Revelation 1:1-8 Our Prophet, Preist, and King

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Don Filcek; Revelation 1:1-8 Revelation 1:1-8 Our Prophet, Preist, and King

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of the Antichrist and the rapture and guillotines coming back anybody of you any of you even know what
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I'm talking about a handful of you Know exactly what I'm talking about in the 80s every pastor that was worth his weight in salt was preaching through the book of Revelation You know, it was just it was kind of like the thing back then and so now you're kind of like flashbacks
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Where are we going with this? What's gonna happen? And of course then in the 90s, you know You don't want to be left behind right?
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How many of you read those books? You've read those And so I know that I've got some work to do as I preach working through that But did any of you ever see the movie thief in the night?
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Hey fellas, if you saw it, you remembered it, right? I mean if you do it's not like well Did I see it or didn't I see it you would remember it if you saw it
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It was one of those like scare tactic kind of movies that Christians put out that was like Terrified me as a child.
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I mean I lost some sleep over that movie It was way above my age level when
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I watched it in church and it was it was terrifying to a lot of kids and and so I think that we've got a lot of work to do in our understanding of what this book is about because Some of those feelings some of those emotions some of those thoughts come back to us and some of you have no
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History with this whatsoever and you're like, I've got no idea what you're talking about right now down why this long extensive talk about this, but Some of you maybe have attempted to read the book of Revelation and gave up because it got confusing somewhere between the lamb with seven eyes and the dragon chasing the baby like somewhere in there you were like,
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I Mind melted done. I'll just skip this and move on Check read through the
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Bible in a year, right? Even though you kind of skipped the last, you know, 15 chapters or so Well, I've spoken with people at recast had literal conversations where people have shared with me that they are so intimidated by the book of Revelation that they do not read it that they literally do skip it when they're reading through the
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Bible in a year They just kind of like brush over that they're like I get it. I get the message in the end God wins
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That's all that I need to know But let me just say that if that's all that God wanted you to know There would be these words the book of Revelation God wins and that would be it
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But how many of you know he wanted us to know more than that because he wrote more than that and so that's why we're gonna dig in and we're gonna go through this book and what
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I originally thought as I've I'm praying and Considering where to go after this first three chapters.
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I may just continue on I might just continue blazing through the book of Revelation here because it's just as I've studied for this week.
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It's got me ignited It's got me enthusiastic and excited for this book. That is extremely valuable to us
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Now ironically our text this morning is gonna cut to the chase and give us four reasons why we should read this book now
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I think it's interesting that God would give us four reasons. We should read this book because it's a book that's often not read
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So God knows our human hearts and he says you're gonna want to skip this one So I'm gonna give you in the introduction to this book four reasons why you should read it
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Because I know why I know you're gonna want to skip it I know you're gonna just brush past this one because it's gonna be a little bit confusing
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I'm using a lot of illustrations a lot of figure of speech a lot of a lot of figurative language
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So first he's gonna tell us you should read this because it comes from God He's the author of this book and in no uncertain terms
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He declares the order of transmission and he says this comes from me. You should listen second
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He's gonna say those who read it those who listen to it and those who live according to it will be
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Blessed I missed that Okay, we just had a visitation from the fly, okay, so all right
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It's somebody get a swatter and take care of that for us. All right Let me back up to the first point.
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It's that this book comes from God And so it's gonna be valuable to us We ought to read it and it be involved in it because of that Second those who read it and listen to it and live by it are gonna be blessed
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The text tells us that right from the get -go You'll be blessed if you listen to this and you live according to it third
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It prepares us for what is coming. We often would probably put that first in our thinking about the book of Revelation It is a reason that the book exists, but it's not the primary reason that this exists
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And so what we often think in our minds is primary is oh, it's gonna give me a roadmap to the end of time
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So I know exactly and precisely how everything is gonna fall into line at the end That is a subservient point to this last point last but certainly not least is that we study it because it is all about Jesus and We love
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Jesus, don't we do we love Jesus Christ? Do we love our Lord and Savior? If we love him then we're gonna love this book and we're gonna get involved in and we're gonna see him revealed because it's called the revelation of Jesus Christ it's revealing him.
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It's showing us who he is The first time he came Matthew Mark Luke and John there's a revelation of him, but it's not complete
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That revelation is not complete until we dig into this book And if we skip this book, we are not seeing
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Christ in his full glory in his full Magnificent cosmic glory that is truly his and so we dig into this book and when we get into this
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We're gonna see this vision of Christ revealed by his father to us this Magnificent vision of who our
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Lord and Savior Savior actually is So as we dig in to this book this morning
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I want you to listen to this introduction and come at this book with a clean slate I want us to come to this book expecting to be moved to worship
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God Expecting to be stretched in our thinking about Jesus Christ, and I want to come expecting to have certainly some questions
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But also expecting to find many answers So let's open our
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Bibles to the end of the book Revelation 1 1 through 8 the introduction here is what we're gonna be looking at this morning
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And if you don't have a Bible on your lap or a means to navigate to the Bible Then please just do me a favor and raise your hand so that might could bring you a
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Bible He's standing back there with a stack of them. We want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God on your lap Maybe you just happen to forget yours this morning.
