So we are going to finish our introduction and then we're going to get into the first eight verses of the Revelation today. I don't think we're going to get beyond that. We could, but I would rather wait and cover all of the last part of the Revelation next week. where it shows the presentation of Jesus glorified, which is an awesome thing. When we think about the Revelation, I want you to know a couple things just off the bat that we've been talking about. One is this is not revelations, plural. It is the revelation. It is not the revelation of John. It is the revelation of the Messiah Jesus. And we always say of the Messiah Jesus because so many people do not understand that Jesus Christ is not his first and last name. You know, he's not Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph Christ. You know, he is the Messiah, he is the Christ. Christ is actually the Messiah in Greek and so we're going to use that throughout this entire book as we go through it because of that misunderstanding by so many folk. The other thing that's interesting about this book is that from the very beginning it is a book that shows a huge amount of symbolism. And we have to be very careful when we do that because we also have to understand that this book was written literally to John. So you have a literal book, in other words a literal prophecy that he was given, but there's also symbolism within that and we're going to cover a lot of that this morning. When people approach Revelation, specifically those people that call themselves scholars, there are four basic views that people take when they look at this. We're just going to do this real quickly because I think it's kind of important that you understand this. There is what they call the pre-tourist view. A pre-tourist view would be that everything that is happening here belongs in the past. It was something that basically he's revealing, it happened, and then he's telling everybody about what actually took place. It's interesting because When you look at this book from that basis, you end up with all sorts of interesting things. The Preterist view is actually the Presbyterian view. It's what we call the Amillennial view. It's the idea that there is no millennium, that it actually already has occurred, everything that here is pretty much done. And that this is really just symbolic for what will ultimately happen once everybody is dead. So it's a fascinating idea. But what's interesting about this is that what it does is it eliminates any idea that God is still going to deal with Israel. And that is very typical of this so-called amillennial view. that actually the church is Israel. So whenever it talks about Israel, it's talking about the church, and we have to approach it from that kind of basis. I've always said that if we're going to say that the church is Israel, And because we want all the blessings that come to Israel, well then we have to take all the curses right along with it. And that's typically something that most people don't want to do. So we have to understand that God dispensationally has dealt with each one of these peoples that he has called himself to deal with. And there are very specific dispensations of time that you can see throughout the scriptures. and Israel is clearly one of them, and the church is another. This is extremely important because there are also those today that are saying that the church, this thing that we're in right here, this idea of meeting together as a body, is really no longer important. It's really only necessary for people when they first become believers, and then once they become believers, they can pretty much act out on their own and do what they need to on their own. There's really no need to to meet and so forth. We'll talk more about that in a minute. The second view after this amillennial or preterist view is that there is a historical view and in this kind of dynamic or panoramic, whatever word you want to use, of the history of the New Testament, We're talking about that this is all just a historical account that is ultimately going to take place. There's no millennial period. There's no tribulation period. There's no none of that. It's just a historical kind of you got to keep it all in historical context. And that one of all of them is the one that I have the hardest time even understanding how somebody would go there. if you want to know the truth. I read about it, I studied it, and I still don't get it. The people that believe the historical view really don't believe that God does anything miraculous. It's based on what I can figure out. That's really what I'm seeing. But I can't answer that. The third is, and this is probably the most prevalent outside of the last, is that everything in this book is symbolic. It's called the symbolic or spiritualist view or spiritual view. Revelation is just a whole book of symbols. There's nothing that's actually going to take place. It's just there to reveal to us the glory of Jesus. and that all of these things, and that's why he uses the number seven all the time, and we'll talk about that and so forth, but really it's all about this ongoing conflict between good and evil, and that people need a relationship with God, and they really don't have one naturally, and so the only way they can get that is to create symbolism which allows them to draw Their basic intent in this is that the book should never be taken literally. It's interesting. Even as recently as last Sunday, someone approached me in church and said, Hey, I heard you're teaching the book of Revelation. Why in the world would you do that? It's just a bunch of symbolic gobbledygook. I was like, oh, okay, that's good. You should read the third verse of the first chapter of the book of Revelation