Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Let me be the first to say happy new year. Okay. Let me just throw that out there for you all. All right. So we're going from straight from Christmas just into jumping again on New Year's. I mean, I feel like it's okay to celebrate, but it's, we've still got like three days. All right, well, Merry Christmas, uh, and Happy New Year. Okay. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Yeah, the in between. The in between era. Yeah, this is a weird time, because the year's not over, but Christmas is over, and it's just that the week in between Christmas and New Year's, in some ways it feels like a dead week. Yeah, I guess it feels, what do you call that when you're in a space that's transitional? Is that, is that liminal? Is that what that, is that the word liminal? It might, might be. I'm unfamiliar. You're between two spaces. It feels like you're kind of, yeah, transitional. It's, I think the word is liminal. It feels like that. I love this time of year because the biggest holiday of the year is behind us, at least in terms of our cultural celebration. We know that the biggest one, technically speaking, would have to be the resurrection. We celebrate that the most, at least we should. But when it comes to cultural expectations, we celebrate Christmas the most. And so it feels like, okay, that's behind us. And now I'm looking forward to the future. I like the idea of sweet anticipation and the pregnant possibilities of a new year. Sweet anticipation and pregnant possibilities of the new that that was very eloquent. Thank you. Every now and then I'll say something. See, I see you threw the timer up on here so that I don't lose track, but I've also got a timer going myself sitting right next to me as well. Yeah, not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough. Okay. All right. I want to make sure, I want to make sure doubly, because even though you're technically still sick right now, I know that you possess within you the ability to, to go far longer than you anticipate. That's the, that's the pastor gift. So see, here's the thing. And this is maybe the sickness still lingering. I left my Bible with all my notes for the podcast at home. So we're just going, uh, we're shooting from the hip. Wow. It's like, Yeah, I guess it's like playing football without any pads. Yeah. Or going swimming in your pants. You know, one of the books in the Bible that is, at least it's easier to understand than all the other ones. Yeah, as long as it's, a good thing it's not a hard one or something. Like, Ephesians. It's only Revelation. Yeah, well speaking of, we should jump in. Revelation one through five. Let's do it. Uh, we're going to need a lot of relations written by john, uh, the same as the author of first, second and third john in the gospel. Uh, probably the last book that he wrote while exiled on the island of Patmos. And that would be where he would eventually die is in exile. Uh, the, the book is interesting because it's, As it opens up there the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show To his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant john So we have the the message of the book is mediated From the father it seems to the son and then from the son through an angel to john. So um, we we have a a bit of a Uh, a chain of custody, I guess of the, uh, the content here, uh, but it is the, the events concerning what is going to soon take place. What is, what is coming in the future? Uh, this is one of the more controversial books in the Bible. It's probably one of the books that is, is this one, Ezekiel, um, Song of Solomon, probably some of the least preached books. In in the bible just because of the nature of the content and uh different reasons for those this one probably similar to ezekiel It's just there's some confusing things in here And there's a lot of times where we read something in the book of revelation and kind of have to to Shrug our shoulders a little bit and say, okay. Well, we're not exactly sure what that means. Um, John is caught up in a vision and uh encounters The the glorified christ at the outset here in chapter one and is overwhelmed at the site. Um, You And he is yet told by this glorified Christ to write down the things that he is going to, uh, be shown and revealed. And initially here, it's a scene of the glorified Christ, uh, walking amongst these seven lampstands, which are seven churches, as we're going to find out in chapters two and three. The church is featured prominently in the first three chapters of the book of revelation. And then after that, really the church doesn't show up again, uh, until the latter chapters of the book of revelation, much of the middle of the book of revelation is absent or devoid of any direct reference to the church. And that's right, your thoughts on that. But, but I think that lends itself towards our view of a pre tribulational rapture of the church, that the church is not on the scene during a lot of what unfolds in the book of revelation. Absolutely, I have to agree with you on that. And in fact, that's one of the best arguments from silence that you'll ever hear. We're not there. You don't see the church mentioned. And clearly John has no problem mentioning the church by name. Some people will say, well, maybe he's using