WOLFL-2024-03
Transcript
This is my favorite book of the Bible. I don’t know if you can tell. It’s very exciting. If you can connect Revelation, you can connect the whole Bible because the whole Bible is connected to Revelation. And as you’ll see this hour, there is…, this is the only book of the Bible that illustrates every one of the 25 attributes of God. You guys have taken systematic theology, all those big names of God’s, omnipresence and omniscience and everything. Every single one of His 25 attributes are in Revelation and illustrated. It’s like the most complete guide to living the Christian life.
Most people think, like Martin Luther and John Calvin, they didn’t like Revelation. I don’t know if you know that. They said it’s too hard, it’s confusing, can’t understand it. That’s how most churches, in fact most churches won’t teach through Revelation. They say it’s divisive, it’s controversial, it’s confusing. But guess what? The Early Church, the early Christians, the first three centuries of Christianity, they’ve gone back, and they have all their writings that they wrote, their sermons. And into the 4th century, they have their sermons. And they went through the sermons to find what the churches preached about in the good old days, in the early days. And they found their quotations of the Bible. And one scholar at Oxford took every sermon of all the Early Church Fathers, they’re called the Church Fathers, like Chrysostom, all those guys if you’ve ever heard of them. And they wrote down what verses they quoted in their sermons. And guess what is the only book of the Bible that you can reproduce the entire book from the sermons of the Early Church in the first 300 years. It’s not Romans, it’s not the book of Psalms, it’s not Philippians, it’s not Genesis or Matthew. The only book that they taught on every single verse of, is this one. Revelation. Because the Early Church found this to be the most encouraging, helpful, challenging, blessing in their lives. Just like it was promised to be.
Okay, here we go. Let’s look at the power of hope filled living. We’re only going to cover verses 17 to 20. Here’s the verse I want to start you with. This is what Paul said. Remember, the whole Bible is connected. Paul put it this way. As he’s writing to the church at Rome, they were at the political center of the empire. Paul was writing to them from Corinth. You remember, Paul wrote from Corinth, Romans, Titus, and he wrote to Corinth, 1 and 2 Corinthians. Paul was quite connected to Corinth. Either he’s writing to them or from them, an awful lot of his writings. This is what he wrote from Corinth to the church at Rome. Now may the… now here’s one of those, remember I told you I read the whole Bible through and look for every name and title of God? Here’s one of the 400. What is God called? I put it in bold for you. He’s called the what? God of hope.
Did you know he wants you to introduce other people to the God of hope? That’s what happened to Daniel. He couldn’t believe there was hope for him. He knew he was dying. He knew that he was dying, destroying his body. Some of the people that I’ve had the privilege of leading to Christ are the last people Like that truck driver at 7-eleven. I would not normally have talked to a person like that. He looked so rough at midnight. But when he smiled, you could see the joy of Christ. He said, I met Christ in my truck. And when he smiled… And so, we’re supposed to introduce people to the God of hope.
But look what He does. And see, this is why I said, the book of Revelation is, first God wants you to know what the Christian life is. Then He wants you to live it. Then He wants you to share it. A lot of people are trying to share it and they’re not living it, or they don’t know it. Look what the Christian life is. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. You are supposed to be a living, walking, overflowing, joy filled, hope filled person. Isn’t that amazing? That’s a Christian life. You don’t have to say anything for a while.
Did you know people watch you? They watch to see what you’re full of. Are you full of yourself? Are you full of, what they usually say? You’re full of, that four letter word? No, they’re supposed to say you’re full of all joy, all peace in believing. No, he doesn’t just stop there. He says the God of hope makes you abound in hope. How? By trying your hardest, right? Is that how you get full of hope? What does the end of the verse say? Where does it come from? How? By the power of the Holy Spirit.
Bonnie and I, we started out in ministry in California. I was on staff at a church in California, and it was wonderful. And it was a huge church, maybe 10,000 on Sunday, or 12,000, it was huge. They would have a garage sale once a year to send all the kids your age on missions trips. And so, they would, they had acres of parking lots. So, they would just put every table they could find. All the people in the church would empty their houses of all their stuff and it would sell. They called it, The World For Sale. And everybody in the valley in San Fernando Valley would come to Grace Community Church’s garage sale. Bonnie and I went. And they had a table of all electronic stuff, and they had a strip, power strip, so you could plug in your electronic stuff to make sure it worked. And Bonnie and I went down, and you could tell how long ago this was, it was a radio, and it was this big. People used to put them on their shoulders. They’d walk down the street with these, they called them boom boxes. We needed one, and they were only a dollar at the sale. And I took mine, and I took the cord, and I plugged it in the power strip. As soon as I plugged in the power strip, it came on, and it was J. Vernon McGee.
