Latest / Scripture Central / #50 Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Dec 4 - Dec 10) Revelation 1–5

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#50 Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Dec 4 - Dec 10) Revelation 1–5 · Scripture Central

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  Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Come
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  Follow Me Insights with Taylor and Tyler presented by Scripture
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  Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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  videos, so if you want to see the visuals, we invite you to
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  find us on YouTube. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
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  I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler. This is Scripture Central's
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  Come, Follow Me insights today, The Book of Revelation, chapters
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  one through 5. What an amazing book that we get
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  to jump into today and we'll have three weeks to study this
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  incredible book written by the Apostle John on the island of
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  Patmos. And he has so many incredible
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  symbols that he packs into this book that it has become a
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  fascination for many students of the scriptures over 2000 years.
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  And it's important there. There are a variety of things
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  that we need to set in place before we actually dive in to
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  the actual text to better understand what we're going to
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  read. First thing we would mention is
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  the name the Revelation of Saint John the Divine.
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  Often people refer to this book as the Revelations and you'll
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  notice it's just, it's just one panoptic vision of John and he
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  writes it down. So it's just the singular, the
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  Revelation of Saint John. In other English translations of
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  the Bible, you will notice that it doesn't come through as the
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  Revelation. It's actually named the
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  Apocalypse Now because of that name, the word Apocalypse has
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  taken on a very negative, very scary connotation in our
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  culture. In our society today you use the
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  word Apocalypse and people start thinking of earthquakes and
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  destruction and death and famine, which is all part of
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  this book. But the the message of that name
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  is really beautiful in the Greek.
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  Yeah, so it comes from 2 words. It actually literally means the
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  uncovering. In fact, if you just put that
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  into your scriptures, the uncovering The whole purpose of
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  this vision or revelation is to uncover truth about God's.
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  Plan for humanity and how God reveals himself to people and
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  invites them back to his throne to worship him forever and ever.
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  So that changes from a from a negative, scary, fearful, or
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  fear inducing connotation to a very vision granting this to to
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  lay bare, to uncover, to make clear God is letting us in the
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  the backroom, so to speak, to see the the beginning from the
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  end, these things that are unfolding.
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  So that when these granted scary things happen in the world, we
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  don't end up getting more fearful and wrapped up in
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  anxiety, but rather we say, huh, this is exactly what God said
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  would happen. We're we're marching forward in
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  time as God has shown the prophets that things would
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  unfold. So if you look at it from that
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  angle, the entire set of scriptures are literally an
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  apocalypse. They're an uncovering and
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  unveiling. But this particular book happens
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  to be special in that John is the one who was appointed to
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  write these words. Many of you will remember in the
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  Book of Mormon, when Nephi has his wonderful vision, his
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  panoptic vision, the view of everything, that he was ready to
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  write some additional things. And remember, the Spirit
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  constrained him not to write those because he was told, no,
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  that's not your role. That role has been given to
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  John, my my apostle, my servant, who will write this at a later
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  date, 6 centuries after Nephi. So it's it's kind of neat to see
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  if you read Nephi's vision and you read the revelation of John
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  to see that Nephi saw many similar things, but he's going
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  to use different words, different ways to describe the
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  parts where there is a little bit of crossover.
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  It's just fun to to triangulate the these prophetic writings.
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  And we invite you to remember the purpose here is to.
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  Help people to know God. And even though there are some
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  fantastic images and things that might be a bit confusing, we
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  just invite you don't. Don't allow yourself to drown
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  and feeling overwhelmed, but just look for Jesus and look for
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  how is God trying to help us to be at peace.
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  I'll use a brief metaphor if you've ever read a really
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  gripping but intense book. Or perhaps a really intense or
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  dramatic movie and you're kind of the edge of your seat
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  wondering what's going to happen, and there's all sorts of
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  tension, possibly chaos. You're like, I wonder how it's
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  going to end. Imagine if somebody had given
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  you kind of a high, high level overview in advance of how the
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  story was going to map out and really how things were going to
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  end. You could still watch the movie,
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  still feel the emotional tension, but no, this is all
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  going to work out. And this is what God is trying
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  to let us know. That he will uncover truth.
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  He will let us in to understand his overall plans, even if the
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  symbols that John uses perhaps are a little confusing at times.
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  Just know God has a plan. He is in charge SO11 year.
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  I was at a conference of biblical scholars and I went to
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  a session on the Book of Revelation.
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  And I I really appreciated the way that this particular
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  presenter began. He said, you know, you could sum
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  up the entire Book of Revelation in four words.
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  And I was excited, OK, what are his four words going to be?
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  And he said they are. God wins, Satan loses.
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  That's the entire book in a nutshell.
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  And he says if if that's too many words and you need to
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  really just narrow it down to summing the book up in 2 words,
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  then he said the Book of Revelation is God wins.
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  That's it. That is the whole message of
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  this book. There's a lot of the devil
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  fighting against the work of God, but you see that God
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  triumphs and prevails and overcomes in every single
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  instance. Now, some things to also keep in
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  mind as we dive in to the Book of Revelation is the symbolic
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  nature and the way that the book is actually put together.
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  I am not an expert in Greek, but I know just enough Greek to to
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  be able to have conversations with some of my colleagues who
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  are experts in Greek. And the consensus is that of all
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  27 books in the New Testament in the Greek, because all 27 of
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  those were originally written in Greek.
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  The Book of Revelation is by far the poorest grammar.
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  It's the the worst written in the Greek form.
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  The it's almost as if somebody the comparison is if a
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  missionary learns a foreign language and two or three or
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  four months into the mission, you then ask that missionary to
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  write a long book like Revelation in that foreign
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  language. The reality is, is they're going
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  to be able to write some some words.
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  They're going to be able to construct the sentences in such
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  a way that they can mostly communicate what they're trying
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  to say. But it's not polished in
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  comparison to something like the book of Hebrews which is the
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  most polished of all of the the Greek texts in the New
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  Testament. Which, if you stop and think
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  about that, if John, who when he was a disciple of Christ, was
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  probably illiterate, and we're told in John or in Acts chapter
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  four that he and Peter were both illiterate at that point.
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  But he's learned enough. He's progressed enough in his
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  knowledge of the language that many years later when he's when
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  he's exiled, he's alone from his friends and scribes and people
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  who could help him on the island of Patmos.
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  So he's writing this vision without the aid of people who
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  normally would help him. For instance, if he's writing
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  his gospel or his letters, well now he's isolated and it just
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  makes sense. So the fact that sometimes it's
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  it's a little more difficult to understand, it could be due to
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  its symbolic nature, but it could also be due to the fact
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  that the the less polished Greek writing is a little harder to
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  interpret and translate into English.
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  And so you can get translator saying I'm not sure what he
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  meant here, so we translated in a way that leaves everybody
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  confused for for a time. So don't be frustrated with that
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  process. Reminds me a bit of Moroni, who
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  also is this last prophet. He's on his own and he also says
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  things. We don't have John the Revelator
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  saying this, but Moroni does say please don't judge us.
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  For how we write. Like if somebody asked me to
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  write a book that millions of people might read in 2000 years,
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  I might be saying that regularly.
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  Please excuse me because I am. I'm just a simple person who
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  still struggles with the English grammar, you know.
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  I love that Taylor, because to me there's a lesson for us today
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  in in what you just said, if you stop and think about this from a
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  from a heavenly or an eternal perspective, God gave this
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  mission to write this revelation, all of these
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  prophecies and and this vision. He gave that mission to John.
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  He didn't give it to the the most polished Greek theologian
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  or Greek playwright of the day, or the person who who was the
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  most gifted with words. He gave it to a man who was
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  committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, who had prepared himself
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  to the best of his ability to be an instrument in the hands of
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  the Lord. And though it may not be
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  beautiful in the Greek, he did the best he could.
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  And God takes that and he makes it shine for all of us.
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  And there are things that we still don't understand
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  collectively, and that's OK. In the work of God, He gives you
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  assignments, not because you're the best in the world at that,
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  not because you're the most gifted, but because you're
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  willing to take that. And perhaps before you were
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  born, perhaps you raised your hand and said, Lord, here am I.
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  Send me. I will do that task.
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  And as John was appointed from before the foundation of the
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  world to do this task, perhaps you and I should spend less time
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  worrying about how we're not qualified, but rather just move
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  forward and do the best we can and know that God is able to do
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  His work if we're willing to to to put our best efforts out
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  there. Now Joseph Smith in the early
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  days of the Church, he and many of the early Saints was also and
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  they were also fascinated with the Book of Revelation to 1° or
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  another. And at one point Joseph says
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  this in you can find this in the Joseph Smith papers online.
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  He says, Quote. We can never comprehend the
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  things of God and of heaven, but by revelation we may
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  spiritualize and express opinions to all eternity.
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  But that is no authority. Now listen to what he says next,
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  O ye elders of Israel, hearken to my voice.
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  And when you are sent into the world to preach, tell those
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  things you are sent to tell. Preach and cry aloud.
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  Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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  Repent and believe the gospel, Declare the first principles,
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  and let mysteries alone lest you be overthrown.
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  Never meddle with the visions of beasts and subjects you do not
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  understand. He he said that a little later
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  in this quote he says he wished that the elders would leave the
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  Revelation alone and stop trying to preach the Revelation of
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  Saint John and just teach the first principles of the Gospel.
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  Because they were, they were getting off into mysteries, not
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  mysteries of godliness, but mysteries of symbolism, and it
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  was a distraction. Ironically, in 1843, a year
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  before Joseph's death, he says quote, the Book of Revelation is
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  one of the plainest books God ever caused to be written.
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  Now it sounds like a a discrepancy here, but the
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  reality is, is this is coming from Joseph Smith, the prophet,
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  the seer of the Lord. And as Joseph reads the book,
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  and with the advantage of already having had a a Q&A, a
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  question and answer session with the Lord which is now Doctrine
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  and Covenant, Section 77, he reads the revelation and to him
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  it is absolutely very plain and very clear.
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  And he says whenever God gives a vision of an image or beast or
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  figure of any kind, he always holds himself responsible to
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  give us the interpretation That. And he says you don't need to
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  worry about being damned because you don't understand what
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  something means. He says if God gives the vision,
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  he holds himself responsible to give you the interpretation.
