to get our hearts and our minds aligned with what is true. It says this, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. We're going to begin by singing holy, holy, holy. And as we do, feel free to just take a few moments and say hi to those around you. Our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy. Merciful and mighty. God is one. Oh Oh Holy, holy, holy Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated. Good morning, everyone. We are now going to have our prayer time and during our giving as well, our offering. Newer prayer requests that I want everyone to know about. Judy Morris was in the hospital this week, but she's home now and has some upcoming tests for her heart this next week, so be praying for her. Currently in the hospital now, as of yesterday, Carol Ferguson, she had some sort of allergic reaction. They're still trying to figure out what's going on. So keep Judy and Carol in your prayers as well as our a list that we have going all the time with all the other needs. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Most gracious God, you are a mighty God, you're a holy God, and we are so privileged to be able to know you and be able to serve you. Lord, thank you that we can gather together today and worship you, be taught by your word, Lord. I pray that our hearts are ready to be taught, Lord, and that we will take what we learn and that it will change our lives this next week that will allow you to change our lives. Lord, I bring two people to you today I want to pray for, Lord. I want to pray for Judy. Lord, I pray that as she has these tests on her heart, I pray that you would give wisdom to the doctors that they'll know what's happening, what's going on, and how best to treat her. I pray, Lord, that you would bring complete healing to her body. I pray for Carol as well. Lord, I pray that you would give answers to the doctors, that you would impart wisdom on them as well, that they'll know what's causing this allergic reaction. and that she would be healed quickly and be able to get back home as well, Lord. I think of all the other physical needs that we have, Lord, the different people dealing with cancer and being treated and recovering. Lord, I pray that you would be with each one of them, that you would draw all these people close to you dealing with these health issues, that they would grow closer to you, to Christ, and that they would just be healed and that they would be a testimony to others around them. Father, we're also privileged to have the Lord's table today. I pray for a blessing on that as well, that you would allow us that all would confess any sin that they might still have unconfessed, that we would have open communication with you as we remember what Jesus did for us when he went to the cross in our stead and gave his life a ransom for many, Lord. Be also with Pastor Tom as he brings the word. I pray that you would just use him as your vessel to bring truths to us that will change us to be more like Jesus. And Lord, we look forward to your return. I pray that we're all found faithful and doing your will when that happens. In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, to be empty and lowly, meek and unnoticed, and unknown, and to God A vessel holy, filled with Christ, and Christ alone. How great is God, His grandeur endless. How frail I come before His throne. ♪ That Christ be all and I His own ♪ May Christ be all and I be nothing ♪ His glory shines in vessels weak ♪ May Christ be all and I be nothing This is my hope, not I but Christ in me. This is my hope, not I but Christ in me. I am poor and I have nothing. endured the father's crushing he bowed his head as mercy fled peace to prevail he bowed his head as mercy fled peace to prevail may Christ be our and I be nothing. His glory shines in vessels weep. May Christ be all and I be nothing. This is my hope, not I but Christ. ♪ That Your grace my pride release ♪ May these words ♪ Resound loud until ♪ Every tribe and tongue believes ♪ Bring me, Lord, my heart, Lord Let your grace my pride release. May these words resound loud until every tribe and tongue can see. May Christ be all and I be nothing. His glory shines in vessels weak. On golden shores of sure salvation I will run to meet my King Free from shame and all accusation He'll give Himself He'll give himself nothing else Scripture reading today will be found in Daniel, chapter 8, verses 15 through 19. So as you find that, if you look, please rise with me out of a respect for the reading of God's holy word. I'm going to be reading out of the Legacy Standard Bible today. And again, that's Daniel 8, 15 through 19. Now, it happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision that I sought to understand it. And behold, standing before me was one who had the appearance of a man. And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of the Uli. And he called out and said, Gabriel, give this man an understanding of what has appeared. So he came near to where I was standing. And when he came, I was terrified and fell on my face. But he said to me, son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end. Now while he was talking with me, I sank into a deep sleep with my face on the ground. But he touched me and made me stand upright. Then he said, behold, I am going to let you know what will happen in the final period of indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Please remain standing for our next song. Children are not dismissed yet because we have communion today. And it is promotion Sunday, so there'll be an announcement about that in a little while. Thank you. Amen. Thank you, Chad. Well, as we prepare for communion, sing with us, Are You Washed in the Blood. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing bath? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? And are you fully trusted? are you are you Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? And do you rest each moment in the Crucified? Are you washed in the blood are you in the blood ♪ Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin ♪ ♪ And be washed in the blood of the Lamb ♪ ♪ If there's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean ♪ ♪ I'll be washed in the blood of the Lamb ♪ Your garments, smiles, are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, in the soul, cleansing blood of the Lamb? Amen. Please be seated. Good morning. It's good to see everyone. We're going to practice the Lord's Supper right now. So if you would like to partake of these elements and you don't have one of these little sets, you need to slip up your hand right now and they will hand you one. Dale, we got one right here. They're going up each aisle, so just hold your hands high and they will bring you one. They'll start in the front and just kind of work back. So we practice an open Lord's table here, means you don't have to be