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THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST (part 2)

Revelation 1:1-3

January 26, 2014

Dr. Danny Forshee

- People have an insatiable desire to know the future. They pay money to

psychics, read their horoscopes, have their palms read, and some engage in the occult and seek to hear from the dead for insights into the future. Of course these dead spirits do not speak, but the evil one, Satan, and his demons, dupe people by masquerading as the dead and speak lies. (See MacArthur, p 13-14, Revelation 1-11) It is such a shame that people will look to empty wells for water when they can go to the wellspring of God’s Word and know for sure what will happen because God in the Book of Revelation has told us what will happen.

- Please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1. Later in the message today we will read and study the first three verses of chapter 1. While studying this past week I could not wait another week to get into the actual text, the Word of God. So here is what we will do—we will continue our overview of the book by answering some important questions then study the first three verses of Revelation.

- Before we go any further let us take a moment and recap what we studied last week. The Apostle John wrote the book of Revelation. He wrote it around AD 95 while exiled on the island of Patmos located off the coast of Asia Minor in the Mediterranean Sea. There are four primary interpretive methods to the book of Revelation—the Preterist that interprets the book as being fulfilled within the first century AD. Next is the Historical approach that views the events in the Book as relating to church history until the end of the age, but ignoring the prophetic element. There is the Idealist approach that states Revelation should not be interpreted representing actual events but symbolically representing good versus evil. Then there is the Futuristic approach that interprets the book of Revelation, from chapter 4 until the end of the book, as relating to a future time.

- Last week we also briefly mentioned the three millennial views and they are postmillennial- Jesus will come again to the earth after a thousand years of peace; amillennialism- there is no literal thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth, and premillennialism- Jesus will come again and then reign for a thousand years on earth. I stated last week that my position is I view the book as relating to the future and I am premillennial in my interpretation.

- And as we discussed last week, the reasons we study prophecy are: it’s biblical, it draws us closer to Jesus Christ, and it is beneficial to the one who reads and obeys.

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I. OVERVIEW

- There are three more questions that I want us to address—

- A. WHY WILL JESUS COME AGAIN?

- Notice these answers to this important question—1. He promised that He would come a second time. Jesus came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross for the sins of the world, was buried, raised from the dead by God the Father, and He ascended back to heaven. When He ascended an angel told disciples in Acts 1:11, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Matthew 24:30 states, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

- Jesus will come for His church and this is called the Rapture. Then, He will come seven years later with His church. In the Premillennial interpretation there are actually two comings—the rapture and the actual second coming, both of which are taught in the Bible. Please do not be confused. It will make more sense as we go along. 2. Jesus is coming to judge the world. Read 2 Timothy 4:1. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. God is a God of love indeed and He is also a God of justice and judgment. The devil has many convinced that they need not worry about judgment; live it up for tomorrow we may die. But God will judge every soul that lives or ever has lived, and when He comes again, He will execute fierce judgment upon His enemies at the Battle of Armageddon. 3. Jesus will come again to rule the world. In order for Jesus to reign and rule on this earth He must come a second time, and He will. The first time He came He did so in humiliation, but the next time it will be in exaltation.

- Read Daniel 7:13-14. 13 “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. 14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.

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- B. WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN JESUS COMES AGAIN?

- When Jesus comes again some vitally important events will take place—1. The Tribulation. After Jesus raptures His church, the world will experience a horrific time of tribulation that is described in the book of Revelation. The Holy Spirit will take away His restraining influence and evil will cover the earth. (2 Thessalonians 2:7)

- Christians often say I do not know how people make it in this world with all its difficulties and problems without the Lord. I like what Pastor Johnny Hunt says—they don’t make it. They just exist. I was so saddened by the ending of Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. He tells of how the great explorer Meriwether Lewis died—he committed suicide. What a horrible shame. He was only 35 years old; he was a brilliant man, a leader of men, an astute observer of plants and animals. Thomas Jefferson appointed him as the Governor of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. But Lewis did not know Christ. He was an alcoholic, he suffered severely from depression, he accumulated enormous debts, and he never married. The way Ambrose describes the end of his life reminds me of the utter despair that people under go now, but will only be increased during the Great Tribulation. 2. The Antichrist appears. Paul calls him the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians 2:9. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders. He is referred to as the beast in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7:7, 24-27. He will arise as the leader of this corrupt world and will deceive many. 3. The Millennium. Satan, who controls the Antichrist, will be defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes again as described in Revelation 19. The Antichrist will amass his armies to fight against the Lord and His people, but Jesus will destroy them by His spoken word. Amen! Then as Revelation 20 teaches the Lord will set up His thousand-year reign here on earth. (David Jeremiah, p. 12-13.)

