The Unveiling of Jesus: Why Revelation Is a Book of Hope, Not Fear

Hey my friends, this is a time for you to get out your Bible. We are going to get into the word so that the word will get into us. So right now, get out your Bible. If you did not bring your Bible, that's okay. Bring it with you next week when you come back to church. If you're at home right now, go get your Bible. Even if you got to get it off of a shelf or out of an old box and just blow the dust off of it. I'm telling you, God wants to speak to you today. I believe this is the word of God and I do not want you just to hear about it. I want you to experience it. I want you to know all that God has planned for you. We are starting today a study out of the book of Revelation. Anybody excited to study the book of Revelation? This is going to be a good book and it would benefit you

to know the whole Bible to understand the whole Bible. It will help you understand the book of Revelation as we get into this. Today, I'm probably going to share with you the longest introduction to a book than I've ever shared before, but it is worthy of just that. I've been told that the book of Revelation is shallow enough for a child to enter into it. So, children could read this book and understand it, but it's also so deep that a a deep diver will never get to the bottom of it. So, so I I want to give you some some introduction as we get closer to this book. Here's what you can expect of me on Sundays as as the preacher. I'm going to dissect the text. That means I'm going to cut it up into bite-sized pieces. It's been said, "How do you eat an elephant?" One bite at a time. You don't just do it in one setting. Now,

don't go be eating any elephants or anything like that. It's a metaphor to help us understand what we're going to do on Sundays. Like a like a seventh grade science class. We'll we'll be dissecting the frog so that we can understand what are we learning together? How can we grow? How can we understand this text together? So, let's better understand this book together. First, you need to know it's the last book of the Bible. Probably one of the easiest books to find. You just go to the back and you will find the book of Revelation. If you're new to the Bible or new to church, the Bible is actually made up of 66 books that make up this one book called the Bible. Fact, the word Bible simply means book. But you'll notice on your Bible, it usually says holy Bible. This is no ordinary book. Holy means set apart. This book has been set apart. I believe the first 65 books of the Bible point to this last book of the Bible because it's all about Jesus.

And I love that that the Bible is God's story. It's not our story. It reminds us that no matter how messed up the world is, God is still God. That we go back in history and we can see what we're going through right now is nothing new. There have been many nations that have messed up. There have been many different political leaders in different seasons of life and God is still God. And that's why we're getting into this book of Revelation. It will encourage us. It will bless us. You'll note the name of this book is Revelation Singular. There are so many people even pastors and uh Christians that have called this book Revelations assuming that the visions and future events found in this book are what the book is named after. But it's not. It's revelation singular. Everyone say that with me. Revelation.

Revelation. This is the revelation one focus and that is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We will learn that a little later in today's message. But I want you to see a common theme throughout this book. It's the revelation of Jesus. In this book, you will find 404 Bible verses. Of the 404 Bible verses that we'll read in the book of Revelation, there are over 900 illusions to the Old Testament, which is incredible. And uh it's incredible because the Old Testament is everything in the Bible before the birth of Jesus. The Bible's divided into two sections, the Old and New Testament. They are both a testament to God. The Old Testament is before the birth of Jesus. The New

Testament after the birth of Jesus. And so the writer, the author of the book of Revelation wants us to look back at the Old Testament and see who God is. He's always been God and he is God. And that will help us look forward to his second coming as we'll see later in just a moment. Now, in the Old Testament, there are over 1,800 uh uh references to the Christ ruling on earth. Now, the word Christ is a title. It's a Greek word that comes from the Hebrew word Messiah. The word Messiah means God's anointed chosen one. Over 1,800 references before the birth of Jesus. Now, when Jesus came, those who studied the scriptures, those who heard the scriptures, those that were familiar

with the scriptures, they were looking for a Christ, a Messiah, one that God would give that would rule and reign on the earth. Unfortunately, they misunderstood what that would look like. So many people missed Jesus the Christ. But Jesus fulfilled every promise about him in the Old Testament. Jesus is proven true that God's word never fails. He keeps every single one of his promises. Now, if he did that over 1,800 times, we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of what's written about him, that the government is on his shoulders, that he is the prince of peace, he is the wonderful counselor, almighty God. If this is true about what was written about him in the days of old, in the New Testament, there are over 300 references