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That's okay You can take one of those if you don't own one, then please just take that one home with you We do want everybody to have a copy of God's Word, but Revelation 1 8 clear at the back
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God's Word to us this morning recast. This is what he wants you and I to hear Revelation 1 1 through 8
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The revelation of Jesus Christ Which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place
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He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John Who bore witness to the
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Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw? Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and Blessed are those who read it or who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near John to the seven churches that are in Asia grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before the
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Throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of king of kings on earth
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To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom
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Priest to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever Amen Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him
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Even those who pierced him and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him even so Amen, I am the
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Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the
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Almighty Let's pray as Josh comes to lead us in worship this morning father.
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I rejoice in The opportunity that we have to dig into this word that is all about your son Jesus Christ that magnifies him that is a crescendo of all of Scripture that leads up to this magnificent worship of him the
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Alpha the Omega the one who has freed us by his blood the one who is our prophet priest and King and not just our king but king over all rulers of the earth
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Father I pray that this magnificent vision would have a dramatic impact on our hearts father Even as we just read this text that it would impact our worship now
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Before you that is Josh and the team leads us this morning father that you would be honored and glorified in our midst
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Father that you would help those on the stage to to fade into the background as we stand before your throne and we all worship together
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You are worthy of our attention of our time of our resources of our praise
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Father and I pray that our hearts would be moved this morning in Jesus name All right
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Remember them in prayer. I don't know if you got a chance to talk with them during the connection time But be sure to just express your thankfulness to them
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Throughout the day today and at the picnic afterwards. I encourage you to get comfortable You can check out if there's any more coffee or juice or Donuts over there during the message, whatever it takes, you know
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If you need to get up and stretch out during the message, but keep your Bibles open to Revelation 1 1 through 8
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I reference it once in a while, but I'm really going through it It really is my structure and my order the text itself and so you
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I don't give you an outline up on the PowerPoint primarily because I want you looking at the pages of Scripture and Seeing that that indeed is my outline.
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So check that out and have that on your lap as we go I could do my own introduction to the book of Revelation I could tell you just my thoughts and my feelings different viewpoints and the way that different scholars think about the book and there's just All different kinds of things like that, but really
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God did that for us in these opening eight verses He gave us an introduction for an intention and it may seem strange to preach a sermon on the introduction of a letter
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But as we dig in I think We're all gonna see that this is important for our understanding of what what proves to be an epic and expansive book
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This is a massive book with its scope of this Cosmic view of history and what
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God has been doing and is doing and will be doing in the future And so it takes in a lot
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And so that's one of the reasons that maybe it's confusing to a lot of people is understanding what is past what is present? What is future in this book?
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But the opening of verse 1 gives us the title for the book right away the revelation of Jesus Christ that's where we literally get the title and we are looking at the revelation of Our Lord and Savior the unveiling of him if you will the word in Greek for revelation
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Is a word that's related to a word that you're gonna recognize right away apocalypsis Apocalypse is the word in Greek from which we get our word
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Apocalypse, right now that word apocalypse has become so Charged so energized with a nuance of understanding that it almost does not mean
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The same thing that it meant to the Greek reader in their era in their time when we think of the word apocalypse we think of end times cataclysmic
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Catastrophe right how many of you that's kind of like what you think when you hear the word apocalypse You're thinking the way it all goes crashing down in the end right that's in your mind
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And so what we've done is we've adopted a Greek word Made it mean something else so that when we read it
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We think we understand what that Greek word means and it has nothing there They're barely even related anymore because this idea of end times cataclysmic
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Catastrophe is not the word apocalypse the word apocalypse means to take what is hidden and show it to someone
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So take that which you don't see fully and show it to someone So when a teacher is as walking through a fine point of physics with a high school student
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They are apocalyptic if you will they are revealing that which is not understood that which is not completely attained yet It really is in Greek.
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It's a it's a hide -and -seek word Have you ever have you ever had that game of hide -and -seek where you couldn't find anyone?
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Was that just me when I was a kid? We're gonna play hide -and -seek now done. Okay. I go.
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Yeah, you count and we'll go hide in like half an hour later I'm still looking I can't find anybody they're watching
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TV Sad, okay. Does that make me strange? Yeah, probably a little bit.
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Um, but when you get to the end of the game and you haven't found everybody What do you shout? What do you say? Olly olly oxen free
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Yeah or all come free or whatever it was in your neighborhood or amongst your friends that you that you
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Shouted that was kind of the buzzword the the word that you knew was gonna bring everybody out of Hiding was the word that you would shout in a little
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Greek child playing This game of hide -and -seek at the end might yell apocalypsis
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Everybody reveal its revelation time. It's time to reveal yourselves that which is hidden should be made known should show up Apocalypse is that's the word that we're talking about here revelation
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Those hidden should now show themselves and that is the nature of this book that we're going to be studying together
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Showing us what we do not see at face value of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ now
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We haven't seen him with our eyes Have we but we can see him with with the way that he's revealed himself in the words and the pages of Scripture in a way
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That is glorious and majestic Seeing him in a way that certainly Matthew Mark Luke and John should you study those?
