Looking at somewhat of an outline, we're looking at Revelation chapter 1, book of Revelation chapter 1, 1 through 7. A message was given to John to share and to who? Well, down in verse four it says, John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you, he starts out. The message was given to these churches, to the churches of Asia. And I got thinking, well, what is the message? What's the message that he's given? As I was reading through this, it just came clear as a bell to me that in verse 5, and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kingdom of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. So I'm looking at it, trying to put sense to it. You know, what he has done is redemption. And we're still on this redemption part. And I don't know, we talked about redemption. He loved us and he keeps us. We looked at verses in John 13, John 15, Romans 8, Galatians 2. We went through the whole thing and looking at in this redemption process, he's the fateful witness in Isaiah 55, 2 Thessalonians 3, we looked at that in 2 Timothy 2.13, we looked at Hebrews 2.17. Hebrews is a good book, they're all good books so I don't want to say that. But it seems like a lot comes out of there from when you look at a revelation and you research things you always seem to end up getting in the Hebrew somehow. And then all the way to Leviticus and there's a lot of things that make sense. I was commenting on a post of one of my friends who's a pastor and talked about commentaries. And I said, I do have them, but I do not use them. I found that most commentaries, writers are more Calvinistic and it doesn't line up with God's word. And boy, that created a lot of discussion. Then I stayed out of it. I let the pastor, Kevin Kern, handle that from there. And, you know, but there was a lot of good points, you know. It's scraping runs, brother. It's scraping runs. That's what they call it. No, but it was his post. I gave my thoughts about it and were given, but some things and I, but I also said that I do use some Bible helps once in a while. I have to look up of the word. here and there to know, get a kind of understanding. Then I try to use God's word first, but I'm still, then I'll look it up. And then, you know, so I do, there's helps out there. And so I'm not discrediting, there are spiritual men that write these commentaries, but it has to line up with God's word. And I figured if I'm looking for a commentary set that lines up with God's word, unless I know God's word, Why use them? Because I don't know if they line up or not. So I just use, I find myself just using scripture and using the Bible. And if people use commentaries, fine. I'm not gonna hear disrespect. Godly man, that's not my goal here to teach you about that. My goal is to teach you the Word of God and expound on it and give you some thoughts that'll help for your life and get you to study the Word of God. Because, you know, I ended it with just a quote of verse, 2 Timothy 2.15. You know, And it was good conversation. And some were other pastors and things like that. But you have to take the Word of God and make sure the verse that you're cross-referencing to is not something taken out of context. You have to line it up and put it in whole. I can take other verses out of the Bible, and I also take this, that you can't take a round peg and try to hammer it into a square hole, you know, so to speak, or vice versa. You know, I remember as a kid, you're trying to get that in, it won't fit, and it's like, and there's a lot of people out there who are doing that. And it's sad. And I've been under preaching or pure preaching throughout my life of being a Christian. And I sat in some meetings and stuff before where men have done that. And they say, well, turn over to here. And they take that one verse. it's really meaning something else. Praise the Lord, we're going to go on. I digress from there. But now I wanted to look at begotten of the dead. We kind of scratched it a little bit last week, but what is begotten of the dead? When you see something like in your Bible, you see that verse 5, Jesus Christ who was a faithful witness, which we looked at that, and the first begotten of the dead. I'll put this here so it makes it easier. First, begotten of the dead. John. Okay. Anybody else? Yeah. Yeah. No, I want an answer. Just tell me your thoughts on it. You know, and, and, you know, it says talking about who we talking about here. Jesus. Okay. So we put him here. So we're talking about Jesus, first begotten of the dead. When you read something like that in your Bible, doesn't that make you go, whoa, what's that? Do you just read past it and say, I don't understand it. I don't need to know. But this really ties into everything else here. It really does. It's awesome. The book of Revelation is revealing who? Not everybody at once. Jesus, there we go. OK, some of you are awake. OK, there's coffee in the back if you want some. If not, I got I got two guys in the back that are going to throw things at you to wake you up. Okay, I'm gonna give one of you an eraser. Where'd my gavel go? You could throw them at them from behind, they'll never know it's coming, okay? Especially the guy in front of you. He needs a hammer to his head sometimes. Okay, so we're looking at this and say, first begotten of the dead, you break it down. And you look at it and research it and say, okay, what does that mean? Give me some thoughts. Don't watch him. Watch the board. Watch your Bible. What does it mean to be begotten? Why is it, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, and not just his only son? The only begotten of the Father. Gotta look at that first. All right. Yeah. All right. First, I want to, I want you to turn John. Turn to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse 17 and 18. Now, you see here, He's speaking