167. How To Interpret Revelation's Visions

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When God promised Abraham that those who bless you and your seed will be blessed and those who curse you and your seed will be

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Cursed he's talking about Jesus He's not talking about Netanyahu.

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He's not talking about the Mossad or any of that He's talking about if you bless

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Jesus You will be blessed if you curse Jesus you will be cursed and if you bless his people You'll be blessed and if you curse his people you will be cursed

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So Senator Ted Cruz and everybody else who believes this malarkey, you gotta bless Christ Hello everyone, and welcome back to the broadcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf.

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This is episode 167 interpreting revelations visions

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Well, hello everybody and welcome back to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf

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Now this is not if you're if you're not familiar with this show, it's not a podcast for soft palates sentimental theology

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It's not for people who need their eschatology filtered through veggie tales

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But this show is for those who are hungry for the truth Who are thirsty for clarity and who are tired of in time?

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shenanigans and nonsense that Leads us nowhere we're building a a

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Audience and and I hope actually that this is building up Jesus's church So that people understand theology and so that they stand strong in the midst of trials and they sing louder in their churches and they never

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Bow the knee to the current idols of our age And if that sounds like your kind of tribe, well, welcome home now in case you're new here

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Let me just be clear about what we are doing This show exists, well at least for more recent times it exists to rescue eschatology from the sewers of church history to break it out of its left -behind grotto and to Return it back to its rightful place as one of the crown jewels of theology and is the climax of Jesus's victory

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Your view of the end times is gonna affect how you live in our times.

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That's why it matters If you think that Jesus is losing you're going to act like a loser but if You know that the king is already on his throne

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Then you're gonna live like a prince or a princess in his kingdom.

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Not a slave to despair Now before we dive into today with that a little introduction.

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I do want to say before we jump in a Hearty thank you to everyone seriously.

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.com Now with that let's jump into today's episode which is called how to interpret revelations visions

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Where we are where we're gonna be showing you in the very first vision in the book of Revelation Which is in chapter 1 verse 12 through 20

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That's the first vision in the book and we're gonna be showing how do we interpret them and why?

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Getting the Interpretation of these visions, right is so important and why getting it wrong is so damaging

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So we're gonna be doing that today and to do that We're gonna be jumping into the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 12 through 20.

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This is what the text says then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and Having turned

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I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like the son of man

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Clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash

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His head and his hair were like wool Like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire

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His feet were like burnished bronze when it had been made to glow in the furnace And his voice was like the sound of many waters in his right hand

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He held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two -edged sword

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And his face was like the Sun shining in its strength And when I saw him I fell at his feet like a dead man

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And he placed his right hand on me saying do not be afraid I am the first and the last and the living one and I was dead and behold

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I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades Therefore write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things and as for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands the seven stars of The angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches

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This is the word of the Lord and now it's time for us to get into part one What visions are?

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Dreams happen when your eyes are closed and your body is at rest

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But visions on the other hand happen when your eyes are open when God shows you

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Everything that has been hidden behind the veil of reality that's the simplest most biblical way to understand the difference between a dream and a vision a dream is when you're asleep a vision is when you're awake dreams come in the

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Dark visions break open. What's really truly in the light? this a

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Vision not a dream is what John receives in the book of Revelation and this is really important and I'm gonna give my 14 year old daughter props for a second because as her and I were talking about this episode before Before I actually recorded it.

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She was saying isn't that interesting a dream is something that's not true

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But makes you feel like it's true and and the future is not dependent upon it But a vision on the other hand is something that must happen that is absolutely certain that it will happen

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And I thought that that was a really good distinction because most people treat Revelation like it's a dream like it's open to any kind of interpretation that anyone can have and it's almost certainly not going to happen

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The way that they thought it was that's a dream But John doesn't see a dream John sees a vision

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He isn't drifting in and out of rapid eye movement wondering in some kind of subconscious.

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Haze. No, he's wide awake He's seized by the Spirit of God on the island of Patmos He's stunned by the glory of God and he's being shown a reality that is far more solid than the rock even beneath his sandals

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What John is seeing is not a fantasy. It's revelation and I don't just mean it's the book.

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I mean, it's divine Revelation he's seeing what is really going on Behind the veil if you could pull back the the veil of reality and see the world as God sees it

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John is being given the privilege to see the world in that kind of visionary form and This pattern of visions is all over the

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Bible For instance, Daniel says I Daniel alone saw the vision Daniel 10 7 that means that Daniel was standing there and other people were standing

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There but he's the only one who saw it here's another example Peter while praying fell into a trance and saw the sky opened up acts 10 10 through 11 and No one else but him saw it

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Both Saul and Ananias received clear visions not dreams saw on his road to Damascus Was fully awake whenever Jesus appeared to him and no one else saw it

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These are not private Hallucinations and these are not dreams they are divine

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Disclosures of reality they are windows that God opens up so this people can see what heaven has been seeing all along and that's

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The very first thing that you need to know about what visions are they reveal truth not just truth in general

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But what is truly happening behind the scenes behind politics behind persecution behind pain?

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Visions pierced through the fog of the visible world and they show the kingdom of God and has been advancing beneath the surface

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They're not meant to distract you from the real world They're meant to show you the real world and that is what visions are and that leads us to part 2

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Visions show you where history is going The second thing you need to know about visions in revelation and visions in general is

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That they don't just reveal heavenly truths. They actually organize reality

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They're not scattered or random images that are floating through John's cerebral cortex like a kaleidoscope

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They are carefully arranged scenes in a cosmic courtroom drama

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I want you to think about the book of Revelation as a as a play as a three -act drama with each act

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Centering around some distinct moment of redemptive history from Jesus crucified until Jerusalem Destroyed so this is a three -act play that is going to show us what is going to happen to the world

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Now that Christ has been crucified and resurrected and now he's sitting on his throne. This is the play.

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This is the book It's the only book that actually looks past AD -70 and tells us what the new world

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Jesus brings is gonna look like But before we get to the new world, we have to follow the book of Revelation through its three -act

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Drama and that maybe we should go into that in a little bit of detail Just so you understand what

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I mean, for instance act one is the church being encouraged by Christ That's Revelation 1 through 3

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The first vision opens up on a rocky island called Patmos John is in exile and he's punished for preaching

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Jesus in the Roman world And he's isolated from the churches that he loved. He's isolated from community.

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He's isolated from resources. He's on a prison island Completely dependent upon ships that very rarely come to give him supplies in order for him to survive

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But while Rome thinks that they finally silenced him while Rome thinks that they've hid him somewhere that no one could ever find him

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Jesus shows up and found him Heaven starts speaking and telling him other plans

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John says I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day Revelation 1 10 And he says his eyes were opened and he tells us that he turned and he saw a voice and and what he saw was

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Not just a mere man Not just someone who is really good at swimming long distances and showed up on the shore

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What he sees is Jesus Christ clothed in majesty radiating divine glory walking among Seven golden lampstands, which we're gonna talk about next week, which is an image of the church

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His hair is white like wool. His eyes are blazing like fire. His feet are glowing like molten bronze

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A sword is actually coming out of his mouth and his voice is like the sound of many rushing waters

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Which we're gonna talk about in two weeks His face shines like the

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Sun in full strength This is not gentle Jesus meek and mild who looks like he should be an actor in a shampoo commercial

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This is not the the the painted metrosexual effeminate fairing looking

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Jesus that you see on billboards on the interstate where he looks like he couldn't harm a fly

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No, this is the warrior King. This is the one who walks among the lampstands

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This is the ancient of days wrapped in robes like a conquering advancing warrior and a divine high priest and where is he?

