173. The Warrior Priest (Revelation 1 Finale)

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Well, hi everybody. And welcome back to the podcast. Just a quick word before today's episode, we had some camera issues.

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The episode did record in its audio form. So I'm going to release that in full, but the camera cut off almost at the beginning of the episode.

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We got the intro done and I was unaware that the camera was having issues until the very end when

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I realized that the video is not there, so I'm going to release the episode as it is because it is an incredibly busy season of ministry for us here at the

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Shepherd's Church. And to be honest, I just don't have time to rerecord it, but I pray that this episode blesses you.

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I pray that this episode encourages you. And I pray that as you're continuing to learn these things through the book of revelation, that it would invigorate you to continue in the work that, that God has called you to as a kingdom of priest and a holy nation.

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So thank you for your grace this week. We'll be back. Uh, I've got a couple of weeks where I'm going to be taken off of the podcast because our, uh, annual presbytery meeting is coming to our church.

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And if you don't know what that means, it just means a lot of pastors is going to descend upon Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and I'm going to be working on the event.

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And I'm going to have my head focused on that. So I'm going to be off for a couple of weeks. Pray for us, pray for this meeting.

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Pray for the Lord to be honored and glorified in it. And we'll be back with revelation chapter two around the end of September until then,

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God bless and enjoy this week's episode. Hello everyone.

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And welcome back to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is episode one 73, the warrior

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King. Well, hello everybody.

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And welcome back to the podcast. As always, I am grateful that you are here and whether you've been walking through revelation with us from the very first verse or you're tuning in for the very first time today, you're a part of this study.

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Now I don't promise a whole lot of perks for joining, uh, like some of the other channels do.

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I started that way and tried to do that, but then I was convicted, uh, by that because the gospel is free and nothing should be behind the paywall.

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So if you want to support it, great. If you don't, that's fine too. The only blessing that I would offer to you is that every prayer that you pray for this channel, every share that you give it on your timeline and every little bit of support that you give helps us get the word out more that Jesus wins because, because we are living in a world where not too many

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Christians actually live that way, where they believe that their eschatology is frivolous and that they don't really see how they have a purpose to play in Jesus's kingdom.

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We're not left here for that purpose. And this channel is trying to get that message out that we are not left here to lose.

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We are not waiting on the world to collapse so that we can ride our rapture rocket to the sky.

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We have been chosen by God left here with a purpose and tasked as his faithful stewards and heralds of his kingdom until he returns.

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And he's not going to return until we've done the job that he's given us to do. We have been given a glorious task of overseeing the world that Jesus purchased on the cross.

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If you want to ask me who is the owner of the world, it's Jesus. Well, who did

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Jesus install as his property manager over the world in which he bought and paid for at the cross?

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Us Christians, we are like the property management company for a wealthy real estate investor and it's our job to make sure that the world,

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Jesus's property aligns with his vision and that we bring his word.

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Into alignment with his will in a similar way. You think about Donald Trump, Donald Trump owns golf courses all over the world, but Donald Trump's not out there pruning the hedges.

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He's not making sure that the rough is a certain length of grass and that the greens are perfectly flat.

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He's not doing all of that work. He's installed his people, his workforce to bring those courses into alignment with his desire and his will so that when he shows up, they look like what he wants them to look like.

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Well, in the same way, Jesus purchased the world and he purchased it and it was in terrible shoddy condition when he purchased it, but nonetheless he purchased it and he's been working to bring this shoddy dilapidated world that was broken by sin into alignment with his vision and he's been doing that for the last 2000 years through his people, his workforce, the church.

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Now this is what this show has been talking about. We've been beating that drum loudly every single week and your support helps us encourage more people to embrace

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Jesus's victory, to embrace our role in his kingdom and to stop living in light of ever looming defeatism.

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Now with that today marks the final episode in our journey through Revelation chapter one.

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Now I don't know, I can't even remember how many episodes were in to the book of Revelation so far, but we're concluding

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Revelation chapter one today and man, what a journey it has been so far.

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Just in this first chapter we've seen how the book was never meant to be a secret code that was shouted in cloudy mysteries.

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It was, it's an apocalypse and we learned that the word apocalypse actually means unveiling, not hiding.

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This, this word is a revelation where the mysteries are supposed to be revealed and the people of God are not supposed to be perpetually scratching their head and wondering what's going on, but they're supposed to be given hope as they await their deliverance from the sufferings that they are going through.

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And we've seen how that works in this book. We've also seen how the things that are happening in this book are not about our future.

