Gaining a Heavenly Perspective!

There are two judgments that are coming and to the believer, we only need to be concerned with one. Thanks to the blood of Jesus, our faith in Him, we won't have to deal with the later one that everyone else will have to face. The first one that is referred to 1 Corinthians and in the Book of Romans, where Paul tells us that we will all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. This is ONLY for the Christians. It has nothing to do with your salvation, it has nothing to do with you being evicted from heaven, it has nothing to do with you getting into some hot water with God, it is the Bema seat of Christ. It would be the same seat that an athlete would receive a gold, silver or bronze medal. It's all awards, it's only for believers, we are going to be judged for our motives for what we have done for Christ.

The second judgment found in Revelation 20:11 is something that no believer is going to be involved in and that is the Great White Throne judgment. We are going to be rewarded or accept loss if we didn't do something Jesus told us to do, or we did them with the wrong motive. It has nothing to do with you losing your salvation. Judgment will be your appointment before the throne of Christ, by Jesus and it should be something we are excited about. We have all failed. But God's grace will handle that. We all get up wanting to serve Jesus every day and we fight with the flesh, to see that through by the time we lay our heads down at night. That's our battle.

John is going to show us the activity that is happening around the throne where Jesus is sitting in heaven. He is surrounded by that emerald rainbow. He is there with all this light flashing and thundering and the voices being uttered. That is terrifying. John is watching this unfold from the safety of heaven, and what is about to happen on earth, in Chapter 5, soon to come is the wrath of Almighty God. So we are about to see the judgment being levied upon a Christ rejecting world. This will either terrify you or excite you depending on where your heart is with Jesus.

Revelation 4:4-11 ~ "Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dresses in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.  In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come." Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."

 All of this that John is unveiling for you of what he saw, is actually happening. There are four living creatures bowing before the throne right now, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come."Awesome to think that this is going on right this very minute, and that John saw 2000 years ago, he saw what it is like, what is will be like, because he saw the eternal picture, of these 24 elders, who we learned prior to this, that are representatives of the believers. We know that these 24 elders have been redeemed from all the earth, they are men or mankind, they have been purchased out of the world by the blood of Christ, we can also collectively understand that they represent the believers, but there are records in Scripture of the 12 tribes of Israel, for in heaven the foundational stones have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, the names of the 12 sons of Jacob in heaven, but also the names of the 12 apostles, equaling of course, 24. Collectively representing the believers across the ages, 24 elders. We don't know their names and can't point to them specifically, but that's not the point. That is not what God would have us glean out of it. The point is that gathered together before all time and eternity, the collective representation of God's people.

There is coming attractions for all of us believers! Regarding this preview into heaven, we are looking at what we will see in heaven. For it is a real place. We looked at before how these 24 elders will be seated around the throne room of God. They have a unique place. Our concept and thought is just to get there. We get in because of who we know. We know Jesus Christ, therefore. We have a ticket that enables us to sit down with Him.

They also have a unique practice before God. They are sitting. They are not worried. They are not panicking, we are entering into the rest of God when we arrive. Some Christians sweat out their relationship with Christ, as if its a performance based relationship. They are so bound and caught up with their regulations and performance, that is religion, not a relationship! It's legalism. We are seated in the heavenlies and our citizenship is in heaven. Are you living a life of freedom? Do we pledge our lordship to the things of the past in this world, or do you accept his grace and mercy? Jesus has set us free! Sit down in the power of God and He will do it. It's the power of God by the Holy Spirit in your life.

They also have a unique protocol before the Lord. They are clothed in white raiment. This is the righteousness or the doing of deeds of the saints. That is in this lifetime, not later. There are no homeless in heaven. You can't feed them there or visit the sick either. There is no sick in heaven. The white raiment that they have been given, has been give to them from the Lord and its representative of the deeds they did while they were serving in their Christian ministry, that they performed here on earth.

Remember John is looking ahead into the future. He's there by Spirit and he sees the church in heaven, for the church has been raptured, and these 24 elders also had a unique possession in heaven. They had crowns of gold. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, He is going to reward us for the things we did while in our body. It's not for our bragging rights, these crowns, not for us to compare with one another, but to cast it back to Jesus for his glory. It is God who created everything and it is He would gives us the opportunity to share it with Him.

Heaven, what do we know? In Revelation 4:1-3, the rapture of the church has taken place, the church is in heaven, and the church isn't mentioned again until Revelation 19, when she appears in heaven with Jesus as He returns to earth in the Second Coming. John the apostle says this,

Revelation 4:5-8 ~ "From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.  In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come." 

