Well, good morning Trinity Bible Church. Any visitors that might be here coming this Lord's Day. I was reminded as I came up, like there was a comment just a moment ago about shock at how many verses I'm covering this week. And I had to remind that individual, this is actually just part one of those verses. So everyone should feel more comforted that nothing wild is happening. We are continuing our study through the book of Revelation as we are clearly starting the summer months, so I want to mention a few things that'll be a little bit different, particularly as it pertains to Wednesday nights. So Wednesday nights, generally every Wednesday night from 7 to 8, we have Wednesday night table talk, which has been going through the Old Testament historical books. We are currently right around the introduction in Second Kings of Elijah. And so we will be kind of corresponding with the student ministry Wednesday nights in terms of when we're here. And so those will still go out as reminders. But in essence, we won't be here or be meeting this Wednesday, but we will be meeting the fourth. And then it'll be kind of every other Wednesday night. On the 4th, we will finish the section on Elijah in First Kings. And then after that, throughout June and July, when we meet for Wednesday Night Table Talk, we'll actually be covering a lot of the kind of things that I can't cover on Sunday morning on Revelation, like some of the details that people like to argue about and stuff like that. So it'll be a forum for people to come in and complain, I'm sorry, to argue or talk about some of the issues like the interpretive method, like one of the things I'll introduce today. And so it's just an opportunity to talk some of these things out that I can't cover on, is not meant to be covered in preaching. I wanted to offer an opportunity to have those discussions. I'll, of course, be outlining on what has already been covered, not 12 chapters into the future or anything like that. But more information will come about that in the coming weeks. And now we're in Revelation. I'll be reading from chapter 1 verses 9 through 20, and we'll actually only be covering a portion of those this morning, but as a unit, as a whole unit, kind of this introduction to John's vision. It's going to be very similar for anyone who is understanding, as I've tried to lay out of this book in particular, is John is heavily alluding to or tied to a lot of the Old Covenant scriptures or the scriptures in what we call the Old Testament. And so much like he's already alluded or partially quoted Psalms and Isaiah and Zechariah and more Isaiah and more Psalms. I mean, already in eight verses, he's covered all that. Now he's kind of going to also kind of draw our minds to books like Isaiah and Ezekiel. who their ministry begins in their own books by being given a vision or being brought before God in some way. And also kind of very closely tied to Daniel chapter 10, where Daniel is kind of sees this image that kind of both amazes and horrifies him at the same time. But all of that is not actually what we're going to focus on today. But we are going to read it and then we're going to kind of, I'll show you where we're going to go this morning. As every Lord's Day, I will read out loud. the Scriptures that we're covering or involved in this morning. After that time of reading the Word, I ask that you pray silently to God through God the Holy Spirit. Ask him to illuminate your mind, open your mind to the truth of the Word, that you would make bare your hearts, your inner being to Christ, any unconfessed sins, any need to recognize high places in your life that you've dedicated your affections to anything other than Christ. Hand those over to God through our Redeemer Christ, through the power of God the Holy Spirit. And then I'll pray for us corporately and we'll enter into the time of the ministry of the Word. Reading now from Revelation 1, verses 9 through 20. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation in the kingdom, in the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands, minced to the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last. and the living one. I died. Behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, the things you have seen. Those that are, those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. This is the word of God. Please take this time to pray. Heavenly Father, as the church gathers here on this, the Lord's day, we come to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, Lord, second person of the Trinity, King of his kingdom, Lord, and we, his church, We gather here on this day in full recognition of our continued, never-ending, great need of his mercy and grace. Lord, as we come to you, we come to worship you through prayer, both individual and corporate, through the fellowship of the saints, which is our celebration of our union with Christ, through praise of your great works, through song and prayer. Now, Lord, we come to the ministry of the word. Lord, your word, which is holy and true, which is your testimony to us of yourself, of your glory, of your holiness, of man's fall and his sinfulness and your rescue of us in Christ. And Lord, we ask that God, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the faithful, sanctifies them, leads them, draws them more and more to Christ, would open our minds to the truth of the Word, that the Spirit and the Word would reveal to the faithful their great, continued, ongoing need of their Redeemer. Lord, may we shatter the high places in our hearts and minds. Lord, may we not love this world and this age. Rather, we would turn completely to Christ and be reminded of his gospel that we are sinners and that he has died for us, drawn us to himself, adopted us into his family, and now calls us to represent him here until he calls us home. Lord, we pray that your name would be glorified in this