to the second coming of Jesus. Now, here's why this ought to awaken your heart. If over 1,800 references came true in Jesus first coming, that he was born to a virgin, that he was born in Bethlehem, all of these prophecies that were told of Jesus, if those are true, you can trust what is written in the Bible that Jesus is coming again. It may not look like it. It may not seem like it. It may not feel like it. You may not see it right now, but I'm telling you what God says cannot fail. So, we go to God's word so that we'll better understand it. It It's important that you get to know the Bible. It's significant so that you get into

prophecy. I love what Paul writes to the church to the church in Corinth when he says, "Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy." This is written to the church. If you believe in Jesus, we should be pursuing love. Oh, too many people today are pursuing the wrong things. If you believe in Jesus, pursue love because God is love. And the more you get to know God, the more you understand love. I love how he tells us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. When you believe in Jesus, God gives you the power of the Holy Spirit himself. He gives you spiritual gifts which means with the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit you will do what you could never do on your own. That's why God gives you spiritual gifts. And then the writer

says this in 1 Corinthians 14. He says you should desire prophecy. You should desire to prophesy. Why should you desire to prophesy? Because prophecy is is is saying God's word. That's what prophecy is. It's God's word. So you should want God's word. Now, some prophecy is the the the foretelling of the future, but that's not what prophecy is. The prophecy is the foretelling of God's word. And you should desire this. You should want to know God's word. You should want to share God's word. Peter says this about prophecy in second Peter chapter 1 starting with verse 19. He says, "And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you will do well to pay attention." Oh, you should underline that in your Bible. you would do well to pay attention to prophecy. Here's why.

Pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. How many of us would agree we're living in a dark place? These are dark days until the day dawn and the morning star rises in your hearts. Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So, if you're willing to to test the word of God, if you're willing to to grow in this and study it, you'll see that prophecy is actually from God. God wants to speak to you so that you will know him and you will even know things to come. But here's the real tension in all of our hearts. All of us have seen

prophecy misused, abused, or even false prophecies. In my lifetime, I have heard people claim to say, "This is the day Jesus will return. He will come in this way and it will look this way and that day has come and it's gone." And so, we hear false prophets like that, and we think, "What can we trust?" But with God's help, you will see that his word will never fail. I I've heard several people at Journey Church tell me, "I'm intimidated to get in this book. I'm I'm scared of this book. I I'm afraid. I'm here to tell you, you should never be scared of the book of Revelation. You should only be scared if you do not study this." God wants you to know who he is, and you do not need to be afraid of it. In fact, all scriptures will will will point to

tell us more about who Jesus is. In the book of John, when we read about the life of Jesus in the fifth chapter, John tells us that Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Uh not only did he heal man on the Sabbath, but he said something to those who were there. He said that what he's doing is actually of the father, referring to almighty God as father, that he and the father are one. Now, John tells us in chapter 5:18, "This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Jesus." Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, this this holy day that he healed someone, but Jesus was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. Now, as we get into this book of Revelation, I need you

to think in your heart, who is Jesus to you? Uh do you think of Jesus as a good teacher, a good guy, a historical figure that the world knows about? Jesus himself claimed to be God. And this was so radical that they wanted to kill Jesus for this reason. Jesus cannot just be a good teacher or a good guy or someone that changed history because he claimed to be God. So either he is crazy in claiming to be God or he actually is God. Now, in this same chapter, Jesus tells us why we even have the scriptures. God did not give us the Bible so we would be more religious and follow more rules. He says in John 5:39, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal

life, but it is they that bear witness about me." Jesus says, "Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." So God gave us the scriptures not for a guilt trip, not so that you would follow more rules, but that you would have a relationship with the living God. You are made in God's image. He loves you so much. He's revealed who he is, who you are, and how that can change everything through the person Jesus. So Jesus says, when you study these scriptures, it's actually all about me. So when you read the Bible, you should grow closer to Jesus. You should get to know Jesus, which is what the book of Revelation is all about. The book of Revelation is a book of prophecy. In fact, it's the only book of prophecy in the New Testament.

