Shane Willard | Revelation Part 2: The Last Word hasn't been said

[Music] I see few tiny likes following an actual Bible the book of Revelation chapter 1 I decided to take on the book of Revelation and try to do a series through it obviously not with the minutia because if you get caught up in the minutiae of revelation you're talking about a year's worth of work I'm gonna do two chapters at a time or so and cover the big things and so like we talked about this morning let me repeat it again there are fully devoted followers of Jesus authentic well-meaning fully devoted followers of Jesus who are our brothers and our sisters who read the book of Revelation entirely as a future book right and if that's you I love you you're my brother you're my sister and the world needs to see the Christ that holds us all together be glorified more than any of us need to be divisive over something like revelation if any book in the Bible is open to different sorts of reading it is definitely revelation and the world does not need to see us be dogmatic and divisive over something like that may the Christ that holds us all together be glorified more than we need to be right about something about the book of Revelation correct right so so if you read it entirely as a future book I love you you're my brother you're my sister I preached for you I know some of you we've we're friends we've had this chat over coffee over lunch and I'm with you if you if you read revelation entirely as a history book something that happened it's commentary in a symbolic apocalyptic literature about something that was going on around Roman government in first century Asia Minor and you see it entirely that way you're my brother you're my sister right and and I don't really I don't really mind cuz the world needs to see the Christ that holds us all together be glorified more than we need to be right about something I have heard authentic intelligent well-meaning people give brilliant talks about Revelation being a future book and the way they applied it was brilliant to the nail I've also heard brilliant authentic well-meaning educated people give talks about the book of Revelation as a history book in an apocalyptic genre and the way they applied it was for now my point is is whether you see it as a future book or whether you see it as a history book or whether you're a fully devoted follower Christ that sees it as a hybrid between the two a book about something that happened that has implications for later whether you see it as a future book or a history book or a high bid between the three as long as you apply it as an L book right is it's it's not about then and it's not about later the application is in the nail that I'm for you and if however you read the book of Revelation if you read it in a way that exalts Christ Jesus gets bigger the cross works better the resurrection is central and we're challenged to live different in our world seriously what more could you ask for from a preacher than that right what more could you ask for in a discussion around Scripture than that right there Western people approach the Bible with I don't want to be wrong Jewish people approach the Bible with I don't want to miss out right and so I'm not let me be clear about this I'm gonna say it's real slow I'm not giving you the way to read revelation right that would be arrogant for me to say that it would be actually absurd I'm giving you one way to read revelation and hopefully you can add it to your diamond of how you think about scripture that depending on how you turn it depends on how the light refracts through it right so there should be liberty and freedom because if Christ is the ground of being and Christ is holding the whole thing together then discussing something in a way that exalts Christ regardless of the minutiae should be what gets exalted in our world now this is Revelation chapter 1 I chose to take this on because I think I had 500 questions about what's your take on Revelation what's your take on Revelation so finally I just decided to give in and I sat with my researchers and over months we put some things together and and here you go so this is revelation oops a professional would have turned that on you know while I was standing here talking but I'm not a professional alright Revelation chapter one this this is the revelation of Jesus Christ this is just verse one which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and who keep what is written in it for the time is near so however you read revelation the idea is is that whatever we're reading whether you read it as a future or a history book that we should find ourself in it and obey what it's asking us to do right now the question is is what is it asking us to do now the ancient church just a quick history lesson on how the Bible came to be right the Bible came to be in certain steps step number one a guy named Constantine made Christianity legal before Christianity was legal couldn't have a Bible why because if you got caught with it you die right it's very hard to produce and then mass distribute something that if you get caught with it you will die alright so first thing Constantine had to make it legal then what happened was a group of people got together said now that it's legal we have all these letters and books about the testimony of the Apostles about the risen Christ and we should probably put them together into a library of books so that people have this for for all eternity it was a pretty good idea and they jumped on the they jumped on the opportunity while it was legal right so they got together and they had a council and they voted on which books would