Jesus As King in Revelation: Book of Revelation Explained 6 (Revelation 2:1-7) Allen Nolan

the end of time as we know it is rather preaching the great battle armageddon is upon us how will this final chapter all play out in the final days of man the answer is documented in the book of Revelation in chapter 1 verse number 19 John was commanded to write the things which thou has seen the things which are and the things which shall be Hereafter now as I told you last week this is the basic outline of the book of Revelation the things thou have seen is past tense it refers to the revelation of Jesus Christ which is in chapter 1 but this revelation of Jesus Christ is a little bit different because our perception of Jesus is what we read in the Gospels it's me it's gentle Jesus meek and mild look upon this little child right but when we come to the book of Revelation the revelation that we have of Jesus is totally different he is the king of kings he's the Lord of lords he's going to judge the world so the revelation that John receives of Jesus is at is how Jesus is now as the resurrected Messiah the king of kings and Lord of lords the things which are is present tense it refers to the seven letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 we are currently in this time period which is also known as the church age the things which shall be Hereafter is future tense it refers to the things that will happen when the church age is over now when will the church age be over will when the rapture occurs when the rapture occurs the church age will be over in the period known as the tribulation will begin those future events are recorded in chapters 4 through 22 and that's the basic outline of the book of Revelation so now that we finished the first section we're finally out of chapter 1 we're really moving alone we're building up steam we're ready to move on to the second section the things which are chapters 2 and 3 these two chapters contain the seven letters that are addressed to the seven churches which are in Asia now before we begin looking at each letter I need to explain a few things first of all as you study the seven letters you'll notice that the message to each church follows a certain pattern grant Osburn refers to them as form letters because they all have the same basic outline first there's a commendation Jesus commends the churches or the church for the characteristics that please him then there's a rebuke he calls attention to the things that displease him then there is a call to repentance without putting any church under condemnation Jesus calls for them to repent then there's a warning Jesus warns of the price to be paid if they refuse to repent and last but not least and there is a promise Jesus gives a promise to those who overcome and all the letters seem to follow this basic pattern or this basic outline but there's two exceptions the exception is the Church of Sardis and the Church of Laodicea in those letters there's really not a commendation why well there's not much to be pleased about when we come to those two churches they are so far removed from what God wants a church to be there's not anything that he can commend them for and we're gonna find that out when we get to those two churches now in verse number three of chapter one we were told that whoever keeps the things that are written in the book of Revelation will be blessed you know most of us grew up hearing that if we read the book of Revelation or we hear the book of Revelation read we will be blessed and that's not true you're only blessed if you keep the things that are written therein now we also found out that we can't keep the things that are written therein unless we understand it that's why it's important for the pastor's to teach on the church or on the book of Revelation so the people can understand them keep the things in them and be blessed so let's talk about application the letters to the seven churches have a three-fold application they have a literal application a historical application and a practical application now let me explain what I mean by those three types of application when I say that they have a literal application I mean that the issues that are addressed in each letter were real issues the churches were dealing with at that time these were real churches in Asia Minor and when the letters were sent to each of the churches the issues that he addressed in those letters were issues they were going through or dealing with at that time now when I say that they have a historical application I mean that the seven churches of Asia are representatives of the seven major periods of church history each church represents a different period in church history in other words you literally see the history of the church unfold as you study each letter to the seven churches in fact the order in which they're given aligns perfectly with the seven periods of church history in our banner up here if I wanted to I could remove the names of the seven churches we could take out the Church of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea and what we could do is we could come up here we could we could list the seven major periods of church history this right here is the Apostolic Church it was from 80 30 to 100 when the church was first beginning then you move to the persecuted Church and 80/100 to 313 the church was persecuted because it was outlawed by the Roman Empire then at 3:13 to 590 you have the state Church Constantine embraced Christianity and it became the official the official religion of the state then you have the rise of the Catholic Church so you had the development of the Catholicism and that started in 590 well in 1517 what what was the next period that we had the Reformation