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
Comments (2,879)
But that's really not what this verse is saying. This verse is saying that because the former things have passed away, nothing will exist that can cause death, sorrow or tears or crying. Those things all died. They all ceased to exist. They all passed away with the old Earth and old heavens. Write this down. Every source of sorrow is destroyed with the old Earth and old heavens. Every source of sorrow is destroyed with the old Earth and old heavens.
Someone I follow on Twitter posted this earlier this week. All the sadness believers feel when leaving dear friends, all the nostalgia for days gone by, that God blessed all the pain that rocks you when death strikes loved ones. All of it is a call from a distant land where you never part, you never mourn, and most of all, you never die. No more sadness, no more disappointment, no more bitterness, no more depression, no more anxiety, no more fear. Our eternity will be sorrow proof. I have some incredible things to share with you on that point, but I need to save them for next week, so please don't miss next Sunday. It will bless you so much.
I promise we won't remember our sins and our failures in heaven. Neither will we remember those who rejected the Lord, something that's both encouraging and sobering. Remember Isaiah 60 / 517. The Lord said, Behold, I create new heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. There shall be no more pain for the former. Things have passed away in our earthly lives. There are seemingly endless sources of sorrow that could appear at any given moment. Issues in friendships, marriages and families, addiction, poverty, sickness, death. And on and on the list goes. This will be news to some. But the Bible does not say that everything happens for a reason. If you've been with us for our study through revelation, then you'll know that the Bible teaches that Satan is the God of this age and Jesus has not yet begun to rule the nation. That happens in the Millennium. This is the promise God gives in Scripture. All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. That verse doesn't say that everything happens for a reason, nor does it say that only good things will happen to those who love Jesus.
What it says is that whatever happens to those who love him in this life, God will do something good through it. When a loved one dies unnaturally early, when sickness strikes a child, when jobs are lost, when abuse happens, when tragedy strikes, God will pull something good out of all that sorrow, even when it seems hopeless. He'll cr What a blessing it is that those who love Jesus will be reunited in his presence to enjoy Him together. I don't know how anybody's supposed to read the next verse out loud and keep it together, but I'll try. Verse four, it says, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. And some will say this verse is pointing out that there must be tears in heaven that God needs to wipe away.
That's not true. That's not what the Bible teaches, and it's not how your life and my life are going to play out. And when people buy into this type of false teaching, they end up disillusioned with Christianity when their life doesn't play out that way. Hear me on this Church. This is not heaven. This is not heaven. I have walked with many people through times of tragedy. And when they strike, we all naturally want to know why, why? And sometimes we do each other a great disservice by trying to come up with, with baseless explanations. A lot of the time. The explanation is simply that this is a fallen world and this is not heaven. This is not everything as it should be. This is not where wrong things happening is abnormal. This is not heaven yet. And that's why we long for heaven. The bottom will fall out of your life one day, and it'll happen more than once. When I understand the difference between this life and heaven, I won't get mad at God when tragedy strikes my life. I'll remember that Jesus told his disciples, in the world, you will have tribulation.
And guess what? We are still in the world. Write this down. This isn't heaven. Don't expect it to be. This is not heaven. Don't expect it to be. Heaven is where verses four takes place, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain. For the former things have passed away. Now. Verse five, a verses so great and glorious, I cannot find the words to expound upon it sufficiently. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, right, for these words are true and faithful. I like that John is seemingly so overwhelmed by all that he's seeing there. He's sitting there with his mouth open. And God has to say, John right. This verse means the world to me. And I want to tell you about the moment this verse came alive most powerfully in my life. It was early in the fall years ago, and it was one of our family days that we try to take once a week where we do something together as a family.
And on this particular family day, we decided to head down to White Rock. It was low tide, and we practically had the whole beach to ourselves because while it was clear and sunny, it was still a bit windy and cold, but as is generally the case, children don't care. We blinked, and they were all soaking wet from running through the shallow pools of water that had been left behind by the tide. And they were running, as only kids do, for no apparent reason. Kids get this surge of excitement and joy, and they just run.
And as I found myself alone for a minute, I was struck by this deep grief, a wave of profound sadness, because Gas Is watched Caleb playing. As I watched his anabash joy, I realized that I didn't know how to be that kind of happy anymore. There was a level of joy that he was experiencing that was beyond my grasp, because he had a measure of innocence that I no longer had. You see, living in this fallen world has weathered me like a coastal rock exposed to the endless pounding of the Ocean's waves. Life just the process of living in the world wears you down, and it steals from you. Children are still fallen beings, obviously, but they're closer to Eden because most of the time they haven't been exposed to very many storms yet. I think that's why there's something so magical about the laughter of children. It's a sound that comes from a place that we don't know how to find anymore. Because life on a fallen Earth has robbed us of the natural optimism that we once enjoyed in eternity. Jesus will declare, Behold, I make all things new. And his statement will include us.
We'll get back what was lost in Eden. We'll get back what was lost before we were even born. We will be new. We've all been shaped by our life experiences in a much deeper way than we realize. What would you be like? Who would you be if they had never made that comment? If that abuse had never taken place? If they hadn't broken your heart? If you hadn't fallen into that addiction? If you hadn't done that thing that you wish every day you could take back, take it a whole lot further? Who would you be if you never felt embarrassment ever or shame ever? If you'd never been criticized? If you'd never experienced disappointment, who would you be? How would you live? How would you laugh? How would you sing? What would you share out loud? How would you love. We will be young again. We will have knowledge and wisdom and understanding, but we will be as free as children who have only ever known. Love and joy and peace will bear no scars of any kind, mental, emotional, spiritual or physical. We'll never worry about the future. We'll never worry about having enough or being enough.
We'll never worry about screwing up because there won't even be a concept in heaven. We won't be able to be self conscious because we'll be so consumed with Jesus that there'll be no room to be consumed with ourselves. Heaven is the hope of all who hope in Christ, and our hope is not misplaced. As we've talked and dreamed about heaven, I want to remind you that Jesus said to John, These words are true and faithful. The question is, do you believe Jesus? I'm not asking if you believe in Jesus. I'm asking if you believe Jesus when he tells you about heaven, because if you do, it's going to be very evident in the way you live your life. Abraham believed God, and he lived his whole life in tents wandering the Promised land because he was convinced of the reality of the New Jerusalem. Does your life serve as evidence that you believe what Jesus says about heaven? In his word, Jesus said, Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. If you're a believer, make sure your life reflects the reality of heaven. If you've not placed your faith in Jesus, if you're not following Him as your Savior and Lord, I want you to know that he is what you are looking for.
And the same reason he rose from the grave and glory on your behalf because he loves you, because your joy brings Him joy. And he knows there is no greater joy that we can have than knowing Him and being known by Him. So, he has moved heaven and Earth to make it so. Jesus is wonderful. He's wonderful. What more can we say?
Let's pray. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Jesus, thank you that you have gone to prepare a place for us, and you will come again. You will receive us to yourself so that where you are, we may be also. Thank you that our future is better than we could possibly imagine. And Jesus, what we look forward to more than anything is being with you, being with you in the place where we will see you face to face, we will fellowship with you where everything that is wrong will be made right around you and in you and through you. Thank you that that future is assured for us and Jesus. We ask that the way we live our lives right now would reflect that we truly believe and understand what you have revealed to us in Your Word.
May we realign everything in our lives around the reality of heaven and the future You've prepared for us. Lord, help us to live for it, be motivated by it, and be comforted by it. And if there's a change we need to make Holy Spirit, show it to us that we might walk in greater obedience and live for eternity, more profitably, bringing greater joy and glory to the Lord through our earthly lives. We love you. We're so thankful for you. We bless you. It's in Your name we pray. Amen.
Hey, thanks for being with us for this study. Before you go, I want to share just a few quick things with you. If you've never given your life to Jesus, then you need to go to Gospelcity. Ca gospel right now you'll find a short video where we share the best news you'll ever hear in your life. It's more important than whatever else you're doing, so go to Gospelcity Caspel right now to learn more about Jesus. If God has blessed you through this message, we'd love to hear about it. Email us at info at gospelcity. Let us know how God has impacted your life through His Word.
If you'd like to support the teaching Ministry of Gospel City through financial giving.
You can do so by going to Gospelcity.
