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Reading from the majority text,
which is recorded for you on page 16 of your bulletins. By
the way, if you just kind of merge the New King James and
the ESV Bibles together, you pretty much have the majority
text. We've had it all along, but there
are only a couple of versions that are really recorded. But
the vast majority of the Greek manuscripts have this text here.
I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom
and endurance in Christ Jesus, was on the island called Patmos
on account of the Word of God and on account of the testimony
of Jesus Christ. I was in spirit on the Lord's
Day, and I heard a voice behind me, loud as a trumpet, saying,
write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches,
to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia,
and to Laodicea. Amen. Father, we thank you for
your word and I pray that as I give exposition of it, that
your spirit would anoint my preaching and enable me to faithfully communicate
and that this word would be quickened to all of our hearts that we
might come away from this sermon strengthened and renewed in our
zeal and our desire to pursue hard after you. In Jesus name
we pray. Amen. You may be seated. When I read the biography of
St. Patrick of Ireland I could understand why Protestants claim
him, and they should claim him. He was a Protestant long before
the Protestant Reformation. He had a faith that trusted in
Christ alone, by grace alone, and definitely to the glory of
God alone. And that Christ-centered theology,
which was principle number two that we looked at several months
ago, was coupled with a very Christ-centered Christian practice. Day by day, his life was sold
out to Jesus. I'm going to read you the words
from one of the hymns that he wrote that you have probably
sung. I think we've sung it here a
couple of times. Christ beside me, Christ before
me, Christ behind me, King of my heart, Christ within me, Christ
below me, Christ above me, never depart. Christ on my right hand,
Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me, shield and strife.
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising,
light of my heart. Christ beside me, Christ before
me, Christ behind me, King of my heart. Christ within me, Christ
below me, Christ above me, never depart. principle of interpretation that
I see in these first verses is actually a complement to principle
number two. In verse one, we saw that this
is a book about Jesus. It's a very, very Christ-centered
focus. And Christ is the heart of what
this book is all about. We totally misinterpret the book
if we fail to see that. But in verse 9 we see that it's
not enough to be focused on Christ intellectually as we read through
this book. That's very important to interpretation,
but this book over and over again calls us to be experiencing the
reality of that, to be living by the power of our union with
Christ. Who knows Christ the best? The
one who's read a lot of books about Christ? Or the one who
knows his theology about Christ, but he's experiencing a relationship
with Christ? Who knows about Christ's kingdom
the best? The one who's got all the theoretical
stuff down pat in his mind? Or the one who is living out
the kingdom principles on a day-to-day basis? Now obviously it's not
either or, it's both and. But look at verse 9. Verse 9
says, I, John, your brother and companion in, and now comes three
examples of what he was a companion in, literally actually the Greek
is a sharer together with them in, the word is koinonia, in
the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Christ Jesus. Now
we already looked at the words tribulation, kingdom, and endurance,
and I'm going to be focusing this morning on the last phrase
that modifies all three. in Christ Jesus. Now the New
King James translates that as of, but it is the Greek word
in. It's the Greek word in in the
majority text. It's in Christ Jesus. So the only way they could share
with John in these three things was if they were experiencing
them in Christ Jesus. So when you take in terms of
just giving an overview of everything we've read there, If you take
the phrase, cherish together with, what the new King James
has as companions, together with the phrase, in Christ Jesus,
it means that when we're united to Christ, we are in Him, He
is in us, and to use the words of Paul, it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me, Galatians 2, verse 20, and that
union in turn unites us to fellow believers. That is koinonia. OK, the word for sharing or companion.
So when we're in Christ, we are necessarily companions or sharers
together with other saints. So that's kind of an overview
of the phrases all fit together. And I'm going to focus on that
phrase in Christ Jesus, even though it's a tiny little phrase.
