Book of Revelation: Chapter 1 "The Unveiling"

BONUS EPISODE - We begin our study through the book of Revelation, which promises a special blessing to the reader, hearer AND those who heed its words! From crazy imagery to incredible titles, Jesus Christ begins to unveil Himself to humanity. Listen as we are challenged to respond to Him.

Transcript

[Music] good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever or whenever you are listening to us right now and welcome to this bonus episode of the Churchosity podcast my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel these are the types of episodes that we like to call the Post scripts because these are the things that we like to think and talk about when the record button is off so we thank you for listening and welcome to the Inner Circle well Andy yes we're back at it again I know I'm excited another bonus episode and it's bonus for so many different reasons because because it's a bonus episode for our patreons M and we're going through this incredible Book of Revelation I know I am thoroughly excited I'm going to be saying that a lot I know I said it a lot on the last episode but I am thoroughly excited well it is like your favorite book besides John that's very true and how coincidental that he wrote both of those yeah well what do you know it's a strange kinkad dink MH so I hope that all of you patreons enjoyed our previous episode our introduction if you will to this fabulous Book of Revelation the apocalypses the unveiling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and on this episode we are going to start diving in and unless the Lord comes back uh hopefully we don't get too long-winded we may conquer all of chapter 1 in this episode good all right so I guess we should just stop dinking around and get right into this huh uh-huh what do you say that's what I think too all right ladies and Gentlemen let's begin our journey through the Book of Revelation

all right so a couple things I want to point out I want everyone to be reminded that of the 66 books that make up the scriptures Revelation is the only book that has an explicit promise to the reader oh cool in verse three right blessed is He who reads happy fortunate lucky is He who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the the things which are written in it for the time is near now catch this it's a blessing to those who read mhm to those who hear and heed and heed take heed take heed how many of us like to read how many of us like to hear but how are we doing in the heaing department yeah well we're lacking in the heating yes we're lacking in the heating and I would argue that because the time is near whatever that means uh we should really work on the heating yeah we should oh one more little tidbit of insight mhm the name of this book is revelation singular it's not Revelations not Revelations I'll be sure to say Revelations the whole time we have this series oh is this you getting back at me for fruits that's fair no I'm not Petty like that well I am because this is a real Petty pet peeve of my own it's not the Book of Revelations there's only one Revelation and although there are all kinds of signs and wonders and idioms and creatures and beasts and so forth yeah those are all things that are playing out throughout the book but this is one Revelation okay all right the revelation of Jesus Christ correct so beginning in verse one right the Revelation yes of Jesus Christ which God gave to him to show his bonder servants the things which must soon take place and sent and communicated it by his Angel to his bonder servant John H now I could probably preach a whole sermon on this one verse because there's already so much happening right out of the gate right I want to I want to stipulate that chap 1 verse1 is probably the most important verse in the entire ire Book of Revelation because it tells you specifically what this book is about it is the Revelation the unveiling complete apocalypses of Jesus Christ but I want to point out some kind of weird things okay uh because as I've said before this entire book is centered on the person and unveiling of Jesus Christ so he's the center he's the central focus of this book not people on earth not certain people groups or nationalities or different parts of the world or whatever not time periods or places or anything like that it's literally Jesus Christ that is the center of this book that's that's one of the reasons why verse one is so important but the other reason is how definitive the Lord is in describing for us how powerful this book is going to be because of the level and degree to which there is learning that takes place huh by the reader the hearer and the heater if you will right so what's interesting is that it says that it's the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him well who's the him? Jesus Christ Jesus Christ so you mean to tell me that this prior prior to this book being written this is information that Jesus is receiving for the first time in other words is Jesus was Jesus able to learn did he need to learn anything cuz you know there's that tension the hypostatic Union right that that he's perfectly God and perfectly man at the same exact time and we have pretty much you know in in in all of