here, Jesus is. He's talking about the Good Shepherd, talking about the door in the prior verses of this chapter. And then you get down to verse 17. Well, before we start there, let's go to verse 40. I'm going to read that for you. I'll have you read this. He's talking after the blind man received his sight and he's talking to some Pharisees, and some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind also? And Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth. Now, in verse six, this parable Jesus spake, and he's dealing with a parable that you just read, parable Jesus, the parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which he spake unto them. Jesus said unto them, and then you have, he's trying to get it, you know, explain it to him. And then he gets down to verse 17 and 18. So when you talk about begotten of the dead, you can look back, 1st Kings 17, where you remember the widow's son died and then was Elijah laid down on him and he came back to life. There's instances in the Bible where men have come back to life. You see the Shunammite woman, her son, and he went to him and said, did you not see he gives a son for God, you know, from God? And that's over in 2 Kings, I believe chapter four. But with, you know, Elijah, and he ends up he's left coming and going, but the main thing is they prayed and sought God to bring this body back to life and they laid on him. And then you see with Lazarus being risen from the dead, did he do it on his own power? No, Jesus was involved in that. And why was that happening? That the Jews might see witness. And so you have this that's happening, the first begotten of the dead. I'm going to let the Bible speak for itself right now. Let's go, there's so many places I want to go. I want to go to Psalms, the book of Psalms 16. A lot of you know this psalm. You sure can. It's a birth. Yeah, so it would be like the difference, like Kyle and Shauna don't have any children that they've begotten, but they've adopted sons. Okay. You will be gotten of your mother and father. Okay. So it's, it's speaking of an actual Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Then you're off. I didn't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know which direction my mind was trying to soak up what you were saying. And he put it, Josh put it plain as day or, you know, that's something, you know, but the first begotten of the dead are coming forth. Okay. Now let's, um, man, we can read so much out of this. Um, Pastor, I'm just gonna have you, we just gotta read the whole chapter 16. And understand, when you get to verse 10, this kind of sinks in. And before you start, look at verse 10 in the latter part of it. Like that. Psalm 16. So make time with David. Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. O my soul, Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to Thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up the names into my lips. The Lord is a portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I should not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life, and thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. I just wanted to go to verse 10. But this whole chapter, it is awesome. Pastors preach on it and we understand that. And that how he, the redemption and the begotten of the dead that he's taken our sin. Notice I didn't say sins. What is our sin? Speak louder. It's the very nature of sin. The very nature of sin that keeps us the separation from God. He took it to the very depths of hell. See, a lot of people Some people think this is grave, and they think this. But there's one part missing out of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amen, Pastor. But, the begotten of the dead. begotten of the dead. We're going to continue reading on that. That'll kind of open up to you. I want us to turn to 1 Corinthians 15. I need a volunteer to read 1 Corinthians 15. Okay, who are those that slept? risen from the dead, coming forth. Can I interrupt? Yeah. What is a birth but a new life coming forth? Okay. Yeah. So the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and doubt. So he was quite dead. He died physically and he died spiritually. He was raised spiritually, then he was raised physically, back to his body. And so when he came out as a new creature and also into that new body, still the same body, And that's what Peter says about that holy one. So that's the birth right there when that all came out. No, because that's going to be our adoption. Jesus was born of the Father, and so his flesh, you know, he said, this day have I begotten thee. That's speaking of his fleshly birth, all right? And the New Testament confirms that out of Saul, too. But when his life was That's how I take it, according to Colossians 1-18. There's eight different people, other than Jesus, that have come back to life. Their flesh has become reanimated. So he's not the first one to come back from the dead. He's not the first one to resurrect from the dead. So it's speaking of a different death. This resurrection that has begotten of the dead is a spiritual resurrection, which is necessary for us to be born again. If I could put a term in here, the first born again when His soul was redeemed from the flames of hell by His Father. And it's that same resurrection power that the Father worked in Him that works in us to give us new life. Over in John chapter 2, Let's see. Jesus just comes from purging the temple. Why? Because they made a den of thieves and they were just misusing the temple in a lot of ways. Let's see, where do I want to start? Verse 15, And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers, money, and over through the tables. and said unto them that sold doves, take these things, hence, make not my father's house of merchandise. And the disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? And