Father, we thank you just for how wonderful you are. Thank you, God, for bringing us here today, this day, the Lord's Day. God, we're just so thankful for this day, so thankful that we could have this day to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ and to worship you, O God. God, we pray now for this Sunday school time. We pray, God, as we continue making our way through the book of Revelation, we pray, Lord, this time it would be beneficial. We pray, God, that we would see in this your glory, and we just, we pray, Lord, you would bless our time spent, and we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so this is session number five in regards to our study on eschatology. We're just, we're making our way through the book of Revelation. As we're doing this, we've covered multiple times already that the reason why we're doing this is that we would be encouraged. The book is to be an encouragement to Christians. We're not to come to it and say, oh, I can't properly understand what's going on here. We're to come to it and we are to be encouraged. So two good goals to have. So we continue on in this study, and these are the goals that we pressed upon really in every session. Goal number one, we wanna see and rejoice that Jesus has triumphed over the devil. So that's what we wanna see. Jesus has already triumphed over Satan, and yet we await that final day when he ultimately and conclusively triumphs over him, when he takes Satan, throws him into the lake of fire. 1 John 3, verse eight, it says, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. So Jesus has already done that, and we await the final consummation of that. So that's goal number one, to see and rejoice that Jesus has triumphed over the devil. Goal number two is to understand the symbolism and the language. of the book. It's a very symbolic book, so not everything here is to be taken literally, though we'll see today there are certain things that are most definitely to be taken literally, but we want to see, well, when are you supposed to do that, when are you not supposed to do that, what's the symbolism, how does it relate back to the Old Testament, and so on. We covered in a prior session two weeks ago four different methods of interpretation for the Book of Revelation, and we won't go through all four methods of interpretation, but we will go through, once again, just quickly, the view that we are taking here in this study. So we are presenting to you the amillennial view, which means we are presenting this from what's known as an idealist view. And I'll briefly summarize what that means. It simply means this, that Revelation describes in symbolic terms the battle throughout history between God and Satan, between good and evil. Okay, so that is the view that's being presented to you. Last week, Pastor Bob, in session four, he covered a number of things, emphasized a number of things, emphasized the reality of the conflict that exists now between God and his people versus Satan and Satan. his minions, right, so that's an ongoing thing that's happening right now. We also saw that the book of Revelation, it conveys the same message, or I should say it conveys the message of the gospel, but in picture form, right, in these visions and so on, and Pastor Bob brought us through the proper way to interpret the book, interpreting the symbolic language in a proper way to do it. So one of the things he brought out was you don't want to go to like the most difficult passages, you want to interpret scripture in light of the clearest passages, a number of other things he brought out. And then the last thing worth mentioning that Pastor Bob brought out last week was the structure of the book. Does anybody remember what the structure of the book is? Something to do with the number seven. Go ahead. I was going to say, Revelation is not like a storytelling book, like it's not straightforward. It's non-consecutive. That word. Yes, that's good. And then it's also, it's seven different perspectives, shows us and tells us what the church and every Christian will experience. So it's the same thing, seven recapitulations over and over again, telling us here's what will happen. Now our plan for today is to continue in Revelation 1, and our plan is to get through Revelation 1 verse 11. just for our purposes now. Who can read Revelation 1? Let's do 4 through 8. We covered 4 through 6 already. We'll cover now 7 and 8 and then 9, 10 and 11. But who can read 4 through 8 right now? you in peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierce Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Quick, very brief summary of verses four, five, and six. We have the author of this book. We know the ultimate author is God, but the author, we have John, where he says, I, John, to the seven churches. Is this only to seven churches that exist in Asia or modern day Turkey? No, it's to every single church. It's to every single church, and then we have there, John's Trinitarian greeting. How is it, where do you see the Trinity in verse four and five? Who wants to tell us? His Trinitarian greeting. Jack. From him who was on the throne, the seven spirits, Right, so when there, who is and who was and who is to come, was referring to God the Father. From the seven spirits who are before his throne, that's referring to God the Holy Spirit. And then, and