In verses 12 and following, Christ's union with the church is emphasized
very, very powerfully. Vincent says, being in Christ
involves fellowship with Christ at all points. In other words,
if we're truly to benefit from our union with Christ, we need
to be experiencing that union in all of the areas of life that
St. Patrick's hymn talked about. G. Campbell Morgan points out
that being in Christ means Christ is also in us, and there is a
mutual sharing of our lives and an empowering of our Christianity
that impacts everything, even impacts our emotions. He said,
it is Christ in me that fills me with compassion. The measure
in which my Lord lives in me, masters my life, dominates me."
So there are emotions in this book that Christ alone could
produce within us. You get to chapter 6 and you
will see an intense compassion that the saints have for the
persecuted church Much like what Romans 9 talks about Paul having,
where he wished he could even become a curse in order to save
them. An intense compassion that motivates
them to prayer. And yet, there is also other
emotions. Chapter 9 shows rejoicing at
God's judgment. Something that the modern church
knows nothing about because I think they take their cues more from
the precious moments, Jesus, than they do from the Jesus of
Revelation, who is anything but a wimp, is incredibly majestic
warrior. Anyway, this theme of practical
union with Christ works its way through this entire book. Personal
life must flow from Christ. Church life of chapters two through
three must flow from Christ. Kingdom life, spiritual warfare,
enduring hardship must all flow from Christ. Without Him, we
cannot do anything that will be of lasting value. Even the
new heavens and the new earth that the book ends with must
flow from Christ. And actually, that was one of
the things that was so wrong about the liberal social gospel
of the late 1800s. They thought They liked a lot of the fruit
of Christianity. They just didn't like the way
that Christ was producing it. They didn't even believe in miracles
and things like that. So they wanted to develop the
fruit. They wanted perfection on earth, but they rejected the
law of the covenant and the grace of the covenant and the goals
of the covenant. They had a false gospel. And
so Christians very rightly rejected the social gospel of the liberals
because it wasn't Christ-centered at all. But what happened is
they had a pendulum swing to the other degree. It's not enough
to reject the social gospel and then go into a holy huddle and
live in your ghetto. If Jesus Christ is penetrating
culture, those who are in Christ are penetrating culture. It can't
be otherwise. And if we're not penetrating
culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ, how can we in an experiential
level be claiming we are in Christ Jesus? If Christ is putting all
things under his feet, then those who are truly united to Jesus
must reflect his heart by joining with him in what he is doing
and bringing all things under his feet. And that automatically
means that if you're living out this in Christness, you will
experience tribulation and the need to endure as well as experiencing
the kingdom. Now, I'm not going to take the
time to develop this phrase fully in this book, because we'll get
to it as we preach through those passages. But I want to give
you just a few examples. The letter to the Church of Ephesus
in chapter 2 reminds us that having good Christ-centered doctrine
is not enough. They had excellent doctrine.
He praises them for their sound theology and that they resisted
bad theology, but he says that they had lost their first love
because they were neglecting their relationship with Christ.
So this is one of the implications of our union Now with Jesus,
the letter to Sardis reminds us that some individuals can
fake their Christian walk, doing all of their Christian duties
in their own strength rather than in the strength that flows
from our union with Jesus. The letter to Laodicea reminds
us that our fellowship with Christ can be so weak that Jesus isn't
even inside the church. He's outside the church knocking
on the door. Here is this entire presbytery
of churches. Laodicea had a whole bunch of
churches. They're mega churches. And they think they've got it
made. And Jesus says, no, you're an utter failure. Why? Because
their riches were not from Christ. Their preaching was not from
Christ. Their church growth was not from Christ. Their spiritual
clothing was not from Christ. But even there, He offers the
reality of His presence to anyone who has listening ears. He is
spelling out what this principle means in practical terms. What
does it mean to be living in Christ Jesus? And actually the
imagery that He uses with each one of those churches is remarkable,
remarkable imagery of this union, this fellowship, this intimacy
that we can have with Jesus. For example, Christ is the tree
of life in chapter 2, verse 7. And He allows us to eat from
the tree of life. I mean, you can't get closer
to something than to eat it, right? This is the kind of union
with Christ that He calls us to. The hidden manna in chapter
2, verse 17 is Jesus Christ. Now, the hidden manna, in terms
of the image itself, was the manna that was hidden in the
Ark of the Covenant, and that was placed under the mercy seat,
which was in the Holy of Holies. Even the high priest could not
eat of that manna, and yet he says, those who are overcomers
have the privilege of eating of that manna. That's the kind
of closeness and fellowship we can have with Christ to sustain
us in our day-to-day living. He is the morning star of verse
28 to guide us. He is the temple of which we
are the pillars. And that's a marvelous image.