so we could take out Sardis and we could have the Reformation here and then at Philadelphia that is the Missionary Church period that is the time when there was a great revival that was happening in in Western Europe and in the United States of America and all these people were getting born again and we were sending out missionaries everywhere and it's the Church of Philadelphia then you come to the last one which is the Church of Laodicea we took that out what period of church history are we in right now the apostate Church the Church of apostasy we are lukewarm we're to that point where we have come away from the point where God wanted us to be and you have all of these liberal views that have come where we don't believe that the Word of God is truly the Word of God and we're seeing that here now it's amazing to me to see how the characteristics of each church describes a specific period of church history and when I say perfectly I mean perfectly the characteristics of the Church of Ephesus describe the Apostolic Church the characteristics of the Church of Smyrna describes the persecuted Church the characteristics of the Church of Pergamus describes the state Church and we go right down the line this describes the Catholic Church this describes the Reformation this describes the Missionary Church and then we get to the Church of the apostasy and we see that here the PAS state Church now had the letters to the seven churches being given in any other order they wouldn't have been in alignment with the periods of church history does that make sense good now when I say that the letters have a practical application I mean that each Church in the world today fits into one of these seven categories even though these were seven periods of church history do you realize that those churches still exist today they still survived we still find churches being burned today and they're just like the early church in fact we support a missionary Doug Dennis who is actually going and presenting the gospel to Indian tribes that have never heard the gospel before and they're becoming born-again and it's just like the early church and so we still see certain churches that are just like the early church do you realized that today there are still churches that are being persecuted so we still have the persecuted church today the Roman Catholic Church is still in existence today right many of the churches that came out of the Reformation what's interesting is that many of those churches have never changed they are still that way today right and you still see churches that are very gung-ho and they're like the Missionary churches and they're supporting all these missionaries and sending them out and then we see of course the apostate Church and so we need to understand that these seven types of churches still exist today in fact our church fits into one of these seven categories now I would like to think that we are the Church of Philadelphia right we are the church that is all excited about Jesus we're experiencing revival not only are we soaking it all up but we're wanting to send people out and to support others and we want to see all of telecoil born again and come into the kingdom of God but you know we just might be the lukewarm Church neither hot nor cold we're lukewarm no we come here we just kind of sit in the chair you know that's just the way it is and I'm wondering if that is the way we are I thought when I started teaching on the end times that we would fill up our sanctuary we'd have as many people as we had on Easter but it wasn't the case it's not that way anymore it doesn't matter if we think that the end times are here and that's exciting but there's a point where it's like well yeah I know that but I'm busy so I don't know what type of church we are but there is a practical application and I'm gonna go a little bit further because the church is made up of people we don't just look to see what our church or what category our church fits into we look to see what category we fit into does that make sense because our church might be the Church of Philadelphia but you're not you're the Church of Laodicea does that make sense so you need that practical application when you look into your life now let's look at the ladder to the Church of Ephesus turn with me to verse number one under the angel of the church of Ephesus write these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks now as we study each letter I want you to pay close attention to the name of each church let me just tell you right up front the names are very significant I don't know how God did this but it's amazing to see how all of this lined up and how it all fits now the reason the names are very significant is because the name of each church describes the main characteristic of the period of church history that it represents that's very important so I'm gonna say it in a different way to make sure that you understand what I'm saying okay there are seven churches listed count them off there are seven periods of church history each church represents a specific period of church history and the name of each church describes the characteristic of the church period that it represents does that make sense in fact tonight we're going to find out what the word Ephesus means and when we find out the meaning of the name of Ephesus we're going to find out that the meaning of that name Ephesus describes perfectly the characteristic of the Apostolic Church the early church there we're going to move on to the Church of Smyrna we're going to find out what that name means and you know what's interesting the meaning of the name describes perfectly the characteristics of the persecuted Church and it's that way for each of the seven churches it's