Latest / THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together / A Vision of Christ’s Work in His Church, Part 1 (Revelation 19–20) John MacArthur GTYtv

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A Vision of Christ’s Work in His Church, Part 1 (Revelation 19–20) John MacArthur GTYtv · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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  Speaker 1: To me, life is all about the truth.
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  Speaker 2: We've been moving phrase by phrase, verse by verse, paragraph
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  Speaker 2: by paragraph, chapter by chapter, through these great truths.
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  Speaker 1: Open your Bibles with me. Now, as you know, last
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  Speaker 1: Sunday we began to look at the book of Revelation,
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  Speaker 1: and the reason I felt urgency to do this is
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  Speaker 1: because there seems to be so much confusion in our
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  Speaker 1: world about the future, and it seems to be so ominous.
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  Speaker 1: The powers that be in our country and I think
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere in the world are trying to do everything they
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  Speaker 1: can to frighten people about the future so they can
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  Speaker 1: exercise certain control over them, and I think that will
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  Speaker 1: continue to escalate. They are not in charge of the
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  Speaker 1: future by any stretch of the imagination. The environmentalists are
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  Speaker 1: not in charge of the future, nor are the polluters
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  Speaker 1: in charge of the future. No human being is in
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  Speaker 1: charge of the future. That belongs to God and God alone.
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  Speaker 1: And to have that perspective, that is the divine perspective,
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  Speaker 1: you have to go to the Word of God and
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  Speaker 1: no better place than the book of Revelation. Now, as
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  Speaker 1: we come to the second part of chapter 1, I
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  Speaker 1: want this morning, as you look at this first chapter
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  Speaker 1: of Revelation with me, to show you what Christ is
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  Speaker 1: doing in His church. It's important what you do, it's
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  Speaker 1: important what I do, but it's far more important what
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  Speaker 1: He's doing. And there's no mystery about that. It's not hidden.
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  Speaker 1: It may not be visible on the outside, but you
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  Speaker 1: have a full explanation of what the Lord is currently
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  Speaker 1: doing in His church in this Amazing chapter. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time, you have the vision of what I call
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  Speaker 1: the glorified Son. This is the transcendent vision of Christ
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  Speaker 1: in His glory. And that's a dramatic change from the
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  Speaker 1: rest of the Bible. In the Old Testament, you had
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  Speaker 1: prophecies about the Messiah's coming, and occasionally He appeared as
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  Speaker 1: the angel of the Lord, and the prophet spoke about
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  Speaker 1: His future reign and glory. But when Christ came, he
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  Speaker 1: came in humiliation. He came in the incarnation and he
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  Speaker 1: lived in this world in a lowly way and eventually
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  Speaker 1: died and rose again. And that was the end of
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  Speaker 1: human history as he ascended into heaven. The end of
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  Speaker 1: human history seeing him. People on earth haven't seen him
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  Speaker 1: since then except with a few visions to the apostles.
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  Speaker 1: So the last view of the... The world, the last
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  Speaker 1: view that humanity has of Jesus is basically that of
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  Speaker 1: His incarnation. And for many people it appeared as though
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  Speaker 1: whatever He was trying to do to bring peace and
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  Speaker 1: love and truth and wisdom to the world, He failed
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  Speaker 1: and ended up on a cross, and that was it.
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  Speaker 1: But this is the vision that we all need in
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  Speaker 1: chapter 1 of Revelation. This is Christ now. This is
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  Speaker 1: Christ now in His glory. And obviously, we can't see
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  Speaker 1: that with our human eyes, but we can see it
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  Speaker 1: through the revelation of Scripture. John saw what he's doing
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  Speaker 1: in his church now in His glory in a vision,
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  Speaker 1: and he captured that vision under the inspiration of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, wrote it down so that we can share
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  Speaker 1: in that vision and be instructed as to what the
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  Speaker 1: Lord is doing in His church. And when I talk
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  Speaker 1: about His church, I'm talking about the true church. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not talking about denominations. I'm not talking about buildings. I'm
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  Speaker 1: talking about the true church, those people who belong to Him.
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  Speaker 1: And we all know that there are many false forms
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  Speaker 1: of the church and many false believers in the church.
