Lesson 3 - Revelation 1 Cont.

[Music] [Music] we're gonna continue our study of of Revelation chapter one today with a with a quick review now now first and most significant of anything that we can say about this book is that John insists that his visions are from God in fact so there can be no mistake the exact chain of this visit of the vision messages is given to us and it's this from God to Christ to angels to John than to us this is vital because the underlying assumption of many popular commentaries on Revelation is that John created a story about visions as a platform for him to put forth his own prophecies concerning the future even more several commentators claimed that he peppered his visions with various pagan myths that Jews in his day especially Jews living in the Diaspora would have been familiar with however the words of revelation claimed that his visions are authentic divine visions and that John's only job was to record them if this is not true then revelation is a fraud beginning with the very first verse and it ought to be removed from our Bibles assuming John's words are indeed a true record of his divine visions then the book of Revelation carries as much weight of authority as the Old Testament prophets and even though this might seem like a radical thought to many Christians revelation carries more weight than the other books of the New Testament because those other books fall under the classification of divinely-inspired as opposed to the higher classification of authority of divinely given the only other words in the New Testament that are of equal authority as the book of Revelation are Christ's direct words in the Gospels not the entire Gospels themselves just his words the remainder of the Gospels are divinely inspired but not divinely given then there is the issue of when jah john thought that these visions of the seal and bowl and trumpet judgments which would more or less coincide with the return of Messiah Yeshua might actually occur and he steadfastly believed as Paul had that they would probably happen in his lifetime not in some distant future so John fully expected to personally experience the content of the visions that he was given now we also find when reading chapter 1 in a straightforward and an honest way without preexisting man-made doctrines clouding our minds that John has a little different version of the composition of the Godhead and the juxtaposition of the various personages that comprise it then the most popular version of the several Trinity doctrines the the version that demands a co-equal status of the three personages that that much of Western Christianity accepts now while John indeed sees the Godhead as primarily the Father Son and Holy Spirit he also sees the father as preeminent with the Son and the Holy Spirit in some way subordinate to him and since the Holy Spirit empowers yeshua and not the it is not surprising that in Revelation 1 verses 4 & 5 we find John lists the composition of the Godhead as as father Holy Spirit and son in that order the truth is however that the words the father do not appear in that verse rather the well-known biblical attribute of the father as the one who is who was and will be is used to indicate him and yet those are not the precise words used either rather the words are the one who is who was and who is coming some commentators say this must be referring to Christ since Christ is coming back yet if that's the case then John is using a description that up until then was exclusively used for the father and so John's words would then skip the father entirely but provide two different descriptions of Christ yeah this is just illogical and highly unlikely and as I demonstrated from our reading of Zechariah 14 last week the Old Testament prophet says precisely that Jehovah the biblical name of God the Father is indeed coming at the end of days he will be touching down on the Mount of Olives and when he does the mountain will split apart this event is typically connected with Yeshua is the one touching down on the Mount of Olives causing it to split yet clearly that is not what Zechariah said Zechariah said you Dave Ave Jehovah will come and touch down on the Mount of Olives and when we read john in the light of zechariah then we understand the John clearly thinks that while Christ is indeed returning to earth soon you hold me the father is coming as well in some mysterious way now let me state in fact emphatically my goal is in no way to diminish the role of Christ and our lives today or in the end times rather my intent is to show you that first the New Testament continues to make the father the preeminent power in heaven and he also retains a powerful and personal role in the end times and second that the uncompromising descriptions and expectations that are often present in church doctrines about the role and form of Christ in the end times are not as scripturally straightforward and tidy as commentators make them out to be now last time we'd also discussed the issue of believers becoming a new priesthood that replaces the Levite priesthood it is said in a few places in the New Testament such as first Peter chapter 2 and Hebrews chapter 4 that believers are to be seen as priests or kingdom of priests or new priesthood the question however is priests and what sense in what capacity last week we examined Ezekiel 44 which looks ahead to the time of the Millennial Kingdom also known as the thousand-year reign of Christ and Ezekiel gives us painstaking details of a new temple but he also gives us painstaking details of the priesthood that is to serve God at this new temple and what we learn is that Levite workers are to do their traditional and typical temple blue-collar duties and that there is to be a strictly Levite priesthood taken solely from the line of said oak a descendant of Aaron and only they may perform all the temple duties and form the temple priesthood in Ezekiel 44 starting at verse 15 we read however the Kohanim the priests who are Levites and descendants of said oak who took care of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me they are