Participants: Ivor Meyers (Host), James Rafferty (Host), Jason Bradley, Yvonne Lewis
Series Code: SISS
Program Code: SISS000004A
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00:31 Well, we don't have an agenda
00:33 to get through this Book in so many sessions, 00:36 so we're very open and really 00:38 as we've been studying the Book of Revelation, 00:40 Salvation in Symbols and Signs, 00:41 we haven't gone very far, we're really still in chapter 1, 00:46 we've kind of moved around the Book a little bit, 00:48 here and there and trying to get some big pictures 00:52 but I love this because I want us to really understand 00:55 everything that we're learning here 00:58 rather than just throw a bunch of information in 01:00 that we don't comprehend, 01:02 and that we just don't... doesn't make sense... you know, 01:04 but we're just kind of trying to get through this thing... 01:05 and maybe we'll remember 10 percent, 01:08 no, let's really understand what we're learning 01:10 and go point by point and Sanctuary symbolism... 01:13 great foundation, 01:15 the theme of salvation... it's vital... 01:17 our "repeat and enlarge" is vital. 01:20 There are a lot of questions 01:23 that people have about Revelation 01:24 and that's why I'm glad you guys are with us 01:26 even though we've... 01:28 we're supposedly preaching... teaching this, et cetera, 01:30 you guys... novice... 01:32 not necessarily even understanding it, 01:35 so you can moderate our whole conversation here 01:38 and make sure that we stay on track, 01:40 we don't get too deep and too far ahead 01:42 and I want to... I want to make sure you have the 01:45 power and the freedom to moderate us 01:48 and to bring up questions that you might have 01:51 so... let's... as we get into this next session 01:53 we're going to be talking about 01:56 the importance of putting Jesus first 01:58 and that's what we see in Revelation, 02:01 we see Jesus first and so 02:02 I'd like us to open with a word of prayer, 02:04 maybe Yvonne, you can pray for us 02:05 and then we'll get right into it. 02:07 Sure... "Father God, thank you so much 02:09 for allowing us the privilege to open your Word 02:11 and to study your Word and glean these precious truths 02:15 from your Word, so as we study now 02:18 and talk... we just pray for your anointing 02:21 and the power of your Holy Spirit 02:22 and the presence of your Spirit to be with us 02:25 thank you oh God in Jesus' name... amen. 02:27 All: Amen... 02:30 Revelation is so profoundly 02:35 gospel focused 02:36 that it's a wonder that people miss it, 02:39 now Martin Luther did miss it, 02:41 we talked about his preamble to Revelation 02:44 that was written in 1522 02:46 he just said, "Christ isn't in here" 02:47 but then he got it, eight years later... he got it 02:49 and I'm sure he's thinking to himself, 02:52 "Why did I ever... how did I ever miss this?" 02:55 But I think there's a reason, I think we come with a... 02:59 many people come to the Book of Revelation 03:01 with pre-conceptions that they've got... 03:03 like you... watched that movie, 03:04 I watched the same movie, by-the-way... 03:06 "Saved by DL... " 03:07 and I want to just be a little bit more frank here 03:10 and maybe step on a few toes, 03:12 my wife was raised in the church, born and raised in Loma Linda, 03:16 she attended her first Revelation Seminar 03:19 when she was probably somewhere between 8- and 10-years of age, 03:22 and she went from those meetings with a fear of the end of times 03:30 and The Mark of the Beast 03:31 and the crisis at the end of time, 03:33 she didn't leave those meetings with a blessing 03:35 and the happiness and the joy, 03:36 that anywhere with Jesus I can safely go... 03:38 anywhere, anywhere, fear I cannot know... 03:40 okay, so I'm going to say that part of the guilt 03:43 and I might even say, the majority of the guilt 03:46 for people being afraid of Revelation 03:50 is on us as Christians, 03:53 we as Christians bear responsibility 03:55 because of the way that we have presented this book 03:58 and some of that has been because 04:00 we know that prophecy is where people are interested in, 04:02 so we throw up the beast and we throw up the images, 04:04 and we talk about the end of the times 04:06 and that attracts the people 04:07 but I think we're living in a time where people 04:10 are going to be attracted by Jesus, 04:12 Jesus is lovely enough, 04:15 and Jesus says in John chapter 12, 04:18 and verse 32, "And I, if I be lifted up... " 04:21 will what? 04:22 "I'm going to draw all... " 04:23 yeah, everyone is going to be drawn to Him, 04:25 so, I think we should take Him at His word, 04:28 now, this is what I like about Revelation, 04:30 it begins with Jesus, 04:31 it's the Revelation of Jesus Christ 04:34 and the first vision that John sees 04:36 in Revelation, and it's... it's Revelation... 