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  And sometimes the interpretation doesn't come right away.
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  Sometimes we have to wrestle and struggle and keep working with
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  the things that we do understand until the timing is right for
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  God to reveal that's what that meant.
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  Or for events to transpire for us to then connect the dots for
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  it to be uncovered and made clear.
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  Yeah, I appreciate these insights, Tyler.
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  I will confess that I trust that Joseph Smith is telling the
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  truth when he says it's a very plain book.
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  I also confess that I sometimes still find myself confused at
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  things. And I have just had to be
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  comfortable that I don't always understand and get everything
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  that's going on in this book. And that's fine with me, because
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  there are many other revelations, plural, not
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  revelation, this book from God, that are clear about what really
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  matters in life. That I can have faith in Jesus
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  Christ. That I can trust.
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  That as I repent and seek him at the table of sacrament, I can be
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  forgiven of my sins cleansed. That the Spirit can be with me.
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  And fundamentally, that is the basics.
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  And those things I know, those things are clearly taught.
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  And so if I don't understand every symbol in here, it's OK.
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  I think I've been taught well enough by good teachers
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  throughout the church to understand the things that
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  really do matter. So as we now dive into the
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  actual words, check out chapter one, verse One.
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  Look at the very first words written, the revelation of Jesus
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  Christ. Did did you catch that?
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  The title of the book is The Revelation of Saint John the
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  Divine. That title given by the King
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  James translators. But the verse one says the
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  revelation of Jesus Christ. I love how everything in the New
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  Testament this year, if we, if we look with the right lenses
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  on, focuses our attention on Jesus Christ, not on the people.
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  The people. Whether it be John or Peter or
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  Paul or Mary or Mary Magdalene or any of the other people in
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  these stories, those are supporting cast to the main
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  character, and the main characters throughout is Jesus
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  Christ. So this this book could probably
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  more accurately be renamed as the Revelation of Jesus Christ
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  as given to his Apostle John. That would be a more accurate
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  title. But he he says here in the rest
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  of verse one which God gave unto him to show unto his servants
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  things which must shortly come to pass.
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  So we could even take it one step further.
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  It's the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him.
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  He's getting it from God the Father given to the Son, who is
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  then giving it to his servants pertaining to things which must
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  shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by
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  his Angel under a servant, John. So you could add the Angel in as
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  another mediator in this process.
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  So what began with God comes to us through Jesus Christ, an
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  Angel and then the prophet. And then here we are in the in
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  this chain of revelation. Now if you look at this middle
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  phrase in verse one, it says he's going to show unto his
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  servants things which must shortly come to pass.
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  So if you go from John's time, late 1st century, God is going
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  to show him things which would shortly come to pass after that
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  point. So Joseph Smith made this very
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  clear that the 1st 3 chapters of Revelation.
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  You don't have to be confused about what John is seeing, what
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  he's uncovering. What he's revealing to us is
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  things that are going to happen in the late 1st century, early
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  2nd century. It's things that are shortly
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  going to come to pass. Now contrast that with chapter
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  4, verse one. And in a very specific
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  geographic location, correct, We're talking about like the
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  Eastern Roman Empire. We're not talking about India,
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  Australia. South America, it's very
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  localized to the Christian community that is there in the
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  Eastern Roman Empire what is now modern Turkey, Greece, places
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  like that. So if you look at chapter 4
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  verse one, it says after this. So he it's almost as if this
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  vision of things shortly come to pass is now closed.
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  I looked and behold, the door was open in heaven, and the
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  first voice which I heard was, as it were, a trumpet talking
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  with me. And he said, come up, hit her,
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  and I will show these things which must be hereafter.
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  And it's indeterminate. It's that's indeterminate.
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  And the location now becomes much broader.
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  And Joseph Smith said if you take Revelation 4 through the
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  end of the book now, it becomes more global.
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  And it's referring to the the history as well as the future of
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  the the unfolding gospel of Jesus Christ in various
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  dispensations in various locations.
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  So that's a simple, a simple help in the text so that we
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  don't get lost in some of the symbols and perhaps, as Joseph
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  said, people misapply them because they're looking in the
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  wrong place, they're looking for at the wrong time, especially in
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  these first three chapters. So let's pick up verse two and
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  three the the conclusion of his introduction to the vision.
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  Verse two Speaking of John, who bear record of the word of God
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  and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that
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  he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and
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  they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things
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  which are written therein. For the time is at hand.
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  Did you notice scripture, revelation, visions given to
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  prophets, truth given from God to the Savior through angels to
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  the prophets? None of that matters to to you
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  if you don't read, hear, and then keep the sayings that are
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  given. God is not giving these
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  revelations to answer curiosity questions.
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  He's giving these revelations to encourage, motivate, provide
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  opportunities for us to move forward in a covenant connection
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  with Him. And so it's important to keep
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  that in mind as you study in all of our debates and all of our
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  discussions about what different symbols might mean with
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  different groups of people through time.
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  If it doesn't ultimately lead to, therefore, what am I
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  supposed to do to be a better disciple of Christ, Then we're
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  probably on our own in those debates.
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  And we're probably we could keep debating for as long as as the
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  earth lasts and still be none the wiser.
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  Or perhaps no more a Christian. That's right.
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  So now let's jump in. Yeah, verse four is interesting
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  because immediately you get this word 7.
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  Now that's when you can write down the word 7 is a symbol for
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  perfection and completion. And John uses this extensively
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  throughout these writings and the first thing he talks about
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  is 7 churches. Think about maybe 7 wards and
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  he's sending this letter to each of these seven wards or
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  churches. In what is called Asia, or a
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  portion of what is now modern day Turkey, he wants them to
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  know what God has revealed to them to him, and he gives them
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  specific instructions that each ward or church will need to
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  encourage them in specific challenges they may face.
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  So as we, Taylor introduced us now to this first symbol, which
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  is the number 7 and it's the first of hundreds of symbols
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  that are going to show up in the Book of Revelation.
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  Let me we've done this before. We did this last year in in
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  Isaiah, but it's worth repeating to set the stage as we now go
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  quickly through some of these remaining chapters.
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  I want to demonstrate something for you.
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  I want you to think in your mind of how would you describe that
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  and come up with as many ways as possible in say 60 seconds that
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  if you had to to talk to somebody how you would describe
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  that? Chances are most of your your
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  minds are instantly going to words like instrument keys,
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  black and white music, all of these amazing things that it it
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  creates moods that you can accompany people, all of these
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  words. Now stop and think about that
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  for a minute. What did I do?
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  I wrote this word on the board and I asked you to describe
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  this. I didn't ask you to describe
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  what this word represents. That wasn't the the prompt.
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  The prompt was describe this to somebody.
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  Now if we want to be literal, then we would say, Oh well, this
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  is 5 letters, PIANO and put together in English.
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  We've all agreed that it's pronounced piano and that word
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  represents this musical instrument that everybody
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  instantly started describing. You'll notice how quickly and
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  how naturally your brain shifted from the symbols on the page, or
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  in this case on the board, to the object the actual reality of
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  what those symbols represent. There is no music coming off the
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  whiteboard. There are no keys on this
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  whiteboard. There is no music here.
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  These are just symbols. So what I'm trying to
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  demonstrate is the fact that you already have the skill set to be
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  able to make the jump from the symbolic to what the symbolic is
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  representing and the various types of pianos, they're grand
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  pianos, they're baby grand pianos.
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  They're upright pianos. They're old, they're new,
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  they're big, they're small, they're electronic.
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  There are lots of ways that you can interpret that one set of
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  symbols. Same thing with the Book of
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  Revelation. Often when you get into Hebrew
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  symbolism, there are layers upon layers upon layers of potential
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  ways that that symbol could bring value and meaning and
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  motivation to an individual, and it might be different for you
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  than it is for somebody else. And that's OK.
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  Ultimately, there's going to be 1 intent that the author had,
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  but it doesn't mean that there can't be multiple layers of
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  potential application for that symbol.
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  So Taylor gave you the number 7, which is a symbol for
• 25:51
  completion, perfectness, lacking nothing.
• 25:55
  It's whole. It's like the seven days of
• 25:58
  creation. So you'll notice as we jump into
• 26:01
  the Book of Revelation, you're going to see that number come up
• 26:03
  again and again and again in the events.
• 26:07
  The seven seals, the seven angels, the seven vials or
• 26:10
  bulls, the seven trumpets, the seven heads, the seven horns,
• 26:15
  you've got all kinds of repeats of seven.
• 26:19
  Another complete number that you get in the Book of Revelation is
• 26:24
  the number 10. You've got 10 fingers, you've
• 26:28
  got 10 toes. It's a it's a complete set.
• 26:32
  Another one is 12, the 12 tribes of Israel.
• 26:37
  Jesus chooses 12 apostles. It's it's a beautiful symbol.
• 26:42
  You have the number four that represents the earth, among
• 26:46
  other things, the four corners of the earth, the four quarters
• 26:49
  of the earth, the every nation, kindred tongue and people.
• 26:52
  Usually when scriptures symbolically referring to fallen
• 26:56
  humanity and earth, it's probably going to come to you in
• 27:01
  a #4 somehow, some way. The number three is a beautiful
• 27:05
  symbol for the Godhead for heaven, which is beautiful when
• 27:10
  you put three and four together. When heaven meets earth, that's
• 27:15
  where we get perfection, that's where we get completion and
• 27:18
  wholeness. It's not in the isolation.
• 27:21
  So that's just a really quick run through of some of the
• 27:25
  symbols of the numbers that we're going to face as we move
• 27:29
  forward. And we're going to begin with
• 27:31
  him addressing 7 churches, as Taylor already mentioned, in
• 27:36
  Eastern or sorry, in Western Turkey in the 1st century.
• 27:43
  So let's read this First four John to the seven churches which
• 27:47
  are in Asia. That's modern day Turkey or a
• 27:50
  portion of western Turkey today. Grace be unto you, and peace
• 27:56
  from him which is. And which was and which is to
• 28:00
  come? And from the seven spirits which
• 28:03
  are before his throne? And from Jesus Christ, who is
• 28:06
  the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and
• 28:09
  the Prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us,
• 28:12
  and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us
• 28:16
  kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him the glory and
• 28:21
  dominion, forever and ever. Amen.
