Revelation 1:9-10

He's driving it around with it in his truck, brother. No. Is that my shop?

Grabbing cardboard. Right, there you go. Andy, you'll open this up with a word of prayer, please.

Our father in God, again, we thank you for who you are, for who we are in Christ. We pray, Lord, be a brother, Mike, now. Help us, Lord, to see truths, to believe them, and to put them in action in our lives.

So bless our conversation, bless our thoughts, and may Christ be glorified in it all, in his name. Amen. Revelation chapter 1. Good morning.

Morning. Morning. OK, we'll read the chapter. What did you say, Mike? I'm sorry. Revelation chapter 1, and we're going to read the chapter, and then I want to pick back up in verse 7. I think it's where we left off last week, because those are two Old Testament quotations that are mashed together.

And I think I started it last week, but I didn't finish, so I need to back up and finish it. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants, the things which must soon take place, and he sent, and he communicated, or signified it, by his angel to his bondservant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before the throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood.

And he has made us to be a kingdom of priests to his God and Father. To him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him in the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.

So it is to be. I am the Alpha, the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation, kingdom, the perseverance, which are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet saying, write in a book what you will see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.

And then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of those lampstands, I saw one like the son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, girded across his chest with a golden sash.

His head and his hair were like wool, white like wool, like snow. And his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in the furnace. And his voice was like that of the sound of many waters.

And his right hand held seven stars. And out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the shining of the sun in its strength. And when I saw him, I felt his feet like a dead man.

And he placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the living one, the one that was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades.

Therefore, write these things which you have seen, things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.

And the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Okay, last week, like I said, we dropped off right at the beginning of chapter seven. I mean, verse seven. It says, behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him and those who have pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.

So it is to be, amen. That was a Old Testament, two Old Testament passages that he has put together, synthesized them per se together to give an idea of what's going on about Christ. It is Daniel 7, verse 13.

Let's turn over there real quick because that is the Son of Man passage. Good morning. Hang on, let me back up. We might just read. Let's back up to verse nine in chapter seven because that is the introduction to the Ancient of Days.

And then it goes into the Son of Man so we can get an understanding maybe of also who we're seeing as we get further on into the chapter. It says, I kept looking until the thrones were set up and the Ancient of Days took a seat and his vesture was like white as snow.

We just heard that, didn't we? And his hair was like that of pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames and its wheels were of a burning fire and a river of fire was flowing. It was coming out from before him and thousands upon thousands were attending to him and myriads upon myriads were standing before him and the court was set and the books were opened.

And then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words of the horn which was speaking, I kept looking until the beast was slain and his body was destroyed and was given to the burning fire.

As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away but an extension of its life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. And here's the passage that was quoted in Revelation. I kept looking in the night vision and behold with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of Man was coming and he came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

It was given to him a dominion, a glory and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations of the men of every language might serve him and his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom is one which will never be destroyed.

That is part of what is quoted here in chapter 1 verse 7 of Revelation where it says behold he is coming on the clouds. If you remember I said that's why I don't believe that this is dealing with the second coming.

I know there are men that believe that and if you're here and you think that's the second coming that's fine but contextually it doesn't fit with the book. He is, obviously when Christ comes, is he gonna come through the clouds?

Well of course, what did it say in Acts? He says, remember Jesus is ascending and everybody's standing around and an angel says hey why are you standing here gazing up in the sky? Which I really think that's a weird thing to ask somebody.

I don't know about y 'all but if I was standing there and this guy starts just ascending into the clouds I'd have probably been gazing too. Been like man, this is awesome. What did he say? The same way he went will be the same way he will return meaning hey, just as he went up in the clouds how is he gonna return?

He's gonna return in the clouds. But in this case if you take it with the context in which it is being quoted from the son of man and being Jesus where was he going into the clouds? He was coming to who?

The ancient of day, what's that? The father. Yeah, he was going to the ancient of days and what was he going to receive? A kingdom. When did Jesus receive his kingdom? At the ascension. At the ascension.

When did he purchase his kingdom? At the cross. At the cross. Yeah, we can't, we often compartmentalize Jesus's birth, life, his ministry then his death, burial, resurrection then his exaltation and enthronement and then the giving of his spirit.