the ones who will approach me and serve me it is they who will attend to me and offer me the fat and the blood says I don't I Elohim they will enter my sanctuary and approach my table to minister to me and perform my service so for certain it will not be Gentile believers the church who run the Millennial temple has a new priesthood in exactly what ways all believers will be priests during that time is not clear very likely the terms priests and priesthood are metaphorical as it concerns believers and it simply means that we can serve the Lord in a closer way than we could before because similar to the Levites we have been separated and set apart from all others on earth to serve God but any notion that the Levite priesthood is abolished and replaced in the millennium is dashed by Ezekiel in an unambiguous unmistakable way so with all of the aforementioned in mind as our context let's move further into revelation chapter 1 open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1 if you have a complete Jewish Bible we'll be starting on page 15 33 we're gonna start at verse 7 look he's coming with the clouds every eye will see him including those who pierced him all the tribes of the land will mourn him yes I mean I am the a and the Z says Adonai god of heavens are means the one who is who was and who is coming I Johan John am a brother of yours and a fellow sharer and the suffering kingship and perseverance that come from being United with Yeshua I had been exiled to the island called Patmos for having proclaimed the message of God and borne witness to Yeshua I came to be in the spirit on the day of the Lord and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying write down what you see on a scroll and send it to the seven messianic communities Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea I turned around to see who was speaking speaking to me and when I had turned I saw seven gold menorahs and among the menorahs was someone like a son of man wearing a robe down to his feet a gold band around his chest his head and hair were white as snow white wool his eyes like a fiery flame his feet like burnished brass refined in a furnace his voice sounded like the sound of rushing waters and in his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp double-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength when I saw him I fell down at his feet like a dead man he placed his right hand upon me and said don't be afraid I am the first in the last the living one I was dead but look I'm alive forever and ever and I hold the keys to death and Sheol so write down what you see both what is now and what will happen afterwards here is the secret meaning of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven gold menorahs the seven stars are the angels of the seven messianic communities and the seven menorahs are the seven messianic communities verse seven alludes to two Old Testament prophecies Daniel 7 and zechariah 12 now in some ways this verse represents the theme that the book of Revelation is truly all about the second coming of Messiah Yeshua and what we are told is that the entire world is going to be aware of his return no one will be able to claim they didn't know about it because it will involve him returning in the clouds meaning is going to be a global celestial event every eye seeing him does not actually equate to 100 percent of all human beings personally witnessing it but it does mean all of humanity with only a few exceptions so while not every last person will witness his dramatic return the vast majority of people on planet earth will and those few who personally don't see it will quickly find out about it because it's gonna be the greatest news story of all time and it is gonna spread like wildfire now something quite sad makes up the final few words of this verse also an allusion by the way to an Old Testament passage it says that the tribes of the land will mourn him now this is direct reference to the twelve tribes of Israel history has made it clear that only a relative few Israelites in the past or present have accepted their own Messiah most have rejected him and await another and a different Messiah who of course never seems to come thus the morning will be because they now realize the enormity of their error and because they will acknowledge that their ancestors had much to do with some even celebrated Christ gruesome death on the cross and as promised now let's go to the prophets the John alluded to and see exactly the context that he wants his readers and his hears to recall now while these verses are not very known or familiar with in the world of Christianity because they come from the Old Testament they were well known among Jews of John's day because the Old Testament was their Bible and because they were so full of Messianic expectation so because we're going to frequent the words of the prophets this will be perhaps the primary reason that our study of Revelation is going to go on for quite some time open up your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7 Daniel chapter 7 if you have a complete Jewish Bible it is page 1109 1109 daniel chapter 7 we're going to read it all it's important to get the context and the first year of Belshazzar king of a babel Daniel had a dream and visions in his head as he was lying on his bed he wrote the dream down and this is his account I had a vision at night and I saw there before me the four winds of the sky breaking out over the Great Sea and four huge animals come up out of the sea each different from the others the first was like a lion but it had Evil's wings and as I watched its wings were plucked off and it was lifted off the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a human heart was given to it then there was another animal a second one like a bear it raised itself up on one side and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth it was told get up and gorged yourself with flesh and after this I looked and there was another one like a leopard with four bird's wings on its sides the animal also had four heads and it was given power