jesus and literally drink
Jesus' blood.
Please explain to me metaphors.
You're so good at them.
You're so good at identifying what's literal and what's not, right?
The people that think that you have to have the Eucharist, that you have to literally
eat the body of Jesus, and you have to literally drink His physical blood, are the people that
are going to explain to me what God's like.
No thank you, right?
I mean, does that even make sense, folks?
And yet so many people, they like fall all over themselves and be like, "Well, what
do the Church Fathers think?"
Who cares what they think?
They're dead, and the vast majority of them are in hell based on their beliefs on salvation.
And most of them disagreed with each other, and they're all calling each other heretics
and killing each other and burning each other and thinking that they're literally drinking
blood and baptizing babies and wearing dresses and skirts and calling their main leader papa
and father and pope, selling indulgences.
I mean, what parts of the Catholic Church should we bring back?
How about burning the text of the Receptus Bibles?
Do we like that portion of church history?
Or do we like the part of church history where they're selling sin?
It's like, hey, you want to come to adultery this week?
Fifty bucks.
You know.
You want to go drink?
Hundred bucks.
Is that, I mean, the people that come up with these ideas are really where we should get
our Christianity from.
You say, "Well, your view is in minority," well isn't our view minority in salvation?
Isn't our view in minority in lots of different things?
Okay.
And, you know, where are you going to figure out then what the metaphors, who are you going
to trust?
What book are you going to read?
I'm going to read the Bible and I'm going to let the Holy Spirit guide me.
And you know, "Blessed is he that readeth, and the ones that are hearing this being preached,
and the ones that are keeping his saying."
You know that people are going to understand the Bible the best?
The ones that are reading it, the ones that are listening to sermons from other men of
God that are saved, and the ones that are following and keeping his commandments.
So, guess what?
The Catholics aren't reading, Catholics aren't preaching and listening to sermons, and the
Catholics sure aren't keeping his commandments.
So you know what?
They're not going to understand.
I don't care about the forgetful hearers.
I want the guys that actually know the Bible.
The people that are going to understand the Bible the best are the ones that are living
the most spirit-filled lives, separated, going soul-winning, going to church, reading and
studying and memorizing.
Those are the people that are going to unlock the secrets the best.
And, you know, reading some dead guy's commentary is just really going to just give you dead
doctrine.
It's going to lead you astray.
It's not that helpful.
Do you study theology?
Not really.
And I'm not that interested in it.
I think that we have to be careful that we don't get locked into man's understanding.
Because just as we've kind of uncovered a few things in this chapter, I mean, how do
you understand that God can be in multiple locations at one time?
Our minds can't wrap around that, but that has to be true because the Bible says it.
The Bible gives us so many instances.
How can the Holy Spirit be in my heart and your heart and your heart and their heart?
And then we meet an unsafe person, he's not in his heart.
I don't know, but it's true.
How could Jesus Christ be on the cross and be in heaven?
I don't know.
How could Jesus Christ be in heaven and be in hell in the future?
I don't know, you know.
But at the same time, I believe all of them by faith and we trust them by faith.
And there's a lot of things that are being revealed in the book of Revelation, but we
may not understand everything about God, okay?
Don't get confused about that, right?
We're going to understand a lot.
We've got a lot of clarity here, but at the same time, we're never going to fully wrap
our minds around everything.
So let us continue to approach this book with zeal and pray that God will give us the best
understanding.
But at the same time, you have to realize that we have to study the Bible our whole
lives and we'll still not get it all.
And then one day, our faith will become sight and we don't have to guess anymore, okay?
And you know who's not going to be seeing it?
The Catholics.
Alright, so let's go to the prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us this prophecy and giving us this word.
I pray that we would treat it carefully, just like John had to get this message out and
had to deliver it.
It was a timely message.
It's a timely message today.
People are dying going to hell every second.
And it's important that we go out and we preach the gospel and that we share with people
the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And no matter what befalls us or trials or temptations, we have a companion, John.
We understand that Jesus Christ had to suffer and we understand that Jesus Christ had to
die.
Thank you so much for the ultimate sacrifice that your son gave us.
I pray that we be motivated to read the Bible more and to listen to preaching and to keep
your commandments so that we could know you better.
Pray that we wouldn't listen to heretics.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.