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"Revelation 1"
By Steven L Anderson Bible Text: Revelation 1 Preached on: Wednesday, January 3, 2007 Website: www.faithfulwordbaptist.org Audio Sermon: www.faithfulwordbaptist.org/010307p.mp3
..trying to start something new, dear God,
and please just bless us this year in 2007, dear God. Bless this new series on
Wednesday night. And use it in the lives
of your people in such an important subject, dear God. Please speak to every
heart tonight and in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. All right. So we are
starting a brand new book tonight, the book of Revelation, the last book in the
Bible. And I want to just give a few notes before begin and delve into this
great chapter, chapter one of the book of Revelation. I want to tell you a
little bit about what we are going to be learning. Now, when you are studying
the book of Revelation, obviously we are dealing with 90% of this book is
future events. And so because we are dealing with future events there are some
things that people speculate about, some things that people guess about and
have ideas about that are their opinions.
Now what I want to
point out is that throughout the book of Revelation God doesn’t make you wonder
what things mean. God doesn’t leave you in the dark about what things
mean. He says here, “The mystery of the
seven stars.” And then he says, “Let me tell you what they are. You know, the
mystery of the seven golden candlesticks. Let me tell you exactly what the
candlesticks are. They are seven churches.” Now throughout the
whole book of Revelation you will see this more than any other prophetic book
in the Bible, all the Old Testament prophetic books. The book is explained as it goes. I mean God
tells you, “This is what this means.”
John is scratching his head in a few places in the book wondering what
something means. Immediately someone comes and tells him what it means. Now the only reason
that people don’t understand the book of Revelation is because they are
unwilling sometimes to accept the obvious truths that are put forth. And so
they find a way to explain them away. They find a way to change and twist what
it means. And they call it their interpretation.
And so the problem
that people have understanding the book of Revelation is their unwillingness to
take the book literally or their unwillingness to accept the obvious truths
that are taught here. Verse 20 of chapter
one makes it very clear that God is not going to keep us in the dark throughout
this book. He says, “It is a mystery,
but it is not a mystery to you because I am telling you what it means. It is a
mystery to people who are not privy to this information.” Look at verse number
three. He says, “Blessed is he that readeth.”[5]
Revelation 1:3. “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of
this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is
at hand.”[6] He says, “Blessed are you that read because
you that read will understand the mystery of the seven stars. You will understand the mystery of the seven
golden candlesticks. You will understand
the great unfolding of events that is going to take place in the end of the world.” And so that is what
I want you to know right away is that this book is not as difficult to
understand as people make it. It is very
simple actually. And we will see that. I want you to decide
right now that you are going to try to be here for all 22 weeks of this series.
I want you to really try and make a point to be here. This is so important and
if you miss a week, obviously you can jump right back in. But you are missing a lot if you miss a week
in this particular series especially.
And so decide right now instead of maybe “Blessed is he that readeth and
they that hear the words of this prophecy,”[7]
blessed is he that comes on Wednesday night and hears this book preached, ok,
because you are going to understand it. God has manifested his Word through
preaching the Bible says,[8]
in Titus 1:3. And so let’s look at
this and let’s begin right away. The
Bible says in Revelation 1:1... And, by the way, chapters one, two and three
are introductory. Ok. Chapter one gives us the scenario, the
events. Chapters two and three are Jesus Christ’s exhortations for the seven
main churches in But look at verse
number one. The Bible reads, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and
he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:”[9] Now what I love
about the books that the apostle John wrote is that he always tells us what the
purpose of the book is. In the book of
John, for example, at the end of the book—and you don’t have to turn there. I
will read this for you—at the end of John 20 the Bible reads in the final
verse, “But these are written,”[10]
talking about the things that are written in the book of John. “But these are
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing ye might have life through his name.”[11] So in John 20:31 God
says here that the purpose of the book of John—and this is the only book that
really claims this—is so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ and
that believing you would have life through his name. When you get to the
book of 1 John he says, “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may
be full.[12] He says, “I am going to explain to you now
that you are saved how to have fullness of joy in the Christian life.” And he explains that that is by walking in
the light and not walking in the darkness because your fellowship with Jesus
Christ is when you are walking in the light. Well in the book of
Revelation he says in verse one what the purpose of the book is. It is to show
unto his servants those things which must shortly come to pass.[13] So who is the book
of Revelation primarily written to? Is
it written to an unsaved world warning them of the doom and destruction that is
coming? No. The primary purpose of the book of Revelation
is written to God’s people, saved born again Christians to show unto them the
things which must shortly come to pass so that they can be ready for these
things when they do come to pass. That
is the purpose of the book of Revelation.
