20230702 - Revelation 1

So who are we talking about here?

There's pretty explicit references here to the Holy Spirit described

as the seven spirits who are before the throne.

Then it explicitly says Jesus's name,

Jesus is directly referenced as the faithful witness,

the first born of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth.

So that leaves us with

the one who is

was and is to come

and that must be by

um deduction here, God, the Father.

The interesting thing is this whole section of where it

says who is who was and who is to come.

It's in the nominative case in the Greek.

And I'm not gonna get into the Greek grammar and bore everybody.

But that whole section is in the nominative case.

And that basically when it says He who is who was and is to come,

it's not a description because of that case.

It's a name.

My name is Justin go.

His name is he who is, who was and who is to come?

Where does this name come from?

Well, we go back to Exodus three that we talked about a long, long time ago

says, then Moses said to God if I come to the people of Israel and say to them,

the God of their fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is his name?

What shall I say to them?

God said to Moses, I am that I am

back in the at the burning bush. Moses was given God's name.

This name I am that I am

what we're seeing in revelation when this name is revealed.

He who is and who was and who is to come?

This is the Greek New Testament version of the name of Yahweh.

I am that I am

remember back in Exodus three here when we learned about the name I am that I am.

His name is I am that I am. So it implies that he will,

if he is then anything he says must be even if it hasn't happened yet.

So his name is important. But if you remember back, we talked a lot about this.

It's not just the appearance of him or his name

that is important is that is the most important.

It's rather the character that your name implies.

That's why so many times in the Old Testament,

people's names mean something and it matters what their name is.

Don't just name them

Logan Bill dust and whatever

it means something.

And I know we do that sometimes but

theirs really meant something because it shows their

character hopefully and the character of God and

I am that I am implies his character.

When God is going to reveal revelation, then through his son

and the Holy Spirit to John, these things will come to pass,

they must come to pass even if they haven't happened yet.

Because that's part of his name.

This name shows God was self

existent. He alone is of himself.

God is not dependent on anything, everything else,

everything in the whole world has come

from something that's dependent on other things.

This is very plain that God attributes to self alone,

divine glory because he is self existent and therefore eternal.

And because of that, he gives

his being an existence to every creature.

He always was.

He is and everything in revelation was going to come to pass all

the way until the end of time because he is to come also.

So looking back at revelation 14 and five here after the name of God,

we get the Holy Spirit who is described as the seven spirits before the throne.

Are we to think of the Holy Spirit as seven in one?

Like how we think of the Trinity as three in one?

I don't think so. I don't think it's meant to be taken like that.

But we can see that the Holy Spirit is a seven.

He works in rhythms of seven at creation.

The spirit is hovering over the waters and then he forms a seven day creation.

He filled

basil

back when he talked about the building of the Tabernacle in a parallel

sevenfold way.

Uh We see the spirit give seven gifts to

Jesus who in revelation carries out the work of de

creation in a new creation which involves tons and tons

and tons of sevenfold sequences in the trumpet seals.

And all these other things that we're seeing all the time.

Seven is also the number of the Sabbath.

So I think when we see the Holy Spirit as the seven, as the sevenfold thing,

we see the Holy Spirit is driving things toward sabbatical rest, to completion,

to rule.

And we're gonna see this drive throughout revelation.

We'll talk more about the specific instances as we come upon them.

So lastly, in this trine

introduction, here, we see Jesus described and he's described as three things,

the faithful witness, the first born of the dead and the ruler of the kings of earth.

So this is a direct reference to Psalm 89.

Let's read a couple of verses that talk about these specific attributes.

So Psalm 89 27 says,

and I will make him the first born the highest of the kings of the earth.

So there we took care care of two of the characteristics already.

And then Psalm 89 a little later in that same chapter,

it says his offspring shall endure forever his throne.

As long as the sun before me, like the moon,

it shall be established forever a faithful witness in the sky.

There's that third one.

God makes David his first born and the highest of the kings of the earth. It says

David. David's throne. God promises him will be like the sun before God

and the kingdom will be established like the moon,

the faithful witness in the heavens.

So these connections are showing us that Jesus is being singled

out as the final king in the line of David.

The final divita king,

God promises him

that he will be

the fulfillment of what God had promised to. David.

The threefold description of Jesus is showing us these things.

How does this relate or does it relate to us at all?

Let's read the last verse that we're gonna do today,

the end of five and then verse six that we're gonna tackle today.

And that'll give us an answer I think

says

to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his

blood and made us a kingdom priest to his God and father to him,

be glory and Dominion forever and ever.

All right, we got another chart for you guys because I know you love them so much.

This is just a small one though.

So we had three ways that Jesus was described

and those were he was a faithful witness.

He was the first born of the dead and he was the ruler of the kings.