be in and which books would be out now don't get mad at them they had to leave some books out for several reasons but the main one was there was no printing press so you had to think about how can you mass produce something if you have to do it by hand and then there was no clear distribution method it's not like the postal service was very reliable so you had to do it in such a way that was the most manageable so they gave us what is now the Bible - two books Hebrews and revelation now 43 years later the same group of people get together and they say look we need to add two books revelation and Hebrews and they made a compromise the church in Constantinople and the church in Rome made a compromise because the Church of Constantinople did not want the book of Hebrews in and the church in Rome did not want Revelation in and they said hey let's do each other a deal and let's vote for each other's book right and so they made a compromise and they added the book of Hebrews and the book of Revelation 43 years later with the idea that you're not supposed to get doctrine from Hebrews in Revelation they're supposed to be a commentary on the books that were already there so that's how the Bible we have put together now in 1511 then western reformers move remove some of the books they didn't like and they put it in something called the Ben surah or the Apocrypha that's not relevant for what we're talking about revelation but that's just historical fact that's how we ended up with the Bible that we have so the first the early church in 394 when they put this stuff together they made a caveat and they said revelation no matter how you read it must do three things and here are the three things one it was a call to worship so no matter how you read revelation at the end of it you should be called to ascribe Worth to Jesus being Lord not Caesar that was the idea that one is worthy of worship and one is not it was a call to worship to ascribe Worth to Christ number two it was a challenge to not be corrupted by the economic system of the world the economic system that Caesar put in place enriched 1% of people at the expense of 99 percent of people now it was a problem they said this is not okay the real God would not do this the real God as revealed in Christ Jesus is a cannot akkad it is a it is a God that made himself God by choosing not to be God which was a real to empty himself in and suffer with all of humanity to identify with the suffering of the marginalized and in Revelation if anything should exalt that nature of God that even though he was equal with God did not consider it something to be grasped but rather emptied himself in order to suffer with humanity to conquer death so one is a call to worship - it was a challenge to not be corrupted by the economic system of the world and three it was a conviction to tell the right story in other words we should read revelation and constantly ask ourselves is the narrative of my life exalting Caesar is Lord or is the narrative of my life telling the story that Jesus is Lord those three things a call to worship a challenge not to be corrupted by the economic system that oppresses other systemically and third and in third a challenge to make sure our life is always telling the correct narrative because the narrative of the first century in Asia Minor was all about one thing it was called in history the propagation of the Imperial cult all right this was all about Caesar being Lord now let me take 10 sec and give some props to some scholars empty right Eugene Peterson and David de Silva I owe them a great deal of debt for the academic and scholarly effort they put in to help me understand the history of the first century Roman government in Asia Minor I can't recommend their books on the subject enough right now that this this let me show you this we talked about this this morning if you want to understand the Roman Empire you have to check the coins so the Romans were ruled by a guy named Caesar and there was a bunch of them there's Julius Caesar then they were Caesar Augustus this Tiberius there was Nero there was Caligula there was Domitian there was Trajan there was a lot of them and here's the one thing they had in common they all said that they were God and flesh and it started with a guy named Julius Caesar now Julius Caesar was amazing he combined the whole world under one rule you realize when the book of Revelation was written there was one world government with one world currency and in order to buy and sell you had to do it their way so when people say all in the end times you know there's gonna be one world government with one world currency you got to buy and sell their way hello that was the Roman Empire right now might it happen again sure but when revelation was written that was their reality now Julius Caesar came along way before this and he said not only am i a man I am God and flesh actually I'm the fullness of God incarnate and no other name on earth by which men can be saved other than the name of Julius Caesar now Julius Caesar had a great nephew his name was Octavius and Octavius saved Julius Caesar's behind from behind enemy line in in Gaul Julius Caesar was so impressed by this he took him on as his adopted son right and he made him the heir to the throne that Julius Caesar was an amazing guy took over the whole world combined the whole world under one rule invented the salad amazing guy here's here's Wade if you know if you know your history all in one wrapped up life if you know your history Julius Caesar was assassinated by his best friend a guy named Brutus by stabbing him in the back now this hurt his God claims cuz the idea