So notice that the
audience is God’s people. It is you. You are the one who needs to be reading
this book. You are the one that needs to be ready as Jesus Christ admonished
you to be at so many places in the gospels.
Look at verse
two. The Bible says, “Who bare record of
the word of God,”[14]
speaking of John: “Who
bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of
all things that he saw. Blessed is he
that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those
things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. John to the seven churches which are in Now look if you
would at chapter number three. See,
notice that phrase, “the seven Spirits which are before his throne.”[16]
Look at chapter three of Revelation. Flip over if you would and look at—let’s
see here, I lost my place—look at verse number one of chapter three. The Bible
says, “And unto the angel of the church in Ok. So who has the seven Spirits of God? Jesus
Christ is what the Bible is saying. Look back at chapter
number one and verse number four. The
Bible says that...so we know that Jesus Christ is speaking. He says: From
him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits
which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the
earth.[19] If you were here a
couple of weeks ago you know that that “and” there is not talking about two
different people. It is restating who
that person is. The person who is and
was and is to come who has the seven Spirits before his throne is Jesus
Christ. It is clear from English grammar
if you understand what that word “and” means.
It is a restatement of who he is. Now we studied a few
weeks ago, also, the eternal preexistence of Jesus Christ. Remember in Micah 5:2 the Bible says that in Somebody asked me
the other day, actually just on Sunday when I was out soul winning. I won this guy to the Lord and he said...and
his brother was there listening and his brother did not get saved. And his
brother said to me, he said, “Well, who made God? I mean, where did God come from? I mean, if everything came from God, where
did God come from?” And I said, “Well,
God always was.” And, see, that is
what he means here. He says he was, he is and he is to come. We are talking about the eternality of Jesus
Christ. See, Jesus Christ is as eternal
as God is. He has no beginning. He is from everlasting. By the way, those
two words “from everlasting” only in the King James Bible will you find that
concept of the eternal preexistence of Jesus Christ from everlasting. And so he says he is, he was and he is to
come... ....and
from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the
earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God
and his Father[21] Do you see the word
“and” there again? “Unto God and his
Father”?[22] Are those two different people? Are God and Jesus Christ’s Father two
different people? No. So you have to understand the English
language here.
Now when we see the
word “Amen” there at the end of verse six we are ending a phase, ok. The first six verses is the introduction,
telling us what the book is, telling us who the book is written to. Then we get
into verse number seven which is the quintessential verse, I feel, of the
entire book of Revelation. This is the key verse. And it is set apart by amens
to give it a place preeminence here.
Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see
him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him. Even so, Amen.”[24] Now this is the
theme of the book of Revelation. The theme of Revelation is the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ. Now there are certain
things that note the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Number one, he is coming in
the clouds. Now, we know that
from Acts chapter one. Remember when the
11 disciples beheld as Jesus was taken up from them in a cloud the Bible
says? He was... “a cloud received him
out of their sight.”[25] And then the two men stood there in white
apparel which said, “Ye men of So when he
left...now in order to understand the Second Coming you have got to understand
the ascension. When he left he was ascending up to heaven in the clouds and
people were watching him, right? Eleven
men stood up gazing into heaven the Bible says as he went up in a cloud into heaven.
Well he is going to come back the same way.
That is exactly what this says here.
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they
also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of
him. Even so, Amen.”[27] So picture this.
Jesus Christ is going to return in the clouds. Every one is going to see Jesus
Christ in the clouds and, I mean, think about this, world wide. He says, “All kindreds of the earth.”[28] I mean, people in Now there are
several mentions in the New Testament of Jesus Christ coming in the clouds, ok.