from Jesus Christ, that's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. So we see his Trinitarian greeting there. And then he breaks, or he transitions, to talk about what it is that Jesus has done for us. He's loved us and loves us. and He's washed us from our sins in His own blood, and He made us kings, or the footnote there, you'll see for verse six, He's made us a kingdom, right, so He's made us kings and priests to His God and Father, and we discussed what's known as the priesthood of the believer. What would that entail? This is from two weeks ago. The priesthood of the believer would entail what? So all believers are priests. So we say the priesthood of the believer, what would that entail? Paul? Intercession on behalf of others. Intercession on behalf of others, yep. Yeah, and what else? What else, so that's good, but what's even, better than that. The giving of the gospel, okay? That's true. What's even, where, Paul? We approach the throne of grace. We can go to the throne of grace, but we don't need a priest to do it. We have direct access. Okay, and then that leads us into verses seven and eight. Here's the conclusion of John the Apostle's introduction to this book. So verses seven and eight, we'll start with verse seven. Who can read verse seven? Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. What is this talking about? the second coming. The second coming, yeah. This here, so I mentioned earlier how sometimes you come to the book of Revelation and a lot of symbolism, so it's like, well, we're not supposed to take it literally because there's a lot of symbolism. Well, this is to be taken literally. This is literally going to be the case, okay? Every single eye will actually see the Lord Jesus. Now, none of us, none of us have witnessed firsthand with our own eyes the things that are recorded in scripture, right? That makes sense, that's obvious, because we weren't alive. So none of us witnessed those things, and of course we believe those things, we know that those things happen, but we didn't see those things with our own eyes. But this here, what it's talking about in verse seven, this is something that every single one of us will see. We will see this just incredible event actually take place. Now, somebody could say, well, we see We see Jesus in a spiritual sense by faith, which is true, but here it's not talking about a spiritual seeing of Jesus. This is talking about physically seeing the Lord Jesus when he comes back, when he breaks open the sky and when he comes back. It will be a physical return. It won't be a spiritual return, it will be a physical return. Where is it that we would go in scripture Specifically, and I'll try to give you a hint without giving away the answer, it's in an early portion of one of the New Testament books, not the Gospels, and Jesus, he says something about his bodily return. Acts 1. Acts 1, yes, very good. Let's go to Acts 1. Acts 1, Chris, maybe you can read verses 9, 10, and 11? Yeah. Now when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, 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, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. Yeah. So Jesus is going to physically, bodily come back. Now it says here, what Chris just read for us, this same Jesus who was taken from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. So he went to heaven with his body, still has a body, he's still currently the God-man, and he's going to come back as the God-man. How is it that we know, let's say you're talking to a Jehovah's Witness and Jehovah's Witnesses, what do Jehovah's Witnesses believe about the resurrection of Jesus? Does anybody know? It was just a spiritual? It was just a spiritual, he didn't have a body. So let's say you're talking to a Jehovah's Witness and they say, well, where in scripture is it made clear that Jesus rose physically and with a body? Paul and then Jack. Well, one thing would be, it's not what you're probably looking for, but when Thomas touched his body physically and shouted out, my Lord and my God. That was a physical touch. Yeah, that was one of the places that I was thinking of. Let's go there, let's go to John 20. John 20, verse 24 through 29. Or actually, 24 through 28. Who can read that? Go ahead, Kevin. Now Thomas, called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. So he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach your finger here and look at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God. So it's pretty clear there. right, that he has a physical body. Now it doesn't literally say the words, his physical body, but this is a poor way to argue when somebody says, well, it doesn't literally say the exact words. It's not how we're to argue about anything. It's very, very clear. Another place where it's clear is in Luke chapter 24. So let's go to Luke 24. And we'll look at verses 36 through 43. Luke 24, 36 through 43. Who would like to read that for us? Now as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, have you any food here? So they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. and he took it and ate in the presence. Seems very clear there, especially verse 39, behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. How about the Apostle Paul? Anything that comes to mind about the Apostle Paul talking about whether it be, we'll talk about Jesus's body and then ours, body as well, Jack. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. It's really like a large portion of 1 Corinthians 15. I don't want to read the whole chapter. Yeah, I don't want to read the whole chapter. I wasn't thinking there, but 1 Corinthians 15 is one of them. Chris, what were you going to say? I was going to say the same thing. I was thinking Philippians 3, verses 21 and 22. So let's go to Philippians 3. Philippians 3. Let's actually start reading in verse 20. So Philippians 3, 20, 21, and For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Okay, so when Jesus raises us from the dead, which is what's going to happen unless, well, unless Jesus comes back before that, before we die, but let's say it doesn't happen. Let's say he tarries, right? When Jesus raises us from the dead, What type of body will we have? Yeah, a glorified body, a new body similar to Jesus's body. How about the wicked? Do they get glorified bodies? No, they do not. The Baptist short catechism says they'll be raised to everlasting intent, and yeah, they're not getting glorified bodies. Believers are getting glorified bodies. So when Jesus comes back, we will get new bodies similar to Christ's glorified body. We know that Jesus came in the flesh, right? Where in scripture would we go that makes this very clear? There's a bunch of places, John 1. Or verse 14. Verse 14, or... And the Word became flesh. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Very clear there, right? John 1, verse 14. Bunch of other places as well make it very, very clear. Consider also 1 Timothy chapter 2. Let's go there. 1 Timothy 2. Verses 5 and 6. 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6. Pastor Bob? For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Yeah, so one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, the God-man. If Jesus was not fully God and fully man, let's say he had thrown away his physical body and was no longer a man, well then it would make zero sense for this to say what it says here. So he's the God-man. All of this is the, the point that we're getting at here is that this is a physical return, physical return of the Lord Jesus that everybody will see with our physical eyes. So 100% of all people who have ever existed will see the return of Jesus. Now you may be wondering, well how exactly is it gonna, play out that everybody's gonna be able to see. I don't have all the details, but I know that this is what's going to happen. Everybody will see. It's not gonna be some secret thing. It's not gonna be a secret thing where it's like, oh, did you catch the news that Jesus came back? That's not what's gonna happen. Everybody is just going to know that yes, Jesus has indeed come back. Yeah, it's a, yep, and it's gonna be, the world is waiting for this event. This is the event that the world is waiting for, and it's the climactic event in the history of the universe, the second coming of the Lord Jesus. This is what we're waiting for. Okay, it says here in what, I think it was Joe who read it for us. Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him. Actually, before that, let's go to Daniel 7, and we'll focus on this clause or this phrase, he is coming with clouds, Daniel chapter 7. We'll see a lot of the Old Testament imagery. Who could read Daniel chapter 7, verse, we could just read verse 13. Daniel 7, verse 13, read it. Thanks Chris. I was watching in the night visions and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. So in the Old Testament, who is it that is said to be riding on the clouds? Just in your knowledge of the Old Testament. Who do you think? Jesus. Yeah, or in the Old Testament, God, right? He's like to be riding on the clouds. And then here, it's talking about this one who is the son of man, one like the son of man, and that's obviously referring to Christ. It's how Jesus referred to himself. over and over again, coming with the clouds of heaven, and this is what John the Apostle in Revelation 1, that's what he's referencing. He's going back to Daniel 7. So we see the Old Testament usage by John here in the book of Revelation. So back in Revelation 1, behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. Let's go to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah 12. This is second glass. Zechariah 12, who can read here in Zechariah 12, verses 10 through 14? And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. And that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning in Hadad, Raman, in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn every family by itself, and the family of the house of David by itself, and the wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of Shammai by itself, and their wives by themselves, all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves. So verse 10, then they will look at me whom they pierce, what is that in reference to? So we know who it's in reference to, it's in reference to Christ, but what is that in reference to, Jack? Is it referring to Acts 2 where Peter preaches to a bunch of Jews and they repent? I don't believe so. I could be wrong about that. I've never heard that interpretation, but it doesn't mean it's necessarily incorrect. Anybody have cross-references? John 19. John 19, verse 34. Who can read John 19, verse 34, and then verse 