• 28:25
  Now if you're writing a letter to somebody.
• 28:27
  You might write dear so and so. Endear is like a term of
• 28:32
  endearment. You say something kind and
• 28:34
  endearing to somebody you're speaking to and John is doing
• 28:39
  something similar where he's re writing to these seven churches.
• 28:44
  But it's also directed towards Jesus and declaring key things
• 28:49
  that he has done for us. And if you get nothing else out
• 28:54
  of Revelation, perhaps. You can walk away with a
• 28:58
  reminder of what we know about Jesus Christ.
• 29:01
  Listen to this again. He loved us.
• 29:03
  Verse five washed us, thereby making us kings and Queens and
• 29:10
  priests and priestesses absolutely powerful.
• 29:14
  So why is this revelation being given?
• 29:17
  To remind people that God himself has died for all of us,
• 29:21
  washed all of us, if we are willing to receive it through
• 29:25
  repentance. And thereby we become like him,
• 29:30
  kings or Queens, priests or priestesses.
• 29:32
  And so yes, as we move forward, there's lots of symbols.
• 29:35
  But remember, the purpose of this book, and really all
• 29:38
  revelation, is to remind you of your true identity as you accept
• 29:43
  the true identity of Jesus Christ.
• 29:45
  So now we jump into verse 8. I am Alpha and Omega.
• 29:51
  The beginning and the ending saith the Lord, which is and
• 29:54
  which was and which is to come the Almighty.
• 29:58
  Most of you are already aware of the fact that in the Greek
• 30:00
  alphabet, the 22 letters of the Greek alphabet, you get Alpha
• 30:06
  and you get Omega. That's the equivalent in English
• 30:09
  of our A&Z. It's the beginning of the
• 30:13
  alphabet and the ending of the alphabet.
• 30:15
  He's saying I got you covered. There's there's nobody outside
• 30:19
  of the realm of my power and my love and my dominion.
• 30:24
  And why this matters is that Jesus is described as the author
• 30:29
  and finisher of our faith. You can't be a full author if
• 30:34
  you only have access to half the alphabet.
• 30:36
  I mean, what book could you write?
• 30:39
  But if you have the totality of every letter and you have
• 30:42
  mastered every letter, and you are the owner and creator of
• 30:45
  every letter. You can author and finish any
• 30:49
  story, which again the Book of Revelation is kind of this high
• 30:52
  level overview of God's story of salvation, of how eventually he
• 30:57
  will overcome the devil in all chaos and invite us into his
• 31:02
  throne room where he sits, where there is peace and prosperity.
• 31:08
  And John, this is the second time he's used the phrase here
• 31:12
  in verse eight. He He said it over in verse
• 31:13
  four. Speaking of of Jesus Christ,
• 31:17
  when he uses this phrase, the Lord which is, which was and
• 31:23
  which is to come, you'll notice the spread of time that he's not
• 31:28
  bound by time. He's not limited, he's not boxed
• 31:33
  in by time. He was, He is and he is to come
• 31:38
  the Almighty. He is powerful and we would Add,
• 31:44
  all loving as well. So now verse 9 says I, John, who
• 31:50
  also am your brother and companion in tribulation.
• 31:54
  It was not, it was not a healthy thing for your safety and your
• 32:01
  physical well-being to be a practicing devoted Christian in
• 32:06
  the 1st and 2nd century in Turkey back then.
• 32:11
  And so there's great tribulation.
• 32:13
  So he says I'm your companion and tribulation and in the
• 32:16
  Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the aisle that is
• 32:21
  called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of
• 32:24
  Jesus Christ. The idea is, is I'm in Patmos
• 32:27
  because of the word of God and my testimony of Jesus Christ.
• 32:31
  He's been exiled. If you go to Turkey today and go
• 32:34
  to Ephesus and you visit the basilica St.
• 32:37
  John, you'll see some inscriptions, some placards
• 32:40
  there that described certain things.
• 32:43
  One of them fascinated me where it said that multiple attempts
• 32:47
  had been made on John's life and they couldn't seem to kill him.
• 32:53
  So what did they do instead? They sent him to Patmos, this
• 32:58
  island that was reserved for people that you just don't quite
• 33:03
  know what to do with in your society.
• 33:06
  Criminals that aren't bad enough to be killed, but you don't want
• 33:10
  them in your society. You send them at Patmos.
• 33:12
  People with mental disorders that they didn't in that day
• 33:15
  didn't know how to treat them or how to work with them.
• 33:19
  So here he is, exiled on the island of Patmos with other
• 33:23
  people who have also been sent there because society didn't
• 33:26
  know what to do with them. And he was in the spirit on the
• 33:29
  Lord's day, so it's a Sunday. And he heard behind me a great
• 33:34
  voice as of a trumpet saying. And we're going to pause just
• 33:38
  for a moment on that word trumpet.
• 33:42
  Now, we live in a modern world that is very loud.
• 33:46
  If you live in a community, if you don't live out in a rural
• 33:48
  area, just walk outside. At any point during the day, you
• 33:51
  hear vehicles or people or machines.
• 33:56
  They're just making noise. There's just noise everywhere in
• 33:59
  our world today, and that actually is very rare if you
• 34:02
  take the totality of human history.
• 34:04
  Most of human history has been quiet and really only the last
• 34:09
  two hundred 250 years since the time of industrialization have
• 34:13
  we made all these machines that make a huge amount of noise.
• 34:16
  So in the ancient world, and this is, I only learned this
• 34:19
  recently, one of the ways that God symbolized.
• 34:23
  And signaled for his people that he has arrived.
• 34:25
  That his presence was near was loud noise.
• 34:28
  If you think back to Mount Sinai, when God wanted to reveal
• 34:32
  himself to his people, it was a massive sound and light show.
• 34:37
  Now we do sound the light shows all the time in our day.
• 34:39
  Now notice what God has done in our day to signal he's arrived.
• 34:44
  Quiet. You go to a temple.
• 34:46
  It is not loud. It is powerful, peaceful and
• 34:49
  quiet. Well, you would have that all
• 34:51
  over the place in the ancient world.
• 34:53
  So how would God signal that something unusual has happened?
• 34:58
  A trumpet would be a signal that God has arrived.
• 35:02
  Let's take Jericho. When the people, the Israelites,
• 35:04
  marched around Jericho and they shouted with a loud voice and a
• 35:08
  trumpet, it was a symbol that God's presence has arrived.
• 35:12
  The point here is that in the ancient times you will see that
• 35:16
  in many cases it is loud noise that is a symbol of God's
• 35:21
  presence. We see that here.
• 35:23
  In our day, it's been flipped because God is trying to reach
• 35:26
  us in ways that are unusual, which is quiet reverence and
• 35:32
  peace, which we used to have until the industrial age.
• 35:36
  That's a beautiful insight. Thank you.
• 35:40
  So here's the voice as of a trumpet.
• 35:45
  Pick up on the fact that you're going to see this repeatedly in
• 35:49
  the Book of Revelation. You're going to see the word as
• 35:51
  of or as or like unto or like words that create this simile,
• 35:58
  this symbolic metaphor. He's like, I I don't know how to
• 36:02
  describe this, but it's kind of like this or it's as that.
• 36:06
  It's not that, but it's as that. So that's a sign to us that John
• 36:13
  is struggling to give us the exact definition of what he's
• 36:19
  seen. So he's he's having to go into
• 36:21
  symbolic mode. So here he hears a voice and he
• 36:25
  he this loud voice. He compares it, as Taylor said,
• 36:29
  to the sound of a trumpet, which would be the loudest instrument
• 36:32
  of their day. Would be the loudest thing that
• 36:34
  a human could make noise with. And again, just to continue with
• 36:39
  this, just for a minute. Humans could not make loud noise
• 36:43
  anciently, except if you had a trumpet.
• 36:45
  And what else could you do to make loud noise?
• 36:48
  Only a God could make loud noise.
• 36:52
  Nature could do it, and people assume that was God who was
• 36:55
  doing all that. So again, This is why these
• 36:58
  symbols are important to understand that today if you
• 37:01
  heard a trumpet, you wouldn't immediately think, oh that
• 37:04
  clearly represents God, but anciently it was clear to people
• 37:07
  if something is louder than what a human.
• 37:10
  Can can make only God could make noise louder than a human could
• 37:14
  make. And so to take that one step
• 37:18
  further, when a king would arrive or when royalty would
• 37:21
  arrive, they would often herald the arrival of that king with
• 37:25
  physical trumpets being blown to to prepare the way and get
• 37:29
  everybody's attention and get them together in proper
• 37:32
  reverence and respect for the arrival of that royalty.
• 37:36
  In this case, think about the second coming of Jesus Christ,
• 37:41
  the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and what we hear about
• 37:47
  how trumpets and angels and the the hosts of heaven will be
• 37:53
  making these loud noises to prepare the way for his coming.
• 37:58
  Yeah, they're not going to show up in reverence and quiet.
• 37:59
  Not on that occasion. So here's what the voice, this
• 38:03
  loud voice, It's so loud that he compares it to a trumpet, says
• 38:08
  verse 11. I am Alpha and Omega, the 1st
• 38:11
  and the last, and what thou seest write in a book and send
• 38:15
  it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.
• 38:17
  And then you get the list of those seven churches in the last
• 38:20
  part of verse 11. And so he turned to see the
• 38:24
  voice that spake with me. And being turned I saw 7 golden
• 38:28
  candlesticks. There's the seven again.
• 38:31
  There's the seven again. And in this case, you've got 7
• 38:33
  golden candlesticks. And these are symbols.
• 38:38
  They're placeholders like the letters PIANO or a placeholder
• 38:43
  for the real musical instruments.
• 38:45
  So you get these 7 golden candlesticks.
• 38:48
  Think about what they represent, these these churches in the
• 38:55
  midst of the seven candlesticks, one like under the Son of Man,
• 38:58
  clothed with the garment down to the foot and girt about the paps
• 39:02
  with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were
• 39:05
  white like wool. There's that like or the as
• 39:10
  concept again, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of
• 39:16
  fire he's having a hard time describing.
