The Apocalypse - Revelation 1:1-8

[0:00] Well, you can turn uncharacteristically to the far right side of your Bible, not in Genesis or Exodus, it'll be in Revelation. So Revelation chapter 1, my title for it tonight is The Apocalypse, which the only reason I say that is, you know, it could be better titled The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, because Revelation in the Greek is apokalypse.

[0:33] It's where we get the word apocalypse from. We've kind of made it this connotation that, you know, apocalypse means some like catastrophic thing that, you know, it's post-civilization, but it just means an unveiling or a laying bare or a disclosure of the truth.

[0:51] And so the revelation of Jesus Christ, your Bible, like mine, may say the revelation of John or St. John the Divine, but it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. As we get into that, we're going to see why.

[1:05] In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15, Paul is praying that we would have our own apocalypse. I mean, good grief, Paul. You're going to pray that we have an apocalypse? He does.

[1:16] Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and apocalypse and the knowledge of him.

[1:31] Well, we don't say that because, but that's the word. It's the same word there. The unveiling, that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and of laying bare the truth and disclosing the truth. That's the spirit God gives us through the Holy Spirit.

[1:42] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory in his inheritance in the saints. And that's our prayer as we get into this book.

[1:55] You know, as I was studying, I felt like either we study the Bible or we just do information dumps. Like, it's like, here's a ton of information. Go home and look it up. Here's a ton more information.

[2:05] There's just so much. So trying to balance the two. Thankfully, other people have done a wonderful job of compiling some of this stuff. I don't have the time to do that. I have time to study the scripture, but some of the slides and some of the bullet points we'll use, I'm drawing heavily from two sources.

[2:23] Chuck Missler, the late Chuck Missler, from Cornelia House, from Kay House, and then from J.B. Hicks and his Not by Works Ministries. Thankfully, these men have gone and made charts and slides and things, and it's great.

[2:35] I can just kind of use them. Here's one of them. The apocalypse. As we go through the book of Revelation, the revealing, the unveiling, this is some of what we're going to see. We're going to see a catastrophic end crisis of the present age.

[2:48] As we go through the book of Revelation, that there's this catastrophic ending to the age, to time. A spectacular reappearance of the king of kings in his global empire.

[2:59] We're going to see the internment of Satan in the abyss, or the Greek is the abuso. We're going to see a millennial, 1,000-year earth reign of Christ. The final insurrection and the abolition of sin.

[3:12] Can't wait for that. A new heaven and a new earth. It's funny because we can spend so much time trying to figure out what God's doing here, what the end is going to be, and it's exciting.

[3:25] You know, Jesus comes back for his bride. There's the seven years where he wraps up judging the earth and refocusing on Israel. He returns, starts this 1,000-year reign, and that's just the beginning.

[3:36] Because then there's a new heaven and a new earth. What does that mean? I don't know. I just know that it says that therein dwells righteousness. So it's going to be a good place. But why do we believe what we believe?

[3:48] You know, as we approach the scriptures, and especially Revelation and prophecy, there's a lot of different views. A lot of different views. We're not interested in views. We're interested in what? What does the Bible say? What do we base our beliefs on?

[4:00] Do we base it on sociological influences? Our parents or friends? The society and culture? Psychological influences? Comfort? Peace of mind? Finding meaning and purpose?

[4:11] Is that what I base my belief system on? Theological influences? Philosophical influences? Political influences? Well, I would never do that. I only side with these guys. Never that. What do we base it on?

[4:22] What does the Bible say? Not what someone says about the Bible. Not what I say about the Bible. And feel free to come and say, you know, the Bible says this, and I don't think you said that right. Probably. And we can go to scripture together and look for the solution.

[4:34] But we want to know, what does the Bible say? And the next question is, why prophecy? Why does it matter? And why does prophecy matter?

[4:45] As we approach Revelation, there's going to be a lot of prophecy. A lot of these events have not yet taken place. Why prophecy? What is prophecy? Well, prophecy is to forth tell or to foretell. To forth tell God's word is prophecy.

