Participants: Ivor Meyers (Host), James Rafferty (Host), Jason Bradley, Yvonne Lewis
Series Code: SISS
Program Code: SISS000008A
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00:30 Well, we are continuing our study on the Book of Revelation,
00:33 we've actually entered into the churches, 00:36 we've moved past chapter one, we've laid the foundation 00:38 and we're in the Seven Churches, 00:40 Revelation chapter 2 is where it begins, 00:42 we began though by looking at Christ among the churches, 00:46 the fact that Christ is among all seven churches 00:49 even though five of them have major problems, 00:51 two of them are... you know... doing pretty good, 00:54 but five of them have major problems, 00:55 reminded us of the grace of God, of the love of God... 00:58 the unconditional love of God, 00:59 we looked at some illustrations of that in the Bible, 01:02 with the woman at the well and with the disciples 01:05 who forsook Christ even though He would not forsake them 01:08 and we recognize that 01:10 one of the preeminent foundational truths 01:13 of the gospel is that God is with us 01:15 even though we've forsaken Him, 01:17 that when we ate of the 01:19 Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, 01:20 we were hiding from God in the Garden... 01:22 He came looking for us, 01:23 we had changed but He hadn't changed, 01:25 "I'm your Lord your God, I change not... 01:27 and therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" 01:31 and this is the picture that Revelation's presenting to us, 01:34 we look at the church in Ephesus 01:36 and we understood to be the early Apostolic age 01:38 and we see in that church 01:41 a group of people who are on fire for Jesus 01:44 and they've got faith, they've got love, 01:46 they've got works, they've got patience, 01:48 they tried those and say they're apostles... they're not... 01:50 we found them liars and got more faith 01:52 and more love but they've lost what...? 01:53 All: Their first love... James: Their first love, 01:56 they've lost their first love and without that, 01:58 all the other stuff is meaningless 02:00 and so, we identified this as the apostolic church 02:04 in the Historicist's understanding of prophecy 02:07 but we also recognize as a message for us today 02:10 and so we want to go from there now, 02:12 we want to move into the next church 02:14 which is the church of Smyrna, 02:15 and we want to identify some of the characteristics here 02:18 historically and then look at how it applies to us today. 02:21 Remembering where we are... time and location... 02:26 keeping those two things in mind, 02:28 what time period are we in? 02:29 Are we looking at one of the three time prophecies? 02:34 70 weeks... 1,260... or the 2,300... 02:38 and... where in the Sanctuary are we located 02:42 and we've already determined 02:44 that we are located in the Holy Place 02:47 at this time which means pre-1844, right. 02:50 Definitely, and we're going to be moving now 02:53 from the 70-week prophecy, 02:54 we're going to be moving into that 1,260-day period 02:56 and we'll identify this, okay, 02:58 so we should start with a word of prayer... always... 03:00 and Jason, would you like to pray for us? 03:02 All right... "Dear Heavenly Father, 03:05 thank you so much for blessing us with another day of life 03:07 and another opportunity to study your Word, 03:09 now as we study your Word, please lead, guide and direct us 03:12 in Jesus' name we pray, amen. " 03:13 All: Amen... 03:15 So let's start in verse... 03:17 let me just get my glasses on here... 03:19 verse 8, Yvonne, would you like to read for us, 03:23 verses 8, all the way... 03:25 just let's read all the verses all the way through to verse 11? 03:28 Sure, "And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; 03:32 These things saith the first and the last, 03:34 which was dead, and is alive; 03:36 I know thy works, and tribulation and poverty 03:39 but thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them 03:42 which say they are Jews, and are not, 03:44 but are the synagogue of Satan. 