continued time of public worship, and the saints would be edified, challenged, and comforted by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now having gone through what is considered like the prologue of the book, we now are going into the actual beginnings of the vision, which is going to last all the way until halfway through the final chapter of the book. And it's going to take a series of differing terms. When we get through this part here, you're going to see that he's brought up in some way, which we'll talk in the Spirit. And later, he's going to be invited up in chapter 4. And the book itself is so suffused or filled with numbers that are being repeated over and over again, and I've mentioned this both weeks, and I'll probably mention it almost every week, that numbers are a big part of this book. It's a big part of apocalyptic literature. It's pointing to both the numbers representing something. Sometimes the author, John, will tell us what it is. Other times, it is to be just drawn as a structural or a way for us to understand how to read it. And so in these numbers, you have seven, which is prominent, which we're going to see just in what we read today. It's listed several times. And seven is going to use throughout the book, both describing certain things as well as the cycles of judgments that we'll see later, four sets of judgments. And there'll be seven in each, but even in the way they're written is in numerals of seven, four and three and six and one. In the same way, the number 4 is going to be used often. We'll see that as well here. The number 10 and the different ways to divide out 10 are used in multiple places. 12 is used to show both the 12 tribes of Israel and as that corresponds to the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And then 12's kind of Same thing, it's going to be used and expanded in different ways. But here we begin with sevens being used. But in the same way, you have a third way of which John is introducing himself again. And so he's going to go to his introduction. And I'm going to do this one a little bit differently. We've done this a couple of times. We're actually going to start at the end and move our way up to the beginning of the verses. So not in 20, but down a little bit after 10, starting in 12, we're going to kind of just talk about some details and then move back up to what I believe is the main point here that John wants to talk about. So the first thing I want to talk about is starting in 11. And not talking about the loud voices or anything like that, just who he's writing this to. The seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And after this introduction of the vision begins, then each church will receive a letter. We also have said that there's these seven stars, and these seven lampstands, and the seven stars are the angels, so that the beginning of introducing the churches or telling each angel to bring this to this church, that then will be one of the lampstands will be tied to one of the angels who John is being commissioned to write this book to. And so he's doing all of this, and this is kind of all being paired off to these seven churches that is in what for most of history was known as Anatolia, which is modern day Turkey. It's the Biblically it's kind of the the birthplace of the Hittite Empire. We're probably you're more familiar with the Hittites who immigrated down to the Holy Land, but it's basically modern-day Turkey and almost Asia Minor at this point takes up almost all of modern-day Turkey. And so there's many churches in the area. There's many opinions on why these seven churches were chosen. I'm not going to go through all of them. I'm just going to simply say more than likely because of the way that the number seven is used throughout this book, these churches were not picked specifically because they stood out or were special in any way. If anything that you looked at the churches, if you were looking at churches in the first and second century in this area, you would say these were the major trading routes where churches were. Meaning, so the distribution of the letter at the very least would have been easiest gone through the route of these seven churches. But because seven is used throughout this book to describe certain things like totality, or perfection, The best way to look at this is this is written for every church for all time. Meaning, when we get to the churches and you go, oh, that one sounds like us. No, they all sound like us. Because at certain times, every local church is going to look like the church that suffers well and holds fast to sound teaching. And at the same time, throughout the years, is probably going to forget their first love and cling to other things. And at some times, is going to tolerate unsound teaching. And so because of the way the letter is written, the totality of how seven is used, and I would say that while these churches were important because they were churches, this letter is meant to be understood to be delivered to all the church for all time in the hope of Christ's return. And so getting that out of the way, the seven churches themselves. Moving kind of up a bit, and I'm not going to, we're going to be actually doing all of the image of Christ in all of that next week in conclusion, but moving now back up, I want to talk about something specific. Number one, I want you to look, as you will, over to the beginning of the book in 1.1. the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants that things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John. Now, remember, he's identifying himself right there. And John is the one who bore witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even all that he saw. And then going down in verse four, John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, he introduces himself a second time. And then this is more of a formal greeting