to rule and after this I looked in the night visions and there before me was a fourth animal dreadful horrible extremely strong and with great iron teeth and a devoured and crushed and stamped his feet on what was left and was different from all the animals that had gone before it and it had ten horns now while I was considering the horns another horns sprang up among them a little one before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots in this porns were eyes like human eyes a mouth speaking arrogantly and as I watched Thrones were set in place and the ancient one took his seat and his clothing was white as snow the hair on his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames we loved with wheels of burning fire a stream of fire flowed from his presence thousands thousands ministered to him millions millions stood before him then the court was convened the books were opened when I kept watching then because of the arrogant words which the horn was speaking I speaking I watched as the animal was killed and his body was destroyed and it was given over to be burned up completely as for the other animals their rulership was taken away but their lives were prolonged for a time in a season and I kept watching the night visions and what I saw coming with the clouds of heaven someone like a son of man and he approached the ancient one and he was led into his presence to him was given rulership glory and a kingdom so that all peoples and nations and languages should serve Him his rulership is an eternal rulership that won't pass away his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed now as for me Daniel my spirit deep within me was troubled the visions in my head frightened me I approached one of those standing by and asked him what all this really meant he said he would make me understand how to interpret these things these four huge animals are four kingdoms that will arise on earth but the Holy Ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom possessed the kingdom forever yes forever and ever that I wanted to know what the fourth beast meant the one that was different from all the others so very terrifying with iron teeth and bronze nails which devoured crushed and stamped its feet on what was left and what the ten horns on its head meant and the other horn which sprang up before which which three fell the horn that had eyes had a mouth speaking arrogantly and seemed greater than the others and I watched and that horn made war with the Holy Ones and was winnowing it was winning and until the ancient one came judgment was given in favor of the Holy Ones of the Most High and the time came for the Holy Ones to take over the kingdom this is what he said the fourth animal will be a force Kingdom on earth it will be different from the other kingdoms it will devour the whole earth it'll trample it down and crush it now as for the ten horns out of this kingdom ten Kings will arise and yet another will arise after them now he will be different from the earlier ones and he will put down three kings he will speak words against the Most High and try to exhaust the Holy Ones of the Most High he will attempt to alter the seasons in the law and the Holy Ones will be handed over to him for a time times and half a time but when the court goes into session he will be stripped of his rulership which will be consumed completely destroyed then the kingdom the rulership and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the holy people of the Most High their kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all rulers will serve and obey them this is the end of the account as for me Daniel my thoughts frightened me so much that I turned pale but I kept the matter to myself notice the context for this chapter and I cannot express it enough the book of Revelation would be ten times longer than it is if John wrote down the full context for everything he was saying so that's why we're gonna go to where the context is notice the context for this chapter it speaks of symbols that represent four kingdoms all Gentile kingdoms of course that will rule the known world three of the four kingdoms come after Daniels Day with the first kingdom representing Babylon Daniel was in Babylon as a captive at the time of his visions then as with the book of Revelation we have to be cautious of assuming that either the precise order of Daniels visions and/or the sequences of the events spoken in his visions will actually happen in the chronological order that they're presented to us that is to say that the appearance of these four kingdoms then the appearance of the horns on one of them then the appearance of a little horn and so on in the order that we find enlisted in Daniel 7 aren't necessarily gonna happen in the rapid succession that his visions seems to suggest and historically we know for instance that those four kingdoms came and went over many centuries thus we need to be careful in assuming some precise order or timeframe from Daniels vision for the things that by all appearances are still in our future so while we'll revisit Daniel 7 again in our study of Revelation here's what I want you to take from it for now notice in verse 9 the mention of the ancient one we're told that Thrones plural were set in place and the ancient one took his seat first immediately we noticed the preeminent position of the one called the ancient one and throughout the Old Testament the mention of the ancient one referred to the Father Jehovah his hair was described as brilliant white as well as garments this represents not only ageless antiquity but also wisdom and purity it's the standard biblical representation of God the Father we've seen it over and over well next in verse 13 we read this I kept watching the night visions when I saw coming with the clouds of heaven someone like a son of man he approached the ancient one and he was led into his presence so here are the words that John used to draw his readers towards Daniel and of course john assigns the one who was like a son of man to who Yeshua Christ but notice something else the one like the Son of Man was