Now, you don’t know who that is, but he is a Bible teacher that called his thing the, Through the Bible Show. And every five years, on the radio, he taught through every chapter of the Bible. He was famous. He was from Dallas Seminary, lived in Los Angeles. Why did that radio come on to J. Vernon McGee? Because the person that owned it was probably some old Christian that listened to him teaching through the Bible. The radio had no sound until the power of electricity came into it. Now look, what happens when you let the power of the Holy Spirit into your life? What should come out of you? Joy, and peace, and hope. But it only comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit, as we’re going to see when we get to, a few hours from now, the Holy Spirit is easily grieved and quenched in Christian’s lives. The Greek word is the same thing as those red things that are hanging back there, you only have two of them in this room. They’re fire extinguishers. The Greek word is sbennymi. It means to extinguish. The Holy Spirit gets extinguished by certain things Christians do. That’s why not everybody you know is full of joy and peace and abounding and hope because they’ve done something to quench or grieve the power of the Holy Spirit.
But humans can live 40 days without food, 3 days without water, 8 minutes without air, but only about a moment without hope, and then they give up.
And so we, and back to a reminder, this is what’s on your test, or I put quiz, but it’s test. We are Christ’s Church on Earth. We’re supposed to be dispensing, overflowing with hope. We’re supposed to be like a fire hydrant. You ever seen New York City in the hot 105 degree weather? The firemen come and crank the plugs and blow the fire extinguishers. They just blow water and kids are dancing around, getting wet and everything. That’s what all of us are supposed to be. You’re supposed to be a big red fire plug, a fire hydrant, blowing hope into the world around you. And people are supposed to know that’s what comes out of you, and it doesn’t come out without the Holy Spirit.
Then, Revelation says, those hopeful people are going to be in Heaven, while the Tribulation events are on Earth, the Tribulation ends with Christ coming, He sets up the rule He promised, that He’s going to rule from Jerusalem, the world doesn’t want Him, doesn’t like Him, resists Him, He ends it all after a thousand years, And Revelation ends with us being in Heaven.
There’s the whole chart I’ve already shown you. God wants us to understand Revelation, and we hope because we know His plan.
The other, and this will be the only time I do this, the other test note is, I’m going to ask you, how many books did John write? Guess how many books he wrote. Say it out loud. [Five] Good. The reason why, if you see something and say something and hear something, you will remember it about 80 percent of the time. So that’s why, the more active you are, that you’re hearing it, you’re seeing it, you write it, and you hear it, and you see it, and you say it, it’s about 90 percent of the time.
He wrote the Gospel of John, 21 chapters. 1 John, 5 chapters. 2 John, 1 chapter. 3 John, 1 chapter. Revelation, 22 chapters. He wrote a fifth of the New Testament. Isn’t that amazing? There are only 260 chapters, he did about 50 of them. How long does it take to read the whole Bible through if you’re in the 6th grade out loud? [72 hours] Very good. Which of you did not say that? Why don’t you say it now so you’ll remember it. Good. It’s 72 hours. Start thinking how long you game, how long you music video, how long you shop, how long you social media, how long you doctor your photos so you get more people looking at them, and then compare that to, that’s all nice stuff, none of that is sin, but none of it lasts forever. But the Word of God lives and abides forever.
And the more you understand the Word of God, the more you look like Jesus Christ, and the more you understand life. And the more, Jeremiah said this, Thy words were found, Jeremiah 15:16, Thy words, the Bible was found, and I did eat them. That’s how he described devotional time, eating the Bible. And Thy word was for me, listen, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. You want to have joy and rejoicing? It’s connected to eating the Bible. Yet most Christians have never read the whole Bible. You guys are in the, you’re normal. Most Christians have not read the whole Bible. They just do this, they open like roulette or they just read over and over their favorite stuff. God says, Jesus said, Matthew 4:4, man shall not live by bread alone, but by what? Every. Did you catch that? Every word of God brings life.
Okay, Revelation’s first verse is its theme. It’s the only book of the Bible with the promised blessing for reading it. So, all that is on your test, and I want you all to do well.
How do you understand the Bible? You guys have hermeneutics, right? Someone teaches that. Here’s your 30 second hermeneutics. Understanding interpreting the Bible. Correct interpretation is based on the historic, the geographic, the scriptural, combined with grammatic elements. Together you have the correct. Now, when you’re in seminary, which is a step beyond Bible college, they teach what are called the canons of textual interpretation. Do you know what the first canon of textual interpretation is?