37? But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. Verse 37, and again another scripture says, they shall look on him, and they pierced. Okay, so who is it that pierced? the Lord Jesus. If you were just Romans, okay. Who else? All of us. Yes, all of us. Right, so you could say it was the Romans, you could say it was the Jews by virtue of handing over Jesus to the Romans, but ultimately it's all of us. I know I mentioned it before, I really love the Easter hymn which doesn't only have to be sang or sung on Easter, but the, were you there when they crucified my Lord? And then the answer is, the implied answer, though it doesn't say it in the hymn, which is a really beautiful hymn, it's like, yes. At least I don't think it says it in the hymn. It might at the replay in my mind. But the answer is, yeah, I was there, I was, right, the one who's responsible for him being crucified. I'm the one who, by virtue of that, is responsible for him being pierced. Now, there is an already and not yet principle here, or fact here, in regards to John 19, verse 34 and verse 37. What do I mean by the already and not yet? fulfillment of the passage at the time it was written and there's a fulfillment yet to come. Yeah, so let's take how is Jesus' victory already and not yet? Like Satan being bound and then, but not bound to deceive the nations, but not totally in the sense that like death is all swallowed up for all believers. Yeah, great example of that. Yeah, so Satan's already bound. He can't stop the spread of the gospel. He can no longer deceive the nations, but he's not thrown into the lake of fire. Sin's still here. It's already not yet. Christ's already defeated Satan. at the cross and is going to ultimately defeat him, kind of very similar to what Chris just said. But now we wanna see this already and not yet principle applied here to John 19, verse 34 and 37. So this is already fulfilled when the soldier pierced his side, okay? So a soldier pierces his side, and as a result, God's people mourn. And how is it that God's people mourn in this? They mourn in repentance and faith. So we mourn in that sense. There's the already of that. And the not yet, in that, in the second coming, those who oppose him will mourn. Now, there's a difference here because the believers, we are to mourn in the sense of repentance and faith in Christ. How is it that unbelievers are going to mourn? That's the problem. They're gonna be destroyed. They're gonna be mourning. They want to get the rocks to fall on them so they can get away from Him, but 2 Thessalonians talks about the fire that's gonna come and consume them. Yeah, they will mourn in anguish, to put it, well, anguish is like the only word that comes to mind, but I'm sure there's a much harsher word, and that's how they will mourn. You'll see here, in verse seven, behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierce him. So the even they there, there's a, a point of emphasis, right, especially those who are rebelling against him, they'll mourn in anguish. And it says that all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him, even so, amen. Now, do Christ's enemies, are they happy that Jesus is back? No, no, so you could just, I don't know, I can't really think of an illustration, but you have some life event where like one group of people is very happy, the other group is, let's just say like a war, right? The country who wins, they're happy, the country who loses is unhappy. Now you take something like that, it's an insufficient illustration, but then you just multiply this out and that's what it's going to be like on judgment day. On that final day when Jesus comes back, you'll have one group of people who is, thrilled, that would be us. It'll be the happiest day ever. Sometimes people will say, and you understand this, people say, well, can it really be the happiest day ever, or the most joyous day ever, if, like my mom and my dad, who aren't believers, if, like I know that Christ is going to condemn them to hell, that they're gonna be in the goat pen, so can it still be the happiest day of the answer? The answer is yes. How could the answer be yes to that? Because God tells us that he'll wipe that from our eye. He'll wipe that from our eye? Yes. Is that what you were going to say, Noah? I was going to say that I know in scripture it says that those who lose will gain more within Christ, like family, brothers, sisters, mothers. So it would, in a sense, be like that on that day, that we have a family. Our mothers, our brothers, our sisters are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yeah, that's good. Jack? Yeah, the final state, we're not going to be able to sin, so obviously we're going to be thinking God's thoughts. righteous judgment. Yeah, that's good. Pastor Doug? Yeah, I think we'll be so taken up with the glory of God. Yes. Be with him in all his glory that nothing else. Nothing else is going to matter. Yeah. Chris? I think in some parts it's not explicitly that we'll be witnesses against them, actually. Yes. Pastor Doug just said, you know, we'll see everything clearly. We'll see sin, how bad it is, and what it really requires. Yeah, I'm glad you said that, Pastor Doug, because it's, being with, seeing the glory of Christ, and seeing Jesus in the fullness of his majesty, and just being with Jesus, there's nothing that's gonna be better. And it will