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That's in a that's a revelation of sorts right Matthew Mark Luke and John does that reveal something of Jesus Christ to us?
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Absolutely, we come to understand a lot of significant truth about him through those pages and the way that he rolled in the way that he showed compassion and love and all of those
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Things but that's not the full picture That's not the full picture of the
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Christ. We need a revelation that comes from this book the
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Cosmic picture of our Lord and Savior. He revealed himself as one of us the first time
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But in this book we find him to be so much more than just One of us and then and this book that we're looking at and studying together has a strong pedigree of transmission to us
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The author wants us to know how it got here I think sometimes if you can imagine being being the one through whom this revelation came you might want to Explain how you got it.
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Okay when you're talking about Lambs with seven eyes and dragons chasing babies and things like that You might want to just say hey,
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I got this from God. I want to make sure you all know I didn't come up with this. I wasn't on peyote. I wasn't strung out when
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I wrote this This is coming from God and this is a revelation from him. And so the transmission is very clear
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He says God gave it to his son his son transmitted it to his angel and his angel transmitted it to John and John passed it on to you and me as servants of Jesus Christ in writing
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Yeah by God's grace we have in writing that which was transmitted by God to his son
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Through an angel to John and now recorded for us And this is the most detailed order of inspiration that we have of any of the books in the
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New Testament or in Scripture the most Detailed orderly account of hey, here's how we got this book. Here's where it came from but what is clear from verse 1 and 2 is really my first point if you're taking notes and that is what
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I said earlier in My introduction this book comes from God We've got to let that settle on us to begin with as we start a study like this
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The Apostle John wants us to all be clear. This is met message didn't originate with him John was indeed a witness to the life of Jesus Christ.
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Have you ever considered that before? He saw these things and so when he wrote the book of John He was writing as an eyewitness to these accounts these these events and these things transpiring
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But now he's gonna write more than what he saw just with his eyes He observed by the way the word who was made flesh he saw him he lived with him
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He ate with him. He walked around the countryside with him. He ministered together with him He observed and even recorded in his gospel the things that Jesus said about himself
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But this revelation of Jesus Christ comes from God himself now as we read through this book
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Occasionally, I will come back to this awe -inspiring reality That's lost to many of us and that is that this cosmic picture that John paints of Jesus Christ He is painting this picture.
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He is talking and revealing to us from God this picture of this glorious majestic Everything centered on this one figure and this is the same guy that he saw eat bread
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This is the same guy that he saw catch fish. This is the same guy that he saw heal people
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This is the same guy he saw crucified And he's gonna say it is all about this guy now
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How many of you you know like someone in your life might be able to fool you a little bit like that There's something special but I mean to say
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I saw him crucified and by the way, he is God in flesh He is everything and all will bow their knee one day before him.
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How many think that that's a pretty amazing claim from John here I Hung out with him.
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I spent time with him. Sure. I recorded that in John But let me tell you who he really is behind the scenes. It's all swirling around Jesus Christ It is all about him for him from him and to him.
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It's gonna be the nature of this book Revealing him as he truly is peeling back in a sense peeling back the
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Humanity of Christ and showing us just his divinity and his awesome glory as the certainly as the God man for eternity now
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And so this all comes from God that's point one and since this is a word from God that was brought to This faithful witness
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John and it's a word that reveals the nature of Jesus Christ Our our second point is that those who read it and listen to it and live by it
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Will be blessed where the word blessed simply means this we get kind of caught what's blessed mean?
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Does it mean you know that just some generic good things happen to you or what does it mean to be blessed? It means to be made happy.
