This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our look together through the book of Revelation, chapter
one, verses three to eight today. In verse three, there's an awesome welcome
from God as you and I begin to read this book together. In verse three, God
tells us, "God blesses the one who reads this prophecy to the church, and He
blesses all who listen to it and obey what it says.

For the time is near when these things will happen. " I love the promise of God
in verse three. It's the only book in the Bible that promises a blessing just
for reading it.

As we read this together these next several weeks, God will bless our hearts,
will bless our lives. But not only for reading, the Bible also says He blesses
those who listen, and He blesses you and I as we obey what it says. Someone has
said that we have missed the whole purpose of the study of prophecy if it does
not conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ in our daily living.

Exactly true. As much as we talk about the time and the events of the second
coming, the Bible emphasizes the application, the living out of the truth of
that hope in our daily lives. And I just want to say without a shadow of a doubt
that it is a sin to study the second coming only looking for timetables, only
looking for curiosities and answers to my little questions.

Why is it a sin? Because God commands us to live out the truth of God's Word,
not just to intellectually study it. This is a message to obey, not just to
listen to.

That's what James reminds us in chapter one, verse 22. And knowing what it's
right to do and not doing it, that is a sin, James tells us in chapter four,
verse 17. So we're to study this book, looking for what Christ can do in our
hearts and in our lives and as a believer in Christ or as one who might become a
believer in Christ, even as we study through this book together.

The study of prophecy of what God's going to do in the future, there are five
specific things that it should do in your heart. The study of prophecy, number
one, should bring joy into your heart in the midst of tough times, in the midst
of affliction. When I know God's future, it makes everything else in my life
come into perspective.

And I realized no matter how bad it is, and it was very bad for some of the
believers that first read this, who have read this down through the ages, and
even today who are reading this, as bad as it might be, God's eternity is
infinitely better. Number one, it promises joy. Second result is it helps me to
be encouraged in living a holy life.

If all I look at in this world, I think, well, why not just follow that
temptation? Everybody else is doing it. This world is all there is, and that's
the way everything goes.

This world is not all there is, and it's not the way anything's going to go in
the end. So knowing the future helps me to live a holy life today. A third thing
that studying prophecy does is it gives me facts about life after death.

Helps me to know what God's going to do at the end of times. God doesn't tell us
everything about heaven, but he tells us some things. And as we walk through the
book of Revelation, we're going to see some of those things.

Everybody's curious about what's going to happen in heaven. God tells us just
enough to give us the hope that we need. Just enough of what we can understand.

I think if he tried to tell us everything about heaven now, most of it would go
right over our heads. It would just confuse us because it's going to be so
wonderful. It's beyond human explanation.

A fourth thing that studying prophecy does is it gives proof of the reliability
of Scripture. The book of Revelation is tied in many ways to the Old Testament.
And prophecy from the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus and then fulfilled
through Jesus all the way to the book of Revelation, all the way to the end of
times.

And as you see how God has designed his word written through over thousands of
years by dozens of different authors to tell this one story, it helps you to
understand the reliability of the fact that God is the author and not just one
human being or not even just a dozen human beings. And then there's a fifth
thing that studying prophecy does. And we talked about it yesterday.

It draws our hearts to worship God. So that's my prayer for me. That's my prayer
for you as we walk through this book, that joy will happen in your life in the
midst of tough times, that encouragement will happen in your life for holy
living, that you'll understand life after death in a new way, a way that gives
you hope, that you'll have a deeper sense of the reliability of Scripture.

And then number five, that my heart, your heart will be drawn to worship God as
we study through this together. Now, in light of that, in verses four to five,
first half of verse five, the Bible tells us some things about God. The first
part of the book of Revelation has some things to say to us about God, some
things to say to us about us, and some things to say to us about hope.

What does it have to say about God? Verses four to five. This letter is from
John to the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace from the one
who is, who always was, and who is still to come, from the sevenfold spirit
before his throne and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness to these
things, the first to rise from the dead and the commander of all the rulers of
the world.

These verses picture the Trinity of God for us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
but in a way that's pictured nowhere else in the Bible. The Father is pictured
in such a powerful way as the one who is, who always was, who is still to come.
God has always been, he always will be, and he always is.

That is the power of the presence of God, God the Father. These verses also
picture God the Holy Spirit. They picture it with the phrase, the sevenfold
spirit before the throne.

Some people think, "Wait, isn't the Holy Spirit one? Why is he called sevenfold
here? " Well, sevenfold, the idea of seven, has the idea of perfect throughout
the Bible.

As I said yesterday, when common sense makes sense, we're going to let that be
the sense of Scripture. The sevenfold spirit is an explanation of the perfection
of God's Spirit, the perfection of God's Spirit as part of the Trinity. What
these verses say to us about the Father is that he was and is and is to come.