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  Speaker 1: So we're talking about the true church, the church that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord redeems that the Lord brings to glory as
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  Speaker 1: His bride. This is what the Lord is doing in
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  Speaker 1: His church. And it's a very important perspective for us
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  Speaker 1: to have because, frankly, there is so much discouragement about
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  Speaker 1: the condition of the church, so much discouragement and disillusionment
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  Speaker 1: about spiritual leadership or the lack thereof. You can get
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  Speaker 1: depressed If you look long enough at the failures of
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  Speaker 1: the church and its weakness, we would all love to
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  Speaker 1: think of the church as the beautiful bride of Christ
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  Speaker 1: without spot and without blemish. We would love to see
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  Speaker 1: the church the way Paul referred to it as the
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  Speaker 1: pure chaste virgin. But we would like a beautiful bride,
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  Speaker 1: but instead we get a ragged Cinderella who seems to
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  Speaker 1: have suffered the stroke of the clock at midnight and
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  Speaker 1: is the worst for it. We who preach and teach
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  Speaker 1: and are called to lead the church are continually burdened
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  Speaker 1: with the care of the church. Paul said over all
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  Speaker 1: the other issues in his life, 2 Corinthians 11, the
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  Speaker 1: most suffering and pain that he experienced had to do
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  Speaker 1: with the care of the church because he said, who
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  Speaker 1: sins and I don't feel the pain? It is the
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  Speaker 1: weakness and failure of the church that makes it a
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  Speaker 1: different burden than maybe many other burdens because the church,
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  Speaker 1: you're dealing with people you never see perfected until you
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  Speaker 1: get to glory. And so it always seems as though
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  Speaker 1: we're climbing a hill and never able to see the
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  Speaker 1: fulfillment of what we would wish for the Lord, both
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  Speaker 1: for our own lives as leaders and for the people
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  Speaker 1: we serve. I suppose we could say it this way.
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  Speaker 1: We would long that people have a deep fellowship with Christ,
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  Speaker 1: that those who know Christ would have a cultivated communion
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  Speaker 1: with Him that is deep and profound and rich and
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  Speaker 1: expresses itself in true worship, pure worship. And we desire
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  Speaker 1: for people in the church to have power over temptation.
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  Speaker 1: We know the power is available, but we wish that
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  Speaker 1: they were able to access that power through over temptation,
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  Speaker 1: and power over their trials, and certainly power over sin.
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  Speaker 1: We pray for strength for all of you. We pray
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  Speaker 1: for victory in the spiritual struggle and battle. That's what
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  Speaker 1: we desire. And we are also concerned that the church
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  Speaker 1: reflect the glory of God, that the church be a
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  Speaker 1: light shining in the world for the gospel. All of
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  Speaker 1: these things are what we desire for the church. And
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  Speaker 1: yet all of us understand that we never seem to
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  Speaker 1: get there. We're always falling short. Every genuine shepherd carries
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  Speaker 1: a heavy burden with regard to that. And that's one
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  Speaker 1: of the reasons why sometimes people drop out of the
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  Speaker 1: ministry because they become discouraged or depressed about the absence
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  Speaker 1: of what they would hope would be in the church
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  Speaker 1: or the patterns of success or the maturity that's lacking.
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  Speaker 1: It can and it does discourage many people to see
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  Speaker 1: the church fall short of what the Lord would want
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  Speaker 1: it to be. I've been discouraged by my own weakness
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  Speaker 1: and failure. I've been discouraged by the weakness and failure
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  Speaker 1: of others, but I've never been discouraged by the Lord
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  Speaker 1: because He never fails and He is strong. And what
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  Speaker 1: matters to me is what He's doing in the church.
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  Speaker 1: And He gets around our frailties. And you can be
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  Speaker 1: confident of what He's doing in the church. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: John gives us a picture of it right here in
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  Speaker 1: this amazing vision. You have reason to have great confidence
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  Speaker 1: in the future. We in the church have a triumphant Savior.