03:46 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: 03:49 behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, 03:53 that ye may be tried: 03:54 and ye shall have tribulation ten days: 03:56 be thou faithful unto death, 03:58 and I will give thee a crown of life. 04:00 He that hath an ear, let him hear 04:02 what the Spirit saith unto the churches; 04:04 He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. " 04:09 All right, it's short and sweet, one, two, three, four verses... 04:14 and basically this church is the first church 04:17 that we're going to read about of two churches in the seven 04:20 that have nothing said against it, nothing negative, 04:23 it's all affirmative and the reason for that is 04:25 because we're going to find that in the Bible, 04:28 Old and New Testament... 04:29 that when God's people undergo heavy persecution, 04:32 it purifies the church, 04:34 so the two characteristics of the churches 04:37 that have nothing against them is, 04:38 persecution and love, 04:40 when God's church is filled with love, 04:42 now, Ephesus has lost it's first love, 04:44 it's losing it's first love and yet the church in Philadelphia 04:48 has that... that love... and the church in Smyrna... 04:51 this church right here is undergoing heavy persecution, 04:53 that purifies the church 04:54 so what we have here... is we have four verses that describe 04:58 the condition of the church, the Christian church 05:01 during a period of time that we're going to label 05:04 from about a 100 A.D. to about 313 A.D. 05:08 313 A.D. ends the 05:11 heavy persecution of the pagan Roman Emperor Diocletian 05:14 and makes a transition to Constantine 05:17 and a drastic change takes place in the church under Constantine, 05:20 you can read a little bit about that in the prophetic book 05:23 of Daniel chapter 11, 05:25 where this transition takes place 05:27 and the church gets back 05:29 all of the things that were taken from it 05:30 under the Diocletian rule but going back here, 05:33 I just want to look at this... this first... this first section 05:37 "I know thy works and thy poverty and yet thou art rich" 05:43 how can you be in poverty and yet be rich? 05:47 What is that "wealth" that they have? 05:49 Yvonne: It has to be the knowledge of Jesus... right? 05:53 James: Yeah. 05:54 Yvonne: They might... they have... 05:56 might be broke finally... 05:58 they might be broke but they're not poor. 06:02 James: And I love that... that's basically what... 06:05 doesn't James say something about that... 06:08 let me just look here, he talks about how 06:11 we are rich in faith, I'm looking for the verse 06:15 I have it marked here, James chapter 2 verse 5... 06:20 Yvonne: Hmmm... hmmm... 06:23 James: "Hearken, my beloved brethren, 06:26 Hath not God chosen 06:28 the poor of this world rich in faith... " 06:30 "the poor of this world... rich in faith... " 06:33 okay, I just want to make this point, 06:35 the Book of Revelation... we've said this before 06:39 it's worth repeating, 06:41 the Book of Revelation is 06:43 boring from the rest of the Bible, 06:45 it's not off on an island by itself, 06:47 it's not a book that should be 06:48 separate from the rest of the cannon, 06:50 it is a summation of the rest of the Bible 06:52 and so when we see this phrase here, 06:55 "I know that your... your poverty but you're rich... 06:57 I know your poverty... 06:58 it's borne from the Book of James, 07:00 it's borne from the picture that God has given us 07:02 which is... and that connection is vital 07:04 because that helps us to interpret the book, 07:05 what does it mean? "You're poor and yet you're rich" 07:07 well, James tells what it means. 07:09 Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit 07:12 for theirs is the kingdom of God" 07:14 so, this... this... poverty and yet richness, 07:20 there's persecution and yet faith 07:24 is being presented here in this period 07:27 and that's what they're going through... 07:30 this time period where 07:31 Rome began to heavily persecute the Christian church 07:37 beginning about 195 A.D. John is sent out of Patmos 07:43 where he, of course, receives the Revelation 07:45 but then you have this persecution of Rome 07:49 trying to destroy and wipe out Israel, 07:52 what is significant about that 07:55 is that there was another persecution 07:57 in the Old Testament 07:59 where someone tried to wipe out Israel... 