Whenever you read in Scripture, the proceeding forth of lightnings. thunderings and voices, it is always an association with God's throne and it's always an association with God's dealing with man. First case, when God is speaking with Moses on the mountaintop, what happens? Mount Sinai begins to shake, there are lightnings, thunderings and the sound of a trumpet as if it were talking, and Moses was there with God for 40 days. He was with the Lord, sustained by the power of God. Moses comes down from the mountaintop and he has some sort of veil over his head. He sees the glory of God. His face is shining. But because he had left God's presence it had begun to diminish. So rather than have the people see the glory and then have it diminish, Moses comes down from the mountain with the absolute authority of God but he veils his face in the presence of the people. So they don't see the glory fade. Not sure how long he kept it on, but Moses announces the law of God, the blueprints to the tabernacle. They told Moses that they were afraid of the thunderings, lightnings and the voices.

We see throughout Scripture, that these things always precede God's intervention, God speaking to man, or God's judgment. So this is now our introduction into the judgments of God that are soon coming to the earth from Heaven's vantage point. It is responsible to be fearful of the judgment of God, more so from the unbelievers perspective over that of the believer. God said to John, who represents you, "Fear not!" It will be unlike anything we have seen before. They didn't want Moses around because they were fearful of God. That generation of people, non believers, don't enter into the Promised land due to their unbelief. Some people say they will believe when they see. That isn't the case. In God's world, seeing comes from believing.

We will expand on that thought more tomorrow.

Jesus Christ Revealed - Revelation Bible Study Part 5

I don't think there isn't one Christian who would pass up a blessing if they knew the could get one simply by doing something. To know that simply reading the book of Revelation, God promises a blessing to those who read it and hear it, because after reading the book of Revelation, you can't deny what is going to happen in the world later, what is currently happening and how just by accepting the invitation to know Jesus Christ and to turn your life over to Him, to follow Him, you will be spared from the wrath of God to come upon the entire world. There will be no safe place to run when that time comes. So without further adeiu, let us jump right into our study into the Book of Revelation.

We know that chapter 1, into the Book of Revelation is all about the unveiling of Jesus Christ, thus the reason for the title, Revelation which simply means revealing, and in this case it is all about Jesus Christ. There are only two places where God promises blessings, the first in the book of Revelation for those who read and hear its words and for those followers of Jesus that give from the heart financially God promises to bless those funds and make them multiply. Let us not confuse that with every dollar you give to God, He's going to turn around and give you $10. That is not giving with the right motives in mind, that is giving with the expectation of getting monetary blessings in return. God has quite a few ways He can do that, one is blessing you with more money, but often times it is through other ways.

Today we will pick up our study back in Revelation 1:4-11 but will be focusing on primarily verses 5 and 6. But let us take the entire message into context first and it helps to refresh where we were at in our study.

Revelation 1:4-11~ " John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

Look,he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.  "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea." (NIV). 

The entire intent in this chapter is that through John's letter, the intent of God, the Father is revealing the deity, the reality and the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ. Far too often we tend to view the Bible wrongly due to our Western influence. We perceive the Son, to be someone quite less than the Father, because that is our culture. It's our fault and unlike that in anywhere in the world. When you want to talk to someone, you want to speak with someone in charge, you want to talk to the Father. That is our culture, or society. But if you go to the Middle East or the Far East, and the son, has equal rights to that of his father. The father will often defer to the son, to help to raise him up in the eyes of those around him. But God doesn't need to do that because Jesus has all the authority of God the Father, He doesn't have less authority than God but equal. When you go to someone in the East and ask to speak to someone in authority, you are given the opportunity to speak to the father or son, because each has equal authority.

So when we see God, the Father, revealing His Son, Jesus Christ, He is revealing Jesus' grandeur, this is not the Jesus Christ, walking on the shores of Galilee, not now, this is the glorified Christ, the Christ, post crucifixion. Post resurrection. This is Jesus Christ, enthroned in Heaven. In fact, this is Jesus Christ, post accession. You will remember in the New Testament, when the disciples watched Jesus ascend into Heaven with all the glory surrounded Him, and the angels said the to disciples, this same Jesus you see ascend into Heaven, will be the same Jesus that will return in like manner. He ascended to the throne, in His own seat. When the disciples see Him, he hasn't ascended into the throne room like we see Him in Revelation, He appeared to them as looking similar in ways to the same Jesus they remembered, but this is not how Jesus appears now in the throne room when John sees Him in all His glory.

We see Him described later in the first chapter of Revelation 1, where His eyes blaze like fire and His face is brilliant white, like the sun in its full strength. His beard and hair are white like snow. Spectacular. This is Jesus Christ!!!

From God's view point we see a few things, when we look back at verse 4:  John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne,"

We see four things. (1) God's accounting. We see him using the number seven in regards to the seven churches in Asia which signify his totality of His churches. The number seven being the number of completion, in the Bible and we know there are more than seven churches, but the ones that collectively representing the churches of that day in proximity to the area of geography. We see how often the number 7 is used throughout the Bible but specifically in the book of Revelation. It is God's completeness. God is including all the churches even the ones today, but we will cover that one later in our study.