led by someone into the presence before the throne of the ancient one and as we see in the next verse the ancient one delegated the rulership of God's kingdom on earth to the one like the Son of Man this is a vision of something going on in heaven and this verse among so many others makes it clear there's no what quality as we might think of it between the ancient one the father and the one like the son of man the son modern believers Christians I want you to hear me the part of the tenant Trinity doctrine which by the way is a man-made tradition that claims co-equal status and authority among Father Son and Holy Spirit completely defies Holy Scripture justifies it old and new testaments and especially what we just read in Revelation and there is a reason that this doctrinal claim exists it was created by Gentiles in order to minimize and even discard the ongoing role and authority of the Father why because mainstream Christianity tends to want Jesus Christ to be the god of Christianity while God the Father is the God of the Jews or two sometimes taught that the father handed all of his authority lock stock and barrel over to Christ and then the father departed the same much like a king on his deathbed finally hands all of his authority over to the Crown Prince and then he dies no such thing occurs in the Bible and we need to grasp that there is more to the father's Authority and rulership than what happens in the kingdom that Christ is going to rule over now the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the father is l olam he is eternal his presence is eternal his existence his influence doesn't come and go and as I said earlier this in no way diminishes the importance role divinity of Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the Christ in the lives of believers rather it better defines Christ's role both in heaven and on earth and it puts it in perspective of the supreme nature of the Father this is John's mindset John's book of Revelation is constructed with the father as fully pre-eminent therefore this is a crucial part of the context for interpreting revelation Yeshua is indeed coming back hallelujah he's gonna come back and rule the kingdom but the father remains above all it is God's kingdom we're told this over and over God's kingdom it's placed into the hands of Yeshua he has full charge over it we are to continue to revere the father above all else just as Christ told us to in Matthew chapter 6 something that's familiar to nearly every believer you don't have to turn there but let me remind you of this in Matthew chapter 6 verses 5 through 10 when you pray don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them yes I tell you they have their reward already but you when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father in secret your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you pray don't babble on and on like the pagans who think God will hear them better if they talk a lot don't be like them because your father knows what you need before you ask him therefore pray like this our Father who art in heaven may your name be kept only may your kingdom come may your will be done on earth as in heaven remember what I told you earlier Christ's words have more authority than the words of the merely human writers of the New Testament because while their words are indeed divinely inspired issues words are directly given to us as divine Oracle we're hearing from God directly and for those who might say yeah but what about Christ saying in john 14:9 who whoever has seen me has seen the father well Christ was referring to the father's character in nature not that Christ and the father were interchangeable or indistinguishable persons or that Christ had assumed a co-equal status with the father at all respects in fact in verses 15 and 16 Christ continues if you love me you will keep my commands and I will ask the Father and He will give you another comforting counselor like me the spirit of truth to be with you forever I will ask the Father and He will give you again Yeshua subordinates himself to the father well enough said for now whether you accept this or not is not the point the point is John did and that is the perspective he is coming from all throughout the book of Revelation and it greatly distorts and compromises the truth of this particular book when we insist on reading our thoughts our beliefs our traditions back into it now verse 8 offers further perspective and not just what John believed but what he was directly told the Lord says to him I am the A&Z or better the Alpha and the Omega another way of saying it is the beginning in the end then the speaker goes on to further identify himself as the god of heavens armies this is expressed in the Old Testament literally literally as Yahav a Saiva oat you have a of the hosts nearly every Bible however will incorrectly translate the Hebrew into Lord of Hosts if it was going to English sized it properly it should say Jehovah of hosts but it doesn't and the divine speaker repeats another attribute of Jehovah the father from verse four when he says he is the one who is who was and is coming see here's the crux the first words of the book of Revelation are this is the revelation that God gave to you of the Messiah thus at this moment the true author of this vision is setting about to identify himself to John he is Yahweh God the Father so now verse 9 shifts gears these words are not part of the revelation vision rather it is John explaining some of the circumstances surrounding his receiving of these visions and by his saying that he's a brother of yours and a fellow sufferer who was united with Yeshua we understand that John is writing this revelation to believers let me leave no doubt if you are a firm non-believer perhaps even a seeker who is yet to know Christ you know you can gain something no doubt from reading revelation but you will not get from it what a believer can and hopefully will for one thing you will not get that promise blessing but for another all guarantee you that the underlying spiritual meaning will evade you only believers have