God's Storytellers - Part 2 - Biblical Background

And as I started to read Revelation 12, I started getting excited. And sometimes we get excited because we see what we want to see in the Bible, and sometimes it's not there. And sometimes we get excited because we see what we want to see in the Bible because it is there. And as I was looking at Revelation 12, I saw something that really got me excited. Okay, here's a bit from Revelation 12, right at the end. There's only 18 verses in that book, so, in that chapter. So this is the second to last one. And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children, all who keep God's commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus. The word— we know what it means to keep God's commandments. We focused in on that as Adventists and help people to understand what does it mean to keep all the commandments. But what does it mean to maintain their testimony for Jesus? The word testimony is quite a common word in our society. We have a conception of what it is, because we use it in church lingo to mean to get up and tell your Jesus story, how you met Jesus, or how Jesus has done something in your life. But most people, if you say testimony, they think courtroom. They think somebody getting up, giving a testimony, saying, "This is what happened, I saw it." It's the story from their perspective. Your testimony is going to be different than my testimony, because I was on a different side of the street. A testimony is a story. It's the way you saw things. And so, the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children. All who keep God's commandments and maintain the story of Jesus. Now what's interesting is just before this in Revelation— so first of all, Revelation 12:17 tells us how to identify God's end-time people. The identity of their people is locked up in this: they keep God's commandments and they're telling the story of Jesus. But what saves them? How are we saved? By the blood of the Lamb. We're saved by grace alone, aren't we? And they have defeated him, that's the dragon, by the blood of the Lamb and— no, you can't have an and. Well, what does it say? They've defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. Do you know in the Greek these two different testimonies, they're the same word, but the other combining word, Jesus' testimony, their testimony, Very different. Jesus' testimony is what I have to say about what happened to Jesus. My testimony is what I have to say about what happened to me. And so when we combine those two and say they're identified because they keep the commandments and they can explain what happened to Jesus, they can tell the Jesus story. But, but how are they saved? They're saved because Jesus matters to them. The blood of the Lamb has been poured out for them, and it's their story. And they tell it. And so the identifying mark of God's end-time people is that they are his storytellers. They are the ones testifying about Jesus. Now, as Adventists, we have Revelation 19:10, and we're really good at understanding prophecy. And I think we've— you know, if you look at what John Pauline's written and the studies he's done, you just— and I can't remember how to say the other guy's name, but there's another guy who's written a big book, a big new one, just just come out in the ABC. It's probably back there, um, called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you have that one? Fantastic. Um, if you have half of a $100 bill in your pocket, um, but it's worth it. Um, I've got a copy and I've read the Revelation 12 section right through, and that's where I got that idea of the two different kinds of testimonies. But one of the things that I've noticed about Adventist understanding, about our understanding of Revelation and of all prophecy, is we're really good at saying what it means But sometimes we lock ourselves in and say, "That's what it means." And we don't see the bigger picture. And as I started looking at it as narrative, things started happening to me. This is what we call a key text because it unlocks a definition. We say, "What is the testimony of Jesus?" We read it in Revelation 12:17, "The testimony of Jesus." What is that? We go to Revelation 19:10, it says, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." And so we say, "Well, there we go." And if you look in the NIV or the King James or the New King James, they all put it exactly like that. I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "Don't do it. I'm a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus." We all have the story of Jesus in common. "Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Have a look at what the New Living Translation does with this phrase. "For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus." Is that true of all prophecy? It is all true prophecy, biblical prophecy. All gives us a better picture of who Jesus is, what Jesus' plan is. And if we look at this and unpack the meaning of that for the testimony of Jesus as the spirit of prophecy in this way, for the essence of prophecy, not doing away with the NIV or the King James, but just combining it with this story-based one of the New Living Translation, what is at the heart of prophecy? What's the very core, the essence of prophecy? It's to give that clear witness of Jesus. These are they who keep the commandments and have the testimony of Jesus. A clear witness of Jesus is the gift of prophecy. Now, and having the clear witness for Jesus identifies God's end times people. But as we start looking around the Bible and say, well, if that's how God wants his people to be, is it just something new? Is it us now, that we're God's storytellers? You know, when God first gave the Ten Commandments, And there's Exodus 20, but it's also recorded in Deuteronomy chapter 5. The people listened in Deuteronomy 5. They heard the commandments. God spoke them. And it was so terrifying for them that they said to Moses, "Could you not let him do that anymore? Can you ask God to, from now on, just speak to you, and then you can tell us what he said?" And Moses said, "Oh, okay, I'll go talk to God about it." So he went and said, "What do you think?" And God said, "Yes." He said, "Okay, we can do that. Moses, you go." You can be my mediator. You can be a prophet. I will speak through you to the people on one condition. And here's the condition. This is the way the people have to accept and use the truth. You must love the Lord your God. So Moses comes back and says, God's happy to speak to me, or through me, to you. But he said this for you guys. But you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves. Why do you think he's saying this? He's saying, don't be disconnected from me because I'm not speaking to you anymore. Don't just let Moses have a personal relationship with me. You have a personal relationship. Keep it alive. And he keeps going. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home. And when you're on the road, when you're going to bed, and when you're getting up, tie them to your hands, wear them on your forehead as reminders, write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. God says, okay, I'll speak to Moses on one condition. Parents, tell your children. Teachers, tell the parents. Pastors, speak it. Everybody has to be spokesman because I don't want you just saying What's God's will? Let's go ask the prophet. I want you to be able to recognize that God's story is still your story, and you need to be telling it. So right from the Exodus, God has said, "My people are telling my story." And as you look through the Old Testament, one thing that's very clear is the people around Israel knew their story. Even if Israel forgot it, and forgot who God was, and what the Sabbath was, and all those kind of things, the people around them knew. And they said, "These are the people that came out of Egypt and God opened the Red Sea and knocked Jericho down and food fell out of the sky for them." The stories were vivid for the people around them because they did this. They repeated them again and again to their children. And when you think about this today, basically what God's saying is, "Talk about me in reference to everything." If you go through a door, say to your kids, "You know, Jesus said, 'I am a door.'" How could Jesus be like a door? Kids are amazing. Just like I showed you with the children's story, the Revelation story, they understand it. You say, "How's Jesus like a door?" They'll say, "Because we have to go through Him to get to Jesus, to get to heaven." Yeah. You sit down on a chair. "How's Jesus like a chair?" "Well, because when we sit in His arms, we can really rest." Yeah. You know, "How's Jesus like a wall?" "Well, because He keeps us strong and He holds the roof up." All kinds of things. Kids can just see spiritual things. And the more you ask questions and the more you say to them, Jesus is here, Jesus is involved in this, and you constantly are telling the story, repeating them again and again to your children, and tying them to your actions, wearing them in your thoughts, writing them on the doorposts of your house, anywhere that you can so that kids recognize that this is our story.