04:38 let's just read... Revelation chapter one... 04:40 and read verses 10, 11 and 12, 04:48 Jason, would you read those for us? 04:51 Revelation 1:10, 11 and 12... 04:53 Sure, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, 04:56 and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 04:59 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: 05:02 and, What thou seest, write in a book, 05:05 and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; 05:08 unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna 05:11 and unto Pergamos, 05:14 and unto Thyatira, 05:17 and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, 05:23 and unto Laodicea. 05:24 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. 05:28 And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 05:33 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks 05:37 one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment 05:40 down to the foot, and girt about the paps 05:44 with a golden girdle. " 05:45 Okay, so, here is John... he's in vision... 05:50 he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day 05:51 and by-the-way the "Lord's day" is the Sabbath 05:53 Jesus says, "I am the Lord of the Sabbath. " 05:55 Yvonne: I was going to mention that, yeah, 05:56 because that's often used for... you know, to justify Sunday... 06:00 Listen, I'm just going to put this as an aside... 06:02 there are five modern versions of the Bible today 06:05 that are printed... in print, 06:06 that say, "the Lord's Day," 06:08 that actually have in the verse, verse 10... 06:11 Sunday, or the first day of the week, 06:13 it's not in the Greek, 06:14 it's not backed up by any Greek manuscript, 06:15 it's just in there, 06:17 modern transliterations of the... 06:19 so, you're right, it's becoming... 06:21 the changes to the Word of God are becoming very significant 06:26 in relation to some of the modern translations 06:28 and we just need to be aware of that, 06:30 I encourage people 06:31 "Get as many translations as you can, 06:32 because, you know, it helps you to understand the text... " 06:34 but also, be aware that there are some major changes 06:37 in these translations... be aware of that. 06:40 So, John is going to vision for the first time 06:43 the Spirit is coming upon him for the first time, 06:45 John has been given this Apocalyptic Book 06:48 that teaches about prophecies, especially, 06:51 eschatological, which means, 06:52 last-day events... okay... 06:54 and he's going to see about the Antichrist 06:56 and this... that... and the other and so 06:57 what is the first thing that God shows him? 06:59 Jesus... 07:01 Yvonne: Oh, I love it... 07:02 Jesus first... 07:04 and I think it becomes us to recognize this 07:07 as a call to our methods of evangelism, 07:11 our methods of reaching the world, 07:12 that God... when we present the Book of Revelation, 07:16 we don't start in chapter 13, God starts in chapter 1, 07:19 He doesn't start in chapter 13, chapter 13 is the Antichrist, 07:22 "We want to start with the Antichrist... " 07:23 No don't start... "You want to know 07:24 who the Antichrist is? Come to these meetings!" 07:26 These kinds of meetings tell you about the Antichrist... 07:27 no... these meetings will tell you about Jesus Christ 07:30 and everything that you need to know about the Antichrist, 07:34 will be seen as the opposite of Jesus Christ. 07:37 Ivor: We kind of focus on the wrong Christ. 07:40 James: Yes... Yvonne: laughing... 07:43 Okay, if we can learn all about Christ, 07:46 we will be able to identify the Antichrist, 07:49 you spot the counterfeit by knowing the genuine 07:52 so you know the genuine... 07:53 and so and this is the blueprint we have here... Jesus first... 