a member of our church to partake of these elements, but you should be a believer in Jesus Christ. There's warnings given in scripture concerning taking these elements out of context or in a way that's unbecoming to the Lord, and so we always wanna make sure that our hearts are right before God, and that begins with salvation. You've put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. You are a born-again Christian, and you are partaking of these elements because we're commanded in scripture to do that. This is one of the two ordinances given to the church, and we do this as a memorial to remember what Jesus has done for us. There's no special graces offered through this. There's no special forgiveness. There's no salvation. This is simply a memorial so we never forget what Jesus Christ did for us and the impact that that has on our lives and our eternities. So what we always do when we start this to make sure that we're right before the Lord is we start with some silent prayer so that we have the opportunity to listen to God. And if there's anything that does need to be confessed, anything that needs to be taken care of in our lives, we have that opportunity right now, right where you sit. You don't have to come and tell me. You don't have to tell the person next to you. You just tell God. You confess your sins to Him. And as we are promised in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I love that last phrase. Because if we take care of the big ones that he reminds us of, he takes care of all the little stuff that if he told us everything that we struggled with, it'd blow our heads off. We just can't even realize how impure we are in the presence of a holy God. But he knows if you confess your sins and you've got that heart before him of confession and humility and you've trusted in Christ, he'll take care of all that stuff. Isn't that a great promise? And so we always take time to be reminded of that when we partake of these elements, to just have that silent prayer and just listen to God. Now, you're not going to hear an audible voice. You're going to hear Him here in your spirit, in your soul. He'll communicate with you as only He can do. He's the great convictor when we need it, and He's the great forgiver and the grantor of mercy and grace when we need that as well. So we'll start with a silent prayer, and then we'll go ahead and partake of these elements together then this morning. So let's pray. God, we are so grateful for that promise in 1 John 1-9 that I mentioned just a moment ago, that promise of your constancy, your love, your grace, your mercy, available 24 hours a day for us, so that we can go before you and maintain our relationship with you, so that no impurity stands between our fellowship, Lord. We're so grateful of promises like in Revelation 3, in verse 20, that you never move away from us, but sometimes we shut you out of our lives. And yet Jesus is there knocking on that door, wanting back in, wanting that fellowship again. And when we confess our sins, when we invite him back in, he is there to again restore that fellowship. Father, I pray that there are no believers here today that would leave without having a positive, close, walking relationship with Christ and with you through him and his spirit. Lord, we thank you for the fact that he did come to this earth, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he was the atonement for us to satisfy you. so that we no longer have to do any works, we no longer have to do any acts of any type, that you receive us strictly based upon faith. Our faith trusting in you, our belief trusting in Christ, that He alone is the propitiation for our sins. We trust in Him alone so that when we stand before You, it is only the blood of Christ that we lay claim to, that free gift granted by You. These elements remind us of that night when He supped with the disciples before His arrest and death, and it changed the Passover so that we would think about Christ. We think about the bread that represents His body, and the cup that represents His blood, and the salvation offered through that. So Lord, I pray that this memorial today would be a motivation for all of us to stay pure in your sight, to seek to serve you each day, to be the servants that you desire us to be, to find the greatest joy of our lives being your slaves, your servants, that find great satisfaction in pleasing you. And so, Father, I pray that you'd work in each of our hearts today. May this time together, as we worship you and experience this ordinance today, be done for your glory, and may we find joy through it in Christ's name, amen. Well, if you'll take your little set there and open the bread first. Take the little wafer out that's there. This bread represents the body of Christ, his physical presence, him physically coming to this earth as a human being, yet without sin. Having a heavenly father that kept him pure. It represents his living a life, his demonstrating to us how to live with God, how to walk with God, how to serve God. Him taking our physical punishment on the cross, Him being rejected emotionally by His own people, experiencing the scourging, experiencing the crown of thorns, experiencing the nails in His hands and feet being nailed to the cross, experiencing the pain and suffering of physical death. He experienced all of that for us. That's what the bread represents, his body, his physical human body that was tortured for you and I, and then ultimately raised from the dead. But we remember that suffering when we partake of this bread. So when he took that bread after supper with the disciples, he broke it and he passed it to them and he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. As often as you eat this, you do it in remembrance of me. If you'll carefully tear off the top of your juice, which represents the blood of Christ. The third cup of the Passover represented the blood of the Lamb. the lamb that was slain by the Jewish people on the night of the 10th plague when the death of the firstborn took place. The promise of God was if you would sacrifice this lamb and you take the blood of that lamb and you paint it on the door post of your house, that God would pass over your house when he went through and killed the firstborn of both man and beast in Egypt to demonstrate His power, each plague demonstrated God's victory over a different God in Egypt. The final one would be Pharaoh himself, when his firstborn son, considered to be a god, was killed by our God. But the Jewish people were protected by the promise of deliverance by the blood of the Lamb. And so every year when the Passover is celebrated by the Jewish people, they remember that great deliverance that God gave to them through the blood of the Lamb. And still today, as Jewish people celebrate the Passover, they continue to think about the blood of the Lamb on that Passover