Let’s look at them quickly. Turn to
Matthew 24. We are just going to look at
these very quickly. Some of them I will read to you. Some of them you can look at because there is
so much information that I want to give tonight and there is not a lot of
time. But look at Matthew
24 and we will look at every mention that speaks of Jesus Christ returning in
the clouds. Look at Matthew 24 and look at verse number 29. Actually, look at
verse number 24. Matthew 24:24. The Bible reads, For there shall arise false
Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch
that, if it were possible,”[30]
you see, it is not possible, but if it were possible, “they shall deceive the
very elect.”[31]or
saved, God’s people, born again. Behold,
I have told you before. Wherefore if
they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he
is in the secret chambers; believe it not.[32] Now, look. From
those two verses if somebody tells you that Jesus Christ’s coming is in some
way a secret are we supposed to believe it?
No way. He says, if somebody
tells you, “Oh, look he came over here it is a secret, he is over here, he is
over here.” And see it says, “There shall arise false Christs.”[33] Is that coming from up or coming from
down? That’s coming from down. They are
arriving, these false Christs from the earth.
And it is a secret, shh. But, no. That’s not
what the Bible says. It says, “Believe
it not.” “For as the lightning,”[34]
verse 27, “cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be.”[35] He said it is going to be like a bolt of
lightning that if it flashed over here you would see the brightness over here.
You could see a bolt of lightning anywhere you are looking in the sky. You
could see the shine, the flash from it. And the Bible says: So
shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered
together.[36] Verse 29. Immediately
after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the heavens shall be shaken: And then
shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:[37] Now the word
“appear,” that is a visual word. He says the sun is going to turn to darkness.
The moon shall not give her light and then shall appear the sign of the Son of
man. So then there is going to be an
appearance in the sky. I am trying to describe for you what Revelation one
describes here, the Second Coming, that it is going to be an appearance of
Jesus Christ coming. See that is a verb
that means he is in the process of coming. So while he is while he is on his
way down people are going to see him. He is going to appear in the sky, in the
clouds of heaven. “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”[38] Now let me read for
you Revelation one again. He said, “And all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him.”[39] Ok. And then in Matthew 24 we see, “Then shall
all the tribes of the earth mourn.”[40] So people, when it says “wailed” it is kind
of like the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that is going to be in
hell. It is people wailing, crying out saying, “Oh, no. Woe unto us,” they are
saying. “Good night.” Now is this positive
feeling that the world is feeling when the see Jesus Christ coming on the
cloud? They are saying, “Whoa.” They are wailing. Do you know what wailing
means? Wailing is like if you have
babies or toddlers you understand what wailing is. Wailing is not just weeping
or crying. Weeping could be just
sniffling. Wailing is like... That’s right. We know. It is a familiar sound in
our house with John here, you know, 10 years old.
But anyway, the
Bible says, “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”[41] They are crying. They are wailing. They are
scared to death. “Then shall all the
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds,”[42]
very important “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[43] And so they blow a
trumpet and Jesus Christ gathers his elect. He gathers all of his people. It is
the rapture and they come up together to meet him in the clouds. And he will
send forth his angels to “gather together his elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other.”[44] Look down if you
would to verse number 40. Look at verse number 40. Then
shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two
women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other
left. Watch therefore: for ye know not
what hour your Lord doth come.[45] And so, basically,
the Bible is saying here that it is going to be a certain order of events here.