The first rule of textual interpretation is this, what did God mean when He spoke to the original recipients of that portion of scripture? Did you know there’s only one interpretation of every verse in the Bible? How many? What is that one? What God intended when He communicated it to the first group of people. Did you know it’s vitally important to know who God is talking to? When is He talking? What’s the context? What words did He choose to use?
In fact, the Bible says every word of God is inspired. All scripture is given by inspiration. You covered that, right? Theopneustos is the word in Greek. Theo means God. Pneustos means to breathe out. God breathed out His Word. This book is not like any other book in the world. Yet, I meet people, they have read every military spy novel, every romance novel, every sports whatever. They are reading all that and consuming their life with filling their mind with interesting stuff. This is the only one that’s the actual voice of God.
When I opened this morning, I got up at, I don’t know, 5:45 or something, 5:30 I don’t know. When I opened my Bible, I was hearing God talk. Do you know how comforting it is to hear the voice of God? You say, you mean in your speaker’s apartment you were hearing voices? No, I didn’t say that. I said when I open my Bible and read it, I am hearing God’s voice. These are the, what is it called? Word of God. Each of these words are God’s speaking. There’s nothing like this in the whole world. Once you get into… this is more fascinating than anything. Because you’re actually hearing God reveal Himself to us. And He wrote this because this is everything, we need for life and godliness, and for being full of joy and peace. So, what did He when he wrote to the original recipients.
Okay, let’s talk about Revelation then. Look, Jesus was here. He was crucified. He, after 40 days after the resurrection, He ascends to Heaven from the Mount of Olives. That’s the end of Luke 24 and the beginning of Acts 1. Boom! And, about 10 days later, the day of Pentecost comes. 10 days after the ascension of Jesus, because Jesus ascended on the 40th day, and Pentecost is on the 50th day, after the Passover, so we know all that. And so, the first generation Church is born. And it starts, on the southern steps, if you’ve been to Israel. That’s where those thousands were gathered, and down at the bottom were all those mikvahs, that’s where they were all baptized, and they spread out to the 21 different places that it’s mentioned they were from in the book of Acts. And that’s the first generation Church. And the whole time Paul’s running around, and Peter, and John, and the rest of the apostles, slowly getting martyred, by the 60s most of them are gone, but they’ve written the Gospels and epistles, mostly, and they’ve spread widely, and all of a sudden we’re at the second generation.
Now, I already told you this. They hadn’t seen Jesus. Most of them hadn’t met a disciple or an apostle. Most of them only had heard. They didn’t even have a copy of this. Do you understand back then how hard it was to have a book, a scroll? There’s Biblas and a Biblion. A Biblas is the scroll. The Biblion is a collection of scrolls and sometimes they bound them together, but they were all expensive. And they were hand copied at someone paying a full time rate to copy them, and it took a long time. So, most people didn’t have a copy of this. When Paul said to bring the parchments, that was a treasure. He actually had some actual copies of the Old Testament that he carried around with him. Most people didn’t. They had one copy.
I remember when I was your age, I would volunteer for all the missions trips. And one I volunteered for was smuggling Bibles into Eastern Europe. It was called Behind the Iron Curtain. And we also smuggled Bibles into Northern Africa. When we would go to those churches behind the Iron Curtain Do you know how many Bibles they had in the whole church? In Romania, or East Germany, or wherever we were, Yugoslavia? One. Do you know what they did with it? They would go like this. As soon as they got one Bible, they’d go, oh, here’s Genesis, and they’d tear it out and give it to a family. And they’d give Exodus to this family because the police were always looking, the communist police were looking for Bibles to get rid of them. So they cut them, they tore them, and gave every family. And then what you would do is, you were the Genesis family, you were the Exodus, you were the Leviticus, you were the Numbers. And we’d finish Hebrews, and we’d pass it off for Genesis. And everybody was just constantly passing the Bible around the church.
When we delivered in Romania, I’ll never forget, we delivered a Bible to every family in a church, people just cried. They’d never actually held in their hands, they’d only seen pieces, they never held the whole thing. And it was like these people, they didn’t have the whole Bible. They heard it read, or they had a scrap of it, but they didn’t have the whole thing. And so this second generation Church, Had to listen to what the epistles said and the Gospel said and they had to ask the Lord to do that in their life And they were living in the midst of the gymnasium that I already told you about, this totally immoral world.
And so, Jesus comes and visits all the seven churches. Only John is left. It’s in the 90s and John’s a prisoner on Patmos, and Jesus came and walked around and looked at all the believers in these seven churches. And then He writes His report. It’s actually a medical report of how healthy or sick they were. Remember He said that you are so bad I’m going to spit you out? They were not doing well.