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What do you want that? You want to you want to be made happy by God, but that's a good thing
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It's not it's beautiful when God does that for us and he says if you if you if you read it
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You hear it and you live according to this book That is the book of Revelation if you're if you're taking this on and you're and you're and you're living according to what we read
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And study here in this book. You're gonna be blessed. You're gonna be made happy as a result of it Now in ancient times literacy was super low so this there's a technical word here for reader that is most likely the person who got up in the church and actually read the
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Scriptures allowed to the church in the gathering this book by the way, although we're gonna read it in chunks over the course of weeks
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This was read most likely in one sitting so we would gather together and an official reader
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Would get up who is literate because the majority of you would be illiterate The majority of you could not even if you have possessed a copy of this book the scroll could not read it yourself
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So you were completely dependent upon Someone else to read this letter to you in the churches that this was spread through spread throughout so the gathering would look like somebody getting up and reading and says the one who gets up and reads this will even be blessed and It's unique among Biblical letters that the reader is given this specific
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Blessing here in our text and the hearers are given a special blessing and the doer is also given a unique blessing
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And I cannot help but imagine that God knew that in the laziness of the human heart the laziness
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Let's let's not keep it just general Let's talk about the laziness of our own hearts That we might be tempted to skip this book that requires so much attention so much of our minds so much to Understand and to discern and to wrestle with and to dig through So he offers to bless those who give attention to this difficult book
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I think with intention that he singles this book out and says hey blessed are those who give attention to this
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Don't don't skip this one. Don't don't ignore it. Don't let it go Don't don't just say oh don't give up on it
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Keep wrestling with it. Keep studying it. Keep hearing it. Keep listening to it. Let it affect your lives
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But notice that reading it is blessed hearing it is blessed and and living it out is blessed And I think that this is a good understanding for the way that we should approach all of Scripture Certainly he's saying it specifically about the book of Revelation But it should be the way that we look at and think about our our relationship with the holy written word
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Is it a good thing to read it? Yeah, and in reading it's kind of like not just reading for yourself, but even reading it to others
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I mean bring it up and and talking about it and it's good to discuss it. It's good to read it
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It's a good thing to hear it, right? It's a good thing to hear Absolutely. I think you probably assume so because you're here this morning
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If you knew what you're getting into you knew you were gonna hear something from the Word of God this morning And so I hope that's part of your motivation for being here
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But it's a really good thing also to live it out right to let it impact that go beyond just like oh
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That was a good lecture. That was a good talk or I was mediocre this week or whatever But to let it kind of get beyond the four walls of this room
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Right to let it actually impact the way that you live as we've been talking about for the last several weeks Monday through Saturday Do you live it out?
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Is that a pattern in your life? Do you read it hear it in practice? God's Word With my second point you will be blessed if you hear if you read here and do this book
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But my third point this morning is woven throughout our text It really my third point is simply that this book prepares us to live now in light of the end
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Gives us some things that are coming out in the future But it prepares us to live now in light of the end you may have noticed a sense of urgency back in verse 1 where it said the
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Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to a servant the things that must soon Take place and I kind of skipped over that when we were talking about verse 1
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But that same sense of urgency comes back again in verse 3 with the phrase
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For the time is near blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy Blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near Do you see the sense of urgency in this book right from the get -go right from the start?
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there's a sense of urgency about it and Back in verse 1
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John said that what he was writing about was going to soon take place and in verse 3 the nearness of time is given as a
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Motivation for taking these words to heart and in applying them living them out But to clarify
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I don't believe that 2 ,000 years is is quick How many of you would qualify that and say 2 ,000 years doesn't seem super quick Okay.
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So now you're kind of going where's the urgency in there? I want to point out and I think it's accurate to say that There are a lot of different ways to understand these
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Greek phrases and Scholars have poured over the Greek to understand those two phrases in John chap
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John in verse 1 rather and in verse 3 that John says The one that seems to make most sense in light of these many things is that Jesus Said this about his coming and in these phrases and it could be interpreted as more urgent than soon so verse 1 could be translated suddenly instead of Soon so what must suddenly take place is the notion and that gels really well with the way that Jesus talked about his
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Second coming that works and the Greek construction could just as well mean that it will suddenly
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Take place and then also the word for the time is near could be for the time is going to be quick It's going to quickly occur
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Without anyone expecting it Yeah, think about the term thief in the night, right? You know the book there's the movie that we talked about just a little bit earlier but the the concept of thief in the night comes from the words of Jesus saying that the
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Son of Man went on his return will come like a Thief in the night right a thief in the night doesn't that he wasn't saying that to say he's coming soon
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It's gonna happen. I mean, it's probably gonna happen in the next five minutes He was saying it's gonna happen when you don't expect it
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That's how a thief shows up right and that's it That's the implication by it is that it's gonna happen suddenly
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He went on to say Jesus talked about and likened the end times to the times of Noah He says people were marrying they were having festivals.
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They were having parties business as usual going to work Everything was great. Then the rain and then they were no more
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Pretty sudden right all of a sudden a storm hit and it didn't stop until every one of them was wiped out
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He says that's the way the end time is gonna be that's the way it's gonna be everything business as usual You know stocks being exchanged in business and and in life and people being born and people dying and and marriages and Celebrations and festivals and everything just kind of going about business as usual BAM.
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We're in the end times. It's the way it's gonna go down And he's saying that's sudden and so we need to be prepared.
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We need to be ready for it Not that I not that I go. Well, it's gonna happen in my lifetime.
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It's gonna well the signs are here I mean somebody was joking with me at the connection time. Well, we all know it's Obama, right?
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Well, you know, it was a joke. Um, but you know, and he's ready for me to preach about that Who's the
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Antichrist who's you know, whatever and so it's not about that. That's not where we're going with this okay, where we're going with this is the sense that this is a
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Reality of what is going to happen in the end. There is indeed going to be a sudden turn
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Where things are going to dramatically change it's gonna be like a thief in the night like lightning Jesus says flashes from one side of the sky to the other and boom the
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Son of Man is here in our presence glory How many look forward to that flash of lightning?