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They're not even about our present, but they're about things which must soon take place from John's perspective living in the first century.

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Revelation one one is just one example and we know that that's the case because Jesus himself told

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John that the time of the fulfillment of the book of Revelation was near revelation one three and you and I don't need to pretend that the word near means 2000 years because that wouldn't be really near.

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When John heard Jesus Christ, the ascended Christ, the transfigured

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Christ, when he said, when he heard Jesus saying that the time of fulfillment was soon near and that he was going to come quickly, he believed him and he rightly understood that the events that Jesus were talking about were certain imminent and right on the very precipice of happening.

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And as we have seen, the only reason that the vast majority of Christians today do not see this is because the text or it's not because the text is hopelessly befuddled and incomprehensible so that no one could understand it.

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It's because they come to the book with an a priori assumption, an assumption before they even get there that the book of Revelation must be about the future.

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And by doing that they have a kind of circular reasoning. The book must be about our future.

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Therefore when we read the book, it must be talking about events in our future. That's faulty logic and I'm challenging that logic and I'm challenging you and I to reread this book with a fresh set of eyes to lay down all of the assumptions and preconceived ideas that someone somewhere has told you and that we could just simply let the text of revelation speak for itself because when it does speak for itself, it says that things are going to happen soon.

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The time is near and that Jesus is coming quickly and he didn't tell that to you and I. He told that to John living in the first century, which means that these things must be.

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So you either believe that Jesus returned near in relation to John or he lied to John.

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You either believe he returned quickly in relation to John in the first century or you believe he lied to John.

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There's really no other way around it. You have to pretzel the word near and soon and quickly to mean things that those words just don't mean.

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And when we read it rightly, what we're going to see is that the apostle John as early as 65

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AD was being promised by Jesus in this conversation, this visionary conversation that he's having with Jesus on the

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Isle of Patmos, that that a tumultuous collapse was coming to the apostate

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Jewish people. All of the covenant trappings that they were clinging to as their idol were about to expire in his own lifetime and be taken away.

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Jesus told John that that the ones who pierced him on the cross, the Jewish aristocracy, we're going to see him coming in judgment.

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They were going to weep and howl as they were being destroyed by him. Revelation 1 .7.

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You can also look at James chapter five. And as a part of that imminent judgment act, the temple of the

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Jews and all of the mosaic forms that were surrounding it was going to be destroyed within a matter of years.

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Five to be exact. Jesus was going to put those things on the shelf of history so that the new covenant that was bought and paid for in his blood could come in full with the church that was going to be built into the new and better temple, not made out of bricks, but made out of living stones, not with one lamp stand hidden away in the city of Jerusalem, but the church as an eternal seven fold lamp stand that is shining his light in a darkened world.

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And with Jesus himself, our perfect high priest tending those lamp stands so that the light never goes out.

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All of these things signal that Jesus is bringing a new covenant era and he is the new covenant priest and the new covenant

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King who would be the firstborn of a new creation. The ruler of the Kings of the earth, revelation one five signaling that as early as the writing of the book of revelation,

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Jesus was claiming universal dominion over all the world and over all his enemies.

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This along with so much more is what we've seen so far in the first chapter of this most interesting book.

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These things don't wait fulfillment, but by the Lord's grace, they've already been fulfilled. They've already been inaugurated and now you and I are coming into something, not waiting for something to happen.

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Now that's a summary of where we've been so far. If you were with us over the last several weeks, you're going to realize that that we're in the very first vision of a book that is filled with visions.

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The first vision is in revelation one, 12 through 20. It's the first vision where John sees the transfigured

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Christ. He sees Jesus in all of his glory and the Lord allows John to see him in that way to show him the things which must soon take place that John don't worry.

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The, the church don't worry. I know you're being attacked by Rome and you're being attacked by the Jews. I know you're being killed.

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I know you're being martyred. I know your blood's being shed. I know that you're broken. You're weeping. I know that you're going through tribulation.

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John even says that he is a fellow partaker in the tribulations with the early church, but do not despair.

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Because greater is he that is in you than he that is of the world. Jesus said in John 16 that, that he, that, that this world is filled with, with trouble and tribulation, but fear not.

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He's overcome the world. All of this is letting us know that Jesus is teaching his church who he is, what's getting ready to happen to them.

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And also what's getting ready to happen to the Jews who are not going to meet

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Jesus as priest and they're not going to meet Jesus as King, but they're going to meet him as the warrior who is going to overwhelmingly conquer them.