Who did he visit? He visits in order what we would call the postal route. Ephesus was the main city, it was the second city of the empire. Rome, Ephesus. It was fabulously wealthy, very powerful, gigantic, if you ever go there today, just the part they’ve excavated is unbelievable to see. So, John is on Patmos, off the coast, Ephesus is right on the coast. And the letter goes by boat from Jesus speaking, and the angel to John, John writing it down, John sending it by boat to Ephesus. By the way, Ephesus had the Library of Celsus, which is like Random House, or Bantam Books, or whatever, Baker Book House in Grand Rapids. It was a publishing place, where they did have people copying scrolls, and so the Library of Celsus, they copied seven copies, they sent them off. Smyrna got. Ephesus kept one. Smyrna got one. Pergamum up there at the top got one. Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. And it actually follows the postal route, the way that the Roman mail would have gone out.
Now, think for a minute what I told you about Paul’s sermon, how it reflects the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation reflects Jesus as creator. Genesis 1 and 2 is all about the Creator. That’s where we’re introduced to Him. From Genesis 3, as soon as mankind gets into sin through Revelation 5, the primary thing we see is Jesus as Redeemer, Savior. He comes to lost people, and he gets all the saved home around the throne. That’s Revelation 5. So basically, Paul’s outline of the Gospel, Creator – Redeemer – Judge, is the outline of the Bible. The first two chapters about the Creator, from Genesis 3 to Revelation 5, is the Redeemer making Himself known. But starting in chapter 6, and that’s where we’ll be, Lord willing, next week on Tuesday, I think is class 11. He’s the judge. And when He comes, everybody knows.
But look at this. Also, the Creator, Redeemer, and Judge answers three questions. And everybody you meet for the rest of your life, down deep, if you got to know them, would be wondering about one of these three things. How did I get here? That’s my origin. Why am I here? My purpose in life. When people commit suicide, they feel there’s no purpose. There’s no hope. There’s no reason for them to go on. They might not know where they came from. They don’t know why they’re here. And a lot of them are deathly afraid of where they’re going.
The Lord says, I’m designed by Him. That’s your origin. That’s how you got here. See, the Bible answers the questions everybody has. And when you can get into a context where they will listen, because you’ve gotten their trust a little bit, you can actually share with them, I have found where I came from. I have found why I’m here. I have confidence. I know where I’m going. For us, I’m designed by Him. Jesus made my DNA. I’m bought for Him. I was bought at a price. He owns me. I’m answerable to Him. I’m going to stand in front of Jesus. I am. He’s going to ask me what I did with my free time of my life. Then He’s going to take… did you know life is like going to Walmart? You’re going before the Lord. It’s like being at Walmart. You get your little cart. The nice person that’s still working at 75 years old pushes the cart out for you at Walmart because, everybody has to work. Nowadays they say that the fastest growing group of workers in America are 70 and up. Because it’s cost inflation. Have you noticed everything’s going up? Their pension is not going up. Their social security is not going up. Their savings is going down. So, they’re all working.
So, they push a cart, and you get it, and you walk through Walmart and you get to put anything you want in your cart. That’s life. Your time is your money. You buy stuff by investing your time with it. You put it in your cart. When you check out in Heaven, Jesus is the checker. You’re putting your whole life, what you spent your time, your 168 hours a week. You’re putting on a little conveyor belt and it goes vvvvvvvv. Instead of going by a little peep, scanner, it says in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Jesus runs it through a fire. And He says my fire will burn up everything you did that is not gold, silver, and precious stones. You go, I’m a poor student, I don’t have any gold, silver, or precious stones. No. That’s what we did that lasts forever. What are you doing with your spare time that lasts forever? Collecting baseball cards? If they get wet or burned, they’re gone. You know what I mean? A car? It’ll get crashed. Money? Someone will probably steal it. You understand what I mean? We deal with such temporary stuff.
Sharing the Gospel with someone? That lasts forever. Reading God’s Word? That lasts forever because it’s conforming you to the image of Christ. Praying? That lasts forever. Do you know why people prayed so much in the old world, in the Early Church? Because God collects. When we get to chapter 5 of Revelation, and again in chapter 8, do you know what God does with your prayers? It actually tells us in Revelation. Most people don’t even know where their prayers go. They think they’re like email, they just pile up somewhere, and they get deleted. No. God collects your prayers and it says in chapter 5 they’re in this giant bowl right in front of his throne That means right now sitting here when I get boring and you’re trying to do something else just start praying Do you know where it goes? Right into a bowl at the feet of God. What does He do with them? When He answers them… We’re doing that in chapter 8, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
So, here’s what the Bible says We’re going to dump our card out and we’re answerable to Him, whether the way He designed us and why He bought us, whether we live for that purpose. But whatever He designed you to be is what only you can do. There’s something you can do that no one else can do. Bonnie and I actually hear from someone every day. They got saved watching a video on YouTube, because I teach classes like this and I say I don’t, I’ve never met all of you, some of you might not even know Christ. Would you like to meet Christ today? Do you know what the Bible says? He’s an arm’s length away from anybody actually says that in Acts 17. Paul said Christ is close enough, if you reach out, you’ll hit him. He actually says grope, if you grope in the King James, if you reach toward Him, that’s the ancient English word grope, you’ll hit Him. So, I tell people, I say If you want Christ, just reach out for Him. I’ll tell you that story in just a minute because I heard from someone that did it.
