What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
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Finally, he said; “Church can’t be that bad if it can leave you so happy.”
I gave him my phone number and asked him to call me if he wanted to do so, and I would tell him more about the church.
He called me and soon gave his heart to the Lord. I found out that David had lived on the street and had not had a good life so far.
Today he is a happily married man. Yes, the Lord works through people.
Surprised the man said to me; "Know who?" "Jesus” I said; “I heard you mentioning His name several times.”
I love to shock people it will make them think.
In the grocery store, you can easily find someone that will complain about the high cost of food.
Because misery loves company, you wholeheartedly agree with them. Tell the person that you are sure that it will get worse. Agreeing with you is assured at this point. I will then tell them, that I won't need to worry as I have a very rich father.
On their faces you can read the surprise, of course, their faces say, then it is no wonder you don't worry if you have a rich father.
“Yes ma’am I sure do,” is my reply, as I look up.
In the afternoon, I overheard one of the men saying to another man, to go to hell. I walked over to them and asked the one who had sent the other to hell, why he had wished the other man to go to hell. Surprised, he did not know what to say, so I said it for him; "Because you don't like him right?"
Almost grateful to now have the answer, he nodded his head. "Well, I said; “Maybe next time, you should wish him to go to heaven, then at least the two of you, will be separated.”
Unbeknown to me, the late-night man, or boy really, had come in and he had overheard everything. He asked me if he could ask me some questions.
He said he was really afraid to do so as he was thinking it might take away from my faith.
How sweet of him to be so concerned for me while he needed answers for himself.
I assured him not to worry about me, as I myself had been having many questions. Besides I told him, someone had to answer your questions.
He had many sincere questions and kept needing, reassurance that I would not lose my faith if he asked them. I answered him as best as I could and promised him a book to read. The next day I gave him; "The Rapture".
In those days I was sent from store to store but I did not work in that particular store again. I wanted my book back as I couldn't buy another one it was now out of print.
About four weeks after I had lent out my book, I saw him in the parking lot with a few friends. I decided not to say anything, as I did not want to embarrass him in front of them. Not to worry, the moment he saw me he said; “Hello Jenny, I still have your book.” I told him that I knew, and if he wanted to read another book. Eyes large as saucers he said; "Oh no,” I want to read it all again, 'cause it is blowing my mind!”
This in an accent, that only a Los Angeles, black man can do! Priceless!
I know that I will meet that brother again on the other side and the friends he had with him that day, were also Christians.
And by the way, keep the book!
My mom had visited me from Holland and I had taken her to Mexico where she had bought leather purses to give as presents to her friends back home.
I had the bright idea to buy some purses to take back to Canada.
Not wanting to go back to Mexico I headed to my favorite second-hand store.
The moment I entered the store I heard a voice loud and clear; "look at the shoes"
I even answered. I came for leather purses the last thing I want to do is look at old shoes. : Look at the shoes" It was annoying for sure as that voice just did not stop.
Finally just to stop this nonsense I walked over to the shoes.
Wow, unreal, two pairs of booths, new, made in Italia the best leather you could buy, a pair in black and a pair in brown. Of course, it was a size 6, my size.
It took a long time for me to realize that the voice I heard and argued with, had to be the Holy Spirit. Finding this in sunny California? ........................................
It happened in California can't remember the city.
Walking between a lot of people I heard; " Pray for these people"
"I don't know those people" I argued
"I know" was the answer, "I do"
You too may have had similar experiences and did not realize, who the voice was who was talking to you.......................none other than the Holy Spirit.................
I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. When we make this first choice, we have come to understand that we do not have the power to control our hurts, hangups, and our habits on our own. When we admit this, God can begin his healing work in our lives. Do you know who the ones are who are going to be able to admit their own powerlessness? Well, Jesus told us who.
He said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Choice number two he earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that he has the power to help me recover. As we begin to believe that we are important to God, we find great comfort in knowing that he has the power to change us and our situation. Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Choice number three see consciously choose to commit all of my life and will to Christ's care and control.
When we commit our entire lives to Christ, we become a new person. We can finally give up trying to control ourselves and others. We replace our willpower with our willingness to accept God's power. Jesus said, Blessed are the humble or the meek. Choice number four oh, openly examine and confess my fault to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
Jesus says, Blessed are the pure in heart and in order to have a clear conscience, in order to deal with our guilt and have a pure heart. We need to admit all the wrongs of our past and present. We do this by writing it all down and sharing it with another person. Choice number five voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. We submit to all the changes God wants to make in our lives, and we humbly ask Him to work in our lives to bring about the needed changes.
We hunger and we thirst for it. Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Choice number six e evaluate all of my relationships, offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me, and make amends for harm I've done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others. We do our best to restore our relationships. We offer forgiveness to the people who have hurt us, and we make amends to the people that we've hurt.
Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful. And he also said, Blessed are the peacemakers. Choice number seven r reserve a daily time with God for self examination, Bible reading and prayer in order to know God and his will for my life and gain the power to follow his will. We maintain these daily habits of spending time with God in order to know Him, in order to keep our recovery on track. Choice number eight why yield myself to God to be used to bring this good news to others?
Both by my example and by my words? Through God's grace and living out these eight principles, we will find freedom from our hurts, our hangups, and our habits. It's only a matter of time then, when we've been changed by God, we yield ourselves to be used by Him as we share, we share our story and serve others. At this point, we give ourselves to be used by Jesus no matter what it costs us. Jesus promised, blessed or happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Jesus eight principles for healing and happiness are the basis for the eight choices outlined each week in this series. With the exception of choice number seven, each choice has a corresponding beatitude. Choice six actually has two.
Some of you watching this series online haven't believed in Him yet. You don't follow him yet. Trust him yet. Love him yet. That's okay.
You do not have to become a Christian before you go on this journey with us. You can come as you are, and you can relax. Because even though we're going to be talking a lot about Jesus and the Bible, you will never be forced to believe anything you hear in this series that you do not want to believe. If you're listening to the series and you're a skeptic of the Christian faith, your skepticism is welcome here. And believe it or not, you're welcome here.
You can bring your questions and your pushbacks to the table. God can handle them, and so can we. I'll just ask you one thing. I'll just ask that you consider coming to this series with an open mind and test the things you hear before you discard them outrightly. If it's trash, throw it out.
But if you find it to be a treasure, don't let anything keep you from holding on to it. In the end, you are completely free to choose to take as much or as little of what you learn here as you want. But because Jesus is so amazing, I won't hold back from pointing you to Him and nudging you towards Him every chance I get. Write this down. We're going to say yes to a call to action.
We're going to say yes to a call to action. Listen to me carefully. You will not be changed just because you have a desire to change. Wanting to change is important, but just wanting it not enough. You will also not be changed by simply listening to the content in this series.
Hearing what you need to do is important, but only hearing about it is not enough either. If you're going to change, you must take action to achieve the changes you desire. I read a great quote this week from a philosopher and theologian named Dallas Willard. In his book The Great Omission, he says this grace is not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning.
Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone. End quote. At the end of your message outlines that you're going to be receiving each Sunday throughout this series.
There are going to be three action steps that you can complete during the week. Completing these actions will help you apply the choices you are learning to learning about, to your own life, and I want to encourage you to take your time and complete each Action Step honestly and to the best of your ability. It's through completing each of these steps that true and lasting healing will occur. The three action steps that will be included in each week's message are pray about it, write about it, and share about it. In the Pray About an Action Step, you're going to be prompted to pray for specific things regarding each choice.
And if you're not used to praying, don't worry, they're going to be written prayers to help you get started. And as you move through this series, you're going to see how important prayer is in helping you make the changes and healing choices that you desire in your life. The Write About Action Step will ask you to put your thoughts and insights down in black and white. When a thought passes from the lips to the fingertips, it becomes really specific. This is also called journaling.
As you progress through each of the choices, you're going to learn to rely on your writings. And it will be a good idea to get a journal if you don't already have one. What you write in your journal will help you see your areas of growth and the areas you still need further work on. After you pray about it and then write about it, you're going to have a chance to share about it. Life's healing choices is built upon the New Testament principle that we don't change or get well by ourselves.
We need each other.
As we go through this series together, I suggest that you take your time. The hurts, the hangups, and the habits that have been interfering with your happiness did not happen or develop overnight. It makes sense. They're not simply going to disappear from your life or be changed by the snap of your fingers. You will discover that you must rely on God's power to help you take the actions necessary to complete the eight choices.