• 39:21
  How do you describe the most glorious, resplendent being that
• 39:26
  you could ever possibly see in words that human mortals in a
• 39:31
  fallen world could understand? You can see that here he is
• 39:35
  writing in this language that he's he's not very fluent in
• 39:39
  writing and he's struggling to describe this.
• 39:43
  And we use this phrase in English.
• 39:45
  A picture is worth 1000 words. Some people have said a video is
• 39:49
  worth 1,000,000 words. OK, imagine he has seen a
• 39:53
  vision. The word video and vision come
• 39:55
  from the same word. So he's basically experiencing
• 39:59
  1,000,000 words of of information and he's trying to
• 40:04
  boil it down into about 15 or 20 in halting Greek and perhaps not
• 40:10
  fully formed grammar and and and vocabulary.
• 40:14
  But I love that he's doing it anyway and he's not complaining
• 40:17
  about. It he is absolutely faithful.
• 40:19
  I love Junk to do the very best he can.
• 40:21
  Verse 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in
• 40:27
  a furnace. And his voice as the sound of
• 40:29
  many waters. How do you describe the grandeur
• 40:32
  and the glory of of God? And he had in his right hand
• 40:36
  seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp 2 edged
• 40:38
  sword. And his countenance was as the
• 40:40
  sun shineth in his in his strength.
• 40:43
  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.
• 40:46
  And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I
• 40:52
  am the 1st and the last. That message right there.
• 40:57
  Fear not. Remember the the overarching
• 41:02
  theme of the Book of Revelation God wins.
• 41:05
  So you're going to see some things that that might cause
• 41:08
  your natural tendencies to to raise up in fear.
• 41:13
  And here's the Savior with his right hand on John saying fear
• 41:18
  not, I am the 1st and the last. I I got this.
• 41:22
  It's not as if bad things are going to happen on on the earth
• 41:25
  and the angels up in heaven and the Lord are going to wring
• 41:28
  their hands together saying Oh no, what are we going to do now
• 41:31
  that isn't, that is not the message of this book.
• 41:35
  Verse 18 I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive
• 41:39
  forevermore. Amen.
• 41:42
  And to have the keys of hell and death, Isn't that fascinating
• 41:48
  that through his Infinite Atonement Jesus Christ overcame
• 41:53
  and seized the keys of both death, the grave and of hell?
• 42:00
  Spiritual death. The two deaths, physical and
• 42:03
  spiritual. Death, just as a side note it
• 42:06
  must be, must be very demoralizing not to have the
• 42:11
  keys to your own house if you're the devil.
• 42:15
  He doesn't even have the keys to hell.
• 42:18
  They they're with the Savior Jesus Christ.
• 42:20
  We don't need to be afraid of what the devil has done, or what
• 42:25
  the devil is doing or what the devil threatens to do.
• 42:29
  Rather than fearing the devil, we need to have faith in Christ,
• 42:34
  who holds the keys to unlock those two what used to be final
• 42:44
  monsters as Jacob refers to them, death and hell.
• 42:49
  And so now he's being told again in verse 19 Write the things
• 42:52
  which thou hast seen, and things which are, and the things which
• 42:55
  shall be hereafter the mystery of the seven stars, which thou
• 42:59
  sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks.
• 43:02
  The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the
• 43:07
  seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
• 43:11
  Stop and think about that for just a second.
• 43:13
  Symbolically, the church in Ephesus, or Smyrna, or
• 43:18
  Philadelphia, or Laodicea, or any of those seven churches.
• 43:20
  They are symbolically represented by a placeholder, a
• 43:24
  Candlestick. What does a Candlestick do?
• 43:27
  A Candlestick gives light. It gives off a little heat.
• 43:30
  You come to that and you can absorb some of that heat.
• 43:34
  You can see things because of the light that that is
• 43:37
  illuminating. Think about your experience with
• 43:41
  the Church of Jesus Christ. Are we going to church just so
• 43:46
  we can receive the light? Or do we go to church so that we
• 43:51
  can add to that light and help others to feel the warmth of the
• 43:56
  Savior's love and to see the light of His goodness?
• 44:00
  We talked about this last week in In the Epistle of First John.
• 44:04
  God is light and God is love. What a beautiful symbol for the
• 44:10
  church, the role of the church in the building up of the
• 44:14
  Kingdom of God on earth. That the church itself, this
• 44:17
  Candlestick becomes a symbol for these Christ like attributes.
• 44:22
  And so when I go to church, I don't want to go to just absorb
• 44:27
  and see what I can see. I want to go to see what I can
• 44:31
  actually contribute to this experience for other people in
• 44:36
  this Candlestick symbolic analogy.
• 44:39
  And the unity of these churches in their witness and testimony
• 44:43
  of Jesus Christ creates a perfect or complete testimony.
• 44:48
  There are seven of them, unified perfectly or in completion,
• 44:53
  witnessing of the real light, which is Jesus.
• 44:56
  So now we jump into chapter two and three, which are his
• 45:00
  personal letters to the leaders of the church in each of those
• 45:06
  seven locations, these stars and the candlesticks.
• 45:11
  And you'll notice that we could spend a lot of time in the 2000
• 45:17
  year old history regarding Smyrna or Pergamos or Ephesus or
• 45:22
  Thyatira that may not be, that might not be as helpful or as
• 45:27
  applicable to you today as if we took a moment to step back and
• 45:33
  look at a 30,000 foot overview of these seven specific letters
• 45:39
  given to these seven churches. Because there's a pattern here.
• 45:43
  You'll notice that God doesn't usually give revelation just to,
• 45:47
  like we said before, answer curiosity questions.
• 45:50
  Or simply to entertain people, he He usually gives revelation
• 45:54
  when there's a need, and usually the need is driven by what
• 45:59
  people are doing wrong or adjustments that they need to
• 46:03
  make. But now watch how God, through
• 46:07
  this prophet John corrects these people.
• 46:11
  Watch the pattern because there's a lot to be learned as
• 46:15
  leaders, as parents, as friends, as associates and and fellow
• 46:20
  disciples of Christ. The the pattern is pretty
• 46:25
  amazing because it gets repeated 7 times #1.
• 46:30
  God tells them I know thy works in all 7 instances.
• 46:37
  He tells them I know what you're doing.
• 46:40
  Basically, I see you. You're not.
• 46:42
  You might think you're doing things in a way that is
• 46:45
  secretive and nobody knows. And God's saying I know exactly
• 46:50
  everything that you're doing #1 #2 he gives good feedback to
• 46:55
  them. He He gives them praise, He
• 46:58
  compliments them on something. They're doing well now.
• 47:02
  Ironically, that pattern gets broken in the 7th letter, the
• 47:07
  one to Laodicea. We'll talk about that in a
• 47:10
  minute. He doesn't give any positive
• 47:12
  feedback to them, which is an interesting, interesting caveat.
• 47:16
  Tuck that away. We'll come back to it.
• 47:19
  The third element when working with people that you're trying
• 47:23
  to to motivate and correct or turn in a in a better direction.
• 47:29
  The third thing is he gives the correction that they need.
• 47:34
  He tells them what they're doing wrong and what they need to work
• 47:37
  on or do better. And then number four, he gives
• 47:40
  them hope and encouragement. So did you notice how the
• 47:44
  correction is sandwiched between positive feedback in six of the
• 47:49
  seven cases and all seven of the cases giving them hope?
• 47:53
  He never gives corrective feedback.
• 47:55
  Followed by and you're never going to be able to do this.
• 47:59
  God doesn't work that way, and neither should parents, and
• 48:03
  neither should leaders or companions or friends.
• 48:07
  There should always be hope, never open up a wound too large
• 48:14
  that you can't sew it back up again to provide healing and and
• 48:18
  correction to go in the positive direction that you've outlined.
• 48:23
  Then the 5th comparison between all seven of these He uses this
• 48:27
  phrase. He that hath an ear, let him
• 48:30
  hear what the Spirit saith, which to me I don't.
• 48:34
  I don't know how you want to interpret that.
• 48:35
  There are a variety of ways to look at that phrase, but for me
• 48:39
  it feels like the Lord saying you have your agency, and if you
• 48:43
  choose to plug your ears and choose to ignore what I've just
• 48:47
  told you, that's your choice. I cannot force you to love me.
• 48:51
  I can't force you to even listen to me.
• 48:54
  But if you have ears to hear, let him hear.
• 48:57
  Is an invitation to tune our ears heavenward, rather than to
• 49:03
  the noises of the world that Taylor was talking about
• 49:05
  earlier. And then he always finishes with
• 49:11
  the phrase he that overcometh, which to me is the most
• 49:17
  beautiful aspect of these six similarities that occur in all
• 49:23
  seven of these letters. He that overcometh puts our
• 49:27
  focus where? On Christ, not on me.
• 49:32
  So if I'm actually going to make these improvements in my life,
• 49:35
  am I? If I'm actually going to adjust
• 49:37
  and turn to become a better disciple, a more consecrated
• 49:41
  follower of Jesus Christ, I'm not going to do that alone.
• 49:45
  I'm only going to be able to do that with the help of He that
• 49:49
  overcometh. And it's not just that Jesus was
• 49:53
  able to overcome all things in his infinite atonement.
• 49:56
  It's that he can to this day help me be able to bring some of
• 50:03
  that capacity to now continue to overcome things to this day.
• 50:09
  His love and his power can be manifest today, this hour in
• 50:15
  your life and in my life, if we trust him, if we turn to him, if
• 50:19
  we look to him. So what Tyler has modelled is a
• 50:23
  pattern that you could apply to study these next couple of
• 50:27
  chapters. There's other ways of looking at
• 50:29
  the chapters as well. So as you go through these next
• 50:31
  couple chapters, you might want to identify what verses refer to
• 50:35
  which city or which ward, and then where does that five part
• 50:39
  pattern show up in that mini letter to that ward community.
• 50:45
  And then you might say to yourself, OK, where in my life
• 50:48
  has got done something similar recently or in the past or in
• 50:53
  the life of somebody that I have seen?
• 50:56
  Because God often works with similar patterns.
