Dr. Baruch Korman: Revelation Chapter 1 Part 1

Shalom and welcome to via ofte Israel a Hebrew phrase which means you shall love Israel we hope you'll stay with us for the next 30 minutes as our teacher dr. Baruch shares his expose Ettore teaching from the Bible dr. Baruch is the senior lecturer at the Zahra Avraham Institute based in Israel although all courses are taught in Hebrew at the Institute dr. Baruch is pleased to share this weekly address in English to find out more about our work in Israel please visit us on the web at love Israel or RG that's one word love Israel o RG now here's Baruch with today's lesson recently a gentleman came up to me and asked me can you teach me how I can find the blessings of God I mean let's think about it everyone wants to be blessed by God the problem is that often times what we consider to be blessings from God are really the desires of our flesh oftentimes we hear people who are teaching the Word of God they like to speak about sowing a seed of faith and really what they're doing is simply trying to get you to give money to them see if you want to be blessed no money is not the key to it you know what is obedience and the book that we're going to begin studying today teaches us how to be obedient especially in the last days and let me lead you into a very important truth and that is this if you are going to be ready for the last days you need to begin to get ready today preparation is one of important ingredients in being successful and God has called us to success that is God has called us to be obedient to his word so to get your Bible and look with me to the book of Revelation now most of you probably know that the names of the books that we see in the scripture did not come with a name they were given names by by individuals by tradition and was primary two names for this book of Revelation early on it was known as the vision of John but when we look at the scripture we find that although there's many visions within it the term revelation is better and the first question we should ask ourselves is this book of Revelation it's a revelation of what a better answer would be a revelation of who because in that first verse we see it's a revelation of Messiah Yeshua that is Jesus of Nazareth and what I want you to see is this today many people they shy away from studying it they think it's confusing and it may be confusing unless you're a student of prophecy what we're going to see throughout this book is that John he was inspired to write things down that he saw but God revealed them in light of prophecy oftentimes we're going to see that John takes pieces of prophecy and he changes one part of the other because the Spirit of God led him to do so not to make a change in the Word of God but in order to help us understand this new revelation another important part of this book of revelation is that it's a revelation of Messiah himself and that's to tell us something it's a tell us that in the end times many people are going to be confused about who really is Messiah Yeshua and the reason why I say that is this today people are very casual about Messiah oh we like to think of him as our friend our helper our Savior but really what we need to think of him is that he is our Lord and it's only when we submit to that truth then and only then are we going to mature and grow and become the people that God wants us to be so as I said look with me to the book of Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1 we read here the revelation of Messiah Yeshua which God gave to him now this is a very important point we find that God the Father gave to his son revelation in order that you and I might understand the person and the work of Messiah you know there's a very important scripture that Paul teaches us where Paul says that all judgment has been given to the son now even though we've been justified by faith that is an outcome of God's grace understand that judgment and this book is going to make this very clear even for the believer there's a judgment of Deeds the scripture is going to tell us that God is going to judge each person both those who are saved that is who will be in the kingdom of God and those who won't be in the kingdom of God they're still going to be a judgment of works and a very important truth that we see throughout the prophets is this that the prophets revealed that before the kingdom will be established that there's coming a time of judgment so this book first and foremost tells us how to be ready for judgment in every aspect of that word so once again the revelation of Messiah schewe which God gave to him to show and here's a very important truth to show everyone know in fact one of the things that I encounter is this we're where we begin to talk about the book of Revelation many people said well I don't want to study that book that book is too confusing that book is too difficult it's full of things that I don't like to think about this judgment this persecution these hardships I'm just not interested in those things but understand this first verse this revelation of Messiah schewe that God gave to his only begotten Son is for who notice what the Texas for his servants now what I derive from that is this those who are interested in this book are going to be those same people who are entered that in serving God so before we go any further we need to ask ourselves a very important question and that is this am i interested in serving God is this what I'm passionate about when I wake up in the morning do I pray God teach me and direct me that I might serve you in faithfulness and obedience well if that describes you then this prophecy of the book of Revelation is going to be of great importance to you well let's move on to show his servants which would what happen quickly and there's two ways to understand this concept of happening quickly first of all we need to understand about the nature of God's timing in the book of Matthew and I turn to that very often in chapter 23 because there it tells us something about God's timing his Providence he speaks to Israel and he says to the Jewish nation you won't see me again that is I will not return and the implication is I will not come again to establish my kingdom until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord now what does that tell us well it tells us that the return of Messiah even though God knows the specific time that Messiah is going to come he knows that because he is omniscient but understand a principle it's not so much that we are waiting upon God to give that word to Messiah to come but rather God is waiting on us that we the Jewish people might be ready and here's the truth Israel's not going to be ready in and of themselves it's going to come about because of a time of great persecution and turmoil for the Jewish people both in the land and outside the land so what it says and when it says the time is going to come quickly one ways to understand that is the God's ready he's able he wants it to be but it's dependent upon us the second way to understand that is a fine aspect of that word that appears here quickly and that is it's going to come about when