In the verse we just read here though,

there are also three things listed three actions of Jesus.

And it says He loves us.

He freed us from our sins by his blood, and he made us a kingdom.

So we can make some connections and deepen our understanding

of these things with these two sets of three things.

First, Jesus says he loves us.

This connects us with Jesus's attribute, attribute that he is faithful.

So when we talked about God is love.

Well, that also means he's faithful, then we can connect these things.

He's the faithful witness

that will never lead, leave his bride

because he loves her.

The second thing that is said is he who freed us from our sins,

freeing us can connect up with being the first born of the dead,

being the first born from the dead through Jesus.

We also have been freed from the bondage of our sins and are able to be with Christ.

When we leave this earth,

this connects with that um the sheet. The first sheet that goes up.

The third thing listed in his actions is he made us a kingdom

and that matches pretty nicely with the third attribute of Jesus

where he is the ruler of the kings of the earth.

We can see

one more parallel with these three categories.

We're gonna make the chart a little bit bigger

and that has to do with basically the opposite of Jesus and his characteristics.

This parallel parallel has to do with his enemies, the enemies in Revelation,

if we look at Revelation 13, we'll see two of these enemies right away.

First up, Revelation 13 3 says one of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound,

but its mortal wound was healed and the

whole earth marbled as they followed the beast,

let's play a little matching game here.

Where does this enemy match up this beast with these categories that we already have

when you have a guess,

where would that go with? This beast?

East is wounded, he dies and he's healed.

Jesus is the first born of the dead. He died, but he's alive again

here. The beast mocks that event in a way and dies and is also healed.

So this enemy,

the beast goes right there in the middle and

it matches up with Jesus dying and being resurrected.

That's what the beast does. He dies and is resurrected.

Next, let's read,

um Later on in revelation 13, it says,

then I saw another beast rising out of the earth.

It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

It exercises all the authority of the first beast in,

in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants

worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed.

It performs great signs even making fire come down

from heaven to earth in front of people.

And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast,

it deceives those who dwell in or telling them to make an image

for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

So now there is this false witness and you'd get that more if

we kept reading that this was already a long enough passage to share.

But

there's more that you can see that this is the false prophet, the false witness.

So this false witness is performing wonders and

it's getting everyone to worship the beast.

So

what do, what one does this false witness match up with? This one is pretty easy,

matches up with the first one,

Jesus is the faithful witness and now we're seeing the false witness.

All right. So lastly, we have Jesus as the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Let's take a look at that. That's revelation. 17.

And the woman that you saw is the great city

that has Dominion over the kings of the earth.

This is talking about the Harlot.

So the Harlot has Dominion for this period of time over the kings of the earth.

So that obviously goes in the last slot.

The Harlot thinks that she controls the kings of the earth,

but

Jesus is the true beast. He is the lion and the lamb, the true faithful witness.

The true head of the bride.

Jesus is the true measure of all things including his enemies.

We're gonna stop there

for today.

This dip, this just dips our toes into the deep, deep,

deep end of the pool of who the revelation of Jesus

is.

He is a faithful and loving person.

He is faithful and loving of his bride. He is a willing savior who came to die

in order for us to have life.

He conquered the kings of the whole world so we could be made kings alongside him

as we went through Genesis and the fall then into

Exodus and God's miraculous saving of his people from bondage

to his grace in giving them in Leviticus,

a new sacrificial system to atone for their sins.

We see Israel needing a forever answer to all the problems that they

had and would ever have because of that original fall because of sin.

God didn't leave them out to dry though he promised them that he would care for

be his people and he would be their God.

He promised them

a savior.

Everything the Lord promised everything Israel hoped for.

Everything that the world needs is summed up in Jesus.

All the old Testament we've learned over and over and over again

that it points to him.

The new Testament is all about him and revelation sums

it all up fully revealing who he truly is.

It's such a blessing to be able to read and hear this book and go be doers of it.

Colossians 1 13 through 20 says he has delivered us from the domain of darkness

and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption,

the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by Him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,

whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through Him and for him

and he is before all things and in Him, all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning,

the first born from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent for in Him,

all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him,

to reconcile to himself, all things, whether on earth or in heaven,

making peace by the blood of his cross.

Let's pray

dear heavenly father. We thank you for your grace and mercy towards us.

Lord, we thank you for sending your son Jesus.

That is all of these things that we just read about in revelation. And

in here we thank you Lord that through the blood of his,

shed his, through his shed blood on the cross. Lord,

that we can come and we can have

communion and fellowship and come before your throne.

Lord, we just thank you heavenly Father for

sending him to take Dominion over all the kings of the earth.

Lord that one day we can rule as priests and kings along.

20230702 - Revelation 1 - 3

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