Sermon Central
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Blessings From The Prophetic Word Series
Contributed by Mike Rickman on Mar 11, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: There is a blessing that comes from reading and hearing this book.
March 12, 2017
Morning Worship
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:9
Subject: Lessons from the Book of Revelation - Part 1
Title: Blessings From the Prophetic Word
I just finished reading through the whole bible again. In my reading routine it takes me about seven months to read through. It is amazing at no matter how many times I read through the bible there are always new things that I see that I never noticed before. As I was finishing in these past few weeks I was finishing up with the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament but I was reading through Revelation one chapter at a time. And as I was reading I felt that the Lord was prompting me to pay close attention and learn some lessons from what I was reading and not just gather information.
9However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
Today I want to begin a series on Lessons from the Book of Revelation. I want us to go through and see some things about the end times that can help us right now in our walk with the Lord. Isn’t that what preaching should be about? So as we go through – and probably not the whole book – but maybe – we will ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.
1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3Blessed is the one who reads 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.
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
I will appropriate it to my life today…
And I ask you Holy Spirit to reveal God’s purpose for our lives today.
The first thing we have to see is that God intends to reveal Jesus to us as He did to John. The word revelation in the original language…
apokalupsis (ap-ok-al'-oop-sis) n.
1. disclosure
KJV: appearing, coming, lighten, manifestation, be revealed, revelation
It comes from the root word that means to take the cover off… to make something seen.
What is it that He wants to reveal to us? Jesus Christ! So if we look at the Greek word apokalupsis and the various ways it is translated in the bible we see that God desires the coming of Jesus, the appearing, the lightening, the manifestation… of Jesus be made known to us.
1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place
This revelation – the mystery made known – is for a purpose… to show his servants what soon must take place.
Now, this can take on a variety of meanings depending on one’s understanding or theology of the end times events.
Some believe that the events spoken of in Revelation and Daniel have already taken place with the Battle of Armageddon culminating with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.
Some believe that the Rapture of the church and the Millennial Reign of Christ are only symbolic and that most of the language used in Daniel and Revelation is merely symbolism.
But the simple words in verse 1 make it pretty clear that the Lord was showing John who in turn wrote for us by the Holy Spirit things that would happen, and since those things have not happened yet we know that they must be future and literal events.
So everything that we see written in this book contains valid information for believers. And came to John by an angel…
He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Now look at the two key parts of what this revelation to John is about… the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now we can take this two ways.
1) John in his gospel tells us John 1:1 (NIV2011)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So John’s emphasis is on the reality of the human Jesus, the Son of God who walked the earth. He heard Him and he saw Him.
2) Or the emphasis is on the written and spoken Word of God given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and everything that Jesus said and did.