This is wild because in the Old Testament, we have 17 book of prophecies starting with Isaiah going all the way through Malachi. Now, we get to the New Testament and there's only one which we can look to, and that's this book called Revelation. Unfortunately, a lot of churches don't want to t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t tackle this text of Revelation. And there are many reasons why. Some pastors quite frankly don't want to preach something they don't fully understand. And it's hard to fully understand the book of Revelation. Some don't want to preach about a dragon or a prostitute who's really loose. There are some strange things in the book of Revelation. But that's why all the more we should be studying the book of Revelation. We love Stranger Things. We love compelling stories. There are many people that

watch rated R movies or or a TV series that happens to be mature and they binge watch every single season. In fact, we're made for more. And the book of Revelation is a redemptive story and we love redemptive stories. We love it when there's something wrong and it's made right when there's evil and a hero comes in and saves the day. And I want to tell you, I read the end of the book, so spoiler alert, God wins every time. That no matter what it looks like, when it looks like the world is going to hell in a hand basket, Jesus is victorious. You can be an overcomer. You do not have to be afraid of anything. So, if there's one thing the devil would love for you to do is to stay away from the book of Revelation because the devil knows he's defeated. So if you stay away from the

book of revelation, the devil can lie to you and tell you more about who you are not, who God is not, but you get into the book of Revelation, you're going to see clearly who God is and who you are and how today you too can have victory in Jesus. And although many avoid the book of Revelation, I'm here to tell you it should be enjoyed. It doesn't matter today if you're new to the Christian faith, you're new to church, or you're a brand new believer, the book of Revelation is great. getting it. If you have been a Christian a long time, I'm here to tell you, keep getting into the book of Revelation because you will be blessed. And as we get into this book, I realize there will be some areas that we may not even agree on. And I want to say that's okay for the church to have areas that we disagree on. We ought to always

agree on the essentials. What are the essentials? Who God is? What salvation is? what eternity is. So if we can be in agreement that there's one God, if we can be in agreement that there's one way to be saved through Jesus Christ and and faith in him alone by grace, if we can agree that heaven is real and hell is real, that this life is sure. If we can just agree on those things, we will be united. But there may be some things that we divide on and say, "I I'm not quite sure about the millennial period or about tribulation, if it's pre or post or mid or what that looks like." If we disagree on those things, we can still be students of the text because many scholars before us have argued about this and have not come to the same conclusion. And one day when you die, and let's just assume there's a pearly gate, which the Bible says, and you get to that pearl, I I promise you there's

not going to be a pop quiz about if you were right on the millennial reign or if you were right on the tribulation or or or right on specific texts. What matters most is that you believe in Jesus and what was done for you. And it's a free gift that you can have today. See, the book of Revelation is what's called apocalyptic literature, which means there's a heavy use of metaphors, symbols, simileies, numbers. When the author first wrote this text, it was to the first century church and they went through some serious persecution. And if a Roman got a hold of this text, they would have never understood what these symbols, meanings, metaphors, simileies actually mean because they're often references to the Old Testament that when you get into the book of Daniel and Ezekiel and Genesis, all of a sudden you start to understand this whole book weaves together because it's all about Jesus.

So, we want to go into this and there there are several extremes that we can take as we get into this book. One extreme is is to take everything so literal. You're trying to fit it into our world. You're trying to figure out every single number, every single place, every single time, and you take it so literal that you you fit this into our culture. The other extreme is that everything is metaphorical. So, you don't take it very serious because none of it actually means anything, but it's just a fine piece of literature that stood the test of time. So, it's just uh it's just metaphorical. And and what we want to do is actually take it for what it is. And some of it is symbolism, some of it is literal. And we want to know what does God want for us to know. Whenever you read the Bible, you should always do so in context. Which this is what I mean by context. You should know who wrote the book, when was it written,