And finally, I want to invite you to follow us on Facebook.
Instagram and Twitter for updates and encouragement throughout the week. And you can find all those links in the top right corner of our website.
We love you, "Uppercase-C" Church. Be blessed.
A HINDU PRIEST ENCOUNTERS JESUS
Home » Philosophy » A Hindu priest encounters Jesus
By Rahil Patel (adapted by Kaley Payne from Episode 17 ‘Hindu Priest’ of the Undeceptions Podcast)
In our home, we had a special room dedicated for the house shrine where we had the images of the Hindu god that we worshiped as the supreme being. Like for thousands of other similar families, we would bathe first thing in the morning, so we could be fresh for worship. We each had a personal prayer kid, with the relevant images. We weren’t allowed to eat or drink before we worshipped.
After school, as we walked into the house, we would take our shoes off prostrate six times in front of the house shrine, say a few prayers and then go and do our homework. After dinner was a sort of family scripture time.
Our temple was in Northwest London. By the time I was 16, I’d been given the responsibility to look after all the youth activities in the temple. In 1988, our particular Hindu denomination was growing pretty fast. The denomination’s guru – we believed he was the vessel of God on earth, and worshiped him as we worshiped god – was in London, and attending an event where I was giving a speech. There were about 3000 people in the congregation and the guru was very happy with my speech.
In 1991, I entered a monastery in Gujurat, in the northwest of India.
Once I’d finished, it was tradition to go to the guru and bow to take his blessings. And he spoke to me. He told me I had a good gift and that I should become a priest – a Swami. A Swami takes a monastic lifestyle, with an evangelistic approach. Immediately, I said yes. Getting that kind of recognition, in front of thousands of people at the age of 16 … it filled me with pride. I was ecstatic about the whole idea.
I left my family and followed the guru to America, touring with him for two and half months. To become a Swami, you take renouncement vows which are very strict. You can no longer talk to your parents. You take a vow of celibacy. You can’t even talk to women, let alone marry them. It demands complete detachment from all emotional ties.
You don’t get paid to be a Swami. You can’t even touch money. If you accidently touch money, you have to wash your hands 25 times. All these things, they can catch you. You must detach from it all.
In 1991, I entered a monastery in Gujurat, in the northwest of India.
The training to become a priest was rigorous: Wake up at 4:30am, have a cold bath (you don’t give your body the comfort of warm water). You always have a bath with your robes on. You never take your robes off because you’re never allowed to show your body. Then you sit down in your personal prayers for 45 minutes. Once prayers are done, everybody on the campus – about 150 of us – would get together in the main temple and worship together at 6am. Then you have chores: sweep the grounds or clean the toilets or you help make garlands for the images or help in the kitchen. Then breakfast. The first sermon starts after that, and you better take notes because every fortnight there is a three-hour paper on the 14 sermons you heard, and you are expected to score above 91%
Classes start at 9am and finish at about 7pm.
I was there for six years.
In 1995, I was ordained as a priest. I spent a couple of years in Mumbai, looking after youth activities. But then in 1997, I was given the role of evangelizing to Europe and Russia, setting up temples, building congregations, and raising funds for more activities.
I asked my guru a lot of questions, right from the beginning – even about his own divinity.
Our first priority was to bring other Indians or Hindus into our denomination. In Europe it was a very barren land for us at that time. America, UK, Australia and New Zealand, obviously India in the Middle East, Africa was all growing – flourishing, even. But Europe was barren. Language was often a barrier for Indians thinking of emigrating, so there weren’t many Indians in Europe.
I started by just finding one person – or one family that is dedicated. And start building from there.
My guru had 800 disciples at the time, but I was one of his favorites. I was thought I could be quite free with him. And I asked a lot of questions, right from the beginning – even about his divinity.
My view of God started to change. I started to believe that he was much bigger, more diverse, more beautiful, and not tied to a guru or an image in a temple.
But from about 2005, I started a secret fascination with Jesus Christ. I would be wearing the orange robes, but I just loved looking at the cross. I didn’t know much about Jesus. From my school days, I knew he was crucified, but I didn’t know what that meant. I started to just walk into churches. It wasn’t so much about the art or the architecture, but there was something I found attractive about being there.
By this time, my position was quite senior, and no one questioned my visiting a church.
I was traveling more and more and meeting people “outside the fold” of my Hindu denomination. And my view of God started to change. I started to believe that he was much bigger, more diverse, more beautiful, and not tied to a guru or an image in a temple.
This view of god started seeping into the speeches I was giving. In Orlando in 2007, I spoke at a national convention and gave a 10-minute keynote address. I read a Hindu verse and gave my interpretation based entirely on my own experiences of what I saw through my travels. And people responded to it. And so I continued along – my speeches becoming less and less strictly based on the Hindu scriptures.
A few years later, I went to Bombay to visit the guru. But when I walked into the room, a whole group of very senior people were there to talk to me about my theology and the content of my speeches. I was told that I would be kept in a village in India because I had too much influence on people’s minds to keep making speeches of the kind I was making.
That was the first time I said no to the Hindu god. And I decided then and there that I didn’t want to be Swami anymore. How that came out of my mouth, I don’t know. And the guru, to my shock, told me to go. Just like that. After 20 years.
As I entered the church, in my first few steps, the presence of God just fell on me with this beautiful blanket of deep peace. I had this sense of home.
I was given two pairs of trousers and two shirts. I gave back my orange robes. And I wondered – where do I go now? My parents had moved to Dubai. So, a friend put me up in his hotel in London. I landed in London, 40 years old, having given up my search for God. Everything I’d started to do as a teenager was gone.
My friend putting me up in the hotel told me not to worry about a job just yet but encouraged me to focus on opening up my senses. I went on lots of walks.
In January 2012, I was walking to South Kensington station and I saw this beautiful church down a quiet road: Holy Trinity Brompton. It was a Sunday morning around 11:15 AM and I decided to go take a look. Standing at the door were two Australians – Josh and Sarah. And I remember they had this love just oozing out of them. As I entered the church, in my first few steps, the presence of God just fell on me with this beautiful blanket of deep peace. I had this sense of home.
Twenty years ago, in my first month of training in the monastery, I was prostrating to the images with all the other swamis. And I heard a voice asking me, ‘Have you made the right decision? Are you in the right place?’ I had suppressed that voice, putting it down to Maya – the Hindu version of the devil – trying to stop me from meeting my destiny.
I’d heard the same voice a few times after that – once when I was reading the works of Swami Vivekananda – an Indian Hindu monk. And that same voice came to me in the church, telling me that this was home.
I stayed for the sermon, and the worship – I’d never seen worship on drums and guitars! And then I went back to the hotel. I sat on my bed. I didn’t say any specific prayer, I just said yes. I remember saying that to myself: Yes.
At that moment, on that day, I still didn’t know much about Jesus Christ. But there was a pull towards him that I found attractive. I went to church every Sunday after that.
For at least two years, I wrestled with a feeling of rejection and abandonment by my Hindu denomination. I felt treacherous. Like a backstabber. But God started to heal me. I feel now completely free of that.
The most attractive thing for the Hindu believer is a deep sense of belonging to a community.
I think the most attractive thing for the Hindu believer is a deep sense of belonging to a community, to a group of people who are practicing, worshiping, and doing life together. I don’t think I appreciated that until I was removed from it.
I am loved as I am. There’s nothing more I can do.
But now, I feel a deep sense of belonging in Christ. The most attractive thing about Christianity, for me, is encountering the tangible, available presence of God through Christ. That deep joy, that peace, that love. The presence of God satisfies every part of your being. And it’s available every single day, throughout the day. I didn’t have to work hard to get that peace or work to get that joy. It comes regardless of circumstance. When I fall short, when I make a mistake, when I think something wrong, that engagement with God’s presence cleanses the conscience.
I am free of all my shortcomings. I am not burdened by karma. That was impossible before. I am loved as I am. There’s nothing more I can do.
WEB-MUSLIM-WOMEN-GIRL-EYE-Zoriah-Miller-CC
Zoriah Miller CC.......Sylvain Dorient - published on 01/31/16
At great risk, Fr. Humblot lived for years in Iran, sharing the Gospel and serving the poor
One of the first times Father Humblot came into contact with Muslims was seeing the shadow of a “terrorist” during the war in Algeria. He was serving at the time in the French contingent, and the figure was at the end of his gun. He knew he should shoot, but he chose not to pull the trigger and withdrew on tiptoe. The enemy did not shoot either. When he was still a seminarian, he decided to devote his life to the service of Muslims. He became a missionary priest in the Prado Association.