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How many are looking forward to that day when he returns for his people? What a glorious day that will be and we can even say with John at the end of Revelation even so come
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Lord Jesus That's how the book ends the whole thing even so come come soon and He will it'll be like quick Sudden and the world will not be like it was yesterday
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It will be Totally different and so that's the nature of this urgency that is going on here
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John doesn't want us to be unprepared for that reality in this sense The third point makes the book of Revelation even more important for many of us who really if we're honest in our hearts
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Just this past week. We've lived a pretty business as usual life We're honest pretty business as usual pretty much the expectation that the
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Sun is gonna rise tomorrow Just like it did yesterday. How many of you live basically with that assumption you live like things
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I mean We don't we don't really follow and take to heart James's statement if the Lord wills
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I will go to such -and -such a city if the Lord wills I will be in Wisconsin next week if the Lord wills
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I will be up here preaching next week Do you say that before everything you do? Probably not so much right because we have an expectation that everything is gonna be business as usual and everything is just gonna go tomorrow like it went today and John wants us to see and got through God really
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God wants us to see through John. That is not the case To read and hear and keep the book of Revelation is
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Not by any means to come up with a date and a time that Jesus was returned will return It's how
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I this book was given to us That's not the point no way to live a life of obedience to this revelation is to live a life that believes that Jesus is indeed the
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Cosmic King and he will indeed be returning for his people suddenly
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This is a book about readiness to meet our great and glorious King Meditating on the book of Revelation is more than a just he wins in the end kind of endeavor
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But it's a who wins in the end Hear the difference It's not just here to tell us that that he wins
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But it wants to show us a glorious vision of who our Lord and Savior is that will one day return for us that is indeed the cosmic ruler that when we're gonna see later in the book when
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Everybody is mourning and weeping going who's worthy to open the scroll there are none worthy not a single being in the cosmos that is worthy to open the scroll and to read what it contains and A lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth steps forward and says
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I am worthy And who is that Victor? Jesus Christ our
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Lord and Savior He is worthy and it's all about him and it's about this revelation of seeing him as the one not an
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Option not a choice not well, you know, there's all different kinds of ways to get there's one worthy
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Because he was slain and now lives Am I the only one in this room worked up right now
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I mean, I'm excited about this series. I'm excited about I can't imagine that we're gonna get to stop at the end of chapter 3
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I think we're just gonna have to just chug right through and plow through this book because the glory of God is in it and the beauty of our
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Lord and Savior in the revelation of how awesome he is is What the point of this book is?
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It's an awe -inspiring look into the real glory and majesty and power of our Savior and our Redeemer in This sense the motivation to obey this book is that we have a glorious King on his way to bring us into his kingdom
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And that leads to my final point Final point that's probably obvious. I already said it in my introduction and it's a point that must echo through the entire pages entire book of Revelation every chapter every verse is
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Reverberate reverberating with it is all about Jesus Christ It's all about honor and worship and glory to him now.
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Certainly. Is that the message of every page of Scripture? It is from Genesis to Revelation Everything is whispering towards and a rising rising vocalization you can hear the whispers in Genesis of one who's gonna come and is gonna is going to Slay the serpent and crush his head but his heel is gonna be injured and one who's gonna come from the woman and you see it all throughout the pages and through the prophets who are
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Crying out that one make the way make way for the presence of the Lord and you're gonna see all the way through his birth
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Account and it's a crescendo and it's rising and it's rising. But where does that crescendo culminate?
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Book of Revelation The place where we see him as he is where he is revealed in his heavenly grandeur
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Coming back to establish his kingdom for eternity All of Scripture whispers
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God's name, but I find that by the time I get to Revelation it is shouting Jesus It's all about him
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So my fourth point is just simply that this book is all about Jesus Verses four through eight begin with a formal address.
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John says I'm writing to these seven churches Seven by the way, you know, there's all different kinds of debates about this
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We're gonna talk about the sevenfold spirit of God here in a minute that can be confusing to people seven You probably go well
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I've heard before that numbers mean something in the book of Revelation how many of you ever heard that before and you're kind of like Or somebody once in a while will get up and preach and proclaim that you know
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This number is the number of perfection and six is the number of imperfection and this that and the other twelve is a full number and so there are twelve disciples and you know
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Twelve sons of Jacob and all that stuff So you what are the numbers mean seven is an easy way to understand why that means perfection why they would have understood that How many days are there in a week?
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What day did the Lord rest a day a number of fulfillment a number of completion?