be impossible for believers to be sad on that day. It's just like, it'll be, it'll be impossible for that to happen. If you're interested in this topic, R.C. Sproul has talked at great lengths about this, about how can I be happy and joyous, say, in heaven, knowing that my loved ones are in hell. He goes into a lot of the things that were just mentioned, he just goes into it in a lot more depth, so recommend that to you. Listen here to Richard Phillips. Phillips, he talks about this. He's one of the commentaries that we're using, Richard Phillips, and another brother by the name of Max Donner. Richard Phillips, he talks about this in speaking about the return of Jesus. He says, Christ's coming should excite us. Sports fans who are excited about the beginning of a new season immerse themselves in facts about their team, which does happen. Sports idolatry and sports worship is one of the things that America is known for. But you don't even really need to worship sports. This is what happens just at the start of every new season. If you're just interested in sports, well, you look at the team that you like and you do a bunch of research on them, look at the players and stuff like that. Well, he says in light of that, he says, if we are excited about the return of Christ, we will make it our daily passion to know him better. And it's something that all of us should do, because all of us should be excited about the return of Jesus. In fact, next week, in John chapter 14, verse two and three, Jesus, he talks about the fact that he's gonna come, he's gonna come back, he's gonna come again, and that's to be comforting for us, it's to be a very big excitement for us, and we're all to be excited about this. Last point on verse seven, as we were talking about those who are against Christ mourning, so like they'll mourn in anguish, but there'll be other things that are wrapped up in that mourning. So as they're mourning, there'll be the fullness of regret, regret because of all the times that they rejected Christ, but in that moment it's now too late, Right, at that point it's too late. So they'll be very regretful. They'll be very fearful. They'll call, as Pastor Bob mentioned, I think it's in Revelation 6, they'll call on the mountains, call on the rocks to bury them. So they'll be very, very fearful. What else will they be? Noelle. Angry. Yeah, angry. They'll still be angry. Okay, and that's very, very important. And they'll still have just all the hatred that they have for Christ, they will still have that hatred. Pastor Doug. Yeah, so I think it's at least indicated in something on the gnashing of the teeth. Yes. The combination of excruciation and pain and whatever, suffering and being in hell, but also the anger at God. Yes. And of course, never ever stop sinning because they're in that state. So they'll hate God continually forever, but yet be punished for that hatred. Hatred, anger, regret, fear, and a bunch of other emotions. Okay, so that's verse seven. Let's look now at verse eight. Who can read verse eight of Revelation chapter one? I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end says the Lord who is, and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Last verse of the introduction. There's debate here amongst scholars, which doesn't really matter which side you happen to take, but the debate is who's speaking here in verse 8. Is it God the Father or is it God the Son? I've always taken the position that it's God the Son. but you can just as well take the position that it's God the Father. For our purposes, I'll just take the position that it's God the Son. But here, what's emphasized is we see the sovereignty of God. We see three aspects to God's sovereignty in this verse. So aspect number one, we see his eternality. Where do we see his eternality in verse eight? Alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. So he's before all things and he will remain after all things as well. He's the first and the last. Now let's go to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 41. We have a Bible with cross-references. I'm gonna brush you here to Isaiah 41, verse four. Yes, who can read Isaiah 41, verse four? Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last, I am he. Thanks, Paul. Paul, can you read Isaiah 44, verse six? Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God. And then Isaiah 48 verse 12, Paul, if you don't mind. Listen to me, O Jacob, in Israel, my cold. I am he, I am the first, I am also the last. Yeah, so he's the first and the last, hence the reason why he says, I'm the alpha and the omega. Right, well, what are those two? Greek letters. Yeah, one's the first word in the Greek alphabet, the second is the last word in the Greek alphabet. I'm the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. So we see his eternality. We also see here his self-existence. Where do you see in verse eight, where do you see his self-existence? Who is. Who is, and who was, and who is to come. Are there any verses that come to mind, or any place in the scripture that come to mind that highly emphasize God's self-existence, where God says, So in Exodus 3, he says, I am who I am, right? I am the self-existent one. How does Jesus relate that to himself? John 8, verse 58. Yeah, before Abraham was, I am. And then as well as in the rest of all of the I am statements, he's