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  Speaker 1: And Paul says to the Corinthians, we always triumph in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: The church will triumph. Christ said, I'll build my church
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  Speaker 1: in the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
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  Speaker 1: And the reason for this is not the skill of
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  Speaker 1: pastors or even the faithfulness of parishioners. The reason for
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  Speaker 1: the success of the church is the work of Christ
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  Speaker 1: on earth. And I know the first thought you have
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  Speaker 1: about Christ in this age is that He's in heaven,
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  Speaker 1: that He left the earth and went to heaven in
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  Speaker 1: His transfiguration as a little preview of His second coming,
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  Speaker 1: and then He went to to heaven on the Mount
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  Speaker 1: of Olives, said goodbye and said, I'm coming back in
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  Speaker 1: his ascension. But we think of him as in heaven. That, however,
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  Speaker 1: is not the way this vision presents him. This vision
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  Speaker 1: presents Christ in his church, in his church, in all
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  Speaker 1: his beauty and majesty, magnificence and glory. So this is
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  Speaker 1: a vision that we all need desperately. We need to
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  Speaker 1: see the triumph of Christ in his church and the
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  Speaker 1: means by which he is triumphing. And we'll see that
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  Speaker 1: in a moment. Just a note to say about poor John,
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  Speaker 1: the apostle. If you look at verse 9, where we
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  Speaker 1: left off last Sunday, John is writing and he says, I, John,
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  Speaker 1: he says that I, John, several times in this passage
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  Speaker 1: because it just seems impossible to him that he would
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  Speaker 1: be chosen for such privilege. I, John, your brother and
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  Speaker 1: fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance, which
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  Speaker 1: are in Jesus, and was on the island called Patmos.
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  Speaker 1: because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: So that sets the scene. John is on the Isle
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  Speaker 1: of Patmos, about 40 miles or so from Miletus, which
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  Speaker 1: was a port connected to Ephesus. Patmos is a small island,
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  Speaker 1: about five miles by 10 miles. It's really a piece
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  Speaker 1: of rock jutting out of the Mediterranean. I've been there
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  Speaker 1: a few times. And it was a penal colony. It
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  Speaker 1: basically was a prison. You were taken there to die.
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  Speaker 1: Bad food, bad clothing, bad company, hard labor defined it.
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  Speaker 1: So this is John's condition. He is a prisoner in
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  Speaker 1: a penal colony of the worst riffraff that society has
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  Speaker 1: to offer. And he is the last living apostle. All
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  Speaker 1: the rest are gone. For the most part, they have
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  Speaker 1: been systematically terminated by Christ-haters. This is a This is
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  Speaker 1: a pattern that John, I don't think, really expected. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think any of the disciples expected that when Jesus said,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to come back and set up my kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think that they thought necessarily it would even
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  Speaker 1: be beyond their lifetimes. They might have thought he would
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  Speaker 1: be coming back very soon, even when they were still alive.
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  Speaker 1: But that has all faded away. All his fellow apostles,
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  Speaker 1: as I said, have been martyred. And Jerusalem at this point,
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  Speaker 1: by the time you get into 90 AD, Jerusalem has
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  Speaker 1: been sacked and totally destroyed back in the 70s. The
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  Speaker 1: Romans came and slaughtered the Jews, massacred hundreds of thousands
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  Speaker 1: of them, then went through the land of Israel and
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  Speaker 1: basically terrorized and tortured people in 985 towns and villages.
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  Speaker 1: So the hope for the future of the kingdom at
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  Speaker 1: its capital, Jerusalem, was lost. gone from a human perspective.
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  Speaker 1: The nation Israel was the subject of a massacre by pagans.
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  Speaker 1: The apostles are all gone. John is a prisoner. It
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  Speaker 1: really doesn't look like this is the path to the kingdom.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't look like this could possibly be what the
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  Speaker 1: Lord wanted. And he's basically unable to carry on his
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  Speaker 1: own ministry because they have isolated him to a penal
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  Speaker 1: colony because they don't want him spouting off about the
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  Speaker 1: Word of God and the testimony of Christ. So faithfulness
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  Speaker 1: got him there. It's really hard to think about that.
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  Speaker 1: He knew God had plans for Jerusalem, and he knew that.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus had said that Jerusalem would be destroyed, but he
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  Speaker 1: knew from the Old Testament that Jerusalem would have a
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  Speaker 1: golden era and rise again, and that seemed really remote.
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  Speaker 1: And what about the apostles? They didn't seem successful. They
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  Speaker 1: all ended up as martyrs. And now look at his
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  Speaker 1: own condition, an old man all alone in a penal colony,
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  Speaker 1: most likely sleeping on the ground in a cave. And
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  Speaker 1: I've had the privilege of wandering through some of those caves.