07:57 now here is something that I think is really significant 08:00 in the way that we approach this book, 08:01 Satan's doing everything he can to get us sidetracked 08:05 away from this book to bring it to us as a book of fear, 08:09 if we can put Christ first 08:11 and recognize that the very principles 08:13 of interpreting this book are based 08:16 in the character of God and the heart of God, 08:18 now, the reason why I say this is 08:20 because I want us to look at three verses, 08:22 I want us to look at Revelation chapter one and verse four, 08:26 if you could read these verses for us, Yvonne, 08:28 Revelation 1 verse 4. 08:29 "John to the seven churches which are in Asia: 08:32 Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, 08:36 and which was, and which is to come; 08:38 and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne... " 08:41 Okay, grace and peace, 08:43 you see that right there? Yvonne: Yes... 08:44 James: And then another phrase, that we're going to highlight, 08:46 "Him which is... which was, 08:50 and which is to come" 08:51 now tell me what that means, what does it mean, 08:52 "which is, which was, and which is to come" 08:55 give me other words for those phrases. 08:57 Yvonne: Eternal... 08:58 James: Okay... Jason: Past, present, future. 09:01 James: Past, present, future or eternal... 09:03 past, present, future, let's use those three phrases, 09:05 past, present, future, okay... 09:07 now let's take that to verse 8, let's read verse 8. 09:10 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, 09:14 saith the Lord, which is, and which was, 09:16 and which is to come, the Almighty. 09:18 There's that phrase again, now remember, 09:20 this is the introduction of the Book of Revelation 09:22 so God is introducing principles here that are foundation 09:25 for interpreting the Book of Revelation. 09:27 God, so far, twice says, "past, present, future, 09:31 I was... I am... I will be... 09:34 I was, I am, I will be, I was, I am, I will be... 09:37 now, look at verse 19 and let's read that, 09:41 "Write the things which thou has seen, 09:44 and the things which are, 09:45 and the things which shall be hereafter... " 09:48 James: Ah ha, do you see the same phrases? 09:51 Past... things which have seen, 09:54 the present... the things which are... 09:56 and future... the things which shall be. 09:57 The Book of Revelation is a revelation of God Himself, 10:01 a God who has been with His people in the past, 10:03 is with his people today 10:05 and will be with his people in the future, 10:07 Amos 3:7 says, 10:08 "Surely the Lord God will do...?" 10:10 Yvonne: "nothing... " 10:11 James: "nothing... except He reveals his secrets 10:13 unto his servants the prophets. " 10:15 God is at work in the history of the human race, 10:18 the book of Revelation 10:20 is a prophetic history of the human race, 10:21 God is at work in the history of the human race, 10:23 past, present, future. 10:25 Don't be selfish, end-time people, 10:28 don't try to take all that prophecy for yourself, 10:30 some of that prophecy belongs to those people in the past 10:33 because God loves them too. 10:34 Okay, don't be so 10:37 James: negligent... 10:39 Jason: self-centered James: yes... self-centered... 10:40 and don't try to scuff it off to the future, 10:43 and those guys over there, they're going to get 10:44 all that prophecy... that's all for them... 10:46 no, part of that prophecy is for now, 10:48 right now... you see, 10:50 because God is a God who has been, 10:53 who is and who will be 10:54 and the Book of Revelation is written for those 10:56 in the past, in the present and in the future 10:58 and that's what we call "Historicism" 11:01 Historicism... Yvonne: Oh... okay... 11:03 Jason: I mean you can turn on the news right now 11:05 and see that prophecy is being fulfilled 11:07 we see it when you look on the News 11:11 and you see some of the things that are going on in the world, 11:13 you see prophecy being fulfilled. 11:16 Now, could you look at the News a 100 years ago 11:18 and see prophecy being fulfilled? 11:20 Yes! What about 200 years ago? 11:22 Yes! you see... 11:24 Jason: If the had TV back then 11:26 they'd be able to do that. 11:27 James: That's right, you can turn on the Newspaper 11:30 or turn on the gossip news or whatever it was, 11:32 however they communicated... you know... 11:34 and so that's the point 11:35 and this is why we approach the Book of Revelation 11:39 with this phrase, past, present and future, 11:42 what is basically summarized as Historicism 11:45 because it reveals a God, Jesus Christ 11:48 and the heart of God who is always with His people, 11:51 always will be with His people, 11:53 or... who always has been with His people, 11:55 is with His people and always will be with His people 11:57 and that's why the Book of Revelation 12:00 is so powerful in its context 12:02 of past, present and future, 12:04 now there is... go ahead, Ivor... 12:05 We just about to share that 12:08 there are three... or actually four 12:10 different schools of interpretation 12:12 when it comes to the Book of Revelation. 