night. But for those of us that are believers in Jesus Christ, that all changed. On the night that Jesus met with his disciples, He took that cup that represented the blood of the lamb and he changed the account. He said, this cup now is a new covenant. This is a new covenant in my blood. Now we don't think about the blood of that lamb. That was only representative of the blood of the lamb. The only perfect sacrifice that could be offered for the sins of mankind, the blood of the lamb, the son of God. So Jesus took that cup and he gave it to his disciples and he said, this now is a covenant in my blood. You're going to think about me. The implications of that, they couldn't even understand at that point in time. They hadn't even experienced yet his death and his sacrifice and his resurrection, but they would. The Holy Spirit would bring to remembrance all that would take place in the next 24 hours, the next 72 hours in their lives, in the life of Christ. And ever since then, the church has practiced this ordinance, one of the two ordinances given to the church, the Lord's Supper, and we do it in remembrance of Christ and His blood. So after he gave them the bread, he gave thanks and he passed out the cup and he said, this now is a new covenant in my blood. As often as you drink it, you think of me. Amen. All God's people said. Amen. So, today is promotion Sunday, so you all need to hear this. Starting today, if you are going into the third grade in the fall, you will stay here in the worship center with your parents for the message, the entire message. So, welcome third graders to church, big people church. You have not yet learned torture until you have stayed here for the next 45 minutes. No, you're gonna learn some great things. Parents also, if your child is three years old and potty trained all the way through second grade, you will walk them to the back to the youth center for children's church where they will be split up into their age appropriate classes. So parents, you need to escort your potty trained children to the family center and they will be split up there. And as a reminder, parents, you will pick your children up in the same place, if I'm not mistaken, in the family center. They will be returned there for you. You'll pick them up there. after the serves in the youth center. I'm sorry, youth center. My mistake, youth center. So if you have any questions about whether your kids should be here or go, just leave. Take them to the youth center. They'll send you back if they're too old. But if you're going into the third grade, stay here. If you didn't get a children's note sheet, they're by the doors in the back. You can pick those up and fill those out during our worship time. Okay, thank you. His robes for mine, O wonderful exchange! Clothed in thy sin, Christ, have beneath God's rage. Draped in his righteousness, I'm justified. In Christ I live, for in my place He died. I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost. Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. But by such thought my life is spent. My all shall be for Christ alone. His robes for mine, what cause am I for dread? God's trounty Lord, Christ's Master in my stead. Fondness I stand with righteous works not mine, saved by my Lord. I cling to Christ and marvel at the cost Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone. His Rome for mine, God's justice is appeased. Jesus is Christ, and thus the Father's pleased. Christ drank God's wrath on sin, in Christ is done. Sin's wage is paid from fishy ancient wine. I claim to Christ in marble and the quartz Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God But by His love my life is not my own My praise, my all, shall be for Christ ♪ His realms for mine such anguish none can know ♪ ♪ Christ God beloved, damned as though His foe ♪ ♪ He as though I a person that alone ♪ ♪ I as though He embraced and welcomed home ♪ ♪ I say to Christ ♪ Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. Thy praise and love, my life is not my own. My praise, my all, shall be for Christ alone. Amen. I love that hymn. Pastor Spencer's wife, Abigail's uncle wrote that hymn, Chris Anderson. It's a beautiful hymn. I'm not sure of any other hymn that has the word propitiation in it, but Chris, being a pastor and a theologian, got that in there. So anyway, welcome third graders. Glad you're here. How many third graders are here? This is your first time in here in Big People Church. Okay, awesome. Welcome. We're glad you're here. I'm fully aware that we had communion. We also have a luncheon for the seventh graders going into youth group and their families. So, I've condensed my message down. I took two points out of it so that we don't get too far. Otherwise, I probably would have gone until noon today, and I don't want to put their lunch way back. So, I did scale that back a little bit. So, I wanted to tell you just a little bit about my spiritual birthday experience this month, May 21st. I got saved 48 years ago, and a week later I graduated from high school, and four months later I found myself in basic training. And towards the end of that time, we started to get a little bit more freedom towards the graduation day. There was a Saturday night, and they brought a preacher into our barracks which contained about less than a thousand guys, but they brought a preacher in that we were invited, if you wanted to go down and hear this guy speak, he was gonna show a film, and then he was gonna speak. So I went down there and there was a young guy, he was probably, I don't know, 25, pretty young guy, down there preaching fire and brimstone, and he showed this film about the end times. And I had never, in my growing up in the Lutheran church, I'd never heard anything like the crazy stuff this guy was saying. And he was talking about earthquakes, and there was just an earthquake this weekend in California, another one, there's gonna be more. I mean, by the end of that hour and a half or whatever we were there, I was scared spitless. I was sure that Jesus was coming back that week. I wasn't sure I was even gonna get to go. I mean, there was just so much that was laid out there, it just scared me. And so it was not something, when I think about the end times, it wasn't something that was great for me starting off. It was a very frightening experience. So how do you react when you think about Revelation? If you've been taught, you probably react the right way. I remember when I went home and I talked to my friend about this, I was like, have you ever heard of this rapture stuff? and all this end time stuff, and he says, yeah, I've heard of that before. He said, and this is what he said to me, he said, I hope it holds off till after I get a chance to get married and have a family. But I don't know what that mattered, because it was even scarier after you get married and have a family. Now you