Revelation 1:10-20

Notes for Revelation lessons are >>>HERE<<<

The original, complete audio for Revelation Chapter 1 can be found >>>HERE<<<

John was banned to the Island of Patmos and was given a vision in which he was told to write what he saw. Part of the revelation given him related to local churches to which John ministered before being incarcerated. Each one of the churches has an associated city name, and the name identifies the character of that church. It’s fascinating how these names were given to those cities just so that they would reflect those churches at the right time in history. Additionally, John puts them in a particular order, beginning with Ephesus, so that he can reveal to us the progress of the Church through the ages. I don’t think anyone would question we are living in the Laodicean age which was a lukewarm church as judged by Jesus in the vision. The next video will cover those churches (Revelation Chapters two and three.)

What would you do if you heard the voice of a trumpet behind you? You would do what John did in Revelation 1:12, namely, “turn to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, but the seven golden lampstands are pictures of the churches I saw.” The lampstands John sees are not “under a basket” but lights to the world. John also sees “one like the Son of Man” in the midst of the lights. Why would John say it that way? Well, he knew “the Son of Man” well, didn’t he? While Christ was on this earth, who was the closest disciple to Him? John knew him better than anyone else. The phrase “Son of Man” also harkens to Daniel Chapter seven, where you’ll remember Daniel saw the “Ancient of Days” seated on the throne. That was God, the Father, and “one like the Son of Man.”

John sees Jesus Christ clothed with a garment “down to His feet, and He is girded about the chest with a golden band.” Now, in the ancient world, the higher your rank, the wider your belt. The widest belt or golden band from your waist up to the chest speaks of His deity and authority. His head and his hair were white which connotes purity, and the holiness of God. His eyes “a flame of fire” speaks of judgment. He is coming to judge those who belong to Him. Those who walk in fellowship with him have nothing to fear. His eyes were a flame of fire and notice His feet were like, fine brass. An Old Testament idea of burnished bronze was judgment as it had been purified through fire. You’ll remember Peter talks to us about the fact that, “our faith being more precious than gold tried with fire, may be found onto praise, honor and glory of a Lord Jesus Christ.” So, our faith has to go through the refining furnace, just like gold or here as burnished bronze or brass.

John heard “His voice was the sound of many waters.” If you’ve been in Niagara or Victoria Falls, you know that thundering sound. “He had in His right hand, seven stars, and out of His mouth went a two-edged sword.” There are two kinds of swords mentioned in Scripture. The Roman short sword measured from the elbow to the fingertip a broadsword which measured which could be 6 feet long. “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last.’” That’s what Jesus would say to you and me, “Do not be afraid.” We have nothing to fear from our Savior. “I am He who lives and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore.” This speaks of His humanity. “I have the keys of Hades and death.” Why the keys of hell and death? He can open the “door to death” behind which you are locked and set you free. Or he can take the keys to hell and lock you in there for eternity. Jesus Christ alone has the power of life! One more note from this passage. “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” The word “angel” means messenger. I take then that an angel of a church is the pastor, the messenger in that church. So the seven stars are the pastors of the churches and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches. John has made this easy for us because he has explained the meaning of the signs that he saw.

This world seems to be hurtling in the direction of the tribulation period. How important it is that we understand this book and know and apply it to our lives considering the nearness of the coming of our Lord. We should be challenged to do everything we can to bring other people who are saving knowledge of Christ and be faithful to His word in these perilous times.

Gene Cunningham - October 10, 2022

How are the Dead Raised Up?