- C. HOW SHALL WE LIVE IN LIGHT OF HIS COMING?

- The fact that Jesus Christ is coming again for His saints should provide enormous motivation for those of us who know Him to be engaged ardently in serving Him. Any moment, Jesus could come again; there is nothing to prevent His coming to rapture His church. In light of this glorious truth and doctrine how should we conduct ourselves here on this earth in light of His coming? This doctrine of the Lord’s second coming provided motivation to the early church. They believed in the immediacy of His coming—it could happen at any time, and the best way to be prepared is to always be prepared.

- 1. EXPECTANTLY—Read Mark 13:33. 33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.

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- As Christians we must live in a way that eagerly and expectantly anticipates His return. If you and I never think about His coming then we rob ourselves of a great comforting and motivating impetus in the Christian life.

- Chuck Swindoll (Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, P. 506-507) tells the following story of when he worked at a machine shop while a young man.)

I worked in a machine shop for four-and-a-half years alongside a fellow named George. His job was to sweep and clean out the shavings underneath the huge lathes and machines we were running. George was born again, and he loved the teaching of Scripture on prophecy. I remember hearing him sing hymns as he worked. Many of them had to do with the coming of Christ, such as “In the Sweet By and By” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder.” Late on Friday afternoon about ten minutes to quitting time when we were all weary, I looked at George and said, “ George, are you ready?” He said, “Uh-huh.” But he was all dirty. He was just obviously not ready. In fact, looked like he was ready to keep on working. I said, “Aren’t you ready to go home?” He said, “Yeah, I’m ready.” I said, “Look at you! Man, you’re not ready. You’ve gotta go clean up.” “No,” he said, “let me show you something.” So he unzipped his coveralls and underneath were the neatest, cleanest clothes you can imagine. He had them all ready. All he did when the whistle blew was just unzip and step out of that coverall, walk up, and punch his clock and he was gone. He said, “You see, I stay ready to keep from gettin’ ready—just like I’m ready for Jesus!”

- 2. LOVINGLY—Read 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13. 12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

- 3. OBEDIENTLY—Read 1 Corinthians 11:26. 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Read Hebrews 10:25. 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

- 4. GODLY—Read 2 Peter 3:14. 14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. Notice the phrase “to be found by Him.” How will you be found by the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes? Living righteously or unrighteous? Alienated from your spouse or with your parents or at peace with your loved ones and even those who hate you? In enormous debt or with your house in order? Knowing that He will come should motivate us and literally impact the way we live. When Hannah was 12-years old, she

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was at home watching TV and her mom was taking a shower. Hannah came across MTV and she said I sensed the devil wanted me to keep watching, but I thought what if Jesus came down right now, would I want Him to find me watching this—she turned the channel.

- 5. PATIENTLY—Read James 5:7-8. 7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

- 6. PEACEFULLY AND CONFIDENTLY—Read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

- 7. EVANGELISTICALLY—Read Jude 20-23. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction; 23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

- This concludes our overview and I was going to stop here, but felt compelled to get into the meat of our text, and for the remaining moments we have today let us go to the book of Revelation and begin our verse-by-verse study.

- II. INTRODUCTION (VS. 1-3) 1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

- Today we look at the first three verses then look at the remainder of the introductory verses, v. 4-8, next week.

- Vs. 1. As we noticed last week the Greek word translated Revelation is apokalypsis, from which we get the English apocalypse. It means to unveil or remove or uncover. The word apokalypsis is used 18 times in the New Testament. John Mac Arthur writes, (p.15)

The book of Revelation contains truths that had been concealed,

but have now been revealed. Though it nowhere directly quotes the Old Testament, 278 of its 404 verses refer or allude to Old

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Testament prophetic truth, and it amplifies what was only initially suggested in the Old Testament.