why was it written? As you start to answer these questions now, you can bring the application to our lives. When you read the book of Revelation, you should look at look at it through the lens of the first church in the first century. For those first century Christians, it was not easy to follow Jesus. We think we're living in difficult days. At the time of this writing, if you profess Jesus as Lord, you could be thrown in a dark dungeon, strapped to chains. You could be crucified because Jesus was crucified. for calling yourself a a follower of Jesus in the days of this writing. You could be placed on a stake with tar poured over you and then lit on fire alive so the world would see that you decided to follow Jesus. If you called yourself a Christian, a follower of the Christ, and you were willing to live for him, you could be thrown into

an arena and devoured by animals as a form of entertainment. So, as we read this book of Revelation, here's what I want you to know. If there's one thing we can relate to in this book is that we can have hope in the midst of suffering and that's found in the person Jesus. We have an unshakable hope that no matter what you're suffering and we all will suffer. Jesus promised us we'll have tribulation but take heart. He's overcome this world. He's greater than anything we face. So the book of Revelation will teach us is that Jesus is greater than anything in the world. Jesus is greater. So as we look through the lens of the first century church, we will see what every church thereafter. Every church has been blessed by this book. So we ought to be encouraged and blessed as well. You'll see so many numbers in this book. It's written in a form of writing in the in the Hebrew culture called

heptic structure. Heptitic structure is the number seven used over and over. It's a symbol of seven. Now the number seven is very significant uh in the Hebrew culture. It literally means complete or full or perfect. So, we'll see a number of sevens. We'll see seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls. That's a lot of sevens. Well, there's more. Seven lampstands, seven spirits, seven stars, seven promises to the overcomer, seven horns, seven eyes, seven angels, seven thunders, seven heads, seven crowns, seven plagues, seven mountains, seven kings, and there's more. Seven letters to the seven churches, seven years of judgment. Those are called the tribulation period, seven I am statements of the Christ, seven doxology, seven new things, seven songs

written to God. For he is perfect. He is worthy. That's why we sing holy, holy, holy. Because our God is complete. He is perfect. And so we will see this woven throughout this book through the number seven. Now, it's not just the number seven. It's the number 10. The number 10 is a is a is a picture of of wholeness that we are to be called to obedience. We are called to be holy because he is holy. We will see the number 12. We'll see the number 12* 12. We'll see the number four and we will see a tremendous meaning behind this. As we study it together, we won't just see numbers. We will actually see symbols through animals and creatures. It will be fascinating and wonderful. We'll see an ox. We'll see an eagle. We will see the

primary focus is on these two animals, the lamb and the lion. So, as we dig into this today, let's try to understand what God has for us as well. That he wants you to know him and to be blessed. So, let's let's dive into the text. We won't get too far today as we're just simply going to be scratching the surface, but it's enough that we could probably study this text the rest of our lives. Get out your Bibles. Revelation 1, chapter 1, verse 1. Here we go. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to 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.

Right from the beginning in the first two words we get the title of this book the revelation. Everyone say revelation. Revelation it is singular. The word revelation comes from the Greek word apocalypsis. It's where we get our English word apocalypse. Now so many consider the word apocalypse as something negative. This is something negative for things to come. But I'll tell you the word apocalyppsis simply means this. the unveiling, the revealing. It's it's the definition means to uncover. So when we think about revelation, when we think about this word apocalypse, it's to reveal. Sometimes you'll watch a magic trick and you'll think this is impossible. No way this could happen until there's a revelation. You uncover it. You reveal

that there was a magic door or secret door. There was a uh there there was something covering or you were distracted and you missed something. But when the trick is uncovered, you realize, oh, there's something more than meets the eye. Now, this is the revelation, the revealing, the uncovering of Jesus, the Christ. We're going to see this word used throughout the book. 19 times, it's a noun to unveil, to uncover. 26 times it's a verb that this is an action to reveal that God's going to reveal to us his plan, his per purpose through Jesus. Now, this is central to this theme throughout this book that when you read it over and over, you should keep coming back. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is not just the revelation of future events. This is not just the revelation

of the Antichrist. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We're told why we're given this revelation. This is for his servants. That's the church of the things that must soon take place. Now, if this was true for the first century church, it's certainly true for us today as well. God wants to show you things that that must soon take place. And we're told in verse one, he made it known. How great is God that he made it known to us that we would not only know him, we would know the revelation of who God is through the person Jesus Christ, but he made it known to us things that will still soon take place. We're told in this first verse who the author is. It's John. John is an incredible author. He authored five books of the Bible.