the Holy Spirit only believers and only the Holy Spirit can help us understand and accept the deep mysteries of Revelation even though our senses may not be able to fully comprehend them John says he was exiled to the island of Patmos when he received his visions and so had plenty of time to write them down in verse 10 John says that in some difficult to explain way he came to be in the spirit now this is the language that Old Testament prophets sometimes used to explain their ecstatic state when God spoke to them or course or sent them his Oracle through angel messengers for example in Ezekiel chapter 3:3 we read a spirit lifted me up I heard behind me a very loud sound blessed be the glory of out an eye from his place then in the same chapter verse 14 so a spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit with the hand of Adonai strong on me again in the same chapter Ezekiel says in verse 24 a spirit entered me and put me on my feet then he spoke with me and said to me go shut yourself inside your house there are good arguments on both sides to say that this spirit John speaks of is the Holy Spirit and thus in our Bibles it ought to be capital s spirit or it is something that more means a heightened state of spiritual awareness and it's not the Holy Spirit per se so it ought to be little s spirit various Bible versions interpret it differently I believe it ought to be little s spirit because that is what the Old Testament prophets usually meant and there is little doubt in my mind that John places himself on that same level as the Old Testament prophets the key is that what we are reading about is John's spiritual state it's not about the authority of what it is he heard and saw but then John says either that this happened on the Lord's day or that it was about the day of the Lord again good arguments can be made both ways how to read this the Greek indeed can be translated to mean the Lord's Day Sunday and it can equally well be translated to say the day of the Lord the first way is referring to the day of the week the Christ arose from the tomb the second way is probably referring to Judgment Day the end of days why John would want to tell us that this happened on a Sunday doesn't make a lot of sense prophets didn't communicate that kind of information to us in general because it had no bearing on the message just as it wouldn't here considering that the entire subject matter of the book of Revelation it fits far better to see John saying that God was showing him about the end times the day of the Lord but it could be the other way and also similar to the Old Testament prophets God's voice is said to sound like a trumpet or God's Oracle is announced by the sound of the trumpet either way make no mistake John is presenting us with his credentials so that we know that he is an authentic prophet along the lines of Isaiah and Daniel and Ezekiel the voice like a trumpet now says write down what you see now let those words sink in write down what you see this is critical information for the interpretation and authentication of the book of Revelation now although at the moment this most directly pertains to the letters he will send to the seven believing congregations in Asia it also defines the nature and the authority for the remainder of Revelation because that is coming to John and divine visions except for some minor personal commentary that John will give us time to time such as where he was when he got his visions all else in this book is of the highest spiritual authority beyond divinely inspired because John is instructed to record what he sees and hears and on the heavenly command John receives it is to send what John sees in a vision that is written on a scroll to seven specific congregations those of Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea now although there is no universal agreement among Bible commentators I believe that the seven letters to these seven specific congregations were real letters meant to address the specific conditions of those seven congregations there is no indication that John is using them as symbols or as allegory they were both practical and there were spiritual reasons that those particular congregations were chosen because there were many more congregations in Asia than only those particular seven and yet there's much to be learned from those letters that can and do apply to us the modern congregations of believers in Yeshua let us also not let the use of the number seven go unnoticed Revelation is full of sevens in addition to the number seven speaking of divine completion and fullness it speaks of finality revelation is all about the ultimate finality judgment the end of days now when we look on a map it becomes pretty evident why those seven churches might have been singled out they existed along major routes that connected the major major cities of Asia in fact the congregation's are named in the order that messengers would carry letters going from the Northwest to the northeast and then south and further the spiritual condition of each congregation and the order they are given allows John to present in a rather standard Jewish literary technique that is called chiasm okay this is not to say that chiasm is unique de brew but it is used extensively in the Old Testament especially the New Testament Greek then the translations to English rather rather mask this okay but brief just very briefly chiasm is a type of grammatical pattern so if subjects a B and C each represent certain characteristics then in chiasm the next thing we would read are those same characteristics applied a bit differently but then presented back in reverse order CB a a b c c ba so if six things are said about a person or an event and if they're presented as a chiasm they would be written a b c c ba so the first thing so the first thing and the last thing would be similar the second thing and the next the last thing would be similar and the two middle things the third thing in the four things they would be similar now the reader or the here if jewish would instantly know to make this association and it worked very well as