Revelations 1-5

In this Biblically Wired podcast, the host discusses the book of Revelation, emphasizing that the main point is Jesus being in control and victorious. The host explains that the word "apocalypse" means revealing or unveiling, and the book reveals Jesus Christ. The host also mentions the blessings found in Revelation for believers, such as those who read and heed its words, those who die in Christ, and those who are ready. The host highlights the author, Apostle John, and his location on the island of Patmos. The host briefly mentions the seven churches in Asia that the book is dedicated to and describes Jesus' appearance in a vision. The host concludes by discussing the church of Ephesus and Jesus' message to them. Hey, everyone, you are listening to the Biblically Wired podcast. This is your host, Barb, out of Minneapolis. Today we are going to discuss the book of Revelation, chapter 1 through 5. And I just taught on this as the class I taught just finished up, Genesis to Revelations, and we had our cake celebration, very exciting stuff going on here in Minneapolis. The word for Revelation is the same word, apocalypse, and this word has been taken out of context, and I looked in recent dictionaries, and it is listed as an end-time war. And that is not the meaning here in the Greek, apocalypsis means revealing or unveiling, and the unveiling or revelation here is of Jesus Christ. The entire book of Revelations is about Jesus, Jesus is the center character. The Antichrist, the beast, the mark of the beast, all that jazz, is not the main point of Revelation. The main point is Jesus is in glory, Jesus is in control, Jesus is on his throne. And he is going to be the victor. The battle has almost already been won, and it exposes the enemy's defeat. So when I used to think of the book of Revelation, I just thought of all this scariness, but The cool part is Jesus has the keys, and he has the keys to death and Hades, which means those of us in Christ that are believers, we will never, ever touch either death or Hades. Death is separation from God, and this is something that is impossible once we're born again. So there is tons of good news in Revelation, and no need to avoid it. So we're going to look at chapters 1-5, I'm going to do my next teaching surrounding the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, and some of that stuff. But this is so cool because it focuses on Jesus. So the author, the author is the Apostle John, at this point he is the only disciple alive. He is on the island of Patmos, where the Roman emperors put criminals. And this island is about 10 miles by 6 miles. It's rocky and cavey, but there is some greenery. It's not just a rock in the ocean. It is about 40 miles west of Ephesus. So it's a ways out there from the city that John has spent a lot of time in. And as we know, Ephesus is the church that Timothy took over. Super cool stuff, pulling together lots of things that we have studied and moving into this culmination here in the book of Revelation. Now, I want to reiterate that this is the only book, and I think it's important, chapter 1 verse 3, I was surprised my Bible says it's the key verse. I wouldn't call this the key verse, but it's kind of big. Revelation is the only book that says that you will be blessed by reading it, hearing it, and acting it out, heeding its advice. And that is chapter 1 verse 3. Now, we know we get blessings by reading, heeding, and acting out wisdom in all the books of the Bible, but Jesus wants us to know there is a special blessing for reading Revelation. So let's go to it. Verses 1 and 2, it describes that Jesus is the author. This is Jesus telling John what to write through who? Through an angel. And I loved this part because I've been with the underground church in the Middle East, in Iraq, in Lebanon, and they say that when they convert a Muslim, a Muslim is very concerned about who gave the words of our book to us. Because an angel of light, or angel Gabriel, gave them the Koran, and that's so important to them. Believe it or not, that's a big deal for them, and it's not something we think about so often, that the Bible is actually the inspired word of God himself, and not just an angel. And here we see an angel is giving this to John, but it's from Jesus Christ. So, it's just kind of cool. So I'm going to read the seven B attitudes of Revelations, and this is seven blessings that are listed in Revelation for believers. We know seven, if you've listened to my podcast, is the number for complete. So first of all, we're blessed if we read and heed, right? Second of all, chapter 14, verse 13, bless our believers that die because their fruit follows with them. The fruit, the things that Jesus does through our life, when we walk closely to him, that follows with us to heaven. And we know that. We go through a reward conversation, or whatever you want to call it, with Jesus himself. I can't wait. We will have them all to ourselves for a blip of a second. I sound like a bachelorette, but it's going to be so cool. Chapter 16, verse 15, blessed are those who are ready. Be ready. That's another blessing. Chapter 19, verse 19, blessed are those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. We have that. Save the dates. We just don't know the dates. Chapter 20, verse 6, blessed are those who are part of the first resurrection, as they will reign in the millennium. So this