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And today we're going to see this clearly. As we close out chapter one, we're going to see how the transfigured

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Jesus is dressed in such a way that he is going to minister and care for his people, the church, and he's going to build them into a new worldwide empire.

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But along with that, he's also dressed for war. He's dressed in armor because he's about to go to battle with his enemies.

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Today we get to look at how Jesus has eyes that are set ablaze with a consuming fire feet, like burnished bronze for battle.

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We're going to see Jesus even have a sword coming out of his mouth because he's bringing covenant judgment.

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Today we're going to see a Jesus who is dressed as a faithful high priest for his people, but also as a warrior

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Prince who's going to destroy his enemies. He's dressed like a loving priest who's going to mend his people's wounds.

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And he's also dressed like a covenantal assassin who's going to put the

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Jews six feet under his feet. Today we're going to see how

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Jesus is going to execute the mosaic covenant curses that are described in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 that the first century

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Jews earned for killing him on the cross. According to Matthew 23 all of that is what we're going to be looking at today as we close out this most amazing chapter.

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And if you would turn with me there, as we begin with chapter one, verses 12 through 20, this is what our passage says.

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Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and having turned,

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I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash.

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His head and his hair were white like wool, like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire.

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

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

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And 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.

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I am the first and the last and the living one and I was dead and behold,

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

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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.

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Now with that, let's begin by looking at part one, the son of man as priest.

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Now when the curtain of revelation chapter one rises on the rocky outpost of Patmos, the scene is pretty grim and pretty stark.

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You remember Patmos is a lonely little Island that is lashed by salt stained winds off the

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Aegean coast, jagged cliffs that are meeting restless waters and it's an exile for prisoners that is far from a place of commerce and clamor of the mainland.

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Here on this remote stage, the apostle John is swept up into what he calls the

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Lord's day, which as we've discussed before, is not a routine Sunday morning filled with hymns and fellowship and potlucks, but this is the great and terrible day of the

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Lord that has been foretold by the prophets. It's a day when the covenant curses of old are going to fall down upon the rebellious nation with swift and devastating justice.

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You'll remember the Northern tribes already had their day of the Lord when God annihilated them at the hands of the

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Assyrian invaders in 722 BC. Jeremiah talks about it in Jeremiah three, eight.

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Now it was Judah and Benjamin's turn. Now it was the two remaining tribes that existed out of the original 12 tribes.

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There was only two left at this point, two left on earth. And yet these two were the ones who ignorantly crucified their own

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God when he visited them at their temple and they called down curses upon themselves at his crucifixion saying his blood be on us and our children.

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And then like rabid dogs, they hunted his newly wedded bride, the church murdering and killing her all across the

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Roman empire. And the verdict from heaven was rendered because in just the same way that you and I can't expect to jump into the baboon tank at the local zoo and backhand one of the silver back gorillas and think that we're going to get away with it.

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Well, you can't kill God's son and then mutilate his beloved bride and then think that God's fury is somehow going to stay from turning you into a puddle of judgment engulfing you and suffocating you in a flood of righteous wrath.

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And it's an 80 70 that we see that the gavel of justice was hanging in Jesus's hands.

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The one who is ascended, who is reigning over all things. And yet before that gavel of justice fell, he reveals himself to his people as a loving sovereign priest.

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Why did he do that? Because they're suffering and he's their priest who's going to mend their wounds and take care of them.

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He's the one who's always near to them to strengthen his beloved church. He's the one who's coming to John in the stillness of this remote exile island where John is hearing his commanding voice breaking through the silence and thundering

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John out of his stupor and into attention. He turns with the isle of Patmos probably fading all around him.

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Heaven seemed like it was invading earth and out of what seemed like a completely different dimension.

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The transfigured Lord of the universe steps into earth's dimension like Isaiah who meets the

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Lord in Judah's courts or Ezekiel by the river Chibar. John is drawn into the sanctuary of God, but instead of John being lifted up into the royal courts of heaven,

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Jesus comes down to him in his bleak and abysmal circumstances.

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Why? To show John that he loves him and that he loves the church. Jesus tells

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John that the fall of Jerusalem's temple and the rise of a greater temple is imminent.

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Not a temple that's going to be built by stones, but by living stones. A temple that's boundary is not going to be limited to a city in Jerusalem, but it's going to fill the entire world with the presence of God.

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And in this new sanctuary, Jesus reveals to John that before he comes as a warrior to deal with his enemies, he's a high priest who's going to tend and care for his church with perfect care.

