Revelation 1:1-3 Greg L Bahnsen Revelation Verse By Verse Part 1 of 63

So please turn with me to the Book of Revelation, chapter one. We're going to be studying together the first three verses, but I'd like to read verses one through 11 so that you have some sense of context to what we were talking about. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show unto his servants even the things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written therein. For the time is at hand, John, to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us and looseth us from our sins by his blood. And he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God, and Father. To him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him and they that pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him even so. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in. Jesus was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, what thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches. Unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea and thus far. The reading of God's word. The title of this book is the Revelation of John in my translation. I wonder what you have in your own. The revelation to John would be a far more appropriate title, and that is the one that we find in the Greek superscription over this particular book. Because it is not a revelation that John himself originated. It's a revelation that was given to him. In fact, in the opening of this particular book of the Bible, we have a lengthy chain of communication described for us as to how John came to receive this book. But before we look at that and consider what the book is about, the setting, and what John wants to get across, I think the real question that has to be posed if we're going to be honest with ourselves today, is why bother to study it at all? The Book of Revelation is a very difficult book. The Book of Revelation has created perhaps more rifts between good Christian people than any other book by itself in the Bible. The Book of Revelation has become something of a. Of a pet, as something of a hobby horse, something of an obsession with certain Christian groups that we don't even agree with their interpretation of the book. It's just a dangerous thing to get into. Why bother with the Book of Revelation if you've ever had feelings like those, and if you have those feelings this afternoon, which I suspect many of you do, perhaps most of us do, I want to in one sense comfort you that you're in good company. Many people, many learned people, have taken the same general attitude toward the Book of Revelation as that in the modern world. Friedrich Schleiermacher. How would you like a name like that? German higher critic, the father of religious liberalism. Friedrich Schleiermacher wrote this about the Book of Revelation. Even a thoroughly correct interpretation of this book would be productive of but little profit, Schleiermacher said. Even if you could figure it out, so what? There just isn't that much profit in this book. You say, well, of course he's the father of religious liberalism. You'd expect a liberal to say something like that. They don't have a good view of the word of God. Well, if you have not been a student of the Book of Revelation, and if you have not put in the work and study necessary to understand it, and if you figure this book doesn't have much to offer to you, then haven't you put yourself in practice in the same general category as Schleiermacher and other liberals? I mean, let's not be so quick to condemn unless our own behavior and our own lifestyle is going to correspond with that critical reaction to Schleiermacher. As a matter of fact, it isn't just Schleiermacher and the liberals that have had this negative attitude to the Book of Revelation. One of the greatest of the Protestant reformers said something very similar to Schleiermacher's. You probably recognize the name of Martin Luther. Martin Luther, in the year 1522, in his preface to the Revelation of St. John wrote these I judge this book to be neither apostolic nor prophetic for more reasons than one. First and foremost, the apostles did not deal in visions, but prophesied in words, clear and direct. My mind cannot suit itself to the book and to me. The fact that Christ is neither taught nor recognized in it is good and sufficient cause for my low estimation of it. End of quote. Those are devastating words to come from a man as conservative and as usually right on as Martin Luther was. But Luther agrees with Schleiermacher, and the two of them agree with our general practice that this book should be ignored. There's not much value in it. It's just not that important. It's too difficult to understand in the first place. I want to contrast those attitudes, however, with what we read in 2nd Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. It's well known, but worth turning to this afternoon. 