We compartmentalize that so that we can understand what took place in each one of those segments of his life but you know what? The Bible doesn't compartmentalize. It takes the totality of who Jesus was from the coming of the conception.

When Gabriel says the Holy Spirit's gonna overshadow you and you're gonna conceive of child until his exaltation and enthronement. It's all, you can't get away from it. You remove any one of those parts then Jesus isn't the God man.

He just becomes another historical figure sent by God, not God in human flesh. So he says he is coming with the clouds and here's the other passage that's quoted. And every eye will see him, even those who have pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.

Turn over to Zechariah chapter 12 and we'll pick up in verse eight because this is actually, yeah, I'll start in verse eight, go two further. I'll just wanna keep backing up to the beginning of the chapter and I don't wanna do that because the prophetic formula in the Old Testament, if you remember, I've said it time and time again, when you hear in that day, that's a prophetic, I mean, something's gonna take place in that day.

In this particular case, it's talking about on the day in which God is going to pour out his spirit and he's going to kill his son. Here's what it says in verse eight, 12, eight, Zechariah. In that day, the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them.

And in that day, I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And here's the verse that's quoted in Revelation. I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication, and here it is, so that they will look upon me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for the only son and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping of the loss of the firstborn.

And in that day, there will be great mourning in Jerusalem like the mourning in Hadarimon on the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves and the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves and the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves and the family of the Shemites by itself and the wives by themselves and all the families that remain, every family by itself and by themselves.

So, he has taken the exaltation of the son of man and he has taken the pouring out of the spirit on the day after Jesus' crucifixion and putting them together. So, it says, they will look upon him whom they pierced and they will mourn.

Why will they mourn? Hey, that is also quoted. We're gonna look at it in a minute. That's also quoted in the Gospel of John. Why would they have looked upon him whom they have mourned and mourned, whom they have pierced?

Let's go to John. John 19, I think it's verse 37, 37.

Actually, let's back up, verse 32. We'll read in to add the context to it. It says, so the soldiers came. All right, this is Jesus. He's already, he's hanging on the cross. Remember, it's the high Sabbath coming.

They can't have any bodies left on there on a high Sabbath. And it says, so the soldiers came to break the legs of the first men. I know the other two that were crucified with him, meaning Christ, but when they coming to Christ, they saw that he was already dead and they did not break his legs.

But one of the soldiers pierced the side with his spear and immediately blood and water came out and he who has seen has testified. His testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may also believe.

For these things came about to fulfill the scripture. Not a bone of him would be broken. And again, another scripture said, they shall look upon him whom they had pierced. If you go back, if you go over to, I think it's Luke 22, you will see after Jesus had been crucified, his side had been pierced.

It says that those men went back home beating their breasts, heading home. Do you know what the beating of the breast was a sign of? A sign of mourning, a sign of repentance. Do you remember when, and also in the book of Luke, where the publican and the Pharisee were praying on the corner.

And what did the Pharisee say? Man, I'm glad I'm not like that, dude. I go to church every day. I tithe, mill, and all the things that he said that he did. But what did the publican do? He beat on his breasts saying, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Beating on the chest was a sign of mourning and repentance. So in this case, there was those at that day when they saw Jesus' side get pierced, recognizing all the cosmic things that had taken place. Remember, it got dark.

I mean, it was a darkness that you could feel on that day. And when that soldier pierced his side, and I think it's in the, maybe it's in the Matthew passage. Do you remember the centurion, the executioner, that overseeing what took place?

Do you remember what that man said? He was blameless. He said, truly this was the Son of God. That guy even said, man, there's something special about the guy that's up on this tree. So when we get to this passage here, he is taking these two back in Revelation.

He is taking those two passages, mushed them together. Behold, he is coming on the clouds, meaning he has been exalted, enthroned. He has received his kingdom. And those who have pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will look upon him and mourn.

Why? Because they had killed their Messiah and that God was even going to, even after they killed their Messiah, what did God do? He still sent forth the Spirit, which would go out, regenerate, cause people to come unto himself.