Only by God's power will lasting life changes occur. So I'm eager and excited to take you guys on this amazing journey and I hope that you'll come back over the following weeks to explore and experience all of the freedom that God has made available to you. So with that said, I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up and I'm going to invite you to pray with me. And I'm going to pray. I'm going to ask some things of the Lord if.
These resonate in your heart and your mind. Pray them for yourself too. Pray them in the quiet of your heart.
Father, I pray right now that you will do in this place and not in this place, in this building, in this place, like in these people, in us. Do something in our hearts and in our minds that you say you can and will do. Reveal to us in the Scriptures, which means open up the eyes of our hearts, let our minds conceive and understand and see what it is that you're inviting us into enlarge in our capacity to hope for a type of life that maybe we've never even experienced up until this point. If we know you already, Lord, show us how much deeper and how much more profound, how much more powerful we can experience this life. I pray, Lord, that you'd show us that you didn't come and live and die and rise and then go to heaven where you are right now.
You didn't do all of that just so that we can have eternal life one day in the future. And then here we have to hold on for Your dear life until eternal life starts one day. Then I pray, Lord, that you to show us that eternal life, a quality of life, a spiritual, heavenly, abundant life, starts the moment a person believes upon you, the moment your spirit floods their life, the moment you cause us to be born again. That's when eternal life starts. And then our death is just a comma and we continue to experience eternal life beyond the grave.
Show us it. Lord, don't let the enemy steal any words that were shared here tonight from those who have heard it. Saying things to them like, this is not for you. You're too broken, you're too messed up. This might work for other people, but it won't work for you.
I pray, Father, that you'd silence the enemy if he's speaking any of those kinds of words to any of the people here or online, and replace those words with Your words of hope and power and love and invitation to more. I pray, Lord, that you would remind every single person here that they are not alone, they are not the only ones struggling. Everyone has hurts, everyone has hangups, everyone has habits. We're all in this life together, battling the same kind of stuff. So don't let people suffer, Lord, in isolation, I pray.
That the freedom from the things that have been weighing me down and burdening me and hurting me and holding me down. Freedom is possible. Deposit that in people's lives. Now I pray, Lord, do all these things, Jesus, because when you do these things, it makes you look amazing when you work your kind of love and power in our life like this. So do it for us, but do it for you, Lord, and let us enjoy the fruit of your work.
I pray all these things, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Amen.
As members of the human race, we all deal with life’s hurts, hang-ups, and habits. In this week’s lesson we’ll look at the cause of these hurts, hang-ups, and habits, their consequences, and their cure.
At the end of the message, we will be joined by one of the members of Gospel City Church, Marnin, who shares a little bit of his story with us.
Okay, it's time for a pop quiz. Do you like Pop Quizzes, Diane? I know you do. If you answer yes to any of the following seven questions, you will know without a doubt that you are a citizen of the human race. Do you ever stay up late when you know you need sleep? Do you ever eat or drink more calories than your body actually needs? Do you ever feel you ought to exercise, but you don't? Do you ever know the right thing to do, but don't do it? Do you ever know something is wrong, but do it anyway? Have you ever known you should be unselfish, but we're selfish instead? And have you ever tried to control somebody or something and found them or it uncontrollable? All right, tally up your score. Did anyone else score seven out of seven, or is that just me? Okay, not alone. It's a good feeling. We're all fellow members of the human race, and that means that all of us deal with life's hurts, hang-ups, and habits. We all have things in our life that we wish weren't there, and we all have things in our life that we wish we could change.
But here's the funny thing about change. Nobody really likes change. If you think about it, that's because change is hard. Real change is hard. Now, we like the idea of change as long as that change could come about in my life by someone walking up to me with a magic wand saying, abracadabra, all your unhealthy stuff are gone, and it's replaced with a whole bunch of healthy stuff in a split second. Everyone loves that idea of change. The problem is that version of change doesn't exist. We like the idea of change, but very few people like the process that's involved that leads to real change. So, we try to avoid change for as long as we can. Part of our human nature is to refuse change until the pain in our life exceeds our fear of change. We simply deny the pain that's in our life until the point where it gets so bad that we are crushed, and we finally realize that we need help. Why don't we save ourselves a bit of misery and admit now what we're inevitably going to have to admit later? We are not God. We desperately need God because our lives are unmanageable without Him.
We'll be forced to learn that lesson someday. We might as well admit it now. In last week's message, we were introduced to our new Life's Healing Choices series, and we spent our time looking ahead at some of the things that you can expect to experience over the course of these nine weeks together. In tonight's message, we're going to take a look at choice number one, and we're going to do that by examining three main things. First, we're going to look at the cause of our hurts, hangups, and our habits. Second, we're going to look at their consequences. And then third, we're going to begin looking at the cure. And as we look at the causes and consequences of our pain, our spiritual poverty should become obvious. And as it does, we'll be better able to understand what Jesus is talking about in that very first beatitude where he says that our blessingness or our happiness is connected to our spiritual poverty. Admitting the truth that we are spiritually poor or powerless to control our tendency to do wrong leads us to blessing and to the cure for our hurts, hang ups, and our habits that we so desperately need.
So first things first. Let's start by looking at the cause of our problems. Now what I'm about to explain to you is one of the most important things you need to know if you are going to understand how life works.
Okay, well, thank you so much for doing this, Marin. This is amazing. Would you be willing to briefly share with us a point in your life where you came to the realization that you were powerless in your own strength to control your image, your circumstances, other people, your problems, or your pain?
Marnin:
Yeah. So my wife and I have been married for nine years, and I know there's probably a lot of people that are double digits, like, come on, get on my level. But when we first got married, the thing that everyone was telling me about her is that she's always wanted to be a mom. And when you ask little kids what they want to be, and they want to be a fireman or they want to be a policeman, they want to be a doctor, my wife, her answer to that question was, I want to be a mum. And that was she was, like, four, so that's always been there. When we first got married, I was still in university early stages to become an engineer, and we both wanted a family. I come from a large family, so both of both of us have the desire. But we we prayed to God, just, you know, on on your time, give us a family. And it wasn't happening right away. And you think logically, that's good, because I'm in university, just logically makes sense. But then university ends, and so now this fear starts to grow, like, okay, what's going on?
Now it logically makes sense, and it's just not happening. And the fear grows, and it grows. And I didn't want to see doctors because when one is not happening but you don't know, at least, well, it could happen. But when we went to go see the doctors realized my worst fear, that we couldn't have kids. And I was the reason. And my fear was that this has been a lifelong dream for her, and I can't give my wife what she wants. And then there was also the frustration of it's always been our desire to have a family, and we can't. And then there are others and I'm just being honest here there are others who don't want a family and have one, so why can't I have a family?
BJ:
Thanks. Marnin, how did fear, frustration, fatigue, or failure associated with trying to be in control affect your relationship with God and others?
Marnin:
This all breaks into my relationship with God and then my relationship with my wife. So the frustration of why do others get to have a family and I don't? It's kind of in the time, I didn't know this. It's looking back, seeing it. But I felt guilty because I know God's good. I know he's faithful. And I felt guilty that I had this question about why I felt like I was being a bad Christian, honestly, just questioning why he wouldn't give me a family. And so it affected my relationship with God because I wouldn't pray about it. The one thing I need to do is go pray about it, but I wouldn't. I would only pray about other things, or I just wouldn't pray at all because there's that lingering thing. And then relationship with my wife. When we found out, her response was just, are you okay? And my response, my typical response is suppress emotions, problem solve. And so just, yeah, I'm fine. I went to go do dishes because I need to do something. And then I hear her crying, and I just broke down because I can't give her the thing that she wants.
So rather than grieving with her, I went into problem solving mode. So now it's do all these things to try to make her happy, bring humor into the situation. Don't do that. Did not go over well. I wasn't the support that she needed, and I wasn't setting the example of going to God with our hurt.
BJ:
What would you say brought you to a place of admitting your need to God? And did this also include admitting your need to others? Were there roadblocks in getting to a place of admitting need or weakness? And how did you overcome any roadblocks, if there were any?
Marnin:
So the roadblocks my own need for control. I hate not being in control. That's probably the engineering in me.
BJ:
You're doing good. And then, how do you overcome any roadblocks, if there are any?