08:04 tried to basically destroy 08:05 and just really keep down the children of Israel 08:08 and that was Pharaoh during the time of... 08:11 the Children of Israel being in Egypt, 08:14 what's happening is, you have the first church 08:20 which was perfect 08:22 and then fell from its first love 08:24 and we already said, "Wow! that kind of reminds us of 08:26 the beginning of creation of mankind... 08:28 perfect but then fell in Creation" 08:31 and then that's Genesis, the next book is Exodus, 08:34 where we now have this spirit of persecution 08:37 and we're looking at church one and two, we're going, 08:40 "Wow, this is like history repeating itself... " 08:45 now will that pattern hold out for the rest of the churches? 08:48 We'll find out... but what we see so far 08:52 is look, "This history is almost like it's being repeated... 08:55 the things that happened to Old Testament... 08:57 the Old Testament people of God looks like it's being repeated 09:00 in the history of Spiritual Israel, 09:03 so they're being persecuted but God is telling them, 09:07 "Listen, be faithful even in this persecution 09:10 and going back to the theme of the Book of Revelation 09:13 as a love story, what I see happening here, 09:16 is that... it's almost like Satan's saying, 09:21 "Yeah, you love Jesus? 09:22 All right, well let's see how much you love Jesus, 09:25 let's see how much you love Jesus 09:26 when they put you in the Coliseums with the lions, 09:30 let's see how much you love... " and... I mean... think about it, 09:34 Jesus is here looking at His church 09:36 during this period of time stand faithful... 09:40 rathering to suffer with lions and fire and... 09:44 now, what that must do to His heart? 09:46 How can He have something to say against this church? 09:49 It's a demonstration of the love of the church during this period 09:55 for their... for that husband... 09:59 Two things here... 10:01 Ivor, just building on what you said, 10:03 one of them is in Ecclesiastes, 10:05 and I just wanted to bring this out 10:06 so that we can all see it, 10:07 because it is a Biblical principle, 10:09 "The thing that has been, is that which shall be... " 10:13 verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 1, 10:15 "and that which is done is that which shall be done: 10:18 and there is no new thing under the sun. 10:20 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? 10:23 it hath been already of old time, 10:24 which was before us. " 10:26 In other words, "Yes, we're seeing these... 10:29 this repeat principle over and over again, 10:32 why? because human nature is the same, 10:35 human beings are the same, 10:36 the history of the Bible is the history of human nature, 10:40 it's the history of us, 10:42 yes, there's some variations here and there 10:44 and sometimes people say, 10:45 "Well, how come God selected 10:47 that history and that history... and that history, 10:50 there's a lot more history in the world... " 10:51 well, because, He just pulled out 10:53 some history that was basically illustrative... 10:56 illustrating the history of all of us, 10:59 here it is and He stepped into that history 11:01 to show us how He can change the course of our history 11:04 and make us... bring us back 11:07 to the image in which we were created. 11:09 And one thing we can also see is that 11:11 Satan doesn't change either, so we can look and say, 11:15 "Okay, well, if we can figure out what it is that Satan did 11:19 in the Old Testament, 11:20 and how he attacked the people of God in the Old Testament, 11:23 then ah... we're going to have a better idea 11:25 of what he's trying to do in the Book of Revelation 11:28 and in the New Testament. " 11:29 So God is showing us, that's why He says that... 11:32 that the things that were written for Israel, 11:35 are written for our admonition 11:37 upon whom the ends of the world are come. 11:40 So, let us take heed lest our promise being left us 11:44 we should fail to enter into it 11:46 because of the same mistakes that they made in the past. 11:50 And then the other thing here I think that's significant 11:54 in... along the lines of what we're talking about is 11:57 in verse 9 it says, "Okay, I know thy works, 12:00 thy tribulation, thy poverty, but thou art rich, 12:02 