that we just covered. And now at the end of that portion, it was important that I wanted to kind of emphasize who Christ was. And it's like he was the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of earth and the active ruler of the kings of the earth. He's the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega. And then now for the third time, I, John, and now he identifies himself in a different way, your brother and partner in the tribulation, and the kingdom and patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Because of the way it's written in the Greek, it makes it sound like John is not on the isle of Patmos anymore when he writes the letter, but rather that he received it while he was imprisoned on Patmos and later was released. I say that to say, I don't know if that's important at all, but that's kind of one of those things that's argued about. Was he on Patmos, was he not? It doesn't matter, in my opinion, because what he's trying to communicate is the revelation that he received. But now I wanna talk what I really want, and I believe is important in these verses. The way John describes himself. He's first a brother. This is the Greek term that is used all throughout the New Testament. It can mean blood relation, meaning like brother or cousin or uncle, and in some way it's used to just describe who your familial relations are. But the more, the way it's used more often in the New Testament is to describe the community of faith that is tied together through these shared beliefs. And so this was used all throughout that world as well. You would sell somebody that they were your brother and it would include men, women, like it's the same. If your brother sins against you, how many times must you forgive him? Now that's meant to include the brethren or those who are generally you're agreeing to commune with. That would include women. Like, so if a woman sinned against you in the community of faith, and you're to let her, in that you're to forgive her seven times, 77, which means like forever, like the reality is that gets talking about everyone in the community of faith. That's why some translations, this may, to use the kids terms from a previous generation, trigger you, but in some translations where it changes this to brothers and sisters, There's nothing actually wrong with that, because it's actually encompassing the actual meaning of the word. So some might think like, oh, it's a liberal translation. It's really not. It's a really rigorous translation that's trying to deliver to a modern audience what this one word, brother, means. But in the scriptures, it generally means the community that is bound together, if you want to think of it how it plays out in a familial way, as adopted sons and daughters in Christ. So brother is used in that way. This has to be stated. Teenagers and preteens today have forever destroyed the word bro. If you've had to hang out with them at any point in time in your life right now, you will hate the word bro. My youngest son, who's 11, had a sleepover this weekend. I hate the word bro. They've ruined it. But brother, they haven't used the whole word, and so brother is still good, or brethren. Stop using bro so much, it can't be everything. It's not a noun and a verb and everything else like, sorry. Words matter. But this idea of John your brother, it's always interesting, I believe, when you see the apostles When they're writing to the church, they're never really exercising the God-given authority that they had, unless they have to. They're almost always acknowledging themselves as a fellow brethren, as an equal in the share in Christ. Peter introduced himself in his epistle as a fellow elder, two elders, as he's beseeching the leaders of the churches in Asia Minor to shepherd their flocks well. There's rarely times where the apostles are concerned with showing or announcing that they're in charge. Paul does it when he's talking about rebuke in his second letter to the Corinthians, like, please don't make me come in power. And so here, John introduces himself as brother, partner. Partner is a lesser word used in the New Testament. Probably the biggest way that you could understand it was someone who shares in both the responsibilities and the blessings as a business partner. It's used mostly as a business term. But it's to say like, I'm your brother, we are in the same family, we are adopted sons and daughters of Christ, we share union with Christ through the Holy Spirit, and we also share in the blessings of Christ, and we also share in the responsibilities of what it means to be in Christ. So all of this beginning portion of his third time that he introduces himself is like, I'm John, this is who I am. I'm your fellow laborer, your brother, also your partner in the share of both the good and the difficult of calling yourselves Christian. And what is he a partner in? This is the important part. This will help you understand the whole book. A partner in tribulation, kingdom, and patient endurance. He begins with tribulation. Now we know if you have even a cursory reading of the New Testament, all the New Testament authors, including Christ's own testimony about those who will follow him, there's one guarantee. If you faithfully follow Christ, you will suffer. And this is where we have to get really specific. If you sin and you're paying for the results or the consequences of that sin, that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about those who share in Christ and share the glory and the grace and the mercy also must share in the responsibility of what did we talk about last week? Those who endure, those who labor. So meaning, those who are pursuing a holy life or godly living, you will suffer. Paul says you will. Peter says you will. John says you will. Christ says you will. Almost every New Testament letter records one reality for the faithful witness of