got all these other people you're worried about. You're not just worried about yourself. So what should we think about the end times? Should we even talk about it? I mean, is it something that's really that important for the church to even know about? So we're going to spend some time in the book of Revelation. I've never, I've taught through this book before. It's been about 15 years ago, but it was on Sunday nights. And so most of the people weren't hearing it when we were going through it. It's a very complex study. I'm going to try to keep it simple enough for a third grader to understand for obvious reasons. and because the scriptures as a whole, for the most part, are written on the level of a child. There's not a lot of complex things in the scriptures that a child can't understand if explained properly to them. So if you haven't already, open to Revelation. It's really easy to find. Last book in the Bible. Go to the end, you'll find maps, maybe a concordance, some other things. Go to the last book of the Bible, it's the book of Revelation. And we're given some introductory information here today where we're going to look at in just the first couple of verses that will give us a clue as to how we should respond to God's revelation of His Son and the culmination of His plan for the ages. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for giving us this great book of prophecy for our encouragement, for our knowledge, as our guide even as we live our lives in the church, Father. And many are afraid when they think about the book of Revelation, or they're challenged by it, or they don't want to hear about it. It causes them to worry. Whatever these things are, Lord, that are in our hearts, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would guide us and teach us through this study so that we have the proper response, the way You want us to respond to it, and that it would be used by the Spirit to teach us, guide us, encourage us, and to give us hope for the future. And so we thank you, we praise you that you've included this in your scriptures, and we pray that we would do it justice as we walk through this study over the next several months. And we'll give you the praise in Jesus' name, amen. Well, like any physical structure, a good study of the Bible requires a solid foundation. We're going to build that in the next few minutes that we have here this morning, or at least begin that. Let's start with point number one, which is all we're going to cover today, and talk about the reliability of the book of Revelation. the reliability of the book of Revelation. We all know about the boy that cried wolf, right? He wanted help, help, help, help me. I'm whatever's happening to me and they run out to help the boy that cried wolf and he was just joking. He was kidding around and so they go back. He does that two or three times and all of a sudden now when there's time when he actually has a wolf that is chasing him down when he cries wolf, what happens? Nobody goes. because he has proven to be unreliable. His information is unreliable. So how do we react to the information of the book of Revelation? There's so many false teachers over the millennia that have predicted the rapture or the return of Jesus that there's been so many that most have grown numb to the concept of Jesus coming back. Or they've changed the way they've interpreted the book so that he's actually not going to come back in the way that it appears that he said that he was going to come back. Even many Christians, as you'll see today when we talk about the varying forms of interpretation of this book, doubt the veracity. of the book of Revelation. And so they just really don't spend a lot of time in it. It's just too complex, it's too controversial, and so we just, there's so much other stuff we can be looking at, what's the point? Why do we even talk about it? So can the book of Revelation be trusted? Is it a reliable source of information concerning the second coming of Christ and the last events of this planet as we know it? Well, first of all, we need to know who it is from. Who is the book of Revelation from? Beginning in verse one, it says, the revelation of Jesus Christ. The very first word in the Greek text is Apocalypse. Apocalypse, it is simply the word meaning revelation. Now, most of the time when you hear the word apocalypse, or you know movies that have the word apocalypse in the Bible, it's usually a word that refers to something apocalyptic, something huge, something bad that's happening, right? The word apocalypse simply means to reveal. It simply means revelation. Now the Word could indicate that this is a revealing of Jesus Christ, or it is a revelation from Jesus Christ. And it's probably more the latter. This is a revelation that's coming through Jesus Christ to the Apostle John, which you'll see here in just a moment. That interpretation of it being from Christ fits best with what we've already known about Christ because Jesus has already come one time. He's already been revealed to the world. Now what is being revealed to the world by Christ himself is, I'm going to come back again. John, you need to know about this. You need to record this because the church needs to know this. Did you hear what I said? The church needs to know this. This is information that's gonna be really important to my people, to the church. So this is a book from Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him. God gave this revelation to Jesus for a few reasons. Number one, going on in verse one, to show to his slaves. to show to his slaves, or your translation might say servants, but it's a word that referred to slaves in the New Testament time period in the Koine Greek. This word refers in scripture to those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. We go from being slaves of sin to being slaves of Christ. And we've talked about this before, but everyone knows, you should know this, every human being is a slave. Now, most non-Christian people would say, I'm not a slave. I'm free. I can do whatever I want. Nobody can tell me what to do. I can live my life any way I want to live my life. What they don't realize is in that freedom of the flesh lies servitude to sin. Now, when we are set free from the flesh, then we are called to be servants of Christ, to be slaves of Christ. Otherwise, the only option is, if we fail to be a servant of Christ, we go right back in to be a servant of the flesh once again. So there's really only two masters in the world. There's the masters of the flesh and sin, and there's the master of Jesus. This book was intended to be given to the slaves of Christ. This is the church, this is the intended audience, it's the church. Not just the seven churches of Asia that you will see in the first three chapters, but of the church universal as a whole. So, if that premise is true, if this is