I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, 12:06 and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. " 12:08 So, part of the reason why this persecution is taking place is 12:12 because it is actually separating 12:15 those who are and those who aren't... 12:17 those who are named and those who aren't. 12:19 This phrase, "those that say they're Jews," 12:22 we need to understand that in the spiritual sense, 12:25 at this point in time, the church has settled in, 12:28 and the new Christian church has settled in with... 12:30 to the fact that they are spiritual Jews... 12:33 that they are spiritual Israel, 12:35 and we know that from a couple of verses, 12:37 one of them is found in Romans chapter 2 verses 28 and 29 12:43 and maybe Jason, would you like to read those verses for us? 12:48 Romans 2:28 and 29... 12:50 Jason: I'm not there yet. 12:52 James: That's okay... we'll wait... with all patience. 12:56 Waiting for Jason to find the verse. 13:01 Jason: Let's see here... all right... 13:06 "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; 13:10 neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 13:14 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly: 13:16 and circumcision is that of the heart, 13:19 in the spirit, and not in the letter; 13:22 whose praise is not of men, but of God. " 13:24 Okay, so here Paul is identifying who Jews really are, 13:29 it's no longer the literal Jews and the literal circumcision, 13:33 Jews are those who are circumcised in the heart 13:36 and so when it says in Revelation and this is now... 13:41 we're in the second century, third century, 13:43 it says in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 9, 13:46 "I know those who say they are Jews... " 13:48 it's not talking about literal Jews, 13:50 it's talking about those who say they're spiritual Jews, 13:52 who say they're circumcised in the heart, 13:54 who say that they're Abraham's seed, 13:56 who say they're part of the Christian church, 13:57 but they are of the synagogue of Satan, 14:00 "don't worry... I know who they are... 14:02 this persecution you're going through right now 14:05 is going to show who those people are 14:08 because those who are not truly a 100 percent in the heart 14:12 converted to Christ 14:14 and dedicated to Him aren't going to survive through this, 14:16 they're going to compromise" and that's what takes place 14:18 as we follow in the next church 14:20 that's what's going to take place. 14:21 And when you think about it... when the Children of Israel, 14:25 the Jews, left out of Egypt, 14:27 out of persecution, there was a separating... 14:30 there were those who weren't "Jews" in name 14:34 but you see a lot of separation happening... 14:38 James: Mixed multitude... 14:39 Ivor: Mixed multitude, 14:40 those who are claiming to be of God 14:42 but stirring up rebellion and doing these kinds of things 14:46 so again we see that history being laid out 14:48 and God is saying, "Look, look... 14:50 and what happened in the Old Testament 14:51 because those things are going to be 14:53 important for you to understand 14:54 in reference to what will happen at the end of time 14:58 or throughout history 15:00 or of the history of the New Testament Church. " 15:02 Now, I love this next verse and I have to say... 15:04 I really like the way, Yvonne, that you read it, 15:07 "Fear none of those things which you shall suffer:" 15:10 I love that... "behold, the devil will cast 15:13 some of you in the prison, 15:14 you will be tried; 15:16 and you will have tribulation ten days: 15:18 be thou faithful unto death, 15:19 and I will give thee a crown of life. " 15:20 We read that that way because we have experienced 15:24 some of this verse ourselves, we understand, 15:28 this verse is personal, 15:29 we're not just reading this verse as we read other verses, 15:33 we recognize that the devil is coming against us 15:36 and the devil sought to persecute us 15:38 and the devil sought to destroy our faith, our grasp, 15:42 our dependence on Christ 15:44 and he's done it through various means 15:47 and through tribulation 15:48 and the tribulation that we face today 15:50 may not be thrown into a colosseum 15:52 filled with lions who are ready to eat us, 15:54 sometimes it's just words and words can be harder to endure 15:58 than martyrdom at times, they can, you know, 16:01 "Sticks and stones may break my bones 16:03 but words will never hurt me" 16:04 that's not true, 16:06 words hurt and they go deep, especially as God restores in us 16:10 his image and we become more sensitive 16:13 because His love renews in us the feelings and emotions 16:17 that he created us to have and or that we're afraid to have 16:20 and we try to numb them with drugs and with the world 16:25 because this world is painful, 16:27 it's a painful place to be when you have feelings. 