Christ. suffering. So when John introduces himself as a fellow who's just been imprisoned or is in prison, and also a partner with this shared responsibility in Christ, that that partnership is in tribulation. But he doesn't leave it at that. He actually kind of lays out kind of a flow of things that we're then going to, you know, kind of see how it's written kind of linguistically, try to hopefully show you something. not something like hidden, it's right there for us. Shared partners in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance. So they're all tied together. The way that it's written is there are three datives, and then it's attached to the subject of Christ. And it means that they're all flowing together. Some people will try to go like, oh, it's all talking about, because John mentions the Lord's day when he receives this vision, it's all referencing the final kind of trial at the end of days. But the Lord's Day is a common phrase both at the beginning of the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century to just denote Sunday. And so the cleanest reading of when John receives this vision is that he's just saying, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, not the final day. It wasn't he was talking about, I'm looking and I'm seeing the final day, although he sees and shares that. He's saying it was a Sunday. and I was on Patmos, and I received this vision." That's what he's saying. And he's telling them that these things are guaranteed now. Just like Christ is ruler of the kings of earth right now, so too are all those in Christ who are in his kingdom, They're also His, and while the kingdom is not fully realized, it is inaugurated by His incarnation, meaning it's started and it's visible in the church. And yet, what is it that we're guaranteed? As members of the kingdom, as sharers in Christ, until that kingdom comes in its fullness, is tribulation. That's when the first time we, the first week we talked about this, I talked about like one of the things that isn't talked about enough, and I'm not the only one saying this, like several people have said this throughout the history of the church, is that the ethical norms of the Christian life or the ethical oughts, like we ought to live this way, we talk about it often, you read about it often. If you're really in Christ and you have the Holy Spirit, it means you speak different, you act different. Not so that you can go like, oh, it's time to act like a Christian, I'm at church today. No, when you're at work and someone gets in your face and blows up at you and you go, oh, you're about to, you're about to nothing. Thank you for my rebuke and showing the contrast to someone going, no, I'm just kidding, is the reality of that when things happen, the person who is inner nature is transformed in themselves honestly understanding, I'm a temple of God, which the Holy Spirit resides in. And everywhere I go, the Spirit goes with me, and everywhere I go is an opportunity to glorify Christ. And so John lays out his partnership. He lays out the reality of the tribulation. He lays out the reality that Christ is ruler, and that his kingdom is real, and that these things are tied together. Tribulation is the word that's used throughout this book Make no mistake, throughout this book, tribulation is something the churches are going to face. They are facing it, they will face it, and then they're called to endure it. The thing that the church doesn't face is wrath. The ones predominantly bringing the tribulation of the church in this book are those who will receive wrath. Wrath is God's justice against both Satan and all of the players that are attached to Satan in this book, whether it's the representation of Satan as the dragon, or the representation of worldly powers as the beast, or materialism as the harlot, and all of these things, the false prophet as false teaching, and all these things that continue. All of these things that array themselves against Christ and his kingdom and his glory will face wrath, but the reality of the church is trouble, hardship. difficulty. And so the church that he writes to, these seven churches and to all the churches for all time who've received this, hear the following. You are a partner, I am your partner in tribulation and the kingdom, in patient endurance that are in Jesus. If you're in Jesus, you're experiencing or will experience tribulation for being in Jesus. And that's probably the difficulty for us. In a culture that is predominantly shaped by the Christianity of the past, but has been transformed by the materialism and the multicultural meshing of several religions, not to mention new ideologies that take away the foundation of there being an idea or a reality of truth. And that goes on for almost a century. You see the result is the culture that we live in, where people still claim Christianity as their religion, almost as a cultural backpack. They carry it around, and if they need to use it, they'll show it, but otherwise, They're a chameleon that can blend in to any aspect of culture, worldliness, ungodliness, other religions, lingos, and go like, as long as I blend in, no one will notice me. No one will bother me. No one will persecute me. If you don't think that has an effect on you, I doubt you've been paying attention. Take an account, if you will, for the adults in the room, the things that you watch on TV, the movies you watch, the music you listen to, the things you look at on your phone, your computer, and the ease with which you do it. And take a catalog and go like, where is the Christ-likeness in all of these things? Don't think you've been affected by that culture I've described? One of the things that will come out as the opponent of Christianity in this book is what's known as the harlot. And she's contrasted with the pregnant woman. I know, if you haven't read the book, people are like, what are we getting