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And so seven often has that position in the Jewish mind when you talk about seven of something
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And so the seven churches and the seven the seven spirits and all of that kind of stuff are there's seven candle lights seven
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The menorah has seven lights on it. And so there's all different kinds of understanding of the sevens that are there
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But John is writing to seven specific real churches not figurative churches These are real churches that existed during that time
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They're gonna be named in our text next week But John conveys grace and peace to them from the Father from the
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Spirit and from Jesus Christ in verse 4 For really verse 4 and 5 we see the
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Trinity as the originator of this message of grace and peace God has orchestrated grace that is his undeserved favor that results in Shalom for us
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It's really cool when the biblical writers in the New Testament combine those two words grace and peace They're actually giving us a theology of salvation.
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It is a gift from God that results in peace in our lives So in essence, they're just talking about the gospel there
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It's really cool because they're actually bringing the everyday Greek greeting together with the everyday
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Jewish greeting So when two Jews walked past each other they said Shalom And that was their greeting peace when two
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Greeks walked past each other. They said high rain high rain means grace That's the way that they responded
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I mean I'm talking just your run -of -the -mill Greek speaking individual during this time would say grace when they walk past each other greeted each other in the morning
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So it was just so he brings those together and says grace and peace from who from who in the text from the
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Father from the Spirit and from Jesus Christ the Father is designated as the one who was
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I mean the one who is who was and is to come a Powerful reminders we launch out into a book.
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That's about worship. That's about the king That's about the future a reminder that God is eternal and above time
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Any of you grateful for that? He sees the beginnings from the ends It's a glorious reminder.
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The Holy Spirit is called the sevenfold or the seven spirits many debate what that phrase means now
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Are there seven as there is God? Trinity and then one of those parts of the Trinity is seven like what is what's going on here?
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And again, it's that that idea of a completion or a full of fullness But I believe that it really ultimately comes down to a reference in the
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Old Testament a little note a little red book One that again if you're not skipping the book of Revelation, you still might be might be skipping
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Zechariah Zechariah 3 and 4 has in it the figure the image of a menorah
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Again that picture of that lamp with seven lights and the seven flames according to Zechariah represent the seven eyes of God Well, does
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God have seven eyes? Well, we're gonna see here in a minute a lamb with how many eyes? So in a little while in a few chapters, we're gonna see a lamb with seven eyes
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Well, and the God has seven eyes and who's the lamb with seven eyes. Well, that kind of is gonna start to make sense
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The flames the seven flames of the menorah represent the seven days of God According to Zechariah and then further those seven flames or seven eyes of God are related to his spirit that that roads to and fro
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On the earth that is that is having impact and is actually the force of God doing things.
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He's not just a force He's a he's a actual member of the Trinity But in this context
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God says this to Zechariah in light of this seven spirits or seven eyes or seven flames
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He says not by might not by power But by my spirit
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Says God Almighty So he identifies his spirit in that context of these seven lights seven eyes seven spirits
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So in this context God says to Zechariah It's it's not might not power not my spirit and my and his spirit is available again
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We're gonna see to the seven churches So this prophecy of the Spirit in terms of the perfect number like seven days
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Would be a reminder to John's Jewish readers of the perfect power of the Spirit at work in these seven churches
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That are going to be identified by name next week But now as John turns to Jesus as the source of grace and peace
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He explicitly describes three titles of Jesus and three activities of Jesus He identifies
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Jesus by the title faithful witness Jesus is the firstborn of the dead and Jesus is the ruler over all kings
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In a sense, he's going to deal with Jesus in a sense of prophet priest and came to all of us
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These three titles begin to do what the title of the entire book is going to do says it's gonna do what did the book
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What did the book's title say? It was gonna do Reveal Jesus Christ to us and it already begins here even in the introduction
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It's gonna tell us who he is and reveal him He is the faithful and true representative of God the faithful witness.
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He testifies to God's love he testifies to God's holiness
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He testifies to God's power he testifies to our brokenness and we could go on literally for hours talking about the things that Jesus Christ testifies to but Suffice to say in the end
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Jesus is faithful and true in all that he testifies to in all that he shows us
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He is the faithful and true witness Second Jesus is the firstborn of the dead
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Paul also liked to refer to Jesus by this title and what it implies is powerful for you and me
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That he's firstborn of the dead. He has been raised again to new life. Was he dead?
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Yes, is he alive now? Yes Glorious reality he's alive
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And that's pretty cool. But to call him firstborn implies that there will be more He's the first one but there will be more
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Those who are his followers those who come to him by faith He will indeed raise from the dead just as he was
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He is the leader of those who participate with him in resurrection his shed blood bought us a covering for our sin, but his resurrection has bought for us victory over the grave and We will live
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Even as he is now alive, even though we die we shall live
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The last title is glorious and that he is revealed as the great king over all rulers the ruler of rulers the king of kings
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His majesty authority power extends above kings presidents prime ministers and any who bear the title of leadership
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And how many of you know that if he's over them, he's over us Kind of implied there. Is he your king?
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Is he your master? Is he your Lord? So you get to call the shots in your life
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Don't be too quick with an answer, but consider it really think about it I can tell you that there are places in my life this week where he didn't get to call the shots and I regret it
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And I repent of it and I I say I'm sorry and I want you to take more control of my life It's a constant give -and -take
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A dance if you will letting him take the lead Not an easy thing is it?