First, the tribulation. After the tribulation the sun and the moon are darkened
which is going to be at the opening of the sixth seal when we get into chapter
six of Revelation. The sun and moon will be darkened. Then there is going to be
an appearance in heaven of Jesus Christ coming in the clouds of heaven. Then
there is going to be great weeping and wailing on the earth and mourning and
shock. And then it is going to be two people in the field working together,
grinding at the mill, doing their work, men, women, working. One is going to be taken, one is going to be
left. That is the way it is going to be when God gathers his elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. And so flip back, if
you would, to Revelation one. And while you are turning there I will read to
you another account of this quickly. And
I am reading you every single time, every single time that Jesus Christ coming
in the clouds is mentioned, every time. I am not leaving anything out. And this is what it says. The Bible reads in 1 Thessalonians chapter
four, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord...”[46] Now stop for a
second. Are the saved, born again Christians going to be alive and remain unto
the coming of the Lord? Absolutely. He
says, “That’s who I am writing to.” It
could be us for all we know in 2007. We
might be the generation in which Jesus Christ will return. And so he says,
“unto you that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,”[47]
so right there we see that born again Christians are going to remain unto the
coming of the Lord. He said that, “we
which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent,”[48]
or go before, “them which are asleep. For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God...”[49] There is the trumpet. “And the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.”[50] Notice, two times we have seen the clouds
mentioned. “...to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.[51] And so that is 1
Thessalonians chapter four. A little bit further down, well, I’ll skip for the
sake of time. And then, of course, there is another mention of Jesus Christ
coming in the clouds in 1 Corinthians 15.
I will read that for you. 1
Corinthians 15 the Bible reads: Behold,
I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.[52] And so we see here
the coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds several times mentioned, always
consistent. Jesus comes down in the clouds, blows a trumpet. We are caught up
together to meet him “in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore
comfort one another with these words.”[53] Now look, if you
would, at verse...Revelation 14.
Revelation 14 is the final mention that actually mentions the clouds in
this Second Coming of Jesus Christ which is what I am trying to illustrate for
you. Revelation 14, the Bible reads in
verse number 13 of Revelation 14. And
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which
die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labours; and their works do follow them.
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like
unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp
sickle. And another angel came out of the temple.[54] See, there is always
that other angel mentioned. There is the archangel and Jesus mentioned always
with the coming in the clouds. “And another angel
came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud,”[55]
which is the Son of man, Jesus Christ, “Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the
time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his
sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”[56] So here we have,
again, Jesus Christ coming in the clouds of heaven with the archangel and he
reaps the earth. What do you think he is scooping up when reaps the earth? Us if we are here. So, you see, he is basically reaping the
earth of the elect, of God’s people. He is gathering them from one end of
heaven to the other. He says, “The harvest of the earth is ripe.”[57] Remember Jesus said
that the field is white unto harvest?[58] Ok, so the harvest pictures the end of the
world, the Bible says. “He that soweth the
good seed is the Son of man.”[59] He that soweth the tares is the wicked one.[60]
He says, “The reapers are the angels.”[61] The field is the world. He says, “[And] the harvest is the end of the
world.”[62] This is all found in Matthew chapter 13. He explains very clearly what this means. And
so you have to compare Scripture with Scripture. And you will see that the
reaping that takes place in Revelation 14 is the rapture of God’s people who
have been saved and born again according to Matthew chapter 13.
And so back to
Revelation one. Actually, let’s look at
one more place quickly. Look at
Revelation six at the end of Revelation six.
The Bible says at the end of Revelation six...and let’s start with verse
number 12. This is where I said about the sixth seal. Look at Revelation
6:12. “And I beheld when he had opened
the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black
as sackcloth of hair,”[64]
just like in Matthew 24, remember the sun and moon darkened. ....the
moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a
fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it
is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their
places.[65] And look at
this. This is the key, verse 15. “And the kings of the earth, and the great
men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
bondman, and every free man...”[66] Do you see how it is the whole world wide
here? Every single person on the face of
the earth. ....
every free man, hid themselves in the
dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks,
Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and
from the [face] of the Lamb.[67] So you see
the...they see the face of the Lamb.
Right after the sun and moon are darkened, boom, they look up and they
see the face of the Lamb and they are weeping and they are weeping and wailing.