[4:58] And to foretell, it has that idea as well. For every prophecy relating to Christ's first coming, there are eight relating to his second. And we revisit those frequently.

[5:12] We do it at Christmas time. We revisit the prophecies regarding Christ's first coming. We take them very serious and very literal. So I'm going to come to the Bible, and when I see it talk about his second coming, I'm going to take it very serious and very literal.

[5:24] Remember we talked in our How to Study the Bible night, we have to have a consistent hermeneutic. Our system of studying Scripture. I can't look at the first coming of Christ and go, every single prophecy was literal and fulfilled, and then look at the second coming and go, well, that's all allegorical.

[5:40] That isn't really talking about that. It's talking about this instead. We have to be consistent. Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1, verse 19, that we have also a more sure word of prophecy.

[5:53] Where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in your hearts. He's saying that after he just describes his experience of walking with the Lord, experiencing the Lord, seeing the Lord, hearing him in the flesh.

[6:09] He says, you know what? I actually physically had Jesus with me, but more sure than the physical presence of Jesus was his word, was prophecy. We're going to eventually find out in Revelation 19, 10, that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

[6:24] The witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Jesus is very much interested in prophecy. John 5, 39 says, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me.

[6:40] So, Jesus confronting the Pharisees said, you think you know the Scriptures, but you don't know me, so you missed the point of the Scriptures. And Jesus is all through Scripture. The Old Testament, Christ in prophecy, as we've been looking, we've gone through Genesis, we're in Exodus, we've seen the typology with Joseph, and now with Moses.

[6:56] Behold, he comes. Christ is coming. In the Gospels, it's Christ in history. Here he is. He's physically here. Behold, he dies. In Acts, Christ in the church. Behold, he lives.

[7:07] In the Epistles, Christ in experience. Behold, he saves. Our experience walking with him. And then as we get to the Revelation, the Apocalypse, the unveiling, it's Christ is coming in glory.

[7:19] Behold, he reigns. And one of the things we're going to see with the book of Revelation is that it puts a lot of things that are out of place in their place. As we've gone through Genesis, we know that, say, Moses, what's his name?

[7:36] Abraham. That guy. He was promised a lot of land and a lot of promises, and yet none have been fulfilled. We're going to see that Israel, who is out of its land, is put in its land, in its rightful place.

[7:48] Not just that little sliver, but the whole land that it's supposed to have. We're going to see the church, which is not in heaven, put into heaven in its rightful place. We're going to see the lamb, who's not on his own throne yet, going and being seated upon his own throne.

[8:03] And then Satan, who is unbound currently, he's going to get bound. One of the things to understand the book of Revelation that we must understand is the nation of Israel.

[8:14] And thankfully, going through Genesis and now Exodus, we have a great understanding of what God's plan is for Israel. But in Daniel 9, and we will eventually be in Daniel 9, but if you read verses 24 through 27, it's a really good snapshot of what God has been doing in history since the Jews went into captivity to now and how he will finish out history.

[8:39] But verse 24 says, So Israel had been in the land for 490 years after Joshua brings them in.

[9:02] For 490 years, they did not obey the law to keep the Sabbath rest for a year every seventh year. They didn't do that. And so God says, hey, I'm going to give you 490 years, 70 weeks of seven years in which the land is going to be in rest.

[9:17] And Israel's been out of the land, right? In that time, that gap, because you had 69 weeks to when Jesus comes, and then you have this gap where all of a sudden you have the church age.

[9:28] And God has stopped kind of dealing with Israel as his primary focus in the world. We're going to see where he's going to pick up with that in Revelation. Israel's promised geography is a lot bigger than what they currently have.

[9:41] That little red sliver is the current nation of Israel. The outline is what God promised them in Genesis 17, I think, 15 or 17, one of the times when he came to Abraham.

[9:52] Keep saying Moses. I gave you a sheet, kind of help you keep pace of where we are. There'll be others as we go through this, but kind of giving just a brief overview of the end times.