a memory device now interestingly we can say that of the seven letters the first and the seventh speak of the congregation's being in the gravest spiritual danger the second in the sixth well they're the ones that are deemed as the most faithful and true the middle three well they're a mix of faithfulness with having some identified faults that need to be addressed this has all the characteristics of Jewish literary thought using chiasm why is this John was a Jew John was a Jew the so-called seven churches he was writing to weren't churches at all they were synagogues led by believers so even if the Gentile members might not have understood such things as chiasm there was plenty of Jewish believers to help explain John's letter to them now verse 12 says that John got a glimpse of who was talking to him he saw someone standing in the midst of seven goldman ors now if you don't have a complete Jewish Bible then your Bible will say seven golden lampstands or seven golden candlesticks this is where knowing the Torah helps because a lamp stand or a candlestick sounds so ordinary why would this divine being stand a bunch of stand among a bunch of candles what's that proof what does that indicate menorah is the correct word the menorah that is used in the temple is made of what gold surprised so these were golden lampstands okay and since we are also told that it was someone like the son of man who was standing there then we need to understand the references to Christ like John Yeshua was also a Jew and so the thought was of course of the temple menorah not a bunch of ordinary candles now it's John's further description of what at first would seem to be Christ that throws us a curveball the son of man is never a title assigned to the father it's only assigned to you schewe but then verse 14 we read that his head and hair were white as snow white wool his eyes like a fiery flame his feet like burnished brass well this alludes to the words of a couple of prophets the first being Daniel and in Daniel 7:9 we read and as I watched Thrones were set in place and the ancient one took his seat and his clothing was white as snow the hair on his head was like pure wool his throne was fiery flames with wheels of burning fire but John also calls to mind Daniel 10 five and six and when I looked up there before you there before me was a man dressed in linen wearing a belt made a fine hoof as gold and his body was like barrel and his face looked like lightning in his eyes like fiery torches and his arms and feet were the color of burnished bronze and when he spoke it sounded like the roar of a crowd and then in verse fifteen John adds that his voice was like the sound of rushing waters the same as Ezekiel describes in Ezekiel 43 then I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east and his voice was like the sound of rushing water and the earth shone with his glory so all of these descriptions that John uses to tell us about the one standing when the menorahs are mostly Old Testament descriptions of the Father the ancient one the only description this seems to indicate Jesus Christ is the son of man implication so there's a real mystery here John seems to be intentionally conflating father characteristics with son character s the son characteristics well here's another mysterious element to me if John who sat at the knee of Christ as one of the original twelve disciples absolutely thought he knew without a doubt that the person who was standing when the menorahs and having those particular characteristics was Messiah Yeshua why didn't he just say so in fact this divine being never I directly identifies himself and John doesn't identify him either rather it's just more characteristics and descriptions really interesting you want an answer don't you you're gonna have to wait for a long time maybe in his right hand this being held seven stars more sevens out of his mouth came a double-edged sword clearly John not only wasn't certain who this being was except that he was divine he also didn't understand the meaning of the seven stars didn't understand the meaning of the double edged sword but it was enough for John to do what you're supposed to do if you're attacked by a bear fall on your face and act like you're dead see get lots of little useful tidbits from door class don't you we hear of the same reaction in the Bible to those who encounter angels so at this point John was seriously confused and frightened and while some of his confusion will be answered not all of it will be set aside and it won't be for us either the sword has imagery in a few places in the Old Testament but it is generally not applied to God except for in a couple of instances the double-edged sword seems unique to John many commentators want to connect this with Paul what Paul said in Ephesians 6:17 where he says and take the helmet of deliverance along with the sword given by the spirit that is the Word of God now while it can't be absolutely discounted the John would have borrowed the thought from Paul and thus the reference to the double-edged sword and revelation is to the Word of God we encounter the same problem the word sword is used but the double-edged modifier used by John is not found in the Ephesians passage so what's the answer to this interesting dilemma what is John referring to with this double-edged sword well see if we can answer that next week and we'll finish up chapter 1 and get into chapter 2 [Music] you

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Keywords: Father, Holy Spirit, Son, New Testament, Revelation, Seven Churches, Streets of Gold, Armageddon, New Jerusalem, John, Millennium Reign, Second Death, Coming quickly, Jerusalem, Torah Class, Bible Study, Tom Bradford, torah, class, seed, abraham, bible, learning, lesson, teaching, god, lord, adonai, elohim, yahweh, yhwh, jesus, christ, yeshua, christian, christianity, believer, scriptures, torahclass.com, torah class, soam, soaf, seed of abraham, hebrew, jew, jewish, bible study, revelation, end times

Id: mB-S_h0rkMU

Length: 52min 44sec (3164 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 22 2018