verifies that there is a first resurrection, and you can see this as pre-trib, before the tribulation, and that's where I see it. Those alive in Christ are raptured. Those dead in Christ, or in where heaven is now, they gain their bodies along with the raptured, and that's the pre-trib resurrection. We'll talk more about the second resurrection in a different teaching. Chapter 22, verse 7, blessed are those who heed the words of the prophecy of this book. You know how Jesus always said, have eyes to see and ears to hear. Chapter 22, verse 14, blessed are those who wash their robes and have access to the tree of life. Our robes were washed by Jesus Christ's blood, and we are going to be in these white robes as believers, these unearned spotless robes. So now I just want to say a bit about John's five books. It's always a great study to go through the five of them, and maybe that's something you'd want to do soon. We have the Gospel of John. The theme of the Gospel of John is to believe. First, second, and third John, the theme is to be sure. We can be sure of our salvation. And first John 5 has that powerful verse that I wrote this so that you would know you are saved. That's crazy. And now we see the theme of Revelation being be ready. So believe, be sure, and now be ready. John brings it. He brings it. Okay, so we see starting in verse 4, it's dedicated, this book is, to the seven churches, which we will go through in brief. They are in Asia, Ephesus is on the sea there, and it is a great big major trade center. And around there is seven other churches. John would have been very familiar with these churches, and that's who he's writing to. And who is it from? From him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. The seven spirits is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. So this is the triune God. God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, these three are sending this out. So that's a powerful, powerful beginning. And we see 7 and 8 is the theme, behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierce him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be, amen, and Jesus introduces himself, I am, remember the seven I am's of John, I am, be in the name of God, I am the Alpha and the Omega. And I love this because I always pictured this as first and last, but Alpha and Omega, it's like eternal to eternal, that's who Jesus is. He was before everything and will be after everything, so that's pretty cool stuff. Going on in chapter 1, we see John is in the spirit on the Lord's day, which I love. He is spending time in the spirit, and he hears to write this down for the churches. And he turned and he saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of the lampstands, I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest a golden sash. He is seen, Jesus, as high priest with a golden sash and king. Remember they wore the long robes to show their royalty. His head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow. And Isaiah 1 talks about our sins being white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. These are the eyes of judgment. This is a different time in the life, so to speak, of Jesus Christ. So his feet are like burnished bronze. Some people have used this, and I don't care how dark Jesus' skin was, I don't care where he's from, that doesn't matter to me. But some people feel like this bronze meant that he had much darker skin than a Israelite. But this is talking about metal. This was the metal on the altar in Israel, Jesus, where he gave his final sacrifice. His feet have been there, and they are like bronze. It's a metal. And what's in his hand? He holds seven stars. Those are believed to be the messengers, the pastors of the seven churches. And notice he has them in his hand. In John 10, nobody can take them from my hand. No one will take my sheep from my hand. John 10, I did a podcast on that. It's like one of my favorite chapters in the Word. So he held these stars in his hand, and he has a two-edged sword. And his face is lit like the sun. All right. But the cool part is here in verse 18, he is holding the keys to death and Hades. And we talked about this. This is two things we never need to touch. Praise the Lord. I don't even want to touch the key. I don't even want to be associated with death or Hades. So we're going to move on to the next chapter. And we're going to go through these seven churches a little quicker than you might want to. But please DM me with questions. First is the church of Ephesus and what I love about it. First, we're going to always talk about how Jesus describes himself to each church. To Ephesus. I am the one who holds the seven stars in my right hand. Remember, you're protected. And I am the one who walks between the golden lampstands. He's telling Ephesus this. This is the main church of the area. Jesus himself walks among the churches. He is not far from the church, the body of Christ. He indwells it. And this is his home. I had a dream years ago that Jesus entered my childhood church in the front. He walked to the middle aisle and right down it. And he never saw anybody. And nobody recognized him. Part of the crowd was dead. Some had cobwebs everywhere. They looked like zombies. And I tell you, it was one of the scariest dreams I've ever had. And I knew in my bones that although they might be born again, this church was so dead. So anyways, here