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John sees Jesus like a priest among the lampstands. You remember from last episode or a couple episodes ago in the old temple system, there was a lampstand that was burning in the holy place and it was a symbol of God's divine presence, that he was dwelling with his people, that the light was evidence that God had not given up on them and that he was going to remain with them, that he was going to be their

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God and they were going to be his people. The light burning was God's promise that he had bound himself to this nation with the command that this nation would spread his light into all the nations.

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And now in the fullness of time, Jesus born from Judah has now set up lampstands that will fill the earth with his light, with seven lampstands, which represents the universal church of Jesus with seven branches on those seven lampstands, which gives us a sense of the totality of the light that God is bringing.

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That's no longer going to be hidden behind a veil, but it's going to burst forth into all of the nations on earth.

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What we're seeing here is that the holy place, which was once a private room where only a few people could go, has now become the earth.

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The earth has become God's holy place with Jesus Christ as his eternal high priest, who's guarding every little flickering flame of every little

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Christian who has become his light that shines in all the earth.

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All of this means to us that if Jesus is the one caring for the lampstands, then the light of God is never again going to go out on this planet.

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Because if Jesus is the one tending the light and he's the one maintaining the radiant and brilliant flame of God's presence on earth, then we can know for sure that Jesus will never fail.

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And our world is never again going to be plunged into darkness because if Jesus does anything, he does it perfectly.

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And if Jesus is doing this, then century by century, that light is not going to die.

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It's going to increase until the entire world is filled with the sizzling spectacle of the dazzling light of God's glory.

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And yet, meanwhile, back in the God -abandoned city of Jerusalem, especially in its temple, the blind priests were still bustling around in their inner sanctums of stone and dust, continuously dull to the fact that their light was being extinguished, that the actual lampstands was the church and that their little lampstand, their menorah that they had inside the holy place was very soon to be snuffed completely out of history.

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In contrast to them and their blindness, Jesus is walking among his spirit filled churches that are scattered through the nations.

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And he's ministering in the greater and more perfect tent, Hebrews 9, 11.

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He's reuniting heaven back to earth again for John and his hearers who were pressed by the synagogues who were committing violence against them.

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Empire wide persecutions, false witnesses, false teachers from within the sight of Jesus walking as a high priest among the lampstands would have been exactly what they needed to persevere, to keep pressing onward because Jesus was with them.

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And if Jesus is with you can face any trial. Think about your life. When you go through trials of various kinds, what is often the thing that comforts you the most that you're smart enough to figure out your situation?

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Often we're not. That you have the emotional fortitude to deal with your situation.

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You probably don't. Your heart's like mine. When I go through trials, my heart cries out in despair because we're weak.

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We're finite. When things afflict us, when things hurt us, we weep, we cry.

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The reason you can have hope in your trial and in your circumstances and the reason that the first century church had hope was because Jesus is their high priest because he's the perfect one who always cares and always ministers and always mends the wounds of those who are suffering.

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His mercies are new every morning. This is what they saw.

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This is what John communicated to these seven churches. Hold on and you're suffering because Jesus is with you.

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Before the blazing eyes of justice and the sword comes out of his mouth, he's going to love you and care for you like a tender priest.

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He's going to enter into his church like the priest of old did in the holy places and he's going to do so on the, on the basis of his own blood.

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Hebrews nine 12 and he's going to dwell among his churches, mending every hurt, mending every wound.

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That vision, that image would have been a tremendous encouragement for the first century church, but it would have been in a tremendous devastation for the first century

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Jews. Like a coin has two sides, there's a heads and a tails.

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Jesus had a twofold reason for why he was coming. Yeah, he was a come, he was coming to appear to our ancestor, the

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Bishop, the apostle John, so that he would comfort the afflicted. But Jesus was also coming to afflict the comfortable and to bring them into a festering gangrenous ruin for their covenantal crimes.

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And that leads us to part two, the son of man as warrior.

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When John turned at the thunder of that commanding voice, what he beheld was not a mere

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Galilean rabbi, no gentle teacher with sandaled feet walking the shores of Galilee before John stood the unveiled

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Christ and all of his glory robed in the regalia of heaven, armed with the weapons of scripture, blazing with the fury of God's power.

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This was the warrior priest king who comforts his church with unfailing faith and unfailing love, but the one who crushes his enemies with unrelenting wrath.

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Every detail is chosen by the spirit. Every feature is borrowed from the

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Old Testament and every image in this section is sharpened into a weapon in the hand of Christ.

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Let me, let's go through these just very briefly for a moment. You look at his head and his hair, which is a symbol of his eternal majesty.

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John begins with the head of Christ and he calls it white like wool, white as snow,

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Revelation 1 .14. And this is not an accident and this is not just some, some description of Jesus's age.