and realize the blessings that come by studying the book of Revelation and by reading the book of Revelation out loud, by the way. It's interesting. We'll talk more about that in a minute as well. And then the final is that there is what we call the futuristic view, which is the view that I basically fall into, and I think most fundamental believers fall into this view. Most people that really trust that Jesus is their Messiah, that he is their only way of redemption, and so forth, seem to fall into this particular view. It's also called the pre-millennial view. The historic view, by the way, is what's called the mid-trib, which is an interesting concept as well. We're not going to get into that today either. But the Futurist view says that basically this particular book is divided into sections, specifically three sections. The first is the past, which we're going to cover today. The second is the present, which is the churches up to the church age, which ends at the chapter 3. And then beginning at verse 4, we hear the sound of the trumpet, and so forth, is really the things that are to come. And that's something that you see consistently throughout the book. The things that were, the things that are, and the things that are to come. So it divides the book into three parts. And really, it also identifies the fact that there is a specific time that God dealt with Israel, there's a specific time that God has dealt with the church, and then there's going to be a time when he comes back and finishes his relationship with Israel. Because as Romans chapter 9 tells us, 9, 10, and 11, is that God is not done with Israel. That he will continue to to do to do that so Important that we kind of get a view of that I don't want to spend a lot of time on it But we do need to understand that these that there are people out there most of these Views for lack of a better term really come because people do not accept the deity of Jesus understand that the reason why we have spiritualist views and we have these millennial views is that they fail to realize this is a revelation of the Messiah Jesus. And that's what it is. And so we have to also understand that. The other thing that most people do not gather is that this is the only book of prophecy that has been written in 500 years since Malachi. So understanding that this is the first book of prophecy and the last book of prophecy of the church age. So it was the first and last. It's the only book of prophecy that came to us during our particular age. Now, to understand kind of where we get this from, we have to also look at what did the earliest believers that we have record of, what did they believe? And so when you look at some of the early church fathers, and I'm going to go back all the way to the second century, This is an interesting thing. We have better records from the 1st and 2nd century AD than we do from the 6th on to about the 17th century. Did you realize that? We have better historical accounts and records because the Romans were really good at keeping things keeping records and they were really good at keeping history and they had a huge amount of respect for history and so the churches actually whenever they would have writings and so forth would have those preserved and then the Romans ultimately and the Greeks as well came along and actually preserved a lot so a lot of the reason why we have the New Testament in the condition that we have it is simply because it was kept in that state. The reason we have the records of Josephus is because it was also kept in a very sacred kind of way. So it's fascinating that we see that we have better historical records from the 1st and 2nd and 3rd centuries than we do from like the 6th century on to about the 17th century. It's fascinating. And that's why I think we have this thing called the Dark Ages that was so big. But in the second century, there was a bishop in Gaul, which is modern day France, whose name is Irenaeus. And Irenaeus wrote five books against heresy. In that book he wrote, Christ is the stone cut out without hands who will destroy the temporal kingdoms and introduce an eternal one which is the resurrection of the just. He wrote that in his fifth book in the 26th chapter. He went on to say, when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, He will reign three and a half years and sit in the temple in Jerusalem. And the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire, but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is the rest, the hallowed seven day, the restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance to which the Lord declared." Basically, what he's saying there is that everything that you were reading here in the Revelation is in fact going to come into play because God still has to deal with Israel. There are all sorts of guys, I'm not going to read all of these, but there's a guy by the name of Papias who basically said that there will be a millennium after the resurrection from the dead, Barnabas wrote an epistle which was not actually codified but is actually in the records called the Epistle of Barnabas. He wrote the history of the world will be consummated in 6,000 years. Those six days, quote, were to be concluded by the church of Jesus to the earth at which a time he set up his kingdom for a seventh day of a thousand years of Sabbath rest, the so-called millennium. We see that throughout all of these guys, there was another guy by the name of Justin Martyr, who was a phenomenal apologist from the second century as well, and he would do something that was really unique. He actually would do these debates with rabbis. Most of these were recorded by scribes on the Jewish side, which is fascinating. So most of the records of Justin Martyr