we are in Ephesus. And what does he want to tell Ephesus? That you lost your first love. And I think we could take this personally, each one. What's the application here? Jesus says to remember, verse 5, repent and continue on. If you are going through an apathetic season, have you forgotten what Jesus saved you from? And I'm talking to myself here. If I'm going to be apathetic, go through days and seasons where I've barely thought about Jesus. Have I forgotten what he bought me from? We need to remember where we came from. We need to repent. And then continue. Continue. We can get all caught up in a lot of stuff and forget our first love. Even if it's something that appears so good. So Smyrna was a rich city. It had several temples throughout. And this is crazy. About six years before Jesus died on the cross, Smyrna won this privilege over 11 other Roman cities to build the first temple to worship an emperor. And it was Tiberius Caesar. So Smyrna was a leading city in the Roman cult of emperor worship. They were a major persecuted city at this time. Domitian wanted to be called Lord. He demanded it. And he demanded it as a test of your political loyalty. So people in Smyrna, they were getting fired from their jobs. They were getting robbed. And they were getting killed. They were having major economic persecution for being a believer in Jesus Christ and not calling Domitian Lord. And this is probably why John ended up on Patmos. So this is what was going on in Smyrna. And how cool to know that Jesus knows. Pergamum. Pergamum is a compromising church. And this is the church a lot of people will speak on in relation to how they see us in America. And Jesus comes to them with the two-edged sword. That's how he comes to them. Revealing he has God's authority and ultimate judgment. But they were compromising. Jesus told them, though, I know where you live. You dwell where Satan's throne is. Satan has a throne, you guys. A headquarters, an HQ. And at this time it was in Pergamum. He is telling them to be steadfast. I see where you live. I know it isn't easy. But be steadfast because I am the one who has God's authority and final judgment. Wow. So he tells them to repent. So Thyatira. Thyatira was a trade city. This is where Lydia sold her purple dye fabric. They had a problem because of a Jezebel spirit. Some people say this is a woman named Jezebel. Some people say it's a woman like Jezebel. Some people say it's just a spirit that took them over. But basically Jezebel was the most wicked person ever to be mentioned in the Bible. And this church represented her wealth. So this church was morally compromised. The Jezebel spirit proposes sex outside of marriage, sodomy, eating meat of idols. It persuades people. It's perverted. It's lustful. And it's a big challenge to overcome. Now we can see this in a pastor or a board member. They could be laundering money through a church. There could be prostitution. We've seen that. Oh my gosh. I admired this one teacher so much. And I figured out he was running a massage parlor prostitution ring. I listen to him all the time on face radio. It's like what's going on? So compromise. Also drunkenness. Have you ever been to a wedding where the pastor leaves and the crowd laughs so they can all get drunk? That's compromise. So here at Thyatira, the message is to repent and to hold fast. Hold fast, guys. And it promises those who hold fast that they will rule with God and they get the bright morning star of Jesus. Oh my gosh. The morning star. I mean, come on. It's beautiful stuff. Yeah. So Thyatira. It seems super far from God. And it is. And they're doing a lot of compromise. I would call them a cold church instead of a hot church, right? So verse 5 here mentions the book of life. And that goes on further into Revelation at the throne of judgment. We're up to Philadelphia here. And Philadelphia had a major earthquake during the time of Jesus' life. And people no longer lived in the city center but around the city. They actually are a church that are not rebuked in this letter. They are commended for their perseverance. So Laodicea. Laodicea, the lukewarm church. What does it mean, right? Well, this portion is one that scares a lot of people. And it scared me. Jesus is going to puke me up, basically. But Jesus is actually giving a great picture for their condition using their surroundings. So when a country gains a lot of riches like this area, you know, money can feel like a provider instead of God. They weren't probably as persecuted being as far out as they were. And they had a lot of money. I mean, you can buy your way out of persecution too, right? So they, though, did not have good water supply. So at one point they built an aqueduct to bring hot water from a hot spring to their city. Not realizing what it did to their cold, fresh water was it made the water around their city lukewarm. And when Jesus says, you want to spit it from your mouth, they understood what he was saying. Lukewarm water was a symbol of somebody who always wants to be in the middle between the world and the Lord. Cold is like people who just want to live in the world in some rebellion to God. And more concerned with how people viewed them than how God viewed them. And then, of course, we have hot. And those are the people that were living and walking with the Lord. What Jesus is saying here is, I would rather have you living for the world than claiming