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  Speaker 1: And he had this to deal with as well. He
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  Speaker 1: had had a ministry in Asia Minor, and he had
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  Speaker 1: full firsthand knowledge of the churches that had developed there.
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  Speaker 1: And you could see them listed in verse 11. The
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  Speaker 1: church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis in Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
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  Speaker 1: Seven churches in Asia Minor. But things weren't going well
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  Speaker 1: for the churches. You might have thought you could look
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  Speaker 1: at the churches and say, well, even though all is
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  Speaker 1: gone in Israel, as far as we can tell, and
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  Speaker 1: the apostles are gone, the churches are flourishing. But that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the case. Church at Ephesus had left its first love.
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  Speaker 1: It had abandoned its affections for the Savior, and the
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  Speaker 1: Lord threatened to close it down and eventually did. The
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  Speaker 1: church at Pergamos was idolatrous and immoral, and the Lord
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  Speaker 1: was about to fight against it, and He tells them that,
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  Speaker 1: and He did. The church at Thyatira was compromised by
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  Speaker 1: sin and worldliness and also faced divine judgment. The church
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  Speaker 1: at Sardis that once was alive is now completely dead,
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  Speaker 1: and the church at Laodicea is nauseatingly hypocritical. So that's
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  Speaker 1: five out of the seven churches that really are threatened
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  Speaker 1: by the Lord of the church with judgment because they
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  Speaker 1: had defected from their love for Him and the truth.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a bleak picture for this beleaguered church. prisoner.
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  Speaker 1: And it's not unlike today. As you look at the
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  Speaker 1: church and you see liberalism and legalism and division and
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  Speaker 1: racism and compromise and immorality and heresy and carnality and
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  Speaker 1: apostasy and materialism and unsound doctrine, etc., etc., etc., you
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  Speaker 1: wonder how the church is going to survive all of this.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes the folks proclaiming the truth and being faithful
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  Speaker 1: seem like a small minority rejected by the world and
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  Speaker 1: even rejected by many in the quote-unquote church. So we're
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  Speaker 1: like John in a sense. We need a vision of
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  Speaker 1: the future. So many people worried about the future when
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  Speaker 1: the Bible tells us exactly what the future is going
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  Speaker 1: to be. And anything and everything that's happening to us
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  Speaker 1: in this hour, in this moment, fits perfectly in the
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  Speaker 1: divine revelation that God has planned for this planet. But
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  Speaker 1: we need to know what the future of the church
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  Speaker 1: is going to be like. And that's why we're given
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  Speaker 1: this vision. We need to be taken to see the
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  Speaker 1: Lord in His church. And that's what we have starting
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  Speaker 1: in verse 9. John is on the Isle of Patmos.
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  Speaker 1: And in the 10th verse, he says, I was in
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit on the Lord's day. That simply means he
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  Speaker 1: was in tune with the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
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  Speaker 1: That's a Sunday. It happened to be a Sunday. There
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't be any church services there. There probably weren't very
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  Speaker 1: many believers if John had found any. He was in
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit, meaning he was in tune with the Spirit
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  Speaker 1: of God on a Sunday. And that may be he
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  Speaker 1: was meditating on the Old Testament or meditating on some
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  Speaker 1: words that the Apostle Paul had written or one of
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  Speaker 1: the other apostles. But he was sensitive to the Holy
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  Speaker 1: Spirit on that day. And verse 10 says, I heard
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  Speaker 1: behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet.
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  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, in that little cave, and they
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  Speaker 1: show you a cave when you're there, the tradition goes
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  Speaker 1: back a long ways to say at some point John
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  Speaker 1: might have been in. And a trumpet blast in a
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  Speaker 1: cave would deafen you. And so John is literally shattered
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  Speaker 1: out of whatever kind of meditation he was in. And
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  Speaker 1: this is a voice. This is not a trumpet, but
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  Speaker 1: this is a voice that sounds like a trumpet. And
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  Speaker 1: the voice speaks directly in verse 11, saying, write in
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  Speaker 1: a book what you see and send it to the
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  Speaker 1: seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and
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  Speaker 1: to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea. That's
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  Speaker 1: the postal route in sequence for Asia Minor. So you're
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  Speaker 1: going to write down what you see, this series of visions.