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This is, this is not him saying that he's really advanced in years or that he, that he has some kind of, you know, white glistened hair like a frail old man.

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No, this is the blazing whiteness of his eternality. The picture that is being given to us here comes directly out of Daniel chapter seven, verse nine, where the ancient of days, that's, that's

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God, the father, that's Yahweh. The ancient of days sits enthroned upon his throne.

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His garments and his hair are like pure snow. The image that Daniel applied to the father, to Yahweh is now being applied to Jesus.

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That's what John is seeing. He's seeing Jesus in the same white hair, white clothing as the ancient of days, which proclaims that Jesus is far more than mere

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Messiah, but he is the eternal God himself. Proverbs says that gray hair is a crown of wisdom,

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Proverbs 1631. But here Christ is shining with uncreated brilliance of divine, perfect, pure wisdom.

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He is holiness incarnate. He is the ancient of days, the son of man crowned with eternal majesty.

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That's his hair and his body. What about his eyes? Eyes that are like fire that reveals and devours.

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John seizes upon his eyes and he says that his eyes were like a flame of fire. Revelation 1 .14

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you'll remember that fire and scripture has a twofold purpose. It illuminates things that are in the darkness, but it also consumes things that are worthless.

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Daniel's heavenly man had eyes like flaming torches. Daniel 10 .6 the Lord descended on Sinai in fire that made

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Israel tremble. Exodus 19 .18 Psalm 11 tells us that the Lord's eyes test the righteous, but hate the wicked.

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Proverbs 15 .13 says that his eyes are in every place watching evil and good.

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And what you see is when you combine these images of the old Testament of God's eyes going to and fro all over the earth, his eyes seeing what man does under the under the sun and his eyes being like a scorching fire, then what you realize is is that this detail is not a incidental detail.

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It is John being told by Jesus that his eyes are weapons.

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They pierce the shadows. They drag secrets into the open. They incinerate what man would try to hide.

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They are safety for his bride who has their dross burned off of them by the purity of his fiery eyes and brings her into greater purity like gold in the smelt.

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But for his enemies, those eyes are terrifying searchlights of judgment that no one can escape.

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The fiery gaze that is getting ready to snuff out Jerusalem's lamp and set her city on fire.

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Matthew 22 .14 and leave her desolated. Matthew 23 .43

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he also focuses on Jesus's feet. John looks down at his feet and he says that his feet were like burnished bronze made to glow in the furnace.

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Revelation one 15 in Israel's world. Bronze was a metal of judgment. It was a metal of warfare.

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The altar of sacrifice was bronze because that's where the bloodshed happened. Exodus 27 one through two in the same way.

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Weapons in that time period were made out of bronze. First Samuel 17 five through six is just one example.

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So when you see Christ's feet like refined bronze is to see judgment advancing.

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Bronze is where the blood was shed. Bronze is how the blood was shed. Bronze is wrath on the march.

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Bronze is a king striding forth in his chariot made of bronze. Bronze is, is an image of warfare.

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It also recalls Solomon's temple with those two great bronze pillars, Jacob and Boaz, symbols of stability and the vast bronze basin of the tabernacle that was meant for cleansing.

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First King seven 13 through 23. Now the true temple incarnate is moving among men and his feet are steady and refined and immovable and they crush every adversary underneath his feet.

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Psalm one 10 promises that his enemies are going to be like his footstool. Isaiah 63 first saw him treading the wine press of the wrath of God in 8070.

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Those bronze, perfect bronze feet trampled Jerusalem into a bloody pulp, fulfilling

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Malachi four three, that the wicked will become the ash under the soles of your feet.

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So his feet are revealed in bronze because bronze is the metal of warfare.

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John also talks about his voice, a voice that roars. John even says that his voice is like the sound of many waters or of great multiplied waters.

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Revelation one 15 Ezekiel is, is one who heard it too. He went when

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Yahweh's glory filled the land. Ezekiel says that his voice was like the sound of many waters.

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Ezekiel 43 to this is the same kind of thundering momentous, magnificent paralyzingly loud thunder that was going on at Mount Sinai when

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God was roaring on top of the mountain. And we see that in saw in Psalm 93 three through four.

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This is, this is the same word that's used of a flood. Many multiplied waters.

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This is the word that is used of the flood that drowned Pharaoh. This is the same word that's used of the storm that that set that Jeremiah said was going to shatter the nations.