you're living for me but living for both. So apathetic and so in the middle of these two extremes. That makes me want to vomit you out. It makes me so nauseous. So that's the hot, cold, and lukewarm of Laodicea. So there we go. And now we're going to go into a scene in heaven. We have two chapters to go here. And it says here, Revelations 4-2. Immediately, John says, I was in the spirit. And behold, a throne was standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne. So this wasn't just a trance. His actual spirit went up to what Apostle Paul also calls the third heaven. The first heaven being the sky we see. The second being where the stars are. And the third being heaven. The heaven as it is now. Of course, we have good news. There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth coming up here. So John was in the spirit and he sees one on the throne. And it was made of jasper stone and a sardius in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. And I love the fact that God uses things we understand in these visions. I believe there will be things in heaven and definitely the new earth that we've never seen. But this is cool. I tried to look up the meanings and I would love if anybody out there knows the meanings. The only thing I can find for the meanings of jasper and whatnot appear to be more new agey to me. But a jasper stone can be yellows, golds, and rarely blue. So of course when I see rarely blue, it makes me wonder if it's that color. So around the throne were 24 thrones. And upon the thrones I saw 24 elders clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their head. So first we see the rainbow. Crazy. So you guys, it just hit me on my walk today that when we see the rainbow, I think we take it for granted that we're actually seeing a covenant of God. A lot of our covenants we have to dig through scripture for. We have to picture on a scroll or we have to picture fire or we have to picture this, that. But a rainbow, he pats it in the sky for us. He shows us this covenant, this promise of his. So seeing it around the throne as the only visual promise or covenant, obviously we saw Christ on the cross and I'm not trying to get super theological here. But when I'm just thinking of the covenants between man and God, this one has a sign and it is wrapped around the throne as a sign, a symbol, that Jesus keeps his promises forefront in his decision making around the throne. I think it's super cool. The 24 elders I had assumed were the 12 disciples and the 12 tribes. But that actually, I've been digging into it, and that actually is not the view of the majority. That's an old time thinking thing, I guess. These people, they know, they're all in white, they are believers, and the crown that they have is called a stephanos. It's not a kingly crown. It's a crown like an athlete would wear. And they are going to toss those crowns at the feet of Jesus. And this is similar in the Roman Empire. The emperor thought he is the ruler over all the kings. And he obviously was. Sometimes he would call all the kings to his court and they would lay down their crowns before his throne. So I find that a fascinating piece as we're discussing symbolization and how these symbols may have affected that original audience. So we've got them, and now this throne is on a sea of glass like crystal. And guys, so glass was rare in this day and age. It was impossible pretty much to make glass you could see through and he's seeing this as a sea of glass which makes me feel like it was bluish or greenish and maybe that was popping off that throne. I don't know. He says it's like crystal. So you could probably see through it. And in the center, and this is the big part, there's four living creatures full of eyes in the front and behind. So the four creatures are a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle. These are the four living creatures who day and night, you guys, sat there and worshipped Jesus. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. So there is a continued theme from the start of Revelations to the end of Christ's worthiness. He is the one worthy of praise and we will see he is the one worthy of opening the scroll. So these four, you've got to think to yourself, why these four? Why? Okay, so these four represent Jesus Christ. The first one, the lion, Jesus was the lion of Judah and this goes back to Jacob's blessing over Judah where he calls him a lion's whelp. Remember that in Genesis 49. And then he's an ox. He carries the burden. He carries the burden. He's the servant. And then he's a man. We know he's the son of man. And then he's an eagle showing he has dominion over all. And this is what's fascinating about this. These four creatures are tied to the four Gospels. What was each Gospel written to prove? Matthew, the lion. Matthew wrote his Gospel to the Jewish population. He brought his genealogy back to Abraham because that's what they cared about. And he's proving that, yes, in fact, he was the lion of Judah, Judah's whelp. The ox, Mark. Mark wrote to Gentiles and he revealed Jesus as ultimately a servant to mankind. He came. He served. He died. He laid his life down. Blah, blah, blah. The son of man, that's who Luke writes about and we know this to be true. He writes to Gentiles. He brings his genealogy back to Adam. Jesus is the savior of all mankind. That's what Luke wrote to prove. And what about the eagle? How did John start his book? How did he start his Gospel? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. John's goal was to reveal Jesus as the majestic Messiah God that he was. That's the eagle. So all four of these are the four Gospels represented in creature form before the throne of God. Or you could say the four Gospels represent these four creatures before the throne of God. I don't know what comes first. I'm not sure. So lastly, we're going to get into chapter five. And what does he see? Okay, guys, this is super cool. What does John see? In the right hand of Jesus on the throne, a book written inside and on the back sealed up with seven seals. So there's writing on the inside, he knows, because there always is. And there's writing on the back, which is unique. And then it has these seven seals around it. Well, in this time, you guys, a seven sealed document was a last will and testament of somebody. And it was sealed by seven people verifying this was the last seal and testament. You can't change it, right? It's sealed. It's done. And John sees a strong angel proclaiming who is worthy to open the book and break its seals. But no one, guys, listen to this. No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Why would he include under the earth? Because obviously there are people in this world, and this is me talking to me here, that would believe maybe the devil would have had the power to open that seal too. Maybe they have equal power. I'm on Instagram, you guys. The twisting, the taking one verse and making theologies. It is off the charts what we do with scripture. So he even had to add, there's no one with power under the earth to open the seal. Okay, so they've looked far and wide, far and wide. And what does John do? He weeps. You guys, he weeps. Because no one is there to open the scroll. And I had to study this and study this because I'm like, why? Why is this such a big deal? Well, the best theory is John, who knew what was going on on earth, who saw the sin and the misrepresentation of Jesus Christ, who thought the earth had no hope. Very much how I can hear people talking today. Do we have any hope? Are we going to just implode? Can you believe what's going on these days? John was looking at this like, oh my gosh, this might have a revelation to help the world. Open it. Open it. And his tears deepened his soul to see the holiness of heaven and to only reflect on how bad it is on earth. How could you not? Oh, please open this. Well, who is able to open it? There is only one, one that can open it. And the elder tells John, stop crying. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David. Remember, 2 Samuel 7, the Davidic covenant, Jesus answered that, has become so as to open the book and in its seven seals. And then he sees, he turns to see this lion by the throne, the lion that can open the scroll, the only one in the whole created universe that has the power. And guys, this slays me. What does he see instead of a lion? Instead of a lion, he sees a lamb standing there amongst the 24 elders in this major scene, a lamb that looks partly slain. You guys, this word lamb comes from like a baby E-W-E. This is a little precious spotless lamb that looks partly slain. So guys, in the whole entire universe, there was not one to be found that could open this seal. But this little teeny lamb conquered death, giving it the power and the authority to open this seal. So much more happened on the cross than we've ever imagined. This last will and testament now can be opened because the lamb that was slain made it so. The lion of Judah could open the seals. The lamb has seven horns. Seven, again being complete, horns reveal power and seven eyes, the Holy Spirit. The scene, you guys. Could we just meditate on this scene? We have the throne. We have the covenants of God. We have 24 elders in white, casting their crowns on a Jasper sea of glass with these four creatures, day and night, worshiping him. Holy, holy, holy. The worthiness of Jesus. And then we see this last will and testament that needs to be opened. Next comes the bowls, the trumpets, all of the chaos that's going to go on as these seals are opened. The trumpets are played and the bowls are poured. And we get introduced to the Antichrist. So he doesn't take up that much time in Revelation. There's no reason for anyone to think the book's about him, but there is an important role for him in the end times. So in our next teaching that I plan to put out in the next few weeks, we are going to visit that portion where the Antichrist raises up and what we say the word says happens. I'm not going to go through every video on YouTube and lots of different ideas around it. I'm always big on understanding what the word says, what the current culture might have thought, and what is the most probable way to look at it. And I want to tell you now, we don't have to worry so much about the mark of the beast. And I'll explain that in my next teaching. Thank you for joining me. I'm excited about it. This is our 15th teaching. Biblically Wired is having a blast. I hope you are too. And you know what? You might be raptured tomorrow. So go out and have joy. Do something today that is a gift for someone else. And don't forget to bless yourself too. Be kind to yourself. We're always hardest on ourselves. So in Jesus' name, keep that heart bowed and that chin up. We're in this together. And God is good.