While he finished studying theology in Beirut in the early ’60s, Father Humblot chose to live in the slum that adjoined the city dump. His neighbors, Lebanese Shiites of southern Lebanon or Syria, were dock workers or worked sorting garbage. Separated from them by a simple sheet of cardboard, he was admitted into this community of poor Muslims, and he shared their work, either in the middle of the city dump or as a longshoreman at the port. His goal was to help seminarians and young priests who wanted to serve the poor not only to contemplate the poverty of Jesus Christ but to share for a few days that of the poor.
“I gave the baby a bottle”
He established a relationship of trust with his neighbors, who knew he was a Catholic priest: “My chapel was out in the open, everyone could see it,” he recalls. One night, the man in the house just next to his called for help: his wife had left, and he did not know how to feed the baby as she had been breast-feeding. … The priest then boiled a bottle and made a baby bottle out of it. And this is how we could see a French priest giving a small Muslim his milk between two cardboard boxes in a Beirut slum!
Koran reading;
When it rained, the inhabitants of the slum met during the night in each other’s homes to avoid going out in the muddy streets. They listened to the Koran, gathered around the best reader. Father Humblot was chosen to read, resulting in another strange scene: a Catholic priest reciting suras, especially that of “Maryam,” that he explained to his audience in the light of the Gospels. Two sheiks got wind of the priest’s activities and wanted to stop him, but they were driven out by Father Humblot’s neighbors who were accustomed to “their” priest.
At the end of his stay, he learned that his activities and his complicity with the local population earned him the distrust of some Muslims, but his neighbors protected him during the June 1968 war with Israel. ”During many of my journeys, I was followed by two neighbors who discreetly ensured my protection! I knew nothing at the time. ”
No animosity;
His neighbors knew it but never reproached him for it. “Once, during the Islamic Revolution, in the volatile atmosphere you can imagine, a group of youths attacked me when I had gone out to shop at the local grocer, ‘This is an American! Let’s get him!’
“I told them I was French. Their answer was: ‘Oh yes, since the Imam Khomeini took refuge in France, all foreigners are French!’
“When we got to the grocer who knew me, we continued to debate, and finally the leader of the group offered me a cigarette, a Marlboro! My immediate response was: ‘I do not smoke American — take one of these.’ And I took an Iranian cigarette out of my pocket. The whole gang burst out laughing, and we parted friends.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church translated by ayatollahs
Later, the priest was invited to the holy city of Qom, where the ayatollahs and other Shiite leaders were trained. A group of Muslim clerics asked him to check their translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. When Father asked why they had translated it, they replied: “Because we want to present each religion with the official texts of the religion, not according to what we think.”
In the discussion that followed, the Muslim clerics questioned him. “What is the greatest commandment in Christianity?” Father Humblot answered that there was only one commandment: “Love, which encompasses all things. And off we go into a discussion on this one God who is love, not only because he loves us but because he is not remote, solitary and dangerous, overseeing and judging sinners …” he recalls.
“Thanks to the Muslims, I am aware that Jesus is the Son of God”
Father Humblot continues his dialogue now from Paris through the Internet with Muslims who, in Iran, Afghanistan and Europe, wish to convert to Christianity, and he receives touching testimonies of friendships like that of Amin, an Iranian, who wrote: “I am a Muslim but I like the Catholics because they are respectful of the person and preach love.”
Father Humblot gives thanks to God for having “converted him to Jesus Christ through the Muslims’ attitude.”
He explains: “Raised in a very Christian family, I loved the gospel and considered Jesus my best friend. Until the day when, in the leper colony where often the very sick and suffering prayed and fasted with great submission to the will of God Almighty, I discovered adoration and prostration before Jesus as not only my friend but also the Son of God.”
Translated from the French byLiliane Stevenson.
Written by Vanessa Friesen Tuesday, Jun 06 2023, 12:40 PM
Share this story:
(Mostafa Elbaz/Unsplash)
In an area where being Christian is a dangerous choice, missionaries are reporting that more Muslims are converting than what has been seen in over 1,400 years.
James Bradford, the lead pastor at Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri, and missionary d*ck Brogden told Assemblies of God News that God is working in Islamic countries through prophetic dreams.
While in Western culture, signs of God's existence is through miracles, typically of healing the sick; in Islamic culture, they are unphased by these moments of wonder.
In the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, it speaks of Jesus and the miracles he performed, the difference is that it doesn't state Christ was crucified or that he's the son of God. So, when these miracles happen, it doesn't have much of an impact as they already believe Jesus can perform miracles.
They do find significance, however, in dreams and visions which is where the change is happening.
"I would even say it's the normal experience," says Brogden. "It would be accurate to say that Muslims are responding to Jesus in levels we have neer seen, not in 1,400 years."
Despite this growing conversion rate, the numbers are simply rising with the growing global population.
In 1982, there were 2.5 billion people in the world classified as ‘lost’ with 1.5 billion being classified as unreached. In 2022, the global population reached eight billion, with six billion classified as ‘lost’ and 3.15 billion being classified as unreached, according to Brogden.
The process of converting to Christianity is a difficult one, as Muslims know it will cost them everything and even possibly get them killed, but it's the visions and dreams of Jesus that calm their soul.
Bradford shares that he was in a Muslim country meeting with church leaders from several Muslim nations and one of the leaders talked of a woman who had a dream of Jesus.
"A woman had left the Muslim faith, but she was full of hatred and suspicion of Christians," says Bradford. "She didn’t know what to do—she asked God for help. One night she had a dream where she saw a shepherd, walking about an empty tomb with a staff. The shepherd walked round it a few times, and then He headed directly towards the woman. He had a loaf of bread in His hands, which He broke and offered it to her and as He did, He said, 'Take, eat, this is my body.'"
After experiencing this dream, it was told that this woman went to someone who she knew was a Christian and he showed her the Bible, specifically the part where Jesus says the very words she heard in her dream.
The woman then accepted Jesus as her savior and continues to serve him to this day.
Bradford and Brogden encourage believers across the world to continue praying for those who resist the gospel to have their eyes opened and have an encounter with Christ.
Date:6/20/21.Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Before we dive into the Book of Revelation, it's worth taking a moment to understand how we're going to approach the text and why we're going to approach it that way, and to familiarize ourselves with the differing primary views on this amazing book
Welcome to our study of the Book of Revelation. I am so glad that you're here for this, whoever you are, whether you're a skeptic, if you're someone who's not even a Christian or you're someone who's been a Christian your whole life. I'm just glad you're here. And I think you're going to be blessed. You're going to be challenged and you're going to be grown through the process of studying this incredible book from the Bible. You know, there's a well-known saying, Jack of all trades, master of none.
That quote actually comes from Benjamin Franklin. And it's a misquote, if you can believe that the actual quote says, Jack of all trades, master of one, jack of all trades, master of one. And the idea is that everyone should be able to know a little bit about everything, but everyone should have an area of specialty, an area of expertise. And if you're a Christian, if you're any type of Christian, not a lifelong Christian, a young Christian, a paid Christian, a volunteer Christian, if you're any type of Christian, your area of specialty should be the Bible.
And wherever you are, if you're a follower of Jesus, you want to be on the path toward making the Bible your area of specialty, the thing that you know more about than pretty much anything else in your life. That's what we're called to. And so today, before we get into the actual text of Revelation, I wanted to take one message to explain how we're going to approach the Book of Revelation, and why we're going to approach it that way.
And you're going to learn a lot of interesting things about just how to approach the Bible as a whole and how to study the Bible as a whole. As we go through today's message, if you're not a believer or you are a skeptic, hang with us, because when we get to Revelation chapters two and three, things are going to get really, really interesting for you, because if you're wondering why should I take the Book of Revelation seriously, why should I take anything the Bible says about the future seriously?