Christianity we we really don't have much problem envisioning Jesus as perfectly God yeah but he's also perfectly man right well that's weird that's kind of weird yeah so in his Humanity did were there things he needed to learn apparently well we know that as we and and it's it's a fair question yeah and it's an important one to tackle here mhm we know that when Jesus was a child scripture tells us that he spent all of his time in the temple yeah learning and and after that whole episode of Mary and Joseph losing him when he was 12 years old and they found him in the temple right after that whole conversation it says that Jesus grew in in wisdom and in stature so he was learning H and Joseph his Earthly father was a carpenter right Jesus at some point takes over the carpentry business so he has to learn how to make a chair how to make a table how to sand how to cut right right there's a valid argument that at the day of Jesus's baptism that that may have been the moment where Jesus learned his full mission and Destiny of what he was setting out to do H okay Jesus also says in the gospels speaking of his return that no one knows the day or the hour not the Angels not even the son but only the father knows so there's a fair argument to be made here in this very first verse that this may possibly be the very first time that Jesus's unveiling is made known to himself H just something to chew on yeah little controversial kind of deep but obviously this is something that God gave to Jesus the father gave to the son so that the son could show it to his bonder servants right right now who are the bond servants so I told you this is going to take a long time to get through this book Bond servants the Greek word there is doulas a better translation of of that word would be Bond slave well aren't we his bond servants we are yeah we should be right quite often the apostles referred to themselves as the bond Servants of Christ as well we know Paul did we know Peter did we know John does um so it gives us something to chew on here briefly as to what a bond servant was or is MHM I'm sure we could do a long study on that we we totally could um but real briefly let me just explain this as fastly as I can okay this is not the same as a regular slave you know this is something that um is described I believe it's in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy this whole concept of a bond slave that it's a voluntary choice but in the first century specifically which is still during the time that John is writing this book which is roughly 95 ad if you uh were a person who owed a debt to society because you were found guilty of a crime or you were owed back taxes or whatever it might be right you served your debt to society typically 7 years as a servant in someone's household and at the end of those S years when your sentence if you will had been satisfied your debt to society had been paid they would have another hearing and they would stamp your sentencing decree with the words tet elistai which means paid in full okay now just as a side note that was the last thing that Jesus said from the cross testy paid in full it is finished so this debt is completely paid for at that point this slave had two choices they could go free or they could make the choice to become a bond slave which meant that they would spend the rest of their lives in service to that household H and they and if that person chose to become a bond slave there was a ceremony and there's lots of details in that but do do you kind of get the gist of what a bond slave was yeah so This Book of Revelation is a letter that depicts the complete unveiling of Jesus Christ which the father has given to Jesus Christ so that he can show his du loss his bond slaves those who have chosen to live the rest of their lives in complete servanthood to the household or to their Master which is Jesus Christ in this context and so the reason why God gives this to Jesus to show his bonder servant is because these are things which M which must soon take place MH uh a better rendering in the Greek is things that are going to happen rapidly or quickly okay it says that he sent this is again Jesus he sent and communicated it by his Angel to his bonder servant John H uh I want to back up and fix the translation of the word communicated it should say signified that God sent and signified this Revelation in other words through signs and wonders okay he sent and signified this re ration by his Angel to his bonder servant John that word there now I'm giving you all of this Greek and really diving into it here because this will be very beneficial to us as we go through the rest of the Book of Revelation just trust me on this I'd rather do I'd rather dump it all here and have you write it in your notes uhuh so that you so that it's fresh when we get to like for instance chapters 2 and 3 you'll thank me for it later all right so he sends and signifies this Revelation by his Angel the Greek word Angelas which could be a supernatural Angel it could also just simply be a pastor the word literally in the Greek just simply means messenger okay so it could be a literal Angel it could be a literal Pastor it could be both uh there's definitely scriptures and traditions that validate both of those views h