Marnin:
Yeah. I couldn't tell you an exact moment. It was just I came to the end of myself. I was gutted. I had tried controlling it on my own, and things were just not getting better. So it was out of almost necessity, right? I tried everything else in my own, so maybe I should do what I should have done in the first place.
BJ:
I know someone who can relate. It's me. Last question, Marnin. How is humility to admit your need and weakness to God and others a powerful weapon? What kind of freedom or blessing have you experienced from taking a posture of humility?
Marnin:
When I try to control things on my own, I'm working out of a place of emptiness. So I push and I push and I push without any energy, and nothing gets better. And I just feel the weight getting heavier and heavier and heavier. And when I give it to God, that weight is gone, because now I'm not in control. He's in control. And when you give it to God, you're working out of a place of infinite strength. You're working out of a deep wall. You're not drawing on an empty wall anymore. And things don't necessarily get better instantly. But you know that you're putting your faith in your trust in someone who's going to be there for you and can control the situation. And you know, the thing to notice like this is not a one time thing. I find myself having to go there time and time and time again every day because my natural tendency is to want to control things as if it's going to work better a second time and it just never does.
BJ:
That's awesome. Thank you, Marnin, for coming up here and doing this and just amazing to hear God's grace in your life, your love for him and just letting us come into this journey with you guys is humbling to be part of your story and to hear it. So thank you so much for sharing that with me and with all of us. In light of all that we've heard tonight in this message and in what Mornin has shared with us, I want to invite you just to pray with me. Let's pray together and while we do this, I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up as we get ready to pray. I just want to ask God to give you the courage to admit your inability to control yourself or your world. Pray that you will begin to depend on his power to help make positive changes. Ask God to take control of your life and to help you stop trying to control your image, other people, your problems and your pain. Let him know that you are weary of carrying the fear, you're tired of carrying it, and the frustration, the fatigue and the failures of trying to be the general manager of the universe.
So I'm going to invite you just to pray with me. Make these words your words. If they fit, if the shoe fits, you're allowed to wear it.
Dear God, I want to take the first choice to healing and spiritual health today. I realize I'm not you, God. I've often tried to control my problems by staying busy and keeping myself distracted. But I want to stop running. I admit that I am helpless to control this tendency to do the things I know are unhealthy for me. Today I am asking for your help. I humbly ask you to take all the pieces of my unmanageable life and begin the process of healing. Please heal me. Please give me the strength to cheer choose health. Help me stick with this process for the next seven choices. In your name I pray amen. Amen.
Well, that has happened to me. I would have already had my operation but was forced to cancel twice.
Now the big day is May 31st
I know someone said I do anything for attention. Grrrrrrrr..................
Well, that has happened to me. I would have already had my operation but was forced to cancel twice.
Now the big day is May 31st
I know someone said I do anything for attention. Grrrrrrrr..................
To make me feel better the cheerful news is that it can come back. Hello?
And that's really all that matters. Over the years, I gleaned a few snippets of information from books and low budget Christian movies and the odd sermon. But after walking with Jesus for years, my understanding of revelation still sounded something like I'm pretty sure Jesus comes back at some point in the future. I think there's a rapture in there somewhere. There's an Antichrist, a battle of Armageddon, something to do with 666 and lots of bad, scary stuff that's going to happen.
My knowledge of what the Bible says about the end times was scattered and lacking any semblance of cohesive understanding. I felt like I had seven pieces of a 100 piece puzzle I. Couldn't see the big picture, and I had no idea how the few pieces I did have fit in with the rest of the puzzle. Perhaps you can relate then at the age of 23, I took a position at the church that would change my life and my and my understanding of the Bible.
When I joined that church, the pastor was about halfway through a message series on the Book of Revelation. And when I found that out, I remember I asked someone, Oh, you mean the parts we can understand? And they said, well, no, actually, the whole thing we're going through the whole book, verse by verse. I was floored. I couldn't believe it. As an employee of the church, I tried not to look completely confused.
So I politely nodded while I thought, I don't understand. How is that? How is that possible? I listened attentively through the rest of the series and then went back and listened to the first half of the message series, the messages I had missed. And by the time I reached the end of the series, I couldn't believe it. I actually understood it. I understood the Book of Revelation. I understood every chapter and pretty much every verse, and it changed my life.
Let me tell you how the first word that we need to learn is eschatology. Eschatology. That's a good, smart sounding word to add to your vocabulary. It's the term for the theological study of Bible prophecies related to the end of the world, the end times, the last days. So if you're studying eschatology, you're studying end times, Bible prophecies, which is what we're going to be doing in this message series within Christianity, there's a frequently repeated critique of those who love to dig into eschatology.
And the critique goes something like this. If you're too heavenly minded, you'll be no earthly good. I remember opening a prominent Christian music magazine and reading their review of a concept album that a well-known Christian artist had just released. All the songs were focused on heaven and the coming of Jesus for his church, and it was and is a brilliant album. But this review felt the need to accuse the album of, quote, suffering from our Flyaway syndrome and quote.
Both critiques that I mentioned are rooted in the belief that Christians who are focused on the heaven will neglect all the things they should be doing for Jesus on the earth here and now. Those who make this critique believe that Christians who are focused on heaven will live useless lives as they waste away their days longingly gazing toward the heavens when they should be sharing the gospel and occupying themselves with the work of the kingdom on the Earth. My testimony and the testimony of countless others is that Eschatology has the complete opposite effect on a person because the reality is that you won't be any earthly good until your heavenly minded.
You cannot evaluate end times Bible prophecy objectively because they are pretty committed to viewing it allegorically, they have no choice or they create a contradiction with their own theology. Let's talk about the second divergence of eschatological views which are centered on the rapture of the church. The rapture is the term given to a literal future event when Jesus will remove all those who are collectively known as the church from the Earth, meet them in the clouds and take them to be with him in an instant.
And all this will happen in the blink of an eye. The most well-known verse is on the Rapture are found in First Thessalonians four, beginning in verse 16. I'll read it to you. Paul writes this for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of an angel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord. So there are three main views on the Rapture, and they all fall under the view of pre-millennialism. The Millennialist and the Post millennialist do not believe in any type of rapture. If you believe in a rapture, this might be news to you. Most Christians do not believe in any type of rapture. Only those who hold to a pre millennial eschatology believe in any type of rapture. And so under Premal in any millennialism, there are these three different views on the rapture, and they all have to do with the issue of the timing of the rapture.
That's where they get their names from, specifically where the Rapture falls in relation to the seven-year tribulation period described in Revelation Chapter six through Revelation Chapter nineteen. All your questions will be answered when we get there in our study. For now, let's just be content to understand the tribulation, to be all the bad stuff that happens in Revelation. So these different views of the Rapture have to do with where does the Rapture happen in relation to the seven year time period where all this bad stuff is happening.
If you look at your notes, your outline, you'll see the three suppositions, sub positions and what each of them believes. Firstly, we have a post tribulation view or poster view. This is the view that the church will be raptured after the tribulation period. So at the end of those seven years, the second view is the tribulation view or mid trip view. This is the view that the church will be raptured, you guessed it, at the halfway point of the tribulation, the middle point, three and a half years into those seven years.
And then finally, we have the pre tribulation view, the pre trip view that the church will be raptured before the tribulation begins. So there's a simple chart on your outline that helps us understand these different eschatological positions regarding the bottom of the diagram, where you see this weird word that you might not know how to pronounce the word is pronounced hermeneutics. And it's the technical term for how we approach the task of interpreting scripture, how we approach the task of interpreting the Bible.
And so you can have a very allegorical or soft hermeneutic or you can have a very literal or very firm hermeneutic. Generally, a soft hermeneutical approach is going to lead you to take the scriptures, especially prophecy, with the assumption that it's allegorical or idiomatic or mystical or something like that.
I enjoy his no-nonsense teachings. He seems to be able to see into our minds when we don't understand something and he then goes on to explain it to us in an easier to understand way.
I like it when this pastor tells us the beliefs of others and then is able to show us where they are wrong and why.
It will be a long trip he is taken us through, right now we are still in the introductions, but I believe that in the end, we will be able to understand the Revelations like we were never able to do before............................
