Revelation: Part 2

A man of great insight, one of my favorite people, dr. C.I. Scofield, who did the Scofield Bible, this is what he wrote in 1903. “The book is so written” — he’s talking about the book of Revelation — “the book is so written that as the actual time of these events approach, the current events will unlock the meaning of the book.”

He pointed out that the book of Revelation didn’t have too much meaning to people a few centuries ago, and that for this reason, very few people were willing to study its message. Revelation is written in such a way that its meaning becomes clear with the unfolding of current world events,” end quote. Isn’t that true? And when I wrote there’s a new world coming, which was my paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of the book of Revelation, as I have said here before, I really prayed that God would show me how to understand the many passages in the book of Revelation that had symbols that you just couldn’t -you couldn’t find the meaning of it somewhere else in the Bible.

Now, most of them are explained somewhere else in the Bible, but there were some that were not explained anywhere. And so I asked God to help me to understand what is the key to understanding it. And that’s when the Holy Spirit really spoke to me and he just kind of laid it out so that I said, why, of course. And here’s what he did.

He caused me to see, now, let’s look at this. Here’s what it says. Now, in verse 2 again, it says, who bore witness -then this is talking about the apostle John -who bore witness to the Word of God, number one, to the testimony of Jesus Christ, number two, and to all that he saw. And that’s where the wheels started ticking.

Because I looked up the word, this comes from the word idon in Greek. It’s a word that means this. And I looked it up again today in gingrich and danker, which is one of the most authoritative Greek lexicons, this is what it says about the word: perception by actually seeing something. In other words, this means an eye witness.

It is a word which means that it is something you perceived because you were seeing it actually, okay. And that’s when wheels started clicking because it says that, in this chain of revelation that God revealed this book andcaused it to be written in, that the apostle John had a commission from God. It was a divine, awesome commission that he was to bear witness tothe Word of God, which he actually heard, to the testimony of Jesus Christ, which Jesus actually told him. We’ll see that in some of these first chapters.

And to all that he saw, which means all that he actually saw. And that started the wheels clicking. Because God said, you ninny.

Don’t you get it? How could a first century man actually see these things that haven’t happened? With God, that’s no problem, because he created time. And he simply time-traveled John up so that he could actually see these things.

Then he brought him back. And let’s read. “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet” -this was the voice of Jesus himself saying, “write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches.” And we’ll go into that another time.

All right. He was commanded to write in a book or scroll what he actually saw. And then that really began to click. The Holy Spirit showed me how does a first century man write in a book about science and technology that were inconceivable to him at that time?

He was commanded to do the impossible apart from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was brought up to see the kind of technology and science we have today, and then to explain it. How in the world can afirst century man do that? He could only take phenomena with which he was familiar and say, it looked like it, or it approximated what he saw or what he heard or what he felt.

So he had to use things that were only known in that time to try to explain what he saw. Now, once you have that as the key, and I won’t go into all of that today, I’ve talked about it with some of you before, I won’t go into that today, but there will be places in the book of Revelation where we will bring this key back and say, now, what was he actually seeing, and how would a first century man see that, and what is he really trying to tell us? And using that as a key, we can come pretty close to understanding what he was saying, if not actually knowing what he said. Okay.

The interesting thing is that in verse 19, once again he’s commanded, it says, “write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things.” All right. Once again, he is told to write about the things that he sees. Eye witness.

And then the outline of the book is given. It says, write — first of all, look at it now. “Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are” -and “and” should be translated “even” here -“and even the things which shall take place -or and the things that will take place after these things.” After these things.

All right. Now, what he is seeking to show is, first, John’s going to write about the things that are. And you remember the chart I just went through, well, many of you weren’t here. I just did a study on God’s outline of history, God’s plan of the ages, and we are in the age of the Church right now.

So in the first three chapters, John writes about things that are presently in the age we live in. The Church age. But the big word is meta tauta, which is the Greek words for “after these things”. After these things.

In other words, after what? After the present age has ended. And so we have a two-fold thing here. He is told to, first of all, write about the things that he has seen again, and that he is to write the book in an outline form of the things that are, or the things that pertain to the Church age, and then the things that will happen after these things.

Now, look with me. I went through and I counted how many times, by the way, that John used the words, “I saw”. Very important. He said, write the things which you see.

Forty-six times all through the book of Revelation, John said, I saw. Now, no other book in the Bible has the author saying over and over again, I saw. Why is he doing that? Because he is assuring us that he is only writing about the things of which he was an eye witness.

Furthermore, there are seven key points in the book that you can trace by every time John used this formula,I looked and behold. That’s done seven times. I looked and I behold. And behold.

Thirty-one times, John says, I looked and I heard. So he uses the word he heard thirty-one times. So he’s using two of the most reliable senses that we have,the sense of hearing, the sense of seeing. And he says, thirty-one times not only did he see something, but he heard all of the things around about it.

See, in every way he can, he’s trying to show us I was there. I was there. “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and I saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

But the angel said to him, do not do that, I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.” Now, with Daniel, he was told to seal and encrypt it.

But at the end of this book, he’s told don’t seal it. But I want you to notice that his final testimony, he’s commanded in the first chapter to write only about what he saw. Twice he’s commanded to write it. And at the end of the book he gives his final testimony.

I, John, in other words, he identifies himself as the human author, I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. Now, have you ever seen any other book of the Bible where there’s that kind of constant testimony that it’s actually something that he was a part of? They just assume it. But in this book, apparently God wants above every other book in the Bible, for us to realize this was written in precise accordance with what he commanded.