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  Speaker 1: And you're going to make six copies, and you're going
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  Speaker 1: to hand those seven copies to seven people, seven messengers,
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  Speaker 1: seven representatives of those churches who will take the book
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  Speaker 1: of Revelation with the seven letters to the churches of
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  Speaker 1: Asia Minor so that each church will get a copy
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  Speaker 1: of the book of Revelation. And in each of the seven,
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  Speaker 1: there will be a message to each church. So that's
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  Speaker 1: the setting. He is in the spirit, which means he
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  Speaker 1: is beyond the normal human preoccupation. He is sensitive to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord in a sense that he's about to have
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  Speaker 1: a vision. A vision. It is spiritual reality transmitted somehow
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  Speaker 1: through imagery to the mind and the soul. And this
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  Speaker 1: is what he sees. I turned, verse 12, to see
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  Speaker 1: the voice that was speaking with me. And it was,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the Lord. This is the Lord speaking to John.
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  Speaker 1: And he's going to tell him what he's doing in
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  Speaker 1: the church in spite of what it looks like. I
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  Speaker 1: turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.
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  Speaker 1: And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. The setting
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  Speaker 1: is the lampstands. Those would be oil lamps. There would
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  Speaker 1: be seven of them representing the seven churches. And the
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  Speaker 1: seven churches, because seven is the number of completion, represent
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  Speaker 1: the church in full. So what he sees here is
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  Speaker 1: seven golden lampstands, golden because the church is valuable, lampstands
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  Speaker 1: because the church is the light of the gospel shining
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  Speaker 1: in the world. And so the vision is of the
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  Speaker 1: churches as lampstands. And in the middle of these lampstands,
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  Speaker 1: verse 13 says, I saw one like a son of man. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that has to be Christ. The seven golden lampstands are
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  Speaker 1: the seven churches. Go down to verse 20. As for
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  Speaker 1: the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in
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  Speaker 1: my right hand, and we'll comment on that later, and
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  Speaker 1: the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels
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  Speaker 1: of the seven churches, or the messengers of the seven churches,
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  Speaker 1: the representatives of those churches. And the seven lampstands are
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  Speaker 1: the seven churches. So he's seeing the seven churches. Those
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  Speaker 1: lampstands are sort of symbolic of these seven churches, which
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  Speaker 1: are symbolic of the whole church in the vision. They
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  Speaker 1: would be lit with oil, and that's what John sees
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  Speaker 1: in a visionary way. But more importantly, in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the lampstands, in verse 13, I saw one. like
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  Speaker 1: a Son of Man. This language, Son of Man, comes
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  Speaker 1: from Daniel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, where the
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  Speaker 1: prophet says concerning the coming Messiah,' One like a Son
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  Speaker 1: of Man was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that
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  Speaker 1: all people and nations and men of every language might
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  Speaker 1: serve Him, and this is an everlasting kingdom that will
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  Speaker 1: never be destroyed.' So the Son of Man was a
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  Speaker 1: title for a Messiah. This then is Christ, and John
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  Speaker 1: is seeing Christ in the middle of the churches. He's
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  Speaker 1: identified with his church. So this is a place I
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  Speaker 1: want to start. I'll give you a few points to
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  Speaker 1: unfold this scene. One, he sees the ministry of Christ
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  Speaker 1: to his church from within his church. He inhabits his church.
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  Speaker 1: He inhabits his church. This is a A marvelous reality.
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  Speaker 1: He is not just in heaven sending down orders. He
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  Speaker 1: is in His church. He lives in His church. Christ
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  Speaker 1: lives in me, says the apostle, the hope of glory.
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  Speaker 1: I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.
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  Speaker 1: Romans 8, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: he's none of His. You are the temple of the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit of God. God the Father and the Son have
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  Speaker 1: taken up residence in you. This is the wonder of
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  Speaker 1: the true church of Jesus Christ, that the Lord inhabits
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  Speaker 1: the church individually to start with and then collectively as well.
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  Speaker 1: When we gather, He gathers with us. He inhabits our praise.
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  Speaker 1: He is in us individually and collectively, so He's here.
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  Speaker 1: but he's always here in the life of a believer.
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  Speaker 1: That's why in the Great Commission, Jesus said, Lo, I'm
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  Speaker 1: with you always. John 14, 18, I will not leave you.