amazing now the first letter as I've already mentioned is the letter to the Church of Ephesus which represents the Apostolic Church it is the first period of church history the word Ephesus means desirable hmm it's the word that Greeks would use Greek men to describe the maiden of their choice in other words the girl that they loved and had chosen to marry now this aptly describes the Lord's relationship with the early church he loved the church and he was the bridegroom and it was his bride isn't that interesting now notice how the lords described in verse number one under the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks you see when the church first began the Lord held the stars in his right hand now remember what star symbolized what it what are the stars that a pastor's this symbolizes the Lord erecting the Apostles and the disciples and the pastors in their ministry he used them as tools to accomplish his will he walked in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks which symbolizes his presence in the services and we just have to read through the book of Acts to see how powerful the early church was you know it is amazing they would hold services that would go all night long and Paul would be teaching and a person would fall asleep and he's sitting in the window cuz it's got a hot in the building and he'd fall out and he'd be dead they'd come and pray for him and he come alive these are all types of miracles in the early church the presence of God was there mightily when when Paul was at Ephesus do you remember what happened people were so getting healed that they literally literally would have him wear handkerchiefs on his body and then he would give that handkerchief to people they would go and take it and they would lay it on people who were sick and they would be healed the anointing was so strong that's how the early church was now remember each letter begins with the commendation in other words he's going to say what pleases him so let's look and see what pleases the Lord about the Church of Ephesus look at verse number two let's see what they were doing right I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how they cannot bear them which you're evil and that has tried them which say they are apostles and or not and you have found them to be liars this is so interesting the early church Ephesus was everything that the Lord wanted a church to despite their pagan surroundings they had remained true to Jesus we know that because the word patience Hoople money means steadfastness that tells us the Church of Ephesus remained true to the faith despite the world around them and you need to understand the surroundings that that they were around or the environment they were around was so pagan the city of Ephesus was a very pagan City the greatest structure in the city was the temple of diana it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world the temple stood on the platform that was about a hundred thousand square feet now to give you an idea of how big that is the temple the building that we're in if you've walked all over our building is fifty thousand square feet to the highest point it's only thirty feet tall all right this was a hundred thousand square feet it's twice what our building was author Bloomfield says it took over 220 years to complete it was supported by 127 Persian marble columns each made of one stone 60 foot tall twice as tall as our building and twice as big inside the temple stood the statue of the goddess Diana the Greeks referred to her as Artemis now if you're familiar with that pagan religion they had temple prostitutes we talked about this even in Corinth and many of the pagan religions were this way they felt like that in order to be able to worship them to get God to bless you and the way that he would bless you and make sure that all your cattle and all of your livestock were fertile and that your crops grew that you would have sex because what would take place is they had what was called imitation magic and there's a god to look down and saw people having sex then they would get hot they would have sex and the world around you would be fertile that's called imitation magic then they went a little bit further in some of these cults they felt like that you experience true oneness at the point of orgasm and as a result of that they had temple prostitutes and so when you would walk into these cities the temple prostitutes were easy to spot because the tunic that they would wear would have one breast use of the left breast exposed now how would you like to live in a city where this is going on and this is the norm people came from all around the world to marvel at the city of Ephesus and Corinth was just as bad now what's interesting is verse 2 tells us that in the midst of all the paganism the church continued to work for Christ in fact they didn't just work for Christ they toiled that's why they couldn't bear those who were evil you see whenever a person is working hard for something they become very protective of it and if you're a parent you understand this because when you give your children everything and they don't have to work for it do they take care of their possessions no where's your bike well I left it at Tommy's where at Tommy's well I think it's in the front yard and it's stolen where's your skates I don't know I think I left them at school why do they do that because they didn't have to work for it it came too easy so all of a sudden you become a good parent and you start making them work for their possessions and then we may start paying for their possessions guess what happens they start taking care of their possessions because this cost them something this is something they worked for and that's the way