into? But it's really easy to understand. The harlot represents materialism, material gain. If you want to put it to our current world, entertainment, distraction. One author says, inane short videos that you flip through and watch constantly and giggle at, and then you just get trapped. And we think those are just for fun. It's just innocent. It's just, it makes you dull. We're all dull. when we need to be sharp. We're all ease and at ease when we need to be uneasy about the fallenness around us. I would say, as a fan of history and church history, This current culture and generation that we are in right now has with it more opportunity with ease to draw away and ruin the spiritual life of believers. Because we're dull. But look what John says. He ties it to something. Tribulation will come. That means that you are standing up for Christ. You are saying, I am with Christ in a world that is suffused and filled with anti-Christness all around it. But you're apart. You share. just in the tribulation, something greater. You share in his kingdom. Who is he? He's the one that's already ruler over the kings of earth. And you're a sharer or a participant in his kingdom. And so when the reader is to get this, while they're suffering for being a Christian here in the end of the first century in the Roman empire, they're to read this and go like, I need something to help me. I need something. I am despairing. My property's been taken away. I've been put in prison over and over again. I have nothing. Where is victory in Christ?" And John goes, it's coming. Don't look at this world and go like, where's all my stuff? When your inheritance is in a different world and one to come. When we look at Genesis and we read through it and we We went through one through three and we're marveling at things like the tree of life, eternal life for the people who are in Christ. And here at the end of the book, John's gonna like, there it is, the tree of life, for all of us to partake of it eternally. He's also gonna say, like, see all these enemies arrayed against Christ. He's already victorious over them in these images that come and go. He's already victorious, the sword coming out of his mouth, which will be repeated when he returns, like it's imagery of the power of God's word. Christ is already victorious. He's already reigning. It's just the pause before he brings his kingdom in full. And he's looking for those who are looking to him in the midst of the worst of what the world wants to bring on the church. And so then he's looking for those with patient endurance. Just as you share in tribulation and suffering, and you share in kingdom, those who are in Christ will be found to have, it's an amazing combination word, patient endurance. Endurance is used all throughout the New Testament to describe the Christian faith. And often things are used like, Paul even used like athletic terms like boxing and running and different things like that because those are kind of easy concepts for anyone who's ever ran or done any kind of athletic endeavor like I have to get from this time to this time or this location to this location and this time and I'm going to have to endure and I'm going to have to train and I'm going to have to be prepared that that's what's coming for me. I read something in one of the commentaries this week that I found interesting because it's a subject I know nothing about, painting. I can't remember the last time I painted. Maybe I never did, I don't know. But it talked about the process of painting from scratch. Like in not even having a sketch, like just having an idea. And it described like this week long process of like constantly painting over and redoing and having this idea and like it sounded maddening just reading about it. And I don't know if anyone's a painter. Not Waltz. And then so like pictures. But it kind of resonated with the same idea. Like, how and who is Christ looking for? So now let's, in the Greek, the words are actually moved around a bit, and it looks like this. Who is John a brother and a partner to? To those who are patiently, patiently enduring tribulation in hopes of the kingdom. That's who John's talking to. That's who John is a brother of. All of those who, with patience in the face of adversity and persecution, are pursuing Christ with the knowledge of the Spirit, which is given to them that his promise to return for his bride is as of yet not happened, but knows that it will. And so, John, the brother, partner in tribulation of the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the isle called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you have seen in a book. Send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, to Pergamum, Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. So then, as he's introducing himself, what I think is this beautiful introduction on the state of what the church is supposed to be found in, That's when he finally says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, heard a voice behind me saying, write what you see in a book, send it to the seven churches. So on the Lord's Day, I've already discussed. That's just Sunday, the Lord's Day, the Sabbath and what we see like in all the New Testament, the Sabbath or Saturday or really Friday night to Saturday night was the primary time that the Sabbath was set aside in Judaism to stop, not work, to worship. It changes to the Lord's Day in the first century in commemoration or recognition of Christ being raised on Sunday. And so Christian worship changed to the Lord's Day. And so the Lord's Day or Sunday was what actually, interestingly, especially in the first couple of centuries, set the church apart from the rest of society. It was a day when most people were working. And so the church set aside that day as a celebration of shared worship with what was happening in the heavenly realm, meaning worship as Christ. They