16:28 Yvonne: Yeah. 16:30 Jason: Are those ten days symbolic of anything? 16:32 The ten... all these numbers... 16:34 James: hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmm... 16:35 that's a good question, 16:37 it's interesting that 16:39 in the controversy 16:41 over the idea of these churches being literal churches 16:45 in John's day which is Preterism 16:47 versus them being symbolic of the church in the ages 16:51 from the Apostolic Age all the way down to Second Coming 16:55 which is Historicism, there is... there are little 16:59 evidences, if you will, 17:02 that Historicism is the one that bears sway here 17:05 and this is one of those evidences, 17:07 I mean, if John is writing a letter to these churches 17:11 and he says to Smyrna, 17:12 "You're going to suffer for ten literal days 17:14 under persecution, be faithful, I'll give you a crown of life," 17:16 and it's like, "Ten days? 17:18 well, why are they the only church that's suffering ten... 17:20 what about Ephesus, 17:21 what about all the other churches?" 17:23 So, yes, this period of time 17:25 is one of the places 17:27 where we see the principle of "day for a year," 17:29 so when we study this prophecy we think, 17:32 "Okay, this... if this isn't ten literal days, 17:35 then it must be ten literal years... 17:37 each day must represent a year... " 17:40 now in order for us to affirm that, 17:42 in order for that to be confirmed in our interpretation 17:45 in our understanding... to be confirmed... 17:47 our interpretation being confirmed, 17:48 we would need to find a place in history 17:50 where that actually happened where for ten years 17:54 God's church... some time after the Apostolic Age 17:58 underwent heavy persecution and we find it... 18:01 we find it from the year 303 A.D. to the year 313 A.D. 18:06 and it happened under Diocletian, 18:09 heavy persecution took place 18:11 and the church was not only persecuted 18:16 but if you remained a Christian, 18:18 your land was taken away from you, 18:20 your houses were taken away from you, 18:22 churches were taken away from you, 18:24 everything was torn away from you, 18:25 everything earthly was taken away from you, 18:27 it was heavy-duty persecution 18:28 and it was in this time... that the period of time 18:33 that the church in Smyrna was described as, I think, 18:37 going under... undergoing... 18:39 well the word Smyrna itself means, "bitter sweet myrrh" 18:42 and it's the kind of stuff that was used from embalming people 18:45 there was a lot of death, there was a lot of persecution 18:48 they had a bitter-sweet experience, 18:50 the bitterness, of course, going through the persecution, 18:53 sweet experience... being rich in faith 18:55 and having the church purified 18:57 and having nothing said against it 18:59 and I think that we as people, Christians... 19:03 that we are afraid of persecution 19:06 but at the same time, 19:08 "Fear none of those things which shall come upon you" 19:10 because I want to make a distinction 19:12 between those who say they're this... 19:13 "they are Jews" and those who aren't, 19:15 and you're going to be rich in faith, 19:16 your faith is going to grow through this time, 19:18 I remember the story years ago and this is going way back 19:22 before your time, Jason, perhaps... to the 1980s 19:28 when the USSR was a prominent power in the world, 19:33 Communism in Eastern Europe and Russia 19:36 had its iron grip on many, many people 19:40 and there were people that would get our of Russia... 