tend to lean that this specific messenger here is an actual Angel that's going and communicating to John yeah that's just my view take that for what it's worth verse two hey we're making progress woo his bond servant John who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw so verse two is basically the evidence that this is most likely John the Apostle who was writing this letter because John could testify to the word of God yep and to the testimony of Jesus Christ he was there he was present he observed participated and that's this is essentially why he's on the aisle of Patmos in the first place right verse three the promise that we all love blessed happy fortunate lucky is He who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near this Revelation was rendered into signs explained through signs about things which shall happen quickly it's pretty cool huh mhm yeah little bit of background about John okay uh it's interesting because John wrote five books in the Bible his gospel mhm his three Epistles M and the Book of Revelation mhm what's interesting is that his gospel because it's so theologically based is really all about a theme of salvation mhm yeah his Epistles 1 2 and third John are all about Christian Living or sanctification okay and the Book of Revelation is all about Redemption so he teaches us in his gospel to believe he teaches us in his Epistles to be sure and he teaches us here in the Book of Revelation to be ready interesting it's pretty intense yeah one other little note there are 400 plus verses in the Book of Revelation that contain over 800 references to the Old Testament wow and we're going to make sure that we stop at every single one of those I'm kidding but the reason why I bring it up now is because even though John wrote the Book of Revelation in the Greek the New Testament was not the scriptures yet they had the Old Testament John as an apostle is writing and communicating from the vantage point of someone who reads writes speaks and hears like an Old Testament Saint got it an example of that would be like my grandparents my grandfather specifically who literally knew the entire Bible by heart in the King James translation and when my grandfather would quote scripture and even when he would pray he would speaking King James verbiage yeah yeah but he never spoke in his everyday language like he was speaking King James English M that would be weird right so here John is writing in Greek from the mind of Old Testament style okay does that make sense yeah so essentially as we go through this book I want all of us to begin to see the Book of Revelation like it's in Old Testament vernacular I think that will help us out a lot okay all right you ready to get into some weird stuff weird it isn't weird enough already is it I think weird is like chapter 4 no yeah 17 13 yeah you're right all right so let's get into some meat and potatoes here let's have some fun okay verse four John to the seven churches that are in Asia grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his

throne there's a lot going on [Laughter] there right so John is writing something to seven churches that are in Asia Minor something that I want everyone to chew on now and we'll address this later especially when we're in in chapters 2 and 3 is why these seven particular churches I'll unpack that later as we go but he says Grace and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne verse 5 and from Jesus Christ so here it would seem like it's a reference to the trinity right I mean I it looks like it I mean from Jesus Christ that's obvious that's the son from him who was and who is and who is to come that's the father but then you have this weird phrase and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and I can just hear everybody I can even hear you Andy what seven spirits I thought there was only one Holy Spirit right am I right yeah is that what you're wondering yeah well the Greek rendering of this would be better translated as the Sevenfold Spirit the Sevenfold Spirit Sevenfold Spirit a spirit of seven specific qualities okay oh okay that makes sense where would I be able to support this you ask well yeah that's of course uh what I was wondering flip in your Bibles or on your Bible apps okay to Isaiah 11 in Isaiah 11 where I'm headed is verse two but in verse one this this is a prophetic okay prophetic writing from Isaiah then a chute will spring from the stem of Jesse ooh that language kind of sounds familiar mhm um the root of Jesse who is that that's Jesus yeah and a branch from his roots will bear fruit verse two the spirit of the Lord will rest on him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and strength the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord count how many spirits are mentioned there Spirit of the Lord yep Spirit of wisdom two spirit of understanding three Spirit of counsel four Spirit of strength five Spirit of knowledge six Spirit of the fear of the Lord Seven so there you have your Sevenfold Spirit okay so essentially these are the seven complete ways that the Holy Spirit actively works in our context to bring about all wisdom understanding counsel strength knowledge fear of the Lord and to get us to follow the lord does that make sense y so here in