In chapter 3, verse 20, he promises, to him who overcomes, I will
grant to sit with me on my throne. That's staggering when you think
about it. You look at the description of
his throne, out of which fire is emanating, this river of fire. And the glory of that makes people
wonder, would they be destroyed if they even approached the throne?
We're not just groveling before the throne of Christ. We are,
as Paul worded it, seated together with Christ in the heavenly places,
and that means if we by faith step into our position, our union
with Christ, we can pray with a new authority. We can take
dominion of the earth with a newfound authority that flows from Christ's
throne. This is the practical living
out of this phrase. that the book talks about. But
how many times do we fail to act as those who are seated with
Christ? I don't always act that way.
This is something that we need to be pressing ourselves towards.
Lord, give me the faith to act as one who sits on the throne
with Christ. You see, it's not every believer
who lives out their theology of union with Christ. If we are
not what this book calls overcomers, and that word occurs over and
over again, to those who overcome. Not every believer is an overcomer.
To those who overcome, they're fully living out their union
with Jesus. If they're not doing that, automatically,
what is happening is we are living by a power that originates, at
best, from our relationship to Adam, and or, at worst, that
is being moved by Satan and demons. In this book, that's one of the
things that he says is empowering the world. It's Satan. It spells
out in vivid detail what Paul's warning to Christians to no longer
live according to the power of the world and the prince of the
power of the air. So it's contrasting two kinds
of unions and two kinds of powers. Two kinds of union, two kinds
of power. So what is the power of the world?
Poythress's commentary beautifully shows a fake koinonia, what the
New King James translates as companionship or fellowship.
So a fake koinonia that the world has, and a fake trinity that
oversees the world. You see, when the world rejects
the authority of God, automatically they're going to substitute another
authority. Almost always it ends up being the state. But there
could be other authorities too. Science, there could be any number
of authorities that we substitute. And if you reject the empowering
of the Holy Spirit in your life, automatically you're going to
be looking for an empowering from some other place. And so
Poitras shows how the world embraces a counterfeit trinity, Satan,
the beast, and the false prophet, and the central idol that Satan,
the beast, and the false prophet worship and cause other people
to worship is the messianic state. That's been true down through
history. If Jesus is not your Messiah,
the central idol of a society will tend to be your Messiah.
In ancient Rome it was the state, and in modern America it is clearly
the state. I think Bojidar Marinov is absolutely
right when he says the central idol of America is statism. I
think when future generations look back upon our generation,
they're going to see Christianity and most Christians as living
for the most part in the state, not in Christ Jesus. There's
always going to be some koinonia that's happening, some empowering
that's happening, but are we getting it from Christ or are
we substituting from some other realm? Just as another example,
the Jews in chapter 2 verse 9 and chapter 3 verse 9 claim to have
fellowship with God Because of faithfulness to what? To their
tradition, the traditions of the fathers. But they do not
have his life in them at all. Virtually every chapter of this
book either focuses on the fulfillment we can have in any circumstance
when we're united to Christ, or it spells out the opposite.
the needless misery that we experience when we are not united to Jesus.
Now, it may sometimes seem like exactly the opposite. In fact,
when you look at the martyrdoms, the persecution that happens
in chapters 6 and 7 and chapter 12, it may look as if the church
is defeated and the church is experiencing misery, and yet
you strangely see joy there. But you see, that joy comes supernaturally.