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Well, he's among the lampstands. Like I said, which is what we're gonna talk about next week, which means he's among his churches

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He is there to comfort and encourage and strengthen his church That's what the first vision of Revelation is all about.

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It shows us that in visionary form that Christ is not in heaven He's not in hiding.

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He's not in the grave, but he's with his people He's walking among them like God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.

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He is showing them his glory He is ready to speak. He's comforting them. He's not abandoned them.

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He's with them and you can imagine what kind of a comfort that would have been to the church who as we've said before was having their family members drug out into the street and murdered and they

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Probably in their prayer time and probably in their worship services that had to meet underground because they were terrified

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They probably were thinking is God still with us. Is this promise is still gonna come true.

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Does he still love us? Is he still care for us and this vision would have told them? Absolutely Jesus is not only with you in some

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Esoteric metaphysical sense, but he's walking in your midst. He's comforting you. Yeah, the church is under fire

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Yeah they're being slandered by the Jews and persecuted by the Jews and Hunted down by the

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Romans and they were tempted to give up at every moment But Jesus is coming to them in all his radiant divine splendor and he's saying to them do not be afraid

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Because I am the first and the last I'm the living one. I was dead and behold

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I am alive forever more revelation 117 through 18 in chapter 2 and chapter 3

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Jesus speaks directly to these seven churches and he tells them that he's alive.

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He rebukes them for their unbelief He warns them for their doubt. He encourages them. He strengthens them.

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He tells them to endure He tells them to repent. He tells them to overcome

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He tells them that judgment is coming soon not against them, but for them

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What do I mean? Jesus is promising them that judgment is gonna come upon his enemies

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And it does it comes upon the Jews in 80 70 when they were destroyed for murdering

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Jesus for murdering the prophets before Jesus and for murdering the church after Jesus and Jesus is saying

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I will not stand for it. My enemies will not last because deliverance is at the door

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That's the message of the first act of the book of Revelation Which is Revelation 1 through 3 the bridegroom is walking with his bride.

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He's not distant He's not idle. He's not standing in some unluke corner of the universe

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He's in the fire with her and he's not gonna let her burn alone. That's the first act of the book of Revelation Act 2 we need to talk about next

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Now in Revelation 4 comes the seismic shift the trumpet sounds the door opens

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John is catapulted up to heaven He says immediately I was in the spirit. You see that He's in the spirit and John or in Revelation chapter 1, that's the first vision now he's in the spirit again

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That's the second set of visions and the second set of visions are gonna take him all the way to Revelation 20

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He says immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was standing in heaven

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Revelation 4 to Christ in this vision is no longer walking among the lampstands. He's now seated on his judicial throne

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The lamb has taken his place beside the father and the court of heaven is now in Session and that is not good news for the

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Jews Now This is not some kind of weird

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Escapism where Jesus is sitting on his throne and telling the church beware you're gonna lose down here

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This is not a break from reality This is not some kind of dreamlike Fantasy in a

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Lewis Carroll novel where you and I get to quibble over the details and what does it mean? Well, I think the caterpillar means this.

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Oh, no, the caterpillar must mean that what about the Cheshire Cat or the Queen of Hearts? Oh, it must be this.

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It must be that we can speculate endlessly. That's not what this is This is the unveiling of the true

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Government of the universe This is the unveiling of the true King who is has all authority in heaven and on earth

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This is the king of the kings of the earth This is the most powerful most cosmic most most royal

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King who has unparalleled authority over everything and what happens in Revelation 4 through 20 is not some kind of interruption in history

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Not some kind of punted vision that won't happen until some point in the distant future This is history that Jesus is saying is getting ready to happen in the lives of his first century people

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Jesus takes the scroll who he alone is worthy to open it and he breaks the seals and he blows the trumpet and he pours

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Out the bowls and judgment is ready to fall, but it's not random judgment

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It's not global catastrophe It's not nuclear holocaust or 21st century economic collapses.

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It is first century judgment It's a judgment that really was poured out to that or 1 ,900 years ago 1950 years ago.

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Actually, it's a judgment that was poured out on a specific people at a specific time that's not in our future, but it's in our past and It was specifically poured out on the generation of people that crucified their

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God Now the text tells us exactly Who's in the crosshairs?

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Jesus doesn't make any any delusions about it. He's not unclear about it He tells us twice in Revelation 2 and 3 that those who say they are

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Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan Revelation 2 9 and Revelation 3 9.

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Did you he calls the Jews a Synagogue of Satan and he says that he's coming for them.

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Why do we think that this is about 21st century? Politics Jesus says I'm coming for the synagogue of Satan It's about the

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Jews. It's about the first century Jews in Revelation Revelation 11 8 Jerusalem is called that great city, which is mystically called

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Sodom in Egypt where also their Lord was crucified I mean the last line of that gives us no doubt

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There's only one city on earth where the Lord Jesus was crucified and it's not Rome and it's not modern -day

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Rebuilt Jerusalem. It's the city that actually killed him, which was first century

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Jerusalem That's the city that is called Sodom. That's the city that is called

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Egypt not nice company to be in and just as Sodom was

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Incinerated with fire raining down on their head and just like Egypt was pummeled with plague after plague after plague so too was first century

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Jerusalem Brought down low her lampstand was removed

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Her temple was torn down her blood guilt was avenged and after AD 70

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She was no longer the faithful bride of God She had become the harlot who was drunk on the blood of the

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Saints Revelation 17 6 She's the harlot Not the bride.

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She's dressed up like a high priest which is very interesting if You wonder why

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I keep saying that this book is about the Jews and then you look at that and you say oh That's not the

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Jews Well, it's a female Who's dressed up like a

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Jewish high priest and she's drunk on the blood of the Saints Well, what are we talking about here other than the first century

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Jews who had become a harlot and who were drunk on the blood of the

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Saints and You ask yourself how had she become a harlot was she played the whore with Rome Daniel even calls the

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Roman Empire the beast you can look at it in Daniel chapter 7 So she's the one who's dressed like a high priest.

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She's the one who's playing the whore with Rome Which is absolutely what was going on with the Sanhedrin, especially with with the

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Sadducees. She's riding on the beast She's riding on the back of Rome She's using Rome as her political security and she's pretending to serve

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God while she is working and in bed with Caesar Why do you think when she killed Jesus?

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She said we have no king with Caesar because she's the harlot who rides the beast I mean

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Jesus prophesied this very thing in Matthew 23 He warned the

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Jews that all the righteous blood shed on earth would fall on this generation

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Matthew 23 35 through 36 It's not like Jesus was standing there saying all the blood of all the

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Saints that have ever lived is gonna fall on some generation at some point in time

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He's looking at them and he's saying this generation which generation the one he's looking at Matthew 24 he's rebuking the

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Pharisees Over and over and over again, and he pronounces seven covenantal woes on them

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That's why they got angry That's why they could gather together in a secret council to murder him because he said

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God's Covenant judgments gonna be poured out on you and it was In Luke 21, he told his disciples that Jerusalem was gonna be surrounded by armies

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It was gonna be trampled by the Gentiles and it was gonna be destroyed and set on fire Luke 21 through Luke 21 20 through 24 the judgment comes in This act of the book of Revelation.