was is that if you were actually God you probably should have seen someone stabbing you in the back coming now this gets better at Julius Caesar's funeral by coincidence a strange star appeared in the sky that Roman historian said lit up the day and night sky for seven days now astronomers know it was not a star today it was called it was a comet they actually have named it Caesars comment there is a tough there's a rock song about this so so Caesars comment lit up the day and night sky for seven days obviously a bit of an exaggeration but Roman historians were trying to exalt Caesar and the idea was is caesar augustus who was his son well actually his nephew he said see that proves that my father is god and my father's god that makes me the son of god now first of all not your father he was your great-uncle that's first second of all you were adopted that that second of all third third he needed some alt so here's what he did he said that the strange star appearing in the sky proved he was God is this making the Christmas story mean anything morning we have seen his star he is the king of the Jews okay so there's like your guy has a star our guy has a star our guy stars but it was that kind of that that kind of idea now once again how do you get word from Spain to India that you are God and it has been validated by stars what what you do is you put it on money and here is the Caesar Augustus star coin as you can see Caesar Augustus there on the left that's his mug right there and then on the tail side that is a giant star and around that star that says God saves God Caesar Augustus God safe now they took this so seriously that the Roman proconsul said we need to really get this UMP out so here's what they did they changed the calendar so if you ever wonder why the calendar is different now than before then it's because of Julius Caesar's death Caesars comment and Joann Augustus Caesar claiming to be the Son of God say here's what they said since he's the son of God he should be worshipped but since he's the son of God he should be worshipped primarily so they instituted a 12 Day celebration of his birth and they called that celebration Advent it was called the advent of Caesar Augustus and it stayed from December 19th to December 31st every year right so on the first day of Christmas right this is where this kind of idea think that right now now at the end if the 12 day celebration of his birth was January 1st so they made January 1st the the new New Year's Day to coincide with the end of Caesars birthday celebration now of course it's very difficult to Institute this across the entire world with no technology so it took a bit but they pulled it off archaeologists found an inscription on a stone tablet outside of pre in-out which is outside of Ephesus the main marketplace because that's where you would go to get word around the world the best you put it on the money put it in the central marketplace it's going there this is a word-for-word translation of that idea of that stone inscription explaining why they changed New Year's Day this is it's kind of Old English but you'll get it here we go because Providence has set all things and most perfect order by giving us Augustus whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind sending to him as a savior both for us and our descendants that he might end war and arrange all things well and because he sees her by his appearing surpassed all previous benefactors and leaves posterity no hope of another surpassing what he's done a name above all names and because the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good news that's the word gospel for the world that came by reason of him this is this making the Christmas story come alive at all this was the world that revelation was written in Caesar is God oppression is a way of life your tomorrow is simply a repeat of your yesterday because there's nothing you could do about it because when God is in flesh this is how he chooses to treat you revelation at its core is about a new narrative it's about a new way to think about the world now if you were here this morning you've already heard some of this I'm not gonna reap reach this I'm just gonna show you to remind us that is the Domitian Star Coin all these guys said they were gone in flesh and and and the propagation of Domitian was is that the whole world was held in place by Domitian being able to juggle the seven stars so this was the coin with donation sitting on top of the world juggling the Seven Stars and it says Domitian God saves around the edge of that so you see how a lot of Revelation is is this is the testimony of the one who's faithful and true it is he who holds the seven stars this is an in-your-face confrontation to the way they were thinking about how the world worked if I don't get anything else across tonight it's this that when you read the book of Revelation revelation was a challenging with a new narrative of the existing narrative that there is a better way to if God actually was in flesh he wouldn't be treating people the way Caesar is he'd be treating people the way Jesus is and you got to do you got to decide which sort of Kingdom you want to be a part of like there is a new way to think about this this this is um this was the Domitian Jupiter coin where he said he was full of the Spirit of the god Jupiter the God of courage and valor and victory and that Rome would never lose a battle while he was in charge because he was full of this God then of course he said he was full of the female goddess Roma the goddess of virtue and justice and humility here's here's the back of the Roma coin you could see roma Roma