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  Speaker 1: I will come to you. He promised the disciples. John 14, 23,
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  Speaker 1: if anyone loves me, and here's the key, I'll make
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  Speaker 1: my abode with him. If you love him, he lives
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  Speaker 1: in you. Paul says in Colossians 3, Christ is all
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  Speaker 1: and in all. Colossians 3 again, verse 4, Christ who
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  Speaker 1: is our life. No matter how this church struggles, no
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  Speaker 1: matter how difficult it is, the Son of Man is
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  Speaker 1: alive in His people, individually and collectively in their gathering.
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  Speaker 1: This is the reality of the Christian gospel, and the
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  Speaker 1: gift is not just salvation, it is Christ Himself. who
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  Speaker 1: takes up residence in His people. So our future is
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  Speaker 1: in His hands, and He is in our midst. He
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  Speaker 1: does not forsake us. He does not abandon us. He
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  Speaker 1: will never leave us. That is impossible because He is
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  Speaker 1: in us. The fellowship never stops. The communion never stops,
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  Speaker 1: never has a break. There's never a moment when His
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  Speaker 1: presence and power are not in his church. The second
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  Speaker 1: thing John sees is that he intercedes for his church.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a dramatic picture. As he looks at
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  Speaker 1: the Son of Man, he sees him clothed in a
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  Speaker 1: robe reaching to the feet and girded across his chest
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  Speaker 1: with a golden sash. This robe is poter res, is
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  Speaker 1: the word. And it's a familiar word. It's used in
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament. Greek, which is a Septuagint, and when
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  Speaker 1: it's used, it's used of a king or a prophet,
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  Speaker 1: and most importantly, of a priest. Six out of seven
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  Speaker 1: times that word appears in the Old Testament, it's a priest.
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  Speaker 1: So is this presenting Christ as king? Well, it certainly
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  Speaker 1: could be. He is king. Is it presenting Him as
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  Speaker 1: a prophet? Kings wore robes, prophets wore robes. It could
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  Speaker 1: be he certainly is the ultimate prophet. But the second
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  Speaker 1: part of his clothing identifies it more specifically, and girded
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  Speaker 1: across his chest was a golden sash, a golden sash
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  Speaker 1: or belt. This was worn by the high priest. So
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  Speaker 1: what are we seeing here? Christ is in his church
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  Speaker 1: interceding for his church. That's what a priest did. A
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  Speaker 1: priest interceded between men and God. He's acting on behalf
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  Speaker 1: of His church as our high priest. Hebrews 2.17, He
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  Speaker 1: is a merciful and faithful high priest, able to come
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  Speaker 1: to the aid of those who are tempted. Hebrews 3.16, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: the high priest of our confession, faithful over His house,
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  Speaker 1: whose house we are. Hebrews 4.15, a high priest who
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  Speaker 1: can sympathize with our weaknesses. And then Hebrews 9.10, 11
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  Speaker 1: and 12 gives a specific function of this high priest.
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  Speaker 1: When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good
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  Speaker 1: things to come, that's our future, He entered through the
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  Speaker 1: greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that
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  Speaker 1: is to say, not of this creation. Not like a
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  Speaker 1: high priest, didn't go into a tent or a temple.
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  Speaker 1: And He didn't go through the blood of bulls and calves,
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  Speaker 1: but through His own blood. He entered the holy place
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  Speaker 1: once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. He comes as
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  Speaker 1: the high priest who has obtained eternal redemption. What is
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  Speaker 1: that saying? You remember that the high priest, before he
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  Speaker 1: went into the Holy of Holies, had to offer a sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: A sacrifice for the sins of the people and a
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice for his own sins. And then he could, on
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  Speaker 1: Yom Kippur, go into the presence of God. Well, our
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  Speaker 1: high priest has entered into the presence of God not
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  Speaker 1: by blood from bulls and goats, but by his own
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  Speaker 1: blood he has purchased our redemption and entered into the
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  Speaker 1: presence of God. And he is there now to advocate
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  Speaker 1: for us. He is there to defend us against all accusations.
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  Speaker 1: He is there to defend us against all enemies. He
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  Speaker 1: is there to take up our cause. He intercedes for us.
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  Speaker 1: He's the lawyer for our defense. He knows we're weak.
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  Speaker 1: He sympathizes with our weakness. He in all points was
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  Speaker 1: tempted like as we are, yet without sin.