- In this grand book the Lord Jesus will be revealed to us and His future

plan for the world will be shown as well. Notice also in this verse that it is God the Father who gives this unveiling of His Son, Jesus Christ. And all those who know Him and read this amazing book get to behold this unveiling. Greek word for servant is doulos, and it means a slave who has his freedom and can leave his master, but chooses to stay and serve. “Things which must shortly take place.” This does not mean that John was mistaken because it has been over 1900 years and the events of this book have not transpired. James, Peter, Paul and John all spoke in a similar vein—they focused on the imminence of Jesus’ return. Dr. Robert Thomas states, (p. 56)

When measuring time, Scripture has a different standard from ours. (cf. 1 John 2:18) (Lee). The purpose of en tachei is to teach the imminence of the events foretold, not to set a time limit within which they must occur (Johnson). It must be kept in mind that God is not limited by considerations of time in the same way man is. (cf. 2 Peter 3:8)

- Also, keep in mind the time between Christ’s first coming and His second coming, are last days. We are living in the last days, as were the first Christians. The same Greek words en tachei are used in Romans 16:20 when Paul says “the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” One writer states, “While the passing of 1,900 years is but a moment in comparison with eternity, the better translation of en tachei, both in Romans and Revelation, is ‘certainly.” (The Believer’s Study Bible, p. 1801)

- Vs. 1 closes with a word about God giving this revelation to John by His angel, and you see this in Revelation where an angel speaks to John; an example is 17:1.

- Vs. 2 the word of God given to John is the testimony of Jesus Christ. John recorded what He heard and saw.

- Vs. 3 “blessed” is the same word, makarios, Jesus used in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. Reads, hear, and keep are all present participles, and speak of the importance of believers in all generations regarding the hearing and obeying the Word of God. (MacArthur, p. 22) The singular “reads” and the plural “hear” and “keep” reflects the first century church’s worship where one, perhaps the pastor, would read the Word of God and the congregation would listen very closely. Only the church would have a copy of the Scriptures, not each member of the local assembly. (Thomas, p. 60)

- Vs. 3 closes with these words, “for the time is near.” Like the phrase en tachei translated “shortly” or “certainly,” John is not telling the first century

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church in AD 95 that these things are about to happen but rather they will indeed happen. Dr. Paige Patterson commenting on these two phrases states, “Because those times will embrace both cataclysmic judgment and costly witness, the message revealed is vital. Both phrases, ‘must soon take place,’ and ‘the time is near,’ underscore the urgency motif and suggest that the servants of Christ assess this prophecy immediately.” (Patterson, The New American Commentary—Revelation, p. 55) What a wonderful word of comfort to believers in every generation, but particularly for those first century Christians who suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION AND INVITATION

- Jesus is coming again. This is a word of comfort and motivation to those of us who know Him. And it is a word of warning to those who do not. It is imperative that you believe in Christ and commit your life to Him while there is time. To reject God’s offer is most unwise.

- Harry Truman, not the former President of the United States, but a resident in the state of Washington in 1980, was warned repeatedly that the huge volcano in close proximity to his home, Mount Saint Helens, was about to erupt and he must leave immediately. But Truman refused to leave. He owned a local lodge on Spirit Lake, about 5 miles north of the volcano. Truman told the many people, including his sister, that warned him and begged him to leave, “Nobody knows more about this mountain than Harry and it don’t dare blow up on him.” But Harry was greatly mistaken. On May 18, 1980, the volcano erupted with devastating power. The force was equivalent to 30,000 atomic bombs. The blast leveled 150 square miles of forest in just 15 minutes, destroying 4 billion board feet of timber, enough to build 300,000 homes. Ash column rose 15 miles into the atmosphere. Temperatures from the blast escalated to 660 degrees Fahrenheit. I went to Mount St. Helens in 1982 and we drove near the top but cloud coverage prevented from seeing much. But on the way down the mountain we did see a mangled car that had been gutted by the force of the blast. The car was enclosed in a fence so tourists could see firsthand the devastation of the blast. Many people died. Those who refused the repeated warning were killed by their own pride and ignorance—57 people died. One of those was Harry Truman. On May 18, 1980 at 8:32 am a 5.1 magnitude earthquake was the final blow that unleashed the bulging mountain. Truman along with his 16 cats, 38 bottles of bourbon, and pink Cadillac were either vaporized or buried under ash within seconds of the eruption. (Story taken from David Jeremiah’s second tape in series, and the attached articles.)

- A similar, horrifying fate awaits many who laugh and scoff at that which they could never imagine happening with their finite minds. Jesus will come again and an agonizing sense of regret will flood their soul. But it does not have to happen to you. If you will turn from your sins and

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believe on Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation you will be spared the judgment that awaits so many. “Oh that is just your opinion preacher,” you reply. No, this what the Bible teaches.

- Pray a prayer of salvation for those who want to believe and be saved. Please do not be like Harry Truman and perish in your foolish pride.