right there at the bottom that that's Roma there and she's always depicted coming in on horseback Rome was called the city of Seven Hills right and so here's the goddess of virtue and justice and honor and humility coming in on horseback so Domitian said not only am i full of valor and courage of victory but I'm also full of virtue and justice and humility and you see now why John said and I saw a great coming in on horseback to the city of Seven Hills this is an in-your-face confrontation to the way they were thinking about like in other words John saying the goddess that Domitian says he is full of it's not only not virtuous she's the opposite of virtuous she's a she's the worst she's way virtuous virtuous nonsense no way she's all or this is like oh my goodness this is this is so much more interesting than trying to figure out when the on a horse is going to come down from the sky at some point in the future this is in your face confrontation to how they were thinking about their world then that's of course kibble oh we talked about her this morning and her I don't know well in delmas here we go goats just keep going past that now here's Revelation chapter 1 verse 4 and John said to the seven churches that are in Asia grace to you and peace from him who is and was and is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the firstborn of the Dead the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father to him be glory and Dominion for ever and ever amen behold he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him and all tribes of the earth will on account of him even so amen I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty I John your brother and partner in the tribulation hmm so John calls the situation he's in right now the tribulation mm-hmm ah John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus he's been exiled there by Caesar who Roman history says Caesar tried to boil him in oil it didn't work and he was scared to try twice because if you try to kill a guy twice and you're God in flesh and you can't kill a guy twice it's sort of hurt your own deity claims so what do you do you get rid of him by putting him on an island where no one can find him of course when you boil a guy and oil and he survives what more can you do to a man he's not gonna care what he writes about you he might call your gods and he's not bothered what are you gonna do blow me and all again whatever right I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches and then it's specific to Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea so at its core revelation is a seven copied letter to seven real places with real people living under the horrendous oppression that we just described as best we can the question is when you open the Bible you have to ask at least two questions one what happened and two more importantly what's happening in me right now because of what happened what difference does it make if we understand what happened if we're not willing to do anything with what's happening in me right now because of what happened so let's see where this let's see where this goes so first the revelation starts with the word apocalypsis their word apocalypse it's where we get the word apocalypse from it just simply means to uncover something that was previously hidden to uncover a hidden thing here's the prologue language the problem with words are never the words the problem with words are our imaginations of how the words work right what's way more important than what the word is it's how you picture the words working I'll give you an example in ancient Hebrew the word righteousness was the same word as generous so when an ancient Hebrew person said righteous they meant a generous person some hell by 1950 in America it just meant someone that didn't smoke and didn't go to bed movies right so somehow our imagination of how the word righteous worked went from as profound as somebody who wakes up every day saying yes to the infinite possibilities to make other people's life better regardless of their ability to pay you back something profound is that - I don't smoke right which is odd the problem isn't the word the problem is our imagination of how that word works just a quick lesson on how language works language works like a container ship and as that container ship goes through time experiences and specifically who wins Wars you do understand that all swear words come from who lost the wars when two people fight the people who win their dialect becomes the clean language the people who lose their dialect becomes the dirty language that's house we're all English we're words come from the normos defeating the Saxons right the norman words became the clean words the saxon words became the dirty words if the saxon words if the Saxons would have won then I could have said words from here that I can't get away with saying now but the Normans won so we have to do it the other way that's how language works and so what's important about language is that we picture the right thing like and so it's possible to have an Orthodox doctrine but a pagan imagination of how that doctrine works for instance all of us have a doctrine that we're fully forgiven by the finished work of Christ but we imagine ourselves guilty at times so our imagination has to come under the authority of what we believe or doesn't really matter all of us would believe that God is not a singularity rather God is the divine relationship between three acting as one yet for most people I've asked this all over the world I say when you pray what do you picture number one answer is a guy on a throne so here's the problem we