Revelation 1 verse4 the seven Sevenfold spirits who are before his throne that's the holy spirit in all of his functionality okay so you have all three members of the trinity in full array here mhm mhm does that make sense yeah all right let's keep going verse 5 from Jesus Christ the faithful witness see here you're going to get seven titles that Jesus gives for himself mhm uh which is interesting a lot of sevens there are thousands of sevens in the scripture and John has a lot of fun with sevens in the Book of Revelation uh it it will just shock you to to every time we encounter a seven I'll try to point it out if if I think of it in the moment but here we have seven titles that Jesus gives for himself okay Jesus Christ the faithful witness mhm was Jesus a faithful witness of course the first born of the Dead mhm a better translation is the first begotten of the Dead that word begotten it is a word it's a title of authority it is a title of rank if you will mhm the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us us and released us from our sins by his blood and he has made us to be a kingdom priests to his God and Father to him be the glory and the Dominion forever and ever behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him that's a reference specifically to Zechariah 12:10 that when the Lord turns everyone who pierced him shall see him hm interesting and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him so it is to be amen I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the almighty those are all Jesus's titles that he gives himself as kind of his opening statement to the letter mhm it's pretty pretty intense yeah uh I highly encourage all of our listeners for some additional helps other than uh hopefully you have a new American Standard translation of the scripture cuz that's what we prefer if not that's okay but also get yourself a really good exhaustive concordance and a couple other things that will be helpful for you down the road will be things like Haley's Bible Handbook and a copy of Josephus Josephus Josephus oh Josephus was a first century writer he was basically like a newspaper reporter in Jerusalem in the first century he was present at the time of the 70 AD fall of Jerusalem there are things contained in the writings of Josephus that really are good companion helps for looking into some for gaining some insights into understanding the present activities that are contained a in the Book of Revelation interesting well you could probably also find it online yes I mean when I say copy I'm a gen xer so I'm thinking a literal book but I know all of these in fact most of the Josephus you can still buy in print but I think that all the good exhaustive concordances they don't print them anymore um commentaries not bad but I would argue that they should be used as a last resort okay because commentaries are essentially that they're people's opinions or presuppositions about the scriptures if you will if we've done our job correctly by the time we get to the end of the book of Revelation every single presupposition that we have brought to this study will be

shattered okay that's that's one of my goals okay even for myself oh man and I'll explain what I mean more by that later okay all right shall we continue right let's continue verse 9 I John your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and Kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus I John well there's John your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation now a lot of people hear that and their ears perk up oh yeah let me just say this word here for tribulation yeah it's got a definite article okay so it's a specific thing but it means a time of great testing oh okay and John here says that he is a fellow partaker in it mhm so uh just to warn everyone I'm probably going to get myself in a whole lot of trouble um because I don't have a traditional view of eschatology and here is just a little drip of one of my non-traditional views that I have about eschatological things mhm if John who is an apostle who is a bondslave of Jesus Christ is writing us this letter and he's a partaker in a specific time of tribulation how is the Tribulation future unless there's more than one yeah I mean there's there's the argument of the now and not yet mhm that that that's fair uh but John is he's literally living as he writes this letter in a time of great testing for instance this is 60 roughly 60 years after the Ascension of Jesus Christ right this is after Nero who who persecuted Christians that Paul wrote to in the book of Thessalonians uh Nero was persecuting and murdering Christians in droves but now the person who is in charge is D missan the emperor D missan and he is now persecuting Christians in a different way wow so I would argue that the tribulation is something that may have begun from the mention of Jesus Christ forward well yeah even until today it's not like they were welcomed with open arms much oh definitely not I mean they wouldn't the all those who refused to stop talking about Jesus or what they called the way m u they were they were persecuted and they were punished that that's why John is on the aisle of Patmos MH so just food for thought I'll unpack that more later as we go uh John is a