And it says they would look upon that very thing and they would mourn. Okay, they would mourn. Now, there's also a perspective of this that we need to certainly keep in mind that when Jesus does come in judgment, that there's gonna be people that are, hey, it's over, they're gonna mourn.

Look, when Jesus comes in power and glory on that day, I don't know about y 'all, there's gonna be some sad folk. Okay? I don't know about y 'all, but if you've got any unsaved loved ones, I'm sad for them.

Because you know what happens? Just like when the destruction of Jerusalem came, when God actually says, okay, I'm done with that city, and Jesus is coming in judgment, not ascending, but sending forth his judgment on that city through the pouring out of the madness from the civil war that was going on in the city and the judgments of famine, disease, unclean water, and then he uses the Romans to actually lay waste to the city finally.

Hey, they're going to mourn at that time. Why? Because how many times were they told, hey, even the Jews were told time and time again in the Old Testament, you don't do what God says, what did he say he was going to do?

He was going to destroy the city. Well, what did he do in 722 BC to the Northern Kingdom of Israel because they would not repent? What did he do? He wiped them out. They were hauled off by the Assyrians.

They didn't learn, did they? Judah didn't learn, so what did he do to Judah? The same thing. Then when you get to coming to 70 AD, did God not warn Jerusalem for the persecution of his people and for the killing of his son that they did not repent?

What was he going to do? He was going to destroy the city. What is the Olivet Discourse talking about? Jesus said, hey, you see all these beautiful stones on these? No, one stone's going to be left upon another.

So yes, is there an idea that they will look on that day and see whom they have pierced and recognize that the judgment of God had come on them because they did not embrace Christ? No doubt, no doubt.

Jesus even said in the Olivet Discourse, I am coming on the clouds and all will mourn. He almost verbatim quotes from the Septuagint this quote, they will see me and I will be coming and they will mourn.

Why will they mourn? Because the time of repentance is over. Once God said he was going to destroy the city of Jerusalem, the time was over. 586 BC, when he said he was done with the city, the time of repentance was over.

70 AD, time of repentance is over. When Jesus splits the eastern sky and he drops down on that white charger with a tattoo on his leg that says King of Kings and Lord of Lords and his eyes are like a flame of fire and his hair like wool, feet like bronze, he's got a sword coming out of his mouth, the time is over and all the world will mourn because they will know, look, there will be a special revelation given to all men.

Look, when God splits the eastern sky, they're gonna know. Look, this is not a localized event when Jesus returns in power and glory. It's gonna be for all to see. I know in the Olivet Discourse, it says that just as the Son of Man, just as the lightning flashes from the east to the west, so it will be the Son of Man.

We often think about in that passage that when the lightning flashes, we're thinking about lightning as in a lightning storm, boom, it's there and it's gone. That's not the idea. The word astrophe for lightning means the beam and the brightness of light and so it will be that when the Son of Man appears, it will be as the light coming, where does the sun rise?

East to the west, that's right. Hey, lightning don't go always east. Just logically thinking in that passage, does lightning go east to west every time? No, but when Jesus returns, he will come in the east.

Why was the temple? Remember how the temple was turned? It faced east. Because that's the direction that he was going to return. Okay. So, all the tribes of the earth will mourn. It will be amen. Now, we get to verse eight and I, how many of you have red letter Bibles?

I think, they didn't do us any service here. Hey, mine's red too. Okay. They didn't do any service here. Translators that do that, try to give us understanding in who's speaking. This isn't Jesus speaking here.

Jesus has not even been introduced into the text as the one speaking. Remember, we just read it, as we read through, when Jesus starts to speak, what does John say it sounds like? Trumpets, many waters, it roared.

I believe this is God talking in one reason, because it specifically says, Lord God. He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega. The one who was, I'm sorry, who is, who was, and is to come. We already saw that, where?

Back up in verse four. Remember last week, back up in verse four, we saw that, we went through that, Old Testament passage, Isaiah 41, 44, 46, 48. And we can go through many times where Jesus says, I mean, where God says in the Old Testament, I am Yahweh, I am the one who is the first, the last.

Well, when you say the Alpha and the Omega, that's like saying the A to the Z. So this is God talking, and it actually says, Lord God. Who is, who was, who is to come, the Almighty. Who was the Almighty in the Old Testament?