And so if you look at that chart on your outline, you can see that if you favor and allegorical approach to Bible prophecy, then you're probably going to hold an all millennial eschatology. You're probably not going to believe in a rapture. If you favor a literal approach to reading the Bible, you're probably going to hold a pre millennial eschatology and you're probably going to believe in a rapture. You're hermeneutics have a massive impact on your theology, but especially your eschatology.
So just. To be up front with you about where we're going in this study, we will be employing a firm hermeneutic which is going to lead us to conclude a pre millennial pre tribulation eschatology. And if that's not currently your view, let me just ask you to stick with us so that you can see how I reach that conclusion. And then once you've seen and heard the evidence, you can evaluate whether my conclusion is reasonable. You can come to your own conclusion.
So why start with a firm hermeneutic, though? Why why would we begin by assuming that the Bible is speaking literally? Firstly, because conveying specific literal meaning is the primary reason words and language exist. It's the reason we invented languages is because we wanted to convey things with specific meaning that was represented by specific words. And if you think about it. We start by taking all text and conversation literally, unless there is a compelling reason not to. Here's what I mean.
If you come up to me and say, Jeff, do you know where I can get a cup of coffee? None of us begin by assuming the other person is speaking metaphorically. I would be crazy to begin by assuming that by cup of coffee you meant something else, like the meaning of life or purpose. Any reasonable person begins with the assumption that the other person is speaking literally, not metaphorically or allegorically. And so it only makes sense to approach the Bible with the same rationale.
We begin by assuming the Bible is speaking literally, unless there is good evidence, a good reason to suggest that the text is speaking with some type of visual language. For example, when Jesus is telling his audience something that is described as a parable, we know that it's a fabricated story. We know this because the Bible tells us that it is a parable. That's a good reason to not take Jesus's words literally in that instance. And there are many other good reasons to not take a text literally, but beginning with an assumption of literalism.
Both these words, until contrary evidence appears, is always the most logical approach to any text or conversation. Secondly, we know that in the Old Testament there are over 300 prophecies that speak of Jesus's first coming the incarnation. We know that the overwhelming percentage of them are literal. We know because Jesus fulfilled them literally in his first coming. The Bible contains significantly more prophecies relating to Jesus's second coming. Now, if the prophecies relating to Jesus's first coming were fulfilled, primarily, literally, why in the world would we not expect the prophecies that speak of a second coming to also be fulfilled?
Literally, what justification do we have for completely changing our hermeneutical approach to Bible prophecy when it comes to the prophecies regarding Jesus's first coming and the prophecies regarding his second coming? What's our justification for taking the first set?
I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody. I'm just trying to provoke us into asking good questions about our current beliefs. And I want to propose another test for any eschatological view. And I suggest to you that that this test will allow you to conclude which view of the end times is most accurate. In fact, this is a test, an approach that will help you evaluate any area of theological study, any belief system related to the Bible.
If you're trying to evaluate different views on soteriology, the theology of salvation, new mythology, the theology of the Holy Spirit, or in this instance, eschatology, the theology of the end times, this test will help you evaluate the different belief systems in those areas of theology. Here's the simple test. Does the view, does the doctrine, does the position, does that perspective work everywhere in the Bible? Does it work everywhere? You see, one's eschatology has to be affirmed, not contradicted by the rest of scripture.
In other words, if a doctrine is true, it will make sense everywhere that it shows up in the Bible. It won't work only in the New Testament, but not in the Old Testament. It won't work well with the writings of Paul, but not so well with the writings of Jesus. If it's true, it'll work everywhere in the Bible. And I'd like to emphasize that it will work well, because sometimes there are some positions where people will say, well, there's there's not a direct contradiction here between my view and this verse, but there is what I would call textual contortionists.
And these are explanations and perspectives where you're looking at a verse in the Bible, but you're really having to stretch its meaning, you're having to twist it. You're having to contort and manipulate the text and put it through some elaborate machinations in order to make it harmonize with the doctrine that you hold. So when you're evaluating these different theological views, that's good to ask. Which view works better across the whole text of the Bible? But then also, which view allows for the plainest reading of scripture?
Which view requires the least textual contortion, the least twisting and stretching of scriptures, which one just makes the most sense and works best everywhere in the Bible, the subject shows up. While there are end times, prophecies all over the Bible, there are four super texts. I call them super texts that any serious student of Bible prophecy must study. That's right. When we're done revelation, you've begun your journey to understanding the end times, but there's more work to do if you want to be a serious student of Bible prophecy.
Your starting point is studying the Book of Revelation, the epistles of First and Second Thessalonians. The Olivet Discourse, which was taught by Jesus in Matthew 24 to 25, Mark 13 and Luke 21, and then you also need to study the back half of the book of Daniel. And so the most accurate eschatological view is going to be the one that best harmonizes all of those texts that works best in all of those places in scripture. Hopefully you're still with me.
You would love the Lord to show you, write down all those questions and then begin praying into that. Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see, ears to hear and to open your understanding of his word. And then let's just see how faithful God is going to be as we study through the scriptures to begin to answer all those questions for you. If you'll do that, I think you'll find that your faith is going to be really deeply built up through this series.
So that's your homework. Last Sunday, our church heard testimonies from six different people whose lives have been forever changed by Jesus. And then we experience the joy of watching them be baptized. You know, for me, baptisms are like attending a wedding because they take my mind back to the time when I went through that same ritual. I remember where I was, who was there and how it happened. I was baptized in Cape Town, South Africa, in a poorer pool in a church, which is a little portable pool that has like wire mesh around the outside.
And the pool was heated with bare metal rods connected to electricity. So if anyone to touch the water while they were heating it, they probably would have died. But it worked. And that's the situation that I was baptized in. And it was it was wonderful. I remember it vividly. And last Sunday, I was thinking about what I would say to the 11 year old me if I could go back in time to the day that I was baptized.
And and I realized that what I would say is, listen, Jeff, as wonderful and as good and as loving and as kind and as gracious as you think God is right now. I want to let you know that he's even more of those things than you could ever possibly imagine, and you are going to experience his goodness in the years to come over and over and over again in ways that will move you to tears. And as we get ready to undertake this study of the Book of Revelation, the one thing I would say to you is that however good you think God's plans are for those who love him.
The truth is they're even better. He's even better, and so we're going to close with these precious words from Jesus to his disciples in John Chapter 14. I love these verse is so much. They're all in your outline. Jesus says let your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also. And where I go, you know. And the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going and how can we know the way Jesus said to him. I am the way the truth. And the life. Did you buy your head and close your eyes and pray with me?
Jesus, thank you for the good plans that you have in store for your church. Thank you. That they are more glorious than we could possibly wrap our heads around. And, Lord, as we embark on the study of the Book of Revelation, I thank you for the way that you were going to build our faith, the way that we are going to be blessed as we encounter and receive new and fresh, glorious revelation of who you are and what your plans are for our world.
Part 2
Series
Books of the Bible
Month
Preacher
"The Star of the Show" ......Date:6/27/21
Series: Revelation Passage: Revelation 1:1-20
Speaker: Jeff Thompson
John's incredible visions begin with an encounter with the King of Kings, Jesus. We'll learn how Jesus is at the centre of the Book of Revelation, how we can be blessed by studying it, and how the Old Testament is the key to understanding it.
As we prepared to dig into Revelation Chapter one this week, let me just say this, we are only going to be able to scratch the surface of this chapter. There's so much more here than we have time to dig into. And even though we'll only be focusing on the most critical things, you may still need to go back and listen to this message again. Watch this message again, because there's just going to be so much good stuff here. My goal is to give you the best information I can in the time that we have together.
And sometimes all I'm going to be able to do is just drop some breadcrumbs that you can follow in your own time as you study in the coming days and weeks. In our previous study, we joked about how the Book of Revelation is widely perceived as being difficult to understand. And I did my best to encourage you that in reality, the exact opposite is true. I'm going to begin this week by encouraging you again with the knowledge that the title of this book is Revelation.
It's the Greek word apocalypses, which means and uncovering a revealing this book's very title. Tells us that it is written to reveal something, not to conceal something, a revelation is what takes place when something previously obscured or hidden is suddenly seen clearly. And one of the primary purposes of the Book of Revelation is to bring clarity to subjects that have previously been hidden, obscured or confusing. In fact, the first words of this amazing book, if you look in your Bible, tell us that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Would you underline the word Revelation? It's the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And this is going to be your first fill in. The word Revelation simply means that something has been Revealed. The word Revelation means something has been Revealed and it gets better because God also promises a special blessing to anyone who reads and responds to the contents of Revelation, something he does for no other book of the Bible. The Lord does this because he wants us to understand, listen, this book, it's really special and he wants us to read it.