talking about his self-existence. So we see his self-existence. We saw before that his eternality. We also see his all-powerfulness. Where do we see his all-powerfulness in verse eight? The Almighty, yeah. Another, what's the theological term for his all-powerfulness? We talked about it yesterday at the men's study. I was gonna say omnipotence. Yeah, omnipotence. Right, didn't we talk about that yesterday? We mentioned it, yeah. Yeah, you confused me, Paul, with the, I thought, sorry, I was questioning myself. But yes, you're right, the omnipotence of God. So he's all-powerful, right? He's all-powerful over everything. He's not just generally powerful, he's all-powerful over absolutely every single thing. All right, so that's the introduction, verses seven and eight. Let's head over to verse nine, And we'll see here, well actually as we end the introduction, any questions or comments on the introduction? part of Revelation. So this is verses 1 through 8. The only comment that I have is verse 7. It's funny to look at the secular world, how they dismiss God and dismiss the thought of Christ. But I believe it was even Nostradamus who said that the end of the world was going to come as like an asteroid or something coming on the clouds. So like the secular world looks at Armageddon and the apocalypse as like a meteorite or something coming crashing down to earth and destroying everything but As we know, throughout scripture and revelation, it describes Christ's return and he will come on the clouds and all men will see him. So they just change it to a rock instead of. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, good point. Nostradamus, by the way, this guy was like the worst. Yeah, but I think he had one of his predictions was the end would come as a rock crashing. Yeah, I think you're right. But I mean, Christ is the rock, so that is appropriate. Yeah, it's always so interesting because like the secular world will be like, oh, here's Nostradamus, he says this. super general thing that literally anybody in here could just say. And they're, oh, it's definitely about this. But then, like, you show them something from scripture that's actually happened, and I can't possibly be that, yeah. Chris, I just had a question, a quick question. So, I don't know, in the commentaries that you're using, was there any significance in, like, the idealist interpretation for why all the tribes of the earth is used in verse seven? I don't recall. I think it's just because everybody's going to see them. But I don't recall if Phillips or Donner brought that. I think it's just emphasizing that this will be literally everybody. Right. Every eye will see them. Every tribe will see them. Yeah. Every tribe. Yeah. Yeah. Even those tribes that have never you know, never heard of Jesus, like they're gonna see, they're gonna see Jesus, yeah. Pastor Bob and then Eli. Yeah, it's really intense in 2 Thessalonians. It says he's going to come in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who persecuted his church and on those who do not know God. Yeah, it's like a pretty intense, right? Yeah, that means all the tribes who don't know God. Yeah, that people will argue, well, that's not I just have a quick question in regards to when it says, every eye will see him, even those who pierce him. Yes. This seems to be an indicative text to the people in that time telling them that even those who pierce him then will see him. So why do we make the distinction that the he is coming with the clouds refers to the end of time instead of judgment in some of the ADN instructions in this book. Yeah, well because we're not taking that approach to it, so we're taking the approach that this is talking about, so even here in the text, behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. So the view that we're taking is not that this is referring to 70 AD. You could come to it and you could say that Well, maybe it's talking about 70 A.D. and the final return of Jesus. You could do that. But you can't come to this and say this is only talking about 70 A.D. There's more than one person. If you take it 70 A.D., then you're going to say just who pierced him physically? One person pierced him. So they, who are they that pierced him? Can't be the soldier who pierced his side, right? So it has to be they who pierced him. Who did that? We all did. And that's like the key, right? We all pierced him. We're all gonna see this, yeah. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, all the tribes of the earth, he was coming on a cloud. In that time frame, not everybody saw him. The whole world didn't see the fall of Jerusalem in that time. There was many other places in the world that were just going on and existing. It was a significant situation because it was predicted from scripture way before it took place, but it wasn't every eye didn't see that, nor him in that moment. Yeah. So this is indicative that it's going to be something that will take place and is to come. Yes. Yeah, nicely said. Okay, so it's 10.20. I don't want to go into verses... Actually, yeah, let's go into verse 9. Because there's 10 minutes, we can do this. So verse 9 here. So it says here in verse nine, I, John, so here's the authorship, right, John the Apostle, he's the author, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now, John says here, he says, your