12:15 One is Historicism, which is the idea that 12:18 prophecy has been unfolding throughout history 12:22 and there has never been a time or a people 12:25 who have been without the prophecies of God to guide them 12:28 in their particular time, okay, 12:31 okay... um... 12:33 the Bible says that the prophecies are like a... 12:34 "We have a more sure word of prophecy... " 12:36 and it describes it as a light, 12:38 so God has never left His people without light. 12:41 For those who don't know what the word "prophecy" means 12:46 to prophecy or to... what is prophecy? 12:49 So, prophecy is the foretelling of events 12:53 before they come to pass, 12:55 when Jesus says, "I am... 12:56 behold I tell you these things before they happen 13:00 so that you may know that I am He... " 13:01 prophecy is really the thing 13:05 that sets Jesus and the Heavenly Father aside 13:09 from every other false god 13:10 because no other god can "foretell... " 13:13 God says, "Call all your gods together 13:16 and let them tell you the future, 13:18 if they can tell you the future, let them be God. " 13:19 Yvonne: Ah... ah ha... 13:21 "so, now, grab your holy book, 13:23 whatever choice of holy book you have 13:24 and let's see how your... your central figure 13:29 foretold the future, 13:31 because if that person can actually foretell the future, 13:33 then I'll listen to them. " 13:35 And that's Isaiah 48 and also John 13:19 and John 14:27 13:40 "I told you before it comes to pass... 13:42 that when it comes to pass, you might believe" 13:45 "I am the God, there's no other God like me, 13:47 foretelling the end from the beginning... " etc... 13:50 So that's Historicism 13:52 and by and large... 13:54 most of the Protestant Reformers were Historicists. 13:56 Preterism is a teaching that most of the prophecies 14:01 of the Book of Revelation were fulfilled 14:03 by the first century A.D. 14:05 so we really have no you know... 14:07 significance for us today the Antichrist was Nero 14:13 and so the prophecies were in the past, 14:17 we just kind of learn lessons from those things today. 14:20 Futurism teaches the exact opposite, 14:23 which is... "These prophecies... 14:26 are all... actually from Revelation 4 onward 14:31 are all future... 14:33 and God's people don't even really need to understand it 14:37 because we're not going to be here 14:38 so this is for a time after the church has gone 14:41 that Antichrist will appear 14:43 so these three schools of prophecy 14:46 and then there's idealism which is basically 14:51 that the Book of Revelation is just a bunch of principles 14:53 and you glean gospel principles... 14:56 which is... absolutely there are principles 14:59 in the Book of Revelation, 15:00 the gospel principles are found in the Book of Revelation 15:03 well you take away the history and say, 15:05 "The history is not really applicable, 15:07 these are just gospel lessons, lessons of salvation... " 15:10 James: People go through conflict are thrown in together. 15:14 Yeah, so these are the four schools of thought 15:19 when it comes to the Book of Revelation. 15:20 But three of them violate the laws that God lays down. 15:28 And His very nature... the very person of God... 15:32 who says, "I'm He which is and was and is to come" 15:36 which is really beautiful to me because 15:39 the principle of interpreting the very Word of God 15:42 is found in the very character of God, 15:44 His Word and His character are the... 15:46 and isn't that what it says in John chapter 1, 15:48 "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us... " 15:51 so it's... this is the way I'd like to illustrate it, 15:54 it's kind of like whole wheat... whole wheat has the whole... 15:57 has everything in it, everything you need, 15:59 now, if you take the bran out of the whole wheat, 16:03 which is the fiber, and some people do that, 16:04 they take the bran... and they want to eat their white flour 16:06 and their white stuff... 