It's important that we understand which John this is. There's several John's in the Bible. This is not John the Baptist. It's John the Apostle. Also known as the disciple John, one of the 12. He was a part of the inner circle of Jesus close friends Peter, James, and John. He saw some spectacular events with Jesus. John wrote the book of John which is the biography of Jesus life. He has one purpose in that book is that you would believe in Jesus. That salvation is found in Jesus. As you read this book of Revelation, it you'll see that John wants us to be certain about Jesus. If today you're wrestling with who is Jesus, go read the book of John and he tells you all about the life of Jesus so that you would believe in him and you would be saved. It's all about salvation

in Jesus. Then he wrote three little books called first, second, and third John. These books are written so that you'd be sure of your salvation in Jesus. John tells us that if you believe in Jesus, your life is changed. Just as you're forgiven, you forgive. If you're loved, you love. This is called sanctification. That you would become who God made you to be. If he is holy, you would be holy. This is sanctification. It's this process to work out your salvation. God did not die and conquer the grave so that you would keep living the same. He wants you to be sanctified. He wants you to grow in your faith that you can be that you can believe in Jesus and you can also be sure that God's not finished with you yet. He wants you to be sanctified. And then we come to this fifth book that John writes, his fifth and final book.

It's the revelation of Jesus to be ready for his second coming. We can see that if you believe in Jesus, you're saved. If you believe in Jesus, you you you grow in sanctification, but one day you're going to be glorified. There there's this process of glorification, which means no more sin. One day, you get to be with God forever, which is awesome that this book reveals to us God's plan and purpose. So, I look forward to you getting to know John greater as we read this book. Listen to how he concludes the book about the life of Jesus. His last line on Jesus life. He says this. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did. Don't you love this? This is a guy that walked with Jesus. He talked with Jesus. He touched Jesus. And he's telling us Jesus did a lot more than what I'm telling you. I told you about all these miracles, these teachings of Jesus, the

controversies of I told you all, but there's more. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. This guy is letting us know there's always more to know about Jesus. Now, before we just move on, I want you to know that this guy John took Jesus seriously. John has gotten a bad rap over the years. Some see John as feminine because when he writes the biography of Jesus life, he refers to himself as the one whom Jesus loved. That either sounds arrogant or it sounds feminine because this is the John that laid his head on Jesus breasts. He he put his head on his chest. That's not normal for guys to do such a thing. And some have looked at John and said, "Yeah, you know, John's a an okay guy, but I'm not sure I want to be like him."

But I want you to know John was a manly man. John, before he followed Jesus, was a fisherman with Peter and Andrew. So, this was a guy that loved to fish. John along with his brother James, they had the nickname Sons of Thunder. Come on, that's a manly man. Uh, that's some UFC, WWE name right there. I want to introduce you to John the disciple, the apostle, the sons of thunder. This is a guy that was a manly man. I tell you that here. This is so important that you could be a manly man and love Jesus. If you take Jesus seriously and you know you're loved by Jesus, you can love him in return because you don't care what anybody else thinks about you. You just care about your God. And that's this guy

John. He takes Jesus so seriously that we ought to take this seriously in our lives as well. I love what John says next in Revelation 1:3. This is for you. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it for the time is near. This is the only book of the Bible that says you will be blessed if you read this, if you keep it. Every one of us deep down inside, we want to be blessed. God does not want you to live in ignorance. He does not want you to live in naivity. He doesn't want you to stumble along in this life. He wants you to know who he is and you will be blessed if you take Jesus seriously. There are also warnings

in this book that if you hear God's word and you do not do them, there will be a judgment. But God wants you to know the truth that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. and he wants to set you free. So, so John will tell us, he says, "Listen, the time is near. This life is short. There there's a brevity to this life that you ought to take Jesus seriously for the time is near." Too many times we focus on the wrong things. We think that somehow we we'll have another day to live. We think that somehow something will fulfill us or someone will fulfill us when when all of our identity ought to be in Jesus. Now we turn our attention to the first seven that we'll read about in this book. John the author, he says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia.