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Jeremiah 25, 30 through 31. So here standing on the Island of Patmos with the Aegean waves pounding the rocks beneath him,

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John knew the image of roaring waters really well. He knew that this was not the

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Babel of a stream vying for your very focused attention or you would miss it.

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This was the ocean slamming against the shore, swallowing up every rival sound.

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This was Jesus's voice suffocating everything else around it because he spoke with authority, purpose, and power.

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They were living in a world where Rome was making their decrees. The synagogue was breathing out their threats.

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The seductions of the false teachers was causing and leading many people astray.

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And yet under the power of his voice, all of that was suffocated because his voice would be the only voice left speaking.

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His will would be the only will accomplished. That voice that summoned creation ex nihilo out of nothing.

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That voice that silenced the Galilean storm, that voice that summoned Lazarus to come up out of the tomb is now the same roaring voice that is promising covenant judgment on the

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Jews. For the faithful, his voice is tender, his voice is peace.

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For the rebellious, it's a tidal wave of God's fury. We also see here that John describes his mouth and his mouth being like a sword, a sharp two edged sword coming out of it.

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Revelation 1 16 this is not a new image. Isaiah saw the same thing.

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Isaiah said he has made my mouth like a sharp sword. Isaiah 49 to Hebrews declares that his word is living and active sharper than any two edged sword.

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Hebrews 4 12 John names it here. The great sword of conquest, not a rapier for fencing, but a blade for cutting down the nations.

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Notice where the blade is. It's not like a traditional warrior who carries his blade in his hand here.

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Jesus is issuing forth the blade from his own mouth because Christ conquers the nations, not by the brute force of the strength of his arm.

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He conquers the nations by the decrees of his mouth. When he speaks, armies collapse.

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When he speaks, nations falls. When he commands, history turns and obeys.

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In revelation two, he warns that he's going to strike the church that doesn't repent with the sword of his mouth.

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It's a terrifying thing for Christ to threaten because if he does, it is certain that they will fall.

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In revelation 19, he rides forth slaying the nations with the same blade and ruling them with a rod of iron.

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In John's day, that sword was aimed at Jerusalem and when Jesus spoke, the sword of his mouth came out and destroyed that rebellious people.

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John also talks about his face, that being like the sun. John says that his face was like the sun shining in its strength.

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Revelation one 16, this is not the gentle rays of dawn, not the fading glow of twilight, but the noonday blazing sun in the middle of August that blinds your eyes and scorches your skin.

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This is like cyanide fire illuminating out of Jesus's face.

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Concentrated now in a person, a single person. You'll remember

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Moses once reflected this glory after he was with God on top of the mountain and the people begged for him to cover his face.

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Now the one who reflects that light much better than Moses, reflecting a light that is not borrowed like Moses borrowed that light was that light came into Moses from without this light comes from within Jesus out of him.

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This is the transfigured face of Jesus that shone on Mount Tabor in Matthew 17.

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There's the shining. This is the shining benediction of number 625. This is the son of righteousness that Malachi promised.

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The one who would rise with healing in his wings. Malachi four two. This is for his church, a blessing that we would see the light of the face of God for his enemies.

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It would burn them to stubble. His eyes were like fire and his face was like the noonday sun.

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He is the warrior priest king. Now when you take all of this together, this is not a sentimental portrait of Jesus.

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This is not the, the effeminate Metro sexual, probably gay

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European Jesus that you see on the, on the paintings with the flowing feathery hair.

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I hate that picture because that picture doesn't look anything like Jesus. The one who has hair that is white eyes that are fire sword coming out of his mouth.

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This is the unveiling of Jesus Christ in this passage to John and he doesn't come as a hippie in sandals.

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He comes as a warrior king. His head is glowing with the same majesty that abounds and dawns the ancient of days.

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His eyes are ablaze with omniscient penetrating fire. His feet are marching in a, in the judgment of God.

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His voice is drowning the powers of the earth in its fury. His sword coming out of his mouth is slaying nations by his own word and his face is radiating sovereign glory that will destroy his foes for his people.

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This vision is a glorious vision, a comforting vision because this

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Jesus is for them and loves them. But for his enemies, this is a terror beyond comprehension.

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This is to see this image would be to plunge you into madness for the chaos to consume you.

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See what one of the things we don't realize is that when the Bible says that he holds all things together by his word, that means even the unbeliever is being held together by the will of Christ.

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And if for a moment this righteous, glorious warrior king decides in an instant that he will not hold you together any longer, you would fall apart at the seams.

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Every atom in your body would disattach itself from the other. Molecules would break apart and you would be no more.