are actually recorded by Jewish scribes, not by Christians. And he was obviously an apologist and evangelist, obviously. But in one discussion, he said this. He said, he was asked a question by a rabbi. And the rabbi said, do you acknowledge of a truth that Jerusalem will be rebuilt and you expect your people will be gathered together and rejoice with your Messiah, the patriarchs, prophets, and saints of Israel before your Messiah came? To which Justin Martyr replies, I acknowledged earlier that I, and many others, hold this opinion, even as you also well know this is to take place. But, as I informed you, many believers of Christian origin, which is interesting that he would say it that way, many believers of Christian origin, of a godly and pure mind do not accept that fact. These are believers, however, in name only. but in reality they are godless and pious heretics who teach in all respects what is blasphemous, godless and foolish." This guy didn't mince any words, did he? And he goes on to say that the resurrection of the dead will in fact take place and so on. So the early scholars were very consistent, it seems, And everyone who basically did not believe the millennial message of the revelation was considered a heretic. And that's fascinating to me. You know, this is a literal interpretation of what will in fact take place, or a futuristic interpretation, I should say, of it, is something that was pretty consistent among early church fathers. So, let's get right to it. Let's read the first eight verses of the book of Revelation. Let's get into it. So, it says, the revelation of the Messiah Jesus, which God gave to him, to show to his bondservants the things which must shortly or quickly actually is technically what that says which must shortly or quickly take place and he sent and signified by his angel to his bondservant John who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of the Messiah Jesus even to all that he saw Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written therein, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from the Messiah Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and released us from our sins to his blood, and he has made us to be a kingdom. priest to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. There is a lot to unpack there. Okay, so we're gonna get right to it. Hopefully we get finished as we said this is the revelation of Messiah Jesus it is not the revelation of John and it says here that God gave him So it says God gave him who is the him there? Who is the him? No, that's Jesus He gave him, that's the revelation. This is where everybody gets messed up, this is why it's important that we do this. So God gave him, meaning Jesus. So the revelation of the Messiah Jesus, which God gave Jesus to show to his bondservants, who are his bondservants? us, right? The word there is doulos, that means a permanent slave. So we are permanently bound to him. I think it's interesting that he used that particular word for slave and not another. There were many others that he could have used. This is the only word that he could have used which says that it is a permanent situation, that we are slaves permanently. Why is that a big deal? Because our salvation cannot go away. That's why that's a big deal. If our salvation could go away, this entire book would be a symbol, or would be less than something we could count on. We'd have to spiritualize and so forth. Those folks that struggle with the idea that we could somehow lose what we have been given are the ones that really struggle with this particular area as well. But I'm telling you right now, this is so important. He gave it to show. What is the word show? Show is the actual word reveal. Okay, so in some Bibles it might even say reveal. I don't know in mine It's a show but but again this idea that he is going to reveal to his bond servants So what is he going to reveal he's going to reveal himself? That's what he's going to reveal. This is a revelation of the Messiah Jesus. This is not a revelation of John. It is not a revelation of the bond servants. It's a revelation of him. And the things which must shortly or quickly take place. The word quickly there is the word tachai. We get the word tachometer from that as the thing which meters speed. So anything which is tachy is fast. And so he's saying here that the things which must quickly or take place quickly or must shortly take place. It says, and he sent and he signified by or communicated, actually is probably a better word to use there, that he communicated by his angel. Now the word angel is going to be used a lot in this book. It's going to be used a lot. I think it's fascinating because whenever the Bible in the Old Testament talks about the angel of the Lord, that is the actual word malak in Hebrew. And the reason why we have it in English as angel in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, is because the Greek word for malak is angelos. A-N-G-E-L-I-O-S, right? And hellos. And so in English we then go over to angel. That's how we end up with angel. Does everybody get that? But a Moloch in Hebrew is a messenger of any kind of messenger. So when it's said it is the Moloch of God, okay, actually Moloch Adonai or Adonai Moloch, depending on where the content is used. The angel of God, the messenger of God. So the messenger of God often in the scriptures, in the Old Testament now, were these etherical beings. For example, we saw when Abraham was approached by the two angels, the messengers that had come to keep him from being destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. or keep his nephew from being destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah. And so we see a lot of examples of this, and that angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is more often than not a pre-incarnate description of the Messiah. And so I don't really have time to get into that today, but we need to understand that whenever it's talking about angels here, we're talking about those that are giving the message of God. supernatural beings which are giving the message of God. That's really what it's talking about. And so we have to be very, very careful because that particular word, angelos, is used over 70 times in the book of the Revelation. So it's something we're going to see quite a bit. And so it says that this was communicated to him by his angelos, which means messenger of God. You're going to see as we get into this that the vast majority of what is transmitted to him is transmitted to him by Jesus himself in the personification that we're going to see starting in verse 9. of chapter 1, so that's why I want to hold off on that. So this one who is called the angel here is most likely going to be Jesus himself as well. So he communicated by his angel to his bondservant John. So we need to understand people at that time lived in the expectation of the Lord's coming. He says, this is going to come quickly. This is going to come now. This is going to come tachai. And they lived in expectation of the Lord's coming. In 1st Thessalonians, Paul wrote, he says, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those of us, those of us who remain. He wouldn't have written those of us who remain unless he believed He was going to be here when the Lord returned. So those of us who remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord. So we need to understand that they lived in an expectation of the Lord's return. That is different than what a lot of people live in today. There are very few people that live in an expectation of the Lord's return. That is a fact. We plan our lives with social meetings and plannings and so forth. I'm just as guilty of it as anyone. And we do not live in expectation. We should be saying, as James said to say, that if the Lord wills, I will do this. If the Lord tarries, I will do this. But again, there is a difference between that age and the age in which we live today. One of the major differences was they lived in expectation of the Lord's literal return and they saw that happening very quickly. In verse 2 he says he bore witness, that's the word martyrios, he bore witness, martyrios, to the word of God and to the testimony that's martyr. So really what he's saying is I gave a witness of what Jesus actually said. So I gave a witness to the Word of God and to this testimony of Jesus. Now that's not the first nor the last time we're going to see that expression in this book. We're going to see that several times. That he gave witness to Jesus, to the Word of God. to the testimony of Jesus. He kind of separates them. Now, one of the other arguments that you hear quite a bit is that, well, the Apostle John didn't actually write this. This was written by some other John, and so forth. And I would say that if that's true, then the Gospel of John was not written by the Apostle John, but by some other John. Because the way in which the book of the Revelation is structured in the non-red letters, is almost, I don't want to say a continuation of the gospel, but close. There are a couple of things about John's gospel that are very interesting. John's gospel, I'm going to say this, I don't want to get it all out here, right, used a very limited vocabulary. The Revelation uses a very limited vocabulary. There is a repetition of words that is really unlike any other place in the Scriptures. Paul does not do it. Peter does not do it. The only person that really does it is the Apostle John. He does it in 1 John. He does it in It doesn't do it in 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. 2nd and 3rd John are so little it really doesn't make any difference. But in 1st John he repeats the words a ton. Like for example the word love in the actual agape word love in the book of John is used about 60 times in that little teeny book that you can read in about 25 minutes. It's crazy how many times he repeats himself as to different words. He could have used a lot of different words, but he didn't. We see that in this book over and over. He says the word I heard about 40 different times. He uses the expression Eva, E-I-D-A, Eva, which means I saw. He says that like 60 different times. He could have said it about 100 different ways, but he said it that way over and over and over. I saw this, I saw that. He talks about visions 40 different times. He talks back and forth, he goes back and forth from heaven. He uses that expression, back and forth from heaven, 17 different times. He uses the expression, it was like 22 different times, or as something over 60 times, to behold over 30 times. He used the word great. I counted 86 times. That's crazy, considering it only takes you an hour to read this book. I mean, it's not that long, okay? 84 to 86, depending on how you read it. He uses the word seven over 50 times. He uses Angelus angels over 70 times. He uses the sea over 25 times. This is a trait of John's writing, that he repeats words a lot. And when we think about that, the other thing is he is the only author to call Jesus the Word of God. He is the only one, the Theos Logos, right? So the Logos Theos. So he is the only one that calls him the Word of God. The only one. And we see this obviously in the first chapter of the Gospel of John where it says, and the Word was God, the Word created all things and so everything became flesh and dwelt among us. So the Word of God, He's the only one that calls Him that. So here we see that exact same thing. He bore witness to the