intended for the church, then why don't more churches teach on the book of Revelation? Since this is intended for us, why do we ignore this book? It seems to me like it should be on a regular teaching schedule for the body of Christ. I guess you would have to ask each church individually, why don't you teach on the book of Revelation? I think many pastors feel inadequate to teach on it. Because when you look on the bookshelves of the world around us, there are so many different options of interpretation. And if you aren't locked in as a dispensationalist to the consistent, literal, historical, grammatical, contextual method of interpretation, you're gonna throw your hands up and say, what should I be doing here? What method should I be using to interpret this book? And I'll give you the choices of those when we get a little bit closer to the end. It goes on and said, you need to show to his slaves the things which must soon happen. Now, there's a couple of different time frames mentioned here. This first word for soon happen refers to the length of time in which this prophecy would be revealed. Not how long until it takes place, but how much time it will take once it begins to be revealed. When these events happen, they're gonna happen fast. It's gonna happen very quickly. This isn't gonna happen over centuries. This is gonna happen over just a short period of time, just a few years' time. How many of you know that on June 6th, this Thursday, it's the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy? How many of you remember that? That should be a date that you always remember every year. That was a turning point in World War II when the Allies landed on the shores of France and began to push the Nazi regime back into their German homeland and set free the people of Europe that had been taken captive by that evil regime. Now, the D-Day landings were planned over several months and over a year that those landings were planned in great detail. But when they took place, they took place very quickly. It happened very quickly. So that within 12 hours, they had already taken control of the beach at great cost, but they still had taken control of the beach and had pushed their way already into France. God is orchestrating right now every piece of what we're gonna study in the book of Revelation. It may have taken millennia to get the world to the place where it needs to be. when the second coming of Christ begins with the rapture of the church, continues on shortly later with the great tribulation period, that is designed specifically for Israel, for the nation of Israel, and then eventually the second coming of Christ physically to establish the millennial kingdom, which will last for a thousand years, then the final rebellion, and then eternity future. but those pieces are being orchestrated even now as we speak. And we don't know when the last piece will be in place, but when it does and those events begin, they will happen very quickly for this earth. These things will happen very quickly when they happen. It goes on in verse one, it says, and he indicated this, by sending it through his angel." So the he there refers to God that sent it through his angel. This was announced to the apostle John through the angel of God. Now, some believe this was the angel Gabriel. Gabriel is seen throughout Scripture as a very important announcer for God. He's really good at giving announcements to the world. And we looked at a passage in Daniel 8. Daniel, we'll make references to Daniel throughout our study of Revelation. There's a lot of parallel prophecies and fulfillments in Daniel that we see in the book of Revelation. So Daniel and Revelation are frequently studied together, so we'll be going back and forth between those books at times. We read a passage there where Daniel received a message from Gabriel that he was getting information concerning the last days, concerning the final days of this world. We see that in Daniel 8. There's also another passage where he's mentioned in Daniel 9. I put these on your note sheet. We're not going to take time to look those up, but they're in your notes. And then you'll remember Gabriel had a huge announcement in Luke 1 when he's announcing the birth of Christ to Mary. Many believe he was the angel that appeared even to Zechariah. But these are messages that are given by Gabriel to various saints throughout history. There is no name for this angel given in the book of Revelation, but it's possible. It could have been Gabriel. He's just not mentioned, but there is an angel that got this message from God through Christ, and eventually it gets to the Apostle John as we see at the end of verse 1. So I want to read that all, the whole context of that verse together. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, Jesus, to show to His slaves, the church, the things which must soon happen And he indicated this by sending it through his angel to his slave John. So the last guy to get it was John, who would be responsible for writing these things down and disseminating it to the church. The word slave here that refers to John as a slave is the same term that we see above. As believers, we are bondservants owned by Christ. That word is used by the Apostle Paul for himself, by James, by Peter, and even Jude who is the half-brother of Jesus, the half-younger brother of Jesus, to refer to their relationships with Christ. They all, even though as apostles and writers of Scripture, they all saw themselves as servants, slaves of Christ. How could we see ourselves any other way but as a slave of Christ when you see that so often in the Scriptures by those that God used to record the Word of God? And then in verse two, it says that John bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. John had been a faithful witness for Christ. He had been before. He was, by this point in time, around A.D. 90, probably the only surviving apostle still left alive, but had been faithful and God preserved him in order to record the words of this final book that would be part of the Word of God. John had been faithful before in what he had heard and witnessed in the life of Christ. He was both a disciple and an apostle. He was part of the inner circle of Jesus, those three that were the closest to the Lord, along with Peter. and James, those three. He witnessed the miracles of Christ. He witnessed the trials of Christ. He witnessed the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. He bore witness of this in perhaps the greatest of the Gospels, the Gospel of John, which wasn't written to a specific people group, but to the entire world. He also wrote the epistles of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and now God was going to use him for the final recorded book of scriptures, the book of Revelation. Where did the name of the book of Revelation come from? From the very first word