it was for the Church of Ephesus they were working hard for Jesus and they didn't want anything or anyone to blemish the name of Jesus that's why they couldn't bear those who were evil they were also commended because they didn't allow anyone to preach behind the pulpit who wasn't qualified they tested everyone who said they were an apostle and only those who were doctorly pure were allowed to preach in the church you've got to remember Paul had been there for almost three years they had the best of teachers coming in and preachers they knew the Word of God so when someone came through and said I'm an apostle they could ask a few questions and they could determine whether they were doctrine Li pure or not and if they weren't they weren't allowed to preach they remain Lord of the truth though it wasn't popular at the time to sum it up the Church of emphasis was dr. Lee sound consistent under pressure diligent to the word and untiring and for being that way Jesus commended to them but have you ever noticed there's always a but but they had got gotten so caught up in doing the work of the ministry they forgot why they were doing the work of the ministry you see sometimes we get so caught up doing something we forget why we're doing it and then you know what I'm talking about your son is all of a sudden going to play some type of sport maybe it's baseball maybe it's basketball maybe it's football and they don't have a coach so your wife comes to you says well why don't you coach your son's team and you know I really want to gosh they're on third grade they don't know anything I don't even spend time with them til they get to seventh grade know what they're doing but your wife says now this would be good bonding time this is good father-son time so what do you do okay I'll coach and your whole purpose for doing it is to have that father-son time right and so you start coaching for you know what you got a pretty good team and you're kicking butt man you're beating everyone and all of a sudden you're not coaching for this father-son bonding time you're coaching to win right you get so caught up in doing the coaching you forget why your coaching is that not true yeah it's true well we do it all the time and that's what happened to them they got so caught up doing the work of the ministry they forgot why they had lost their first love and that's what the Lord rebuked them for looking verse number four this is the rebuke nevertheless I have somewhat against you because you have left your first love this is what the Lord had against them they had left their first love now don't get me wrong they were still working hard they just weren't doing it for the right reason the truth is they were simply going through the motions and if we're honest most of us are guilty of the very same thing when we first got what we love Jesus we loved reading the word and we would meditate on it we loved to pray we loved to go to church we volunteered for everything but over time we began doing those things out of obligation not love so now we read the word but it's just to say that we did it I read my Bible through in a year we don't meditate on it we pray but it's vain repetitions right we get up in in the morning or at night and we spray the same things every day we go to church we listen to the pastor but when he gets boring like maybe I am tonight you start making your grocery list or you start thinking about all the things you have to do you see you might be doing all the right things but you aren't doing it for the right reason and that was the Church of Ephesus now the change wasn't something that you could see on the outside if you went to the Church of Ephesus you would notice that because they had preserved their morale and their doctrinal purity and Jesus had praised them for that but over time they had lost their passion for Jesus so now they were going through the motions but on the inside the passion was gone you see our relationship with Jesus is just like our relationship with our spouse if we don't work on the relationship our love begins to wane contrary to what most people think it requires work to make a relationship strong you have to spend quality time with each other you have to do things that make the relationship strong and some of you know what I'm talking about you develop that stir goal of there's four types of love that the Greek or there's four different words for love that the Greeks had and one of those is stir go and stir go refers to that comfortable type of love it's the type of love that we have when we say I love my recliner or I love no.not Cheetos that's a different type I love my slippers or you know I love that old bathrobe what you mean is it's comfortable you love that because it's comfortable what do you realize that's what happens many times in relationships we get comfortable in our relationship we don't have to go on dates Lisa and I have been married it's going getting ready to go on 28 years I know what she's thinking before she ever says it she always knows what I'm thinking about what do men always think about you know after a while he becomes so comfortable in the relationship you're not doing the things that make the relationship strong that's why many times when the children leave the house and you have an empty nest rather than having a better time in your relationship because you've grown apart a couple's divorce they have nothing in common now that the children are gone and you know that was what was taking place which brings us to verse number five it's the call to repentance remember therefore from whence thou art fallen in other words remember where you used to be where did you fall from up there and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and I