have an Orthodox doctrine that God is a divine relationship between three but then we picture a single white dude on a throne well that's Zeus that's Apollo that's Hermes so what happens is is we have an Orthodox doctrine but we have a pagan imagination of how that doctrine works now so when I say the word apocalypse that's the book of Revelation when I say apocalypse does your imagination go to like pulling the covers back and seeing something hidden generally not let me prove it here's all I did I went to Google and I typed in apocalypse images here are the first three hits relax nothing bad here yeah this is hit number one now if I was to say to you I'm fixing to uncover something that's been previously hidden in order to give you a better narrative to govern your life by that's exciting if I say I'm gonna write a book about that first of all boring secondly terrifying no wonder we've avoided the book it's not the the word apocalypse means to uncover hidden thing but when our imagination see that no wonder right here's the second hit ready now yeah oh yeah it's like a boom something epic you know some marble right Santos don't click your fingers big bully right right but apocalypse just means I'm gonna share something with you that you didn't realize was true before to hopefully give you a better narrative by which to govern your life but in our imagination we picture this or this or here's the third hit this is gonna be particularly inspiring there you go okay and so then we start reading things into the text that are there like Antichrist you realize the word Antichrist doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible except for first John chapter two that's it that's it it's never not once ever in any other book ever ever but yet if I was to say to people start naming some of the main characters revelation Antichrist right not in there where do we get this from somebody made it up right right it's not in there it's not in there where does it come from our imagination it's not coming from the words itself it's coming for our imagination of how those words work which largely come from Western Renaissance art and then worse that or worse a group of not very good novels that I think we may have read so it's this so but what does it really actually mean it just means to uncover hidden things so let's see where this goes so the revelation the uncovering of the hidden thing starts with a commitment to the entirety of the Jewish Christian narrative that God is committed to communicating with us that's how it starts in other words that think about this in context Christ has just left the earth and the idea is is has the last words been spoken has the last words of Christ been spoken have is Christ done speaking into our reality are we stuck in this horrible situation revelation starts with an affirmation that God is still intervening in the ways of men and he is still communicating with as he has from Genesis 1 where God speaks John 1 where the word becomes flesh actually Romans says all of creation speaks to the revelation of this gun like if you've never seen a scripture that Paul said that the gods first testimony to man was not the Bible nor was it Christ it was creation and creation was God's first exhibition of let me show you what I'm like and Paul said knowledge of creation was actually sufficient for salvation which is a whole nother thing right so in other words I'm not even going to that right now let's just say it's very important right so you have you have this commitment all through scripture that revelation is affirming and we took something that profound and that beautiful and dumbed it down to for creepy-looking cartoon characters on a horse no wonder we're not interested in it that's not interesting this is interesting what God is saying about our current reality to create a better narrative by which we govern our life is interesting especially if you're living in the oppression of first century Asia Minor Roman government right well let's see where this goes next slide here we have this word that God has spoken finds its culmination in the person of Christ the revelation isn't from Jesus it is Jesus it's Jesus reentering the narrative to say I am not done speaking let's say this way the point of the story is that in the Ascension of Christ is not the end of what Christ has to say Caesar is not going to get the last word just because Christ ascended does not mean he is done speaking in our situation revelation at its opening is an invitation to think differently about the reality we're living in let's see where this goes we have a surplus of access to scripture but a poverty of engagement first time in history we can access I don't know 50 different translations on the polymer ham I mean the way the Bible's put together three hundreds a group of people who decided which books were in but here's the problem only three percent of people could read it so the problem was is that certain people who could read it could use it to abuse people who couldn't write in the 1400s there was a printing press but the printing press and the ability to read it you realized that literacy rates in 1820 was 12% 12% 12 in 1820 that's not that long ago it's only been in the last hundred years there was a mixture of the technology to print it and the ability to read it and the ability to afford it this is why if you're I'm 44 years old I remember my great grandmother having the family Bible which was one gigantic Bible on the coffee table where people's genealogy was kept and everything why because you couldn't afford it everybody ed to read the Bible together now now we have a surplus of