it's times arrived it's going to come about very quickly meaning this if someone is not prepared well they're not going to have time to get prepared I think for example of the ten versions those five that were foolish and they did not take oil from their lamp and what happens well they weren't prepared for when Messiah came preparation is so important being faithful to God so what the scripture is telling us is this that we need to be prepared and it's prophecy and don't miss this it is prophecy which is key and revealing truth to us concerning the last days so that we might be prepared that we might know how to pray that we might know what is going to take place so that we can't be prayerfully ready for that let me give an example what I'm talking about I have a good friend and he is an athletic coach and they go through the same routine over and over and over why so when that situation happens in a game type situation what happens that person has been trained that practice they are prepared and what they do is natural if they weren't prepared properly one that would come about in a game situation the pressure not knowing being caught off guard they wouldn't be able to respond properly and that's why we see in the scripture that there's an emphasis both in the Psalms and what we call the prophets and in the New Covenant on prophecy so look again at that verse at the end of verse one he says I want to show my servants make known to them what is coming about quickly and then finally says which he made known when he sent in the hand of his servant who well first of all says in the hand his messenger his servant John now I believe that that every aspect of Scripture gives us revelation that is it gives us insight and wisdom in assisting us in understanding the truth of God and I don't believe it's just by chance that we see that this book the author of it the one who received these visions is a man by the name of John you see the Hebrew name John and that's what he would been called by is Yochanan and Yochanan has to do with God who is gracious and it's also it can be understood as one who who supplicates God that is beseeches God for grace he said well why would would John be doing that why would he be asking for grace was he not already saved yes he was but it's very important that we realize that grace just doesn't save a person that's one very very important aspect of the grace of God but we also know that grace has an influence in our life that teaches us to say no to ungodliness unrighteousness saying no to the things of the flesh and says yes to God Grace when it's active in our life teaches us and causes us to obey God and therefore John Yohanan was given this prophecy let's move on to verse two who witness the Word of God or testified the Word of God and the testimony of Messiah Yeshua now here again we're going to go through this prophecy chapter by chapter verse by verse word by word because if we don't understand it in the way that God revealed it to us we're going to miss out on a whole bunch of biblical truth and this book as we'll see in a minute this book is written for us that we might be blessed by God and we're going to find out what that blessing truly is but looked again in verse two which speak about John which he testified the word of God and the testimony of Messiah Yeshua now what you see here is this there is a connection I like the phrase and inherent relationship there's an inherent relationship between the Word of God scripture and the testimony of Messiah Yahshua now what does that teach us well if you look at the Gospels you will find that many times it said about something that Messiah Yeshua did that he did that that the scripture might be fulfilled in other words we find that so much of what he said and what he did was so that scripture would be fulfilled we know that Messiah himself is called the Word of God the word that became flesh so what we see is this the better able that we are to understand the Word of God the better able we're going to be to understand the person and the work of Messiah Yeshua again I want to emphasize one of the purposes of this prophecy the book of Revelation is to give us a better understanding of the personhood the identity not just that he's the son of God but that he is going to bring judgment upon the world it is Messiah sure now many people just think about grace forgiveness mercy they wouldn't think about your shoe yes he's my friend he's my helper his his burden is easy his his yoke is light all these such of things but when we look in the scripture especially this scripture we're going to see a very different identity for Messiah in other words the world and even believers are going to be very surprised at how Messiah appears and what he's going to do when he returns move on we find here the Word of God that was testified through the life of Messiah and and all which john saw these various visions now let's move on to verse 3 now in verse 3 we really to this when I began talking about blessing see many people believe blessing are those material things that that we want some of which we need but most of which we want now what do I say that well if we look sometime in Matthew chapter 6 it tells us there that we are to seek the kingdom of God first and it's righteousness then all these things will be added what things well the necessities of life now that's that's a blessing to have everything that we need in our life but but here I want you to see that it says something a bit more than that why verse 3 blessed is the one who reads and the blessed is the one who hears the words of prophecy and who keeps what is written for the time is near now here again notice what he says twice he mentions blessings those who read it so if someone says to me you know can you tell me how I can be blessed read study this book and not only read it but it's a word here which is in the biblical language this call of obedience there's that connection there's this this relationship between the word hear and obey so if you want to be blessed this is ground zero for finding God's blessing in your life this book it positions us where in the will of God it positions us to live that Kingdom life and to be prepared and what's going to come about and I believe that we're seeing prophetic signs today that this book it's not something that some of the more liberal teachers say oh this all has to do with things that happen already primarily almost 2,000 years ago with the destruction of the Second Temple it does not this book is all about the future this book is all about what's going to happen and what the scripture calls the AHA retie Amin the last days move on to verse 4 John John writes this to the seven congregations which are in Asia now stop because this tells us something very important this book is written to seven and what to seven speak to holiness or sanctification which is seen in the concept of purpose and notice that each one of these congregations is where it's large which means outside of Israel what's another way to understand this each of these congregations are in exile now another important thing I'm gonna get ahead of myself