Surely the best way to answer that question would be to look at the predictions the Bible has already made about the future and then judge whether those that are supposed to have come true have actually come true. And when we get to Revelation chapters two and three, we're going to find that over the past 2000 years, the Bible has predicted prediction after prediction that has already come true. It's already come to pass. And so if you're a skeptic, you're going to get a small glimpse of the Bible's perfect track record of predicting the future through prophecy.
So hang with us for that. You know, I was 16, if I remember. Right. And I was riding in a Chevy Suburban packed with friends from my church's youth group. We were talking about crazy things in the Bible as teenagers and youth groups are apt to do. And it wasn't long before somebody said, dude, have you ever read Revelation? There's dragons in there and beasts coming out of the sea and angels of death and just all kinds of crazy, wild stuff.
And that's 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 lacked any semblance of cohesive understanding. I felt like I had seven pieces of a 100-piece puzzle. 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 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 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, and 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.
Both critiques that I mentioned are rooted in the belief that Christians who are focused on 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 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 you're heavenly-minded.
Most Christians are familiar with concepts like storing up treasure in heaven and the importance of living for eternity rather than the temporal nature of our earthly lives. What revelation does is it moves that knowledge from the head down to the heart. Instead of having a blurry concept of the end times, revelation shifts your understanding into gloriously detailed high definition to such a degree that the reality of what is to come overwhelms you in the best way possible. Imagine if I told you that if you worked hard and sacrificed money for 50 years, you'd have a nice retirement.
Knowing that would motivate you. But but only to a certain degree. But imagine if I told you the same thing. Except this time I also gave you a special pair of glasses that you could put on whenever you wanted. And these glasses would allow you to see your future in detail. Imagine putting those glasses on and and seeing yourself laughing and smiling with your spouse, surrounded by your adult children and your grandchildren in a wonderful house, in a beautiful setting.
Imagine being able to see your comfort and feel how good things are going to be. Your motivation would increase exponentially in the here and now because you have received a greater revelation of what your future is going to look like. Any time you were feeling uninspired or tired of the work sacrifice and discipline, you could simply put the glasses on and take one more look at that glorious future and find fresh motivation. That's what revelation does for the person who reads it and understands it.
It makes the reality of heaven and eternity so vivid that it inspires a deeper level of wholehearted sacrificial living for Jesus here and now in one's earthly life. That's why the time you're taking to study this book will be one of the most profitable investments you will ever make. Trust me on that. Now, I feel a responsibility to let you know up front that eschatology is not a salvation issue, our beliefs regarding the Rapture, the tribulation, Antichrist, et cetera, have no bearing on our eternal destination.
We are saved by placing our faith in the substitutionary life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, not by perfecting our eschatology. There's a myriad of reasons to study what the Bible has to say about the end times, as we shall see. But salvation is not one of them. So please relax and know that if you don't hold my views on the Book of Revelation, but you do love Jesus, we're still family. We're still on the same journey, seeking to know and understand more of our Lord.
We want to be like those billions. If you don't hold our view on eschatology, I'm glad you're here and I applaud your desire to know God's word more deeply. I believe that it's always good to familiarize oneself with other theological perspectives because the truth is capable of standing up to whatever scrutiny we place it under before we get into Revelation itself. Thought it might be helpful to just give a brief overview of the three most popular eschatological views. One of the positions has three suppositions as well, but we'll explain that when we get there.
And don't worry, this explanation includes pictures on your outlines. I know we're going to be a little bit academic today and some of this stuff, but I want you to know that this is as academic as our study through Revelation is going to get. It's never going to be more difficult than this. And this is honestly much more academic than the rest of the study is going to be. So hang with me. These are going to be broad, generalized explanations because if they weren't, they would take up the entire message series.
So regardless of what view you currently hold, please know that I'm doing my best to represent each of these views accurately, but briefly. When it comes to how Christians view the end times, the first divergence of views takes place around the issue of what's known as the millennium. The millennium is spoken of in many parts of the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. But most famously, it shows up in Revelation Chapter 20, where we read this and I saw Throne's and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them.
Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God who would not worship the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Now I know for many of you, if you haven't studied Revelation, you're like Jeff. I understand almost nothing in there. Don't worry. We're going to explain it when we get to Revelation 20 in about six months. But for now, all I want you to notice are those explicit references to this time period of a thousand years. That's the millennium that we're talking about when we talk about this first divergence of views on the end times within Christianity.
And when it comes to this specific revelation mentioned in Revelation 20, there's some significant disagreement among Christians over what exactly it is. But all Christians agree that it's something because it's right there. It's explicitly in the text of the Bible, just as all Christians agree that the Bible is clear that Jesus is going to return to the Earth at some point in the future, that concepts all over the Bible, also in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and in the words of Jesus himself in the Gospels, the three main views on eschatology within Christianity get their names from how they view the relationship between the Millennium of Revelation Twenty and the future return of Jesus to the Earth.
So let me try and briefly lay out the three main views on this millennium. The first view is the pre-millennium view, pre-millennial pre meaning before so before the millennium pre-millennial. This view holds that Jesus is going to physically return to the Earth before the millennium begins. Jesus will return to the Earth with this church and reign with them from a throne in literal Jerusalem for a literal thousand years. During this time, the Earth will return to an Eden-like state and Satan will be bound.
At the end of that literal thousand years, Satan will be released to offer a final choice to mankind, which will result in the battle of Armageddon, the final judgment, and the eternal damnation of Satan and his legions. The universe will then be destroyed, and a new heaven and a new earth will be created. That's the pre-millennial perspective. The second view is the post-millennial perspective post meaning after. So after the millennium, this view holds that Jesus is going to return after the millennium.
They believe that the Gospel is going to spread across the Earth with increasing success to such a degree that eventually almost everyone on Earth will become a Christian. This gospel movement is going to culminate in a golden age of a literal thousand years in which Christian ethics and character will rule humanity because almost all the earth will be Christian and there's going to be this literal. Thousand years, a golden age where all governments will be made up of Christians who love Jesus, and then after this post-millennium, Jesus will physically return to the Earth to conduct a final resurrection and judgment.
That's the post-millennial view. The third view is the millennial view or a millennial view, meaning no or none. So this view holds that there isn't any kind of literal millennium. They believe that it's allegorical, mystical, spiritual, but it's not literal in length or in detail. Rather, it refers to the whole period of the church age which began on Pentecost in Acts Chapter Two, likely in the year 32 A.D., and continues up to the present day.
The period from Pentecost up till today is known as the church age. And so the millennial perspective essentially believes that the millennium is a reference to the whole church age. They believe that Jesus' reign during this millennium is spiritual. As the gospel spreads across the earth, all things are being redeemed, and all things are being made new. And the crescendo of this redemptive movement will be the physical return of Jesus to the Earth to oversee a final judgment and rule over a new heaven and a new Earth Bible geek.
Side note, Frederiksholm is the view that the events described in Revelation all took place around the fall of Israel. You know, the fall of Jerusalem took place in 70 A.D. and Israel was pretty much wiped out by 120 A.D.. And so the Predator Eastview teaches that everything described in the Book of Revelation is figurative allegorical language. Speaking of the fall of Israel and Jerusalem that took place in the late first and early second centuries, technically, Frederiksholm falls under the millennial view.
They believe it's entirely allegorical or spiritual. The Gospels spread across the earth, and all things are being made new. The church's call to partner with Jesus in that work, of redeeming all things and making all things new here and now things are trending up and will continue to do so until practically the whole world is redeemed, at which time Jesus will return to the Earth. Post-millennialism is pretty close because it believes pretty much the same thing, except it holds that there will be a literal thousand years of the church raining on the earth before Christ's return.
Now, as respectfully as I can say this, I feel like the last 2000 years of human history emphatically disproves the notion that we are trending up in morality and enlightenment from a moral and spiritual perspective here on planet Earth. And I think that anyone paying any type of attention to the world around them throughout their lives would be inclined to agree. And if you've been paying attention over the last decade or two, I think you would be inclined to agree with me that things are not getting better.
All you have to do is look out of your window, walk the streets, watch the news, hop on the Internet, and it's obvious things are not getting better. We are not trending up. Even nonbelievers overwhelmingly feel like things in the world are getting worse and have been for some time. They feel like the world is increasingly spiraling out of control. And so in summation, I believe that observable reality throughout our lifetimes and history over the past few millennia emphatically disprove the post-millennial and our millennial view.