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I'm calling this act 2 of the book of Revelation The seals are broken. The trumpets are blown. The bowls are poured out because the slow

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Unrolling of Jesus's wrath has come upon this people the

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Execution of divine justice has come the collapse of the old covenant order is here

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That is what act 2 Revelation 4 through 20 is all about Jesus is not just with his people among the lampstands

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He's actually he's he's actually fighting for them. He's not just their comforter he's their avenger and That's what

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Revelation 4 through 20 is about Revelation 1 through 3 is about Jesus with his church and telling them hold on just a little while longer

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Why because Revelation 4 through 20 is coming and it is coming hot and it is coming fast and it is coming

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Like no one has ever seen before I guess a really Trump Ian way to say it's common

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And that leads us to act 3 So after Jesus shows up and comforts his saints and says don't worry

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It's not gonna be much longer and it wasn't and then after the not much longer part

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Jerusalem absolutely is decimated which it was the harlot is now gone Jerusalem is no more now

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Now what? The old covenant has ended Jerusalem is over. The temple is gone.

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The priesthood is gone. The sacrifice is gone Everything in the Old Testament, that was a type and shadow of this new coming world.

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This new coming covenant is gone Now what? well revelation 21 and revelation 22 teach us that from out of the ashes of That old covenant world a new covenant world emerges for instance while the city of Jerusalem is still smoldering in John's visionary mind a new city comes down from heaven not a city made with hands not a dusty capital in the

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Middle East in a in the nation state of Palestine or Israel, but it's a radiant heavenly

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New Jerusalem and what we know about it in revelation 21 is it's not just some ethnic

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Israel that's been restored in 1948 it's not it's it's not national borders that have been reestablished.

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This is the church This is the holy people of God, these are the people who shine with the glory of God, that's her husband

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She's the bride adorned for her wedding day. She's the tabernacle of God where God now lives with his people

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She's the kingdom that cannot be shaken go and read revelation 21 and look at what it says

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It says that John was taken up to a high mountain and he was shown the new Jerusalem And then it says who the new

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Jerusalem is the bride The New Jerusalem is not a it's not a picture of heaven and it's certainly not a picture of reinvigorated

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National Israel the new Jerusalem is the bride and who's the bride the church

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So in revelation 21 you have it being said things like here's the bride the new

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Jerusalem And here's the place now where God literally dwells with his people on earth. Where is that in the church?

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You can't go to the Moose Lodge and you can't go to the Masonic Temple and you can't go to a Buddhist temple and you

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Can't go to a football game and you can't go anywhere else on earth where God has promised that when two or more gather in His name there he is and yet in the church.

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God has promised to dwell with his people. That's not heaven. That's now So what you see is that the story doesn't end with defeat

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The story doesn't end with escape The story doesn't end with us being iron manned up to heaven with some jetpack on our back called the rapture

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The story ends with the reign of Jesus on earth God's kingdom has come down to earth and he's reigning through his bride the church

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Not with retreat but with Dominion heaven has come down. The nations are being healed by the gospel

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Look at revelation 22 revelation 22 is this massive tree that that has 12 kinds of fruit why because there's 12 months

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There is no tree that that has fruit 24 or yeah, 24 hours a day seven days a week 12 months out of the year

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There's no tree that does that but this tree does why? Because the gospel never rots and the gospel never withers

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This is a tree where the nations come in and feast upon its fruit for their healing this is not heaven

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Revelation 22 is not about heaven because why if the nations have to come in to be healed you're not in heaven yet Heaven is where everybody has already been perfectly and totally healed and glorified

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So if the nations are coming in to be healed if the church is standing in the middle of the city

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Handing out the gospel to people from the tree of life then what we have here is a picture of the church on earth and How the whole earth is beginning to shine with the light of his glory as they come into the church's gates

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That's the Great Commission Go into all the world and tell the world about Jesus and baptize them in the name of the father son and the

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Holy Spirit And teach them how to obey everything. I've commanded you. That's revelation 22 And that's the third act of the book of Revelation which

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I can't wait to get to in Revelation 21 and 22 because that is the church and listen, even before we get there take a moment and Just go read

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Revelation 21 and take off the glasses that you've been given Maybe you've been told that Revelation 21 and 22 is about the eternal state

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Where after Jesus returns and he totally purifies the world. That's what that's gonna look like read it

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That's not what it's talking about. It promises that God will be with his people and he will be their God That's already happened in Jesus Christ It says that he's gonna heal them of their of their wounds and they're and he's gonna wipe away all their tears

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Hasn't that already happened in Jesus Christ by giving us the Holy Spirit hasn't he already comforted us?

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Isn't he already healing us? I? Don't know about you, but I don't I don't cry a single tear that is not

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Sanctified and baptized in my faith in Christ and is not comforted by the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of me

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It says that the nations are gonna come in and they're gonna be healed by what by this tree of life

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What is the tree of life, but the gospel of Jesus Christ? You have a picture in Revelation 21 and 22 of a new world.

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Why is the world new because the church is now in the world Why is the world now new because the temple is now gone?

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Because the sacrificial system is now gone all the types and shadows of the old world have been put away

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So that now the only way to know God is through faith in Jesus Christ By the regeneration of the

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Holy Spirit by the preaching of the gospel through his Holy Church That's how the visions of Revelation work and that's how they're structured and they actually tell a real and a coherent story

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They tell you of a church in 65 AD 68 AD that's suffering and that is broken and Jesus comes and comforts them and Then two years later, maybe five years later at the most

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Jesus comes and crushes his enemies in AD 70 That's the apostate

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Jews and then what happens next but the church itself is the one place on earth where the

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Gospel is where the nations must come to be healed and that's what Revelation 21 and 22 is about so you have

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John Telling us in visionary form that the church needs to hold on just a little while longer until Jerusalem is crushed

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And then the church will be his bride of Christ on earth in the only place where man can know

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God is to come through her gates. That's a real story That's a beautiful story

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It's not the wild imaginations of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins or or any of the other eschatology shamans

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That's a story of hope and each vision reveals another scene in the story each act unfolds another movement in redemption redemptive history and Every page is soaked in blood in Glory in Justice and enjoy and that's how the visions actually show us

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Reality and that leads us to part 3 visions look back

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Not just forward Now you can't interpret Revelation by looking at a

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CNN Chiron. You actually have to go back to places like Mount Sinai And that's the third thing that you need to know about visions of the book of Revelation that they are not imaginative guesses they are interpretive masterpieces and you'll never understand the visions of Revelation unless you understand one

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Thing you have to understand just one thing to understand the book of Revelation. And what is that? That's the

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Old Testament The symbols in Revelation aren't pulled out of thin air They're not arbitrary they're not mystical jigsaw puzzles

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That's waiting for modern -day tenfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists to snap together into some sort of amazing display of curiosity and courage

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No These images have deep roots ancient roots biblical roots covenantal roots every blazing eye and Burning lamp stand and every trumpet blast and every beast howl and every bowl and every plague and every crown is drawn from a long slow steady stream of Old Testament thought

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That flows through the law through the prophets through the Psalms. It's not random patchwork quilt making from grandma

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Susie This is Apocalyptic artwork, this is covenantal symbolism.

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It's meticulously crafted and constructed out of the archives of Divine Revelation and it's not just that these images are old

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It's that they're loaded. They're symbols that God has been using before he's given them meaning already like shorthand an illegal document or an abbreviation that points back to something that came before it or Icons on a battle.

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These are meant to carry centuries of theological Meaning in a single word or in a single image.

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They're supposed to remind you of something that came before Their covenant signs.

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They're embedded with deep imagination from the scriptures and They're written to scripture

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Saturated people if you don't know the source of the symbol then you're never gonna understand this book

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But the source of the simple but the source of the symbol is easy The source of the symbols not confusing the source of the symbol is not a future that hasn't been written

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It's a book that already has the Old Testament Let me give you a few examples of it.