[10:03] So you have the cross and then you have the church age. That's where we've been for over 2,000 years. At some point, the church age ends. That's what we call the rapture of the church. When Jesus returns for his bride, as he promised in John 14, I go and prepare a place for you.

[10:15] I will come again and receive it to myself. And then the clock starts again for him dealing with the nation of Israel. The point is to turn Israel to the Lord, that they will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

[10:27] Those seven years will also be man's chance and Satan's chance to try and rule the world like they think they can do such a good job of, and God will be judging them during that time.

[10:39] There'll be a whole lot more of that as we go. Just trying to give you a little flavor so you see where we're going, the road map. As we go through Revelation, you're going to pick up on the fact that there are sevens over and over and over and over.

[10:53] It's called the heptatic structure of Revelation. Just a lot of sevens. It's been said that there are more sevens than you could ever find. That if you wanted to, you could spend the rest of your life going through and finding groups of sevens.

[11:04] These are just a very few. You have seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls. Seven lampstands, seven spirits, seven stars, and seven lamps. And then there's so many more sevens. There's seven beatitudes in Revelation.

[11:16] You can figure that one out and look through that yourself. So that's just kind of an intro of where we're going with this book. As we go through it, we want the scripture to speak, and we want to know what it's saying to us.

[11:28] There are a whole lot of other scriptures that will tie into Revelation. Ezekiel 38, Daniel 9. We're not doing a study on prophecy. We're doing a study on the book of Revelation.

[11:38] So we'll pull that in and tie into that as well. But we want to know what the scripture here is saying to us as well. And remember, the Bible is meant not as a textbook. It's meant to be read and internalized devotionally.

[11:49] It's a letter from God to us. It's to display his love and his character to us. So let's dive into chapter 1 of verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.

[12:08] And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. So it's the revelation of who? Jesus. Revelation of Jesus Christ.

[12:19] Jesus Christ. The word there, shortly, the things that must shortly come to pass, that means to rev up like a tachometer. Like you're revving your engine. It means quick, with speed. It means when these things happen, they happen quickly.

[12:32] It doesn't necessarily mean when John wrote this that in the next few weeks this is going to happen. It just means when it begins to happen, it happens very quickly. And it shall come to pass.

[12:45] You know, God's word is not left in doubt or in question. This isn't like, well, this might happen if things work out okay. But it shall come to pass or come to be. And then you see there a word in there, signified.

[12:55] It means to indicate or make known. Literally, signs. So we read here, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent, using signs, by his angel unto his servant John.

[13:09] So as we go through Revelation, there's a lot of signs, a lot of significance, a lot of pictures and things that were told right in the beginning. This is the way the book is written.

[13:22] And so with Revelation, God is looking to show. God is not looking to conceal, but to reveal. He's like, I'm not trying to hide what's going to happen. This isn't like some secret. I want you to know.

[13:33] And so I'm going to reveal this. The purpose of the book is to show so that we might know. So then we can go out and show others that they might know him.

[13:47] Remember in John 15, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. He says, So as friends of Jesus, he says, Hey, I want you to know.

[14:09] I want to apocalypse you. I want to reveal this to you. But the revelation of God's word is dependent upon God's word alone, isn't it? Because it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him.

[14:23] God is giving this to Jesus. Jesus is passing it on to his messengers, whether the angels, and then on to John. We correctly approach God's word when we allow God's word to impose its views and truths on us.

[14:39] I want God's word to impose its views upon me, even if it's different than mine. Even if I'm like, well, I didn't know that was in there. I thought, you know, we were talking about like at the end of the tribulation, we all come back and it says that the hosts of heaven return with Christ to the earth, riding, you know, and they come upon horses.

[14:58] I don't really like horses. I'd rather ride on tigers. But it doesn't say that. It says horses, right? I can't impose my view on that. Well, you know, maybe in the Greek, or maybe if I twist this scripture enough, I can make my horse look like a tiger.

[15:11] It's not gonna. So we approach this. We start with the Bible. We study the Bible in its literal, grammatical, historical context. We compare scripture with scripture. And from that, we then say, what does the Bible teach about prophecy?