Here we go. What is God’s will for us if we’re going to do His will? It says in the Bible seven times, or six times what God’s will is. 2 Peter 3:9, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. God’s will is that people be saved. Ephesians 5:17, for this is the will of God. That you be not drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s the will of God, even your sanctification. 1 Thessalonians 4:3. And it says, it is God’s will that we be submissive to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. That we be submissive. 1 Peter 4:19. That you be willing to suffer for Christ. In other words, stand up for Christ and have the professor make fun of you, that’s suffering. And finally, in everything give thanks, 1 Thessalonians 5:18. It’s God’s will that we go through life being satisfied.
Did you know the eyes of man are never satisfied? Who said that? Solomon. How many wives did he have? A thousand. How many did he want? A thousand and one, a thousand and two. He’s never satisfied. He was the richest man in the world. What did he want? More. God says it’s His will that we learn at your age and long before my age to be satisfied. God’s will is very simple.
Following God’s plan is simple. We belong to Jesus, and everything is either pleasing to Him or not. You don’t have to know a lot to live the Christian life. That’s 1 Thessalonians 4. That’s what Paul taught the Early Church. He said, didn’t I teach you how you ought to please God? Even a child looks at their parents and their parent goes, and they know that’s not pleasing to them, or the parent goes like this, and that means it’s pleasing to them. That’s how simple the Christian life is, pleasing God. How do we please God? Jesus is my Creator, so I trust Him. Isaiah 46 I have upheld you from your birth, I carried you from the womb, God says, even to your old age, your gray hairs, I’m going to carry you, I made you, I will bear you, I will carry you, I will deliver you. That’s the promise of the Creator. Now, it was to the nation of Israel. That’s the primary interpretation and it’s to us because He said you, and He used plural. He says you. Am I your creator? Yes. Is God your Creator? Yes. He says I was there at your birth. I know there’s an obstetrician I know your mom was there, your dad if he wasn’t squeamish was there too. Who else was in that room? God. And when you were born and when I was born, He said I started carrying.
You ever seen that picture, the Footsteps in the Sand, and all that? It’s trying to illustrate this idea that when we can’t go on it’s Christ that carries us.
How does He carry us? Now, look at verse 17. I told you we’re going 17 to 20. Here’s what it says. When John looks, and when I saw Him, I fell at His feet. But He put His right hand on me, saying, don’t be afraid. And look what He starts doing. He starts revealing Himself through His names. And He said, I Am. The First and the Last.
Now look, see the yellow one on that list? That’s where we are. There are eight of these I Am statements in the book of Revelation. When you’re reading it, if you, like I did, I highlighted all the names and titles. I am the First and Last. But is preceded by I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, I am the one Who is and Was, I am the Almighty, I live forever and was dead, I have the keys of death and Hell, I am the root and offspring of David. Each of those names is Jesus revealing doctrine.
Now we call these doctrines systematic theology. Here they are.
If you have a systematic theology and look in the index, there are at least 24 or 25 attributes of God. Look at them. Independence, what does that mean? Unchangeableness? Huh. Eternity, Glory, Omnipresence, Unity, Spirituality, Invisibility, Beauty, Omniscience, ah, there’s one we’ve heard of. Truthfulness, Goodness, Love, Mercy, Grace, Patience, Holiness, Peace, Righteousness, Justice, Jealousy. That’s actually an attribute of God. God said, I’m jealous. Especially it says that in the book of James. I’m jealous over you with a godly jealousy. Wrath. Did you know all of these are equal with God? He’s not dominated by one more than the other. God is jealous and wrathful and loving and gracious and merciful equally. Freedom, Omnipotence, Perfection. Okay, it’s enough to be confusing.
So, let’s just pick out the easy ones that you’ve all heard of. Omnipresence, Omniscience, Love, and Omnipotence. How do we apply that to our lives?
Okay, how do you apply the four we all know?