19:43 they considered themselves fortunate, 19:45 there was an Adventist family that got out of Russia 19:48 and came to the United States during that time 19:50 and they considered themselves fortunate, 19:52 a few years later they decided to go back to Russia 19:54 and their conclusion was that... 19:57 "It was easier for us to be faithful to Christ in Russia 20:01 than it is for us to be faithful to Christ 20:03 here in the United States 20:05 because it was easier for us to be Christians 20:07 under that persecution than it was for us 20:10 to live a Christian life in this wealthy, 20:12 compromising environment that is the U.S... USA" 20:17 so they... they went back to Russia 20:18 and that's what we're talking about here, 20:21 sometimes we're afraid of persecution, 20:23 persecution can actually be a good thing. 20:25 Yvonne: When you think... oh sorry... 20:27 Ivor: No, no, no, you go... 20:28 When you think about... 20:29 when is it that you find yourself drawing closer to God? 20:35 Not necessarily in the good times... 20:38 but in the bad times 20:40 when you really need to reach out to Him 20:43 that's when... when you... everything is honky dory... 20:48 we tend to... we can put God on the back burner which is wrong, 20:52 but... but when you're going through it 20:56 and that's when you reach out, "God help me... " 20:59 and you're on your knees, 21:01 you're on your knees for your children 21:03 or you're on your knees for your spouse or your... 21:06 whatever it is... your job... whatever it is... 21:09 you're on your knees so that persecution... 21:12 that suffering... though we don't want it, 21:14 I found for me that the closest times 21:18 that I have with the Lord are when I'm going through... 21:21 and you don't want that, it's not like you pick that 21:24 and say, "Okay, I want to suffer now," 21:27 no, you don't want that but when you are suffering 21:31 the only place to go is God. 21:35 You're going to find that principle 21:38 to be revealed to be true when we get to the next church, 21:42 because when things ease up and things get good, 21:46 it's human nature to begin the compromise 21:50 but looking at this reward for the church of Smyrna, 21:55 the reward is a crown of life 21:57 and it's interesting that God uses that reward 22:01 because He realizes and recognizes 22:03 what they're going through here, 22:06 He acknowledges what they're going through 22:07 and says, "Listen, even though 22:10 you're suffering death right now" 22:12 in fact it's the last verse, verse 11, 22:16 "He that has an ear, 22:17 let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; 22:19 he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. " 22:23 So, Jesus is telling the church here, 22:27 "Even though you're suffering the first death, 22:29 don't worry about it... you're going to have a crown of life, 22:31 you're not going to experience the second death. " 22:36 The second death is... death forever, 22:38 right, there's not return from that second death 22:41 so... so, He's saying, 22:42 "Listen, what you're going through now is just a sleep, 22:45 I'm going to wake you up in the morning 22:48 I'm going to put a crown on your head... and be faithful. " 22:52 so that's the reward, 22:53 that's the encouragement He's giving to His church 22:56 in this stage, He's telling them, 22:58 "Be faithful... and don't worry about 23:01 what the devil is throwing in your face 23:03 because I'm going to give you something better. " 23:05 James: Let's build on that a little bit, 23:06 Ivor... 23:08 really the only place that the phrase, "Second death" 23:13 is used in the Bible is in the Book of Revelation, 23:18 the only place, 23:20 it's used in Revelation chapter 2 23:22 and it's also in Revelation chapter 20, 23:24 so, the reason why God did that 23:28 and it's clear in the Book of John 23:31 when you read about the story of Lazarus, 23:34 it's very clear that God identifies death 23:37 in relation to what we experience 23:41 as mortals, He identifies it as a sleep... 23:44 He identifies it as a sleep, 23:46 so, over and over again, He tells the disciples, 23:49 "Lazarus is sleeping... Lazarus is sleeping, 23:52 Lazarus is sleeping" and the disciples don't get it, 23:54 they don't get it, 23:56 "Well, if he's sleeping, he's doing good 23:57 because when you're sick... when you got a sore throat... 