[15:25] What does the Bible teach about the end? What does the Bible teach about new birth? We start with the scripture. So verse one is essentially a paper trail of authenticity. It's kind of like the will and testimony.

[15:36] It's like when you go to buy a house and you have to look back so far. This is the paper trail. It's God gave it to Jesus. Jesus gave it to the angels.

[15:47] And the angels gave it to his servant, John. So if you want to question it, we have the paper trail right here. It starts with the originator, God.

[15:57] And it ends with who? A messenger. And that's God's plan. God starts with the originator. He passes his word to a messenger. The messenger's job is not to reinterpret that, to change that, to twist that.

[16:09] It's just to simply pass it on to the next person. The revelation of Jesus Christ. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant, John, who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.

[16:26] So he was a faithful messenger. What does a faithful messenger do? He bears record of the word, the word that was spoken. So he's faithfully passing on what was spoken.

[16:37] Testimony, that which was lived. He faithfully passes on what he's experienced Jesus living and the things he saw, that which was witnessed. So a faithful messenger passes on that which was spoken, that which was lived, and that which was witnessed.

[16:50] And John says, hey, I bore witness to all of these things. I bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that I have seen. Blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand.

[17:07] And it's been said, Revelation is the only book that comes with a blessing for reading it. That's wrong. It says, blessed are those that read and they that hear the words of this prophecy and do what?

[17:18] Keep. Keep. Keep those things. James tells us that we are like those who look in a mirror and forget what we look like, forget that our hair is a mess and we haven't washed our face and that we're just, you need to shave.

[17:32] We walk away and forget that. He says, that is like the person who looks into the perfect law of liberty and turning away doesn't apply, doesn't do it. So there is a blessing for those who read, hear, and then keep.

[17:44] This is to apply to our lives. Revelation is front-loaded with this blessing. Right from the start, we know what we're going to get by studying through this book.

[17:56] It's great. The accessibility, approachability, and responsibility of God's word, it demands action in our lives, especially in the times we're living in. There's a responsibility that comes with this amazing accessibility we have to God's word, that we can come and have God speak to us.

[18:13] There's a responsibility that we have to act upon that in these times that we're living in. And then we see where John says here, for the time is at hand. That literally means something's within reach.

[18:24] So like this is at hand. It's within reach. There's a pen on the back, a little stand back there. That's not at hand. That's not at hand for me. Something that's within reach. So John is saying this is within reach.

[18:36] It's close. It's close enough to grab. Revelation 22 says, And he said unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

[18:49] He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.

[19:03] So the basis there of what he's saying, that everyone kind of remain in their same state, he's saying when this happens, the time is at hand. It's going to be so quick. You're not going to be like, okay, now I'll get saved. Well, now I'll repent.

[19:13] Now I'll be righteous. It's going to be too late. The time is at hand. And then John begins his own introduction. That was kind of the reason for the book.

[19:26] And now we're going to get an introduction by John. And then in verse 8, we're going to get Jesus' own introduction to us. And we're only going through eight verses tonight, by the way, guys. John to the seven churches which are in Asia.

[19:39] Grace be unto you and peace from him which is, which was, and which is to come. That phrase is going to repeat itself a bunch of times. And from the seven, here are seven, spirits which are before his throne.

[19:50] So these are the seven epistles of Jesus to the seven churches of Asia. You think, well, you know, you have the Old Testament and you have the New Testament, you have the Gospels, you have the epistles.

[20:00] Epistles, well, then you have more epistles. We never talk about them as epistles, but these are seven letters written to these churches in Asia. God's revelation is for God's people. That's not for the world.

[20:12] It's for the seven churches which are in Asia. The Gospel is for the lost. God's Word is for the church. It's for his people. What is the result of reading and hearing and doing God's revealed Word?

[20:25] What did he tell us? Grace and peace be unto you. Grace and peace are the result of hearing, reading, and then applying God's Word to our lives.