in the book, Apocalypse. How reliable is the book of Revelation? Well, it comes from God himself, it goes through Christ, it goes through an angel, it goes through the apostle John, and then we can't leave the Holy Spirit out of that because we know all scripture is inspired by God through the Spirit of God. So then in verse three, and we'll conclude with this today, is the first of seven blessings. that you see in the book of Revelation. The first of seven blessings, verse three says this, blessed is he who reads. This is a reference to the public reading of this prophecy. This letter, like all of the apostles, the apostolic epistles that were written, were intended to be read aloud in the churches. It was a critical message. Why was it a critical message? Verse three goes on and says, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it." Not only was the church to hear the prophecy, they were to keep the words that were written in it. Now, they could not have ever in any way fathomed the ability of the church to have their own copy of the Word of God. Now, Christians in our country, at least, have multiple copies of the Scriptures. You're holding it in your smart phone, you've got copies of it in books in your bookshelves at home. There is a blessing given to those who read this book. who listen to this book and who obey the words of this book, particularly what's written in chapters one through three that are specifically addressed to the seven churches of Asia. And when we get to those seven churches, we'll talk about specifically what those churches represent. But there's much that we as followers of Christ, as slaves of Christ, can learn and apply throughout the book of Revelation. We also find great encouragement as those that are part of the church avoid the perils of the Tribulation period. Now that is a debated topic in the church, but I will demonstrate to you that you will not, as a believer in Christ, live through the tribulation period. I will demonstrate that biblically. I won't be quoting people. I'll be quoting the scriptures and show you where the scriptures teach that true believers in Christ will not live through the tribulation period. These truths become a great platform from which to witness for Jesus to a world that is hurtling toward the end times, as you will see in this study. You already know that. If you pay any attention to the news at all, you know this world is hurtling headlong towards the end times. We should find great encouragement as followers of Christ because of that, not fear. And I fear, if I can use fear twice in two contexts, I fear that too many Christians are paralyzed by the truths of Revelation because they don't understand them and don't understand the blessings that come through this book. But we will do that throughout this study. We will try to keep it as simple as are the rest of the scriptures. I've already said that. And I trust you will find great joy in the hope that you have in Christ as a believer in Christ. So blessed is he who reads, those who hear the words of the prophecy, keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near. Now we talked about these things which will happen quickly. We talked about the fact that referring to the fact that when they begin to happen, They will happen very quickly. The word, the time is near, now refers to the fact it's close. It's close. The time of the end was near when John wrote these words. Therefore, the words should be heeded. Now we know, as Peter tells us, that with the Lord one day, this is a thousand years, And if it's been 2,000 years almost since John wrote these words, how much closer are we now? Yet God continues as the great chess player, continues to sovereignly control a world in chaos to bring it to the brink of the second coming of Christ. And if the apostle John and other apostles like Peter and Paul expected the return of Christ to be imminent, then why is it different for so many now? Why do we still not expect an imminent return of Christ if Paul expected an imminent return of Christ? And if John expected an imminent return of Christ, why are there so many that want other things to happen first before it happens? Now before we close here, I want to read you a couple of examples quickly on some of the different methods of interpretation that many use for the book of Revelation. The first is called the allegorical method. This form of interpretation was offered by the Alexandrian School of Theology in the 3rd and 4th centuries. It regards the entire Bible as an extensive allegory to be interpreted in a non-literal sense. The allegorical interpretation of the Bible was later restricted largely to prophecy about the millennium by Augustine. who interpreted Revelation as a chronicle of the spiritual conflict between God and Satan being fulfilled in the present church age. A liberal variation of this in modern times considers Revelation simply as a symbolic presentation of the concept of God's ultimate victory. So you see, it began with, and we're going to interpret all of scripture allegorically to now, we're just going to interpret the parts that are hard allegorically. rather than try to continue to maintain the literal interpretation. The Preterist approach is a more respected approach among theologians. It's known as the Preterist view which regards Revelation as a symbolic picture of early church conflicts which have been fulfilled. This view denies the future predictive quality of most of the book of Revelation. In varying degrees, this view combines the allegorical and symbolic interpretation with the concept that Revelation does not deal with specific future events. Still, another variation of the Preterist view regards Revelation as setting forth principles of divine dealings with man without presenting specific events. A third approach is called the historical approach. This is a popular view stemming from the Middle Ages, the historical approach which views revelation as a symbolic picture of the total church history of the present age between Christ's first and second comings. This view is advanced by Luther, Isaac Newton, Eliot, and many expositors of the post-millennial school of interpretation and has attained respectability in recent centuries. Its principal problem is that seldom do two interpreters interpret a given passage as referring to the same event. Each interpreter tends to find its fulfillment in his generation. Many have combined the historical interpretation with aspects of other forms of interpretation in order to bring out a devotional or spiritual teaching from the book. The preceding methods of interpretation tend to deny a literal future millennium and also literal future events in the book of Revelation. The futuristic approach is more what we would adopt as literal interpreters of the Scriptures. The futuristic approach has been adopted by conservative