fellow partaker in the tribulation in the time of great testing okay he's also a partaker in the Kingdom mhm so I ask you again is the kingdom in the future or is the kingdom now right well it would seem now exactly yeah and it could also be now and not yet okay and you're going to hear me say that a lot this whole idea of the now and not yet yeah yes and if you will okay and he's also a partaker in the perseverance in Jesus Christ he's persevering in his faith in Jesus Christ just like the rest of us who are also fellow partakers in the tribulation and a part of Christ's Kingdom H so he says that he was on the island of Patmos well Patmos was and is a literal place just off the coast of turkey MH uh some interesting facts about the aisle of Patmos it's only about 10 Mi long and 6 M wide wow so it's not a very big place no and uh this was typically an island where the Romans would sentence someone you know that whole phrase uh you know we should gather up all of these so andos and put them on an island somewhere like Alcatraz yeah this essentially was the Alcatraz of Asia Minor back in the day but it's it still exist you can go there today in fact it's probably one of the things on my bucket list to go to Patmos someday mhm um just to be there I mean I think it would be kind of cool that would be so it's a literal place not some fictitious thing that you know came up mythologically or anything like that and now things get a little deep verse 10 I was in the spirit this is John talking I was in the spirit on the Lord's day oh boy so in the spirit Andy yeah when you read that when you hear that I was in the spirit oh dear what sort of things might come to mind what sort of thoughts might you conjure up for instance what does John mean when he says I was in the spirit I don't know way to play it safe well I mean if I just read that it makes me think that he was in deep meditation um thinking of about Jesus or God or whatever and praying mhm and that's what it makes me think of sure I mean it you know a lot of churches like to use that phrase and it means something different so and so caught the spirit yeah yeah so but I think that it means that he was like you know deep in prayer something maybe kind of like when Paul writes that he was in a vision he was taken up to the seventh heaven Maybe something like that I think that's fair I think that's a fair assumption just as a side note you know we've talked about it on our regular episodes quite a bit about the war between the Flesh and the spirit yeah that we on this side of Eternity have a heck of a time differentiating between being in our humanness and being in the spirit and we strive with everything that we have to have some sort of a balance between the two right because you know specifically if you have too much of one and very little of the other you can get yourself into a lot of trouble like for instance if you have too much quote in the spirit well then you can drift off into the weeds and overly sensationalize things and uh have more of an experiential kind of faith and you rely on the Lord like a rabbit's foot if you will mhm and if you're if you have too little of the spirit well then you're literally doing most if not all of your Christian Walk In the Flesh right so there's there's this comfortable balance that we as followers of Jesus really try to strike but here John says that he was in the spirit so it's almost as if to say I was fully in the spirit right like there wasn't a single uh human effort on my part whatsoever at this moment it makes me think of like when Jesus fasted and went into the desert that the spirit drove him into the Wilderness yeah cuz I think he fasted to like put to death his fleshly desire or whatever any like fleshly kind of thoughts that he might have to put him more into the in tune with the spirit cuz we're you know didn't they fast often in prayer yes okay yes so that is certainly one of the primary elements of fasting yeah is to empty yourself of human need and Reliance that's what I meant yeah that's that's a good comparison to draw I like that so maybe that has something to do with it could be sure I mean it doesn't say that but just you know I'm thinking about other times in the Bible when there it would it kind of made sense to me yeah I mean in the Greek a better another rendering of it is I was in spirit mhm not the spirit so that's that's really good conjecture I like that but what's more interesting and more fun to dissect is that he says he was in the spirit on the Lord's day okay what's the Lord's day oh no now you really got something here The Lord's day well in our vernacular that means like Sunday church day the day that we go to church you know so John was in the spirit on a Sunday well that's what how it looks and as a english-speaking American when I read that yeah that's what it means to me yeah if you're going to dissect that you have to think what does that mean to John right not to you know an American in the 21st century yeah you're on the right track there honey okay uh it is not a Sunday okay uh it's not a Sabbath day okay uh what John again this is this is a definite article so it's a specific Lord's day and remember I said as you read through this see it through the lens of the Old Testament M okay oh