• 50:59
  And so yes, it's so inspiring to see what God did for these
• 51:02
  people anciently. But the invitation is if you
• 51:05
  look carefully, you will probably see that God has done
• 51:08
  something similar for you, where perhaps you didn't use these
• 51:12
  specific words. But perhaps the conclusion of
• 51:15
  the five part pattern at some point your life was God overcame
• 51:20
  on my behalf. So we invite you to see yourself
• 51:24
  in these scriptures. So rather than going verse by
• 51:28
  verse through each of the seven instructions for these seven
• 51:32
  churches, perhaps let's go through at a skimming level and
• 51:37
  look at a couple of the the concepts that are taught that
• 51:41
  would point us to a temple text. This elevating our thoughts to
• 51:50
  see how the Saviour is trying to get them to take their attention
• 51:56
  off of the world and focus it on heavenly things, on the eternal
• 52:00
  perspective with God and Jesus Christ at the center of that
• 52:05
  focal point. Look at verse seven.
• 52:09
  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
• 52:12
  the churches. To him that overcometh will I
• 52:15
  give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the
• 52:19
  paradise of God. He's connecting us clear back to
• 52:22
  the beginning of time before the beginning of verse time in Eden,
• 52:26
  with the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, and the promises
• 52:30
  that Christ will give us to eat of the the fruit of that tree.
• 52:34
  And if you look in Alma 32, he gives that beautiful analogy in
• 52:40
  in 31 and 32 of the the planting of the seed and nurturing that
• 52:46
  seed. And at the end of that process
• 52:47
  you notice what comes a tree of life springing up unto
• 52:52
  everlasting life. There's the promise.
• 52:55
  Look down at verse 10. Fear none of those things which
• 52:58
  thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast
• 53:01
  some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you shall
• 53:04
  have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death, and
• 53:08
  I will give thee a crown of life.
• 53:13
  Be faithful unto death, you get a crown of life.
• 53:16
  Well, the one who ultimately fulfilled that was Jesus Christ.
• 53:20
  So if we're faithful unto our death, we we follow His example
• 53:25
  and we receive in in place of the struggles of the world which
• 53:29
  could be symbolized by his crown of thorns, and it can then be
• 53:33
  replaced with a crown of life. So you're noticing in every case
• 53:38
  this exchange of what the what the world inflicts upon you, or
• 53:42
  what we get from the world, Death and misery and hell.
• 53:46
  And all of the the fallen nature elements get replaced with these
• 53:52
  eternal, heavenly, everlasting, beautiful, rewarding elements.
• 53:57
  The tree of life, the crown of life.
• 53:59
  Look at verse 17. He that hath an ear, let him
• 54:02
  hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
• 54:04
  So this one's to the to people in Pergamos.
• 54:07
  I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a
• 54:11
  white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man
• 54:15
  knoweth saying heat saving he that receiveth it.
• 54:19
  So God is giving all of these promises of things that are
• 54:23
  going to be granted to these people.
• 54:26
  The fruit from the tree, the crown of life, the the living
• 54:29
  manna, the hidden manna, and a stone with a new name, these.
• 54:33
  Are incredible gifts, and you go over to the the church in Sardis
• 54:39
  verse 4. Thou hast a few names even in
• 54:41
  Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall
• 54:45
  walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
• 54:50
  You're going to be verse 5 clothed in white, Raiment.
• 54:53
  And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I
• 54:56
  will confess his name before my father and before his angels,
• 55:00
  brothers and sisters. This is one of the most
• 55:01
  beautiful promises, is that Jesus will confess our name
• 55:05
  before God if we are willing to confess His name and God's name
• 55:11
  before the world today. It's a pretty good exchange rate
• 55:15
  I would think. What I love about what we're
• 55:17
  seeing here, Tyler, is that. I I think in the popular
• 55:21
  consciousness that most of us, when we think about the Book of
• 55:24
  Revelation, we think about some fantastical images that are
• 55:27
  perhaps confusing, confusing, and perhaps a bit fear inducing.
• 55:31
  How many of us have missed the enormous amount of truth and
• 55:36
  glory that is packed just into a couple of chapters right here?
• 55:40
  So we hope that as you are in these chapters, you just feel
• 55:43
  this enlivening, that God is brought trying to scare us or
• 55:47
  confuse us. That look at how clear he is
• 55:51
  expressing himself about what he wants to do for you.
• 55:54
  He that overcometh, which is Jesus, will give you all things
• 55:58
  that he has won. If you choose to be loyal to him
• 56:02
  and to continue this on, look at look at chapter 3, verse 7 to
• 56:06
  the Saints in Philadelphia. He says verse eight.
• 56:10
  I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee
• 56:12
  an open door and no man can shut it.
• 56:16
  Jesus in one place says I am the door, the door of the sheepfold,
• 56:21
  and no man can come. The, the, the enemies can't come
• 56:24
  in to devour. And I've set before you an open
• 56:28
  door. Where does that open door lead?
• 56:29
  Into heaven. And you get this beautiful
• 56:32
  comparison back to the veil of the temple being the flesh of
• 56:35
  Christ. From Hebrews chapter 10 That he
• 56:38
  is literally the veil, the door, the the way whereby we enter
• 56:43
  into heaven, and no man can shut it.
• 56:46
  No man can put down all of the the victory that Christ has has
• 56:53
  gained or won in our behalf. Look down at verse 12.
• 56:58
  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my
• 57:01
  God, and he shall go no more out.
• 57:04
  And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of
• 57:08
  the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem which cometh down
• 57:11
  out of heaven from my God. And I will write upon him my new
• 57:14
  name. And then we get to that 7th
• 57:17
  church. I told you before that this is
• 57:19
  the one church that I I can't seem to find any any praise or
• 57:24
  any good. You're you're doing a great job
• 57:27
  with this loud. I see.
• 57:29
  It is an interesting place. I so I visited all seven of
• 57:33
  these church sites in Turkey many years ago, and Laodicea was
• 57:37
  my favorite for a variety of reasons because there's so much
• 57:40
  going on there. Laodicea sits a few miles away
• 57:44
  from Hierapolis. Hierapolis looks like a it has
• 57:49
  these terrace growths of mineral deposits similar to those of you
• 57:56
  who might be familiar with Yellowstone National Park in the
• 57:59
  United States or if you Google images of Hierapolis or of
• 58:04
  Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone, you you get the
• 58:07
  idea. So it's hot mineral springs spew
• 58:12
  out this water and it runs through the valley towards
• 58:17
  Laodicea from Hyrapolis. And another cold water river
• 58:21
  comes and they join and then it comes into Hierapolis or sorry,
• 58:25
  into Laodicea. By the time the water gets here,
• 58:30
  what temperature is it? It's lukewarm and.
• 58:34
  Doesn't that show up in scripture?
• 58:35
  It it will show up, and occasionally the mineral
• 58:40
  deposits that come through in the water would actually 'cause
• 58:46
  people to throw up. Now notice how God is using
• 58:50
  something that these people would have known very well.
• 58:54
  He's using a symbol that would mean something to the Laodiceans
• 58:59
  way more than it would to the Ephesians or those living in
• 59:02
  Sardis. He says, verse 15.
• 59:06
  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.
• 59:12
  I would thou Wert cold or hot. So because thou art lukewarm and
• 59:17
  neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
• 59:21
  He's using something that was very familiar to those people to
• 59:25
  teach a message. Because Laodicea was known in
• 59:30
  the 1st century as the City, the the thing they they gloried in
• 59:35
  was we are the city of compromise.
• 59:38
  We are the city of anything goes.
• 59:41
  We allow anything versus taking a stand.
• 59:45
  God's like, either you are for me or hot or you are against me.
• 59:50
  Cold. You can't be in between.
• 59:53
  You can't be. Sometimes for me and sometimes
• 59:54
  against me. You need.
• 59:57
  To make a choice now, look, compromise sometimes actually in
• 1:00:00
  many cases is important. But God is making it clear here
• 1:00:05
  this is a choice about whose side are you on back to Joshua.
• 1:00:10
  As for me and my household, we will choose the Lord.
• 1:00:13
  For the Laodiceans, they're like As for me and my household, it
• 1:00:16
  depends on the day who we might choose.
• 1:00:18
  One of the reasons that it's fascinating to visit Laodicea
• 1:00:21
  today is you. You can go and find the this
• 1:00:24
  central water distribution part of the ruins where you see these
• 1:00:30
  pipes where the water would come in and then they would pipe it
• 1:00:33
  out with these clay pipes and you can look at those pipes.
• 1:00:37
  In fact, you can Google Laodicea water pipes and you can look at
• 1:00:42
  images and you'll see that the clay is like this.
• 1:00:48
  But the amount of space for the water to move is only like this
• 1:00:52
  because all of the pipe is clogged up and filled with
• 1:00:59
  algae, bacteria, little microbes that have grown in this lukewarm
• 1:01:07
  perfect environment to clog up the flow of water.
• 1:01:11
  So they were constantly having to replace their pipes because
• 1:01:15
  the flow of of water or in our context symbolically of
• 1:01:19
  revelation, wasn't happening because they were allowing other
• 1:01:23
  things to clog up that conduit for the spirit to flow.
• 1:01:30
  Now we jump into Chapter 4 and remember chapters one through
• 1:01:34
  three were set apart as things which were shortly going to come
• 1:01:37
  to pass in John's time. So now we jump into things which
• 1:01:41
  must be hereafter. So now, now it gets exciting.
• 1:01:46
  It's high adventure. And the overview here.
• 1:01:49
  Is that John is invited into the throne room of God, and he sees
• 1:01:55
  a lot of symbols about those other people who've been invited
• 1:01:59
  in. Now let's just remind you of one
• 1:02:01
  way of understanding the throne of God.
• 1:02:04
  If you go back to creation, remember it was seven days, the
• 1:02:07
  symbol of completion. There was all this chaos and in
• 1:02:11
  the ancient world they often symbolized the creation story as
• 1:02:15
  a battle where God was at war with chaos and he overcome it,
• 1:02:20
  overcame it and established peace.
• 1:02:22
  And the 7th day is when God enters into his temple and sits
• 1:02:27
  on his throne in the holy of Holies and that is a symbol that
• 1:02:30
  the world is now at peace. Remember, the main theme of the
• 1:02:35
  Book of Revelation is. God overcomes.