will remove thy candlestick out of his place except you repent the Lord wants them to remember remember how the passion used to be remember spending quality time together together remember reading the word and soaking it all in remember talking with Jesus and and how you prayed over every little thing remember the excitement you had when you went to church and you heard the word of God but over time they became comfortable in the relationship and they didn't spend the time doing the things that kept the love alive but the things that kept the relationship strong so what were they encouraged to do what did he tell him he said do the first works in other words do what you did when you really loved Jesus when you first fell in love with Jesus that's what you need to do now what's going to make a little application here we'll get off a revelation some of you don't have the relationship that you ought to have in your marriage and you come in and you tell me your routine and I can spot it right away you're not acting the way you did when you dated you know I don't know what it is men but you know we put our best foot forward we don't burp we don't pass gas we don't do any of that when we're dating but you get married and that's all over right hey you got me and this is the way I am and she's thinking I didn't know that's the way you were but you know we stopped doing the things we did when we first fell in love but those are the things that keep the relationship strong and passionate so today what Jesus is telling us if we fit into that category the effort of the Church of Ephesus where we're going through the motions we read our Bible and we pray and we don't miss going to church we're going through those motions but the passion is gone you know what Jesus says you need to go back and do the things that you did when you first fell in love with you you know what's interesting you might not feel like it when you start doing those things the love begins to grow it's kind of interesting but when you take care of certain things you become attached to it but if you don't take care of it you're not attached to it so we begin to do what we ought to be doing that love begins to grow and it's foster by our works now here's the warning that he gave the Church of Ephesus if you don't repent and you don't do the things necessary to keep the passion alive the love will die and it will become an empty relationship now we're talking about the relationship between Jesus and the church at that point Jesus says I will remove your candlestick from my presence you know it's horrible to go to church and not feel the presence of God have you ever done that please don't say here you know it's horrible to go through the motions of playing Church but not having a true relationship with Jesus Christ but people do it every day and the sad truth is when a church as a whole reaches that point they no longer recognize that the presence of God is gone they just go through the motions not realizing that the Lord's not here I'll be honest I'm not trying to be judgmental but I have visited two other churches on vacation or or maybe I'm traveling and we go to another church and I go in and maybe it's a liturgical church and I'm not putting liturgical churches down but you know you go in there and they're doing all the right things but you can't feel the presence of God the presence of God is not in the worship the presence of God is not in the message there's no conviction I'm thinking what is this it's the Church of Ephesus they're doing all the right things but the passion is gone and Jesus has come and he's removed their candlestick from his presence now look at verse number 6 but this thou hast thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate now does ever ne or does anyone know who the Nicolaitans were I thought on this briefly at times a few commentators believed that it was a cult that was begun by Nicolas of Antioch he's the person that was mentioned in Acts chapter 6 verse number 5 remember the problem they had in Acts chapter 6 the Grecian widows weren't being taken care of right and so they got upset because the Jewish widows were being taken care of why were the Jewish widows being taken care of but not the Grecian widows I'll tell you why the Jews had a system in which the widows and the orphans were taken care of but the Grecians the the Greeks who had come inside the church the Gentiles they weren't used to that system so when they came inside the church they didn't know how to take care of that all of a sudden they started watching or looking inside the church and they started noticing wait a minute all the Jewish widows and all the Jewish or events are being taken care of why oranges and there was some grumbling and this is when the the Apostles had to come and said you know it's not meat in other words it's not right for us to stop praying and and spending time in the Word of God to go out and do these type of things even though they need to be done this pastoral care so what we're going to do is we're gonna select deacons and so they selected deacons and so here we are in Acts chapter 6 verse number 5 notice what this is this proposal please the whole group so who did they choose choose to be deacons they chose stephen a man full of faith and the holy spirit also philip procuress mechana taemin parney / - and nicolas from antioch now notice this a convert to judaism now there are some that believe this person became an apostate and as a result of that he developed a cult and it basically was based upon what is known as incipient Gnosticism now incipient means it's just beginning and what we find is Gnosticism began in the early church but it was a full-blown Gnosticism to the 2nd 3rd century does that