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1st Corinthians 15:35-45 documents what kind of resurrection bodies believers in Jesus will have; what it’ll be like. 1st Corinthians 15:35-38 says, “Someone will say,’ How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ Oh, foolish one. What you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not know that body that shall be. But mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain that God gives of the body as He pleases and to each seed its own body.” You plant a little grain of corn, and a great stock of corn grows out of it. The stock of corn doesn't look at all like the grain. The resurrection body will not look at all like the body you have. Thank God for that! But it will be of the same element. It'll be the same body resurrected. The body of Christ as the disciples saw it and the body of Christ as they saw it in the transformation glory on the mount of Transfiguration, it was the same body, but it was majestically and magnificently different. That's the point of Paul's making. Your resurrection body is going to be a vast improvement over the one you now inhabit, Paul says. 1st Corinthians 15:39 continues, “All flesh is not the same flesh. There is a kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another fish, and another birds.” Paul is simply trying to illustrate to the Corinthians (who did not believe in the resurrection) that there are different forms a body can take. 1st Corinthians 15:40 states, “There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies, but the glory of the celestial is one. The glory of the terrestrial is another.” So, you have the visual glory of the mountains, the glory of the pines, the glory of the rivers. You also have the glory of the sun, the moon and the stars. Paul continues in 1st Corinthians 15:41-42, “There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, another of the stars. For one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead…” Do you know what Paul is saying here? There will be a distinction between your resurrection body and someone else's body. That’s because your resurrection body is going to reflect the glory that you laid hold of in your life on earth. Another person’s resurrection body is going to reflect the glory that they laid all that in their life. Daniel tells us this in Daniel 12:3, Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.” While some stars are really bright, other stars are very faint. Some believers are going to have a reflected glory of Christ in eternity. That is going to be magnificent. They're going to be luminous. Other believers who did very little with their lives, they're going to look like a faint star way off in the distance. Every believer will be able to be evaluated visually as to how they lived for Christ in their life. For example, you’ll look down the street and see a blazing light and say, “There comes the apostle, Paul!” Conversely, looking down the street you see another and say, “There's a there's a light coming. I can hardly see it. It looks like a flashlight that the battery's running out. You’ll say, here comes Gene. He says in 1st Corinthians 15:42, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is shown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory.” We talk often about the dignity of death. There is no dignity in death. Death is a curse. Death is an ugly thing. We put dead bodies in beautiful caskets so that we see only the beautiful casket, not the decomposing body. There is nothing dignified or beautiful about death. Death, frankly, stinks! Thank God He has something greater for us than death! He has given eternal resurrection! 1st Corinthians 15:44-45 says, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. It is raised a spiritual body because there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. So it is really the first man. Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” Aren't you glad that you can step out of Adam into Christ? Note: This video contains clips copied from the LUMO Jesus Film Project

From Series: "Jesus' Roadmap for the Future"

The Olivet Discourse -- Jesus' Roadmap for the future, is one of the three major discourses (sermons) of Jesus. They include: 1. The Sermon on the Mount/Galilee Discourse (Matthew 5–7) 2. The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21 3. The Upper Room Discourse (John 13–17) Each of these messages is aimed at a specific period of history, which we call a dispensation. They lay out God’s dispensational plan, like a road map, from the time of the crucifixion to the end of time. The Sermon on the Mount was directed to the generation in which Jesus lived and was His platform as King—if Israel would receive Him. Obviously, they rejected Him as their King. However, this will be the basis of Jesus’ administration during the 1,000-year Kingdom Age (Millennium). Then, the Olivet Discourse was aimed at the consequences of Israel’s rejection of Jesus as Messiah, and anticipated the destruction of the nation (70 A.D.) and the final Tribulation period. Remember that the Church Age is an intercalation—meaning an insertion, like a parenthesis, into the Age of Israel. This means that with the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation picks up where 70 A.D. leaves off. This is why the Church Age is called a “mystery” (Rom. 11:25; 16:25; Eph. 3:1–13; Col. 1:26–27), which is a graduate course to “the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10). Finally, the Upper Room Discourse was directed toward the Church Age, which began at Pentecost and would continue to the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:13–18). The uniqueness of this Age is summarized by Paul’s phrase “in Christ,” and all of the elements involved in what we call “positional truth”—our total union with Christ and the indwelling of His Spirit in us, which occurs nowhere else in history. With the removal of the Body of Christ, the Church, Israel would again become the focus of God’s working on this Earth (Romans 9–11; Revelation 6–19).