We find this promise in Revelation one three. Take a look at it. It says, Blessed is he who reads underline that. Blessed is he who reads. And those who hear the word here can also be translated. Understand? Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that promises a special blessing to those who read and respond to it.
So think about this for a moment. The book is literally titled Revelation, referring to something that was obscured being made clear. The book opens by telling us that it is a Revelation and God promises a special blessing to the one who reads and responds to the contents of this book. So how then would it make sense to believe that after opening the book this way, God made the rest of the book impossible to understand? And an indecipherable collection of codes and metaphors wouldn't make any sense to believe that.
What would make sense is to believe that if God wants us to understand and respond to this book, then he has made it understandable. If you've ever attended a church that has studied all the way through Revelation, your church is an exception to the norm.
Perhaps you've heard some of these reasons why, oh, it's all about things in the distant future and we need to be focused on things that are happening here and now or, you know, it's scary and we don't want to scare people in church. Or there's so much weird stuff in here and we just don't want our first time guests to think our church is weird. Or there are so many different interpretations of revelation, I mean, who knows which one is right?
And yet the book begins by telling us that this is the Revelation of who Jesus Christ, the Lord promises to bless us if we read this, he desires that we respond to the Book of Revelation. And that's because, first and foremost, this is not a book about the end of the world. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ and it is intended for all believers. Now, whether we realize it or not, when we ignore Revelation in our churches, we withhold a special blessing and we withhold greater Revelation of Jesus from our congregations.
That's why I'm so glad you're here. I know that you're going to be blessed not because of me, but because God has promised it. In His word. Revelation has another special feature that is unique among the scriptures to help make this book easier to understand God included in it, a simple and clear outline that allows us to understand the major sequence of events. So write this down. Revelation is the only book in the Bible that comes with its own outline.
It's the only book in the Bible that comes with its own outline. And we find this outline in Revelation, chapter one, verse 19. Take a look at it. This is where Jesus instructs John to write the things which you have seen, underline that and the things which are underlying that and the things which will and then underline the rest of it take place after this. Right. The things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this.
This outline reveals to us the three acts of the Book of Revelation Act one, the things which John has seen act to the things which are Act three, the things which will take place after this. The first act, the things which you have seen refers to what John has seen up to this point, and what John has seen up to and including Revelation 119 is the resurrected and glorified Jesus, the second act, the things which are refers to chapters two and three in which Jesus himself will dictate seven letters to seven churches that existed at the time that John wrote Revelation.
Those letters are going to speak to churches in John's day, but they're also going to speak to churches at all times and to all believers. And then when we get there, will find that there is another mystical layer to these letters, because in their order, they prophesy around two thousand years of church history from around 32 A.D. up to the present day with incredible detail and precision. And yes, it's going to be mind blowing when we get there.
And to make a note of this, chapters two and three refer to the church age, chapters two and three refer to the church age. And then Jesus tells John to write about the things which will take place after this. After what? After the events of chapters two and Chapter three, the church age. When we reach that point in our study, we'll learn that a supernatural global event is going to take place at the end of the church age after this.
This will kick off the third act, so there's going to be this special event taking place at the end of the church age, and that's going to kick off this third act, the things which will take place after this chapters two and three, which describe the church age. And with Jesus saying this in Revelation three twenty behold, I stand at the door and knock.
So chapters two and three are the second act. Jesus described the third act to John as the things which will take place after this. The original Greek words behind the phrase after this are Metta Taruta, Metta Taruta. And here's the neat thing. The next place those same Greek words appear is in the opening of Chapter four, which begins with the phrase, After these things in the outline given in Revelation one 19, Jesus identified the third act of revelation by the phrase Metta Taruta.
And to make sure we could easily find that third act, God had it begin at the very next place that same phrase appears, which is a Revelation for one. Let's take a quick look at all of the Revelation for one. John writes, After these things, Meta Taruta, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place.
And then what phrase do we see next? After this? After this. Guess which Greek words are showing up there again? Metta Tatta. And that's important because when the Bible seems to be repetitive with a word or a phrase, it generally means that the Holy Spirit is trying to draw our attention to something. Revelation, for one, begins with meditator and ends with Metta Tatta. Apparently, the Holy Spirit really wants us to understand exactly where the church age ends and the next act begins.
So he marked the spot in Scripture with two Matya toutes to serve as a giant X.. The things which are the church age is the second act. And as the church age ends with Jesus knocking on the door in Revelation three twenty, Chapter four opens with John seeing a door open in heaven, hearing the voice of Jesus, which sounds like a trumpet and hearing that voice call him to come up here. When we reach that point in our study, we'll learn that this is when the church leaves the earth and heads up there to the presence of Jesus.
And it's interesting that although the word church appears over 20 times in the first three chapters of Revelation, it will not appear again in the narrative of revelation after revelation four one just disappears. And we'll find that's because the church has been removed from the earth at that time. Write this down after revelation. For one, the word church never again appears in the revelation narrative after revelation. For one, the word church never again appears in the revelation narrative.
So what have we learned so far? This book is a revelation. It's in the business of revealing, not concealing. There's a special blessing that comes with reading and responding to it. And God even gaze of gave us an easy to understand outline for the whole book. Our story begins likely around 95 A.D., more than 60 years after Jesus rose from the dead, more than 60 years after Jesus returned to heaven at the end of his earthly ministry.
John the Apostle has been exiled to the island of Patmos and has been there for around a decade. He was sent there as punishment for refusing to acknowledge Caesar Domitian as being divine. He wouldn't acknowledge that Caesar was a God like he was supposed to. Patmos is essentially a big rock that rises out of the ocean. It's six miles wide, it's ten miles long, and it's where Jesus visits John and gives him this revelation. John writes it down and it finds its way back to the church and eventually across the centuries to you and me.
You're going to want to have your Bible open now to Revelation one one, ideally, you're going to have a pen in your hand with your outline. You might even have a notebook as well to jot down anything that the Lord brings to your attention. And with that, let's get into the text revelation, one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants.
That means that if you serve Jesus, this is for you, things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant, John. As you study Bible prophecy, you'll discover that one of the ways God shows affection to those he loves is by sharing his plans with them. And that's what we see here in verse one, where God tells us that he is sharing this revelation because he wants those who serve Jesus to know what he has planned.
And the more we see God's plans, the more we see God's character. That is why, even though this book seems to be largely about future events, the Lord describes it as the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So make a note of this. God shares this Revelation because he wants those who love him to know his plans. God shares this Revelation because he wants those who love him to know his plans. Now, before we go any further, I just need to clear something up.
It is a total rookie move to ever refer to this book as Revelations, plural. Don't do it if you're guilty of doing that. It is time to repent or risk one day hearing me yell around a corner Revelation singular, and I wouldn't do that simply because I'm a little crazy. It actually matters because this book is a single cohesive Revelation. It mostly consists of one big flowing timeline and plan that all work together. It's a Revelation, not multiple unrelated Revelations.
The book is called Revelation. Now, there's just a few more things you need to know about verse one. And then I promise the rest of this chapter is going to go much faster in the phrase things which must shortly take place. The original Greek words translated shortly are Antiochus and Taco's. They are the root of our word tachometer that Gaige in our vehicle, which displays the RPM's the refs per minute of an engine. And the idea behind Antiochus is not something getting closer in a linear or consistent manner, but rather something approaching that is accelerating exponentially.
If you've ever driven a vehicle with standard or stick shift, then you've experienced Antiochus. When you floor the gas pedal, the needle on the tachometer moves up with increasing speed and then it just takes off as you approach the red line and your vehicle begins rapidly accelerating, exponentially accelerating. The best example of Antiochus was given by Jesus himself, who described the end times as a woman in labor. In Matthew 24h, Jesus said. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs when a woman having her first child has her first contractions.
It's alarming, it's intense. And then a pattern emerges, prompting the woman to call the hospital and say, I'm having contractions. The baby is coming. The nurse asks, how far apart are your contractions? The woman replies, 15 minutes. And the jaded nurse says, sweetheart, I've got bad news for you, you're just getting started. Things are going to get a whole lot more intense before your baby's born. And they do. That last hour before the baby is born is not the same as the hour that occurred 72 hours earlier, it's completely different in terms of intensity and frequency.