scholars, usually pre-millenarians who state that chapters 4 through 22 deal with events that are yet future today. The content of Revelation 4 through 18 describes the last seven years preceding the second coming of Christ and particularly emphasizes the great tribulation occurring in the last three and one-half years before His coming. So that's what we're going to teach. We're going to teach the first three chapters pertaining to the church age, and then four through 18 pertain to the great tribulation. And then when we get to 19, you see the second coming of Christ that we'll be part of. And then you see the millennial kingdom. Then you see the great white throne judgment and eternity future in chapters 21 and 22. Objections to this view usually stem from theological positions opposed to premillennialism. The charge is often made that the book of Revelation would not have been a comfort to early Christians or understood by them if they were largely futuristic. Adherents of the futuristic school of interpretation insist, on the contrary, that future events described in Revelation bring comfort and reassurance to Christians who, in The future, in the nature of their faith, regard their ultimate victory as future. The futuristic interpretation, however, is demanding of the expositor as it requires him to reduce to tangible prophetic events the symbolic presentations which characterize this book." And that's where a lot of people go astray, excuse me. is they don't like the demands that it places on the expositor. It's hard. It's hard to do. It's some of the hardest study you will do as an expositor is the book of Revelation. It really requires you to dig. It really requires you to cross-reference because all scripture explains scripture, right? So there's no need when we get to the end to all of a sudden, hey, we're gonna take this book literally till we get to the end and then bam, we're gonna all of a sudden change the rules. That throws everything else off that you just did. How do we know Jesus isn't just an allegory? How do we know what it says about him being the Son of God is really, literally, a person that died on the cross? How do we know that? I mean, that's kind of wild stuff, right? A guy becomes the Son of God, he comes here, lives a perfect life, never sins, dies on the cross, and comes out of the grave. You know anybody else that's come out of the grave? Only Jesus. So if we're going to make Revelation an allegory, we can make John an allegory, too, because John wrote both books. But we're not going to do that, because that would be wrong. And that's where a lot of these other methods of interpretation go astray. I read those definitions were from the Bible Knowledge Commentary, which gives a good, concise explanation of all of those different methods of interpretation. So most of you, or some of you probably know this, this will be new, so I gave you these blanks, you can fill these out. About 1 4th of the Bible is prophecy. Did you know that? About 1 4th of the Bible. So 1 4th of this is prophecy, future events. Only about half of the 1 4th has been fulfilled. So you've still got 1 8th of the scriptures. that still have not yet been fulfilled. That's a lot. That's a lot of stuff that's going to go on in that last thousand and seven years after the rapture of the church. Let me give you just a couple of examples, even though there are hundreds of examples of fulfilled prophecy, particularly in the life of Christ. There's just a handful of examples. Abraham's descendants would be in bondage for about 400 years. That happened. Jeremiah 25, Israel would be deported to Babylon for 70 years. That is true, that happened. Ezekiel 26, the city of Tyre would be destroyed. That is true, that happened. Daniel 11, verses 1-35 indicates 135 prophecies which were literally fulfilled. Prophecies concerning Christ's first coming, over 300 prophecies include Micah 5-2, where was he gonna be born? Bethlehem. Genesis 49, what tribe would he come from? The tribe of Judah. Daniel 9, the period of time before his birth, exactly to the day. It was predicted by Daniel. You could count 180 some thousand days exactly to the time of the birth of Christ. You can't make this stuff up, people. That is how detailed and exact the Scriptures are. Fulfilled prophecy is one of the major proves of the text of all of scripture. That's how we know this book is true from all of the fulfilled prophecy and the men that were willing to die for the sake of these prophecies. How many of you, with the disciples being called con men, how many of you have ever known a con man that's willing to die for the con? These guys all died for what they were talking about and teaching and writing down. Therefore, unless otherwise stated, we will literally interpret all of the prophecy in Revelation. We will be careful to pay attention to the words of like and as because they're giving comparisons. Then we have to look at other passages of Scripture that will give the best explanation. So we're quitting there. You see why we quit there? I still have points two and three. I've got plenty left. for next week. But the revelation is reliable because it's from God through Jesus, His angel, and through the Apostle John and the Holy Spirit. So what is your reaction to the book? Quickly, three things here. What is your reaction to the book? Does it cause you to fear? If it does, I understand that. I felt the same way when I first heard it. I hope to dispel those fears for believers, especially our young people. If you have any fear of what I've talked about today, if there's anything in your heart thinking about that, I want to dispel those fears through this study. I want you to learn to love this book, and not fear this book, but get excited about this book. This is kind of like, it's kind of like this is vacation time, right? You plan this big vacation, and we can't wait, we're going to Disney World, we're gonna go to the beach, we're gonna do all these fun things, and you think about planning that, nobody gets scared about their trip, right? Everybody's excited about it. That's how Christians should view the book of Revelation. This is gonna be a great, great experience if you're born again. And so if you're a believer in Christ, if you put your faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, this book is meant to encourage the church. But if you're not saved, number two, I want to heighten your fears of the end times. I want you to be scared spitless because it's going to be bad. If you're not saved and you're here today, you better hope you get saved before the time that this happens. It's going to be bad. It will be worse than anything this world has ever seen or any experience has ever been had by any human being. Those days of tribulation, particularly the last three and a half years, they're gonna be torture. They're gonna be