This is now modernday Turkey. At the time it was known as Asia. Today it's known as Western Turkey. These are actual seven churches that we'll address in the weeks to come, which I'm looking forward to. But remember the number seven, completion, perfection, the the the fullness thereof. So this is to not just those seven churches which it was written to them which is absolutely awesome but but it's also written to the whole church capital C that's us today as well. John to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace. This is a greeting. It was a traditional greeting that we see throughout the New Testament. I love this. The word grace comes from a Greek word that would typically be used in a greeting. It's the Greek word caris. Caris means grace. Grace is wonderful. It's it's it's unmmerited, undeserved. Jesus is the fullness of grace. He gives grace upon grace. And I love that we could use this

as a greeting that there would be a blessing on you in Jesus, grace to you. He also says, "And peace." This is a Hebrew greeting. It comes from the Hebrew word shalom, which means peace. It's God's perfect peace. Peace in your heart, peace with God, peace with others. Shalom is a wonderful greeting. It's much like the aloha word of Hawaii, but much deeper. It has a a richer context and meaning. So he says in in Greek, caris and shalom, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who 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 and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his God and father. To him be glory and

dominion forever and ever. And the church said, "Amen." Now, the word amen is is used throughout the book of Revelation. Not to be confused with what uh liberal politicians might think today. The word amen is not masculine or feminine. The the definition of the word literally means so be it. Let it be true. It is done. So when you pray, amen is not the completion of a prayer. You should always pray. You should pray without ceasing. When you say amen, you're just simply say, God, let that be done what I just prayed. Let your will be done. Let it be. Now, you don't have to just say amen when you're praying. You could say amen when the preacher's preaching. That was your cue to shout back.

That if you agree with what the preacher's saying, you would just proclaim amen. So be it. That is true. I believe it. Because the Bible tells us Jesus is the yes and amen. Now in this greeting, the greeting is not from John. The greeting is from one God in three persons. The father, the spirit, and the son. I want you to see this carefully. It starts with this. From him who is and who was and who is to come. God the father is eternal. But notice what John says about God our father. He is. Everyone says is. Is God is God. Now, normally if you're talking about an eternal God, you would start with the past. God was, God is, and God is to come. But we need to be reminded today that no matter what we're facing, no

matter what you see, no matter what you feel, no matter what you're going through, God is God. He was God. He will forever be God. But what matters most in your life is that God is. Because you're going to be tempted just like the first century church was tempted with sexual seduction. You're going to be tempted with political leaders that will lead you astray. You're going to be tempted to do what's popular among the people. That's what happened to the first church. But you need to know today that God is God. He sits on his throne and he will forever be God. God is. Yes, he was and he is to come. But let's just start with that reality. We go on in verse four. And from the seven spirits who are before his throne. Remember the number seven, complete, perfect, full. This is a picture of the Holy Spirit. There is one spirit of God. He is the complete perfect holy spirit before the throne of

God. And then finally verse five. And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness. That's a prophet the firstborn of the dead. That's a priest and the ruler of kings on earth. Oh this is who my God is. Jesus is a faithful witness. Remember earlier we we were told to desire to prophesy. You see Jesus we're told in John chapter 1 verse one is the word. He was there in the beginning. He speaks and it happens. The word became flesh. Jesus is the faithful witness. He's the greatest prophet of all time because he is the word, the faithful witness, the prophet. He's also the firstborn of the dead. That's a priest. You see, a priest is a mediator between man and God. With Jesus, you can have peace with God. Now, the word firstborn is is an important one in the Hebrew culture. It's simply a title. The firstborn of the family had the greatest authority over the other siblings. They they got the greater inheritance. they