Who was the Almighty in the Old Testament? God. There was only one Almighty in the Old Testament, and it was God. And the Greek word here is pantokrator. That just sounds bad, don't it? All-powerful, yeah.

Pantos, meaning all, krator, power, all-powerful. Is that in there in the back? Yeah, it is, actually, yeah. Pantokrator! He says, I am the Alpha, the Omega, says the Lord God. Yahweh says this. Now, if you ever have those heretics knock on your door and say, hey, Jesus never said he was God.

Jesus never said he was God, the Jehovah's Witness said it, never. This is a New World Translation. This is their perverted version of the Bible. They used a perverted text. They used a type of interpretation to where it makes Jesus not be God.

You can take their Bible out of their hand and say, I can show you where the Bible says Jesus says he is God. And it's in the book of Revelation. I preached out in front of the Jehovah's, I used to go every year up until COVID, but then they quit coming.

Mike Ward went with me a couple of times, Keith did. And if you open up your regular Bible, even to King James, they don't wanna hear. So what I did, I said, hey, take your New World Translation because they're standing all out in the front.

So take your New World Translation. I want you to open it up to this passage. And I would preach from Isaiah 6 and John 12. If you know anything about Isaiah 6 and John 12, Isaiah 6 is where the glory of God fills the temple.

And Isaiah says, I'm unclean. He says, he saw God. He saw Yahweh. For when you go to John 12, it says that in who Isaiah saw was Jesus. So you say, look, it says right here that John says Isaiah saw Yahweh, who was Jesus.

And normally their Bible's shut and they don't talk anymore.

Can we also say that the book of John, the last of John, what it says is that Jesus said, before Abraham exists, I am. That is a better word he used. And then the tetragram for Yahweh, right? You said a tetragrammaton?

What's that now? Did you say a tetragrammaton? Yeah, when he says, I am, before Abraham exists, I am. It's actually echo I me.

Yes, I am. And he is speaking of, yes, before Abraham was, I was the I am. That's what he is saying. And actually, in the Old Testament, there are some Hebrew scholars, just like it says, the one who was, who is, who is to come, some Hebrew scholars think that should be translated right there, the I am.

I am. It should be, because it could be translated that, because it's saying I am, I am. I'm everything that was, before, is, and is to come. So when you do the, from the Isaiah six to the John 12, they normally shut their Bibles.

Well, you're taking an Old Testament text and blah, blah, blah. But if you take their Bible and go to Revelation, if you want to write these down, I'll give you the two passages, or four. Okay, this is God speaking in Revelation chapter one, verse eight, I am the alpha, the omega, says the Lord God, who was and is and is to come.

And then in verse 17 of chapter one, I saw him, this is Jesus, he said, I fell at his feet, and he placed his right hand on me, and he says, do not be afraid. And here's what Jesus says, I am the first and the last, the living one, the one who was dead and is alive.

Hey, there is no question about who died and who's alive now, is it? It'd be Christ, and what did he say he was? He basically used a synonymous term of the first and the last. He's saying he is the alpha, the omega.

And then if you go to verse eight of chapter two, listen to what Jesus says again. He says to the angel of the church of Smyrna, write this, I'm the first and the last, the one who was dead and has come to life once again.

What does that make Jesus? That makes him to be God. He says, I am the first and the last. Then you go to the end of the book, verse chapter 21, I think it's verse six. Yeah, here it is. He said, write this, for these words are faithful and true.

Then he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end. So now there's no question, Jesus quotes exactly what God said about himself in chapter one, verse eight. Then look at verse 22.

I mean, chapter 22, verse 13, 12, I'm sorry. He says, behold, I'm coming quickly, and my reward is with me. And I will render to every man according to what he has done. I am the alpha, the omega. I am the first and the last.

I am the beginning and the end. Hey, it says it right here in their own text. They weren't smart enough or savvy enough or quick-witted enough to still under the providence of God to remove it from their perverted text.

So if they ever knock on your door, just go straight to it. Just take it out of there, hey, let me see your Bible, and just go straight to Revelation and walk through those two passages. I can assure you the conversation will either stop or you'll have the opportunity to then share that Jesus Christ is the only one capable of taking away your sins.