[20:38] And here he says that which is and which was and which is to come. He was grace and peace. He is grace and peace. And he shall be grace and peace. And lastly, the seven aspects here of the Holy Spirit.

[20:52] Where it says the seven spirits. I don't think it's actually referring to seven spirits. It's talking about what's described in Isaiah chapter 11 verse 2. This is why you compare scripture with scripture. Are there seven Holy Spirits?

[21:03] Are there seven spirits before the throne? Oh, it's talking about the completeness here of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11 2 says, And the spirit of one, the Lord, shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord.

[21:17] It's the fullness of God's Spirit. It's not that there are seven different spirits. Rather, it's the Spirit of the Lord has these characteristics. And in them is fullness and perfection. The Holy Spirit brings grace and peace.

[21:32] How? Well, just like we just read. Through illuminating, through revealing, through the apocalypse. Through the revelation of God's word. We then, through the Holy Spirit, partake of that grace and peace.

[21:44] Past, present, and future. We're going to see that a bunch through this introduction. This past, present, and future. You know, for us, we have a past, a present, and a future. When you think of eternity, what do you think of?

[21:57] Like, just the future continuing. A long, long, long time. That's not eternity. That's probably better described like immortality. Eternity is outside of time. Eternity is past, present, and future. Eternity has none of that.

[22:08] It's just a full, encompassing, there is no past, present, and future for God. So he which was, and which is, and is to come, it's just saying, he is. He is grace and peace at all times.

[22:19] We think of eternity like, oh, we step into eternity, it'll just last. No, we're going to be outside of time, completely. There'll be some type of understanding of, you know, the passage of existence.

[22:30] But it won't be as we think of it now. And so, as the Holy Spirit brings grace and peace through the illumination of God's revelation to our lives, it's as Jesus said in John 16, 13.

[22:42] How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.

[22:56] That's why we can say that studying the Bible is a self-correcting process. If you take God's word for what it says, you have the promise that the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. He will correct you continually.

[23:07] You know, I heard someone say, you should get a journal. I don't do this. I'm terrible at journaling. I write something down, and I go back to it. I'm like, why did I write that down? I don't even know what that means.

[23:17] I don't even know why that meant something to me. I do the same thing as I study. I study through a passage, and then, like, I write in my Bible, and that's just how I kind of do my thing. And I could go back maybe a month later.

[23:29] Like, if I went back to a passage in Genesis, I'd probably be looking at some of my notes going, I wonder what I meant by that. I knew what I meant at the time, but a lot of times I don't write all the words.

[23:41] Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So verse 5. And from Jesus Christ. So John, in verse 4, he said, Grace and peace unto you from the Holy Spirit, the seven spirits which are before his throne, and grace and peace also from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.

[24:02] And so here we have the Trinity. We have God who's giving the revelation. We have grace and peace coming from the Holy Spirit. And then we also have Jesus. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.

[24:22] Three things there. Jesus is the faithful witness. Jesus is the first begotten of the dead. And Jesus is the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God his Father.

[24:42] To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And so Jesus, the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince and the kings of the earth. Grace and peace from him.

[24:52] And then it's saying, Unto him that loved us. Unto him that loved us. Be glory and dominion forever and ever. But he puts in there that little phrase. Unto him that loved us, parentheses, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God.

[25:07] To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And those three things match up. Jesus is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth. Jesus, as the faithful witness, loved us.

[25:20] Jesus, as the first begotten of the dead, washed us. And Jesus, as the prince of the kings of the earth, has the right to make us kings and priests. Jesus faithfully witnessed God's grace and peace to us, by loving us.

[25:34] Jesus, through new life, administers grace and peace by washing us. And Jesus' rule is grace and peace, by making us kings and priests. Now you see the past, present, future.

[25:45] That grace and peace continuing. And just Jesus' hand in all of it. And Jesus' work is past, present, and future, because the past, present, and future to Jesus doesn't exist how it does to us.

[25:57] We look at it like, oh, my sins of the past. Oh, my sins of the future. There's no such thing when it comes to redemption, and from God's standpoint. We are, you know, where Paul said, you are washed. You are clean.