2nd Timothy 3, verse 16. Every scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, that is in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. Notice what Paul says here. Every scripture is inspired. Every scripture is breathed out by God. Every scripture comes from the very mouth of God. And for that reason, if you're not convinced on any other grounds for that reason, you better believe it's profitable. Because God doesn't waste words. God doesn't waste his time. God doesn't bother to communicate something to us that he doesn't think is important. As a matter of fact, every Scripture is profitable not only for teaching, but for reproof and correction and instruction in righteousness. Now, if every Scripture is for that purpose, then it is just reasonable to conclude that if we neglect any portion of God's word to to that degree, we are going to be falling short of the instruction in righteous living and believing that God wants us to have. And that's why in second Timothy 3:17, Paul says that God has given the Scriptures that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. If you are not a student of the Book of Revelation, you are not completely furnished to every good work. If you're not a student student of this book, you don't believe everything God wants you to believe. If you're not a student of this book, you are not equipped in the way that God wants you to be equipped. The Book of Revelation is inspired by God. The Book of Revelation, therefore, is important and beneficial. It's profitable for us, and we are not simply making a mental mistake if we neglect the Book of Revelation. We are making a very crucial spiritual and moral mistake. Because in essence, we're saying to God, I don't think it's important. Can you imagine the President of the United States writing you a letter? And you receive this letter at home? I mean, it's nicely typed out. It's not just some mass communication. It's a personalized, maybe not typed. It's handwritten by the President of the United States. And you see, you know, the return address. And you see there's the very signature of the President United States on the envelope. Can you imagine going home and saying, oh, well, maybe I'll get to this next week. I don't have time for that guy. Who's he? Just the President of the United States. You know, none of us would do that. I don't think any of us would, you know, take a step past the post box before ripping open that envelope. It's like, what's he want to say to me? And yet we do something far worse when God has written us a letter and he has certified its contents, and he says, I want you to be blessed and to know how to live your life. Here's my instructions. And then we say, well, some other time for that. Maybe the book of Revelation should not be shelved. The title of the book, as I've already indicated, is not the revelation of of John, but rather the revelation to John. Look at verse one. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show unto his servants even the things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent it and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, were then in turn gives it to us. So notice this chain of command. God the Father has given a revelation to His Son, Jesus Christ. For the sake of his servants, Christ has given this to the angel who brings it to John, who turns and delivers it to us. This is a very important thing. This kind of elaboration of the chain of communication is not given in any other book of the Bible. Supposed to take every step along the way is adding importance to this. This is a book that was angelically delivered to an apostle from the very Son of God, who himself received it from His Father. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ received from God the father. In Acts 1:7. You remember that Jesus told his apostles that the times and seasons are in the Father's authority. The times and seasons are in the hand of the Father, who has predestined all things. The end from the beginning in Mark 13:32, as well as Matthew 24:36. Jesus told his followers that the day and hour of his return, the day and hour of the day of judgment, are known only to the Father. Now, that poses some interesting theological questions. Jesus says there's something he doesn't know, that only the Father knows these things. These things are in the hand of the Father alone. And now, according To Revelation, verse 1, the Father has delivered such things to Jesus to be given to the angel and to John, and finally to us. But what do we make of that? That Jesus doesn't know the day and the hour of his return? Well, we can't get into a long discourse on Christology this afternoon, but this is an excellent opportunity to teach you something that's called the communicatio ideomatum in technical theology. Everyone write that down. It's a Latin expression, and it means the communication of attributes. What is the relationship of the attributes of Christ to one another? In particular, what is the relationship of the attributes of his divine nature to the attributes of his human nature? How do the two natures of Christ relate to one another? Traditional Lutheran theology has said that what is true of one nature may be said of the other nature. There is a complete, complete interchangeability between the two natures, divine and human, in Christ. So that. Let's take an example. One of the human attributes of Jesus Christ is that he has a body that is localized in a particular place. Just like you have a body that's sitting in a chair right now. I have a body standing behind this podium right now. We all, as human beings, have a body that has a local spatial place. But since Jesus is also God and God is omnipresent, then Lutheran theology teaches that what is true of the one nature can be attributed to the other nature. So that if Jesus has a physical, localized body, that body is omnipresent. Yes, I see you scratching