That's the idea behind Antiochus and what we're meant to have in mind when John refers to things that must shortly take place. Notice as well. Write this down. This revelation will be given in signs. It will be given in signs. Let's look at verse one again, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things that must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to a servant, John.
In the original Greek, the word signified literally means sign a five, signify it. It's the word, say Mineau, which means a sign to give a sign communication. Now, why would God choose to communicate much of this revelation in science? Well, there are a few possible explanations I can think of.
Date:7/4/21
Series: Revelation
Passage: Revelation 2:1-7
Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation contain letters written by Jesus to 7 churches. Each letter has multiple levels of application and addresses different aspects of the Christian life. In this first letter, we learn just how much Jesus values relationships over religion.
There is a rumor going around town, in fact, it's not only going around our town, it's also going around the church at large. There are those who are saying that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand, but nonsense, say we. For you see, the word revelation means that something has been revealed. If God wanted this to be hidden, he would have called it the consolation and not the revelation. What is God revealing? Well, in Revelation one one, we find the whole book beginning with the words The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is going to be a revelation of Jesus. The four gospels revealed Jesus as he was when he was on the Earth in his humble human state. The Book of Revelation reveals that same Jesus as he is now in his fully glorified, fully powerful, fully God state. God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised to bless those who take the time to read and respond to it. And God included the special blessing in Revelation one three.
It says, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. Now, can you imagine God saying, I want you to hear the words that are written in this book. I want you to understand them, and then I want you to respond to them. And if you do those things, I'll bless you. But here's the thing. You will never understand this book.
It wouldn't make much sense to believe that God would do that. But God knew there would be those who would say that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand.
So in order to make this book easy to understand, he gave it its own special outline that's found in Revelation 119, where Jesus gives John these instructions. Write the things which you have seen. What has John seen up to this point? Well, in verse thirteen, John writes that he saw one like the son of man. And who's that? It's the resurrected and glorified Jesus. We talked about that last week in Chapter one. Then Jesus tells John to also write the things which are that pertains to what we call the church age, which is laid out in chapters two and three, which will begin studying today.
And in those two chapters, Jesus will dictate seven letters to seven churches in their order, they will prophesy around 2000 years of church history, the entire church age with incredible precision. If you were to reverse the order, switch any of the two churches around or remove any one of the seven churches, it would not make sense. But in their order and only in their order, the prophecy aligns perfectly. And then finally, Jesus tells John to write the things which will take place after this.
After what will after the events of chapters two and three, after the church age, Jesus tells John to write down the things he's going to show him, which will take place after the church age in the original Greek. The words used for the phrase after this are Meta Taruta. That phrase next appears in Revelation Chapter four, verse one, where it marks the beginning of the third act in the Book of Revelation. Let me read it to you.
Revelation, for one says, After these things, what are the Greek words there? Meditator. So after the events of chapters two and three, after the church age, after those things, John writes, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And guess what?
And then the final and fourth level of application in each of these letters is prophetic. It's the level of prophecy. As we've mentioned, these seven letters lay out two thousand years of church history, the whole church age in advance with mind blowing precision and detail. One of the surprises is that the churches Jesus writes to are not all the obvious choices. There will be no sign of the prominent and influential megachurches of Rome, Antioch, or Jerusalem. Why?
I believe it's because the prophetic pattern that is going to emerge across these seven letters would only work with these specific churches in this specific order. The Book of Acts covers the first 30 years of the church, and chapters two and three of Revelation cover the next 2000 years of the church.
And this prophetic perspective is a fairly recent discovery, primarily because most of the church age had to have passed in order for the pattern to emerge and become noticeable. We also needed to live in an age when historical knowledge was easily accessible so that the appropriate research could be done. For us, the church age is almost entirely history, but John was recording it prophetically, likely unbeknownst to him as he was living in the first church of the church age. Here are a few other common traits that we're going to find in each letter.
Every letter is going to start with the phrase to the Angel of the Church of Blank.
In our previous study, I mentioned that the Greek word used there for Angel is Aguilar's, which means messenger, and it could be angelic or human. And so some scholars think that Jesus is referring to specific angels, sort of guardian angels that were assigned to each of these churches while others hold that Jesus is writing to the pastors of these churches. I shared that I lean toward the latter because I do not imagine that Jesus was communicating with his angels using the Roman postal system.
But I also hold that view because angels were not leading these churches. So, there wouldn't have been much point in Jesus telling them what changes needed to be made. We'll also see that the name of each church will reveal something about its identity. From God's perspective, the title Jesus uses for himself will tell us something that each church needs to be reminded of. Each letter will serve as a report card of sorts, with each church receiving a commendation - "I love that you're doing this." - a criticism - "Stop doing this." - and an exhortation - "Start doing this" or "Keep doing this." Four churches will have something missing from their report card. Two will receive no commendation - that's Sardis and Laodicea. And two churches will receive no criticism - Smyrna and Philadelphia. The ones who think they're doing well are going to find out that they're not. And the ones who think they aren't doing well are going to find that they're doing better than they think. Finally, each letter will include an exhortation to the reader - that's you and I - to be an overcomer of the issues raised by Jesus in that letter.
All seven churches were located in the Roman region of Asia, in a region that is today part of the country of Turkey.
And thanks to the Roman Empire, they were all connected by well-built roads. Ephesus was one of the largest, wealthiest, and most important cities in the Empire and held the title of Supreme Metropolis of Asia. Founded around fourteen hundred B.C., it had a population of between a quarter and half a million people, which was massive at the time. The city boasted a magnificent theater that could see 24000, good road and river systems, and a seaport at the mouth of the Kastor River.
A Christian loves God, a Christian loves God, then one of them, a lawyer, asked Jesus a question testing him and saying Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law. Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the great commandment for Matthew, 22. And when Peter came face to face with the resurrected Jesus for the first time since denying all knowledge of him three times, Jesus had only one question for Peter.
Do you love me? Do you love me?
So would you write this down? The defining characteristic of a Christian. Is their love for God, it's their love for God.
Are you in love with Jesus and I mean that seriously, I'm not asking if you love Jesus, like you love your country, or like you love your favorite food.
I'm asking if you're in love with Jesus because those two things are vastly different questions.
And what cuts me so deeply about this is the realization that I can do all the Christian stuff. I can study the Bible, pray, serve a church, tithe, evangelize, and practice random acts of kindness, all without being in love with Jesus, my life can be packed full of God stuff. And yet I can still miss Jesus. Imagine a husband who comes home from work with flowers for his wife and she gushes and she says, Oh, I love that you were thinking about me today.
And he says that's not really what happened. I put an appointment in my calendar to buy you flowers on the third Thursday of every month because flowers represent affection.
And today is Flower Day, hence the flowers. Listen, the action is commendable, the intention and the discipline are commendable. But the problem is that that's somewhere along the way the husband lost his passion for his wife and now he's just going through the motions of affection without any real affection involved. It's become a ritual. He loves her, and if you asked him, he would tell you that he wants her to feel love, but he's not in love with her.
We're not talking about about a salvation issue here, nowhere in the Sleater does Jesus imply that these people aren't saved.
He wants them to know that they're missing the point of everything which is loving and knowing him.
None of our good works or sacrifices blessed Jesus if they're divorced from genuine affection for him.
The driving force of our lives is to be our love for Jesus, not our love for theology.
Our love for the church or even the Bible. And I can sense some of you being uncomfortable with some of those statements, especially that last one because maybe you're like me and that you love the Bible, and if that's you, then you likely believe something along the lines of, hey, listen, as long as believers are focused on the word and in the word, then everything else will take care of itself. The problem is that Jesus, Jesus's letter to the Ephesians tells us that's not true.
The most glaring example is the religious leaders of Jesus's day after almost 400 years of silence from God between the Old and New Testaments, it was the Pharisees who called Israel to repent and return to the scriptures, which was a great thing. But it wasn't long before they started loving the scriptures more than the God they were written to reveal. And despite being Amen of the word, despite being immersed in the scriptures daily, despite having the Old Testament memorized, despite talking about it all day, they missed their Messiah Jesus when he was standing literally right in front of them.