make sense and so anyways he started that but I don't believe that because you only find one mention of the Nicolaitans in the writings of the early church only irony is mentioned him and all he really said was that they had back slid and into unrestrained indulgence so I believe as do most scholars that the Nicolaitans was a name they used to describe a new movement within the church a movement to create a priesthood within the church you see the word Nicolaitans is a compound word that means it's made up of more than one word in this case is made up of two words it's made up of the word Nakano which means to conquer and the word laughs which means people or laity now when you combine these two words you get nickel ante and it literally means conquerors of the laity or to rule over the laity which is an apt description of the priesthood the priests rule over the laity and they have control of the church so what this is telling us is we actually see the seeds of Catholicism being planted within the early church now we don't see Catholicism come on the scene in church history until Thyatira in 590 AD but the seeds were planted all the way back in the Church of Ephesus and so we begin to see these things beginning to crop up and people you need to understand something Jesus hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans because instead of teaching the laity that they can go directly to God through Jesus Christ you now have a system that teaches that a person must go through an intermediary a priest in order to get to God and people Jesus hates that the whole purpose of Jesus Christ was to come in and to reconcile you with God to pay for your sins so you can boldly come into the throne room of grace and that's what Jesus wants so any type of system that says you have to go to a met through a man to get to God is wrong and Jesus hates that look with me if you would in Hebrews chapter four verse number fourteen so then since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven Jesus the Son of God let us hold firmly to what we believe this high priest Jesus of ours understands our weaknesses for he faced all of the same testings that we do yet he didn't sin so let us come boldly to the throne of grace the throne of God there we will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most this is what Jesus has accomplished for us we don't have to go through a man to get to God we go through Jesus Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except through me we need to understand that salvation is through Jesus Christ salvation is not through the church I tell people this all the time if you remember the church and you're banking on that to get into heaven you're in trouble if you've been baptized and you're banking on that to get into heaven you're in trouble you get into heaven through Jesus Christ and that's the only way now I want you to notice something they did not hate the Nicolaitans they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans I get emails from time to time especially since we started putting our services on TV and they're not nice emails and they're not nice letters because you know I'm gonna teach what the Word of God says and so when I'm dealing with certain things that maybe if in they start writing emails I want this to be very clear I believe that there are Catholics that are going to heaven if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ but if they're trusting in the church to get them to heaven they're not I believe that there are people in our church that's not going to heaven because they don't understand that it's a relationship with Jesus Christ or maybe they haven't taken that step and develop the relationship with Jesus Christ now when we get to the Church of Thyatira we're going to be talking about Catholicism when we get all the way over here to chapter 17 and 18 we'll be teaching on Catholicism I don't want to get I don't want anyone to get the idea that I hate Catholics that's just not the way it is I'm just teaching what the Word of God says but it says they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans because what they were teaching was something that would lead the people astray now let's look at the promise look at verse number 7 he that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches through him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God now that's the promise whoever overcomes gets to eat of the tree of life now is this meant to be taken literally or figuratively according to some scholars this is meant to be taken figuratively they believe that there is no such thing as the Tree of Life it's just a figure of speech that refers to eternal life and they will point to several scriptures in order to prove their point look at proverbs chapter 30 or chapter 3 verse number 18 it says wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her happier those who hold her tightly in other words wisdom will lead you to return a life think about it you won't find any wise men in hail Only Fools that's true you will not find any wise men inhale you'll only find fools why because only a fool would reject the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ right so if a person is truly wise they're gonna receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior now look at proverbs chapter 11 verse number 30 the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth Souls is wise what is this saying well it's saying that righteous people do things that lead other people to salvation the tree of life represents or or means salvation in other words eternal life so some scholars believe that the tree of life is just a figure of speech that refers to eternal life but other scholars say that