Why? Because he was the God-man. Fully God, fully man. Not the Arian of the Bible, meaning a created being. Verse nine. Now, here's where, to me, it's almost like a third opening. It's John speaking.

I, John. John who? Alright, here we go. I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation, the kingdom, and the perseverance which are in Jesus. We'll stop right there. It says a fellow partaker and big brother.

You see how John addresses himself? He doesn't address himself like, hey, I'm the man. I'm the one who walked with Jesus for three and a half years. I'm the one that he called his favorite. I'm the beloved one.

No, what does he say? I'm your brother and fellow partaker. Look at the humility in John. John, he's not standing up on a stump saying, hey, I'm the man. He's saying, look, I'm the one who's your brother in Christ.

I'm the one that's also a fellow partaker. And this is what is somewhat baffling to me. In the, that's a definite article and it oversees all three of these sections. It could be actually translated, I'm the fellow partaker in the tribulation, the kingdom, the perseverance.

The tribulation. Do you think John had any idea of the last seven years of world history as being a great tribulation? No, probably not. This man, history tells us he'd been already dropped into a vat of boiling oil.

Now, God preserved him. But how many of his fellow disciples had he already known or seen killed for the testimony of God? No, he was in tribulation. He was in tribulation. How many of his fellow brothers in Christ had he heard at this point, whether you think it's a late date or an early date, he was at the time of Nero, if you hold the early date, I mean the late date, how many of them did he know that in Rome that had been taken to the Circus Maximus, had been fed to the lions or any other beast, had been set on fire with pitch so that Nero could either light the way to his chariots to come in or for his orgies?

One of the young. Think that's tribulation? That's tribulation. I mean, it would be very hard to endure if we begin to see every week one of our fellow church members had been murdered for the cause of Christ.

That'd be difficult. That'd be difficult. He's also your fellow partaker in the kingdom. Well, what kingdom? The kingdom of Christ, which was going out into all the world at this point, making disciples.

At this point, they had already left Judea, had gone, church has already been established into Asia Minor. If Paul ever made it to Spain, which I'm not sure if he did, there's a, not real sure, maybe.

He wrote the book of Romans trying to raise money to go to Spain. There would have been churches already well into Europe at this point. Kingdom is going out through the proclamation of the Word and because of tribulation.

Do you understand that the tribulation and the persecution of the saints, the martyrdom of God's people, always grows the church? Always grows the church. I think it was Tertullian in 200 AD said it's the blood of the martyrs, which is the seed of the church.

You can't kill us. You can try to do away with the church, but it will not go away. Jesus said this. He said that the gates of Hades will not prevail. Not hell, Hades, death. Death will not prevail against His church.

Why? Because Jesus is gonna build His church and there's nobody that can stop it. And the perseverance. What does it mean to persevere? What does it mean to persevere? Keep on going. Keep going. Keep on keeping on.

Now that looks different for different people. Press on. Press on. That would be the Andy Montoro version. Press on! Yeah, it means to continue on. Hey, there's a whole book written on pressing on, holding fast.

Book of Hebrews. Hebrews, where dating is right, was written right before the great persecution of Nero. Nero would have been in power or seeing persecution already start. Remember how Christians began to get persecuted by Nero was not specifically for their faith.

He blamed, he set Rome on fire in 64 and blamed it on the Christians. That's how he got the Roman people localized, okay, because it wasn't empire-wide, localized to persecute the Christians. Hey, they torched your city and burned nine square miles or whatever it was of it.

He blamed it on the Christians. And it was, if the Christians would have went, okay, I'm gonna turn back and go to Judaism, they would be left alone. Hey, look, if you're seeing your people hauled off, butchered, killed, women raped, enslaved, all that thing, and you're thinking, man, wait a minute, if I could just go back for a second, Nero made a distinction between Christianity and Judaism.

He was the first one to do that, to see, hey, these guys are actually different. They're not a sect. For a long time after, well, for some 30 years, Christianity flew under the umbrella of Judaism because they thought it was just a sect.

Even Claudius, the Edict of Claudius in 49, it says there was a, you read Josephus' writing, he says there was the Edict of Expulsion because there was an argument or division between this so-called risen Christus, he expelled all the Jews from out of Rome.

