Revelation 1:1-3 | A Study of Revelation

Justin here and I'm so glad you're back with us to engage further in the book of Revelation. And it's so exciting to me to think through the word of God and especially this prophetic work in the Book of Revelation. As we jump into our time today, we're going to be in Revelation chapter one and Shameless Plug as we get ready to go. My shirt today is my other YouTube channel with my son Camden called Brown dad Brown Boy Adventures. And it's on YouTube and as well as on TikTok. So please go take a look on TikTok or Brown dad Boy Adventures. And on YouTube we are brown dad Brown Boy Adventures where I'm a black father with an amazing black son and we do some amazing things everywhere we go. Everything we do is just a fun time to engage and I think it'll be the funnest and most, I don't know, creative and my son is awesome. And I think you'll love taking a look at our adventures. If you're a parent you want to see and please go like and subscribe our other channel, Brown Dad Brown Boy Adventures. And I think you guys will enjoy the work we do on there. We're going to continue our journey in the Book of Revelation. And now we're in the scriptures of the book of, of Revelation. Revelation chapter one. Let me, as we do that, let me remind you of the big idea of the Book of Revelation. Revelation reveals to us who Jesus is, his power, his plans. And John uses poetry and symbolism and imagery to describe what will happen when Jesus returns to earth, the ongoing battle between good and evil, what eternity will be like for Christians and non Christians alike. We talked about this as we over we did our general overview of the Book of Revelation where we saw the importance of the general pieces of the story of Revelation, why was written, where John was, what John was up to, what John was doing, and mainly not just what John was doing, but what Jesus was trying to get to us through John. And so today we're going to actually go to the Scriptures. So if you have your Bibles come up on the screen as well. We're looking at Revelation chapter one, verses one through three. And we're going to walk through the first couple verses of Revelation. Are you ready? Let's do it. Revelation, chapter one, verses one through three. The revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testified to everything he saw. That is the word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of his prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it. Because the time is near. So let's, let's just break it down. You ready? So verse one, it's apocalyptic. Apocalypsos Christus is the way the text is written. The revelation is the unveiling of the disclosure, if you will, of Jesus Christ. This whole book, when you see it in your Bible, is going to say the revelation of John. The first words literally tell us it's not the revelation of John, it's the revelation from Jesus Christ given to John. Revelation is at the heart of a word, just means to disclose something. So really what Jesus is doing is fully disclosing himself. And so what is it giving us? The Gospels give us the account of Jesus, death, burial and resurrection, that he came to pay for your sin and pay for my sin. We get that in the Beatitudes, the commissioning of the disciples, the upper room, all the type of stuff. That's great information. But if you're wondering what's next, that's the book of revelation. So verse 2 says God through Jesus Christ, communicated by his angel. So who is this angel? Now we simply, we don't know who the angel is in the text. Some suggest we different types of angels and because of references to the book of Daniel. But here's what I want you to understand. It doesn't matter who the angel is. The broader point is this. John was given a message to communicate about Jesus. And what he's showing us is that what does it mean to be a disciple? Right? John is showing us that the willingness to, to communicate the message of Jesus. And that is disciples receive the revelation of Jesus and are willing to communicate it really at any cost. And what John is showing us is three things about disciples. Number one, disciples are servants of Jesus. Number two, disciples are willing indentured bond servants. And number three, disciples are willing to make themselves a slave to Christ. So what this is is the definition of a disciple, right? A disciple is a bond servant of Jesus. He's our master. We're not our own master. The Gospel isn't about my kingdom, my empire, my plans, my goals, my dreams. The Gospel is not some quick fix book you go to just to get something to make yourself feel better. The Gospel is about a maturing Christian who understands that this is about me serving a savior, that my life was bought with a price and I'm to honor the one who bought it and redeemed me from hell. So I'm willingly enslaving myself. So my question to you today is, are you a servant of Christ or are you trying to be Christmas? And the way that we find this is through testimony right? Now, I don't know about you, but maybe your church happened at mine where like we get to testimony time. And it's like everybody gets King James like these, thou stained glass and 1920s. Because we hear that testimony is good for the soul but bad for the reputation. But I think because we've done testimony wrong, right? We hear the whole scripture, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony. All of a sudden it's like, we gotta pray in these and thou's of stained glass. And it's annoying. Here's what testimony is. Have you ever been deposed as a witness in court and they're asking you three questions. What have you seen, what have you heard, and what do you know? That's your testimony. So I think we need to reframe testimony from the lingo of Christians and not Christians, church people. Testimony is not spilling your guts. Testimony is telling people about your relationship with Jesus because of what you've seen, because of what you've heard, and because of what you know. I'll show you in Scripture. One John one, one that is which. That that was that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we've looked at and our hands have touched. We proclaim concerning the word of life, who was I before Jesus? Who am I with Jesus? And because I know Jesus, I want you to know him too. In essence, what testimonies do. What Jesus was giving to John was a testimony of his time with Jesus. I am changed. I didn't do it myself. And what John is showing us is testimony brings conviction. Because when God said, I'm taking you from death to life, when he brought you out of sin, here's what he did. He gave you a conscience. Now I'm aware of my sin. I'm aware of how arrogant, how proud, how