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Take the very first vision that John gives He receives it in Revelation 112 through 20.

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We just read the verse just a minute ago He turns to see the voice speaking to him and what he sees is

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Staggering but what he sees is not novel None of it is random. Every detail is drawn directly from an

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Old Testament passages a passage for a second Let's slow down and see it we're gonna cover this more over the next two weeks, but just to give you a little appetite wet ting of sorts a a kind of Foreshadowing preview.

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This is look at what it says a Robe reaching to the feet. That's one of the images that it says.

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Where does that come from Exodus 28 for? That's the high priestly robe that Aaron wore

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It's what every high priest was supposed to wear when they're ministering in the presence of God John isn't seeing some kind of Roman general or even a

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Jewish rabbi He's seeing someone who's clothed for temple service And what he's seeing is not

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Aaron and what he's seeing is not one of Aaron's sons He's seeing the priest from the order of Melchizedek the final high priest

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Jesus So he's seeing Jesus dressed like a high priest Exodus 28 for tells us that the priestly robe went down to their feet

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Not a random detail. What's another detail that he's girded across his chest with a golden sash well that shows up in Daniel 10 5 in Daniel this image describes a

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Radiant heavenly being who speaks on behalf of God the sash across his chest isn't just Decoration it isn't like the new thing that came out from Gucci It's his authority

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It's the regalia of his majesty. Christ is dressed not just to serve

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But to reign why cuz he's a royal priest Here's another detail.

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It says his head and his hair were white like wool and snow Well, where does that come from?

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That comes from Daniel 7 9? That's the courtroom language that Daniel uses to describe the ancient of days

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God seated as judge of the world and now the same imagery is being applied to Jesus Which means nothing less than Jesus is

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God and Jesus is coming Showing up like a priest King and judge.

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Oh my goodness What could possibly happen he's gonna destroy the first century

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Jews The message is unmistakable. Jesus is Yahweh. He's eternal

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He's the Alpha and the Omega the Holy One and he's the judge who's getting ready to execute justice

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Here's another detail his eyes were like a flame of fire. Where does that come from? Daniel chapter 10 6

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John is borrowing from the book of Daniel and he's talking about fire that pierces and purifies

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These aren't passive eyes These are eyes that see through the facade they expose the hypocrisy they refine the heart

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These are eyes. These are the eyes of the omniscient and holy God Here's another image his feet were like burnished bronze which had been made to glow in a furnace

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Where does that come from? It comes from Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 7, which is another favorite book of John's This is throne room language in the book of Ezekiel in Ezekiel the heavenly beings who surround the throne of God have glowing bronze feet

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This suggests strength and movability and a terrifying kind of glory

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So Jesus is showing up in the same kind of feet that that that cloak heavens armies

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Jesus's feet are stable. They're untouchable and he has been brandished for war

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He cannot be toppled but he will do some toppling Here's another image.

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His voice was like the sound of many waters. Where does that come from? Ezekiel again Ezekiel 43 to this is the sound of God's divine presence when

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Ezekiel hears it The glory of the Lord is returning to the temple again It's the sound of crashing waves the unstoppable judgment and the peace of God all in which

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John hears the same voice Listen to what I'm saying here in Ezekiel Ezekiel here's the sound of rushing water as God returning to his temple and now

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Jesus shows up with the sound of rushing water Because he's returning to his temple and not the temple of the

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Jews the temple of the ewes and eyes who are in Christ That's the temple that God returns to not the dusty building on Temple Street in Jerusalem But to the church

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That's why his voice is the sound of rushing waters and here's another image from his mouth came a

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Sharp two -edged sword. Where does that come from? Isaiah 11 for and this is not a steel katana made by Hattori Hansel This is his speech

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Isaiah said that the Messiah was going to strike the earth with the roof or with the rod of his mouth

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Jesus doesn't swing a blade. He declares verdicts. He speaks judgment

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He separates the light from the darkness with his words What's another image?

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His face was like the Sun shining and all of its strength. Where does that come from? Well judges? 531 but more specifically

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Malachi 4 2 which is the last Old Testament book He shows up in a kind of victorious light a kind of healing light for his people but a destructive light for his enemies and judges this symbolizes the triumph of God's warriors in Malachi the son of Righteousness is it's

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Jesus. So this man is called the son Sun not s o n.

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He's the son of righteousness that rises with healing in his rays So Jesus his face is shining like that one because he is that one

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He's the one who's bringing war to his enemies and when he's bringing comfort and love and joy to his friends

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His face is not veiled his face is open and It will comfort his people and it will destroy and burn and set on fire his enemies

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He is triumphant now. I hope what you're noticing here is in the single vision

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John sees a high priest a warrior King the ancient of days the

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God who comes back to his temple the judge over all the earth and none of it is

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John taking creative license. He's not just describing Jesus in some kind of fantastical way

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And oh, by the way, there's only three people on earth who ever saw

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Jesus Transfigured and John was one of them So here you have the man who saw

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Jesus in his glory Describing Jesus in his glory using Old Testament images to tell us what that glory means every stitch of the ancient of days clothing every glow and glint of his eyes and it comes in his feet and his

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Mouth and all of that comes straight out of the library of the Old Testament This is not

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Jesus reimagined in some technicolor fantasy, this is Jesus revealed exactly as the prophets saw him as Exodus Daniel Isaiah Ezekiel and Malachi saw him that's the point

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John's not inventing anything He's in fact, this is the most unoriginal book in the

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Bible Listen what I just said there The book of Revelation is the most unoriginal book in the

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Bible if copyright law existed in John's day He would be called a plagiarizer because he's pondering the

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Old Testament He's not making up anything Every vision that he sees is a footnote is a point is an image already revealed

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He's not Speculating he's receiving receiving old stuff and giving it to us in the new and He expects the reader to recognize that he's doing it

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I mean how much more obvious could John get every single body part on Jesus is connected to an

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Old Testament passage He's like you'd have to be blind not to see it The irony of that is really striking because so few do

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You read through it and you're like that's kind of cool Jesus has got fiery eyes and bronzy feet and sword coming out of his mouth and you're like That's kind of epic and you're like you never actually get around to the point that you realize that all all of that is rooted

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To the Old Testament and it teaches us about why Jesus is coming because he's coming to judge

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We all have read it so many times like a pagan reads it Speculatively superstitiously and shallowly and when you do that You'll impose your meaning on to the symbols instead of just receiving the meaning that John and God intended you to get

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Listen, I'm gonna give you a hint on how to read Revelation read a single phrase and then ask yourself the question

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Does that occur in the Old Testament? Okay, he has eyes of fire Where does that come from?

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He has hair that's white. Where does that come from? He has feet that are bronze Where does that come from? That's the way you've got to read

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Revelation You've got to read it like it's a book filled with codes and guess what brother and sister you've been given the code book

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The code book is Genesis through Malachi And if you'll just read that as the source book of the symbols

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You will understand the book of Revelation That's why unfortunately

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Revelation is confused so many modern readers because there's so many modern readers who have such biblical illiteracy to the

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Old Testament especially when you've got men like Andy Stanley who spent ten years saying that we need to unhitch ourself from the

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Old Testament because why Does that matter the Old Testament's old? It's crusty and and dusty and all of those see we don't need that Hey Andy, I hope you're watching repent

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Because the Old Testament is good and it's God's Word and it's breathed out by him And while the types and the shadows have been fulfilled the

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Old Testament is good and you can't even possibly understand Hebrews and Revelation especially apart from it

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People who do this are holding out fulfillment of Revelation like Ted Cruz and others like it's some kind of newspaper article or some current event with Israel and the

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Palestinians or Hamas or Russia as Gog and Magog it all of it is silly

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When you look for fulfillment like it's a newspaper article. Guess what? You're probably going to misinterpret the scriptures

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I mean, this is like trying to translate Hebrew poetry using emojis It might not be enough

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Let me give you an analogy of this. I mean, I think I've I think I've more than proven my point But just in case you want more oh wait, there's more that's my infomercial like here you go.