[26:08] You are made new. We are either born again, or we're not born again. But in heaven, it's a done deal. It's not something that has to do with our linear place of time.

[26:18] You know, the cross works forward, and it works backwards in redemption. The revelation of God to man, it cost the life and blood of God.

[26:29] That Jesus, who loved us, washed us. And how did he wash us in his own blood? For him to give us this revelation, for John to be able to write it, Jesus had to give his blood, so that we could know, so that we could have this revealed.

[26:42] That's how important it is for us to understand what this book says. It's not just like, well, you know, there's the Bible, and then there's revelation, just if you want to kind of like have a really like exciting, you know, story.

[26:54] But it cost Jesus his blood. Kings and priests. So that was something that was forbidden. In the Old Testament, it was forbidden to combine the offices of kings and priests.

[27:05] If you remember King Uzziah of Judah, he's an example of that. He said, I am, after like a 40-year reign of righteously walking with God, he says, I'm going to go into and offer incense on the altar into the temple.

[27:17] And they tried to stop him, the priest did, but he went in anyways, and then he was stricken with leprosy. It was forbidden, and that's 2 Chronicles 26, for these two offices to be combined. That's why in Hebrews we read where it says Jesus was a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[27:32] Melchizedek was a priest, but he's also king of Salem. And Jesus is after that order, kings and priests. It's a new order. It's not under the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, where the kings and priests were separate.

[27:43] This is the new covenant. Jesus does not just restore us to God, but he goes far beyond that, far beyond just washing us in his blood, that he actually makes us kings and priests to his God and Father.

[27:56] We lose, or we, I'm sorry, we gain more in Jesus than we've ever lost in Adam. You think, oh man, if we'd never sinned, if we still had innocence, you know, you think, Adam, man, if we could have just been perfect, you know, we could have gone right to heaven.

[28:12] No, we couldn't. Adam had no guarantee of heaven. Adam was mortal, he was sinless, and he was confined to this realm, this dimension. We have access to heaven, he never had.

[28:22] We have access to redemption, that he never had. Adam wasn't going to die. He would have been here in a perfect state. So perfection doesn't get us to heaven.

[28:33] We would just be like Adam. We would just be here. But it's through redemption. We gain more in Christ than we could have ever lost in Adam. And then glory and dominion.

[28:46] Glory means worthy to rule. Dominion means power and authority to rule. And so as he says here, the first begotten of the dead that washed us in his own blood has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.

[29:01] To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. God is worthy to rule, and he also has the power and authority to do so. And as we go through Revelation, we're going to see where he begins to, he begins to, so Jesus, we know, is governing the world, but he has not yet stepped into where he is ruling the world.

[29:24] He's kind of managing, you know, managing a mess. But he's still managing it. He's moving the pieces where he wants, and he's working it, but he is not yet the one ruling, though he is worthy to.

[29:35] Behold, he comes with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kinners of the earth shall wail because of him.

[29:47] Even so, amen. He says amen a lot, but it doesn't mean he's done. It just means so be it. Ratify this. This is going to happen. This is so. And so now he says, this one he's talked about, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the one who washes us in his blood, the one who has glory and dominion forever and ever.

[30:04] Behold, he comes. He comes just like he said he would. Behold, he comes with clouds. In Zechariah chapter 12, Zechariah is prophesying of what's being talked about here, where he says, every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.

[30:21] Who pierced him? We're the ones who pierced Jesus. The Jews. It was Israel. That they shall see him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail.

[30:31] So we have three groups here. Every eye, so that's everybody's going to see him, physically see him. They which pierced him as well. And then all kindreds of the earth, not other than those that pierced him, they're all going to wail because of him.

[30:45] They're not very happy about this at this time. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 9, beginning in verse 9, says, And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and that I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications.

[31:04] And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son. Again, speaking of when Jesus physically returns a second time, when Israel at that time, their veil has been lifted, their hearts have been turned, and those who have put their faith in Christ, two-thirds of them, of the Jews, will be wiped out.