what Lord's day do we read about prophetically in other apocalyptic Literature Like Daniel and his Ezekiel Etc what type of Lord's Day in the Old Testament do we read or hear an awful lot about like the day of the Lord Bingo oh man okay a specific day or time or era or period that is known as the day of the Lord and I am not going to unpack that Here and Now of what all of that entails mhm but essentially what John is trying to communicate here in one little sentence is that in this moment John was fully following the holy spirit being driven by the Holy Spirit and more or less teleported or transported or uh sent up to the holodeck if you will to look at everything that is the Lord's Day so it's like he's in the grand stands seeing all of it all right okay H and then he says and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet now there's a good there's a simile it's not literally a trumpet it's like the sound of a trumpet gets your attention yeah and not only that um if you Andy if you were like facing forward and watching a whole bunch of stuff going on and a trumpet blasted behind you it make you jump yeah might pucker a little yeah a little bit yeah so he hear so John hears this loud voice that's like a trumpet a loud voice like you know like uh the beginning of a horse race you know I'm not saying that's what it sounded like but you catch it draws your attention it's like pay attention right right uhhuh and it says that he heard this Voice verse 11 saying write in a book what you see mhm and send it to the seven churches Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea now again why these seven churches because again this is 60 years after Christ's Ascension are you implying that there are more than just those seven churches that they could have sent it to well what about the Church of Rome the Thessalonians the Colossians oh the Corinthians H the the safest estimate is that by the end of the first century there are hundreds of churches that are active and alive at the time that John writes this letter so why the why out of all of the known churches by the end of the first century ad does God specific specifically commission John to write to these seven H well that's a good point maybe because I don't know he picked them for a reason I believe that he did and when we get to chapter 2 we'll start to unpack that okay here's what's interesting is up to this point all of this is being said to John from behind his back cuz in verse 12 oh okay he writes then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and having turned I saw seven golden lamp stands and in the middle of the golden lamp stands I saw one like a son of man clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest was a golden sash his head and his hair were white like white wool like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire his feet were like burning bronze when it had been made to Glow in a furnace and his voice was like the sound of many Waters in his right hand he held Seven Stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its strength so here you have Jesus completely unveiled in all his glory in front of John mhm and he's going to write how all of that translates into The Human Experience past present and future for the rest of this book but I want to touch on a few things okay what are these lamp stands right well I would guess that symbolic they are and you know what for the sake of time let's Jump Ahead to verse 20 okay because what's really really cool yeah is that John tells us what these lamp stands and stars are oh thank goodness verse 20 he says as for the mystery yeah you got that right as for the mystery of the Seven Stars which you saw in my right hand and the Seven golden lamp stands the Seven Stars are the Angels the angalos The Messengers again these could be actual Angels or they could be the pastors or they could be both the Seven Stars are the Angels of the seven churches and the Seven lamp stands are the seven churches M so there you go so back up to verse 12 okay having turned I saw seven golden lamp stands seven churches okay most likely the ones that he's writing to yes n way to draw a connection that's almost Captain Obvious right yeah exactly uh a better translation for lamp stand would be light bearer M you know what's interesting if you go back to like Ezekiel 25 mhm you do a study of the Tabernacle yes every single literal detail of the Tabernacle points to Jesus Christ mhm every single one how does that relate to this whole lamp stand conversation well in the Tabernacle uh you would go you know through through the main gate the outer Court the inner court and you go into the holy place not the holy of Holies with the Holy place okay the holy of holies was reserved for the high priest right but the holy Place had one source of light a lamp stand a lamp stand the Menorah seven a seven branched lamp stand there's seven again H and this was the only source of light in the Holy place I encourage all of our listeners do a study of the holiday Hanukkah because there's a specific event that took place in Jewish history where they ran out of oil and miraculously the lamp burned for an extended period of time just as a side study right it's a fun study it's why they why we have Hanukkah