16:08 but they want to make sure they're getting fiber 16:10 so they sprinkle a little bran on the cereal in the morning 16:12 hoping to get their fiber, you know, 16:13 okay, or you could take just the white flour 16:15 and they don't like whole wheat flour 16:19 or... and I do struggle with brown rice, 16:22 I like my white rice but last night 16:24 when I stopped to get some, 16:25 he said, "You want white rice or brown?" 16:27 I said, "Can you mix them both together?" 16:29 So I put a little brown... okay... 16:31 I'm not sure on the rice but I know flour, 16:34 I used to eat Wonder bread 16:36 and I would just take that Wonder bread 16:37 and I would roll it up like this and scarf it and scarf it... 16:40 and I remember the first time I ate 16:42 a slice of whole wheat bread, and I was like, "Whoa... " 16:44 I was like, "Wow, that really hit home," 16:47 I can eat a whole bag of Wonder bread, 16:50 and not even... so, what God does 16:53 with Historicism is He puts in the whole wheat, 16:57 He puts in everything we need, 16:59 now, when you take Historicism out 17:01 and you just say, "It's past, " that's Preterism... 17:03 when you take the... the whole wheat apart 17:06 you would say, "It's future" 17:07 that's Futurism, so that will be like the bran, 17:10 this would be like the white flour, 17:11 and God wants us to have the whole grain, 17:14 with all the nutrients there, 17:15 so when you look at Historicism, it doesn't exclude futurism, 17:19 it's incorporated into it, 17:20 there are some prophecies in the future, 17:22 when you look at Historicism, it doesn't exclude Preterism, 17:25 There's some past there, there's some Preterism there, 17:28 but it doesn't isolate it, make it all past, you see, 17:31 you don't go to extremes, 17:32 and is there idealism in Historicism? 17:34 Absolutely, idealism is in there. 17:36 You see the principles that are incorporated 17:40 into these historical events and into these conflicts... 17:42 you see the principles but it's not isolated, 17:45 we don't make idealism the only way to understand it 17:48 so Historicism actually takes 17:50 everything and puts it altogether. 17:51 Yvonne: Oh, that's good James: I love it. 17:53 Ivor: So if you are... we were talking about the 17:55 Sanctuary symbols a little bit earlier 17:57 and actually if you go back to the Sanctuary, 17:59 you see something that really is amazing 18:01 when it comes to the seven churches, 18:03 the seven seals and the seven trumpets, 18:05 but before I touch on that, 18:08 we were talking a little bit earlier about the number 7 18:11 yeah... and... so where's the first time you see 18:14 seven in the Bible? 18:16 Yvonne: Seventh day... 18:18 Ivor: That's right... it's in the Book of Genesis right? 18:22 And what you have in Genesis are the six days of Creation 18:25 followed by the Seventh-day Sabbath. 18:27 Yvonne: Right... 18:28 Ivor: So, looking at this pattern of one to seven, 18:32 what you have here is a complete cycle of time 18:36 the numbers one to seven would represent one through seven 18:41 would represent a complete cycle of time, 18:43 that's the first thing we have presented to us in Scripture. 18:46 So when I take that principle 18:48 and bring it over to the Book of Revelation, 18:51 we have seven churches, seven seals, 18:54 right... seven trumpets... so what do they represent? 18:56 A series of events that occur, 18:59 over a complete cycle of time. 19:02 Right, so now I have to find out, okay, 19:05 "What is complete cycle of time? 19:06 when is the beginning and when is the ending?" 19:09 And lo and behold, 19:11 you find... in almost... in all the sevens... 19:13 you find the second coming of Christ, 19:15 and in all the "ones" you find early church... 19:19 what happened? 19:20 Events unfolding right after the resurrection of Christ, 19:23 so then, I can come to the conclusion that, 19:27 "Okay, these seven churches represent a period... 19:31 a series of events that unfold... over a cycle of time 19:36 from the death, burying and resurrection of Christ, 19:39 all the way down to the second coming, 19:40 the same is going to be true for the seven seals, 19:43 the same is going to be true for the seven trumpets 19:45 so I've allowed principle to determine 19:49 my view of the churches, seals and trumpets. 19:54 Yvonne: Okay... Ivor: Okay... 19:55 now I'm going to show you something else 19:57 and just go quickly with me to Exodus chapter 30 verse 7, 20:01 and maybe someone else can find Leviticus 24 verse 8. 20:05 So Exodus 30 verse 7 and Leviticus 24 verse 8. 20:09 And what does it say there? 