[31:25] The one-third that remain and put their faith in Christ will see him and say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. In Matthew chapter 24, we read this, beginning in verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

[31:52] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

[32:03] And so when Jesus returns, after the tribulation, the sign of him coming to earth, they will then physically see him. He comes with clouds. And that's what it says right here. Matthew 26, beginning in verse 63, says, But Jesus held his peace.

[32:20] And the high priest answered him and said, I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you be the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said unto him, That was said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.

[32:37] Again, this promise that Jesus, when he comes back, is coming in the clouds, with clouds. Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, And I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.

[32:55] And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed.

[33:09] Again, taking the Bible for what it says, believing the Bible wants to convey, that God wants to convey to me what the Bible means, what it says. I take that as what it says, that Jesus will return, and he will set up an everlasting kingdom, and he will set up dominion on this earth.

[33:23] When he returns, as we've seen, he will come with clouds. There's another event, though, that kind of seems to muddy the waters a little.

[33:35] But 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 14, as Paul is writing to the church, says, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even to them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him?

[33:51] Bring with him? Well, that means he's coming somewhere, right? That means he's been somewhere, and now he's coming, because he's bringing them. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

[34:04] He's talking about the resurrection. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

[34:15] Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the, what's it say? In the clouds. To meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Are these the same events?

[34:26] We've got two clouds. We've got this cloud Jesus is coming with, and then this clouds we kind of go and meet him with. But wait a minute. At one point, they're wailing and weeping, and every eye will see him coming in the clouds.

[34:38] And at this point, it just seems like the church alone is going to meet him in the clouds. In Acts chapter one, beginning in verse nine, Jesus, when he's about to ascend into heaven, it says, and when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, taken up into heaven.

[34:54] And a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven?

[35:07] The same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as you have seen him go into heaven. What was the manner that he went into heaven? He went up into the clouds. He's returning with clouds.

[35:18] But they're two different clouded events. Right? Two different events. One is what we call the rapture. It's just the snatching away.

[35:29] It's the taking away. It's the fulfillment of the promise Jesus made. In John 14, I go and prepare a place. I will come again and receive you to myself. Two events. The rapture is the translation of believers.

[35:39] When we are metamorphosized in a moment, the twinkling of an eye. The second coming, when Jesus comes and every eye will see him and they will wail and those who pierced him will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

[35:50] There's no translation involved. In the rapture, the translated states go to heaven. In the second coming, they return to earth. In the rapture, the earth is not being judged. In the second coming, the earth is being judged.

[36:02] The rapture is imminent. It's any moment. It's signless. We are supposed to look for Jesus all through the New Testament. Our hope is in Christ and his return. We're not told to prepare for the tribulation.

[36:12] We're not told to prepare to look for the Antichrist. We're to look for Jesus Christ. The rapture is not in the Old Testament. The second coming is predicted in the Old Testament. The rapture is for believers only. Those of us that are alive and remain shall meet those who have died in Christ.

[36:29] The second coming affects all kindreds of the earth. The rapture is before the day of wrath. The second coming concludes the day of wrath. In the rapture, there's no reference to Satan. In the second coming, as we're going to eventually see, Satan is bound.

[36:41] In the rapture, he comes for his own. The second coming, he comes with his own. In the rapture, he comes in the air, and we meet him in the air. In the second coming, he comes and physically stands on the earth, on the Mount of Olives.

[36:55] In the rapture, he claims his bride. In the second coming, he comes with his bride. In the rapture, only his own see him. In the second coming, every eye will see him. And lastly, in the rapture, great tribulation begins.

[37:06] In the second coming, the millennial begins. And then, if you want to snap a picture of you, a picture of you, a picture of that, you can. As we go through this, there'll be a lot of that.

[37:18] If you want to go and research it on your own, and dig into it some more, I want to make sure that you have the information to do that. You know, when we just take the scripture, and we just read it for what it is, it says very plain, simple to understand things.