What these verses say to us about the Spirit is that he's perfect. And what
these verses say about Jesus, that's going to be the focus of this first
chapter. He is the witness of these things.

He is the first to rise from the dead. We're going to talk about that more in a
few days. And I love this phrase, "He's the commander of all the rulers of the
world.

" Rulers, presidents, dictators, they may think they are in charge. They are
not. In the end, Jesus is the commander of us all.

That's a brief look at what these verses have to say to us about God. Now, what
do these verses have to say to us about us? That's the last half of verse five
through verse six.

"All praise to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his
blood for us. He has made us his kingdom and his priests who serve before God
his Father. Give to him everlasting glory.

He rules forever and ever. Amen. " What do these verses say to us about you,
about me?

First of all, they say that God loves you. All praise to him who loves us. The
God who made you loves you.

The God who loves you wants you to be with him for all of eternity. That's God's
desire. These verses talk about God's desire for every one of us.

And if you've begun a relationship with Jesus Christ, you've said to him, "I
want to live in relationship with you," you're enjoying God's desire in your
life. What do these verses say about us? God loves us and he has freed us from
our sins by giving his blood for us.

That's why Jesus died on the cross, to give you forgiveness, to cleanse your
heart and life so you can live holy in the presence of God forever. I can't
stand before God in my own holiness. Even if you think you're 99% perfect, and
I've never met anybody who even thinks they're that close, you can't stand
before God because he is perfectly holy.

We're going to see as we read through the book of Revelation that when people
encounter even a glimpse of God's holiness, they fall over as if dead. That's
how holy God is. And you and I, because of what Jesus has done, get to be in his
presence forever.

Now, he's not going to force you to accept that gift of his forgiveness, but it
is offered to every one of us. And I want to encourage you to accept that gift,
even now if you haven't accepted it. The book of Revelation is a scary place
apart from the forgiveness and the holiness that Jesus Christ gives.

Apart from these gifts that are talked about in verse 6, he's made us his
kingdom and his priests. What a great picture. You are a part of God's kingdom.

What is God's kingdom? God's kingdom is where God reigns. And when God reigns in
your heart, you're a part of God's kingdom.

You are one of God's priests. You think, "Not me. I'm not a priest.

I'm not a holy enough person to be that. " You are by Jesus Christ, by what he
has done. You're a priest who serves before God forever.

A priest is a bridge builder between man and God, someone who helps people to
see what God can be like in our human lives. And you and I get to, as we know
Jesus Christ, serve him as priests. None of us are perfect, but all of us who
have accepted him know him.

And because we know him, we are priests before him. We are a kingdom within him.
And because of that, what do these verses say to us about us?

They say that we should give him everlasting glory, because he rules forever and
ever. Amen. And then verses seven to eight, what do these verses say to us about
hope?

Let me read those verses. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven, and everyone
will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the earth will
weep because of him.

Yes. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the
Lord God.

I am the one who is and who was and who is still to come, the almighty one. What
do these verses have to say to us about hope? Two things.

Number one, there is an end to all of this. Number two, God is the beginning and
the end in all of this. When you look at this world, you and I would like to
just make it better.

But the truth of the matter is God has a better plan than that. He wants to
bring us to a place that is perfect. There is an end to all this.

All this suffering, all the evil that is in this world. Verse seven tells us
that Jesus will come again one day. And in that day, some people will rejoice.

Some people will mourn. Why do the nations of the earth weep? Because they
realize they trusted only in themselves, and they refuse because of their
stubborn and prideful hearts to trust in him.

That is a day of weeping. That is a day. That is a day where we lose all that
God has made us to be.

But I don't have to face that day of weeping. Jesus Christ made me to live in
relationship with him, and I can enjoy that relationship with him beginning
right now. There is an end to all of this, and God is the beginning and the end
in all of this.

I am the alpha and the omega. Alpha is the first letter in the Greek language,
Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet.

So we would say I am the A to Z, the beginning and the end. I am all of it. God
wants you to know that from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, from
the day you were born, from before the day you were born, to the day you die,
till after the day that you die, he is all in your life.

And when I recognize that, when I see that, that's when hope floods into my soul
through this book. Our Father, as we pray today, we praise you for who you are.
And as these verses have invited us to worship, we worship you.

We give you everlasting glory because, God, you rule forever and ever. Amen.
That is who you are.

You are the alpha and the omega. You are the beginning and the end. You are the
one who is and always was and is still to come.

We worship you for who you are, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And pray that we
would read, we would study, we would understand the book of Revelation in light
of who you are. And as we do that, God, flood your hope, flood your promise into
our hearts.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to be looking at verses 9 to
11, and we're going to focus on John, the one whom God used to record this
revelation.