Sermon Central
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The Be Happy Blessings Of Revelation Pt 7 Series
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Dec 8, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus is coming back for His church and for us to be a part of this return we must follow the words of this prophetic book. We must live by them and keep true to them because this will lead right into Heaven.
“The Be Happy Blessings of Revelation” - part 7
Key Scripture Verse: The 6th Blessing - Revelation 22:7:
7“Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.”
Thesis: Jesus is coming back for His church and for us to be a part of this return we must follow the words of this prophetic book. We must live by them and keep true to them because this will lead right into Heaven.
Video Clip: Rediscover the Bible
7“Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.”
Introduction:
The Words of this prophecy: What does this text refer to?
To the book of Revelation?
To the entire Bible?
This message is for the readers of Revelation – no doubt- but it is also for the readers and followers of the entire Bible –this letter was placed by the Holy Spirit at the end of the Bible for a divine purpose. It is there to remind all of us to keep our focus on Jesus – to be assured that yes He really is coming back in spite of the world’s mockery of “Where is He?” Many in the world say He was suppose to be back 1,000 of years ago.
They mock us with statements like the following:
“He’s late!”
“There is no way He is coming back – he is dead!”
“I cannot believe that you an intelligent human being still believes in that fairytale!”
This week I stumbled on to a You-tube video mocking Jesus statement that he will be back – they were singing, “He is not coming back quit deceiving yourself.” He’s not coming back! He’s not coming back! I must admit it caused a grieving in my spirit.
Let’s think about the magnificent dimensions of the Bible: It’s not like any other book ever written or presented to the societies of this world past, present or even in the future:
(The following points from http://thewaytogod.info/e.uniqueness.bible.html).
1. The Uniqueness of its Composition
The Bible is comprised of 66 separate books, and it was written over a period of at least 1.500 years by more than 40 authors who for the most part didn’t know each other personally.
The writers of the Bible came from different social and occupational backgrounds (for example Moses – political leader, educated in Pharao’s palace; Joshua – general; Solomon – king; Amos – shepherd; Nehemiah – cup-bearer; Daniel – politician; Peter – fisherman; Luke – physician; Matthew – tax-collector).
The authors of the Bible wrote in completely different geographic environments and under different circumstances (for example Moses – in the desert; Jeremiah – in a prison; David – in the mountains and in his palace; Paul – in prison; Luke – during his journeys; John – during his exil on Patmos).
They wrote in different states of mind – one in a state of great joy, the other in a state of mourning and despair.
The Bible was composed on three different continents (Asia, Africa and Europe) and in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek).
2. The Uniqueness of its Thematic (thesis) Unity
Unity in its objective: Although the Bible was written by about 40 different authors during a period of at least 1.500 years and although these writers lived on three different continents and belonged to various cultures, the Bible has a unifying objective. The main theme is to give answers to these basic questions:
Who is God?
Who is man?
Is there a possibility for a relationship between God and man, and if so – how? Through Jesus Christ!
The Bible wants to lead man to God (cf. John 20:31 and 2 Timothy 3:14-17).
Unity in its contents: The whole book is about one central figure – Jesus Christ. Basically, the complete Old Testament points to this Person, be it through metaphors or be it through direct prophecies. The New Testament shows us the fulfillment of these prophecies and the meaning and the consequences of the coming of Christ.
• To illustrate this point: If we take 100 trillion silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas, they would be two feet deep. Now we mark one of these silver dollars and thoroughly stir the whole mass--all over the state. Now blindfold a man and let him travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick only one silver dollar.
What chance would he have of picking the marked one? The same chance that the prophets would have of writing just eight of these prophecies and having them all come true for any one man if they had written them without God’s inspiration!
• The chance of any one man’s fulfilling all of 48 prophecies is one in ten to the 157th power. The electron is about as small an object as we can imagine. If we had a cubic inch of these electrons and tried to count them, it would take us (at 250 per minute) 19,000 times 19,000 times 19,000 years to count them.