It’s by learning to trust God with our life’s fears and struggles. Why do you think we have problems? Because God wants us to need Him. So, He allows into our life struggles, problems, and what they become for us are fears. And He always says, fear not.
What are some of the things we fear? Financial hits, we lose our money. Car accidents or whatever work accidents, unexpected losses, someone we love dies or cancer, you know our parents or aunts or uncles or grandparents. So, what does God want to do to teach us His attributes? He wants us to have a safe room. You know all these missiles coming into Israel, do you know what it said? Israel’s built bomb shelters that anybody can get to a bomb shelter in five to ten seconds any city of any part of Israel. You have five to ten seconds, there’s one near everybody, a safe room. God’s made one that’s even closer than that. And it, a safe room is trusting God that nothing accidentally will touch you.
How do we do that? Number one, God’s omnipotent. You know what that means? He’s so powerful He can stop anyone or anything coming at you. So, that’s the first brick of His safe room. Second, He’s everywhere. So, He’s always with us. We’re never, we’re not even five seconds away from Him. He actually knows about it before it happens. He knows the end from the beginning. So, God says you’re really safe with me because nothing…, I’m strong enough to keep it away. I’m actually with you. You can’t be alone. I know everything that’s coming, and the good news is I love you so much that I won’t allow anything, anything to happen that is not good for you.
So, what does God want us to do? Trust Him as Redeemer. And that’s what the Church is about. The Church has bought it, a price. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You have from God, the one who’s with you, who’s all powerful, who knows everything, who’s protecting you. You’re not, you don’t belong to yourself. Don’t even worry about your life. I bought you at a price, and here’s the only reason you’re on Earth. Glorify God with your body and your spirit. Both belong to God.
Now remember, the book of Revelation is about Jesus is all I need. John has already introduced this topic in his Gospel. When you cover the Gospel of John, Jesus is all I need to sustain me, I’m the bread of life. I’m the light of the world. He’s all we need to illumine us. The number one question of young people is, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go. Do you know what God said? I’ll lead you. That I’ll tell you. I’ll lead you. I want to be your shepherd. A shepherd is out in front. The only thing Jesus said to His initial disciples was two words. Do you remember them? Follow Me. He’s out front. He’s the shepherd. He’s leading. We follow Him. He said, I’m the light of the world. I’ll illumine you. I’m the door of the sheep. I’ll open overflowing, endless life to you. I’m the Good Shepherd. I’ll feed you. I’ll protect you.
He goes on. I’m the resurrection and the life. I’ll give you endless life. I’m the way, the truth, and the life. Wow. He lives in us. He’s the source of truth. He’s the vine. He makes us full of hope and joy.
But He continues with one more thing. And that’s what the end of Revelation is about.
Jesus is my judge. Paul said we have to all appear, for we must all. Greek word hekaston, you know what that means? One by one. It’s not a group photo. It’s a heskaton, means one at a time appear, phanerothenai is that word. It means not just show up, it means to be seen. We’re going to be seen. Phanerothenai means for everyone to see the Bema Seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in his body according to what he has done, uh oh, whether good or what. What’s the last word of that verse? [bad] Is there anything bad you’ve ever done in your life that you would not like anybody to see on the big screen? A thought, an action, a word. Is that going to be…, look what it says. We’re all going to be displayed in front of everybody for what we’ve done with our body. Whether it’s good or bad. Boy, that’s a good thing.
There are two words for bad. This word, there’s Kakos, K A K O S. Then there’s another word, phaulon now, I saw some phaulon early this morning. Our little room they gave us is right by that alligator raising lake you have here, wherever that is over there. Where they raise alligators. There are signs saying that they’re raising them there, they live there. In the morning, when it’s dark and cold and the first sunlight comes out, when the sun hits the lake, do you know what it does? It makes this little wisp of what, steam or fog or something. It’s a vapor. And I actually saw little fog out on that lake. That’s the Greek word phaulon. It means mist, fog, or it’s used for, have you ever seen, not on a lake, but on a sidewalk when the wind blows, and it gets dirt or little pieces of leaves or whatever and it makes a tornadic swirl? You ever seen, you actually can see it swirling in the wind, that’s the Greek word, phaulon. It means a vapor, it means a swirl, that’s only there for a moment, and then it goes away. That’s the word.