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But it's a it's on Ongoing yieldedness to him as king and ongoing
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I mean, what a what a great thing it would be to rather than just bow the knee as you go to bed Bow the knee when you wake up Wake up and slip out of your bed and just bow on your knees before your bedside and just pray and say
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I give you this Day, this is your day. Not my day This is your kingdom. Not my kingdom.
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I want you to be king. I want you to be ruler over me I lived a lot of days as the ruler of me.
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I Want to live my life as under his kingship under his rule
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In a world full of wickedness and evil that comes from leadership. How many of you ever sat under that one? Okay, a few of us
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You recognize that there could be evil that comes from leadership anybody Think we know that it's extremely important that this
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Revelation of Jesus this title given to him of King of Kings remind us that he is above all powers and all authorities
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He's over all and in these three titles We see Jesus as prophet priest and King.
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He is the one who brings the truth like a prophet He is the one who has made the sacrifice for us by his death.
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He's priest and he is the rightful King over all King prophet priest and King But in this revelation
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John doesn't just stop by giving us three titles But he also gives us three actions of Jesus that show not the titles are really cool and they show something about how
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God How Jesus relates to us, but then he gets more personal This one who is the king and the ruler over all this one who is revealed in this text as the one who is above all kings all authorities
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Loves us Loves us Freed us by his blood freed us and made us into a kingdom
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Such a simple truth sung by children Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so it certainly does it tells you right here
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Jesus loves you But Jesus the cosmic King over all loves us
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Glory Hallelujah, I Don't deserve that But he loves us.
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He has goodwill and kindness towards those who are his by faith amazing
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Not only that he's freed us Our sins are no longer chained like shackles around our hands and feet
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But by his blood he has set us free No greater love has anyone than this that he would lay down his life for another
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And the great great love of Jesus is shown through the glorious freedom granted to you and I through his blood
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Jesus has freed us Emancipated us No longer slaves to sin
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Slaves to righteousness under his kingship No longer slaves anybody anybody excited about that anybody glad to no longer be a slave to sin
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No longer a slave to death. No longer a slave to the brokenness Certainly, we fall certainly we fail but we are not slaves.
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We can say no to sin by the power of God alive in us He's freed us.
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Lastly. He's made us into a kingdom of priests to his God and father He who is openly declared to be
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King has brought us into his kingdom as priests to his father He his kingdom will have no end and it's into that kingdom that we have been placed
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Notice that it's past tense It's this is not something that's gonna happen in the future We are in a sense the budding kingdom of God as his church
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We're not fully mature yet We're not fully what we will be when you're looking forward to that day when you are fully what you will be
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When he returns for us in his glory and takes us home to be with him Establishes his kingdom finally for eternity
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But for now don't don't diminish the glory that he has given to us as his church
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He's growing us. He's he's moving us Shaping us and molding us into a kingdom of priests for his cause
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And that's what we are and more and more that distinction is going to be made in our culture Have you noticed that more and more those who are priests to the king are going to stand out
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There's gonna be more and more a a delineation of that And that's one of the things that one of the themes of this book
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Is that those who are in the faith will stand out in a culture that is increasingly warring against the
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Lamb There are those who war against the Lamb though There are those who kick against him there are those who would pierce him
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There are those who if he was standing here today would crucify him all over again And that's real
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John's introduction doesn't end with this glorious revelation of Just Jesus and his three titles and Jesus and his three actions
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But John can't contain himself and he bursts out into praise when he when he even begins to reveal who
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Jesus Christ is he he bursts out he says to him be glory and Dominion forever and ever so be it
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Amen If you read the book of Revelation for how often people burst out into words of song and praise
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You'll begin to see that the book of Revelation is it's like a song book It's like a book of hymns to the praise of the
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Lamb and the one who sits on the throne It is a great book of praise and worship to Jesus Christ, and we're gonna see that John's introduction doesn't end with just this outburst
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Because Jesus is not and I don't know if you guys are aware of this if you listen to the media if you listen to Society if you listen to your co -workers
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You're gonna hear a Jesus that is all gumdrops and rainbows right He isn't come according to this text
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Despite popular opinion Jesus is not coming back to hand out puppies and kittens Okay, and really?