[37:33] Jesus says, I go and prepare a place for you. If I go, I'm going to come again and receive you to myself. Okay. Jesus, we also read, it says, hey, I'm also going to come back and I'm going to judge the world.

[37:44] And every eye is going to see me at that time. But I'm going to come for you first. I believe him when he says that. We're going to see as we go through the book that the church is not part of the tribulation because the church has nothing to do with us.

[38:00] It has to do with the nation of Israel and the judgment upon the earth. But anyway, I wanted to front load that just to, because of verse seven where it says, well, he comes in clouds, every eye will see him.

[38:11] What event is this talking about? Verse seven is talking about his physical second coming return to the earth at that time. At the end of seven years, the tribulation. It's not talking about the rapture, but the rapture is very clearly or the snatching away or the departure or the resurrection.

[38:25] When Paul talks about in Corinthians, the resurrection and that if the dead rise not, then we are all men most miserable. He's talking about that. That is the resurrection. People say, oh, there's no rapture.

[38:35] Well, there's no resurrection because that's what the resurrection is. The dead in Christ rise. We which are alive and remain, we get our new bodies. Without that, we have no new bodies and there's no resurrection then. Resurrection doesn't exist without us getting what was promised by Jesus, those habitations, those dwelling places he's preparing for us.

[38:53] And then lastly, we have the introduction by Jesus. Just one verse in here before then, John will start in on what Jesus has spoken to him. But he says, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, which was, which is to come, the Almighty.

[39:13] I think I was just, John's talking and John to seven churches, amen, and John this, amen. And it's like, and Jesus is like, oh, I couldn't wait any longer. I had to interject here. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Alpha and Omega, speaking of the Greek language.

[39:29] John 1, 1 says, in the beginning, the Alpha, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He's the beginning of all words, of all language. Matthew 24, 35 says, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

[39:44] At the ending, his Word is still there, the Alpha and the Omega. And then he says, the beginning and the ending, the beginning means origin.

[39:55] Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He was the Alpha, beginning of language, the beginning, the Word made flesh, and he was the origin. He's the beginning and he's the ending, which means the limit.

[40:08] He is the limit. Isaiah 46, 9 and 10 says, I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. Jesus is the origin and he is the limit.

[40:22] That which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Almighty means just one who holds sway, the ruler, one who has the right to rule and the power to rule.

[40:36] But I like how he ends it there, while we're ending tonight, which is, and which was, and which is to come. And there we have that past, present, and future thing. So what do we see? That Jesus says, beginning and the ending, he is constant.

[40:48] He's in the beginning, he's in the end, and everything in between. He's kind of saying to us, guys, I'm not doing anything different here. As you go through this book, it's not crazy. There's nothing new. There's nothing different. It's everything that you've already all seen.

[41:00] He's constant. He is constant. He was constant. And he shall be constant. Jesus says, the Almighty holds sway over the beginning and over the end. Jesus says, the Almighty holds sway over our past, our present, and our future.

[41:13] Jesus is the Almighty. He has saved us from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin, and we shall be saved from the presence of sin.

[41:25] Past, present, and future. That which is, which was, and is to come. Or which was, and is, and is to come. If you rearrange it, put the past first. The apocalypse of Jesus is not meant to frighten us, but to reveal to us that the Almighty God has everything under control.

[41:41] Right? And he said that to us as friends. I've called you friends. All things that I've heard of my Father I've made known unto you. What does he want to make known unto us? He wants us to know, I've got it. I've got the beginning.

[41:52] I've got the middle. And I've got the end. I've got the whole thing taken care of. You can believe me when I tell you what you read. So as we go through the book, right at the beginning, we have this wonderful record of Jesus, or John writing that, hey, I have the paper trail.

[42:09] If you need to look at it, here's the paper trail. Don't take my word for it. You don't even have to take John's or the angel's word. You can go to Jesus. It goes all the way back, right to the source.

[42:20] This is God's word. You can go to Jesus.잖아 of the desert. He's got the Java direction.

[42:34] He's got the konst. There's the there. There's a God. You can at least危なirk. He's got the existence.