stupid I was without Jesus. And I feel miserable about the life I live without Jesus. And now I'm grateful for the life that the Holy Spirit convicted me to have. And I want to stay there. A lot of us have good stories but don't have a testimony. What John says is my testimony is not anything the world can take from you. I am an eyewitness to Jesus. And whoever reads these words cannot shake it from me. Because this is the truth about Jesus. Matter of fact, let's go to Revelation 12, verse 11. Let's read the text. Look at the text. Revelation 12, verse 11. And they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives until the death. They defeated Satan through Christ's atonement, testimony, the word there, the truth. Literally, they trusted the truth about Jesus, these individuals. In Revelation, chapter 12, they declared the belief in the truth, even the pains of martyrdom. And it was by this they overcame their enemy, that is, by the belief, and the Gospel was established and maintained in the world. The reference here is to the effects of persecution and the efforts of Satan to drive religion from the world by means of persecution. John says that the result is he saw in a vision that the persecuted church bore a faithful testimony to the truth and that the great enemy Satan was overcome. And they did not so love their lives. They were unwilling to die as martyrs. They did not shrink back when they were threatened by death, but they remained firm in their attachment to Jesus and they left their dying testimony to the truth and the power of religion. It was by these means that Christianity was established in the world. So my question to you is, do you trust the truth about Jesus? That's your testimony. When we have testimony time, it's not spilling your guts. It's telling the truth on Jesus. What have you heard, what have you seen? And what did he do that gets us to verse three? Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. So then John ends this statement which he read and he kept. And he reads it and says, read it, heed it, obey it, and you'll be blessed. Look carefully. There are three features of the one who reads, and it's singular in this one little detail. He who reads it at the time it was written to the ghosts of the seven churches in counterclockwise fashion, reading the letter, there's no machine for people to scan it. There's no way to put this on social media. There's no email, there's no text. Literally. It was written, given to people. Whoever reads the scroll, the one that John wrote is, is blessed. Number two. Those who hear it. Now, this is plural. So he who reads it, singular. Those who hear it is plural. Who's who are those who hear it? The audiences of the seven churches who hear it. And then he says, lastly, those who obey it. This is written in present tense, so I want you to see this, he who reads it, singular. Those who hear it, plural. Those who listen or obey it, present tense plural. It's ongoing. Because obedience is not singular. Obedience is continual. This leads me to look at and reference Revelation 22, verse number 10. It says these words and he said to me, do not seal the words of this prophecy in this book, for the time is near, like Jesus is creating anticipation. This is a future happening right now. I think one of the problems they have with scriptures we talk about is that the times were imminent. I think the disciples thought Jesus was going to return in their lifetime and we have every indication that he was going to. So when John was on Patmos transcribing this by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, I think he thought he would see Jesus in his lifetime. Because remember, time is human, but when we see time here, it's human. We don't know because God is not moving on our time. So here's what Revelation chapter one, verse one through three, I think can apply to our lives. Number one, your life is not your own. We were bought with a price. We are slaves to a master, a good and kind master. Our life is his and not our own. And we're to live for his glory and honor, not for our kingdom and empire. What this does is establishes God's divine authority and the author tells us it's the very word of God. We have been so deluded. I believe in reading scripture that we are not consumed with who really gave this to us. Jesus told us the truth about himself, the Christ who is the king of kings and lords of lords, who's coming back again. That's the great love of Jesus. He loves you, yet he'll tell you the truth about him so you don't have to wonder how to love. Jesus literally tells you how to and love doesn't lie. Jesus says, I'm committed to the best parts of you. I'm committed to helping you see who you are clearly and giving you brand new life. Jesus says, this is revelation. I'm giving you the future. And what we and what you see is living a life outside of God's best is not the best for you. It doesn't matter if you're outside of God's will. Being outside of God's will is being outside of God's will. So when you have people who tell you like, I'm outside the will of God and I'm okay because God loves us. No, no, no, no. Jesus told you what love in the future looks like. Jesus says, you are bought with a price. You are slaves to a master, a good and kind master. Your life is his, not your own. And we live for his glory. We honor his kingdom and not our empire. Do you trust the truth of what Jesus says? That you live at a different standard, that you've been loved, you've been corrected, you have a conscience and you realize life is better because you're walking with Jesus. That's it. That's Revelation, chapter one, verses one through three. And I pray that it encourages you to trust the truth about Jesus, to know that what Jesus said is true, what Jesus thinks is real, and what Jesus wants for you is his absolute best. Come back next Thursday. We're going to be continuing and we're actually going to jump into the seven letters that Jesus wrote to the seven churches in Asia Minor. And we're going to jump into reading seven letters all in counterclockwise fashion to hear exactly what Jesus had to say to the seven churches. So please like this, please subscribe and please share it. There's a lot of work that goes into getting these out, whether that's the video or the research or constructing it. I want to give you the Scriptures verse by verse, and I pray that this is encouraging you to be who God's called you to be. So please, like, please subscribe, share it with someone and tune in next Thursday as we continue our journey and this time, jump into the letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Until then, know this. You're amazing. I'll see you soon. God bless you.