20:19 "And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: 20:25 when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. " 20:29 Okay, that's talking about the Alter of Incense 20:30 and the seven-branched candlestick, 20:32 so the Bible is simply telling us 20:34 that whenever the priest ministered at the candlestick, 20:37 he was also to minister at the Alter of Incense, 20:42 okay, now, Leviticus 24 verse 8, 20:46 "Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord 20:48 continually, 20:50 being taken from the children of Israel 20:52 by an everlasting covenant. " 20:54 Okay if you read just up a verse earlier, 20:56 it's speaking about the Table of Shewbread, 20:58 which is, once again, these three articles of furniture 21:02 are all found where? In the Holy Place all right? 21:06 So what does this tell us? 21:07 It basically tells us that the High Priest, 21:10 I'm sorry, the Priest... 21:11 whenever he ministered in the Holy Place, 21:14 it was a simultaneous ministry going on, 21:17 in other words, 21:18 when he ministered at the Candlestick, 21:20 he was also to be ministering at the Alter of Incense 21:23 and every Sabbath, at the Table of Shewbread, 21:26 okay, so, this tells us 21:28 that the ministry of the priest in the Holy Place, 21:32 was a simultaneous ministry, 21:35 okay, what does that show us in the Book of Revelation? 21:39 That the seven churches, the seven seals, 21:43 and the seven trumpets... all are unfolding... how? 21:47 Simultaneously. 21:49 And it tells us that because the churches begin 21:52 with a picture of Christ and the candlesticks, 21:54 the seals begin with a picture of Christ 21:57 before the Table of Shewbread, 21:58 and the trumpets begin with a picture of Christ 22:01 before the Alter of Incense, 22:02 they each one... 22:04 and each one of them, by-the-way, 22:06 highlights a different phase of the gospel, 22:09 with Christ and the candlesticks, 22:11 Christ is with us, that's the incarnation, 22:13 He is with us, He's with the churches, 22:15 with Christ and the seals, 22:17 He's the lamb that is slain in the midst of the throne, 22:19 okay, so He's in the throne room there... before the throne 22:22 and He's slain... that's the cross, 22:24 that's Calvary, 22:25 in the seven trumpets, Christ is pictured there as 22:29 having incense that He takes and offers with the present saints 22:33 on the golden alter before the throne 22:35 which is the golden alter... is... the Alter of Incense... 22:38 so that's intersession... so you have incarnation, 22:40 crucifixion and intercession, 22:42 and in one last picture that we see here 22:44 that's very interesting is the one in Revelation 12, 22:47 the woman brings forth a child, 22:48 and she's caught to God into His throne... 22:51 He's caught up to God into His throne 22:54 and so we have this double emphasis on 22:56 Christ being caught up to God into His throne, 22:58 which is what happens as He's resurrected 23:01 and begins His mediation... His intercessory work there, 23:04 each one of these epochs and each one of these churches, 23:06 seals, trumpets and salvation signs 23:08 begins in the apostolic age, 23:10 begins at this Holy Place simultaneous ministry 23:14 it shows us the churches, seals and trumpets 23:16 are all cycles of seven that parallel... 23:19 that run down together at the same time, 23:22 it happened simultaneously. 23:23 Yvonne: Hmmm... 23:24 So we couldn't say that the seven churches occur here 23:27 but then the seven seals occur after the seven churches 23:29 or the seven trumpets occur after this... 23:32 no... they are... 23:34 they unfold simultaneously how do we know that? 23:36 Because we look back at the Sanctuary Law 23:39 and we see, 23:41 yeah, the priest was to minister how? 23:42 Simultaneously... 23:43 so the trumpets have to be unfolding at the same time... 23:47 Yvonne: Is all this pre-1844? 23:49 Ivor: And most of it is pre-1844 23:52 till we get to Revelation 23:53 chapter 11 verse 15 to 19... pre-1844. 23:58 Because the cycle takes us to the second coming 24:01 and the second coming... 24:02 and we'll just look at this again, 24:04 the second coming is... 24:05 we get a snippet of it in the churches, 24:08 the Laodicean Church is the church of judgment, that's... 24:11 okay we get a snippet of it in the seals 24:12 "Who will be able to stand before the throne 24:15 and before the lamb?" 24:16 And they all head for the hills and the rocks and the mountains, 24:18 saying, "fall on us and hide us from the face" 24:19 we get a snippet of it in the trumpets 24:21 "And the seventh angel sounded... 