And what are they saying when they weep and wail like we saw that they were
weeping in Matthew 24? We saw that they
were wailing in Revelation one. This is what they are wailing. They are crying
out to the mountains: Fall
on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from
the [face] of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall
be able to stand?[68] So we see here that
the initiating of God’s wrath is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the
clouds. Do we see that? When Jesus Christ comes in the clouds people
are weeping and wailing because the day of his great wrath has come. And then what is the
next step? We know from Matthew 24, from
1 Thessalonians four, from 1 Corinthians 15, from Revelation 14 the next step
after the weeping and wailing and “the great day of his wrath is come; and who
shall be able to stand?”[69] He sounds the trumpet and gathers, “his elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[70] So let me ask you
something. Is the rapture going to take
you by surprise? Not at all. The Bible
says, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you
as a thief,”[71]
in 1 Thessalonians five. Ye
are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the
night, nor of darkness. Therefore
let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.[72] He says, “Be sober,
be ready. Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh,”[73]
he says in Luke 21. You will see, my
friend, if you are alive on this earth to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we
that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord are going to look up and
see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. That is
what you are looking for, my friend. And
when you see that, when you see the sun and moon darkened, when you see the Son
of Man coming in the clouds with great glory, then, he says, “Look up…for your
redemption draweth nigh”[74] He says, “Any second now you are going to be
taken and the other that you are with that is unsaved is going to be
left.” And so look back, if
you would, to Revelation chapter one.
See, the Bible is very clear. It is very consistent. It is very easy to understand. And so we saw, of course, the introductory
verses one through six and in verse number seven, the quintessential verse of
the book of Revelation, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see
him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail
because of him. Even so, Amen.”[75] Here we have the
dichotomy of the book of Revelation, the dichotomy of the great day of the
Lord, the day of Christ. The dichotomy is that for those of us that are saved
it is a very exciting day. It is a
glorious day. Now, that is why he says
here people are going to be wailing because of it, but he says, “Even so,
Amen.”[76]
Because he is writing it. He is not in that crowd. And so that is why in Revelation 22—don’t
turn there—but he says, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”[77] He said, “[Behold] I come quickly.”[78]
And then John says. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”[79]
You know, like the
song, It is Well with My Soul, “And,
Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled as a
scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well
with my soul.” Now let me ask you
something. Did the person that wrote, It
is Well with My Soul believe in the pretribulation rapture? No.
Because they said, “Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord
shall descend, even so it is well with me soul.” The person who wrote that song knew that
Jesus Christ coming in the clouds, the blessed hope, when the trump resounds
and the Lord descends is going to be at the same time as the clouds, as the
heavens are rolled back as a scroll. Now, when are the
heavens rolled back as a scroll? In
Revelation six when the sixth seal is opened the sun turns back, the moon turns
dark, the stars fall out of the sky. Then the heavens are rolled back as a
scroll. Then Jesus Christ comes in the clouds and blows the trumpet. You see, the person
who wrote that song understood this great truth. They understood the book of
Revelation. And so that is why I like
the old hymns, the old songs in the hymnal because they are not filled with
false doctrine like the new songs are that are shallow and they come out of Nashville,
Tennessee. This didn’t come out of And so we see this
verse that describes the dichotomy of this day of the Lord. To us it is known as the day of Christ when
we see Jesus Christ come in the clouds. But to the unsaved it is called the day
of the Lord. Now, as you are
reading in the Old Testament, you know, you are reading through the Bible cover
to cover, God willing. And so as you read through the Bible always look for
that phrase, “the day of the Lord.” Ok,
look for those words right there. I am talking about the capital LORD, the all
caps in the Old Testament. You will see
it a lot in the book of Isaiah. You will
see it a lot in the book of Joel. You will see it all throughout the Old
Testament. And the Bible says in the book of Joel: The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great
and the terrible day of the LORD come. And
it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall
be delivered.[80] And then that is
quoted again in Acts chapter two, you know: The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great
and notable day of the Lord come: And it
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
saved.[81] That is what it says
in Acts chapter two. And so all
throughout the Bible you will see that the day of the Lord is a day of clouds
and of thick darkness the Bible says. He says it is going to be a terrible day.