Jesus answered and said and then destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up The the key that I was trying to get across and you can continue reading on um Going all the way down to verse 25, but the key is the word I When I'm talking of begotten of the dead Now We we talked one time about how much um Power Satan had and has. But this will show really Christ power. When you deal over and I believe it's Revelation 13 where the beast gets wounded to a death wound, so to speak, and it heals himself. But I was thinking, you know, that was a slippage. That's. Even though he says all power, there was a part that able to wound that one head. of the beast. And so there was a slippage there. And I was thinking that never happens with Christ. That was just a thought. That was just from the top of my head right there without really looking into it. But I get thinking here about this begotten of the dead is the power of Jesus. Now I have here, and I don't know why, but John chapter 9 Sometimes I write random verses down that for me to look at and No, that was to go prior to John chapter 10 That's why I had that there. But as we're looking at this begotten of the dead It talking about redemption, because of this and the things that we've seen, I'm able to have salvation because of that. As I stated earlier a couple lessons ago, even last week, Revelation is a culmination of the whole book of the Bible. the whole Bible. And it reveals things. And, you know, I, I used to go out doing a lot of soul winning and had the simple plan of salvation and talk to them. Pastors done that in years past. We've done that. I've done it in the wrong way. But if I could show somebody about Christ, I don't know. I just have to wherever the Bible and the Holy Spirit directs. is to say, you know, Jesus is the first begotten of the dead. For what purpose? And then you look down here, there's a comma, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Who's the prince and kings of the earth? There's a continuation here. Jesus Christ, who is faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. What's that? Well. No, it's saying that Jesus is the prince of the kings of the earth. Yeah. Satan is the prince of the air. Is that not right? No. It's close. He is that power of the air. He's that king of Tyrus. There is that spirit of disobedience that now works in the children of disobedience. It's that spirit of Antichrist. That's the prince. So he's that prince of Tyrus that Antichrist is. Looking at it in correlation of distinguishing in revelation of that, you know, that term, unholy trinity, that's not in the Bible, but, you know, the beast falls profit of the dragon. The dragon is Satan, obviously we know that. The beast is that antichrist. And in that, he is that thing of that spirit that is now working in the children of disobedience. But here it says in verse 5, the begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Yes. And then it says, and then you tie this in unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. I'm not saying I would, but if I was to talk to somebody who needs Jesus Christ. I might even go to this verse and say this is something we need to look at. I don't need to go to the Romans road. And if that heart that is wanting to know more, then I would possibly go into Leviticus. And then I would go into Psalm. There's no Romans Rogue involved. I would go to Psalm 16 verse 10. Preach his testimony. What's that? Preach his testimony. Yeah. and let the Holy Spirit do the work, and myself at the same time praying that their eyes would be open to see. If Jesus is the king of kings and he's also here described as a prince, is that differentiating a territory specific? Well, it does refer to the kings of the In a sense, yeah. Well, I want us to think about these things. I laid out... 18 through 22. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's other verses I read that talked about it over in Joel. And, you know, there's so many verses that take, you know, because they said, we, you know, we have heard this, you know, well, how they heard it through the Old Testament, the reading of the Old Testament. And so you have to understand, Brother Corey Jackson preached a message that I heard on Sermon Audio about they didn't know who the Christ was. That was awesome. And with, you know, But they understood things from the Old Testament. Their hearts were willing and they were open. Their heart was tender to the things. And so things come to mind. You know, they did read the Old Testament. We look at these disciples and some think, well, they were just fishermen. Well, you look at, was it Andrew or whoever, over in Mark, I believe it's 1, where they left the boat with their dad and their servants. So that means they weren't poor. They had servants. They had a chef. They had this. And I don't know how much education, but these men were willing to just follow him. and to learn and learn more. And and so with that we're going to close with that, but I don't know how much done with how much we are done with that yet because we're going to be talking. It goes right into the latter part of the verse. He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, which ties in with this. Like I said, If we don't get this down, it's going to be hard to be able to see the other things. My desire for you this week is to study the Bible, read the Bible more in 12 minutes. Father, we're thankful for today, thankful for the men's input. Thank you for the Word of God that reveals and shows us things and helps us with our life and our daily walk. Help us to know you more, God. Reveal yourself unto us. Now be with pastor as he brings forth the message in the morning service and be with children's church, Father, that you might get the glory. And we pray this in Christ's name, amen.