24:23 and the kingdoms of this world became the kingdoms of our Lord, 24:25 and of his Christ; and he will rule for ever and ever. " 24:26 The last part of everyone of those, 24:29 you know... cycles... is the second coming, 24:32 but in Revelation 12, 13 and onward... 24:35 the whole focus is about the second coming 24:38 it's about the Antichrist, it's about the beast power 24:40 it's about the lamb-like power 24:42 and it's the Mark of the Beast 24:43 and then it's about this group of people 24:44 that give the three angels' messages 24:46 all post 1844 and then you have the harvest 24:49 and you see Revelation 15 and 16 the seven last plagues 24:52 and then you see a reverse back... well 17, the judgments, 24:55 the outline of the history and then verse... 24:57 chapter 18, you see the earth lightened with the glory of God, 24:59 it's all... all of it emphasize... 25:01 is emphasized in the very last part, 25:03 so that last part is kind of a huge magnifying lens, 25:08 if you will, on the little snippets we saw 25:11 in the three previous sections 25:12 we saw little snippets... it was incoming 25:14 and now the last epic magnifies that, 25:16 that's what "repeat and enlarge" does 25:17 repeat and enlarge, 25:19 enlarges upon areas that have been touched on over here 25:22 but haven't really been brought out... 25:25 So it's like the last parts of the churches, seals, trumpets 25:31 transition us 25:33 into Most Holy Place language and symbols, okay, 25:37 but the majority of it 25:38 are things that have been occurring in the past 25:41 from Jesus' time up until 1844 25:45 and so, now I have something that... I just... 25:48 Let me just touch on a point right here 25:50 and that's why it says here when Jesus gives this to John, 25:53 He says... in verse one, 25:54 "These are things which must shortly come to pass. " 25:58 "Shortly come to pass" means they begin in John's time, 26:01 they begin in Jesus' time, "shortly come to pass... " 26:04 So, coming to pass doesn't mean, it hasn't... 26:07 it hasn't been fulfilled... James: Right. 26:10 Yvonne: It means it's... "it's going to happen. " 26:12 Yeah, "coming to pass" is when it starts, 26:14 "this is shortly going to come to pass," 26:16 Historicism says there's a past and a present and a future 26:20 and so, some of these prophecies, 26:22 that are "past" to us, 26:24 were being fulfilled in John's time 26:26 so when John was given this book... 26:28 "shortly come to pass... " 26:29 these prophecies are going to happen 26:31 very shortly... in your time, 26:33 we look back now, we see they've been fulfilled 26:35 but in John's time, they were being fulfilled. 26:37 "Coming to pass... " 26:38 Sometimes people say, "Well, it says right there, 26:40 'shortly come to pass,' how come Jesus hasn't come yet, 26:43 how come the second coming of Christ hasn't taken place yet? 26:45 It said it would shortly come to pass. " 26:46 Well, that's because, 26:48 they don't understand the nature of prophecy, 26:50 the nature of prophecy is as we've outlined it here is 26:54 is... past, present and future, it's a revelation... 26:57 and prophecies are revelation of history of events 27:01 that God has foretold 27:02 that takes place over a process of time 27:05 as you said, and I love that whole idea 27:07 over a cycle of time, what is the cycle of time? 27:10 From the incarnation of Christ, from the death of Christ, 27:14 from the resurrection of Christ, 27:15 from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 27:17 until the second coming of Jesus Christ. 27:19 As we get into Revelation chapter 20 and 21, 27:21 even past that... 1,000 years 27:24 and into the new heaven and the new earth. 27:26 So, it's a beautiful picture that we're seeing here 27:29 and we've run out of time 27:31 and so we've got to close this session, 27:33 but we're going to continue, 27:34 we're going to continue the journey... 27:36 and we'll be learning a lot more, 27:37 by God's grace, let's just pray together, 27:39 Ivor, would you close for us? 27:41 Okay, "Heavenly Father, we ask that you would 27:43 please continue to open our eyes as we study your Word, 27:46 show us wonderful things out of your Law is our prayer, 27:49 we ask it in the precious name of Jesus, amen. " 27:52 All: Amen... |
Revised 2016-07-25