were doing it here on earth as those that were sharers in the kingdom, and all of society was going, who are they? Not working. And who are they that are gathered there together in song and prayer and talking about this man from Nazareth who they say has died but no longer is dead and is in heaven, is going to return. Who are they? And that's how opposition to the church began, was simply gathering on the Lord's Day. It made the whole of the Roman world go, what is that? And so on the Lord's Day, he was in the spirit. Now this is the one I have to talk about, unfortunately. Much is written about this. You're going to see later in chapter four, this idea of John being brought to see something. So there's many opinions. He was teleported physically to heaven. He was moved in some way. He was meditating. He was, the simplicity of how this is written though, is that while he was in the spirit or while he was in meditation or prayer, That's when he heard this. From my count and my studies, there's over a dozen books that use this verse that talk about like the people, the books like I died for three days and I went to heaven or I died for this many hours and I went to heaven and I died and I went to heaven. Is everyone familiar with those types of books? Please don't read them. If anyone writes a book that says they died and they went to heaven and they saw the heavenly places and they saw Christ and all this stuff, they're actually contending against scripture there. And so the reality is John is physically, he's saying, in Patmos at the time when he's given this vision by God. And this is a singular or unique thing that John seems to experience. Paul seems to talk about something slightly different, but kind of similar in 1 Corinthians 15. But here John is simply saying he's receiving a visitation from God. And in doing so, what we read earlier, we see what varies from this and others is that John is actually somehow in some way visited and spoken to by a post-resurrection Christ. How do we know? John says two times in the prologue, he's the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I talked about how that's tied to the Hebrew phrase of I am, or who I am, who I am. It's mentioned two times as a book in the prologue. And now the figure, Christ, mentions it again as he puts his hand on John. What's the importance of that? John, as he's talked about Christ in this introduction and this vision took place, he's letting the church know that not just is this a message from a messenger, because the angel is the one helping him, but Christ himself is giving this message to the church. And the message is summarized in John's introduction here. You will suffer as I suffered. The world will hate you as it hated me. You will despair at times. But you will be victorious in the end. Because I am who I am, the lion, the lamb, beginning, the end, the mighty one, of Israel. Christ's message, concisely in this book, is just that. Whatever you're experiencing now, the difficulties of life, the difficulties perhaps of being a faithful believer in Christ, is to be viewed through the lens of one day One day I will be fully before him. One day here at the end when he returns and destroys his enemies and brings me before him as a part of his bride, he will say, well done. So when we think of this life and at times where you think I can't endure, I can't finish the painting. I can't run the race anymore. I'm done. That's when Christ reminds us, well, it's not you running it alone. God puts you in my hand, and you'll never leave. as Christ carries us through this life, through his redemptive work, through his power, through his ruling. the gift of God, the Holy Spirit on the Christian church, both in regeneration, sanctification, and strengthening our faith. We are called in the midst of that to destroy all things in our lives that take away our worship of Christ. I can't be more clear. I'm going to repeat this over and over for a decade as we go through this book. This message of this book is so clear. Whatever takes away your worship from Christ, destroy it. Don't put it away. Don't hide it under the bed for a little while. Destroy it. Just as the kings of old were called to break down the altars and the Asherah poles and the high places, so we're called daily to put sin to death in our life. Do you understand? Do you understand? Yes, that's the Christian life. How are you going to be able to endure persecution if you entertain everything that comes your way as an equal recipient of your worship. Because then when tribulation comes, all these false gods aren't gonna help you. But if you've held fast to Christ, if you've excised the things you need to out of your life that draw you away from him, you'll be ready. That's the testimony of this book throughout. Be ready. Endure patiently to the one who endures, to the one who holds fast. He's looking for a people that believe what they say they believe. May we be strengthened by God, the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the saints to be those that patiently endure. May the tribulation that comes to the faithful that comes upon us be met with those who cling to Christ. Heavenly Father, I pray, Lord, for the church. I pray, God, that we would embrace this message of John. The faithful will face persecution, tribulation, and difficulty in this life. It's a promise of Christ in all the writings of the New Testament. Lord, when you bring it upon us, may we be found ready, sharp, prepared. ready to lift each other up, sharing in one another's burden. Living lives as if we believe the promise that no one knows the day, no one knows the time. The Lord looks for those who are ready. We thank you for your word. May we be confronted with our own failings, but Lord, even more so, be comforted by the grace and mercy and majesty of Christ, our Redeemer. We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.