And we have to be honest about observable reality. We cannot adopt a theology that is disproved by observable reality. And that's why I'm just. Not inclined to take either of those views very seriously, if I'm being honest, but let me share a little bit more about the history of our millennialism. Oregon was possibly the most important father, so to speak, of the allegorical approach to eschatology while living and working in Alexandria in the early third century. He was part of a school of Christianity that enjoyed the relative favor of the ruling Roman officials.
But it turned out that Rome didn't like it when Christians thought that the kingdoms of this world were destined to fall away and be replaced by the kingdom of Jesus and that all the authority was destined to fall away under King Jesus. You have to remember at this time in the Roman Empire, the view was that Caesar was a God. And so this sort of teaching was insurrectionist. It was causing trouble. It was blasphemous in the Roman Empire. And so to protect the political favor that he and his colleagues were enjoying at that time, Oregon decided that the best solution was to simply begin to allegories.
All these texts that talk about Jesus coming as the conquering king and the kingdoms of the earth falling away. Instead, he decided to start teaching that Jesus was going to come and rule in the hearts of men. And that's all the Bible was talking about because this was a doctrine that posed no threat to rulers with God complexes. And then in the fourth century, Augustine ran with Oregon's approach and it evolved into most of what we know today a millennialism now not all, but most churches hold to a reformed theology.
God is done with Israel. He's through with the Jew. And all the promises that God made to Israel now belong to the church. The problem with end times Bible prophecies is that Israel is all over them. This creates an obvious problem for those who hold to replacement theology. How can God be done with Israel if Israel shows up in all these unfulfilled end times? Bible prophecies? The only option to solve a problem like that is to take the position that every time Israel is spoken of in eschatology, it's really a reference to the church in some sort of allegorical sense.
The only way to solve this textual problem is to paint all end times prophecy with a broad allegorical brush because you can't just allegorize one little section where you need to do that and then take the rest literally. They don't have a choice. They have to allegories Israel and to allegories Israel, they have to allegories, pretty much all eschatology. So, anyone who holds to replacement theology, I want you to understand this. Anyone who holds to replacement theology.
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 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 his collectively known as the church from the Earth, meet them in the clouds, and take them to be with him an instant.
And all this will happen in the blink of an eye. The most well-known verse is on the Rapture found in First Thessalonians 4, 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 the Rapture happened about the seven-year time period where all this bad stuff is happening.
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. In other words, you're going to view much of the Bible, especially Bible prophecy, as being word pictures and metaphors and things like that. And you're almost going to start with that assumption, whereas a firm hermeneutical approach is going to cause you to dig into the scriptures, starting with the assumption that the Bible is speaking literally.
And so if you look at that chart on your outline, you can see that if you favor an 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. Your hermeneutics have a massive impact on your theology, but especially your eschatology.
So just. To be upfront 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 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 that we wanted to convey things with specific meanings that were 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.
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? Literally, but the second set allegorically? Or is the reality that we have no justification and we simply find all the prophecies about the end times, too fantastic, too offensive, too embarrassing or too hard to understand? If you hold a primarily allegorical view of end times and Bible prophecy, let me challenge you with this very specific question.
How do you justify that in light of the literal nature of the prophecies concerning Jesus's first coming? How do you justify that view, some will say, well, Jeff, John is writing in the style of secular, apocalyptic literature at that time. Really? Really. Are you telling me that there wasn't any savior or messiah-like mythology in play in other ancient Near Eastern cultures during the thousands of years before Jesus came to the Earth? Are you telling me that other cultures, when the prophets were writing the messianic prophecies, are you telling me that other cultures at that time didn't have their mythologies and prophecies about savior figures that were going to come about leaders, about chosen ones that would arise and lead their people the glory?
Of course, they did. Of course, other cultures had those prophecies and mythologies. Does that mean that all the Old Testament prophecies written about Jesus Christ were not true? They weren't literal just because there were other ancient Near Eastern cultures writing prophecies at that time. Of course not. Of course not. We know that those prophecies about Jesus's first coming were true and we know that they were literal. So let me ask you again, if you hold a primarily allegorical view of end times, and Bible prophecies, how in the world do you justify that in light of the literal nature of the Bible prophecies that speak of Jesus's first coming?
How do you justify that? I want to ask you not to simply skip over that question, if you hold to an allegorical view of end times, Bible prophecy now, as I mentioned, there are many good reasons to not take a text literally. But the problem in the church is that so many people approach the subject of the Bible allegorically when there's not a good reason to do so. I want to share just a few bad reasons to approach a biblical text allegorically.
And and this creates an intellectual obstacle for the reader. This person does not have a problem with revelation or Bible prophecy. This person has a problem with the Bible. Because scripture is packed with supernatural miracles, so that person is going to have to allegories the miracles of the early church in the Book of Acts, they're going to have to allegories, almost the entire ministry of Jesus, the plagues of Egypt, the exodus of the Israelites, and on and on and on.
So where does it stop? This is a path that, if followed to its conclusion, inevitably leads one to have to allegories, even the resurrection, which is the entire point of Christianity. The Bible begins with an overwhelming supernatural miracle in Genesis one one where we read in the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. It's been well said that if you can believe Genesis one one, you'll have no problem with the rest of the Bible if you can believe that God made the entire universe everything that exists out of nothing.
Then you'll have no problem when you read about God working other miracles, because the one who established and created the laws of nature must be able to rationally transcend them. If you can accept that God created the universe out of nothing, ixnay Nilo exactly the way he wanted to. Does it not logically follow that he is equally capable of ending it exactly the way he wants to, the beginning of our universe was astonishing. And its end shall be no less from a Christian perspective, it doesn't make any type of sense to reject a view of the end times solely because it seems too fantastic by that logic.
You'll have to also reject divine creation, the resurrection and countless other biblical miracles. And even from a scientific perspective, no views should be rejected simply because it seems unbelievable. At one time, the idea of the Earth rotating around the sun seemed unbelievable. Every proposed view must be approached and evaluated based upon the evidence. Second, bad reason to allegories. A Biblical text. It offends me or it's embarrassing to believe that I'll keep this one brief. Our feelings are irrelevant.
They're irrelevant when it comes to this issue. God is God, and he is not looking for any suggestions on how the end of the world should go down. And he's certainly not concerned with whether or not his plans meet with our approval. Furthermore, our feelings have absolutely no bearing on what is and is not true because the truth does not bend to our will or our opinions if you want to pursue the truth in any field. You must check your feelings at the door.
And then the third bad reason to allegories, a text. I don't understand it. Doesn't make sense. To allegories, a biblical text, because we don't understand it is quite simply pure hubris, it is absolute arrogance because it means that we've esteemed ourselves so highly that we're willing to claim, well, if I can't understand it, then there's only one possible explanation. It cannot be understood. Therefore, it must be allegorical or something like that. This approach leaves no room for the simple explanation that we might not know everything.
And to understand John's figurative language, you have to be well versed in the ancient Near Eastern apocalyptic literature of John's day. And if you're not, you're just wasting your time trying to make sense of revelation. My problem with that is philosophically. Is that type of thinking imply that God has chosen to limit and withhold the ability to understand the Book of Revelation from ninety-nine point nine percent of Christians who have lived over the past 2000 years because it implies that those poor Christians who weren't blessed with an academically elite pastor had no hope of understanding the Book of Revelation.
When we read the Bible, when we read the Gospels, do we encounter Jesus conducting his ministry or the Holy Spirit empowering the church based on intellectual merit? No, it's not how the kingdom of God works. This view implies that when missionaries plant churches and when we share the gospel with people who don't know Jesus, we might as well be handing out Bibles where all the texts related to the end times are removed. We might as well save a little weight in a few pages by pulling out the Book of Revelation because they're not going to be able to understand it unless they have somebody who has a seminary degree and some academic expertise in ancient Near Eastern apocalyptic literature.
And because I don't want to give it all away, I'll also just tell you that this view is incompatible with the first three verses of Revelation, which we'll discuss in our next study. Listen, certainly knowing historical literature, knowing archeology and all those cultural things add richness and they can add new layers to our understanding of scripture, but the truth remains that the Bible and Bible prophecy were written for all believers. They were written for believers in places where all they have is a Bible, not even one commentary.