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Oh wait, there's more Imagine you're reading my favorite fantasy work the Lord of the

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Rings Maybe you watch the movie and if you watch the movie You'll totally get what I'm talking about If you paid attention at all in like the first 20 minutes in the first 20 minutes of the movie

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Frodo inherits this very strange ring at first It looks like nothing but a golden ring something you could pick up at the local flea market in Hobbiton Maybe a trinket

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It was a party gag that his dear old uncle Bilbo had used to disappear and cause a great kerfuffle

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At the end of his party, but Gandalf actually suspects that there's something Sinister afoot.

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So what does he do? He doesn't make any wild guesses and he doesn't trust himself with the ring, which is very important He seals it in an envelope and he gives it to Frodo and he tells him not to not to do anything with it

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But to hide it and keep it safe until he returns Gandalf doesn't make any wild guesses about it But he doesn't consult the local blacksmith to find out what kind of a ring it is he rides as hard as he possibly can to the archives of Minas Tirith and he digs into the old ancient scrolls that are there the old books and he reads the ancient languages in the tongues and he looks at the records of the

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Kings and the forgotten prophecies of Yesteryear and then when he returns once he understands what the old books have said about this ring

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Then he comes back and then he casts the ring into the fire and the inscription on it

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Reveals exactly what he believed was happening that he had the one ring

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Now why did Gandalf understand what this ring was this ring of power?

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How did he understand it? Because he went back to the old books He didn't look at his modern situation and think oh, this must be something interesting.

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No, he went back to the old books He read what few would read because he understood that you can't interpret

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Symbols by watching the current events just like you and I can't interpret revelation symbols by looking at the stock market

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Or by looking at Israel's borders or by the war in Iran or anything like that You have to go back and we don't go back to Minas Tirith We go back to the

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Old Testament to the Torah to the Psalms to Ezekiel to Daniel to Zechariah to Isaiah to the

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Covenant Code of Moses You've got to immerse yourself in the old archives and when you do

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The vision begins to shine with crystal clarity Suddenly the chaos in this book starts to become a little bit coherent

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You see that the lampstands are from Zechariah 4 You see that the locust are from Joel chapter 2 the covenant judgment devouring locust

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You see that the beast is from Daniel 7. That's Rome the Empire. That's that's devouring and trampling the

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Saints You see that the harlot is the apostate bride from Hosea You see that the plagues they're not new they're the plagues of Egypt now foisted upon Israel the judgments are not random in this book.

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They're precise Covenantal judicial and they're predictable and When you do that, you realize that the fog lifts pretty easily

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What once looked like a hall of mirrors becomes a courtroom what once was

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Confusing becomes clear. You see that Revelation is not trying to mystify you. It's just trying to point you to the

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Bible It's trying to convict you trying to show you the consequences of covenant rebellion

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And it's giving you an a great example in Judah and it's higher and it's and it's and it's um

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It's magnifying one person and one person only and that's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and Because Revelation isn't a kaleidoscope of religious cacophony, but it's a mosaic

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Then every single symbol in this book can be interpreted and it doesn't have to be a scholar

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Who's interpreting it you and I I'm not a scholar I have a Masters of Divinity, which is which is really great whoop -dee -doo

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But anybody who has this idea? That the book of Revelation is borrowing from the

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Old Testament So if I want to understand Revelation of God understand the Old Testament if you just understand that Then you would be smarter about this book than 99 .999

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% of people who've ever written about it because people who've ever written about it have had the wrong

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Fundamental assumption they've said what does this book mean to me instead of what did it mean to them?

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and If you'll just adopt that then you can know what the book is all about and the picture will never

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Lose its clarity and it will always make sense and that leads us to part four visions are covenant communication

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Now these visions aren't religious riddles We've already covered that These are

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God's covenant voice to his covenant people and That's the fourth thing that you need to know about the visions of Revelation is that they're deeply

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Covenantal these aren't abstract spiritual meditations. They're they're not decorative theological

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Wallpapers and some crazy person's house. No, they're the voice of God and they're speaking

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Directly to his people in a time of crisis now. What is a covenant?

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Well, a covenant is an agreement that is that is wrought in blood.

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It's a it's an agreement where God himself is promising to be in Relationship with a particular people and it the covenant is cut in blood because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin, so God is covenanting to make a

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Relationship happen between himself and a sinful people and the way that that relationship happens is

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God Initiates it and then the covenant recipient Maintains the relationship through covenant obedience.

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Let me give an example God comes in a covenant relationship with Israel at Mount Sinai and then he cuts them into the covenant and then he and then he gives them the law so that they can stay in Covenant obedience with him and the law is

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Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy That's the that's the terms of the covenant.

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Just like when you enter into a covenant you accept the terms If you're gonna be in a relationship with your bank because they own your car you have to obey the terms

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What are the terms the terms you have to pay your payment if you don't pay your payment your car gets gone

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Okay, when the same way if you obey the terms of God's covenant in the

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Old Testament You get to stay in relationship with him if you disobey the terms of the covenant

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Well, the curses get poured out on you and that is the fundamental understanding you need to know about what a covenant is

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It's God initiating a relationship with sinful people holding them to terms that he's given them and the

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Mosaic Covenant is is the is the law of God and If they obey the terms they get the blessings if they disobey the terms they get the curses

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Now this is Fundamental for understanding the Mosaic Covenant or any covenant because in the

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Mosaic Covenant, this is what God is promising I will walk among you. I will be your God. You shall be my people

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Leviticus 26 12, and that is a great blessing but that blessing is conditional because he says if You walk in my statutes and keep my commandments

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Leviticus 26 3 and Here's what happens if you don't But if you do not obey me and do not carry out all of these commandments

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Leviticus 26 14 then as he says in the book of Deuteronomy Then all these curses shall come upon you

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Deuteronomy 2815 now you would do yourself a really big favor if you'll read

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Leviticus 26 and read Deuteronomy 28 it is Astounding it is you will be blessed in your house

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You will be blessed in your field blessed in your kneading bowl blessed when you go To bed blessed when you wake up blessed when you stand up blessed when you sit down blessed when you run blessed when you walk

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There's all sorts of blessings, but there's also Lots of curses and The curses are for people who disobey the covenant and these curses are not

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Abstract they're not slaps on the wrist They're covenant wrath

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They're written down in detail in Leviticus 26 in the back half of Deuteronomy 28 and they are the blueprint for the entire judgment structure of the book of Revelation Because Revelation is the covenant lawsuit of God Against the covenant breaking

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Jews who now are having the curses poured out on them. That's the point. I'm trying to get at Is that Revelation is the moment when the bowl of God's covenant?

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Fury is poured out on the covenant breakers once and for all this book is the formal legal

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Heavenly indictment against Israel for breaking the covenant with Yahweh The Jews had been entrusted with the oracles of God.