It's not coming from circumstances. When we are filled with the Spirit
and Jesus is united to us, we can have joy even in the midst
of tribulation. Paul said that he wanted to know
Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
He did not want to face suffering apart from fellowship or koinonia
with Christ. So Rodney mentioned last week
that not even death can separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. The people who are being killed
are said in those chapters to overcome Satan, to overcome the
beast, and they are part of the church triumphant in heaven.
So whether in life, whether in death, we can be triumphing if
we're living out this koinonia. So just look up sometime the
word overcomers in this book and I think you're going to see
these overcomers, they're accessing a power, they're accessing something
many Christians lack. It comes from union with Christ. So where principle number two
shows us that we must interpret the teachings of the book in
a Christ-centered way. Principle 32 shows that we must
experience the teachings of this book in a Christ-centered way.
And I pray that as I go through the book, section by section,
I will be faithful to this key to understanding. Now that would
actually be a great place to end the sermon, but I want to
quickly finish off verses 9 through 11 so that we can start flying
through the book next week, Lord willing. The next phrase in verse
9 says, was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word
of God and on account of the testimony of Jesus Christ. John
says that he was in prison in Patmos for two reasons, for a
total commitment to the Old Testament, that's the Word of God, and for
a total commitment to the testimony of Jesus. That got him in trouble.
And both of those things will get you into trouble today. God's
Old Testament law is not very popular today, and Christ's covenant
lawsuit is no more popular. Christ's woe, woe to you Pharisees,
hypocrites, and all of the woe passages in the Gospels are not
politically correct, even within the Church of Jesus Christ in
America today. It's just not nice. It's not
nice. Well, people don't want to be
reminded that they are in rebellion to God's word. And so this phrase
reiterates what we saw under principle number 13. And I should
point out that if you are truly Christ-centered in your experience,
then you too will value the law of God and the testimony of Jesus,
even when those things get you into trouble. These 33 points
hang together. To throw out God's law and to
be nicer than Jesus automatically proves you are not consistently
living out your union with Christ. If you're united with Christ,
His priorities are going to be your priorities. You're going
to hate what He hates. You're going to love what He loves. You're going
to value what He values. Well, let's move on to the next
point. I want you to notice, and this is on the very tail
end of the two-sided sheet that I've handed out there, You can
see these last points there. And this is supporting evidence
for principle number 12. I want you to notice John was put in prison in Patmos,
Rome's equivalent to a high security prison. And to me, this demonstrates
that this book is not just about the persecution of the Jews,
It's also from the Gentiles and specifically from Roman Gentiles. And this is a needed corrective
to a lot of books out there. To me, it would seem extremely
strange to mention his persecution from Rome under these introductory
verses and then neglect to mention anything about Roman persecution
through the rest of the book. That'd be very, very strange
and odd. And yet most futurists show absolutely
no relationship between John's suffering in Patmos and the themes
of the rest of the chapters. And I think that ought to clue
you in right there, that there's something goofy going on about
their interpretations. Futurists see future pagans involved
in the later chapters, but not Romans. Now, on the other extreme,
you've got hyperpreterists who see the whole book as dealing
with nothing but Israel. And boy, they got some strange
interpretations in order to focus it in on Israel. The correct
balance is to see that this book will deal with first century
Rome, that's verse 9, first century Israel, verse 7, and the other
kings of the earth, verse 5. So the word Patmos is not a new
principle, but it is supporting evidence for principle number
12 and moving on to verse 10. John says I was in the Spirit
on the Lord's Day. A Chilton points out that the
Greek of the phrase for being in the Spirit. or in the spirit,
is a technical expression for prophetic inspiration where the
spirit took over a prophet's faculty, supernaturally caught
that prophet up into the heavenly council where he hears revelation
from God. For example, Matthew 22 verse
43 describes David's inspired writing of scripture as being
David in the spirit, in the spirit. And this phrase is repeated in
Revelation chapter 4 verse 2 shows that being in the Spirit means