What the Lord says is, everything in our life is either good, eternal, or good for nothing, like vapor, like dust, like nothingness. That’s God’s total division. Yes. [Student asking if this is before or after salvation.] What a wonderful, see, that’s why I love thinking minds to ask good questions. No, this is after salvation. There’s no sin in the cart. Remember back to Walmart when you’re throwing stuff in the cart? Any sin in my life that I have done, the doctrine, I’m not supposed to teach other topics, but I will mention this. You’ve covered the doctrine of justification, right? You all know what justification is? Yes, or no? There wasn’t an audible word, so you don’t want a volunteer to describe it. Do you know what justification is? Justification has two parts. One is, on the cross, God treated Jesus as He hung there, like He committed every sin I’ve ever committed. God punished Jesus like He was a thief.
I was caught for stealing when I was little. I was caught for lying. I was six years old, and I stole something from the grocery store, and they caught me and that’s part of how I got saved. So, I was convicted by the store people, my parents, thief and liar. Because when I, when they were catching me, I threw what I got in the toilet and flushed it so they couldn’t find it. And when they were confronting me, I said, I did not take anything. And just then. It came back up the toilet because it was caps for my cap gun, and it was very buoyant and it wouldn’t flush. So, I got caught red handed, lying and stealing. God punished Jesus on the cross like He was a thief, like me. Like He had committed every sin, every anger, every lust, everything I’ve ever done. God punished Jesus for it and took the record off of me and put it with Christ. So, Jesus, in God’s sight, is guilty of all my sins. That’s the first half of justification. So that means today, if you’re saved, there’s no record with God that you’ve committed any sin. You understand? That’s what a saint means. God sees us as perfectly forgiven and cleansed of all of our sins, but we’re just back to zero. That’s zero. That means no sins.
But I’m nothing. I can’t go to Heaven. There’s something else you need to get to Heaven. You not only have to have all your sins forgiven, you have to have perfect righteousness. You have to totally obey every command of God to get to Heaven. That’s why no one’s going to make it, because we’re all falling short of the glory. Remember, for all have sinned and what? Fall short. We never make it to perfection. Billy Graham made it that far, and Jack Wyrtzen but most of us just, pshh, we don’t make it very far.
How do we get to Heaven? Watch. This is how I witness people. I say, this is you, and these are all your sins. And I said, Jesus came along, and you called on Him, and He actually took all your sins on Himself. God treats Him like He committed and puts the record over here on Christ. But 2 Corinthians 5:21 says this, for He, God, has made Him, that’s Jesus, to become sin for us. So, there it is. That we might become, watch, this is the other half of salvation, the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus credits to my account His righteousness. That’s what justification is. It has two parts. Jesus taking all my sin and the punishment and the record and Jesus crediting me with His righteousness, so God sees me as a saint.
You want to shake someone up, say Hi, Saint and say their name. They’ll go, I’m not a saint. And I always respond when I say that to them, I say, only saints go to Heaven. Only saints are forgiven of all their sins. Are you? They go, yes, I am. So, that means I’m a saint. I said, yeah, that’s how God sees you. Yes.
Now, wait a minute. I haven’t got your name. You are either Ben or Edward. Ben. What a good question. Your cart, the bad, is after you’re saved, but the bad is not sin. It’s watching the Home Shopping Network. It’s watching the International Soccer League. Or it’s watching the Masters. None of those things are sin, are they? It’s playing video games, it’s, going to see Guardians of the Galaxy is that sin? Any of that sin? There might be parts in it that are sinful, because God has told us things we’re not supposed to look at, but the actual event of going isn’t sin, but what is it? It’s phaulon. It’s good for nothing. It didn’t help me become more Christ like, and it didn’t help someone else to come to know Christ. Now, you can turn it into a soccer watching party or a Super Bowl watching party and share the Gospel, or it can be that through playing sports you’re close to someone and witnessing. That is good. But if it’s just recreation or amusement, or me just killing… you ever heard someone say they’re just killing time? If you knew how valuable time was, you wouldn’t kill any of it. You have so little it’s running out. You guys don’t think time’s going by, your life goes at your age. I am 68. I am over the speed limit. You guys are 19, you’re barely toot, tootling through the subdivision. But every year you’re going a little faster. And you get to Bruce, and your hair is flying because he’s driving at 90 miles an hour. And that’s what life is like. Make sure you don’t kill time. Make sure, what did Jesus say? Redeem the time because the days are evil.
So, Jesus is my judge. I’m going to appear before Him. Don’t forget to do your devotional project. I already showed you that.
Real quickly, before we go, we have seven minutes. Revelation 1:19 gives us the outline of the book. Okay, that’s another question on the test. This is a self-outlined book. In verse 19, God unfolds the message about the future. Remember He said, I’m going to show you the things which are going to happen. What are they? Verse 19, write the things which you have seen. So that’s, the Patmos part. That actually was the past on Patmos. Then write the things which are and that’s chapters 2 and 3. Jesus said this is how it is this moment in the seven churches. And He actually goes on a tour to the seven churches. Then, write the things that will take place after this. After this moment on Patmos, where you’re getting this message and you hear about what’s going on in the Church. After, this is future. The future in Heaven and on Earth. So, Revelation talks about the past, John seeing Christ on Patmos on Sunday. The present, what’s going on in the seven churches, because Jesus narrates that. And then it tells us the future.