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They had received the prophets. They had received the promises they had the priesthood the covenant the temple and they had the terms of the covenants and now in Rejection of their own law by killing their own

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Messiah who's God They've broken the covenant so badly that it cannot even be repaired

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So what does Jesus do? He gives a heavenly courtroom vision of the judge himself of the universe

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Indicting them for their crimes if you and I go to the 7 -eleven or the local quickie Mart and we steal something

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We're gonna get charged if we perform a hit -and -run. We're gonna get charged we're gonna stand in front of the judge and the gavel is gonna drop and our punishment is going to be

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Announced in front of the courtroom. Well brothers and sisters. This is the courtroom of heaven where Jesus the great high priest

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King and judge is announcing the consequences for their crimes and this is

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Why the book of Revelation so clearly is echoing the structure of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 this is why famine and Pestilence and sword and exile are listed in the book of Revelation because they're listed as covenant curses in Leviticus 26 25 through 33 and Deuteronomy 28 21 through 68 this is why

01:00:09

Dismemberment of cities and siege warfare is mentioned in Revelation because it's mentioned in Deuteronomy 28 52 through 57

01:00:18

This is why parents eating their children. Oh This is why

01:00:25

Josephus tells us that in the downfall of Jerusalem parents were

01:00:31

Roasting their children over an open fire. Why? Why? because Deuteronomy 2853

01:00:41

Predicted it when you disobey covenant with Yahweh The curses will be poured out on you and you will do despicable things in your in your hubris

01:00:52

And in your depravity because God's wrath is poured out is his grace is removed

01:00:59

The destruction of the sanctuary. It's another example the silencing of the prophetic voices. It's what

01:01:04

Revelation says it's gonna happen Why does Revelation say it's gonna happen because Leviticus 26 31 said it was gonna happen all of this imagery appears in Revelation because it already appeared in Leviticus 26 in Deuteronomy 28

01:01:21

Revelation is when the chickens come home to roost It's when the curses get poured out and they're not aimed at Babylon.

01:01:29

They're not aimed at Rome They're not aimed at America They're aimed at the first century city of Jerusalem the covenant -breaking

01:01:39

Harlot who played the whore one too many times before she crucified the

01:01:45

Son of God That's what makes Revelation so terrifying is that God is severing covenant with covenant breakers

01:01:56

He is giving them what he told them. He would give them if they abandoned covenant with him

01:02:03

Revelation is not some kind of some kind of terrible book where God is pouring out punishment that people don't deserve.

01:02:12

Oh They deserved it. In fact for a thousand years. They broke covenant with God for a thousand years

01:02:19

They broke covenant over and over and over again. When did the Jews become the Jews? It's a good question

01:02:27

The Jews became the Jews not at Mount Sinai. That was Israel The Jews which is

01:02:34

Judah and Benjamin Became the Jews when Rehoboam Solomon's son

01:02:40

When he took the advice of the young men and He levied a tax upon the people of Israel the twelve tribes and they got angry at him and they left him ten out of the out of the twelve tribes are gone in the book of Kings and Now the only king that you have left in In Judah, I'm sorry.

01:03:06

And now the only tribes that you have left are the two southern tribes called the nation of Judah that happened in nine hundred and thirty

01:03:18

BC Now the book of Revelation was written in nine or in 68

01:03:25

AD so what you have is nine hundred and ninety eight years of Jewish rebellion against the

01:03:33

Covenant How do I know that? Well, if you read your Old Testament, you will see that they rebelled they rebelled they rebelled they rebelled they rebelled from the moment that They became a nation

01:03:43

They did nothing but rebel they whored with every with every idol under every treetop

01:03:48

Jeremiah says they broke covenant left and right Hosea says that that that they were that they were actually a harlot a

01:03:57

Prostitute when it came to the covenant of God God even sent them into exile in Babylon for 70 years

01:04:05

And they didn't learn And they didn't learn so God didn't pour out punishments that they didn't deserve.

01:04:15

No, in fact, he gave them grace for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years that they didn't deserve and now

01:04:26

After they killed all the prophets and now that they killed God's Son and now that they're killing and murdering his bride

01:04:35

Now the curses are gonna get poured out on them That's why in Revelation Jesus doesn't call his city

01:04:41

Jerusalem anymore the city of peace. He calls it Sodom Revelation 11 8 that's why he no longer calls the temple his house anymore

01:04:51

He says that that's the place that he's gonna leave desolate Matthew 23 38. He no longer calls it

01:04:56

Israel his bride He calls her a drunken whore clothed in priestly colors

01:05:03

Soaked in the blood of the Saints Revelation 17 4 through 6. That's why he no longer sends the prophets to her

01:05:09

He sends her plagues Revelation shows us not just the inauguration of a new covenant

01:05:16

Yes, it does and in chapters 1 through 3 and 21 and 22 But it also shows us in the middle part the biggest part the termination of the

01:05:26

Old Covenant and its people It's heaven's official declaration that the covenant with national

01:05:32

Biological Jews Has been annulled and has been broken.

01:05:38

That's why guys like Kenneth Gentry could call this book The divorce of Israel, although I would say it's it's more accurately the divorce of Judah Because in the

01:05:49

Old Testament God issued a certificate of divorce to Israel now He's issuing a certificate of divorce to Judah and now at the end of the book.

01:05:57

He takes on a faithful bride the church The scroll is opened the verdict is rendered the sentence is passed the armies are coming

01:06:07

That is what the book is about the covenant wrath of God for covenant crimes

01:06:16

Now being poured out on the Old Covenant people and that is why we need to understand the covenant foundation of this book so well because if we don't hear

01:06:25

The covenant aspects of this book rightly we will not interpret it faithfully And if we don't interpret it faithfully, then we will not only misunderstand

01:06:33

God's warnings But we're gonna misapply The meaning of this book in some really dangerous ways and that takes us to part 5

01:06:44

Why interpreting visions wrongly is dangerous? Bad Exegesis kills people and I mean that literally it doesn't just sit in a pew with a cracked

01:06:57

Bible and a confused face Oh Contraire mon frere sometimes

01:07:02

It walks into the United States Congress with a little flag pin and a suit and a microphone and it starts sending out your sons to the

01:07:11

Middle East to die You think I'm being a little extra? Well last week senator Ted Cruz Basically said just that he appeared on the

01:07:19

Tucker Carlson show and he made the same kind of theological error that we've been talking about for months now

01:07:26

When asked about the escalating conflict in the Middle East Cruz simply said well, you know back in Sunday school

01:07:33

I was taught that you bless Israel. You're blessed and you curse Israel. You're cursed and and that's just what

01:07:40

I know well what Cruz Didn't pick up on is that he absolutely mangled the book of Genesis He kind of quoted from Genesis 12 3 that says

01:07:52

I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and He claimed that in that That modern -day

01:08:02

America must bless modern -day Israel or we're gonna face some kind of ancient judgment

01:08:10

He Argued and Tucker even asked him. Are you saying that that promise is about modern -day

01:08:15

Israel? And he said yes He said that the current state of Israel led by Netanyahu is the

01:08:24

Israel that this biblical promise applies to and it's the cause of a

01:08:30

Potentially just war for your boys to go over and die for I mean, that's not just wrong

01:08:38

Nor just stupid from one of the smartest people I'm told in the

01:08:43

Senate I've heard Cruz has an IQ of like a hundred and forty. He's a constitutional scholar so it's not just wrong and ignorant in so many different ways that kind of thinking is dangerous a

01:08:56

Theological error by him mangling the text of Genesis and mutilating

01:09:01

Galatians if he even knows the passage Could put our people in danger for wars that we didn't even start and that's ridiculous and now

01:09:13

Because of that misreading he is publicly justifying global conflict war missiles and more coffins all based on a fictional eschatology that didn't even exist 200 years ago and Now a political theory that we must bless

01:09:32

Israel or we will not be blessed and and listen Cruz has found out this in in some ways that if you bless

01:09:39

Israel, you'll be blessed I mean look how much look up how much money Senator Ted Cruz has made from blessing

01:09:45

Israel Look how much money the USA ID has paid Senator Ted Cruz So, I don't know if he's just a dispensationalist because he believes it or he's the dispensationalist because it's

01:09:56

Pat at his pocket but this kind of this kind of rhetoric is Dangerous.