• 1:02:38
  So if you imagine that this is like a repeat of the creation
• 1:02:41
  story of six days of where there's chaos but eventually
• 1:02:44
  things will get cleared up, it's not a problem.
• 1:02:46
  It's just God is doing his work and when he completes the work,
• 1:02:50
  he will sit down on his throne and there will be peace on the
• 1:02:54
  7th day. And the temple is the symbol of
• 1:02:57
  that place, and John is being invited in to the Holy of
• 1:03:00
  Holies, to the throne of God to see.
• 1:03:03
  The totality of God's enormous glory and goodness and to see
• 1:03:09
  what happens when peace is established.
• 1:03:11
  Verse two immediately I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne
• 1:03:15
  was set in heaven and one sat on the throne.
• 1:03:20
  There should be no question as to who that one is.
• 1:03:23
  If you look over at chapter 5, it's very clear that the one
• 1:03:27
  sitting on the throne is God the Father.
• 1:03:31
  And now watch as John tries to describe the grandeur, the
• 1:03:35
  splendor, the glory of God sitting on his throne surrounded
• 1:03:39
  by numberless concourses of angels.
• 1:03:42
  Verse three says. And he that sat was was to look
• 1:03:45
  upon like once again these words.
• 1:03:50
  He's like a Jasper and a sardine stone.
• 1:03:54
  And there was a rainbow round about the throne in the sight
• 1:03:57
  like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were
• 1:04:01
  these 24 elders or 24 seats. And upon those seats at the
• 1:04:06
  elders they were clothed in white Raiment.
• 1:04:08
  They had on their heads crowns of gold.
• 1:04:11
  Joseph Smith in Doctor and Covenant section 77.
• 1:04:16
  You'll want to make a note in your scriptures.
• 1:04:19
  It's a must see for chapter 4 that you go to Doctor and
• 1:04:23
  Covenant section 77. Because when a prophet gives
• 1:04:26
  this kind of symbolism, that is, that could be interpreted so
• 1:04:30
  many different ways, It's really nice when we actually get some
• 1:04:33
  definitive answers to some of the questions.
• 1:04:35
  Joseph sat down and asked some questions as he was doing the
• 1:04:39
  translation of the New Testament, and the Lord gave him
• 1:04:43
  some specific answers. So you'll want to read Section
• 1:04:47
  77 in conjunction and you'll notice you're going to find out
• 1:04:51
  what the sea of glass is, what the Thrones that the 24 seats
• 1:04:55
  are, who the elders are. He's going to ask a variety of
• 1:04:59
  of questions that come up in this chapter as well as others
• 1:05:02
  up to Chapter 11. So verse 5, you get lightnings,
• 1:05:07
  thunderings, voices. There are 7 lamps burning before
• 1:05:10
  the throne. Remember, in the ancient world,
• 1:05:13
  all this light and sound were symbols of God's power because
• 1:05:17
  humans could not on their own make those things happen.
• 1:05:21
  And really in the last 250 years with the Industrial Revolution.
• 1:05:26
  The harnessing electricity. We could do so many powerful
• 1:05:29
  things like rockets and so forth.
• 1:05:31
  Like for John this was really mind expanding for us.
• 1:05:35
  We're like Oh yeah, I see lightning and I can actually get
• 1:05:37
  a really powerful laser beam flashlight.
• 1:05:39
  And we have to put ourselves back in a time frame when humans
• 1:05:43
  did not have the capacity for awe inspiring experiences.
• 1:05:49
  So here's verse 6. Before the throne there was a
• 1:05:51
  sea of glass like under crystal, and you get the four beasts full
• 1:05:57
  of eyes before and behind. Section 77 of the Doctrine
• 1:06:02
  Covenants makes it very clear that the sea of glass represents
• 1:06:05
  the glorified earth. So you're seeing a view of
• 1:06:11
  heaven in the future. 4 beasts Joseph was asking this question
• 1:06:17
  are are we to? What are we to understand by the
• 1:06:19
  four beasts? And it's beautiful to see how
• 1:06:22
  the Lord responds to that. And so we're encouraging you to
• 1:06:25
  take the time to open up the Doctrine Covenants, go to
• 1:06:27
  Section 77 and go look and see what God shared with Joseph
• 1:06:32
  Smith, and by extension, all of us now jumping down to verse 8.
• 1:06:36
  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and
• 1:06:40
  they were full of eyes within. So some symbols.
• 1:06:44
  You have the wings. 6 wings. Wings are in antiquity a symbol
• 1:06:50
  of power to act, power to move. It's It's a symbol of freedom
• 1:06:55
  and agency and liberty to not be bound down or or held down.
• 1:07:02
  Eyes notice. It's not just eyes on their
• 1:07:06
  face. It's eyes within.
• 1:07:08
  They're full of eyes within. Think about it.
• 1:07:12
  It was President Russell and Nielsen years ago and also
• 1:07:16
  President Boyd K Packer have talked about this concept in
• 1:07:19
  general conference that eyes the word here, ocular or oculate,
• 1:07:29
  and where are they? They're in.
• 1:07:35
  So to inoculate means to put eyes with in President Packer
• 1:07:44
  talked about that's why we can send missionaries out into
• 1:07:48
  disease ridden areas in the world without being concerned
• 1:07:53
  that they're going to be overcome.
• 1:07:55
  It's because they get vaccinated.
• 1:07:57
  They have eyes that are placed within.
• 1:08:00
  That's what an inoculation is, is to put eyes within, to see
• 1:08:05
  the danger when it's so far off and to attack it.
• 1:08:09
  So what a beautiful concept for us to learn from these angels
• 1:08:16
  that they are fully, spiritually inoculated against evil.
• 1:08:21
  They can see it from afar off, when they're browsing on their
• 1:08:24
  phone or on their Internet, when they're in a conversation with
• 1:08:28
  somebody, when they're in a relationship with somebody, they
• 1:08:32
  can see evil or temptation or discouragement or despair or
• 1:08:39
  fear from afar off because they're spiritually inoculated.
• 1:08:43
  They have eyes within. Now the question would come up
• 1:08:47
  exactly how does one become spiritually vaccinated,
• 1:08:50
  spiritually inoculated against these things we've been talking
• 1:08:53
  about? And I think if the prophets were
• 1:08:56
  to respond to that question, they wouldn't come up with some
• 1:08:59
  new spiritual program for us to to employ in our life.
• 1:09:05
  I think they would say the way you put eyes within is you spend
• 1:09:09
  time looking to God through scriptures, serious scripture
• 1:09:14
  study, through heeding the words of living prophets, through your
• 1:09:19
  patriarchal blessings, through the counsel of wise people, good
• 1:09:22
  books that teach truth, You get eyes within.
• 1:09:27
  When you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
• 1:09:32
  So the second-half of verse 8 you'll notice these angels who
• 1:09:36
  have this power to act, who have the eyes within.
• 1:09:40
  What do they say? They rest not day and night
• 1:09:43
  saying holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is
• 1:09:50
  and is to come. Are you noticing the pattern of
• 1:09:53
  three being repeated? Holy, holy.
• 1:09:56
  Holy is one of the ways, among others in antiquity, that you
• 1:10:01
  would add this superlative feeling, or superlative meaning
• 1:10:06
  to a word or to a being. In this case, in English today,
• 1:10:11
  we would say our God is the holiest.
• 1:10:13
  In antiquity you would just say holy and then repeat it three
• 1:10:16
  times and that becomes the most of that trait, in this case
• 1:10:21
  holiness. So our God is the holiest is
• 1:10:25
  what those angels just got through saying.
• 1:10:26
  And notice how our God is superlatively, superlatively
• 1:10:34
  existent in time, was, is and is to come.
• 1:10:39
  All three. He's not bound by any of it.
• 1:10:42
  He's above all of it. And.
• 1:10:44
  Then the last two verses of this chapter.
• 1:10:47
  The four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the
• 1:10:50
  throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever.
• 1:10:54
  And they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou
• 1:10:59
  art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
• 1:11:03
  For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
• 1:11:07
  they are and were created, or perhaps might use the word joy.
• 1:11:13
  So we look at the scene. Where God is being worshipped,
• 1:11:18
  enthroned in the symbolic temple, the Holy of Holies,
• 1:11:21
  where His throne is and our temples are set up similarly
• 1:11:25
  when you get into the Celestre room, it's a symbol of being in
• 1:11:29
  God's presence in His throne room.
• 1:11:31
  And how many of us, when we go into the Celestre room, feel
• 1:11:34
  like these 24 elders that we want to cast or put to the Lord
• 1:11:39
  everything in gratitude that He has given unto us?
• 1:11:42
  And and and then say, Lord. Glory to thee, Thou hast done
• 1:11:48
  all things for me. What a beautiful glorious day.
• 1:11:52
  That will be chapter 5. And I saw in the right hand of
• 1:11:58
  him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the
• 1:12:02
  backside, sealed with 7 seals. So the the simplest way to to
• 1:12:09
  visualize this would be a scroll that has seven, seven parts and
• 1:12:21
  each part. So here's the opening.
• 1:12:25
  Each of these has a wax seal on it, so you have and and you're
• 1:12:32
  reading the word book. But if you look this up in
• 1:12:35
  Strong's Concordance in a Greek Lexicon, it could also be
• 1:12:37
  translated as Scroll and Books Codices Codex.
• 1:12:42
  They're coming into existence in the towards the end of the 1st
• 1:12:48
  century, but very rare. Mostly it's in the second and
• 1:12:51
  third centuries when the book form becomes more common among
• 1:12:57
  Christians. So more likely in the ending of
• 1:13:01
  the 1st century that John sees God with this.
• 1:13:06
  So what happens is if I break the seal here, I can now unroll
• 1:13:12
  this part of the scroll, but I can't unroll this until the
• 1:13:16
  second seal is broken. And now I can get that one
• 1:13:21
  third, 4th all the way down to the 7th.
• 1:13:23
  Just that is one possible way. It's not.
• 1:13:27
  That isn't necessarily what John saw.