having inspired revelation. Chapter 17 verse 3, John uses
language very much like Ezekiel where he is caught up and transported
somewhere in the Spirit to a distant land. He does the same in chapter
21 verse 10 where he says, and he carried me away in the Spirit
to a great and high mountain. So his body is still in Patmos,
but the Spirit of God moved him to see and to write things that
on his own there is no way that he'd be able to write. Why do
I mention this? Well, some of you have been picking
up commentaries and looking at them, and I just want you to
realize Not all commentators are even Christians. Believe
it or not, there's a lot of pagans out there who love studying the
Bible and writing commentaries on the Bible. And there's a lot
that call themselves Christians but are liberals. They don't
believe in the inspiration of the Scripture. John's writing
If you only look at it from the human perspective, which some
of these commentaries, you'd get the impression this revelation
originated from John. But in the spirit is the opposite
of being in yourself. For example, after Peter had
received revelation in the spirit, Acts 12 verse 11 says literally,
when Peter had come in himself. Now the New King James translates
it when he had come to himself. OK, well, he wasn't unconscious. You know, he didn't come to himself,
but he came in himself, which means he was no longer at that
point inspired. There is a big difference between
being in the Spirit and in yourself. And because of the low view of
inspiration that so many people have, I think it's worth rereading
two scriptures that show that nothing in this book originated
in John's will, even though God used John's vocabulary and personality
and his personal experience in the writing. In other words,
this reinforces principle number three. Let me remind you of 2
Peter 1, verse 21. For prophecy never came by the
will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit. They spoke, but the revelation
did not originate in their will. They were moved by the Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 2.13 says much the same. For this reason, we
also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the
word of God, which you heard from us, you welcomed it not
as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God,
which also effectively works in you who believe. Now, that's
all I'm going to say about this reiteration of principle three,
and we'll move on. Premillennialists and the futurist
brand of amillennialism both frequently try to say that the
rest of the first phrase in verse 10 is describing something that
that John was seeing 2,000 years later, almost like time travel.
OK, they say that God is in a sense, put him in a time machine and
moved him to the end of our age. And he writes down what he sees
at the end of our age. Now, let me read the verse and
explain why I even need to comment on this. Verse 10 says, I was
in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard a voice behind me
loud as a trumpet. Now, futurists usually slide
over the numerous references to first century fulfillment,
but they'll spend a couple pages trying to prove that this can't
possibly be a reference to Sunday. This has to be a reference to
John by vision being projected forward 2,000 years. And the
clever way they do it, is that they say that the Lord's Day
is equivalent to the Old Testament phrase, the day of the Lord.
Makes sense on the surface, right? And the day of the Lord almost
always refers to a day of judgment. After spending a page trying
to prove that this can't be a reference to Sunday, John Wolvard concludes,
the New Testament term is therefore the equivalent to the Old Testament
expression, the day of the Lord. On the basis of the evidence,
the interpretation is therefore preferred that John was projected
forward to the future day of the Lord. So his view is, if
the entire vision takes place, future to us even, if the entire
vision takes place up there, then it can't possibly be talking
about anything that's in the past. Roy Gingrich says something
very similar. He says, John in a vision was
carried in his spirit hundreds of years into the future, over
into the Lord's day, that is the day of the Lord, a day or
a period of time which begins immediately after the rapture
of the church and continues until the creation of the new heaven
and the new earth in chapter 21 verse 1 and a day which begins
with a time of wrath. Now that may seem bizarre to
you but it's a very common interpretation. How do we deal with it? Well
let's first of all assume for the sake of the argument that
they're right, that the Lord's day is equivalent to the day
of the Lord. What does that prove? Well, it
just proves that the visions that he had, if they're right,
on this day of the Lord are what occurs in a few days in 66 through
70 A.D. After all, got to interpret in
terms of immediate context. And verse one says these things
he's writing about are things that must shortly take place.