01:10:02

So for a moment, I just want to clear this up because the book of Revelation is not our

01:10:10

Justification for being pro -israel pro third temple pro sacrificial system being started back up This book is not the blueprint for the church

01:10:20

Collapsing and the Jews gaining back all of their status in the Old Testament when we read it that way

01:10:26

We come to the same decisions that Cruz has come to when we look at the visions that way We become really deluded and confused

01:10:34

So just for a moment, I want to because this is current and this is a part of news and everything right now I just want to set this record straight and make this clear

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Genesis 12 1 through 3 is not about modern -day

01:10:47

Israel it's about Christ Paul tells us explicitly in Galatians Galatians 3 16 that the seed of Abraham Is not plural.

01:10:58

It's singular and it's Christ He's saying the seed of Abraham is not the Jews plural people

01:11:05

It's one person and it's Jesus and and then later in the book.

01:11:11

He says that it was sorry and later in that chapter He says that if you are in Jesus then you are the true seed of Abraham You're a part of Abraham's offspring your heirs according to the promise

01:11:23

Genesis 3 29, which means that When God promised Abraham that those who bless you and your seed will be blessed and those who curse you and your seed will

01:11:33

Be cursed he's talking about Jesus He's not talking about Netanyahu.

01:11:39

He's not talking about the Mossad or any of that He's talking about if you bless

01:11:44

Jesus, you will be blessed if you curse Jesus You will be cursed and if you bless his people You'll be blessed and if you curse his people you will be cursed

01:11:52

So senator Ted Cruz and everybody else who believes this malarkey you gotta bless Christ It's not about modern -day

01:11:59

Israel. It's not about the West Bank It's not about Israel versus Iran or Hamas or anything else.

01:12:07

It's about Jesus Bless Jesus and his church or you will be cursed

01:12:12

That's what Genesis 12 is talking about Glacians 3 is talking about and that's what

01:12:18

Revelation is talking about. You bless Jesus Genesis or Revelation 1 through 3 or you're cursed

01:12:24

Revelation 4 through 20. That's the point of the book You bless the king and you're blessed you curse the king and you end up Underneath his sandal as he curb stomps you into eternal death

01:12:37

That is what the book is about not Modern -day Tel Aviv not the flag of or the

01:12:45

Jewish flag of David none of that It's about the true seed of Abraham Who makes and creates by his own blood a true

01:12:57

Israel of God? Galatians 6 16 and then that one that's covered in his blood and filled by his spirit is

01:13:06

Sent out into the world to conquer with the gospel It's not about an iron dome it's not about Israel firing missiles into Iran It's not about a nuclear program.

01:13:18

It's it's not about any of that. It's about Jesus in his church Revelation is about Jesus and his church

01:13:27

That fulfills Genesis 12 that fulfills Galatians 3 that fulfills Galatians 6 that fulfills the book of Hebrews that fulfills the book of Revelation so as we end this part,

01:13:38

I want to say right to you senator Theodore Cruz You don't get to drag our boys into the desert to die for your misinterpretation of Genesis You don't get to weaponize revelation to push your political agenda and you certainly don't get to curse the church by blessing those

01:14:00

Who've rejected her King and and here we are we're saying that that's the people that's the chosen people of God That's the people that God is gonna pour out his blessings on that's the people that if you bless them

01:14:11

Then God will bless you the people who absolutely despise Jesus who hate

01:14:17

Christians and who the only reason they use America is so that we can help protect them in a

01:14:23

Contemptuous and a very dangerous Middle East That's the people that God blesses the people who curse and damn his own son on their lips

01:14:32

That's the people we think are the chosen people of God. I Think not the chosen people are the people he chose and Who are the people that he chose?

01:14:47

the people that he saved For you are chosen in him before the foundation of the world if you're a

01:14:54

Christian You're the chosen people of God if you're a Christian you join in with a group of people from the

01:15:01

Old Testament Who are the true Israel? David Abraham Sarah Ruth Naomi You're a part of that people the modern -day

01:15:13

Jews Have no lineage and no covenant legacy unto that people

01:15:19

They are they are the Gentiles. They hate they are the covenant breakers

01:15:26

They despise they are the ones who are destined for hell if they don't repent and turn to Jesus Christ if you make your geopolitical policy about supporting that nation which is just like every other sinful nation under the earth, but you do it based off of your reading of Scripture and you do it while wearing your suit and holding office and and you do that on a national scale and You send our sons to die for a war that has nothing to do with the

01:16:02

Bible You're not only a fool. I think you're evil and I think you need to repent and that leads us to part 6 how to interpret

01:16:17

Revelations visions If you want to understand the book of Revelation you need to begin with one basic but yet Revolutionary premise and I say it's revolutionary because so many don't do it anymore

01:16:30

The book of Revelation is a first century book. It was written in the first century

01:16:36

It was written by a first century man. It was written to first century men and it was dealing with first century events

01:16:43

It's not about helicopters Barcodes or Chinese tanks

01:16:49

It's about the living Christ delivering a heavenly verdict on people who broke covenant with Yahweh Revelation is a letter but it's also a courtroom summons you are guilty and in that part

01:17:09

Revelation 4 through 20 It's addressed squarely to the Jews Revelation 1 through 3 on the other hand is also written to a first century people

01:17:18

That's the churches in Asia Minor. That's Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea and Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamon and Thyatira Seven churches that were being hunted down harassed and hated by the

01:17:33

Jews Jesus came to them because they needed courage. He came to them because they needed clarity

01:17:39

He came to them because they Needed a vision of Christ To help them see that their suffering is not meaningless and that they or and then that and sorry and that he would not let their suffering be

01:17:56

Wasted and for nothing because he was going to punish their enemies The first step in interpreting the book of Revelation is realizing that it's not written to us

01:18:07

It was written to them Now that doesn't mean that it doesn't have application for us. We can read and we can learn from it

01:18:14

We can understand what it means and we can understand the principles and the truths of it What are the principles and the truths don't break covenant with God?

01:18:22

be faithful to Jesus unlike the first century Jews and When we get to Revelation 21 and 22 the application it's gonna be so sweet You're the people of God You're the

01:18:36

New Jerusalem You're the city that the nations are gonna stream into so that they can know the

01:18:42

Living God and you are gonna be the ones to hand them the fruit of the gospel so that they can be healed of their

01:18:48

Infirmities and be and be brought into the kingdom of God this kingdom of priests this holy nation

01:18:55

This book has much application but the interpretation of what it means

01:19:01

It means what it meant to the first century audience. It doesn't mean what you can Imagine it to mean in your 21st century world

01:19:09

And this is why we said earlier in the episode that if you want to understand Revelation, you gotta understand the

01:19:15

Old Testament Because Revelation is telling us what the Old Testament says you need to understand what what?