Word of God and the testimony of the Messiah Jesus. And He's also, He uses the word martyrio in its various ways of being used more than any other writer as well. Do you know how educated he was? Most likely about the same as all the other guys. He probably went to Hebrew school until he was probably 13. My guess is that he didn't go much beyond that because he became a believer or a disciple when he was probably around 14. So most likely right after he had finished his primary education. Almost all Jewish boys got primary education in Hebrew school up until about 13. So 12 to 13, that was when they would start working for their father or whatever, unless they were going to go on into rabbinical school and so forth. So that's kind of an interesting thing as well. So he's the only one that does that. In John chapter 1 we said that, and of course he talked about the fact that he used that word as well. The other word that he uses, and he's the only guy that uses this, is on 28 different occasions he calls the Messiah the Lamb of God. And he's the only one that does that. Which I found fascinating. In fact, when I first pulled it up, I thought, okay, I wonder where else it's being used. And then I realized, it wasn't. He's the only one. So, he's called the Lamb of God in the Gospel of John. He's called the Lamb of God here. That's it. And the expression that he steals that from is from John the Baptist. It says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the only one that recorded it that way. So it's fascinating to me that we have so popularized that idea, but we have to realize he's the only one that actually recorded that. And again in the Revelation is where it's primarily, he uses it over, like I said, over 28 times. There are two other places where the word is actually referred to, but it's always in context of quoting an Old Testament scripture. So Peter did it, says that he was like a lamb without spot or blemish. quoting Isaiah 53, and Stephen, when he was giving his testimony in Acts chapter 8, also said that, quoting Isaiah 53, he is as a lamb before shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. So, outside of those two occasions where he's not actually called the Lamb God, but just actually referring to that Messianic scripture in Isaiah 53, We have that. So now we come to the first three, which to me is, I think, one of the coolest verses in the entire beginning here. And it says this. It says, blessed, or blessed, is he who reads. Now that's a singular he. That's not a plural. It's not us. It's he, okay? So blessed is he who reads. The idea there in the word reads is actually to read aloud. So blessed is he who reads aloud and those who hear the words of the prophecy. So this is the first place where he specifically says this is a prophetic book. But more importantly, he says that there is a blessing to the person who reads it and to the people that hear it. Hear that? So you say, well wait a minute, those, so and those, that's plural. It's not just one person. So it's someone other than the reader. So the person who is reading aloud is blessed and the people that are hearing it are blessed. Isn't that cool? You know, so we're reading a book, and by the way, this is the only book that I was able to find where it says that you're going to be blessed for reading or hearing. And more importantly, you're going to be blessed for heeding. And it says, and heed the things which are written therein, for the time is near. Again, it comes back to that urgency thing again. So, in this book, there are actually seven blessings. Why does that shock you, right? You're going to see this in this book. Everything is in sevens in this book. There are seven. There are sevens, what I'm calling the Beatitudes of the Revelation. The first is this one here in 1.3 where the person who reads it and those that hear it are going to be blessed. If you go to chapter, you don't have to turn to these, I'm just going to give it to you for the tape. 14.13 says those who die in the Lord shall be blessed. In 16.15 it says we are blessed if we stay alert and ready. In chapter 19 in verse 9 it says we are blessed if we are the ones who are invited to his supper. In 20 in verse 6 it says we are blessed if we take part in the first resurrection. That's interesting because it would indicate that there is a second resurrection as well as a first. Those of us who believe the futurist view believe that there obviously are two resurrections. The one when the Lord comes back and takes his saints and then the final one at the end. And then in chapter 22 and verse 7 it says that we are blessed if we heed the words of this prophecy. So it's a repetition really of what he said right at the beginning. And verse 22 and verse 14 it says, You'll be blessed if you have washed your robes by the blood of the Lamb. That's an interesting expression, too, to be washed in the blood. I remember when I was first a believer, we used to sing a song that we're washed in the blood of the Lamb. Remember that? It's showing some of my age here, right? So, we see this. Now, getting into verse 4, it says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia. So, John is writing to these seven churches that are in Asia. And, of course, they are enumerated for us in verse 11. It says, write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus to Smyrna, to Pergamon, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. So those are the seven churches. Now we showed a map of this last week, I'm not going to do it again, but basically it's just a big circle right there in that eastern excuse me, western part of Asia Minor. And it kind of goes in a big circle where you have Patmos is the island, you go over here to just offshore, that's