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He's not just coming back to tell us that our sins didn't really matter that much and you were all just pretty much
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Okay, I kind of liked you. Anyways, however, you were after the great titles of prophet priest and king and the great actions of Jesus Expounded that is that he loves us that he's emancipated his people from their sins and there's a creation of a kingdom
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Here on this earth that is now forming that it will ultimately culminate in his return We see in verse 7 that this great ruler is returning
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And he has a kingdom, but his kingdom is not synonymous with the world All will see him coming with the clouds and there will be from every tribe of the earth
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Those who will wail and mourn at his presence Praise God there will be those from every tribe tongue and people in nation who are in that kingdom when he returns
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But there are some from every tribe tongue people in nation who will mourn at his presence
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When the world is turned on its head some will find themselves on the wrong side Those who have persecuted him those who have pierced him and I believe even those who physically crucified him will be numbered among those who observe
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His return even if from Hades they will then realize that they were on the wrong side of history to coin a phrase
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Maybe not They opposed the ruler over all kings
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They rejected the blood that sets sets people free from their sins They refused to be made into a kingdom under this one true
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King give us any King but not this one Or better yet. Just let me run my own life. Let me rule on let me let me develop my own
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Kingdom and some people are brash enough to just say I live for myself You ever had that conversation that's a terrifying conversation
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Because when somebody says I just live for myself, I just do what pleases me. I just do what I think is right I just I just do
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I am my own standard They are identifying which side of this equation that they're on at the return of Christ.
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It's a terrifying thought They will mourn
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They will wail What a distinction is revealed for us in just this short introduction of this awesome book
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The difference is acceptance of the king. Have you done with the king?
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Wailing for those who rejected him as their king But I can't think of a bigger contrast to wailing and mourning than freedom
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Love an eternal kingdom for those who accepted this one as their king.
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So what is our mission? To go speak the words of the king
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To go lead others to the foot of the king the one who bled for our freedom the one who loves
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Anyone who will come to him and say I'll take you I'll take you as my king Just just please help me and fix me and set me on the right road
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That's that's our mission What do we exist for but to honor the king in all that we do in our lives
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We talked about that the last few weeks about our work and the way that we can show The kingdom and and be a part of the kingdom in our work.
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I mean, we've we've got it We've got to bring this message What it means to live this out is to honor the one we're talking about the one that is revealed for us
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And in the last verse This one speaks for himself The one speaks finally
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He is the beginning and the end The Alpha and Omega which is the first letter in the last letter of the
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Greek alphabet He is the one who is and who was and who is to come. He is the
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Almighty and the beauty of this last word in Greek is that those who understood anything to do with Roman culture at the first?
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Hearing of this book knew that the Emperor took for themselves the title in Greek autocrat er Self -powered you get the word autocrat out of that But self -powered the one who rules on their own basis of their own power, but here
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God Says all you autocrats. I am the
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Panto crotter the universal power over all things
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I am the highest I am all and he is the one in whom all power resides
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So as far as introductions go as we see this book We see first it comes from God second those who read it and listen to it and live it will be blessed
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The book prepares us third for what is coming and fourth and lastly the book is all about Jesus Christ So let's all consider our relationship to what we've heard in this text this morning
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Do you believe the testimony of Jesus Christ that he was sent from the father? Do you believe that he was raised from death?
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Do you believe that he is the ruler over all kings? Have you experienced the love of Jesus Christ?
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Do you believe that he shed his blood to free you from your sins? Have you willingly allowed him to add you into his kingdom?
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Have you submitted to his rule and reign over you? For those of you who answered yes to these questions
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Let's take communion together this morning Remember his remembering his blood that was shed for us and his body that was broken for us to free us from our sins
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But if you've not recognized Jesus as your king if you've not asked him to free you from your sins Then I'd encourage you to please come and speak to me if you want to talk about how that could be real for you
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How you could be brought into this relationship with Jesus Christ even this morning But I'd encourage you if you find yourself in that state answering no to those questions to skip communion this morning and reflect on the song
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That Josh is gonna come and play for us This this week as we leave this place.
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I hope that those of you who are in with Christ all in with Jesus Can walk in his love
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Walk in his freedom and walk as those As as one who is invested investing your time as a building of his kingdom and not your own
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We have an opportunity this week to see ourselves as under this one under this
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King living breathing working serving others and Sharing the glorious truth that we have a king
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Let's pray father. I thank you so much for the
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King. I thank you for the glory and awesome Beauty of Jesus Christ revealed to us in just even these eight short verses in this introduction father
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It just gets me excited about this series in this book. And as we have an opportunity to just dig in and consider the glory of our ruler the glory of our
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Savior And the awesome and glorious love that was shed for us on the cross
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Father as we come to communion this morning I pray that you'd be honored and glorified in our hearts as we
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Seek to identify with Jesus Christ through taking the bread that reminds us his body was broken for us where we deserve to be broken
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He took our place his blood was shed for us and where we deserved eternal punishment. He took that for us
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So that we could be set free Thank you for the great love and the glory of a kingdom that you're putting together
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That is Josh and Heidi leave from this place They don't leave the kingdom but they go to another expression of that kingdom in another place and father that you are doing your work and Communities and cultures all around this world father
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We thank you for your mission that convicts us to go and herald the glory of our King to our community
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Father some called out to go overseas some called out to other cultures some called the striker
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Some called the UPS some called to Bronson some called to a whole host of places some getting ready to go back to school and teach
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Some getting ready to go back to school and be students father I pray that you would mobilize us as Messengers and heralds for the glory of your son