access to what God is saying but we have a poverty of engagement revelation is inviting us to engage the scripture to engage God the idea is this this story encapsulates how much scripture should matter and be engaged if God is willing to speak then we should at least wrestle with it we should at least take it seriously we should at least you can't sit back and complain about where your life is if we're not going to at least engage and at least wrestle it's not it's not control it's not obedience or death it's not any of that it's at least wrestle with what I'm saying that's the root word Israel people who wrestle with God I love the way the ancient rabbis say it is they say anyone who's willing to wrestle with what God's saying they are God's chosen people brilliant brilliant source not like are we willing to engage what God is saying let's say it this way see the order of being or the order of acting in the order of behaving this is how it works even though we're all different this is basically how everybody acts how everybody's life forms we think it we feel it we say it we do it in that order we think it we feel it we say it oh you see it in Psalms my heart grew hot within me and as I meditated the fire burned hotter and then I spoke with my mouth we think it we feel it we say it we do it we think it we feel it we say it we do it however you're wired we all do that we think at first we feel at second we say it and then we do it this is this is something that that the Word of Faith folks have have taught me and I honor them is about how to use confession to change the way you're thinking in order to bring a new reality about this is basic this is basic spirituality it's also basic science I'm dr. Carolyn leaf this is a quote from her your thoughts are becoming physical realities the new studies are indicating that over 50% of illnesses are cultivated in one's thought life this is something called neuroplasticity which is basic it's a new thing that finds its roots all the way back in October 1930 in October 1993 UCLA School of Medicine proved for the first time with an actual PT scan that the thoughts that we allowed to go through our brain actually change the physical neuronal fibers of a brain and can be picked up on a PT scan they used it to treat obsessive compulsive disorder people and they proved that with no medicine just with an altering of the thought that you could change someone's reality why because it's not mind over matter the mind is the starting place for how we interpret matter and that is two different things it's not really mind over matter it's that the mind is the starting point to interpret the matter that's good news let me tell you why if any narrative can change the way we're thinking to a better way to think then we can change our current reality and that is good news that's good news so revelation starts with this good news and that good news is God is still speaking Christ Caesar doesn't get the last word of crisis so speaking and it's inviting us to change about to think about a reality a different way and if we could think about a reality different way we could form a new reality the theological word would be repentance the physiological would be neuroplasticity whatever word you prefer doesn't matter to me let's let's say this way here's the lies in the first century so I wrote four lies that they were dealing with in the first century one Caesars God lie but they were living under that reality they were living under the reality of what the world would be like if a man actually believed he was God and had the power to do that as far as I know there's only one nation on the earth today that believes their leader is God in flesh and that's North Korea and it's not going well they're right picture the whole world living under that kind of regime you can't challenge him he's not a man he's God in flesh can you imagine living with that line first lot Caesars God second light oppressions a way of life that's just the way that's just the way of life I'm gonna wake up tomorrow be oppressed and the next day I'll be oppressed next day why because God likes oppressing people evidently right so say Caesars got oppressions a way of life my tomorrow is simply a repeat of yesterday that's a lie and the only way forward is to serve the oppressive system four lies Caesars God oppressions a way of life my tomorrow simply repeated yesterday and the only way to even move forward is to serve the oppressive system Revelation is uncovering a previously hidden thing by saying actually there's a new way to think about this and we're going to invite you to repent we're going to invite you we're gonna invite you to repent to think about your world a bit differently that these things are actually not true they are lies that Christ is not done speaking into the affairs of man Caesar will not get the last word Jesus will and we will invite you I know where you're living we're gonna invite you to do something different now let's talk about that for today what are our lies today and how are we being challenged to think about that differently let's ask a few questions around this to find ourself in the story where do our thoughts come from well largely our thoughts come from our experiences from things the weight how many times have you heard somebody excuse horrendous behavior by going well that's just how I grew up right as if that excuses things right or that's just how I am of course you'll never hear anybody do that about a good thing you know like I'm just generous it's just how I am no it's always I'm a jerk that's just how I am I'm Moody that's just how I am our thoughts come from our