Ephesus, and then you go on around and the seven churches are just in a big circle. Now I think it's also interesting that Paul also wrote to seven churches. He wrote to Rome, he wrote to Corinth, he wrote to Galatia, he wrote to Ephesus, he wrote to Philippi, he wrote to Colossae, he wrote to Thessalonica. So, he also wrote to seven churches. Now, he wrote more than seven letters, obviously, because some of them were multiple. He also wrote individual letters to Timothy and Titus and so on. But he actually wrote to seven different churches. Is that a coincidence? I don't believe there are any coincidences, so no. Seven appears to be a very important number. Certainly it is here. Whenever they talk about any item, they talk about it in sevens. And that to me is just very interesting. So he's writing to the seven churches. And when we talk about seven in the book of the Revelation, We see him talking about seven spirits, which we're going to talk about here in a minute. We see him talking about seven lampstands. We see him talking about seven stars, and seven lamps, and seven seals, and seven horns, seven eyes, and seven angels, and seven trumpets, and seven thunders. He talks about seven thousand. He talks about seven heads, and seven crowns, and seven plagues, seven vials, seven kings, seven mountains. There's even seven I am statements in this book. which is just amazing to me. I mean, it's just so full. So all of these things to say that Whenever we see the number seven, we're talking about something which is the fullness. The fullness. That's really the idea behind seven. Whenever we see that, he's talking about the complete revelation is always going to be in sevens. So now, when we look at that, it says this in the salutation. Grace to you and peace from Him Who is, who was, and who is to come. Now that's the expression that he uses just on, if you go over to verse 8, it says, I'm the Alpha and Omega, who is, who was, and who is to come. God has always revealed himself as who is, who was, and who is to come. His very name. Ye-Ho-Vah. Ye is that which is past, Ho is that which is present, Vah is that which is to come. So when you read Hebrew, Ye-Ho-Vah, that's the completeness of everything. So that Ye, that who is, Who, that which, I'm sorry, that Yah is who is, Vah is who is to come, and Ho, which is in the middle, is who was. So this idea that God is this complete manifestation without time. He is the timeless being. There is no time with God. There is no taking away from that. And I think that's extremely important. The second thing that he says here, is he says, not only is this a message from God, who is, who was, and who is to come. But from the seven spirits who are before the throne now I have to tell you I have personally struggled with this my whole entire life What are the seven spirits? Why is it seven spirits? Until I was under the until I really realized that seven is fullness Seven is completeness And so what he's saying here is in the fullness of the Spirit. What he's talking about is the completeness of the Spirit. Now I've had some people say, oh well he's referring to what Isaiah referred to in Isaiah chapter 11. Because in Isaiah chapter 11 it says the Spirit of God is the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, and the Spirit of counsel, and the Spirit of this and the Spirit of that. The only problem with that is that depending on how you count, there's either 6, 7, or 8 different representations of the Spirit there. So that didn't work for me. I had a real problem with that one because I'm like, okay, how did you count 7 there when there's maybe 7, maybe 6, maybe 8, depending on how you look at it. So that didn't work for me. And then there are other people that said that, well, there's 7, he's talking in context of the 7 churches. And then the Spirit went to each of those seven churches, and so that's the seven spirits that he's talking about here. That's, to me, maybe closer. But still I think what he's basically saying here is that this is the fullness of the Spirit of God. That the Spirit of God who is always available to each and every one of us now as believers. We're talking about this on Fridays which is exciting. But I'm telling you right now that anybody that tells you they know exactly what the idea of seven spirits is, no one really knows. He uses this expression again in Revelation chapter 4. He uses it again in Revelation chapter 5. in referring to the Spirit of God. He calls them the Seven Spirits. Again, it's kind of interesting. I've also heard people say, well, this is talking about the fruit of the Spirit, because there are seven fruits of the Spirit. You know, okay, I don't know. You could basically bag up anything you want and put it together, and I guess you could make it sound good. But at the end of the day, we don't know. And I think that's one of the great things about this book, is there are mysteries in this book that we don't know about. And I want you to hear this loud and clear. As we go through this book, I'm not going to be dogmatic about much of anything except about the revelation of Jesus himself. Because at the end of the day, these little pieces that John is revealing, we don't have any other context in which to even view them really. So it's really important that we understand that we can't just take this and just say, ah, well then there's seven Holy Spirits. And I've heard people actually say that. There's seven different Holy Spirits. I'm like, really? That's kind of interesting. So we have all of these expressions. But we do know that he's talking about the trying Godhead here, because he's talking about God He who was, and who is, and who is to come. The Spirit of God, who is there before His throne. And