a little bit but in a few minutes we're going to talk about the throne of God one of the most frequent appearing words in this prophecy is a word throne or the seat of God and what this book is about is very simple the throne of God which is in the heavens above coming into this this world that God bringing his rule and his kingdom into this this place and the question is are you and I going to be ready for that and not just that question but are we living in order to participate with that objective bringing God's throne his rule into this world so look again it says to the seven congregations in Asia Minor that is those who are in exile and notice he says grace to you and peace now this is a common expression that we see in the scripture grace to you and peace what does that speak to it speaks to the need of God's grace and this word peace has to do with grain about the will of God his purpose is being fulfilled so I want to emphasize again grace is not just that element that saves us it's that but grace has a second purpose and that is that the will of God his purpose is his desires might become realized in our life and it's when we look at the vents that are going to bring this transition from this age the age to come that is from this world into the kingdom when we look at what God's going to do to bring that about we can find much insight and wisdom for us spiritually and what we need to bring about that is change in our life it says from the one who who is and was and will be now that expression is important because it is an idiom and it speaks about the transcendent God the God who is all over everything that means above he's not limited he's not bound and why do you think that here in this passage that John is speaking about God in this way because things are going to get very difficult things are going to become where if we don't have this supernatural assistance from God we're not going to be able to walk with him we're not going to be able to live out the life that he's calling us to live so God here is revealed in this one who is transcendent that is above all thanks and he speaks that where we'll notice from the seven spirits which are before and here it is the throne meaning the throne of God now why seven spirits will here again we've talked about these seven congregations and now seven spirits what does it speak about perfection holiness sanctification what we find is this that God wants to move in these congregations now in a few weeks we're going to begin a study of Revelation chapter two and three and there we're going to see of his revelation specifically to these seven congregations and these seven congregations are simply a general way of looking to believers not in different periods of time but but what believers need to hear as this time approaches so once more he says grace and peace to you from from the implication is God who was and is and and will be from the seven spirits which are before the throne and before me schewe the Messiah who is the faithful witness not only a faithful witness meaning in Messiah we find a revelation of the will of God we see how God wants us when we look at how he responded what he did what he taught when we apply that to our life we see an example for us now we need to remember that Messiah is spoken of in the scripture and revealed through the biblical text as Messiah the son of God also the son of man I'm going to focus in on a moment on that expression the Son of Man by the way when Messiah spoke to himself although he never denied his divinity never denied that he was God among us and with us but the word and the phrase that he used more often was the Son of Man and one of the implications of that expression is this that this son of man is an example for us what Messiah did remember what Paul teaches in in Philippians chapter 2 how he emptied himself now he never ceased being God but the things that Messiah did in his faithfulness the work that he carried out he did so relying upon his Heavenly Father just as you and I need to rely upon our Heavenly Father by means of the Holy Spirit to be faithful to God so we read who is the faithful witness and then look on who is the firstborn from the dead now this term firstborn implies two things it's it implies a a superiority meaning that what Messiah did he did in a way showing us that he was above all things that is that he accomplished perfectly God's will for us when it says here that he is the firstborn the dead the dead are you and I and what did he do well this firstborn aspect this this term is synonymous with a very important holiday we read about it in the book love in the Book of Leviticus in chapter 23 because there it speaks in the midst of those seven days of unleavened bread it speaks about the festival of firstfruits and the festival of firstfruits is the festival we could call it of the resurrection because it was on that day Messiah rose from the dead and what did he do he purchase salvation force that is this when Messiah died upon that cross he paid the price he paid it in full but the resurrection the resurrection is God's testimony why do I say that because over and over in the Word of God we read how God raised him from the dead meaning Messiah although he had the power to lay down his life and to take it up himself he did not he submitted to death and it was God the Father who raised him from the dead why is that so important because that is God's stamp of approval that when Messiah did it was perfectly acceptable and why is that so important to us because he's purchased for the dead this victory you see this term firstborn associated with resurrection resurrection is connected as we'll see and in in this study it is synonymous with Kingdom but also victory so when this passage looked again verse verse 3 we see here that it says that he is the firstborn from the dead and he's over what over all the kings of the earth it speaks simply about his superiority of of that belongs to him over all things why does it mention all four kings of the earth because they were rulers he is the supreme ruler and the question that we need to ask ourselves before we go any further in this book is this do we want his rule in our life you know many people or they want the benefits of salvation but they're not interested in their response so do you want the rule of Messiah in your life well we hope you will benefit from today's message and share it with others please plan to join us each week at this time and on this channel for our broadcast of love Israel org again to find out more about us please visit our website love israel dot o-r-g there you will find articles and numerous other lectures by Beru these teachings are in video form may download them or watch them in streaming video until next week may the Lord bless you in our Messiah Yeshua that is Jesus as you walk with it Shalom from Israel

Channel: LoveIsrael.org

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Keywords: Revelation Chapter 1 Part 1 loveisrael.org Dr. Baruch

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Length: 27min 35sec (1655 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 13 2016