The Bible is for them as well. And if Jesus's selection of the disciples tells us anything, it's that he doesn't need highly educated men to get his message across. Praise God, you and I do not need to be highly educated to understand the message of the scriptures and even Bible prophecy. The Bible tells us that the word of God makes wise even the simple, I don't know about you, but I'm so glad that the word of God was written even for the simple because it means there's some hope for me.
This is the last subject I'm going to talk about here. Then we're going to wrap this up. I want to talk about how to evaluate your current eschatology, and how to evaluate your current beliefs about the end times. I want to talk about some questions you can ask and approaches you can take that will help you determine the integrity of your current eschatological views. Firstly, every view of end times prophecy takes some of the text. Every view and every view takes some of the text figuratively.
The percentages of each vary wildly based upon whichever view you take, but they all take some scripture literally and some figuratively. Whatever your current view, here's the first thing you need to be able to do. You need to explain why you view the parts of scripture as being literal that you do, and you need to be able to explain why you view the parts of scripture figuratively that you do. And when it comes to the parts that you take figuratively, the reasons can't be because it's too hard to believe it offends me or I don't understand it.
As we journey through Revelation, we're going to see and understand why we take some specific parts literally and why we take some parts figuratively. Why would you take the second coming of Christ literally, but hold the millennium to be mystical? What's the reasoning? What's the justification for that, especially when both of those things appear in the same chapter of the Bible? What is your justification and reasoning for switching gears and saying this is literal but this is figurative, even though they're pretty much next to each other in the same chapter?
Why allegories the rapture, but hold to a literal view of a new heaven and a new earth? You have to know why you believe that. Whatever your view, does it pass this test? Can you explain why you take some parts figuratively and why you take others literally? And if you're saying I don't I don't know. I don't know. Listen, that's a good thing. That's a good thing because all of us need to be willing to recognize where we do and do not have a solid understanding of different areas of the Bible and theology.
I am rock solid, 100 percent sure of my belief in the essentials of Christianity. Jesus dying in my place on the cross, rising from the grave in my place, the security of my salvation, being by faith in Jesus alone and all those sorts of things. But there are non-essential areas of scripture and theology that I'm not 100 percent sure about yet. There are some areas where I'm 50 percent sure about my view, to be honest. Others where I'm 60, 70, 80, 90 percent sure.
I'm still working a lot of stuff out. There are a lot of theological areas where I want to read more, I want to study more. I want to have more conversations because I'm not satisfied with the current understanding that I have. And that's OK. That's OK. But we need to be honest and realistic about where we are in our views. And if you're only 10 percent sure of your views of the end times, it's a good thing to know that you're only 10 percent sure, because if you think you're 100 percent sure, then you're really not going to be open to hearing anything else.
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 this test will allow you to conclude which view of the end times is most accurate. This is a test, an approach that will help you evaluate any area of theological study, any belief system related to the Bible.
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 not a direct contradiction here between my view and this verse, but there is what I would call textual contortionists.
These are explanations and perspectives where you're looking at a verse in the Bible, but you're having to stretch its meaning, you're having to twist it. You have to contort and manipulate the text and put it through some elaborate machinations 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, and 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.
And hopefully we can agree that beginning with a literal approach to the text is the most logical approach, because that's what we're going to do. We're going to start with a literal approach, depart from it when there is good reason to do so. And then we're going to see where that gets us. Your homework this week is to get a journal, to get a notebook. That's just a good thing to have as a Christian anyway. And I want to challenge you to write down any questions that you have about the end times, anything that you would really like to grow in your understanding of that.
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 do that, I think you'll find that your faith is going to be deeply built up through this series.
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 bow 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 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 the new and fresh, glorious revelation of who you are and what your plans are for our world.
And we thank you that as we look out our window and see a world descending into chaos, the truth is really that everything is coming together and everything is on schedule and everything is unfolding according to your plans. And it's your desire to share those plans with us because you love us, because you've chosen to call us friends. We love you for it and we can't wait to learn about all that you have in store. Jesus, we bless you in your precious name, we pray Amen.
I had one time when I didn't know if it was God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. I had no way of knowing, it was just like someone was sitting right beside me in my car talking to me.Not bossy, not pushy at all but giving me solutions to what I had been struggling with and never talking about. It was like he knew everything and probably a lot more than I did. I followed everything he suggested and 2 weeks later I was able to sleep for the first time in months.
When I go to heaven I think I will see one heavenly being that will be God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Because it takes all 3 to get us through this life. God's wisdom, Jesus's love and the Holy Spirit's guidance.
We have spend a lot of time in the Book of Revellationns but did not forget the Holy Spririt as we discussen Him also and the gifrts of the Holy Spirit.
I heard His voice twice only did not have a clue who it was talking to me until later.
Good to see yoiu back hplady.............
There was one time I did listen and I am still so grateful that I did.
We had gone to Seymour Mountain and had Hugo’s two boys with us. We had brought a large truck tube. Hugo and I lay side-by-side, the boys on our backs and way we went.
As kids we never owned a sled, we used a piece of cardboard instead.
The second time around I got it into my head to try and steer that thing, to maneuver it like I have seen the kids do on their sleds. Yes, on a truck tube! Somehow I got my foot stuck, and I mentioned this to Hugo when we got to the bottom of the hill.
It did not really hurt that much, so Hugo said; “I hope that you can make it back up the hill by yourself, for it won’t be easy otherwise, it is a steep hill.”
Now I have to admit that I like to show off sometimes, to show how tough I can be. I can do anything. I contemplated climbing that hill, but there was no way I could mistake what I heard next.
A voice that said loud and clear; “Don’t even try it” .
As I said this is against my nature not too show off.
But I listened, and I am so glad that I did. We made it back up the hill somehow without my sore foot touching the ground. Then Hugo took me to the first aid. There was no swelling at all, it did not look bad, but we were advised to go to the hospital anyway to have some pictures taken.
The doctor who was on duty that night thought I would be just fine, probably just a sprain. She did take some ex-rays anyway. When she came back with the pictures, we could read from her face that things had changed she looked very worried.
The doctor said; “I am afraid that I have bad news, your foot is shattered in four places. You may never walk again!”
Wow, this is incredible, there was nothing to see, and there still was no swelling,
I had a cast put on up to my hip, it took a while to heal and for about a year, my foot was stiff .
I am walking today just fine, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that had I tried to walk on my foot even one step, I would not be able to walk today. I am so grateful that I heard and listened, to His voice.
I now knew this voice had to have been coming from the Holy Spirit.
Praise and thank you, Lord!
Speaker: BJ Chursinoff
Pictures are powerful teaching tools. In this message, we look at two pictures that help us understand the new life that God wants to give to every single person. And at the end of the message, we hear the testimonies of six people from Gospel City who followed Jesus through the waters of Baptism on Sunday, June 13, 2021.
I loved playing with Lego as a kid, I love building something from scratch using the instruction manual that came with the kit. If you know anything about Lego instructions that, you know, they have pictures in them, lots and lots of pictures. They have pictures of what you need to see at each stage of the construction process you're in. Now, there are some words in the manual to describe what you're doing, but there is only the minimum amount of words that you would need to help you move from one stage of the building project to the next, the pictures and the instruction manual or what help you understand where you are, what you are doing and what step comes next.
Can you imagine Lego instructions that had no pictures in them? What kid would build Lego if there were only words to describe each one of the dozens of unique pieces and intricate steps to follow? Imagine, for example, the first step in your Lego building adventure had no pictures, but only words instead. And it said in writing step one, take the green piece that is a quarter inch long and an eight inch tall and connect the front end of that piece on top of the long gray piece that is two inches long and an eeight-inchtall.
Now, you could get the job done with written instructions like that, but why would anyone write instructions like that if they could give you a picture like this? Instead, a picture of the green piece being fastened to the gray piece. Do this. When you look at a picture, you can see clearly how everything is supposed to fit together. Now, if you're an adult that played with Lego as a kid, the skills you learned growing up come in really handy whenever you attempt to build grown up Lego, which is what I call any furniture that comes from IKEA.
IKEA furniture is notoriously, notoriously difficult to put together. And guess what? IKEA instructions have pictures. Can you imagine trying to put IKEA furniture together without pictures in the manual? Good pictures, help us understand what's going on. Good pictures not only help us understand how to build Lego and IKEA projects, good pretty good pictures can help us understand life and how it works. I'm going to show you two such pictures in our time together in this message.