your heads, wondering now, wait a minute. How can it be both local, localized and omnipresent? Well, it's a very mysterious thing, to be sure. Lutherans would admit that I find it to be unbiblical and absurd. The body of Jesus Christ is not everywhere. In fact, I know exactly where the body of Jesus Christ is right now, although I can't point to the location. It is at the right hand of God in the heavens. Okay, I'm not going to point it out, but we know that the body of Christ is ascended on high. It is not everywhere in the universe. So what is true of the human nature is not true of the divine nature, and vice versa. What is one of the things we know about the human nature of Jesus? He died upon the cross. Does that mean that God died? Did God die? Is it even philosophically sensible to say that God died? No, but the human body body of Jesus died. He died with respect to his human nature, even though he continued to be an ever living God, the Creator Himself. And so the traditional reformed position about the communication of attributes is that what is true of the human nature can be said of the Person, and what is said of the divine nature can be said of the Person. But you cannot say what is true of one nature can be is to be said of the other nature. So we have the person of Jesus, who is both divine and human. He is therefore localized as to his human nature, omnipresent as to his divine nature. He died as to his human nature, but ever lives according to his divine nature. And once we make that distinction, as technical as it may seem, it's crucial for certain theological points, then we can understand how Jesus could say he didn't know the time or the hour of his return. Jesus was speaking with respect to his human nature, with respect to his messianic office as the one who is the Son of God incarnated. He has a true human nature, a true human mind, and he willingly does not avail himself of the information that he does have as God in his divine nature, as to the time or place of his return. And so Jesus as the human messianic king, a God man to be sure, but in the capacity of his human nature, does not know the times and seasons, the day or the hour, which are known only to the Father. And yet revelation, one tells us now that the Father has given, given a revelation to his Son Jesus Christ, which is to be communicated through an angel to John, who then bears witness to the rest of us of what he saw. The word revelation that appears in verse one of this book does not describe the form of the book. That will be more important an observation to you if remind you that the Greek word for revelation is apokalupsis. Apokalupsis, which is akin to a word that has come to be standardized for a kind of literature among the Jews of this period. Apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature, which is described in one of the lessons in the tape series on Revelation, is literature characterized by great upheavals on earth, cataclysmic events, a breaking in of God into a hopeless situation to correct the affairs on earth. Apocalyptic literature is not what revelation is, although it is very readily classified as such by those who don't Understand the book. When we read the apocalypses of Jesus Christ, it's not the form of literature that's being described, it's the content that's being described. Not the form of the literature, but the very content. John says an unveiling, a revelation, an apocalypsis, has been given a prophecy of events that lie in the near future. And the author of that prophecy is God. Interestingly, in Revelation 22, verses 6 and 10 and 18 and 19, four times in the ending chapter of this book of the Bible. It is called a prophecy, a prophecy. This is a prophecy that is opening up something for God's servants, a prophecy that is unveiling things for them. And it's a prophecy, according to verse three, of things that are shortly to take place. The appointed period is near, and God now is prophesied, prophesying. God is now giving an unveiling of those events for his servants. And so, like the Old Testament prophets, John makes it clear that his word has a specific divine origin. John does not come before us and say, as a wise discerner of political events, as a person who can extrapolate from what is now happening into the future, I tell you, I think the first following is going to take place. John does not have a message of his own. John is only bearing something in his hands to us. God has said something will happen. And I bring this and set it before you. This is a prophecy from God transmitted by Jesus Christ through an angel to John and through him to all Christians. Notice. 2nd Peter 1, verse 21. The emphasis is the same. 2nd Peter 1. 21. No prophecy ever came by the will of man. But men spake from God being moved by the Holy Spirit. Men spake from God. Human words, but from God. And they are certified to be God's own words, because those those who spoke were borne along by the Holy Spirit. You say. Well, John doesn't make any reference to the Holy Spirit. Ah, read on. Revelation 1, verse 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as a trumpet, saying, what thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches. John says, I was inspired and borne along by the Spirit. And in the Spirit I received these visions, and I was commanded to write them down in a book and now present them to the church. And this is what he has done. So the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass. Notice they must shortly come to pass. That is worth Emphasis. What is being referred to in this book is not optional. It's not just possible or even probable. It must happen. It is necessary that this take place and they must occur quickly. Well, what kind of necessity are we talking about here? Very simply, the answer is the necessity of the divine decree. God has predestined. God has foreordained that certain things would take place in history, and therefore they must take place. One can't help but remember Psalm 2, 7, 8. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said unto me, God has given a decree. God has determined the end from the beginning. God has a plan for history and. And this is now going to be opened up to us. John says, I'm going to unveil what must take place. And in verse two, he validates that this book contains not hearsay, but what he himself saw or experienced. God will miraculously give John a vision of things that are going to take place, and he will relate this to us in chapter 22, verse 8. The same thing is certified to us that John himself saw these matters. The emphasis in verses 1 and 2 of Revelation, chapter 1 is certainly upon unveiling, notice the word revelation, which means unveiling the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him. Notice the next word to show unveiled unto his servants, even things which must shortly come to pass, he sent and signified it, gave signs about it by his angel, unto his servant John, who bear witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. I mean, you just can't miss the visual imagery here. Revelation showing, signifying, seeing. The. The emphasis then is that John is going to lay out before us in a beautiful Technicolor panorama, the course of history as God has decreed it. The Book of Revelation was never intended to be given as an enigma to God's people. Something where when we get a little high on our own ability to interpret the Word of God and start thinking that we have errors about us, because that after all, we've really mastered it, God says, oh yeah, go home and read the Book of Revelation. See what you think of yourself. The Book of Revelation was not given to us to humble us, just to show us that God can give puzzles that nobody can unscramble. The Book of Revelation was given to unveil, to show, signify, to lay before us the clear truth, not to obscure it from us. And just as one proof that, that that is God's intention, look at Revelation 17:7. Revelation 17:7. This follows a long passage where the harlot Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and abominations of the earth, is shown to John. And we read, in verse six, I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with a great wonder, terrible translation. John says, I was perplexed with the greatest perplexity, what does this mean? Verse 7. And the angel said unto me, why were you perplexed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The angel says, john, have you lost track of what we're doing here? God didn't give you this vision just to boggle your mind. The angel says, I'll tell you the mystery. I'll explain it to you. John, no one's going to let you go home scratching your head about this. And so I just take that as one of many proofs that God does not intend the Book of Revelation to stay some kind of a closed message that none of us can unravel. God expects us to understand it. And that's why the book is called the Unveiling, the Revelation. The word apocalypses means technically an unveiling. It's what you do to a statue. Man carves out a statue and then he puts a drape over it and puts it out in the public square. And the day comes for its unveiling when everyone now can see it. It's undraped. And now the truth is in front of everyone. And God says, now I'm going to tell you the truth about history. Here's the unveiling of it all for you. It's not intended to obscure the truth, but to disclose the truth to us. And notice verse three. Blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of the prophecy. John expected his book to be read aloud in the churches. Obviously then he didn't want it to confuse his readers, but immediately to edify them. Those who hear the words of the prophecy, those who are sitting there and listen to this read out to them, are going to be blessed by the book. It's not going to be something that boggles their minds. You say, well, how could they understand it? I can't. Well, I guess you need to listen to the whole series on the Book of Revelation to get an adequate answer to that. But I want to suggest the key to understanding the Book of Revelation, which most people don't appreciate, is that the Book of Revelation is written against the backdrop of old Testament imagery and allusions. It's been estimated that of the 404 verses that are found in the book of Revelation, 278 of them contain allusions of some kind to an Old Testament passage or particular verse. That is, well over half of the verses in Revelation are taken in terms of their imagery or illusion from the Old Testament. If you were to do a statistical survey, maybe somebody would like to do this for a doctoral dissertation. I would imagine that you would find a pretty accurate correlation between those who don't understand the Old Testament and those who don't understand the Book of Revelation. Do an independent