experiences how we learn the world to be normal what we think normal is was fused in our brain before the age of eight right not anybody's fault you didn't choose your parents you didn't give them amorous feeling what what you think to be normal was fused in your brain by the age of eight right and for some of us there's good parts of that for some of us there's bad parts of that for all of us there's a mixture of some of all of it that nobody's family had it all figured out nobody right if you think all my family had issues well so did it hey everybody's family had issues the question is never what is normal because what you think to be normal might be destructive the question is never what is normal the question is what is wise and what is life what is wise and what is life what is wise and what is life so arts versus the way we grew up the biases we were taught the instagrams we check the news we watch all thoughts shapers these all thought Savior to think about this if these things shape our thoughts and science is proving that our thoughts shape our reality because the mind is the starting place for how we interpret the matter whoa if we could go back and change the thought the word for that is repentance if we go back and wrestle with what God is saying and change the thought that we could change the reality in this sense Jesus's kingdom starts with thought reshaping it starts with repentance which happens to be Jesus's main message change the way you're thinking because a new kingdom is at hand it's interesting revelation starts where Jesus finished Jesus finished by saying repent change the way you think there's a new ruling reign there's a new way to think about your life revelation just picks it right up there it's almost as if he never quit speaking it just picks it right up there hey hey you've been told Caesars God lie you've been told that oppression is a way of life lie you've been told your tomorrow simply a repeat of yesterday lie not if resurrections at the center of it nope no you've been told the only way to get ahead is to play ball with the oppressive system that's a lie and we're gonna present a picture of a hidden thing about a new way to think about your life to change the narrative to give you a new way to live this is what revelation is about which is a whole lot better than the creepy horses right but the images are there so we're gonna cover some of these as we journey together on Tuesday and Wednesday image number one is that God still speaks that's the idea that God has not grown silent the narrative is not Caesar getting the last word every time the narrative is God still speaks to there's seven spirits of God it keeps coming back this is the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars seven stars was this in-your-face confrontation to Domitian seven spirits of God was a reference to Isaiah 11 about the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him the spirit of wisdom understanding counsel power knowledge fear the Lord this is this is about the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the Seven Stars the firstborn amongst the Dead that keeps coming up as well in that culture to say Jesus was the first born amongst the dead see they believed that the firstborns get justice and the second borns get mercy they also believed that what's true the first is true of everything that follows it so for them to call him the firstborn of the Dead means at least two things one that he took the he took the justice and all the dead people are now getting the mercy and that would be good news the second thing is is that if he's the firstborn amongst the dead and the firstborn amongst the dead is alive that means there's a promise of Resurrection and new life that not even death gets the last word the idea is is that Caesar doesn't get the last word and neither does death and this would be good news the ruler of the kings of the earth that is I don't think I need to do that that is an in your Oh Domitian says he's God no there is one who's the ruler of even the kings of the earth there's a new way to think about life made a kingdom of priests now why is that important well in their world the Spirit of God only rested on certain people at certain times at certain places in certain circumstances prophets priests kings temples that's it but this new narrative is actually the Spirit of God is resting on all of you you've all been all those special people you've all been made that this is a new way to think about like this is why in the first century and this is true the Roman Emperor Trajan he killed Christians and the charge was true atheism right they were considered 1st century Christians were considered atheists why because they didn't have a temple to go to and when they were asked where's your gods temple they said you're looking at him right so you're saying your God well no my god so if we can't see your God your God can't be real you're atheists and if you're saying that your God is willing to fill all people regardless of temples and rituals and put special prophets and priests that would destroy the Roman economy because the Roman economy is based on God's living in special places of special this wasn't in your face covered this is a new way to say that it's no longer special people special time special places but God is all and his in all things remember Paul went to an exercise trying to figure out where Jesus wasn't and he finally just throws up his hands because actually the Spirit of the risen Christ is filling everything in every way what if we thought about it that way and then of course he keeps coming back to this Alpha and Omega