• 1:13:28
  It's one possible way for us to picture this, this story that
• 1:13:35
  John's trying to portray to us that there are 7 periods and in
• 1:13:39
  section 77 Joseph Smith is told these represent thousand year
• 1:13:44
  periods. And the 1000 isn't probably
• 1:13:46
  literal and exact, it's just long periods of time because
• 1:13:50
  keeping in mind the number 10 * 10 * 10, the number 10 is a
• 1:13:58
  totality. It's a completion that
• 1:14:00
  represents A totality. Well, if you do 10 * 10 * 10,
• 1:14:06
  it's a superlative of totality, which means everything is
• 1:14:11
  completely finished for that first period of time.
• 1:14:15
  It doesn't necessarily have to be exactly one 1000 years to the
• 1:14:20
  day. And to the very minute.
• 1:14:21
  And 2nd and three also represents God.
• 1:14:24
  So it means that God has fully completed his work for that time
• 1:14:28
  period. Go back to the creation.
• 1:14:30
  What did God do when he completed in totality the work
• 1:14:35
  of each time period? He would say it is good or it is
• 1:14:40
  finished and that is what's going on in here is and also
• 1:14:45
  just want to talk just a minute about the idea of a book.
• 1:14:48
  Now there are books everywhere in our society.
• 1:14:50
  In fact if anything we have more books and we know what to do
• 1:14:53
  with and and people would actually don't even like to read
• 1:14:55
  books anymore. They want to watch videos and so
• 1:14:57
  forth. I want to.
• 1:14:59
  Put your mind back a couple thousand years when fewer people
• 1:15:02
  were literate in our in in the modern world, many people are
• 1:15:07
  literate like a high percentage. In the western world, 90 plus
• 1:15:11
  percent people know how to read. In the ancient world it wasn't
• 1:15:15
  as high. It may have been 10/20/30
• 1:15:17
  percent. You you have to just think about
• 1:15:20
  the miraculous, powerful nature of what a book could do.
• 1:15:26
  That somebody's brain. So let's say Tyler's teaching
• 1:15:28
  these things, and I write them all down.
• 1:15:30
  Suddenly somebody at some other time can get access to these
• 1:15:35
  words. It's almost magical or divine.
• 1:15:38
  And we don't think about books in some kind of, like, divine
• 1:15:41
  way, but this was a book or a scroll that contained words, was
• 1:15:45
  one of the most transformative technologies that humans ever
• 1:15:49
  encountered. Not a day.
• 1:15:50
  We might think it's cars or electricity or the Internet or
• 1:15:54
  AI as transformative technologies, and they are.
• 1:15:58
  But I want you to think about in the ancient world, the book was
• 1:16:01
  the most transformative technology I would propose
• 1:16:05
  because of the words in it that humans almost ever could
• 1:16:08
  encounter. And This is why it's often used
• 1:16:11
  as a symbol of God's power to preserve and act on truth.
• 1:16:17
  So just keep that in mind that when we're talking about books.
• 1:16:20
  It's something about the divine nature of just almost the the
• 1:16:25
  unexpected nature of what a book can do to provide truth.
• 1:16:29
  And of course, the Restoration was founded on a revelation put
• 1:16:34
  into a book that God once again uses this really incredibly
• 1:16:39
  transformative technology, called a book, to lay the
• 1:16:43
  foundation for the Restoration. It turns out the Book of Mormon
• 1:16:46
  was revealed before the priesthood.
• 1:16:49
  Before the Church was organized, before the Doctrine Covenants
• 1:16:52
  was complete, even before the hymn book was finished, it was
• 1:16:56
  the Book of Mormon. So as we're learning about the
• 1:17:00
  book, The Seven Seals, that additional perspective might be
• 1:17:04
  helpful for you to see. God is doing His work and it is
• 1:17:08
  divine and beyond comprehension. What good is a book with words
• 1:17:16
  that are sealed that you can't get access to?
• 1:17:20
  Look at verse two. I saw a strong Angel proclaiming
• 1:17:23
  with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to loose
• 1:17:26
  the seals thereof. And no man in heaven, nor in
• 1:17:29
  earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book,
• 1:17:32
  neither to look thereon. So it's totally sealed up in the
• 1:17:36
  hands of God, implying that there was some tasks, some
• 1:17:40
  mission to be fulfilled that even God himself, the greatest
• 1:17:44
  of all, could not do for us. It needed to be somebody who was
• 1:17:48
  both willing and able to go and open these seals.
• 1:17:52
  And they're looking, and they can't find anybody.
• 1:17:54
  So verse 4 John wept much, because no man was found worthy
• 1:17:59
  to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
• 1:18:03
  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold, the lion
• 1:18:06
  of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open
• 1:18:09
  the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
• 1:18:12
  And I beheld. And lo, in the midst of the
• 1:18:14
  throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elder
• 1:18:16
  stood a lamb as it had been slain, And we'll come back to
• 1:18:20
  the description in a minute. Did you pick up on the fact that
• 1:18:23
  in verse 5:00 and 6:00 you got three symbols all pointing and
• 1:18:29
  referencing the same person? A lion of Judah, the root of
• 1:18:35
  David and the lamb slain from before the foundation of the
• 1:18:40
  world. Three symbols that in our
• 1:18:43
  natural world don't really have a lot to do with each other.
• 1:18:47
  But he's using all three. Not to say Jesus is a lion, he
• 1:18:52
  is a root, or he is a lamb. He's saying a lion is a good
• 1:18:57
  symbolic representation of the real thing.
• 1:19:00
  A root is very good as a symbol for what Christ does, as the the
• 1:19:06
  vine for us. And the lamb is a beautiful
• 1:19:10
  symbol. I love that that he's, he's not
• 1:19:14
  apologizing for using these symbols, he's just he's telling
• 1:19:17
  his story. So here's God on the throne with
• 1:19:20
  the book and it's sealed, only to be opened at the right time
• 1:19:24
  by the right person, similar to the sealed portion of the Book
• 1:19:28
  of Mormon. It's still sealed, but when the
• 1:19:31
  timing is right, the lamb will provide for an opening of
• 1:19:36
  breaking of that seal and we will get those words that have
• 1:19:40
  been preserved for whatever day God has appointed them to be
• 1:19:45
  unlocked. Building on this, I might use
• 1:19:48
  the the symbol of a technologist.
• 1:19:51
  Imagine today anybody who's a technologist who's really good
• 1:19:54
  at computer programming or inventing and deploying.
• 1:19:58
  Transformative technologies that make your life better.
• 1:20:02
  Now, there wasn't a powerful technology that was sitting in
• 1:20:05
  front of you, let's call it a computer.
• 1:20:07
  And you knew that was really awesome to give you information
• 1:20:10
  and to take care of all sorts of things that matter to your life.
• 1:20:13
  But you had no way of turning it on and operating it.
• 1:20:17
  And suddenly the inventor of the machine comes and actually makes
• 1:20:22
  it alive for you, makes it functional and works it for you.
• 1:20:27
  So God is the great technologist.
• 1:20:30
  I was just trying to convey that books with words were some of
• 1:20:34
  the most powerful transformative technologies in the ancient
• 1:20:37
  world. Since that time, we have
• 1:20:38
  invented millions of transformative technologies.
• 1:20:42
  But God himself is the great technologist who he comes in and
• 1:20:46
  he has the ability to work his creation for the benefit of the
• 1:20:52
  creation. So I just love how he is the one
• 1:20:55
  who invents books. He is the word, and he's the one
• 1:20:59
  who can open it to us to our benefit.
• 1:21:03
  And it's it's probably worth pointing out that just as Taylor
• 1:21:07
  said, God is the inventor of He, He reveals books and written
• 1:21:13
  language and and this capacity to pass on these ideas.
• 1:21:17
  But you'll notice as God created that capacity for us.
• 1:21:23
  The Devil, then. Comes in and tries to twist it
• 1:21:27
  for his own purposes. There are a lot of books out
• 1:21:31
  there that, if read and followed, will lead your soul to
• 1:21:36
  places you never want it to to go.
• 1:21:39
  Just like the other technologies that God has caused, inspired to
• 1:21:45
  be invented, the Devil uses those same technologies, those
• 1:21:50
  same capacities, to infiltrate his own message.
• 1:21:54
  So hence the need for us to be vigilant with eyes within, to be
• 1:22:00
  able to discern, to know which to to engage with and follow,
• 1:22:06
  and which voices and which words and which parts of that
• 1:22:10
  technology to reject. Look at his description in the
• 1:22:14
  second-half of verse six of the Lamb.
• 1:22:18
  As it had been slain having 7 horns and seven eyes, which are
• 1:22:22
  the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
• 1:22:25
  That's the KJV text. Joseph Smith changed it to 12
• 1:22:30
  horns, 12 eyes. Horns anciently are symbolic of
• 1:22:35
  power and dominion. You you think of the the biggest
• 1:22:40
  animals that they could know of in the 1st century.
• 1:22:43
  The bigger the sharper, the more powerful the horn.
• 1:22:46
  On that animal, the more dominion that animal's going to
• 1:22:49
  have in that animal Kingdom. It it turns out again in the
• 1:22:52
  ancient world, the most powerful thing that humans would ever
• 1:22:57
  encounter outside of like weather, phenomena, waves or
• 1:23:02
  lightning or Thunder, the most powerful thing a human could
• 1:23:04
  ever encounter would be an animal, like a bull with horns.
• 1:23:08
  Now today, those animals don't really inspire us like it would
• 1:23:12
  have anciently so anciently. The most powerful things they
• 1:23:14
  could experience would be a bull with a horn, and so they would
• 1:23:18
  use that to symbolize God's ability to enact with power.
• 1:23:23
  You'll see bulls in many cultures representing God.
• 1:23:28
  So the this Lamb with these attributes, with this totality,
• 1:23:34
  this completion of power. His perfect power and and
• 1:23:39
  perfect vision. What does he do?
• 1:23:41
  Verse seven He came and took the book out of the right hand of
• 1:23:45
  him that sat upon the throne. There are some beautiful
• 1:23:49
  theological implications going on here.
• 1:23:52
  God the Father sitting on the throne holding the book.
• 1:23:56
  Jesus Christ symbolized in this context as a lamb coming up to
• 1:24:00
  the Father and taking out of the hands of the Father.