study of those who say, boy, the Old Testament, I just don't get into that very much, or this mystifies me, or I need to study that more. And you'll find the same group of people will be those who don't understand the Book of Revelation. It's because we aren't students of the total Scriptures, including the Old Testament, that the Book of Revelation becomes so difficult. But the Christians to whom this was originally addressed, I think, would have experienced little difficulty in understanding and appreciating its message because they were steeped in the imagery of the Old Testament. They didn't have TVs, and they didn't have years and years of the development of Western literature and other forms of entertainment. These people were not, for the most part, readers either. They listened and imagined the Word of God as the Old Testament was read to them week after week after week after week in the synagogues. The imagery of the Old Testament was something they would have welcomed in a book like this, and especially they would have welcomed it because of their precarious situation. They were being written to his people being persecuted. John says, I am a fellow sharer in the kingdom and the tribulation that belongs to Jesus Christ and all those that are his. John says, look, I know what it's like. I'm on Patmos as I write this. I was banished here for the Word of God. As he writes to Christians who are undergoing persecution and a tough time. We think we have it tough in the 20th century. Imagine what it was like in the early days of the Church, when the Church was a far smaller minority in that culture, and not only small, but hated and slandered, derided, persecuted. Nero and his day, took Christians and impaled them on stakes, covered them with tar and lit them aflame to light his parties. That's how wicked he was and how much the Christians were despised in that day. You can be sure hearers would have rejoiced to hear things from the Old Testament. How God delivered his people, how God made promises, how there were prophecies that are going to yet be fulfilled, that God will conquer, God will vindicate, God will assert his dominion and rule. I think under that grave situation that the early Christians were facing, it is virtually inconceivable that an intelligent Christian apostle like John would have written in order to be misunderstood. He didn't. He wrote these things so that they would understand and they would rejoice and take comfort and. And be blessed in hearing this. And that's why verse three pronounces a beatitude. Upon the reading and the hearing of Revelation, there will be six other beatitudes in the book. Blessed are the ones who you go through and study them for yourself, but this is the first one. Blessed are those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things that are found therein. It's interesting. This beatitude, this revelation by means of pronouncing blessing upon people, is best known from Matthew, the fifth chapter, where our Lord himself pronounces Beatitude. Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are. But where does it climax? What is the last beatitude in Matthew 5? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. It's a grand irony, if you understand the theology of the New Testament, that blessing is to be found in persecution. And this book begins with that reminder. Blessed are you if you are persecuted. Listen to this book. Blessing will be yours. Blessing is pronounced upon the study of Revelation. Are you missing that blessing? I bet you are. I bet you've just said, oh, I have so many other things. Things to do. Maybe you don't read the word of God at all. Of course, that's. That's a lesson that goes before this one. Logically, it's one I need to get through to you. You need to be students of the Word of God every day. You need to take this seriously. You need to get a Bible dictionary and some commentaries. You need to start digging into this thing. But I'm assuming that you all have learned that lesson. Okay, if you've learned that lesson, now, what I want to get across is don't ignore a part of the gift God has given you. Don't ignore Revelation. It says, blessed are those who hear the words of the prophecy. This is not a curse. This is not a headache. This is a blessing. And it's intended to be understood. Revelation 22:7 reinforces this. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Well, that brings up another point the one that I want to end on this afternoon. The blessing is not simply upon hearing the book. It's a blessing upon keeping the book. That's why Revelation 22:7 says, Blessed is he who keeps the words. We must obey the Book of Revelation. Now that, if you think about it, will boggle your minds. The Book of Revelation has not been presented, for the most part, by prophecy peddlers as something to be obeyed. It's presented as some great curiosity, kind of like newspaper account of things written in advance. And if we could just kind of unlock the mysteries of this book, then we'd be able to tell what the headlines are going to say in seven years or 700, whatever it may be in your prophetic scheme. But that isn't why the Book of Revelation was written. It says right here, blessed are those who hear and obey, who hear and keep the words of this prophecy. Revelation is not meant as an esoteric secret. Revelation has not been given for curiosity vendors and chart makers. It's