mhm mhm so this concept of lamp stand or light bearer it is a bearer of the light well who is the light Christ is the light yes Jesus is the light of the world but then later in the gospels who does Jesus say is the light of the world us says yeah you are the light yeah you are the light of the world right right so these churches are bearers of the light and Jesus is in the midst of them mhm see cuz it says I saw seven golden lamp stands and in the midst of the lamp stands so he's in the midst of the churches mhm so the question is where is Jesus right now in the midst of the Church in the midst of the churches and he describes him like a son of man well that's an interesting title that Jesus has for himself because we know when we hear Son of God now we're talking about the the the deity of Christ now we have son of man so this is The Human Side so it's he says that in the midst of the lampstands I saw someone like a son of man like a human Okay clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and gted across his chest was a golden sash what kind of imagery does that bring to mind when we're talking about for instance the Tabernacle Andy like a priest like a priest read that high priest mhm he is in his highest of high Priestly vestments here mhm later in the Book of Revelation there's going to be this scroll and the question is going to ring out through the Heavens who is worthy to take the scroll well it's Jesus because he is the high priest priest yeah and then there's all of these uh really cool uh similes his head and his hair are white like wool like snow his eyes were like a flame of fire that speaks of judgment his feet were like burnished bronze which also speaks of judgment uh his voice was like the sound of many Waters uh just Envision like Niagara Falls I know that's what I was thinking about like a waterfall yeah try arguing with Niagara Falls it'll drown you out yeah what's scary here though what is that John is looking at someone who is the highest of highest priest he's he is the high priest and he is clothed in all of his arraignment and yet every single one of these similes point to judgment oh in the midst of the churches mm something's about to go down Okay okay right verse 16 in his right hand he held Seven Stars what are the Seven Stars they are the seven angels for the seven churches so this is why there's there's that tossup between are these literally Angels or are they pastors because they're in the right hand of Jesus uhhuh right so it could be one or the other or both mhm but catch this out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword now from scripture Andy yeah what do we know about this sharp two-edged sword like the word of God is sharp as a two-edged sword yes it's the word of God yeah Bingo mhm Jesus opens his mouth and out of it comes a two-edged sword now I personally believe that when he opens his mouth it he he is going to utter the I am statement the I am that I am statement that's just my view and I'll unpack that later in the Book of Revelation as well but specifically this is the in in the Greek here this is the same two-edged sword that Paul uses to describe the word in Ephesians chapter 6 The Sword of the spirit yeah it is it is an actual Roman sword that is that is double-edged it's roughly 24 in long so it's not this Mammoth sword right it's for close combat maybe yeah there's there's two very distinctive characteristics and qualities about this sword number one it's specifically for Close Quarters combat as you mentioned the other thing is you have to be specifically trained on how to use it m otherwise it's useless mhm so if if this two-edged sword is the word of the Lord if it's the sword of the spirit two questions I have how well are we trained in using it and how close to the combat are we traveling wow yeah so it's pretty intense obviously something serious is about to go down right but catch this mhm his face was like the sun shining in its strength verse 17 when I saw him I fell at his feet like a dead man yeah no kidding notice the progression here John is in the spirit on the Lord's day uhhuh and he encounters Jesus in all his glory it says I heard I turned I saw and I fell right I heard the voice I turned towards the voice I saw where the voice was coming from and I fell at his feet like a dead man if there is any application above all applications in Revelation 1 I believe it's that that when we hear the Lord's voice mhm we turn towards him I.E repent right oh yeah we see him for all in all his glory mhm and we followed his feet in worship mhm m is that beautiful yeah and even John the disciple whom Jesus loved who was being blessed with the provocative honor of being here to witness all of this Lord's Day Shenanigans in the first person can fall at the feet of his Lord and Savior who already loves him mhm how much more should we that's true yeah no kidding But Here Comes the good news okay he placed his right hand on me saying do not be afraid oh those words M fear not for I Am with You says the Lord mhm here come some titles I am the first and the last and the living one and I was dead and behold I'm alive forever more and I have the keys of death and of Hades so much Rich promises in all of those titles there wow we see that word Hades