(2) God's Geography: We look at the references to the churches in Asia, not the Asia we know today, but Asia Minor, from history or modern day Turkey. We know that there were significantly more churches than the seven listed here in the chapter 1 including the major church in Rome that Paul wrote to in 90 A.D. There was the church at Colossee and Hyeropolis, very famous churches in that day. They are not referred to here because Jesus is referring to the churches collectively. He is specifically writing to the seven churches mentioned here which we will study in more detail later. We will see that those churches existed at that time, but also there is a bit of those churches existing in our hearts and we don't want to deal with those right now. We will see about churches alive today that have strayed, that our persecuted (we see this even today, in fact the greatest atrocity of the world is taking place in the Sudan, where if you are not a Muslim, you are dying at the tune to the last six years of 2 million people dying for not being a Muslim). If you are an athiest, you die. If you are a Christian, you die. If you are a Jew, you die. In Sudan. Killed at the hands of Muslim extremists in the area of the Sudan. 2 million people plus. Colin Powell said it is the greatest extermination of people in modern times, and it has fallen on deaf ears of the U.N. because they have their own agenda. You can read up on that one later in regards to how this is affecting the European Union and what is taking place in the Sudan. Jesus is going to talk about churches in Revelation who are carnal and have walked away from His witness.

(3) God's Nature: "from him who is, and who was, and who is to come." - Revelation 1:4
He is the one that extends to us His grace, His unmerited favor, that He would single YOU out and make YOU the object of His affection. Is that incredible? God says, "I LOVE YOU!"

(4) God's Position: The Bible says that there are seven spirits before His throne. We saw yesterday how those are seven specific angels designated to the work of God.

So today, we begin in verse 5 with our second point, from Jesus' point of view. "from Jesus Christ," Verse 4 is predominately from the Father's view point, and now in verse 5, from Jesus Christ. It gives us titles of who Jesus is. (1) He is the faithful witness, meaning this, that Jesus Christ is forever faithful. He will NEVER be unfaithful.  This is important to us because when Jesus says, I am the Resurrection and the Life, and no man comes to the Father, but through me, you want to be sure. When Jesus says that when a man dies, believing in Him, he shall live. You want to know that as a fact. What are you afraid of? Question Him? He's not afraid. Find out for yourself. We have the promises of the Bible in Him and that He is the faithful witness, which in the Greek, is "martus" which is where we get our word, martyr. He is the one, that is presenting a faithful witness even to death, which we all know that Jesus died for our sins, but what else? Jesus Christ, died on the cross for us, but also for the Father, as a witness, not that God needed Jesus to die. But the prophets foretold that Jesus would come. That Jesus Christ, would be offered up on the cross. So when Jesus Christ died for us, He died for our sins. When He died on the cross, He died for the Father's testimony, throughout history. God the Father, said His Son would come. What did Jesus do? He came! What else did He do? He died on the cross. The faithfulness of God.

Jesus Christ has come to set us free. When He says what He says, and when He does, what He does, it is to liberate us. When we look at Jesus, we learn about the faithfulness of the Father.

John 14: 8-9 ~"Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?' (NIV). 

What Jesus was saying is that this is the way the Father acts, this is what the Father says, this is how the Father is. When you hear me speak, I speak the things of the Father. When I turn and do, I do the things of the Father. So why is this important? Because Jesus Christ, without error, is 100% faithful to the will of the Father. If you want to know what God, the Father is like, if you want to know what the Holy Spirit is like, look to Jesus Christ, and you will see what they are like in their totality.

John 4:21-24, "Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet, a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth." (NIV). 

That was Jesus' witness. He talked to us about worship.

In John 10:9 ~ "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture." (NIV). 

What does this mean? Jesus is saying, "I am the door! If you come on in, you will be saved. and you'll be able to go in and out and find comfort, or pasture." In the towns of Israel, Bethlehem or Jerusalem, there are these areas for shepherds that are holding pens with a gate just big enough for a man to lay down in the entrance. They are scattered throughout the pastures so that when the sheep are in for the night, the shepherd can lay down in the entrance way to guard and watch over the sheep. They are safe. He guards and protects his sheep. The only way they can get out is over him and with him laying down, they can't get out. That is the same picture Jesus is presenting here. Once you give your life to Him, He becomes your shepherd and watches over you day and night. No one can snatch you out of his hand without His knowledge and He isn't going to let that happen. Not on His watch which is eternal and 24/7. You can't question your salvation because Jesus is faithful. If He says YOU will be saved through Him, You can trust in that promise, no matter how you feel, because our feelings are not faithful.

You're either in the family of God or your not. You have either given your heart to Jesus or you haven't. Are you born again? Then you are in the sheep-fold. Maybe in life, no one has been faithful to you. Maybe He is trying to tell you that this morning. He's telling you, "I will be faithful to you." He is the only one.

Maybe you have been hurt by someone, perhaps even a pastor or friend, but the only person who is faithful and perfect is Jesus. Man or your friends will disappoint you and won't be faithful, because we are looking at the wrong things. We don't follow people, we follow Jesus. God never asked us to look at people but to Him. Perhaps the best advice for Christians, is to keep your eyes, 6 feet and above.