brother and your companion. So you see here something of John the Apostle's humility, okay, so just, Picture it, John the Apostle, he's the most famous Christian alive at this time. He's the last of the apostles, or the last of the disciples who's still alive, and he could have easily referred to himself in some great manner, but he doesn't do that, he just says, I, John, both your brother and your companion. So he's just simply referring to himself as their brother and their companion. And then he says this. He says, in the tribulation. So, I'm confused here, because I thought the tribulation was only seven years before Christ comes back. No. No, so because, and you could just come here, right? He says he's in the tribulation. right then, and it's here in the text. So I, John, both your brother and companion, in the tribulation. Again, with the view I was just saying seven years before, that's dispensational premillennialism, we would reject that view. Yes, David, go ahead. In the tribulation. Yeah, well, in the New King James it is, and all the other ones. But I don't think it matters either way. Because it's like, we're in the Tribulation now, John the Apostle was in the Tribulation then, and Christians, until the return of Jesus, are going to be in the Tribulation. All right, it also says here, so he's in the tribulation, so I, John, both your brother and companion, in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. So John the Apostle, and this is just good application for us, he's patient in his enduring tribulation. And something for us to keep in mind, right, we ought to patiently endure the tribulation and tribulations that come our way. So we need to do that. Max Donner in his commentary makes a very good point here that just talking about John the Apostle and him having to endure since, well, since like Gethsemane, right, where Jesus was arrested by virtue of Jesus being arrested, he wanted to arrest all of Jesus' followers. So that's roughly 60 years have gone by, and during that time, he's been enduring patiently the tribulation, all of the persecution that comes with following after the Lord Jesus. He's patiently enduring it. And then, it ends there, and it says that he was on the island that is called Patnos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Patmos, 60 miles from the city of Ephesus, which is where John the Apostle would have been one of the pastors, or the pastor, you could say, of the church there. So he was there on Patmos, and what's the reason that he's there? Two reasons. and for the testimony of Jesus. Yeah, for the word of God and for testimony of Jesus. So what was, one of the things he was definitely doing was what? Preaching. He was preaching the gospel, okay? So he was there for the word of God and also for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now I don't think that when he says, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, that it's only referring to him preaching the gospel. Of course, that was his main thing, but there would have been other times when he would have stood up for just the cause of justice and for what is right. And as he was doing that, well, what was he doing? Well, he was being a testimony for Christ, right? Yeah, this was to testify to the truth of who Jesus is. And I'm sure you can think of examples where that would have happened, especially in the ancient world, just all of these horrible things that would have happened. And there's nowhere in scripture specifically where I could point to, but I think it's a logical deduction that John the Apostle, he would have, said he would have been speaking like, hey, that's not right, that's wicked. Or if you just think in the context, if we're taking the view, which I think is the best view to take, that Revelation is written in 90 AD, not before 70 AD. So you have the Roman emperor Domitian, who wanted to be worshiped, he wanted people to call him Lord and God, And John the Apostle, he would have spoken out against that, obviously, and said, we're not gonna do that, don't do that, that's wicked, and so on. So that's where we'll end here. Next week, Pastor Doug, he's doing Sunday School, so you don't wanna miss it. I'll just read quickly, Revelation 1 verse 10, he says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, which would be what day? Sunday, yes. Otherwise known as the Sabbath, otherwise known as the Christian Sabbath, otherwise known as the Lord's day. So that's where we'll be picking up next week. All right, why don't we pray? We'll pray for Pastor Doug. And if anybody can pray for the service, please see Paul. Paul, would you mind closing us in prayer? Lord, we thank you for this time together, and we praise you for your word, give it to us, Lord. Lord, we thank you for our men of leadership, our elders, father, that teach and expound on your word, studying it themselves and then giving it to us. And Lord, overall, we always pray for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to work within us collectively and individually to help understand your truth, Lord, particularly as we come into this study of Revelation, Lord, which does have its complexities as well as simple parts. Lord, we thank you for this hour. We pray that you'll bless the next in our worship to you. And we pray that we're dismissed in the love of our Lord Jesus. Amen.