would carry on the family lineage and legacy. Jesus is the firstborn. That's the title of the dead. Here's what that means. He's the first to die and defeat death. No one else has done it before. He who is without sin took our sin, which we'll look at in just a moment. And when he died, he died once and for all. He will never die again. So that when you believe in him, you do not actually die. You really start living. You see, he defeated the devil. He defeated the grave. He did what needed to be done so that you could have a relationship with God. So you too would become a royal priesthood, which he says in just a moment. And finally, he's the ruler of all kings on earth. He's the king of all kings. He's a prophet, priest, and king. And note this. This is so important. This is what the book's all about here. Look at verse five and six. To him, the God that is, that was, and is to come, this the Holy Spirit,

the perfect Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, the prophet, priest, and king. to him, one God in three persons, who loves us and has freed us by our sins by his blood. This is what Jesus has done for us. He He's forgiven you of all your sins. That's the purpose of Jesus dying on the cross is not so that you can keep living the same way. Not so that you would struggle in your suffering, but to set you free. Why does he set you free? He loves you. There's one thing I want you to know. This is my dream in the book of Revelation. That you would know how loved you are in Jesus. You are loved today. I can't say that enough. You are loved. You are loved. You are loved. You are loved. God loves you so much. He loved you so much. He freed us from our sins by his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. He's made us a kingdom. We have a heavenly home, priests to his God

and father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen and amen. Here's what that means. You're now a royal priesthood. You now point people to the great high priest. You now let people know about what you live for and why you live for. And it's all about Jesus. So here's a glimpse of what this book is about. In verse 7, behold, he is coming with the clouds. There's the promise ought to awaken in your hearts. He's coming. He hasn't done this yet. And every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. Oh, this is a dramatic proclamation that when you see clouds, this this this this dawned on me. Every time you see

clouds, you ought to look up and wonder, is he coming today? If it's a clear day, don't worry about it. But you see some clouds, something supernatural could happen that day. Listen, the second coming of Jesus won't be natural. It will be supernatural. The first way Jesus came was natural. He came through the birth of a woman, although it was supernatural that it was a virgin birth. He came in Bethlehem, which by the way was prophesied. You see, the way he came the first time, it looks so natural that so many people missed it. But the second time, nobody will miss it. In fact, every single person on the planet will look up and see Jesus is Lord. And unfortunately, many people will whail on account of it because they'll see that he is holy and they are not. They should have been worshiping him and they were not. that he is the king of all kings and when he

comes down we're going to see it and we're going to see the reason that he died. We're going to see that that that he was pierced for our transgressions. He was pierced. Some people believe that even those who pierced him will see him. Some people believe that's just the Jewish people, the the nation of Israel. It was the Jews that wanted to kill Jesus for claiming to be the Christ. But I believe it's it's all of us. We're going to see there's some interpretations through the scripture. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake, because of you, because of me, he made him Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." When you believe in Jesus, he exchanges your sin for his righteousness. You're made right in the eyes of God, not not because of anything you did, but because of Jesus. He was perfect. He was right. He was holy. And yet, he died for

every single thing you did wrong. and and one day we will see the fullness of how much God loves you and what he's done for you. We come to the last verse today, verse eight. I am the alpha and the omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is the last letter of the Greek al alphabet. The point here is he is he is almighty God. He stands outside of time. He is the beginning and he is the end and he's everything in between. We're reminded once again by Jesus. He is the God that is because Jesus and the father are one. And so we look to Jesus and we see the father. He is God. Everyone say is is. We need to be reminded over and over. He is God. He is the Almighty. Despite what it looks like

in our world, he is the Almighty. So the book of Revelation calls us to examine our hearts. Who is Jesus to you? Do you know Jesus as the Almighty? Do you know him as God right now? Is he the God that you can trust in with an unshakable hope that no matter what you go through, he's still God? My friends, I'm going to give you homework. Your homework is to read the entire book of [music] Revelation by next Sunday. It's possible. Okay, some of you don't like the word re. Okay, you don't like homework. You're scared of the book Revelation. Okay, let me Here's your challenge. This is your challenge. Get in this book this week. You could do it in one reading, 30 minutes. You can read this whole book. Maybe you divide it into