01:19:23

Isaiah is saying what Jeremiah saying what Ezekiel and Daniel and what? Leviticus is saying and Deuteronomy and Exodus and you need to know your

01:19:31

Old Testament if You're gonna have a bachelor's degree in Revelation you have to have a

01:19:36

PhD in the Old Testament, that's what this means and What we see in this book is

01:19:45

Through Old Testament symbols one after the next after the next Jesus Christ is calling the heavenly courtroom to assemble

01:19:55

He's calling the earth as witnesses and he's bringing a covenant lawsuit Against the

01:20:01

Jews and it doesn't just bring a covenant lawsuit against Judah It does bring comfort and blessing to the people of God to the small tiny little church in Revelation 1 through 3 and and expands out to the entire globe in Revelation 21 through 22 and in that sense, yeah, it does bring curses upon the wicked

01:20:22

But it also brings comfort to the afflicted and honestly that brings us to the most important interpretive key of all

01:20:29

You have to let Scripture interpret Scripture The book of Revelation does not invent symbols

01:20:37

It quotes them it alludes to them and it weaves Old Testament imagery together like a master tapestry from Genesis Exodus Psalms Isaiah Ezekiel Daniel Zechariah and beyond John doesn't want you to decode these visions with the news and Twitter He wants you to read them with Old Testament eyes.

01:21:04

I want you to read it. Like, you know your Bible and I think I Think this might be one of the reasons why

01:21:11

John never quotes the Old Testament directly I've told you before that Revelation is the most

01:21:16

Old Testament book out of all the Bible it is But John never word -for -word quotes any passages.

01:21:23

He alludes to them. Why is It because John didn't have them memorized. I don't think so I think it's because John assumed that you already knew your

01:21:32

Bible John assumed that you understood the Old Testament John assumed that when he said that that the

01:21:39

Son of Man had fiery eyes and Bronzy feet and white hair and a voice that sounds like many waters and a sword coming out of his mouth

01:21:47

I think John assumed that you would understand where he was quoting that from Back in those days

01:21:55

You knew your Bible By the time you were a young boy you were already almost quoting the entire

01:22:04

Torah By the time you were a rabbi you had memorized massive parts of the

01:22:11

Bible if not the entire Old Testament, I mean This was a people that prized the memorization of Scripture This is a time and place where they didn't have

01:22:22

Books left and right on bookshelves like we do They had a single copy of the of the

01:22:28

Bible at the local synagogue So you would spend your days and your nights with candlelight

01:22:34

Learning this book so that when you would go home you would have it in your head Because you didn't have enough money to have it in your home

01:22:42

John is assuming that there would never be a time when people knew their Bible less and He assumed that when he wrote these words that you and I would get them

01:22:54

Now, unfortunately, we live in a time of great biblical illiteracy, especially when it comes to the Old Testament When we hear about the lampstands, we don't think about Zechariah chapter 4

01:23:05

When we see the beast rising up out of the sea We don't intuitively think of Daniel chapter 7 when we read about plagues and trumpets and seals on foreheads

01:23:17

We don't immediately recall the Egypt plagues or the Passover in the

01:23:23

Exodus The book of Revelation isn't hard to understand if you've spent a lifetime learning the

01:23:30

Old Testament But it is hard to understand if you haven't read it and you haven't paid attention to it and you haven't committed yourself to it

01:23:38

And you think that everything in the book applies to you Applies to your time and applies to your place and applies to your circumstances and that leads us to our conclusion

01:23:52

Today we saw that Revelation symbols are not ripped out of the modern world, but they're drawn from ancient scripture this book shows us

01:24:00

Christ and Who he is? Which is the priest the king the ancient of days the living word the one who walks among the lampstands with eyes of fire

01:24:11

And a voice like many waters we saw in this book That it's covenantal to its bones that God is not reacting to the world and its situation

01:24:23

He's ruling it he's keeping his promises and the vision of Revelation as heaven's way of declaring that the covenant still stands and that there are still blessings for the faithful and judgment for the apostate

01:24:36

Just as Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 promised We saw today that if you want to read

01:24:43

Revelation rightly you must read it like the early church did Soaked in the Psalms and fluent in the law and trembling before the prophets and alive to the power of the scriptures without that lens my friends the vision blurs into Speculation at best but with it with the

01:25:01

Old Testament the book of Revelation explodes with meaning and now

01:25:07

We must ask ourself after all of this, what do we do with it? What do we do with its message?

01:25:13

Well, the answer is simple You find your place in the story. And where is your place?

01:25:20

where your place is in Act 3 in Revelation 21 and 22 because that's where we are

01:25:28

Here's the point the war was won at the cross and And then

01:25:34

Jesus ascended to the throne Revelation 12 cast Satan out of heaven and he was enthroned and Then the covenant that had been broken by the

01:25:44

Jews was now confirmed to me and you the harlot was summoned to the court and judgment came she was sentenced the death penalty to her had come and the city

01:25:58

That was once known as the City of God was turned into the royal rubble of man and Now the church his bride the

01:26:07

New Jerusalem is the one who's bringing his reign to all the nations We are the ones who live in this new world where Christ is

01:26:15

King The the old world is gone and the new world has come and we get to know

01:26:22

God Through Jesus Christ by the Spirit not in the Jerusalem temple That's how I know we don't live in the old world

01:26:28

If you lived in the old world, you had to travel to Jerusalem to know God You had to sacrifice at the temple to know

01:26:33

God you had to get a killing lamb to know God You had to participate in the feast and the festivals to know

01:26:39

God you had to follow the law to know God now We follow Christ now we go to Christ now

01:26:45

Christ crucified is our Mediator is the way we come into fellowship with God That is because we live in a new world a world that belongs to Christ not a world that is decorated with temples and blood and animals and sacrifices but a world that is coded in the blood of Christ and a world that now is underneath the

01:27:06

Messiah the lamb the ancient of days rule and we We are the church that lives between the lampstands and We now have the gospel of Revelation 22

01:27:25

That we give to the nations like fruit upon the tree of life We are the people that's in the age of expansion

01:27:33

We're in the age of building We're in the age of planting deep roots and stretching wide branches

01:27:40

We're in the age of inheritance brothers and sisters 2 ,000 years ago. Jesus was made king and Because he's an almighty

01:27:48

King and an everlasting King Omniscient omnipotent omnipresent immutable infinite

01:27:56

King his kingdom will never end and You my friends you're not in the age of losing you're in the age of winning

01:28:09

You're in the age of plundering Remember in the Gospels where Jesus says that if he binds the strong man, he'll plunder his house

01:28:19

Satan's been bound the house is being plundered and your job is to get to plundering

01:28:28

Get to building Get to singing Get to dancing

01:28:34

Get to feasting Go to church read your Bible pray go in your neighborhood and tell your friends about Christ Tell them that Jesus reigns tell them that Build businesses that glorify

01:28:48

Jesus and bring and bring prosperity to the world make art and poetry and things that have beauty that glorify

01:28:55

Jesus take back the territory that's been lost to the enemy and Build something that's gonna last for your children and your children's children to glorify

01:29:08

Jesus. You're not waiting To be zapped out of here We're in the period of time where the advance of the

01:29:17

Gospels going forth and I pray to God that a silly

01:29:24

Southern born Redneck that's looking at you right now in the face could convince you that you matter and that your obedience matters and whether you obey or not

01:29:39

Jesus is gonna build his kingdom, but What I'm telling you is is I want you to participate in it

01:29:45

I want you to enjoy it. I don't want you to spend your life worried about whether or not

01:29:52

You're getting ready to be raptured out of here. I don't want you to have all that anxiety on you. I Want you to have fun

01:29:59

I Want you to build I want you to glorify your King I want you to know that your life matters in the service of Jesus that your obedience is not in vain

01:30:10

That he predestined you To give you the very works of obedience by which you will glorify him with your life do it

01:30:19

Have faith. I Have no idea when Jesus is gonna return. I just know that when it when it happens the whole world is gonna be

01:30:28

Christian Because it says so in Jesus's book and with that I Want to tell you