So Priscilla and Aquila in Acts, we're not in, that's how they got expelled. If you remember reading, it talks about it in that Book of Acts as well, that when that expulsion by Claudius, when he died in 54, yeah, in 54, when he died, that Edict goes away.

Well, what began to happen? Christians, Jewish Christians began to come back into the church in Rome, causing division. And we have the book written by Paul, the Book to the Epistle of Romans because of those issues.

Well, it would have been easier for them under the persecution of Nero to just go back to Judaism. We're safe under that umbrella. If we go back to Judaism, it'll be okay. Well, the whole book of Hebrews is don't do that.

If you do that, you turn away from that once and for all sacrifice that's been made for you, and you turn away from that. There was a willful act of apostasy. They knew that Jesus Christ, be like looking at Jesus Christ, knowing he's the only way, putting your faith in him and then you know what?

Because I don't wanna be murdered, I'm gonna go back to something. I'm gonna go back to the shadow instead of the substance. And he said, if you do that, there's nothing that remains for you but a fire indignation of a wrathful God that will consume his adversary.

But from their perspective, don't persevere, just go back and you'll be safe. We're gonna see as we go through this book, some of those churches have the same temptation set before them. He says, and these are also which are in Christ Jesus.

Remember the person, the tribulation, the kingdom, and the perseverance is all in Christ. Why? Because it's his kingdom, it's his tribulation that's come upon you and it's gonna be him that will make you persevere.

He said he got this on the isle called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And we got just about 10 minutes, maybe five minutes. All right, where was the isle of Patmos?

It was off the coast of Asia Minor, maybe six miles or so off the coast of Ephesus and a little small crescent shaped island, not big. Contrary to just disseminating information, it was not a penal colony.

I know many of us think that, hey, John was sent there because this was Alcatraz, okay? Or was it Steve McQueen movie, Papillon, okay? A friend of mine, I call him Sean the Baptist. He's a friend of mine, he'd come by my shop and we were talking about this a few weeks ago and he said, you don't think that Patmos was like Papillon?

I was like, no, I don't. Because there was a gymnasium there. If you have a gymnasium there, that means you have to at least have a small population for people to compete in games, okay? You had temples there.

If you have temples there, what does that mean you have to have there as well? You gotta have people that worship these false deities in order to go to those temples, one, to build them and to go to them.

Now, the question then goes, okay, if it wasn't a penal colony, if it wasn't an Alcatraz per se, then how did John get there? Well, it says that John was there for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Historically, traditionally, people think he was exiled there, okay? Some people believe that whether it was through his testimony before the Nero or to the magistrates that represented him, then he was exiled there.

Remember, exile does not, it's not an incarceration, okay? You can be sent there, you can be taken care of. John was a very influential man among Christian people at this time. Maybe, for those that think he was on exile there, maybe it was in the best interest of those magistrates or legates to send him to the Isle of Patmos versus kill him, okay?

That could very well be the case. John could have been sent there by God to evangelize. Could have. Hey, there's temples there, there's a gymnasium there, there's people bowing down to false deities over there, there's people bowing down to the imperial cult there.

Maybe John was there for that. Maybe John was there to receive the testimony of the revelation. Whatever position you wind up landing on, the text doesn't tell us. We know that John was at Patmos. We know he was there for the testimony of Christ.

That could very well be exile, but it could very well be that he ended up there to preach the word, or he could end up there to receive the revelation, meaning the apocalypsis. Don't know. Wherever you land at's fine with me.

I personally don't think it was exile. I'm not convinced of that. I know that goes against popular belief, but there's nothing, we're assuming that. And as we get further into the book and we get to the churches, I can make the argument that if he was exiled from Ephesus, which is where most traditional scholars believe he was there, why was he exiled from Ephesus and the Ephesus church be there, but not under persecution?

A good question. When we get to Ephesus, the church of Ephesus was a thriving church, but they weren't under persecution. If John was the one that they exiled from that church, that's a form of persecution.

Why would they send John to Isle of Patmos and not persecute the church? He was the leader. What's that? He was the leader of them. It doesn't do anything to the church. And as you continually go through all of those churches, none of them is an imperial-wide persecution.