The first picture we're going to look at is found on your outline, on your message outline. You'll see a diagram that has three circles in it. This is the first picture I want to show you. This picture has a highly creative and original name. It's simply called Three Circles. I'm going to walk you through this picture of the three circles. I'm going to get you to write some words in each of the circles as we go. When we're done, you can have a basic illustration that will help describe for you how life works.
This picture will show us what our main problem is in the world today, and it will show us what the solution is to now. Some of you watching already know what the solution is. You already have received this solution in your life and you're already living in light of it, if that's you. This picture is going to be a good reminder for you of what you already have. But don't tune out because you can use this picture of the three circles as a tool to help people in your life.
This brokenness leads us to search for a way to make life work. In contrast to this brokenness, we also see beauty and purpose and evidence of design all around us. The Bible tells us that God originally planned a world that worked perfectly, where everything and everyone fit together in harmony. God made each of us with a purpose to worship him walk with him and enjoy him God designed this world that we live in and his design was very good.
So here's your first filling, and it's the first thing I will get you to write on your picture inside the top left circle. Right. The words God's design. God's design. The Bible says in Genesis, chapter one, verse thirty one, God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good and there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day, and then saw 19. Verse one says The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Believe it or not, life works when we live according to God's design, but life doesn't work when we ignore God and his original design for our lives all of us do this, we selfishly insist on doing things in our lives, in our own way, every single one of us. And the Bible calls this sin. We all sin and distort the original design. You can see the word sin on your picture of the three circles is on the top of the arrow, connecting the top two circles.
The consequence of our sin is separation from God, not only in this life, but for all of eternity. The Bible says in Romans chapter three, verse twenty three, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and Romans six twenty three, it says, for the wages of sin is death. It said that leads to a place of brokenness. We see this brokenness all around us and we see this brokenness in our very own lives as well.
How many times and in everyday conversations do people engage you about their problems or challenges? It's amazing how often people share their heartaches regarding their marriages, children, finances, addictions, depression, you name it. People are hurting and they need hope. People are hurting because people are broken. For your next fill-in, go ahead and write the word brokenness inside the second circle, the one on the top right-hand side. Brokenness. When we realize life is not working, we begin to look for a way out.
We tend to go in many directions trying different things to figure it out on our own. That's what those squiggly lines coming out of the second circle represent. They represent all the different ways we try to fix our own brokenness. Can you think of any ways that people try to fix the brokenness in their lives on their own? Well, we turn to things like fun party, drugs, alcohol, sex, money, relationships, family material possessions, adventure, busyness comforts, food gambling, video games, and anger control.
The list is long of the things that we go to to try to fill our lives, to fix our lives or just plain numb our lives. But do any of those things that I just listed, do any of those things fix our brokenness? They might give us temporary relief, they may get us temporary happiness, but doesn't last Now, if you're honest with yourself, you know that the fix is temporary at best. Those things we run to don't fix our brokenness.
We need some good news. And if you've been tracking with me so far, then you're ready for the gospel. And this is your next film, right? The word gospel inside the third circle. Right. The word gospel inside the third circle. What's the gospel? The Gospel. The good news about what God has done to fix us because of his love. God did not leave us in our brokenness. Jesus, God in human flesh came to us and lived perfectly according to God's design.
Jesus came to rescue us, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He took our sin and shame to the cross, paying the penalty of our sin by his death. Jesus was then raised from the dead to provide the only way for us to be rescued and restored to our relationship with God. The Bible says and John three 16 that God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
Colossians Chapter To verse 14, the Bible says he erased the certificate of debt with his obligations that were against us and opposed to us and has taken out of the way by nailing it to the cross.
And in First Corinthians, Chapter 15 three to four, the apostle Paul says this food delivered to you as of first importance. What I also received, is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day under the scriptures. Isn't this amazing news? This is the best news that you will ever hear. God made a way so that you don't have to pay for your sins.
God made a way for you to be forgiven. Now, simply hearing this good news is not enough, though we must admit our sinful brokenness and stop trusting in ourselves, we don't have the power to escape this brokenness on our own. We need to be rescued. We must ask God to forgive us, turning from our sins to trust only in Jesus. This is what it means to repent and believe. You can see those two words in your three circles.
Pichler the words under the arrow that connects our brokenness to the Gospel. By believing we receive new life through Jesus and God turns our lives in a new direction, the Bible says in Mark 115 to repent and believe the good news, the Ephesians chapter two verses eight to nine. It says four. You are saved by grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It's God's gift, not from work so that no one can boast. In Romans Chapter 10, Verse 8 nine, the Bible says if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.
And when God restores our relationship to him, we begin to discover meaning and purpose in a broken world. Now we can pursue God's design in all areas of our lives. Now we can pursue God's design for happiness and contentment. We can pursue his design for friendships and family and marriages and parenting, dating, and singleness. We can pursue God's design for how we understand and express our sexuality. We can pursue God's design for how we handle money. We can pursue God's design for every area of our lives.
And Ephesians chapter two, verse 10, it says, For we are his creation created in Christ Jesus for Good Works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. This is the picture of the three circles, the question now is, what should you do? Like I said earlier, you may have already heard everything that I've shared with you in this picture of the three circles you may have been brought up in the church, you may have already read the Bible and are familiar with it.
You may already be a Christian. And if you are, then you've been given a good reminder in this message of the big picture of how life is supposed to work. But maybe you've never heard any of this stuff before, or maybe it's the first time in a long time that you've heard it, if that's you, now that you've heard this good news, God wants you to respond to him. You can talk to him using words like these, you could even say these words to God right now in the quiet of your heart, if you believe them to be true, you could pray something like this.
God, my life is broken and I recognize it's because of my sin. I need you. I believe what I've just heard here today, I believe that Christ came to live, die, and was raised from the dead to rescue me from my son. Forgive me, God, I turn from my selfish ways and I put my trust in you. I know that Jesus is Lord of all, and I will follow him. Amen Amen. If you just prayed that simple prayer in your heart and you meant it, I want you to listen to what the Bible says.
Romans Chapter 10, verse nine. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And Romans chapter 10, verse 13 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So what's next? Well, as you begin your new journey, the Bible teaches you how to pursue God. Remember, he has a design for healthy relationships and prayer.
God wants you to talk to him about everything that matters to you, search the local church is God's family to help you walk with him, and get connected to a church if you're not already connected to one. Bible, the Bible reveals God's design, showing you how to pursue him, read the Bible every day. If you don't have a Bible and would like one, you can get one from your local church or you can reach out to us here at Gospel City Church and we will get a Bible into your hands and share.
Now that you've experienced this good news, tell others this is the three circles. This is the first picture of a new life that I wanted to share with you. And this picture leads seamlessly into the second picture I want to show you right now. And this is the final fill-in on your outline, picture number two. This baptism picture number two is baptism. When a person believes the good news of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they get baptized.
Jesus commands his followers to get baptized when they decide to follow him. So that's what we do. Baptism is a powerful picture. Baptism is a picture of a historical reality and a spiritual reality, both of which have already taken place. What historical reality does baptism paint for us? Well, think about what happens when a person gets baptized, they go down under the water, then they come up out of the water. And what's that?
A picture of or baptism is a picture of Jesus' dead body being buried in a tomb. And it's a picture of Jesus' resurrected body coming to life again. Dead and buried and then alive forevermore, whenever a person gets baptized, they are displaying a picture of a historical event for everyone to see. But baptism is not just a picture of a historical reality, baptism is a picture of a personal spiritual reality that has taken place in the life of the person who's being baptized.
I want everyone to leave here with a crystal clear understanding of what baptism doesn't do, the physical waters of baptism do not wash away anyone's sin. Physical water cannot clean the spiritual sin from anyone's heart. No, a person is totally washed and totally cleansed from their sin. The moment they place their faith in Jesus, the moment they believe the finished work of the Cross of Christ is applied to the repentant sinner's life. Belief in Jesus washes our sins away.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism, into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him for the death he died. He died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the spiritual reality that baptism pictures for us, those who have repented and believe the gospel have had their old life united with and buried with Jesus in his death.