the tree of life is real it is not a figure of speech now let me show you why they believe that the tree of life is first mentioned where in the book in the book of Genesis we're told that in the Garden of Eden there were all types of trees but there were two trees that stood out from all of the rest of the trees look with me if you would in Genesis chapter 2 verse number 9 it says the Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground trees that were beautiful that produced delicious fruit in the middle of the garden he placed the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil now here's what's funny and when I say funny I don't mean haha funny I mean interesting alright Adam was allowed to eat from the tree of life but it wasn't allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil look at Genesis chapter 2 verses 16 and 17 but the Lord God warned him you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil if you eat its fruit you are sure to die now what you notice that Adams allowed to eat of every tree in the garden but one that means that he was allowed to eat of the Tree of Life but when he sinned and he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil all of the sudden that was reversed at that point he was banned from eating from the tree of life turn with me to Genesis chapter 3 verses 22 through 24 then the Lord God said look the human beings have become like us remember the word Trinity is not in the Bible I told you that when we were teaching on the rapture but the doctrine the Trinity is taught notice the Lord God said look look to human beings that become like us plural hmm knowing both good and evil what if they reach out take fruit from the tree of life and eat it then they will live forever in their sinful condition that's my part I'm adding so the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden and he said Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made after sending them out the Lord God stationed two mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden and he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth now why to guard the way to the Tree of Life that's why they were banned they were banned from eating from the tree of life why because the Tree of Life will give them immortality and in their sinful condition they would become how many have ever watched the movie the Highlanders they would become in a sinful condition immortal now at the end of Revelation the Tree of Life is mentioned again actually it's mentioned three times but I'm only going to show you two look with me if you would in the book of Revelation chapter 22 verse 2 it flowed down the center of the Main Street on each side of the river grocery of life there's not just one tree of life there's two on each side of the river there's a tree of life bearing twelve crops of fruit with the fresh crop each month now you need to understand something if there's details in the Bible that means it's significant he doesn't just say well you know that would sound good if I said this there's 12 crops with the new crop each month the leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations or in other words ethnos the people look at revelation 22:14 blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have the right to the Tree of Life and they enter through the gates in the city now those who believe that The Tree of Life is real believe that its purpose is to give our resurrected bodies bodies immortality let me read to you if you don't mind from a section from William Newell's commentary on Revelation this deals with the Tree of Life here goes the Tree of Life is not a symbol but a reality as seen in revelation 22 - when the first Adam sinned we were shut out from the garden lists we should live forever in our sinful state this tree under divine wisdom sustained humanity and physical immortality now in the last Adam we already have eternal life as to our spirits but we look forward to bodily immortality and incorruptibility for redemption the body is part of our salvation now if you remember when I taught on the rapture the big question is well we know that when a person dies their spirit goes to heaven but their body doesn't their body goes into ground what's going to happen he said the dead in Christ are going to race first and we found out when we were studying the rapture that those who have died are going to come back with Jesus to be rejoined to their physical bodies now we know that our spirit is immortal lives forever but what about those physical bodies and what William Newell is saying is the whole purpose of the Tree of Life is that you will eat in heaven of the Tree of Life and your physical body will always have healing will always be immortal so is the Tree of Life real or is it symbolic is the promise in Revelation 2:7 meant to be taken literally or figuratively Allen what do you think well I think it really doesn't matter because either way it means the very same thing for those who overcome will be given eternal life immortality they get to eat of the Tree of Life

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship Allen Nolan

Views: 93,048

Keywords: jesus as king in revelation, jesus in revelation, who is jesus in revelation, revelation of god according to bible, the truth of the bible, description of jesus in revelation, what the bible says about revelation, who is jesus from genesis to revelation, bible, gospel, book of revelation, end times, christ, book of revelation explained in detail, book of revelation explained summary, analysis of the book of revelation, the book of revelation explained, the book of revelation

Id: lEZ-a5lvyQs

Length: 44min 49sec (2689 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 26 2019