days. Take it take it in chunks. Read the whole book this week. I want over and over over the next few weeks and months, I want you over and over get in this book and you're going to be blessed. You're going to get to know God greater. Let's pray together. God, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for what you've done for us. That we could trust in you. We could hope in you that when when we're not quite sure what's going to happen next, we can be sure of one thing. You're almighty God. You were God and you will forever be God. So today, we just want to turn our attention to you. Jesus, you you told us not to worry about tomorrow, for today has enough worries of its own. So help us to put that into practice. Thank you for this great book in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, before you leave today, I've got to ask you, do you know Jesus? And I mean this sincerely. There was a point in my life that I did not know Jesus as Lord. I did not know him as Savior. And God opened up my eyes to the

reality that I'm a sinner. I was born to a family that sinned. And when I gave my life to Jesus, I realized that he died once and for all for all my sins. I still mess up a lot. But I know I'm saved. I know I have the hope of eternal life. And you can as well. The Bible does not say you have to get better before you can get saved. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. And so it can be your day as well. To anyone watching online or anybody in person right now, you can be saved. The Bible says you've got to be willing to confess Jesus [music] as Lord and believe it in your heart. It does not mean that your life will be easy. It means your life is worth it. It means you have the hope of eternal life. You have the hope of salvation. And if you want that today, it's yours. I'm going to ask you to be bold, though. Listen,

you you can't step back and give God a part of your life. He wants everything. And if you want that, it's yours today. Make that decision today from this day forward to follow Jesus. It's the greatest decision you can ever make because when it looks like the world fails, you have victory in Jesus. So if that's you, would you would all of us wherever you are right now, would you just would you close your eyes, bow your head? We're going to pray. Listen, you don't have to bow your head or close your eyes to pray. You could pray while driving. You could pray while doing the dishes. We do that at church sometimes to turn our attention to God, to focus fully on him. That's why we're doing that right now. I'm going to pray a short prayer. Now, if you want to follow Jesus for the first time, you pray this in your heart. I can't save you. There are no magic words to be saved. It's Jesus that's your savior. Pray this words right now.

Say, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins. I want to follow after you. Thank you for the gift of grace, the gift of salvation, and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Just as we're praying that right now, if you prayed that prayer, you change your life forever. You may not even feel different, but your eternity is different. If you prayed that, would you raise your hand in the air right now? I just want you to be bold. Nice and high. Be bold before God. If you prayed that prayer for the first time, come on. Awesome. Praise God. I see those hands. Praise God. I'll tell you what's most important right now. You know, if you prayed that prayer, I want you to know this that heaven is having a party.

You've come home. You are adopted into his family. You are now identified as a child of God. So Lord, I want to pray a blessing over the person that prayed that prayer that God, you'd protect their hearts against the lie of the enemy that they are saved and now they'll grow in sanctification to one day be glorified with you forever in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. My friends, whether you're in person or whether you're online, we want to know you made that decision. We want to celebrate because you made the greatest decision. We want to pray for you. We want to give you next steps. If you need a Bible, we'll give you one for free. We want you to know how great God is and that you're loved. Would you text us to let us know? It's just a simple uh word life. Just text that one word life to 541-5277277.

Should be [music] on your screen wherever you are. Get out your phone. If you prayed that for the first time, you want to be born again. You are now saved because you prayed that prayer. Now you make the courage to step to follow Jesus. It won't won't be easy. You may fail, but I'll tell you this. God has never failed and he will never fail you. Just text us that word life and we want to pray with you. We want to celebrate you. I'm so excited. Just today alone, we've had so many hands raised just today. I love this because heaven is getting more full because of Journey Church. So, let's celebrate our God. Let's sing one last song. Let's remember today we are saved because of Jesus right where you are. Would you sing hosana? Yes.