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In the eternal, infinite omniscient plan of God, the

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Jews had ran out of their time on earth. The covenant Jews, the old covenant

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Jews, the temple Jews and Jesus undoes them.

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In several successive judgment events that began in AD 68 and culminated in their conclusion in AD 72.

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Again, Jesus reveals himself in this passage as a priest for his people, but as a warrior that is already on the horse and already on the ride against his enemies who he will crush underneath his feet, both then and now and also forever.

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And that leads us to our conclusion. When John collapsed as a dead man before the son of man in revelation 117, we are reminded that no flesh apart from the spirit of God's covering can actually stand in the presence of Jesus when his majesty is unveiled.

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This was no longer the humble rabbi cloaked in Galilean spirit, in skin.

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This is the risen Christ clothed in all of heaven's authority, eyes blazing with omniscience, voice roaring like a waterfall face blazing like the sun and all of its fullest strength.

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Before him, the strongest men on earth are made to dust. The wisest men on earth are exposed as fools and the only fitting posture for sinners who come before this king is to fall flat on their faces and beg him for mercy.

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And Jesus is merciful and for all those who will call out upon him, for all those who had renounced their sin and pick up their cross and follow him, he will save.

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But for those who dare stand against him and dare oppose him, he will crush.

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He will give you what you chose. He will either give you his breast to comfort you or the boot of his sandal to crush you.

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The glory that fell on John that day was the same glory that upheld galaxies.

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It's the same glory that reached down and ordered the universe into something meaningful.

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It's the same voice that thundered on Mount Sinai now was thundering there in Patmos.

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And it's the same voice that looked at John and said, do not be afraid, which

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I find to be a very funny passage because here you have Jesus standing in all of his glory and in radiating majesty and he and John hits his face upon the earth.

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He is trying to bury himself in the ground. He is trying to decreate himself by returning himself to the very dust from which he was created.

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He felt like his body was being ripped apart and Jesus says, do not be afraid.

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Everyone who saw Jesus in that way would be afraid, but Jesus is not appealing to John's strength.

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He's saying, John, don't be afraid because I know you're strong. He's not saying,

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John, don't be afraid because I know you can muster the courage. He's saying, John, don't be afraid because I am for you.

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I, the one that you are fearing right now and for you, the one who reigns as cosmic judge has in his covenant decided to stoop down as covenant shepherds to his covenant shepherd, to his people.

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Yeah, he is the warrior whose eyes set his enemies ablaze, but yet he's also the high priest who touches, who mends, who heals his broken people.

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His majesty ought to drop us to the ground, but his mercy raises his elect to their feet.

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And then he speaks to John, not in whispers anymore. But in titles that shake the cosmos.

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This is how John is supposed to not be afraid because of the titles of Jesus Christ.

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He says, I am the first and the last. He's saying, I am the eternal

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Yahweh. I'm the one who wrote the prologue and the epilogue of human history.

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I am the living one. He says, with life unborrowed indestructible and exhaustible and overflowing.

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He says, I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. The cross was behind him.

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The resurrection was before him. Eternity was beneath his feet.

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And then at the crescendo moment of the passage, Jesus tells John, you know why you don't need to be afraid,

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John? Because I have the keys of death and Hades. I have the keys,

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John. You don't need to press your face into the earth anymore, John, because I'm the master over life and death.

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And I give you life. Now, if you're one of those who aren't my people,

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I will give you death. But John, don't worry. Fear not. Because I have determined to give you life.

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John's only hope that he could cling to was that Jesus had chosen him.

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And that Jesus was favorable to him and that Jesus was committed to giving him life.

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This is why I'm reformed. We don't, we don't talk as much about reformed theology on this show because we've been deep diving into eschatology, but this is why

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I'm reformed because I don't bring anything to my salvation, but the sin that made it necessary.

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And if Jesus were angrily disposed towards me, like he was towards the apostate

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Jews and I deserve it. I mean, this is one of the things that I don't understand right now about reformed

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Twitter and all the stuff that's going on there. There's so many people who are like, you know, the Jews, the

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Jews, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews. Okay. I get it. They're sinners. I get it.

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They're the unique group of people who crucified our Lord and savior, but I would have done it if I was there.

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And so would you. They're not special. They're just people that Jesus removed his grace from and they became monsters.

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Do you really think that you, because of the color of your skin or because of the upbringing that you had or because of whatever else that you think is to your advantage, do you really think that you wouldn't be twice the son of hell as they would be if Jesus removed his grace from you?

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That's why Paul says for us not to be prideful. We're the unnatural branches that were grafted in.