thing which was a clear reference to Genesis chapter 1 Genesis 1:1 it says this in the beginning God created heavens in the earth in Hebrew it says Bereshit bara Elohim Aleph TAV hashamayim bolotov her at the central word of Genesis 1:1 was this special particle simply Aleph Tov it doesn't get translated into any Bible because to be fair they can't translate it it literally all Genesis 1:1 says is in the beginning created God the heavens the earth but there's this olive Tov there that they didn't know what to do it and it appears all over the Old Testament like and Moses saw the backside of Elohim I love Tov oh and I will redeem you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm I love Tov it's that kind of if this said this thing right is that what one rabbi named rabbi nachum of Akiva gave his whole life to try to figure out what the olive Tov was couldn't do it so here we are in Revelation chapter 1 and Jesus is hollering down from heaven I am the Alpha and the Omega Oliphant are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet essentially Jesus obviously would have spoke Hebrew he's hollering down I and the olive and the Tov in other words in other words the thing that's been the main point since Genesis 1 that's been me I did not come to inaugurate a new reality I came to show you what God was always like all along I did not come to fix the sin problem I came to obliterate the idea there ever was a problem and invite you to embrace that new narrative that Jesus did not come to inaugurate a new reality he came to show us what God was always like and invite us to that narrative and that would be good news for we know that all these things have been true since the beginning of time but now we have seen it with our own two eyes first John chapter one this is what revelation is reminding extremely oppressed people that there's a better story so here's my question what do we do then my question is is does the narrative of your life tell the story of the lamb or the story of Caesar if the narrative is the narrative of your life telling the story of the oppressor or the liberator is the narrative of our life is is if if somebody looked at the narrative of our life is Caesar being exalted with all the worry and all the anxiety and all the depression and all all the oppression and all the hoarding and all the economic system that says I got a hoard for myself because there's not enough for all it is the narrative our life saying hey the value of my life is is found in my stuff is the narrative is the narrative my life exalting the narrative of Caesar getting the last word or does the narrative of my life express Jesus getting the last word what does our narrative say because here's what revelations about we're gonna get into some of the minutia but here's what it's about it's an invitation to believe that God still speaks and if God still speaks then there's a better narrative and the invitation is is that your tomorrow is not simply a repeat of your yesterday because there is a better narrative to believe in and the word is repentance if we can change the way we think about our world then we can change our world so my brothers and sisters of the Gold Coast may we respond to the invitation in Revelation 1 may we may we respond to uncover the hidden thing eternally may we enter into an eternal exploration of meaningful wrestling with what God might be saying may we wake up tomorrow never being dogmatic about us figuring it out but always willing to wrestle about what the new narrative might say because when God speaks a new narrative it's a better story may we live that out thank you so much let me be part of your night grace and peace everybody god bless [Applause] you know you ask you listen to the message today and you ask yourself but where do I fit in where does Jesus fit in my life maybe you ask him the question well if something happened to me today I'm not quite sure I would go to heaven I'd like the opportunity to pray with you if you would allow me if you just repeat these words because the Bible says that if you declare and call unto the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved so I'm gonna pray a prayer and I'll ask you if you prayed from your heart and confess with your mouth and believe the Bible says you're saved you're born again all things are passed away and all things are new so why don't you pray with me why don't you split your faith as I stretch my faith with you right now and let's put our faith together I'd like to pray a prayer with you and I ask that you repeat the prayer after me and the Bible says if you do it by faith the Lord Jesus will hear and you will be saved so repeat this after me say Heavenly Father forgive me all my sins I make you Lord and Savior Jesus I know that you died you rose again on the third day for me so I thank you right now that I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus because I believe on the name of Jesus and have pulled out on the name of Jesus if you prayed this prayer you're a new creation in Christ Jesus all things are passed away and all things on you amen if you pray that prayer would love to get into contact with you or hear from you please head on down to our website www.theatrefolk.com delay you I would love to hear about the decision that has changed your life god bless we're praying for you and we look forward to seeing you soon love ya [Music] you

Channel: Heritage of Faith Church Gold Coast

Views: 7,948

Rating: 4.6399999 out of 5

Keywords: Heritage of Faith, Gold Coast, We are Heritage

Id: ix6Z70BK97Y

Length: 47min 7sec (2827 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020