It is going to be a dreadful day. It is going to be a horrible day is what he
says. But to those of us who are saved it is a glorious day. That is the day of
the Lamb of God’s great wrath. But to us
it is a glorious day because it is our deliverance. It is our salvation. It is
the redemption of our body. It is the first resurrection when we will be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and caught up together with
Jesus Christ in the clouds to be ever with the Lord. Boy, so you see the
dichotomy—is what I am trying to say—of the book of Revelation? Extremely negative and extremely positive
depending on whether you are saved is the deciding factor there. So that is verse
numbers seven. Isn’t that a great verse?
What a powerful verse in the Bible. This is my favorite verse in the
whole book of Revelation, bar none, hands down, Revelation 1:7. I mean I quote this verse all the time it is
such a fantastic verse. Understand verse
seven in order to understand the whole book of Revelation. Look at verse
eight. The Bible reads, “I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,”[82]
talking about Jesus Christ, “which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty.”[83] Now, of course, the
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God. And this is what they
will say. They will say, “Jesus is a mighty God. But he is not the almighty God.” Like, for example, in verse number six of
Isaiah chapter nine the Bible calls Jesus Christ, “the everlasting Father, the
mighty God.”[84] And I have shown
that to Jehovah’s Witnesses and said, “Look.
Jesus Christ is the everlasting Father, the mighty God,”[85]
because even in their Bible, their Bible perverts a lot of things and tries to
remove every reference to Jesus being God.
But even in the But here we have
Jesus Christ called the almighty. Do you see that? And he is called the beginning and the
ending. He is the beginning. See, there was nothing before Jesus Christ because
he is the beginning. I mean, by him, “All things were made by him; and without
him was not any thing made that was made.”[87] And so he says, “I am Alpha and Omega.”[88]
Those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He is saying, like,
“I am the A to the Z.” He says, “I encompass the past, the present, the
future.” “By him all things consist,”[89]
the Bible says in Colossians. You know, people
don’t even understand what holds an atom together. You know, the proton and the
neutron and the electron? Did you know
that if you were to put things to scale?
Let’s say you made a proton be the size of a marble, then the electron
would be thousands and thousands of miles away, literally. I mean, they are
both far smaller than that and so they are very close together in our mind, you
know, within an atom I am talking about, a single atom. And, of course, even a
penny is made out of just quadrillions of atoms, right? But if you go down to the smallest unit, an
atom, the electron is so tiny and the proton is so tiny that they are
literally...it is like they are millions of miles apart, I’ll put it that way,
even though they are close together. But in relation to their size, do you
follow what I am saying? What holds them
together? What keeps that electron in
orbit around the proton? Am I going to
deep here? I mean what keeps the
electron in orbit around the proton? You say,
“Gravity.” Gravity? Things that are that small? I thought only big things had gravity,
otherwise I would be attracted to things in this room by gravity. But my density is too low, my mass is too low
and things have to be close together and they have to have a lot of mass. Now, does an atom
have a lot of mass? Not at all. Tiny. What keeps it together? What keeps it
in orbit? And you think about
the planets. They spin around other
planets. I’m sorry, the planets spin
around the sun. The moon spins around
the planet. What keeps it spinning? You say, “Gravity.” Well, then why does
it spin the exact same way in the atom? You see, “By him all
things consist.”[90] Jesus Christ is the one who keeps the whole
universe together. He is the one that
keeps that electron and the proton and the neutron in that balance. And no one
can ever understand it. The world doesn’t understand it. All they know is that
if they split that atom they can create an explosion that could level a city
like that. See, that is the power of God, my friend. And so Jesus Christ
is the end all, be all is what he is saying when he says, “I am alpha and
omega.” He says, “I am the beginning and the ending.” And he says, “I am the
Almighty.”[91] And then look at
verse number nine. Here we have John speaking. I
John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called So John, who is
writing this book, is actually being punished because it says that he is in the
Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the Word of God. Why
was he put on the Isle of Patmos?
Because he maintained a testimony, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God.” Because he took a stand for
the Word of God he was sent to this Isle of Patmos as a punishment, as
exile. Instead of being killed or thrown
in jail, they decided to punish him by throwing him on this deserted island.