• 1:24:03
  That book with the seven seals. And when he had taken the book,
• 1:24:07
  the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before the
• 1:24:10
  lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of
• 1:24:14
  odors, which are the prayers of the Saints.
• 1:24:18
  Beautiful symbolism of your prayers, sometimes feeling like
• 1:24:23
  they're bouncing off the ceiling, the assurance that your
• 1:24:27
  prayers don't bounce off the ceiling.
• 1:24:30
  No heartfelt prayer stays stuck on the earth.
• 1:24:35
  They ascend to heaven, and they're beautifully symbolized
• 1:24:38
  here as these vials, these bowls full of odors, and representing
• 1:24:43
  those prayers. And they sung a new song,
• 1:24:46
  saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals
• 1:24:50
  thereof. For thou was slain, and has
• 1:24:53
  redeemed us to God by the by thy blood out of every kindred and
• 1:24:58
  tongue, and people and nation. And notice again the number four
• 1:25:02
  there kindred, tongue, people, and nation.
• 1:25:05
  Christ redeemed us to God by his blood.
• 1:25:09
  Out of what percentage of nations?
• 1:25:13
  That's 100. Percent 100% of the earth.
• 1:25:17
  God doesn't just love 11 portion of his children and look again
• 1:25:22
  at how what the promises the outcome.
• 1:25:26
  Remember, God overcomes all and in the overcoming verse 10
• 1:25:30
  reminds us again what the final conclusion to the story is.
• 1:25:33
  So let's not get too caught up in all the fear and the fear
• 1:25:36
  mongering verse 10. Which is so ironic, because in
• 1:25:41
  worldly kingdoms, especially in John's world, every king, every
• 1:25:45
  Caesar, every emperor, every leader at any level, whether
• 1:25:49
  it's at the empire level or at the the local magistrate level,
• 1:25:54
  they're all about taking power and centralizing it.
• 1:25:57
  In themself they want as much power and glory for themselves,
• 1:26:01
  which means less for the other people.
• 1:26:04
  But what is the king of kings want?
• 1:26:07
  Verse 10 He has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we
• 1:26:12
  shall reign on the earth. So this is important.
• 1:26:15
  When you look around the world today and the world is in
• 1:26:18
  commotion and places, you might look at leaders who are in
• 1:26:21
  positions of power and authority.
• 1:26:23
  What are they doing? Are they trying to amass more
• 1:26:26
  power for themselves and to rule with fear and confusion and
• 1:26:30
  division? Or are they trying to empower
• 1:26:34
  others? Are they trying to use their
• 1:26:35
  position to uplift others and to help as many people as possible?
• 1:26:40
  Not just a special few or not just those who are in their
• 1:26:43
  tribe, but everybody? And if you want to understand
• 1:26:48
  who is a God like leader and who isn't, this is a way of looking
• 1:26:52
  at it. Are they acting like God,
• 1:26:54
  seeking to uplift everybody to be better humans?
• 1:26:59
  It's fascinating to me that in the 1st century that his focus
• 1:27:05
  is on the men becoming kings and priests.
• 1:27:08
  And here we live in the dispensation of the fullness of
• 1:27:11
  times where God has unsealed additional truths, additional
• 1:27:16
  aspects and elements of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 1:27:20
  And we talked about it earlier. Isn't it beautiful that now we
• 1:27:23
  no longer just talk about becoming men, becoming kings and
• 1:27:28
  priests? In the dispensation of the
• 1:27:30
  fullness of times, additional truth has been poured down onto
• 1:27:34
  the heads of the Saints by the Lord through his chosen
• 1:27:38
  servants, the prophets, the seers, and the revelators, that
• 1:27:41
  we now talk about becoming kings and Queens, priests and
• 1:27:48
  priestesses. I like that now verse 11 and I
• 1:27:53
  beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the
• 1:27:56
  throne and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them
• 1:27:58
  was 10,000 * 10,000 and thousands of thousands.
• 1:28:05
  What's going on here is mind boggling because here's John in
• 1:28:08
  this vision. His focus has been on He who
• 1:28:11
  sits on the throne with the Lamb and the 24 elders and the four
• 1:28:16
  beasts. Sitting in the immediate
• 1:28:20
  presence of God. And now the Angel draws John's
• 1:28:24
  attention to the broader audience and John looks and he
• 1:28:28
  says, oh, we have 10,000 * 10,000.
• 1:28:33
  Well, if you do the math, it's pretty simple math because all
• 1:28:36
  you have to do if you're going to multiply, that is just add
• 1:28:39
  that many more zeros 1234. Readjust your commas and your
• 1:28:45
  number is 100 million. Well, if we take it literally
• 1:28:50
  then we say John sees 100 million people and thousands of
• 1:28:55
  thousands. So we could probably increase
• 1:28:59
  that just however high you want to make it.
• 1:29:03
  The reality is is the Greek word there Morias times Morias, is
• 1:29:11
  myriad. Times myriad, would it be like
• 1:29:16
  an Infinity times Infinity today, that's.
• 1:29:18
  What it is, It's the biggest number you can think of.
• 1:29:22
  It always seems to get translated by the KGB
• 1:29:24
  translators as 10,000 because what is the biggest number you
• 1:29:28
  could possibly imagine in 1611 without the help of of
• 1:29:32
  calculators, computers and electronic devices?
• 1:29:36
  I think 10,000's a pretty good interpretation of the word
• 1:29:39
  Marias, but today. I think we can see the
• 1:29:44
  expansiveness of God's goodness and wonder and glory.
• 1:29:48
  To say 100 million people is not even a teeny start to what John
• 1:29:55
  is trying to paint for us. He's basically saying it's an
• 1:29:59
  innumerable host times innumerable and thousands and
• 1:30:04
  thousands. It's his way of saying.
• 1:30:06
  I can't possibly put a number on this.
• 1:30:09
  Now, why do we care about this? Why do we care to go into the
• 1:30:11
  Greek and and do this kind of analysis with scripture?
• 1:30:15
  For me, one of the answers to that question is it gives me
• 1:30:19
  hope that God didn't set up a plan of salvation that would
• 1:30:24
  only work for and be successful with a small portion of the
• 1:30:31
  human population. I love this verse because to me.
• 1:30:36
  It increases my faith not only in God, but in humanity, in in
• 1:30:42
  loved ones and in family members and friends, though they may be
• 1:30:46
  struggling through certain phases of life.
• 1:30:50
  Kind of like chaos in the creation or chaos in the first
• 1:30:55
  six seals that we're going to cover next week.
• 1:30:59
  That God is not perplexed by this, that the Saviour's
• 1:31:04
  Infinite Atonement. Is big enough and powerful
• 1:31:08
  enough for all those who are willing to acknowledge him
• 1:31:10
  whenever they're willing to acknowledge him.
• 1:31:13
  And keep in mind God is playing the long game, not a short
• 1:31:16
  Sprint with all of us. It gives me hope in how I can
• 1:31:21
  now interact with people and not condemn them and not judge them
• 1:31:26
  and not fear for their eternal welfare.
• 1:31:30
  Many of you probably have loved ones, maybe children or spouses
• 1:31:34
  or parents or siblings. Who have struggled with some
• 1:31:38
  serious issues, whatever the the situation may be verses like
• 1:31:44
  this should give us hope that the Lord is capable of working
• 1:31:49
  with all of us, both collectively and individually.
• 1:31:53
  That we don't need to to preach anybody or condemn anybody into
• 1:31:59
  hell. But we can have hope that the
• 1:32:02
  Lord is going to keep working with us.
• 1:32:05
  To be part of this innumerable host one day, let's move on to
• 1:32:09
  verse 12, seen with the loud voice.
• 1:32:12
  This is after he's seen the millions upon millions of
• 1:32:15
  people. What are they saying?
• 1:32:17
  Worthy is the Lamb that was slain To receive power and
• 1:32:21
  riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and
• 1:32:25
  blessing. Verse 13.
• 1:32:27
  Every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under
• 1:32:30
  the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all they all that
• 1:32:35
  are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor, and glory
• 1:32:39
  and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and
• 1:32:42
  unto the Lamb forever and ever. Can you imagine the the glory
• 1:32:49
  and the splendor of all this? And here's John being commanded
• 1:32:52
  to write this in a book, and he's doing the best he can.
• 1:32:55
  And the translators gratefully have given us his words to the
• 1:32:58
  best of their ability. And so now it's our job to to do
• 1:33:02
  the opposite. Instead of seeing a vision and
• 1:33:06
  trying to put it into words, it's now our job and our
• 1:33:09
  beautiful task to take these words and with the help of the
• 1:33:15
  Holy Ghost, try to put it back into a vision form where we can
• 1:33:19
  see in our mind's eye whatever it looks like for you, a picture
• 1:33:22
  of you in the presence of God, giving Him praise.
• 1:33:29
  Giving him glory and you adding your voice to the mix, saying
• 1:33:33
  blessing and honor and glory and power, be unto him that sitteth
• 1:33:38
  upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever.
• 1:33:42
  Some of you can hear Handel's Messiah version of that verse
• 1:33:46
  playing in your in your ear. What a glorious thing it would
• 1:33:53
  be if we didn't wait for that day to start.
• 1:33:59
  More fully doing this kind of of living, that we could let our
• 1:34:05
  life be a reflection of these same ideas here in the fallen
• 1:34:11
  world, and not wait for that day to praise His name and to give
• 1:34:15
  glory to Christ, and to be so grateful that he was not just
• 1:34:20
  willing that he was able to come down to this earth.
• 1:34:25
  And pay the price that he did to be able to open those seals and
• 1:34:28
  to be able to break the seal that would unfold the story that
• 1:34:33
  is your life, that is now unfolding in the hands of the
• 1:34:38
  Lord, not just you, but your loved ones and your associates
• 1:34:41
  as well. God wins.
• 1:34:46
  That's the message and I want to be with him.
• 1:34:52
  In all that I do, in all that I say, and in all that I become.
• 1:34:55
  And that's our hope for all of us, and we leave it with you in
• 1:34:58
  the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
• 1:35:02
  Know that you're loved and spread light and goodness.