But in the process, something interesting happens. In verse 11, Jesus introduces the seven churches. Why did He pick those seven? Because they represent all Christians of all times.
Did you know, in every church, there are Ephesian distracted believers, and they love Jesus more in the past than they do right now.
There are suffering people like Smyrna. They were, if you read that letter, and you will read it as part of this class, you’ll see that they were suffering intense persecution.
There are people like Pergamos. They’re compromised. They’re going to the gym and they’re starting to like it. They’re compromised. They’re getting infected with the world.
Then there are Thyatirans and they’re listening to false teaching.
Then there are the Sardinian Christians, they’re paralyzed. They don’t even look like Christians. You ever met a Christian? Doesn’t even look like a Christian. They look like a pagan. They live like a pagan. They talk like a pagan. That’s how the people in Sardis were.
Philadelphia, that’s the one Jesus couldn’t find anything they were doing wrong. It didn’t mean they were perfect. They were just living the normal Christian life, which is confessing their sins, asking for forgiveness, asking to be full of the Spirit, starting anew every day, surrendering to the Lord. That’s the Christian life. They’re dedicated, whatever you want me to do.
And then the Laodiceans made Him sick.
In every church in the 1st century, there were some of these kind of people in every church. Some suffering, some confused, some not even looking like Christians, some really doing the job for the Lord. Guess what? In this room, you’re one of these. When Jesus looks at your heart, either you’re distracted, you used to serve the Lord more than you do now, you used to love Him, you used to love the Bible more than you do now. Or you’re suffering, or you’re paralyzed with false teaching, or you’re uncommitted, you’re not sure what to live for.
To all of them, we’re called to do something singular. You know what He said? I want you to be a lamp stand. I want you to shine the light. That’s how the Church is described, as a lamp stand. We’re supposed to be walking around showing the light of Christ.
Now, what are the seven greatest dangers to doing what we were left here to do?
We could be like Ephesus, just coasting. We could be like Smyrna, afraid we’ll get in trouble. We could be like Pergamos, being around sin till we’re too comfortable with it. Or enslaved to it, like Thyatira was. Or acting like a lost person, like the Sardians. Or, the one thing you could say about Philadelphia that Jesus said to them, He said, I’ve set before you an open door, make sure you go through it. Some people hold back, and the Lord gives them opportunities, and they don’t, and that’s a danger. Or the Laodiceans, they were totally distracted by their possessions.
Okay, we have two minutes left, and I want to tell you something real quick. What happens when we share our hope in Christ with our hopeless generation? Bonnie and I were invited to go to a concert. I don’t go to concerts, but they said, we need someone to share the Gospel at this Christmas concert. There’ll be 3,000 people there, but the catch is, the light comes on, you step into it, you have exactly three minutes, and step out, because everything’s orchestrated, and something’s going to boom as soon as you’re done. I said, you want me to speak for exactly three minutes? Do you know how long it takes to practice and write and go over what you’re going to say to only talk for three minutes? And I said, what am I talking about? They said, hope. So I said, okay, and so I went through in three minutes what I already told you, about Jesus is just this far away from you and if you reach out to Him, He’s near anyone. And so, I came out, stood in the light, they filmed me. Someone took that and they said, hey, we captured your three minute hope thing. Here’s a copy of it. You want to post it? I said, oh sure. So, I posted it. Here’s a note I got.
A woman was 60 years old. She was riding the subway in London. She said, I’d lived my whole life, I’m in my 60s, she said, since I was 13, I’ve gone to Glastonbury. I’ve met every one of the great rockers. I knew Queen. I met Sting. I met the Beatles. I didn’t even know their names, Mick Jagger. She said, I’ve known them all. She said, I’m too old, my heart’s failing. And so she said, I was pretty empty. And she said, I typed into Google, hope. And she said, I watched a three minute show and you said, bow your head and reach out and God is there. So she said, on the subway, she said, I had my phone and I went like this and she said, I’m writing to you because something happened to me. She said, I called on the name of the Lord, that was six months ago. She said, I’ve joined a church. I’ve gotten baptized. I just finished taking all of my covers down from all my concerts and threw them in the trash. She said, I wanted to write you, I met Jesus and reached out. He gave me hope.
Did you know, that’s all we’re left here to do, is share our hope in Christ.