then finally it says, and from the Messiah Jesus. Now, He gives us a five-fold declaration of who Jesus was. And then the sixth declaration, actually you could even say this is a seven, because He's saying first that He is Messiah. So he's saying, and from the Messiah Jesus, so that would be the first declaration that he is Messiah. The second is that he is the faithful witness. He is the genuine deal. He is the real deal. When we talk about the faithful witness, he is the witness of truth. John 14.6 says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the faithful witness of deity. Jesus said that I am God who is made flesh, or excuse me, John said he is God who is made flesh and dwelt among us. He is the faithful witness of the scripture. In Matthew chapter 11, he says, go to John and tell him that these are the things you've seen, the healed, the people have been healed, the dead have been raised, da, da, da, da. That's quoting from Scripture. And the final thing is that he is the final one who was raised and never died. So there have been other people who have been raised from the dead, but they all, you know, would die again, not Jesus. Jesus was the only one who was raised, and that's why he says he is the firstborn from the dead, which of course is this next thing. So he's the Messiah, he's the faithful witness, he is the firstborn of the dead. Meaning that he is the first that was raised permanently. In 1 Corinthians, we're going to flip over to 1 Corinthians, this is really kind of cool. In chapter 15, And the 23rd verse says this, it says, But each in his own order. The Messiah was first, as the firstfruits, and after that those who are at the Messiah's coming. So we see that he is the first one. meaning that there is going to be many more. The Bible also tells us in the book of Colossians in chapter 1 that he is, we'll go over to that, that's kind of interesting too, that he is the firstborn of creation. I think that's really a pretty powerful statement too. Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 Says this and he is the image of the invisible God the icon of the invisible God the the the manifestation of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation so he is the essence of everything because he is the Bible tells us in John that he created all things so he is the firstborn of all creation and For by Him all things were created, both in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, thrones and dominions, rulers, authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things." How many things? All things. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is also the head of the body, the church. And He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself might come to have the first place in everything. And that is the manifestation that John is getting here as well. That he is the firstborn in everything. And we can't deny that. If you go back to the Revelation again, the third thing, well the Messiah, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and then the fourth thing is he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. One of my absolute favorite scriptures from the book of Psalms is the second Psalm. Because in the second Psalm it says that the rulers take counsel against the Lord and against His anointed to put them down, but it says, this is my favorite verse, but it says, the Lord scoffs at them. The Lord scoffs at them. Like, really? That's what I would say. In my Bible I wrote, really? The Lord scoffs at them. Why? Because they're idiots. They think they can destroy the Lord and his anointed. Well, of course he can't. Because he is that one who God has anointed. He is that Mashiach. That's what the word Mashiach means. It means he is the anointed. So he is the first, the ruler, he is the ultimate ruler of all of the kings of the earth. So when you read, go over to 2nd Psalm. It's a short psalm. It's phenomenal. I love it. Second Psalm says this, it says, why are the Gentiles in an uproar and the people devising a vain thing? The kings of earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, the Mashiach. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. That's the ruler saying that. He who sits in the heavens scoffs, he laughs. I'm sorry, he who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then he shall speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury. But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain, and I will surely tell him the decree of the Lord, Thou art my son, this day I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give the Gentiles as your inheritance. So, this idea that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth is not something that's new. This is something that we go back to. Which, by the way, is another thing that's kind of cool about the book of the Revelation. I have never actually made this count, but according to Chuck Messler, and I would pretty much count on anything Chuck Metzler says that he's done the research. Chuck said there are over 800 iterations to the Old Testament in the Revelation. I'm trying to figure out how you can even do that. There's only 11,000 words. There's 800 iterations to the Old Testament in the Book of Revelation. In this verse alone, there are nine. In this verse alone there are nine. You can go back and find nine specific Old Testament verses that are referred to by this verse. Nine! In this one verse! That's just crazy. You say, He is the Messiah Jesus, He is the faithful witness. We read about that in Isaiah. He is the firstborn from the dead. That's the promise of Psalm 22. I mean, there's so many different examples of where there's iterations back to the Old Testament. The rulers of the earth, that's