And that this was written by a man that he caused to actually be on the scene and see and hear what he wrote about. Now, that makes this book so important, it goes into another sphere, doesn’t it? It makes it very, very important. How dare these pastors who will not apply the seat of their pants to the seat of a chair and spend the time to study, it takes study, study this book and teach it.

This book should be taught in every Church today. Every Church. The time is at hand. The book has been opened.

The Holy Spirit has shown us this is the time. And this book and its message is now the most relevant message besides the salvation message. And people get saved when they hear this book. People get saved when they get interested through prophecy.

It’s the message of the hour. Now, read on in chapter 22. He says that, in verse 10, he says, “and he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near.” Now, he really puts his seal of approval, his seal that he had faithfully carried out what God commanded him to do at the beginning of this book.

And so the book of Revelation is one that’s not an option for us to take or leave, it is absolutely important. But I want to close by showing you the plot point of the book of Revelation. You know, if you’rewriting a treatment for a movie, or you’re writing a script for a movie, there always have to be plot points. Well, God has a key plot point in this book.

He tipped us off in chapter 1, verse 19, when he says, write in a book, the things which you have seen, and about the things which are, and the things which shall happen after these things. Meta tauta, okay. Now, where does he go from the things that are, to the things that are gonna happen after these things? Look at chapter 4, verse 1 of the book of Revelation.

Now he’s been going through things that pertain to the churches in this age in which we live in chapters 2 and 3. And then beginningwith chapter 4, he says, meta tauta, that’s the first word of this verse, meta tauta, after these things. Now, if you’re studying the Scripture and you’re being alert, that should make your ears stand up because Jesus said that you’re gonna write about the things that are and the things after these things, okay. So it starts with that word, or these two words in Greek, meta tauta, “after these things I looked up, and, behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, come up here, and I will show you what must take place meta tauta.”

So this verse begins with meta tauta, and it ends with meta tauta, just so you don’t miss it. This is where the book goes future. This is where it goes future to our time. And it begins with an experience that’s a prelude to something we’re going to experience.

You see, John was raptured here, wasn’t he? What happened? He said I heard the voice saying come up here, and instantly, verse 2, “immediately I was in the spirit; and behold, a throne was standing” -he was immediately in heaven. Hey, that was a preview of coming events.

He experienced what we’re about to experience. One of these days soon, because the whole thing that God predicted, would happen shortly before those final times when Christ comes back, it’s all in place. It’s all here. One day when you least expect it, you’re gonna hear,come up here!

And immediately, like John, you’re gonna be standing in heaven. And you will look down, and you’ll realize your body has been changed to immortal without even losing consciousness. One moment you hear, come up here. The next moment, you’re immortal.

That’s the first thing you learn from this. That’s something -you see, what’s gonna happen after the things that are? Things that are is the Church age. So, what’s gonna happen when after these things are, the Church has to be raptured into heaven.

We have to be taken up. And that’s what it does, it shows when the plot point happens, the Church is gone. That’s the first thing. The second thing you learn, it was only when this happened to John, that he began to actually be an eyewitness to what is going to happen in the final war.

He was raptured into heaven and then God time-traveled everything, and he began to witness everything that is about to happen in our time. Isn’t that amazing? That’s exciting to me, I’ll tell ya. I can even get a hot diggity dog out of that one.

But you know what this tells me? And I really believe this. This was a preview of coming attractions. So just as John was raptured into heaven, the next thing he saw, he had a ringside seat of what was going on.

But let me just close by saying this. And you might make this our battle cry. Meta tauta is very near. Meaning after the time when things shift, to the next age that God’s working in, after these things, it’s very near.

Meta tauta could happen at any moment. Are you ready? That’s the key question. Are you ready?

Well, don’t start counting, let’s see, I did this and I did this and I did this, and I’ve been good, really. Like one of my twin daughters used to come in and say, daddy, Jesus is coming soon, look busy.

Can I ever? But you know what? Don’t start counting up whether your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, because they already do. Your bad deeds will just never be outweighed -outweigh the good deeds.

If that’s the way it worked, none of us would have a chance. And Jesus wouldn’t have had to come to die for us. You know, the extreme measure to which God had to go to step out of heaven and become a man in order to take our place and die in our place under his own wrath, he only did that because there was no other way. If there was any other way, the crucifixion of Jesus would have been murder by God the father.

That would have been murder. But there was no other way to save man except for Jesus Christ to voluntarily go and take our place and die in our place. And when he did, he removed every sin that stood between you and God. He removed the barrier of sin.

Now, there’s only one sin that can keep you out of heaven. He’s paid for every other thing. There’s one sin though, for which he couldn’t die. And that is that we would be so foolish as to turn down a free gift that he paid for and put our name on.

There is no forgiveness for that. He couldn’t die for that. You have to make the choice. You have to receive the gift of pardon that he paid for and offers to you as a free gift.

You can’t buy it. You can’t earn it. You can’t deserve it. The minute you put yourself on that basis, it becomes a merit system and then you have to earn it and you can’t.

That’s why it says for by grace you’ve been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So right now, make sure that you’ve received the gift of pardon that Jesus Christ died to give you. Let’s pray.

Father, I thank you in Jesus’ name for the Holy Spirit guiding us. I thank you that everyone here can have this gift if they haven’t already received it. If there’s anyone here who’s never accepted the gift of pardon, that Jesus has paid for, then right now I pray, that you will cause them to simply say this prayer. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for my sin.

Right now, come into my life. Make my life what you want it to be. Amen.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary, and he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario that the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been, for the Church and for the nation.