in verse 18 I'm glad this is one of the reasons why I like The New American Standard is because in in most other Bible translations it would say hell oh yeah yeah and hell is such an ambiguous word because uh Hades is better because in the Greek you have two different words for for hell okay you have Hades and then you have gehenna henna is the outer darkness that is the eternal hell if you will got it Hades is a temporary holding place cuz later in the Book of Revelation death and Hades are cast into the Lake of Fire to the outer Darkness to gehenna okay but Jesus is the one who has the keys to Hades he's the one who sends people there who judges people and locks it up or unlocks it it's pretty pretty intense mhm mhm so then Jesus tells John in verse 19 therefore boy if ever you needed to know what a therefore was there for right because Jesus just basically laid out there's a bunch of stuff that's about to go down and I'm going to tell you all the details of it and what that looks like and you got a pretty big task ahead of you John so therefore write the things which you have seen write the things which are and the things which will take place after these things now as I mentioned before this is your outline for the Book of Revelation and I would argue for all of human history it is almost like a divinely inspired outline this would probably in my opinion be the second most important verse in all of the Book of Revelation because it tells you how John is about to write things okay so first he says therefore write the things which you have seen well what has John already seen he saw the lamp stands and the Stars all of chap one yeah right all of chapter one well guess what John check that box off because you're finished with that part right then he says write the things which are so in John's uh literal human context and life experience what are the things that are what's happening right now what's happening right now so in 95 ad what is happening now okay I would argue that's going to be chapters 2 and three right and we'll explain that when we get there okay and then lastly the things which shall take place after these things in the Greek metat okay what do you think are the things that John is going to write about that take place after his current context chapters 4 and and uh Beyond yeah chapter 4 verse1 on and coincidentally uh the very first opening words of chapter 4 verse one are metat after these things gazen

tiun so that's pretty cool huh yeah that is cool John has given us the things which he's already seen that's all of chapter 1 he's now going to write about the things which are which are the seven churches okay and then he's going to write about the things that'll take place after the things that are occurring in the churches cool and then verse 20 as for the mystery of the seven St Stars which 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 so the next time we get together we're going to start talking about these seven churches okay and it's going to be fun and it's going to be invigorating for me at least cuz as you said Andy this is probably my favorite book in the Bible mhm there's a lot to unpack there is a lot to unpack at best We Will Conquer the first letter which is the Church of Ephesus okay but as sort of a precursor to our study of these seven churches I believe personally that these seven letters written to these seven churches were written on at least four different levels M four four and that'll makes sense as we go through them all right and it's just it's it's a view that I hold it doesn't mean that I'm right you can't build Doctrine on it but it's certainly provocative okay but obviously getting back to that theme of hearing turning seeing and falling mhm Jesus is in the midst of the churches he's in the midst of the lampstands even to this very day and the language and idiom that John uses to describe what Jesus looks like and what he's doing all speak of some sort of inspection yeah in other words Jesus Christ himself is in the midst of the churches inspecting them in chapters 2 and three for seven specific churches he's going to Dole out report cards okay I would argue that out of the entire Book of Revelation chapters 2 and three are probably the most important of the entire book to you and I because it's the report cards to the churches yeah it's how Jesus actually sees the churches and it's not going to be fun it's not going to be horrible for everybody no but it's certainly going to be provocative and controversial and challenging and every single one of those letters whether it's good news or bad news is going to bring us back to this point of hearing turning seeing and falling because I believe that as Christians every single day you can't hear enough you certainly can't turn enough you certainly can't see enough of Jesus mhm but I think that we need to work on our heeding which leads to Falling at his feet right amen that's all we have to say about that thank you for listening to the church podcast the post scripts on our next episode we are going to begin to unpack and look at our letter to the Church of Ephesus its themes its even very name will all be of so much fun and attention but until next time this is the Churchosity podcast Personnel saying

[Music] peace