not given merely for an academic correlation of prophetic tidbits. Revelation has been given as marching orders. Revelation has been given as a new way of seeing things. Revelation is a matter of pulling back the draperies. So now we understand what history is all about and and will do something about it. You're given Revelation to obey it. Revelation is intended, then, as a command. It commands a certain form of life from us and profoundly affects your behavior in the world. It doesn't just affect the way we think about the world to come. It affects what we do in the world that's here and now. And so the words of this book should mold and shape our lives. In John 14:23, 24, Jesus makes it a mark of discipleship that we keep his words. And if you don't keep my words, you aren't my disciples, Jesus says. And now Jesus comes and lays before us a view of history that he wants us to have and he wants us to keep. He wants us to live in terms of he wants us to obey. Are we his followers? Is he really the king? Is he our Lord and Master? You see, to hold that Revelation is hidden from us is not understandable. Is to make discipleship impossible. And that's an intolerable conclusion theologically. To suggest God gave us a book that was going to trip us up right rather than to enable us to obey and please him and bring glory to his name is an intolerable conclusion. The Book of Revelation is a blessing to us. The Book of Revelation is a gift from God so that we might be thoroughly equipped to every good work. The Book of Revelation has been given as a test of our discipleship to Jesus Christ. And so we must study it. I'm going to go back to verse one as we conclude this afternoon. Notice this is. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show unto his servants. You know, John could have put it any number of ways, his saints, his children, his redeemed ones, his church, his sheep. But here, the word that is chosen is saying significant to show unto his servants. We're designated Christ slaves, which is consonant with the idea that this prophecy has been given to keep, to obey. The Master has spoken. The Master has shown us the way. He's given us a view of how we should see history and how we should live in terms of it. And he wants us to be his slaves now and to keep it. They're imperial orders from the king to the servants of the king. I find it fascinating that in Romans, chapter one, verse one, Paul calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ. But in verse five of that epistle, it says the purpose of his slavery is the obedience of faith in all the nations. I'll give you a little hint about the Book of Revelation. If you read it and understand it, you'll see that has the same purpose. We are servants for the sake of the obedience of faith in all the nations. God wants you to see history a certain way. Because if you start seeing it that way, you're going to go out and do something. You're going to become more evangelistic, you're going to become more confident, you're going to become more holy in your behavior. You're going to want to bring all areas of life into submission to Jesus Christ, to advance his glory and kingdom in this world. If you see history the way John sees history, by the revelation of God, the obedience of faith is going to come in all the nations. And this is consistent with Matthew 28:18. Jesus says, all authority and power has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore what? Therefore stand back and make charts of history. Therefore stand back and debate little prophetic tidbits. No. Therefore disciple the nations. If I'm the king, then get to work. If I'm the king, go into the world. If I'm the king, make all the nations my slaves. Revelation 1 speaks of the Revelation, the servants, the angel, and as John, all belonging to Jesus Christ because he's the Lord over all. The book of Revelation has been given to instead inspire us, not just in the midst of persecution, but through persecution. To victory. I think you should be ashamed of yourselves if you don't study the Book of Revelation. Let's pray. God, thank you for the wonderful, fascinating and encouraging book that you have given us here. The Revelation of your son, Jesus Christ, to John, to us. We thank you for the gift. We thank you for entrusting it to us. And we ask that you would make us faithful stewards of that gift. That we would not simply lock it up and shelve it and keep it for some day in the future, but that we would get real excited about reading it and understanding it and having our outlook and our vista changed. Lord, we know how prone we are to depression and we know how prone we are to disobedience. We ask that you would use this book in our lives to lift our spirits, to lift our sights, so that we'd see history. Not in some narrow way in terms of our present distress or our own individual circumstances, but we'd see history. As you see history and as you have declared that your son, Jesus Christ, will rule over the nations and his kingdom will be vindicated and it will know victory. Help us to see that in this book and help us to be stimulated to obedience. Works of submission to the King Jesus Christ, we pray you would make us truly his servants in this world, that we would know we don't serve ourselves, our own selfish interests, but we serve the desires of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, in whose name we pray. Amen.