Lord, we repent and we ask that you would help us to return to you in a simple, simple and pure way where we just enjoy being with you, we just enjoy talking to you. There's no program we have to accomplish or or list. We have to check off. We just love you. We love being with you. We love talking about you. We love knowing you. Lord, get us back there if we need to. And then, Lord, I pray for our churches as well.
I pray for our church, especially, Lord, that as we seek to know you more through your word, that we would never forget that it's you we want to know through your word. That we might love you more deeply and see you more clearly, help us not to just add knowledge, Lord, but to grow in our love for you and out of our love for you, growing our love for each other and for those who don't know you, for this world that you love so much and lay down your life for.
So Lord, speak to us right now through your word and just let us know what part of this letter you want us to especially have our attention drawn to and then help us to respond however you need us to. Lord, we love you. We bless you, Jesus. It's in your precious name.
We pray. Amen, Amen.
Series: Revelation:
Passage: Revelation 2:8-11
Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Jesus writes an encouraging letter to strengthen a church enduring intense persecution, and in the process encourages, challenges, and focuses us on what it means to be truly faithful to the Lord.
Have you heard there's a rumor going around town, there are those who are saying that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand, but no worries, say we for you see, the word revelation means that something has been revealed. That's right. If God wanted this to be hidden, he would have called it the consolation, not the revelation. What is God revealing? Well, revelation one begins the book with the words The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
This book is a revelation of Jesus. And God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised those who would take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing. And that blessing is found in Revelation three where it says, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. Now, could you imagine God saying, I want you to hear the words that are written in this book?
I want you to understand them, and then I want you to respond to them. And if you do that, I'll bless you. But here's the catch. You will never understand this book wouldn't make any sense to believe that God would do that, but God knew there would be those who would say that revelation is hard to understand. So to make this book easy to understand, he included in it an easy to follow outline. And that outline is found in Revelation, chapter one, verse 19, where Jesus gives John these instructions.
Write the things which you have seen. What is John seen up to this point? In Chapter One, he saw the resurrected and glorified Jesus. Then Jesus tells John to also write the things which are that pertain to what we call the church age, which is laid out in chapters two and three, which we're studying today. And in these two chapters, Jesus dictates seven letters to seven churches, and in their order, they prophesy around two thousand years of church history, the entire church age with incredible precision.
Then finally, Jesus tells John to write the things which will take place after this. After what things? After the events of chapters two and three. After the church age in the original Greek. The words used after this are the Greek words matter. Tuta that phrase next appears in Revelation Chapter four, verse one, where it marks the beginning of the third act in the Book of Revelation. Let me read Revelation for one to you after these things.
Metta Taruta. So after the events of chapters two and three after the church age, John writes, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I heard in Chapter One, was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. Or in Greek. Mata Taruta, the Holy Spirit, wanted to ensure we do not miss where that third act in the Book of Revelation begins.
So he begins revelation for one with meditator and he ends revelation for one with matter. Talita. And despite appearing over 20 times in the first three chapters of Revelation, what word never again appears in the narrative after Revelation. For one, it's the word church, and we're going to learn. That's because the church is no longer on the earth after revelation. For one, the church like John will go up and when the church goes up, what comes down?
The wrath of God. We find that in Revelation six sixteen. It's the opening volley in the time period known as the Tribulation. And we're told the response of those who are on the Earth at that time. It says they said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne.
This letter is in the Bible that we might know what it means to be faithful. It means putting Jesus first and laying down your life for Him. No matter what it costs you. Lastly, let me say this as we read earlier. Revelation 20, says, blessed and Holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power.
If you're listening to this or if you're watching this. And you've never given your life to Jesus, Then right now, you are on course to experience the second death. To experience eternity separated from God, the only source of everything, an eternity in the lake of fire. An eternal death. It will be worse than anything that can be imagined. Jesus died for you, he took the wrath for your sins, for everything you've done wrong.
So that you could be born again right now so that you could receive His Spirit in your life. He could become your God, your Lord, your Savior so that you could follow Him and experience eternal life. And if you want to do that, I'm going to pray for you in just a moment and I'm going to ask you to agree with that.
Let's pray together. Would you bend your head and close your eyes. Jesus. Thank you for this letter to this precious church in Smyrna.
And Lord, first of all, we pray for all our brothers and sisters who make up the persecuted church today. God be gracious to them. God, strengthen them, sustain them.
Thank you that You will give them what is needed, You will empower them, You will give them Your grace. And Father, we pray that they would be protected, that they would be encouraged, that they would be sustained, Lord, and that the example they set would inspire others to stand strong for you. Lord, bless your church around the world, especially those who are undergoing persecution.
And Lord, for all of us right now, for anyone listening or watching, may it be a settled issue for us that we're ready to die for you, but not only die for you as a one time event, we're ready to die for you today and then again tomorrow and the day after that as we lay down our lives for you day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until You decide it's time for us to come home.
And thank you that the home you've prepared for us is more wonderful than anything we could imagine. And then, Father, I pray right now for anyone who is saying, yeah, I want to be born again, I want to receive Jesus as my Savior and as my lord. Thank you, that you promise your Spirit is coming into them right now and they are being born again. They are being adopted into the family of God. Sons and daughters of the Father, brothers, and Sisters of Jesus, thank you that you're doing that, Lord, for anyone doing that, would you strengthen them and encourage them and connect them, Lord God, with a good church Lord and a place where they can continue to grow in their relationship with You.
We're so thankful for you, Jesus, and we're so thankful for your word. We love you. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.
After enduring horrific persecution the church at Pergamos is forced to contend with the temptation to compromise and spilt their devotion between Jesus and the Word.
Regarding the prophetic layer of the application, the first church, Ephesus, covered the Apostolic Church from around 32 A.D. to 100 A.D. The second church that we studied last time. Smyrna covered the suffering church from around 54 A.D. to around 313 A.D. and today will be studying the third church pajamas. When John recorded Revelation, Ephesus was the intellectual center of the province of Asia. Smyrna was its most beautiful city. But if you continued following the road system for about a hundred miles, you would reach Pergamos, Asia's most important city.
It was the capital of the province, the region's political and religious hub, famed for being the epicenter of Zeus worship. Zeus is the Greek version of Almighty God, the big dog in the pantheon of gods. It was believed that Zeus was born in Pergamos, and for that reason, the city boasted a great altar and temple where sacrifices were offered to him. The structure was 115 feet wide, one hundred and ten feet deep, and fifty feet high, surrounded by colonnades.
It was the largest altar in the world. I recall from our previous study that at the time you could worship any God you wanted in exchange for an annual offering of a pinch of incense and a two-word verbal acknowledgment of Caesar's deity, Kaiser Kuriakose in pajamas. You would do this at the Temple of Zeus, which the Caesar's loved, because the pinch offering looked spectacular as this long line of people formed and wound their way up the 60-foot-wide stairs of the massive structure.
And where Caesar's love to hang out, the upper class loves to hang out. And that's why Pergament was renowned for its wealth and fashion. It was the Paris or Milan of its day. Like almost every other church in the region at the time, the church in Pergament was under intense persecution. People were being tortured, imprisoned and murdered for following Jesus. And while the pinch offering would create an annual flare up of persecution for churches because they would refuse to participate, the continual presence of the imperial cult in pajamas created a daily danger of persecution for believers.
But as in Smyrna, faithful believers in pajamas refused to acquiesce to the demands of Rome, and many were martyred for their stand in this pressured environment. Cavemen, men preaching a seductive doctrine of compromise. They claim to appeal to reason, assuring believers that God wanted them to live in peace with the authorities. He didn't want them to suffer. Their appeal was to give the pinch, offering God understands. And, when facing the prospect of death by lions or fire.
It's an attractive message. As we've mentioned, prophetically speaking, the age of Smyrna came to an end around 313 A.D., and that's right around where Pajamas picks things up in the prophetic scheme of the church age. And sadly, polygamists will be best known for the season of history when the church marries the state. We're going to find that, though. It sounds wonderful, but the reality is catastrophic. And for this reason, she'll be known as the compromising church and spanned the years from 313 A.D. to around 600 A.D.
But before we get into the story of polygamists, we need to remember the big picture of church history thus far. The church was birthed around 30 A.D. in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And it was amazing. But there was this little issue of the great commission. Jesus had commanded his disciples to go and make more disciples. But for the first couple of decades, the church remained relatively contained within Israel.