And verse three says that they are things that are near And
verse 19 says there are things that are about to take place
melee. So the question comes, well,
can that phrase the day of the Lord in the Old Testament? Can
that refer to judgments of nations, or does it always have to refer
to the second coming to the end of time? Well, the fact of the
matter is. that of the numerous times that
the phrase the day of the Lord occurs in the Old Testament,
the vast majority of them have nothing whatsoever to do with
the second coming on any interpretation. They refer to a judgment of a
nation. For example, the judgment of
Egypt in 605 BC was called the day of the Lord in Jeremiah 46
verse 10. That was judgment on Egypt. Likewise, Ezekiel 13 speaks of
the imminent destruction of Israel in Ezekiel's day as the day of
the Lord. Likewise, Ezekiel 30 verse 3
speaks of the near judgment of Egypt as the day of the Lord.
When it says the day of the Lord is near, the sword shall come
upon Egypt. Likewise, Isaiah 13 describes
the destruction of Babylon by the Medes. By the way, the Medes
no longer exist. So you can't put that off into
the future. So the destruction of Babylon by the Medes as the
day of the Lord and says, wail for the day of the Lord is at
hand. So the phrase, the day of the Lord can refer to any
historical judgment of a nation. So even if we were to take this
the way that futurists sometimes take it as being transported
forward and he's now in the spirit on the day of judgment, what
does he see? Well, he's going to see what happens in 66 through
70 AD. That was called the day of the
Lord. Now, I don't believe that's the true interpretation, but
if you're going to take it that way, with the references in the
immediate context of nearness, soonness, and about-to-ness,
it's got to refer to a day of the Lord in 66 through 70 AD. Now, there are several reasons
why this could not be a reference to God's Day of Judgment. I'm
just going to give you one. The esteemed commentator J.K.
Beale gives the reason why most commentators take the same position
that I do. He says, however, kuriakos, that's
translated as lords, however, kuriakos is never used of the
day of the Lord in the Septuagint, New Testament, or early fathers.
In other words, there's not a single example in any of the ancient
literature of this phrase being used to describe a day of God's
judgment. But there are scores of documents
from the first century on that use this exact phrase to refer
to the first day of the week, the Sunday. You see, the word
for Lord's is not a preposition plus a noun. It's not of the
Lord. It's an adjective meaning set
aside to the Lord or wholly devoted to the Lord. Let me just give
you an example of how this is used. The same word kuriakos,
which is translated as Lord's, is used with the Lord's Supper. OK, of all of the suppers that
are out there, there is one supper that is set aside. That's not
a human supper. This is a supper that is characterized
as belonging to the Lord. First Corinthians chapter 11
verse 20. That shows you how the word is
used. So when Kuriakos is used in connection with the day, it
has to refer to a specific day that is set aside or sanctified
to the Lord. And thus this is a clear reference
to the Christian Sabbath. And by the way, most commentators,
even if they are not Sabbatarian, take this as a reference to Sunday. And they feel forced to do that
because of the scores and scores of documents from the first century
on that refer to the first day of the week as the Lord's Day.
It was common language. In fact, the Didache, which was
written, probably many people believe it was written before
Jerusalem was destroyed, but for sure while the Apostle John
was still alive, the Didache uses exactly this term to refer
to the first day of the week, and everybody agrees with that.
Everybody agrees, oh yeah, the Didache uses this term to refer
to Sunday. It's wrong, but they do refer
to that. And I say no, they were right,
this is the only way that Lord's Day is used in ancient So here's
a go-to passage to prove that there is still a day of the week
set apart to God and claimed by God as being His exclusive
domain. As Jesus said, the Son of Man
is Lord of the Sabbath. Matthew 12, verse 8. It's His
day. It's not our day. It's His day. And we should all cherish the
Christian Sabbath as being a gift from God's hand. And we should
all try to set apart the entire day, all 24 hours as being his
day. Well, connect this point with
the first point that we started with. Can we really claim to
be living in Christ Jesus and hate his day? No way, Jose, you
cannot do that. We need, if we are wanting to
live in Christ, we need to say, Lord, let Your life be shining
through me more and more. Give me a passion for Your day.