Psalm 2. And Metzler says that there are, in many verses, in many expressions, multiple iterations of multiple verses all being used in the same breath. Like, what? I mean, it's just incredible. It's the only book of prophecy that does even close to that. But again, so he is the Messiah, he is the faithful witness, he is the firstborn from the dead, he is the ruler of the kings of the earth. And then this is, to him who loves us, to Him who loves us. That is a beautiful expression here. Not only is He the King of the Earth, but He loves us. He cares about us. He takes us as His own. You know, when you read 1 John, and again, another reason why I think it's pretty clear that this is all John's writing, they all just go so hand in hand. But if you read 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16, it says we know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. That to me is just so powerful. That's how we know that He loves us, because He laid down His life for us. And it goes on to say, and so we should lay down our lives for the brethren. This expression I love in chapter 4, I just thought of this one. It says, by this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son, Into the world so that we might live through him in this is love not that we love God But that he loved us and sent his son as a propitiation for our sins which leads us right to the next description where he says and he released us from our sins by his blood and When I read the book of Hebrews and I see the amazing picture of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and so that God said, you know what, we don't even need the temple anymore. We're going to allow Titus to take the temple and you know what, we're never going to rebuild it until Revelation comes so this time of the revelation comes so so we're not going to see that rebuilding again until that happens because why because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins when we get into chapter 4 we're going to come back to this verse because this is a this is a very important thing that ties to chapter 4 we're not going to do that today and then finally it says this is the seventh thing he has made us in a kingdom. He has made us to be, or in a kingdom, priests to the God of our Father, and to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. We, right now, the church, are His kingdom. And what's fascinating to me is as I get into this particular verse, and as I've studied it and so forth, the church necessary. I want you to understand that. The church is necessary. This is where we get taught. This is where we get fellowship. This is where we get away from the things of the earth and the things of the world. The church is necessary. But it's also necessary because it is His kingdom. right now. And it's a different kind of kingdom. It's a kingdom that is in him right now. It is a kingdom that's in him right now. And that's different. Israel did not have that relationship. There was only Jews in the kingdom of Israel. In our kingdom, there are Jews, there are Gentiles, there are all sorts of different people. And God has given us a ministry of reconciling all of us back. That's what 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is all about. He's given us this ministry of being able to bring all people, and that's why the church is important. You know, there are people out there that say that the church is somehow not a big deal. I wrote this, and I want to read it to you, and we'll end on this. The church is how God has now chosen to promote his message. There is an order to the church, which cannot be ignored from a historical context, talking about the seven churches here. But more of these warnings to the particular churches are warnings to every single one of us. So when we get into the churches, you're going to see that these churches did very good things and they also messed up. And he called them out on both sides. The same is true with us today. But having said that, we must never forget that the church is necessary. The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, which is the manner of some. And we need to understand that this is where God has given us this kingdom. So, I'm going to end there. I wanted to get into verses 7 and 8, but we didn't have time, so that's just the way things go. We'll get into that next week. But I do want you to know one thing about 7 and 9, and that is that everything in 7 and 9 almost directly iterates back to the Old Testament. In fact, in verse 7, there are at least four separate sections of verses in the Old Testament that he's referring back to there. Not just one little thing or whatever. The whole thing is basically an iteration of that. So it's fascinating to me as we get into it. But this is the revelation of this Messiah Jesus. He is the Messiah. He is the faithful witness. He is the firstborn of the dead. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is the one who loves us. He is the one who has released us from our sins. And he has made us a body of kingdom. Isn't that great? I mean to me that's just so powerful. And that's just in one verse. Isn't that incredible? I mean that's just in one verse. Yes ma'am. Yeah, again, I saw that as well. No, I don't think you can go there either. So, again, we come back to all of this, but we need to get out of here and get to church. There you go. So let's end with a word of prayer. Father, we are so thankful that you give us this word. We thank you so much that you have allowed us to read it, to study it, to analyze it, to just love you through it. God, we are thankful that you bless us for the reading and for the hearing and for the doing. And we are so thankful for Jesus and we pray in his special name. Amen.