His death is our death. Our old life is gone. And now we've been raised to new life with him. The resurrection life of Jesus is our resurrection life, we've been united with him in this new life that he has made available to us. This is the picture of baptism, our old US dead and buried, our new US alive in Jesus. And again, that spiritual death and resurrection happened to us the moment that we believed baptism is an outward display of that spiritual reality that has already happened in us.
Baptism is a powerful picture of new life. This is a huge, huge day for us at Gospel City Church because tonight, Sunday, June 13th, twenty twenty one, we're baptizing six people who are going to display this picture of what Jesus did for them will be baptizing them as part of our live in-person service on Sunday night. Because these baptisms are happening a couple of days after this message was recorded, we won't be able to show you their baptisms right now in this message.
But that doesn't mean I can't share with you the incredible testimonies of the people who are getting baptized. With their permission, I'm going to spend the next few minutes putting their testimonies on the screen and reading them for you. They will be sharing these testimonies live right before they get into the water to get baptized. May Jesus bless you as you hear these personal stories of his goodness in these people's lives. Hello, my name is Des, before I became a Christian, I had no peace when I prayed now that I'm a Christian, when I think about the future and when I pray, I do have peace.
Family played a big part in me becoming a Christian, being closer to family that are Christian, help, support and guide me to show me more about Jesus and they help me make this amazing decision to turn my life over to follow Christ. Since I've become a Christian, I've come to see that Jesus is always with me throughout my day watching me and I know he's always protecting me. I want to learn more about Jesus and the Bible. I've learned about how our world ways, rules and beliefs have come to be.
Hello, my name is J.Y. My life before Jesus was full of sin, but I do not care or think about the consequences of my sinning, but Jesus called me out of that old life. I felt a call from God bringing me out of the darkness. And with the help of my family, I was able to open my heart back up to God again. As soon as I opened my heart to God, I felt the infinite amount of love that God has always given me is an amazing feeling that I cannot describe, except that it's amazing and everyone should do it.
I want to be baptized because I want my life to be dedicated to God. I feel that being baptized is my wholehearted acceptance that Jesus is my savior. He died for my sins. And through my repentance and trust in him, I've been forgiven. My favorite part of the Bible is Matthew, Chapter six verses twenty four to twenty five, it says. No one can serve two masters, either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body. What you will wear is not life more than food and the body more than clothes. Hello, my name is Dylan. Before I became a Christian, I was living in Constant and I was in a lot of misery while in the grip of my addiction. My addiction started off subtle and seemingly innocent. What started as partying with friends on the weekends turned into me being a full blown slave to opioids.
I got to the place where I was putting them before everyone and everything. The way I was living was unbearable, and I was also aware of the ever growing wickedness of the world and its disobedience to God. I called out for help and God answered me. He has given me a second chance. Jesus Christ, it's changed my life since I've become a Christian in ways that I couldn't have even imagined, I gave my life to him a year ago and God has given me my life back.
Not only has he given me it back, but he's given me a whole new one. He has freed me from the chains of addiction and has given me eternal life in a relationship with him. He has made me a new creation and now I'm able to bring his word to others. I want to be baptized today to publicly, publicly profess my faith in Jesus Christ and to take a deeper step in my relationship with him. The old me is washed away and I want God to continue to bring about the new life I now have in Jesus.
And I want to follow the command to get baptized. Found in Acts Chapter To verse. Thirty eight. I want to share my favorite Bible verse with you is Joshua. Chapter one, verse nine. And it says, Have I not commanded you be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord. Your God is with you wherever you go. Hello, my name is Lauchlan. I can't remember a time in my life when I wasn't a Christian, I was raised in a family that taught me about Jesus.
My whole life, I've believed in Jesus for as long as I can remember. Jesus is so real to me. I'm aware of his presence throughout the day and he is right beside me every day. There is one day I even felt Jesus hold me in his arms, which was such an incredible experience that no words could describe. I talk with them throughout every day and God speaks to me through his word, and he has grown my faith in him.
He restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Hello, my name is Luke. I don't remember a time in my life when I wasn't a Christian, I was very young when I became one. One of the ways my life has been impacted by Jesus is that he asks me to forgive other people, which helps me to live with a lot less anger and enjoy my relationships with people more. I want to be baptized today because Jesus told me to. My favorite verse in the Bible is Joshua.
Chapter one, verse nine, and it says this. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged by the Lord. Your God will be with you wherever you go. Isn't it amazing to hear these real-life stories of the way Jesus has changed real people's lives? Praise God, let's praise God for what he's done. Father, thank you. Thank you for your goodness that is seen in everything that you've made.
We can see the design, we can see the plans sometimes even faintly, but we can see it, Lord. And when you bring us back into a relationship with us, you you lay out a way for us to walk and to live and to know you in a way that we can experience fullness, we can experience satisfaction, we can know what's true, and right and good and live our lives accordingly to that. Lord, thank you for all those that you have saved and brought into your kingdom, brought into your family to know this peace and to and to be brought back into your original design and your original plans.
Thank you for all my brothers and sisters in Christ. But I also pray, Lord, for anyone watching this who doesn't know you yet. Lord, would you do that supernatural miracle that takes place in the depths of their heart? Would you speak to them, Lord, and draw them to yourself? Would you bring them to yourself in a saving way? Do that, Lord, save them. Even right now I pray these things, Lord, always for your greatest glory and for all of our deepest joy and satisfaction in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen Amen.
Series: Exodus
Passage: Exodus 26:1-27:21...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
The New Testament tells us that the Tabernacle was a "picture" of greater Heavenly realities, Jesus, and the Gospel. In this study, we'll take a tour of the Tabernacle and highlight some of the most powerful imagery it employs.
Before we do anything else this week, you need to know that you're really going to need your outline today. I think you should always have an outline so that you have somewhere to record the things that God impresses upon your spirit that you want to remember. But this week, I'm going to be specifically referencing an illustration that is on the second page of the outline.
So if you don't have one of those yet, print it off now or at a minimum, download the PDF so that you can look at it on your phone or on your computer.
While we're going through today, study the next several chapters of Exodus, describe the details of the Tabernacles design and construction, as well as those instruments that are used within the Tabernacle and some of the processes of organizing the beginnings of the priesthood. I'm going to switch gears for the next few messages. And instead of going verse by verse, as is my custom, I'm going to be speaking topically.
I'm going to share some important observations in the text, and we're going to make lots of connections between the Tabernacle and other places in scripture.
We're going to be drawing lots of lines all over the Bible and we're going to do our best to dig into the most important facets of the Tabernacle.
Don't worry, there's going to be plenty of scripture. There is so much scripture in this week's study. I have no fill in points because the scriptures took up the entire outline.
Now I've shifted to a topical focus because if we went verse by verse and went full depth into everything that comes up in these next few chapters, we would wrap up our Exodus study sometime in the year 2027.
And while I love the word of God and I believe it's all profitable, we want to keep moving through the text and focus on the things that are most profitable.
Now, as always, there's obviously freedom for you to go as deep as you'd like in your own studies during the week.
And hopefully nobody will accuse me of being a sellout for taking only a year to get through the Book of Exodus.
So to telegraph where we're going to be going in this study, I want to let you know that that almost all of this study is going to be focused on imagery, on idioms, illustrations, pictures, types, representations, because the Tabernacle, as we've already learned, is an illustration that points to heaven. It mirrors realities that are in heaven. It points to Jesus. It points to the gospel. And it's going to teach us a lot about even our own spiritual life and walk with the Lord.
Now, let me say this. There are at least ten times more theories out there regarding the imagery of the Tabernacle than I will be sharing about today. Some of them I've chosen not to share because while they're compelling, I can't really verify them to my satisfaction. Others, I think, are simply not credible. And I think some others may be seeing something that's not there. They're the sort of thing where you read it.
You look at the scriptures and you go, that's a little bit of a stretch. I'm going to share the things that I find most credible with regards to imagery in the Tabernacle. But as always, we encourage you to do your own research, check it out for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
''All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead.''
Sounds kind of weird. Maybe it would be better to use word Mortal?
''All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead.''
Sounds kind of weird. Maybe it would be better to use word Mortal?
You live in a beautiful place but I feel so sorry about what this winter has done to you so far. ........