Help me to love Your Sabbath. Help me to make this a special
day. You see, this is God's date day with His church. And the
way you treat His date day reflects on how you treat Him. So some
of us are living in Christ in certain areas of our lives. But
we're not living in Christ on the Sabbath. It's clear. There
is a day that He says is His day. It's not yours. Now I'll
just make a few comments on the last phrase of verse 10 and all
of verse 11. It says, on the Lord's Day and
I heard a voice behind me loud as a trumpet saying, write what
you see in a book and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus
to Smyrna to Bergamas to Thyatira to Sardis to Philadelphia and
to Laodicea. Now, since this is just supporting
evidence for the three principles we've already looked at, I'm
not going to spend much time commenting on it. But have you
ever had somebody sneak up behind you and blow a trumpet behind
your head. I have, man, it made me jump
out of my skin, almost. And I think it got his attention
because he whirls around to see who is talking. And there's other
places where he is frightened, so frightened he falls on the
ground. So God wasn't really, you know, gentle with John and
all of his experiences. But he hears this loud voice.
He turns around to see what is going on and who is speaking.
And verse 12 says, that he gets that vision that we're going
to be looking at next week. But the trumpet and the call
to write everything down in a book puts the book of Revelation in
exactly the same category as the Old Testament prophets. Beal
points out that the voice like a trumpet would have instantly
reminded the Jewish readers of the only other time that occurs
in the Old Testament. That's where Moses is on the
Mount Sinai, and he hears this voice like a trumpet, exactly
the same language in the Septuagint here, and then he receives the
law. Now the Jews cherish the Pentateuch. Should we cherish the book of
Revelation any less? I mean, it really sets it on
a high, high plane. And the command to write down
the revelation ties John in with the Old Testament prophets as
well. But Beale makes one more point that I think makes a beautiful
introduction to the covenant lawsuit that's about to happen.
He says, the reader steeped in the Old Testament would perhaps
discern that all such commissions in the prophets were commands
to write testaments of judgments against Israel. So the Septuagint
of Isaiah 30 verse 8 Jeremiah 37 to and he actually has a long
list of scriptures here and he continues he says therefore at
this early point in the book there is already a hint that
one of its major concerns will be judgment judgment as we shall
see of the world and of those in the church who compromise
with the world e.g. chapters 2 through 3. And because
I already dealt with those themes in previous sermons, I don't
think I need to deal with them today. But I do want to close
out the service this morning thanking God for having given
us these 33 principles, thanking Him for helping us to understand
His Word. While it is true that Revelation
is a tough book and there's many, many different interpretations
that are out there, by taking these 33 principles seriously,
we are light years ahead of most futurist commentaries. Now I
don't want to give you the illusion I've got every jot and tittle
of this book completely figured out, but understanding these
principles I think should give us confidence to study and to
apply the book of Revelation. And so pray that God would give
me wisdom as I seek to unpack the book in the next few months.
And hopefully from here on in, we'll fly a little bit faster,
but let's let's go to the Lord right now. Father God, I thank
you for the gift of these first 11 verses. Thank you for unveiling
the book for us. Since you have commanded us to
understand and obey this book, we pray for illumination and
the grace needed to joyfully obey. May we not only have a
Christ-centered understanding of the book, but may we press
so closely into Christ that we would have a Christ-centered
and Christ-empowered living out of the book as well. Bless this,
your church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Divine Guidance for Understanding Revelation, Part 14
Series Revelation
While this sermon deals with the remaining principles of interpretation laid down by the apostle John, the main focus is upon the practical implications of union with Christ Jesus.
| Sermon ID | 99324161826340 |
| Duration | 39:03 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 1:9-11 |
| Language | English |
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