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Don't be prideful because he can cut you out just like he did them. He said,

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I have the keys of death and Hades, which means that Christ is the one who locks and latches the door of the tomb and of the grave.

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He's the one who gives life and he's the one who brings death. He's the one who gives you eternal life or eternal suffering based off the father's election alone.

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And what this means to me, someone who deserves death, someone who deserves

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God's wrath and God's punishment, but yet for some astounding reason that has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my intelligence or the lack thereof, nothing to do with my righteousness or definitely the lack thereof, but that Christ for some reason that I haven't comprehended and probably never will bestowed his grace and his favor upon me that turned my dead heart into a living beating heart so that I could cry out to Jesus and say, save me because he did that work.

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I have life and because of that for me, death doesn't have any fangs for me.

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Death doesn't affect me. Yeah, I'm going to die physically, but I'm going to live forevermore because the one who holds the keys to death in Hades loves me and that's the assurance that I have.

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But for God's enemies, the grave is an eternal never ending torture of which you cannot escape.

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There is no prison breaks in hell and you have to reckon with the fact that you've had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of opportunities to cry out to Jesus Christ to be your savior and you've spurned him and you've hated him.

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If you're not in Christ, these passages should be a terror to you that the one who holds the key to life and death that you've set yourself against.

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But if you're a Christian, these passages should be of immense eternal comfort to you.

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Because the one who holds the keys to life and death loves you and cares for you and he's your priest who's trimming your wicks, who's keeping

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God's lamp alive in you. And all of this leads to the commission here at the end of chapter one, write the things that you have seen, the things which are, the things which will take place after these things, not centuries into the future, not something that's going to show up in a modern day

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Chiron on CNN, but events that were going to happen in John's own day. The things that are going to happen after these things.

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Revelation was not a riddle book meant for 21st century conspiracy theorists.

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It was a book of God's covenant lawsuit against his apostate covenant people.

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It's about the vindication of Jesus's blood bought church. It's about the unveiling of a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

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It's about events that we're going to bring these matters to a conclusion within five years of John's writing and that, and over the next however long that we take, we're going to explore this book.

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We've given you the introduction now in chapter one, we've shown you that this book means to communicate to you things that are going to happen in the first century, not things that are going to happen in the future.

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So now it's my job to show you as we get to revelation two and three and four and five and six in the future,

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I'm going to make it my job to show you how every aspect of this book has either already happened in full or has already happened in part and that this book far from being a hopelessly confused and befuddled riddle that you need to avoid is actually a book of great encouragement and comfort because you and I, if you're a

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Christian, you know the one who holds the keys to life and death. You know the one who has the white pure hair.

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You know the one whose eyes are like a blazing fire. You know the one whose sword comes out of his mouth and his aim, not at you, but at his enemies.

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You know the one who says, do not be afraid for I am with you. You know him.

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So if you're in Jesus Christ, as you go along with me through this book, I want you to cheer.

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I want you to praise. I want you to scream at the top of your lungs, your gratitude for what

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Christ has done for you. And I want you to understand your place in Jesus's kingdom.

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He's not a high priest and trimming you and tending you and caring for you for nothing.

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His goal was not to die for you so that you could do nothing. His goal, like Ephesians two 10 says was for you to do the good works that God predestined for you to do before the foundations of the world.

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And the only way you would ever do those good works is if Jesus first came and did those good works for you and now is aiding you, helping you, putting his spirit in you to make sure that you accomplish those good works that he has left you here to do.

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We need to stop looking at the sky. Stop waiting on a rapture. We need to start getting to work doing what

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Jesus said. And when we do that, the nations will see Christ.

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The world will be conformed to Christ. The mission of Christ will continue on and we will have great joy.

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So until next time, brothers and sisters, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for closing out this first chapter of revelation one with us.

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Next time we're going to be in chapters two and three and looking at the seven churches. We're going to look at each one in one a one episode per each of these seven churches.

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It's going to be great. I'm going to go deep into who these churches were and talk about what was going on in their history and in their time period.

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But until next time, Oh wait, by the way, we're going to be off for a couple of weeks because our

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Presbytery or our denomination is having its annual Presbytery meeting and my church is hosting that event.

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So I'm going to be all over the place. So pray for me. We're going to take a couple of weeks off from the broadcast.

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We're going to be coming back at the end of September and we're going to be jumping into the seven churches of Asia minor until then.

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God richly bless you. Remember who you know. Remember who your best friend is.

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It's Jesus. Until next time, God richly bless you. We'll see you again on the podcast.