24:00 and you need to sleep... you need a rest... " 24:04 so, finally, Jesus says to them, "Plainly... " verse 11, 24:10 John 11 verse 11, Jesus says to them, 24:14 "Plainly... our... " excuse me... 24:17 that's not the verse I'm looking for, 24:20 it's verse 14... 24:23 "Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. " 24:27 He didn't say, "second death," 24:28 they didn't get... that sleep and death are synonymous, 24:34 they didn't get that, okay, 24:36 so then Jesus tries to clarify a little bit more, 24:38 a little bit later here, 24:39 He's talking to Martha... to the sister of Lazarus, 24:42 and He says in verse 23, "Jesus said unto her, 24:46 Thy brother shall rise again. 24:47 And Martha said to him, I know that he shall rise again 24:50 in the resurrection at the last day," 24:51 which is what we were talking about 24:53 and then He goes on... 24:54 "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, 24:56 and the life: he that believes in me 24:58 though he were dead, yet shall he live... " 25:00 now get this, verse 26, 25:01 "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall... " what? 25:04 Jason: Never die... 25:05 Then He asks a question, what's the question He asks? 25:07 All: "Believest thou this?" 25:09 James: "Do you believe that... do you believe that? 25:11 Do you believe that you will never die?" 25:14 So really, in this church statement here, 25:17 okay, when you read Revelation chapter 2 and verse 10, 25:20 "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: 25:23 behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, 25:26 and ye may be tried; 25:27 and you shall have tribulation ten days: 25:29 be thou faithful unto... " 25:31 Ivor: Sleep... 25:33 James: Sleep... right? Yvonne: Hmmm... hmmm.. 25:36 James: because you won't be hurt of... death... 25:38 Yvonne: Right... 25:39 James: That's the way a Christian reads these verses, 25:43 "be faithful unto sleep... 25:45 because you won't be hurt of death... " 25:46 Yvonne: Yes... 25:48 James: The only reason why it's death and second death 25:49 is because we never got to sleep that part 25:51 and so this is clarification for us. 25:54 The first death is a sleep. 25:56 So that's even more powerful 25:58 because that's basically what Jesus is saying to us, 26:00 He's saying, "Hey you're just going to sleep, 26:01 just be faithful, you're just going to sleep 26:03 you won't be hurt of death, you won't die, 26:05 if you believe in me, you'll never die. " 26:07 Yvonne: So we're not saying... we need to clarify... 26:10 we're not saying that you don't go to sleep in death 26:13 but that death is "a sleep.. " it's a temporary sleep... 26:17 just like you go... you go to bed... 26:19 you go to sleep and you wake up the next morning 26:22 you've been asleep but you're not permanently gone. 26:26 James: But the second death... or death itself is permanent. 26:29 Yvonne: Right. 26:31 Ivor: Let's just recap something very quickly, 26:33 first church... 31 A.D. roughly to about a 100 A.D. 26:37 that brings the 70-Week Prophecy into view... the first church... 26:42 the second church... we're in an interim... 26:44 between the 70 Weeks and the 1,260... 26:48 we've left the 70-Week... we're not yet at 1,260... 26:51 so we're in an interim... 26:53 and so we just want to keep that in mind as we move on. 26:56 James: Timeless... Yvonne: Time and location... 26:58 James: And again we want to emphasize, 27:00 questions, questions, questions, send in your video questions. 27:04 Jason: There you go... to... 27:06 sss@3abn. org 27:10 "s" as in Salvation in Symbols and Signs. 27:12 James: Salvation in Symbols and Signs. 27:14 Yvonne: Yeah! 27:15 James: So we are excited... this is just a great journey... 27:20 I think... it's... I'm learning as I'm going... 27:23 and I think we all are and we're taking our time... 27:26 we're not... we don't have an agenda 27:27 we're just moving through it and God is blessing 27:29 so Yvonne, close us out with a word of prayer, would you? 27:32 Yvonne: Sure... "Father, thank you so much 27:34 for the richness of your Word 27:37 and for allowing us to just break bread together, 27:40 thank you, Lord... we just praise you and bless your name 27:43 and help us to be ready when you come back, Lord Jesus, 27:47 in Jesus' name we pray, amen." 27:48 All: "Amen..." |
Revised 2016-08-08