You know, I don’t know if he was all by himself. I don’t know if he was in some
kind of a prison colony. I am not really sure if anybody was there with
him. But he was probably not with any
other believers or anything like that. He is just kind of on his own on this
desert island, so to speak, the Isle of Patmos, “for the word of God, and for
the testimony of Jesus Christ.”[93] Now, I love what he
says here. “I John, who also am your brother.”[94]
Ok. And he says, “And companion in
tribulation.”[95] Now the word
“tribulation” is a word that everyone knows, a very commonly used word when
dealing with the book of Revelation. But
did you know that it is used very little in the book of Revelation? It is used in Revelation chapter number one.
It is used in Revelation chapter number two.
And then it is used in Revelation chapter number seven. And that’s
it. It is used very little, ok? Now what is the
tribulation that John is enduring in verse nine? The tribulation that he is enduring is
persecution for what he believes as we see the first time that the word
tribulation is used in the New Testament in Matthew 13 when the Bible says, “For
when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word...”[97] Ok. “For
when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is
offended.”[98] And so here we have,
again, the tribulation is because of the testimony of Jesus Christ and the Word
of God. Tribulation is a result of
taking a stand for the Word of God. Do
you understand why I am saying that? The
Bible says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I
have overcome the world.”[99] “For verily, when we were with you, we told
you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye
know.”[100] He says we will suffer tribulation for what
we believe. “Yea, and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”[101] You will be persecuted for what you
believe. If you take a stand, not just
for the testimony of Jesus Christ, that might not get you persecuted, but when
you take a stand for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the Word of God, now
you are into some tribulation. Now you
are going to get some persecution.
You say, “Well, you
know, people aren’t persecuting me because I am a Christian.” Well, start talking
about this book and see. Start preaching
the things that are in this book. Start
talking about the Word of God. And you
are going to find yourself in a heap of tribulation right away. Ok, that is the
difference. It is not just the testimony
of Jesus that gets you tribulation, but when you take it a step further and
say, “I am going to take a stand for the whole book. I believe everything in this book and I am
going to preach it from the housetops.”
That is where you are going to endure tribulation and persecution because
of the Word. So John says, “I
John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation...”[103] He says, “I hope as you are reading this,
that you are enduring tribulation like I am. I hope you are not leaving me on
this island of Patmos in suffering and persecution, tribulation as well while
you don’t take a stand for Jesus Christ, while you are living some namby pamby
Christian life, while you are in the in feel good, psycho babble church, while
you are in some lame church, while you are not taking a stand, while you are
not out soul winning, while you are not taking a stand for the things of God,
while you are some liberal preacher that won’t stand up and preach right,
because I am in tribulation and persecution and the people that I am writing to,”
as we saw in verse one, “are his servants.
I am writing this to show unto his servants those things which must
shortly come to pass. And his servants are enduring tribulation.” And he says,
“If you are not my brother, if you are not my companion in tribulation, you are
reading the wrong book. This is written
to people who love God, who take a stand for God, who are my companions in
tribulation.” Would you like to be
a companion of the apostle John? Would
you like to be a companion of those that are like him? Then you are going to have to endure a little
bit of persecution for what you believe. And if you are not enduring any
persecution for what you believe, you are probably not living godly in Christ
Jesus, because otherwise the Bible is not true.
And so tribulation
and persecution will come to those who believe.
The other mention of tribulation...I am just going to show you the three
mentions quickly. I am hurrying to get done with the chapter. But look at verse number nine of chapter two,
Revelation 2:9. This is written to a
church in I
know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know
the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the
synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those
things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into
prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.[104] Now, let me ask you
something. Is the book of Revelation hard to understand? Or is it very consistent? Because here we see John in tribulation
because of the Word of God and he is in prison, so to speak, because he is on
the Isle of Patmos. That is exactly what he says here to this church. He says,
“You are going to have tribulation 10 days.” He says, “The devil is going to
case some of you into prison.” He says, “Be thou faithful unto death and I
shall give thee a crown of life.”[105] So the Word is very consistent. And then look down,
if you would, here is another mention of tribulation, verse number 21 and 22 of
chapter number two. The Bible says: |