Revelation 1:1-3

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 see.

Send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.

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 the lampstands

I saw one like the Son of Man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across the chest with a golden sash.

His head and his hair were 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 a furnace and his voice was like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two -edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.

When I saw him I fell at 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 and the living one. I was dead and behold

I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. Therefore write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which are about to take place after these things.

As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw my right hand and the seven golden lampstands the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Hey that last part right there you wish you had explanation like that through the whole book but we're not going to.

And I'll even say that ain't as clear as we think when we get there. First and foremost as we begin to walk through each one of these texts we had we've had people here that have when we come to different conclusions on a text we've had somebody here that a man every five words you said and then we come to a conclusion that they disagree with that Christian brothers and sisters can't disagree on this man decided he was going to part fellowship with us because of it.

So I want you to know you can disagree with me and we can show Christian charity to one another but we who we can't disagree with is the apostles.

If we disagree with the apostle we're wrong. Okay so let's understand that as we walk through this you can disagree with me and you can say

Mike I don't agree with your conclusion and I can say fine but understand when John speaks when

John says he sees something he's not describing something that he didn't see when he says he saw locusts coming up out of a pit that's what

John saw he didn't see something else with not the ability to to describe that's what he saw.

Now it's our responsibility at that point to figure out our conclusion okay and we will have disagreements and probably how we come to these conclusions and if y 'all want to stop me and say

Mike that needs to be clarified how you came to that conclusion or if you can say I disagree I think it's this let's do that I'm open to that because first of all this is this book's not a puzzle are there puzzling passages you better believe it and like I said before I'll say it again that we should have an expectation that I should give you a clear understanding of how

I understand the text but hey you should expect at some point to say hey I don't know because there are passages in here that we can just say

I don't know there's a passage here when we get to he says seven thunders spoke and he told

John don't write it down well how do we know what he's talking about we don't know because he told

John don't write it down I mean I would imagine John would be like this would have been a good time Lord to uh to write this down so that people have understanding that he tells them to uh to seal it up and that's not often in this book that something is told to seal it up when we get there we'll talk about the significance of it so verse one the revelation of Jesus Christ right off the beginning this ain't about the beast this ain't about the antichrist this ain't about no other person as the focal picture of this book other than Jesus Christ this is an unveiling remember the word revelation means and uh it's the apocalypse it's the unveiling the taking away of the covering is actually what it means and if you uh well hey take your bible and to flip over to Daniel real quick Daniel chapter 2 yeah well uh

Daniel chapter 2 verse 28 this is remember that's when uh

Nebuchadnezzar had a crazy dream he couldn't sleep then he forgot the dream and he told he's gonna kill everybody if somebody didn't come telling what the dream was and the interpretation so um those of you that were in this the

Daniel study complete may remember me making a reference to this it says however there is a god in heaven who reveals mysteries hey that word reveal in the in the greek the old greek and the septuagint is the word apocalypsis so he's saying look i'm i'm there's a god in heaven who unveils mysteries who reveals those things and he has made known to you

Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days this was your dream and the visions that was in your mind where you were lying on your bed as for you oh king while your uh bed on your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future and he meaning god who reveals mysteries there's that word again apocalypsis three times he uses this in these three verses and he to make known what will take place but as for me this mystery has not been revealed apocalypsis again in the greek uh to me for any wisdom residing in me more than any other living man but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king that you may understand the thoughts in your mind so even back