Their fellowship was just so sweet. Nobody wanted to leave. Nobody wanted to go on a mission trip.
They proclaimed a fast and seeded Narberth with high honor among the people and two men. Scoundrels came in and sat before him and the scoundrels witnessed against him against Narberth in the presence of the people saying Narberth has blasphemed God and the King. Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones so that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel's, saying Narberth has been stoned and is dead. With Narberth out the way, Jezebel takes possession of his vineyard, mission accomplished.
Second, King's nine 26 tells us that they also killed all of Namath's heirs so that there was nobody alive who could claim the vineyard. The bottom line, make a note of this neighborhood was killed for honoring God's word. Narberth was killed for honoring God's word. And out of all the sins of Jezebel, the Bible could have documented them in detail. Killing profits, we get a few lines about that, but we get all this detail about her acquiring property through false accusation.
That's interesting to me. While King Ahab may have been wearing the crown, it's obvious that Jezebel was the one calling the shots. She was the one truly in charge of the kingdom. She was the power behind the throne. Jesus's big issue with this church is that they allowed Jezebel to run the show instead of him. Why that whole sidebar to talk about Jezebel and Sabbath's Vinyard? Remember, of all the stories in the Bible that Jesus could have referenced in his letter to Thyer Tyra, he chose that one and he did that on purpose because there are connections that I believe he wants us to make.
Let's talk about them. After centuries of unbelievably corrupt people's rule, the Catholic Church had developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for wealth and power, and its true nature was on full display in the historical event known as the Inquisition. It was perpetrated from around 12 08 A.D. all the way up to the eighteen thirties across and around Europe. And it was a means to accomplish two of the Vatican's highest priorities, eliminating those who were opposed to its rule and acquiring vast amounts of property and wealth.
How did they do it? While they didn't technically rule Europe, they did hold massive influence over Europe. So the Catholic Church partnered with kings and sovereign powers in a campaign that worked something like this. If you were discovered to oppose the Catholic Church in word, deed, or thought someone would be arranged or bribed to bring an accusation of heresy or blasphemy against you to get to the truth, you would be tortured until you confessed. That confession would then be used in a sham trial where additional false witnesses would show up and testify against you.
Your sentence would then be immediately applied to jail for the rest of your life or more commonly. Being burned at the stake. This tactic was not only employed against those who oppose the Vatican, but also against those who simply had the misfortune of owning wealth or property that the church decided it wanted, the Catholic Church would conduct the investigation and the trial and render the verdict, but the local authorities would execute the sentence in exchange for their cooperation. The local rulers would get to split the person's wealth and or property with the church.
Those battles go down in history as the Verse 8 wars, this sort of thing went on for a while and more. Priest began to say, you know, something is really wrong with the church, a groundswell of discontent within the Roman Catholic Church was stirring just beneath the surface all across Europe in fourteen fifty five in Germany, the Gutenberg Bible became the first mass publication produced by the famous Gutenberg Press, which revolutionized publishing with its movable type. Almost overnight, Bibles and books were being published in a common language for the common man, sparking a renaissance of learning among the populace as people began expanding their knowledge through literature.
All these things set the table for what followed in the 16th century, and it's fascinating to see how God caused all these things to come together at the same time, at the right place, and at the right time. Fast forwarding to the 1400s. Our focus remains on Germany, the greatest papal stronghold outside of Italy. At the time, the clergy was in a particularly bad state. They were uneducated and often impoverished, a combination certain to breed corruption when a position of power is added to the mix.
While the Vatican had long forbidden priests from taking wives, these men still had needs, shall we say, to get around that problem. Local bishops would allow their clergy a live-in concubine in exchange for a moderate annual fine. But as people began to read the Bible for themselves and became more educated, they couldn't help but notice just how messed up these kinds of things were. It was an increasingly combustible situation across Europe that only needed a spark, and God had plans to introduce just such a spark in the German church on November 10th.
Fourteen eighty three in Saxony, Germany. Martin Luther was born the son of a poor coal miner. He grew up observing his father's poverty and it motivated him to become wealthy. So he pursued a career as a lawyer in 50 when he entered the University of Erfurt. And in fifty-four, near the end of his studies, he was caught in a lightning storm so severe it caused him to rashly pray and promise God he would become a monk if he lived through the storm, which he did.
True to his word. Luthor withdrew from law school and in 15- 05 entered St. Augustine's Monastery, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in theology. He continued to study and earned his doctorate in theology. He began ministering in the German city of Wittenburg and soon rose to become a professor at the seminary. Despite all his accomplishments. Luther was unable to escape feelings of spiritual inadequacy and became obsessed with trying to earn God's favor and forgiveness. He would whip himself until he bled, he would crawl for miles on his knees, spend hours in prayer, sleep outside in freezing weather with no blanket, he would fast for weeks at a time, make distant pilgrimages to supposedly sacred sites and make frequent confessions, all to show his devotion and atone for his sins in the hopes of earning God's blessings.
So frequent, were Luther's visits to confession, his Abbott is reported to have told him either commit a sin worth confessing or stop bothering him. And yet for Luthor, nothing worked. Nothing worked. He later described this period of his life this way. I had lost touch with Christ the Savior and comforter and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul. In 15 09, Luther made a pilgrimage to Rome, hoping to find the peace that had so stubbornly eluded him.
His journey on foot included crossing the Alps, which almost killed him, forced to halt his journey and recover his health.
Do you know that the Holy Spirit has an agenda for the church? It's laid out across the pages of the New Testament and it's a tragedy when a church stops looking to Jesus and his word and instead begins looking to the world to find their mandate, vision, and methodology. When that happens, for all intents and purposes, the Holy Spirit has left the building, and unless they repent, that church will soon be spiritually dead. This can happen in any kind of church, any kind of denomination, and it's what happened to the church at Sardi's and prophetically is still happening to the denominational church.
In the countries where many of us live, we've seen this firsthand, haven't we? We've seen the formerly great mainline denominations reduced to almost entirely secular community centers, increasingly departing from biblical orthodoxy in desperate attempts to gain the approval of the culture. In First Corinthians 12, Paul wrote, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. In other words, you can be ignorant about a lot of things, but as Christians, you cannot afford to be ignorant about how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work.
Sadly, the modern church is still wrestling with much confusion regarding the Holy Spirit, generally, there's a widespread lack of knowledge and understanding, while heresies and misrepresentations seem to abound. Right at the beginning of his letter to Sardis, Jesus reminds the church that He and the Holy Spirit are a package deal. Let's get into the smartasses report card, beginning with our commendation, I know your works that you have a name underline that you have a name that you are alive and then underline this.
But you're dead, but you are dead. And no, you didn't miss something. There is no commendation for the church at Sardi's, none. Why Jesus tells us it's because they're dead, it's because they're dead. Let's not miss the gravity of what Jesus says there. He doesn't say that they're merely sick or unhealthy. He says you claim to be alive, but the truth is you're dead. And that's the first criticism, write that down, they think they are alive.
But they're dead, they're dead. Now, I had you underline I have a name because there's something interesting here in the original Greek, the word used for my name is Anamur Anamur. It means to be covered by a name or to put it more simply, to have a label. It's the root of our word denomination, denomination, which was invented around the 15th century, according to Jesus. The big problem with Sardis is that they think they're alive, but they're dead.
They're still proudly pointing to their great name, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. They're still pointing to their lineage, their rich history, their liturgies, their beautiful buildings, their social welfare programs, their founders, the reformers. But Jesus says you're dead. You are dead, the spirit has left the body, and there's only a corpse left. There was a time in history, and sadly, this is still true in some places when people would identify themselves by their denomination rather than as a Christian, you'd ask someone, what religion are you?
And they'd say, I'm a Lutheran or I'm a Baptist instead of I'm a Christian or I follow Jesus because to them their denominational affiliation was of greater importance than even their allegiance to Jesus. Only the name of Jesus brings life. The church at Sardis had forgotten that along with the rise of denominations, the Catholic Church also spawned directly or indirectly many other state churches,
Be it faith, be it perseverance. Lord, may each of us just experience right now? The sense that You are filling us up with what we need because You are everything we need, we love You, Jesus, we bless You, and we're so thankful for Your work. And with genuine gratitude, we declare a solid day of glory. Glory to God alone. We love You. It's in Your name. We pray. Amen.