torture for the nation of Israel. They're gonna be torture for people that got saved during the tribulation. So if you're saying, hey, I'll just wait till the rapture, then I'll get saved, go ahead. You're probably gonna lose your head. Probably gonna lose your head. I'd rather get raptured right now and go with Jesus, fly away with him in the clouds, and get assigned my horse that I'm gonna ride back on in the second coming. Believers, we're excited. Unbelievers, you should be scared. And I'm gonna try to scare you every week till you put your faith in Christ. Because no one, no one should enter eternity without Christ. I mean, we talk about the great white throne judgment, nobody wants to be there. Nobody wants to be there. Deception, destruction, and death. Those are going to be the hallmarks of the Great Tribulation. Number three, as believers, I want to motivate us all to a closer walk with Christ. so that we will never leave our first love, as did the church at Ephesus, nor become lukewarm as did the Laodiceans." The first and seventh churches mentioned in the first three chapters. I want us to be on fire for Christ, looking for His return, remaining faithful as did His disciples, considering ourselves slaves. slaves of Jesus and finding great joy and satisfaction in that. Since I came to understand the prophecy of this book, I no longer fear it, but I get excited about it. I love to talk about it. And you will find that as we go through here. And I want to instill that love in you. I want you to love it as well. I want you to love to talk about it. I love to share the end-time events with non-Christian people. What a great opportunity to share the gospel in this crazy world today. You can talk about politics and how bad it is, and I wish I could vote for nobody for president. All these things you hear people say, you say, boy, am I glad something better is coming. Something better is coming. You all just gotta bring that up and say, well, what's coming better? Jesus is coming better. Let me tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you what it's gonna be like. And you can just have a little gospel presentation, include some talk about the end times, and you'll see them go from this to bugging their eyes, like, do you really believe this stuff? I do, I believe it with all my heart. I'm willing to die for these truths that are here. Are you? We should be. The truth of the word of God is what draws people to Christ. It's a perfect opportunity for evangelism. Some of you are gonna be really excited about this study and some of you are gonna be afraid and probably never come back again. But this is intended, as all scripture is, to elicit a reaction. I trust it will be a study that leads you closer to Christ as a believer, or as an unbeliever that comes to know him through this time, but we need not fear this truth. As believers, we need not fear this book, or what it talks about. This is the best days of our lives. These are the best days of our lives, when Jesus comes back for us, and we go to the great white, or go to the judgment seat of Christ, and then the marriage supper of the Lamb, and then return with him, and reign with him, and then go into eternity future, It's only gonna get better for true believers in Christ. Lord, thank you for the words that are here. Thank you for the truth of your scriptures. Lord, if there's any here today that have never put their faith in Christ, I pray this morning that they would see the need to just recognize that they're sinners and that Jesus died for them and that they can have the hope of eternity by trusting in him alone. And Lord, these are great truths we're gonna talk about throughout this study. And we pray that we would take these truths and learn them, and accept them, and love them, and be excited about Jesus returning. And help us to be faithful servants of yours, talking about this, drawing others to Christ through these truths. And hopefully, people would see the need to believe in Jesus, Lord, because it's gonna be dark days ahead for any that don't know Christ. And help us to be faithful until that day that he returns. Lord, we don't know if persecution may even come before the rapture. Help us to be faithful, all your people to be faithful, trusting you. And we'll give you the praise when you accomplish great things and one day we're worshiping you in eternity. Lord, it's all your work and it's all for your glory. Through Jesus we pray, amen. I hear the Savior say Thy strength indeed is small Child of weakness, watch and pray Find in me Thine all in all Cause Jesus made it all No wall to Him I know ♪ And out of the crimson state He washed it white as snow ♪ ♪ Lord, now indeed I find ♪ ♪ Thine about and Thine alone ♪ ♪ Can change the leper's mind ♪ ♪ And melt the martyr's heart ♪ and when before the throne Jesus Jesus he watched it I have a few announcements before we close today. As was mentioned earlier, today, following the morning worship service, the youth ministry is welcoming the seventh graders and their families that'll be moving up into youth ministry. That'll be in the family center. Tonight at 6.30, we have youth MTAs. That stands for the Ministry Training Areas. that our youth will participate in at the youth convention this year. Please come out and support them as they prepare by singing, preaching, drama, different things like that. And following that service, there will be a fellowship in the pavilion, so you're encouraged to bring a snack to share. On Monday, we have some softball going on. Liberty Gray plays at 6 p.m. Liberty Black plays at 8 p.m. This Tuesday, there's a Life Club breakfast here at 8.30 a.m. And then on Wednesday night, there's not normal Bible study and prayer. There will be more youth MTAs on Wednesday night. There will be summer ministries for all children and our Dallas missionary will be here. Thursday is the Elder Deacon meeting here at 6.30. Next Saturday, there's an adult fellowship game night that starts at 5.30 p.m. Bring a snack to share. There is a Euchre tournament that's going to take place and there is a sign up on the bulletin board out front. Next Sunday night, we're having a baptism at 6.30. Bring a finger food fellowship for afterwards like we always do. And take note of all other announcements. There's a lot going on as it's summertime. There's more in the bulletin here. And as each Sunday, there will be elders in the prayer room directly behind the sanctuary here if you have any questions or would like someone to pray with you. Thank you. Well, amen. If you're able, would you stand with us for the benediction today? We're going to look to First Timothy, chapter one, verse 17 says this now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible to God, who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. And everybody said, amen. Have a blessed Lord's Day. You are dismissed.