{"id":7282,"date":"2020-11-09T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T11:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=7282"},"modified":"2020-11-08T20:25:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T02:25:12","slug":"revelation-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=7282","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1<\/sup>\u00a0The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God\u00a0\u00a0gave him\u00a0\u00a0to show to his servants\u00a0the things that must soon take place.\u00a0\u00a0He made it known by sending his angel to his servant\u00a0John,\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0who bore witness to the word of God and to\u00a0\u00a0the testimony of Jesus Christ, even\u00a0\u00a0to all that he saw.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it,\u00a0\u00a0for the time is near.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GREETING TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

4<\/sup>\u00a0John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from\u00a0\u00a0him\u00a0\u00a0who is and\u00a0who was and who is to come, and from\u00a0\u00a0the seven spirits who are before his throne,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is never enough to just say that God\u00a0is, or to just say that He\u00a0was, or to just say that He\u00a0is to come. As Lord over eternity, He rules the past, the present, and the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5<\/sup>\u00a0and from Jesus Christ\u00a0\u00a0the faithful witness,\u00a0\u00a0the firstborn of the dead, and\u00a0\u00a0the ruler of kings on earth. To\u00a0\u00a0him who loves us and\u00a0\u00a0has freed us from our sins by his blood\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0and made us\u00a0\u00a0a kingdom,\u00a0\u00a0priests to\u00a0\u00a0his God and Father, to him be\u00a0\u00a0glory and\u00a0\u00a0dominion forever and ever. Amen.\u00a07<\/sup>Behold,\u00a0\u00a0he is coming with the clouds, and\u00a0\u00a0every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail\u00a0on account of him. Even so. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul put it like this in Romans 5:8:\u00a0But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us<\/em>. The work of Jesus on the cross for us is God\u2019s ultimate proof of His love for you. He may give additional proof, but He can give no greater proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8<\/sup> “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God,  “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VISION OF THE SON OF MAN<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

9<\/sup>\u00a0I, John, your brother and\u00a0\u00a0partner in\u00a0\u00a0the tribulation and\u00a0\u00a0the kingdom and\u00a0\u00a0the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos\u00a0\u00a0on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0I was in the Spirit\u00a0on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice\u00a0\u00a0like a trumpet\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0saying,\u00a0\u00a0“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea behind these titles for Jesus is that He is\u00a0before\u00a0all things and will remain\u00a0beyond\u00a0all things.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12<\/sup>\u00a0Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw\u00a0\u00a0seven golden lampstands,\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0and in the midst of the lampstands\u00a0\u00a0one like\u00a0\u00a0a son of man,\u00a0\u00a0clothed with a long robe and\u00a0\u00a0with a golden sash around his chest.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.\u00a0\u00a0His eyes were like a flame of fire,\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and\u00a0\u00a0his voice was like the roar of many waters.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0In his right hand he held seven stars,\u00a0\u00a0from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and\u00a0\u00a0his face was like the sun shining\u00a0\u00a0in full strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we see in the picture his head and his hair white as snow, we understand the antiquity of his reign.\u201d (Spurgeon)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

17<\/sup> When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But  he laid his right hand on me,  saying, “Fear not,  I am the first and the last, 18<\/sup> and the living one.  I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and  I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19<\/sup> Write therefore  the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20<\/sup> As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and  the seven lampstands are the seven churches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7283,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7282\/revisions\/7283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}