different terminology to talk about who, uh, what she's doing. You know, there's the terminology for the saints and the bride. And I think some of that's legitimate, but you're not going to see that really in full swing until the final few chapters where the church reappears. And it's evident who we're talking about here. Some of those in between, you have to speculate and draw some conclusions that I don't think are entirely helpful. And that's the thing, to your point, because this book is so challenging, it's one of those things like you want to measure twice, cut once. You want to Tread carefully on territory before you start making full throated endorsements of this or that. There's parts that are really clear, and those parts I think we'll be able to say, yeah, this is pretty evident. There's other parts we're going to say, well, maybe not. And it would be one of those situations where someone would say, well, the church is in the middle. Uh, it's just using different symbology or terminology to refer to her. I prefer to say, I think it's clear in the beginning she's here. Obviously the church in Ephesus, church in Smyrna, Pergamum, et cetera. And then it's clear that she's there in the back. Uh, the latter few chapters of Revelation. Yeah, as chapter one, uh, comes to an end, he does help, uh, helpfully define some things for us. He says in verse 20, As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, in the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the seven angels of these seven churches. When you hear angel, think messenger or prophet. Uh, pastor, maybe in our vernacular, even the, these are the pastors of these seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches themselves. So let's get into the, the seven churches here. The first one being the church in Ephesus, uh, chapter two, versus one through seven. This one is a church that has all of the doctrine and all of its, uh, doctrinal ducks lined up in a row. And yet it is missing a key element, and that is its devotion, its passion, its love for Jesus. It's lost its first love. Pastor, I've often said, I think this is a church we would find ourselves comfortable in. Your thoughts on the church in Ephesus and some of the similarities that we might need to look out for to church that Obviously, we love doctrine a lot at our church and value it and champion that in, in many ways. Yeah, I think verse four is our go to passage here. It says, This I have against you, Jesus says, that you have abandoned the love that you had at first. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. He assumes that there was an experience of this love for Christ early on. He says, Remember where from you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first. It's interesting because he ties in the idea of love and works together. So he says, You've abandoned the love that you had. Therefore, repent, turn from these things, confess them, forsake them, and do the works that you did at first, which I find to be an interesting, uh, dichotomy, an interesting comparison that love and works together. We often don't put these two pieces together in our understanding of love, but clearly God doesn't. So one of the things I think would be especially helpful for a church like us who might love Ephesus It's to be careful that your works are never devoid of love. Um, if push comes to shove, we have to do the work of Christ. And if it's from duty, then, oh, okay, I guess it's better to do it than to not do it. However, that's the bare minimum. We don't want love just to be, uh, to be an act of duty, but to be full of delight and joy in the one that we serve, the one whom we ultimately love. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, from here he goes to the second church, the, the church in Smyrna, and this one is unique amongst the seven. I think there's only one other one, uh, because there is no confrontation. There's no condemnation here in this letter. A lot of these letters have, Hey, here's what you're doing well, here's what you're not doing so well. And so here's the corrective for you, uh, with the church in Smyrna, he is commending them. He's commending their faithfulness. He's commending their endurance there. Um, And yet there's nowhere where he says, and, and yet, I have this against you. And so the church Samir is a one that, uh, is, is a good one for us to, to desire to be like, though, uh, they certainly were, were suffering quite a bit. And so that's, that's, uh, even instructive therein for us to think about the future of the church. Uh, it's not necessarily that he's writing to these churches and commending them for going, Hey, good job. Everything was easy and you're all good to go. He's saying. Things get difficult and they get hard and yet you've endured. And that's something to remind ourselves as well. These are historical churches that he's writing to here. There's different views of this, but some have argued that this represents church ages or different eras in the church. I think these were seven key historical churches located on a major trade route in Asia Minor there. And so John's writing to these churches, yes, to address specific situations within the churches, but also knowing that these letters that he's writing there or that Jesus is writing through John would get beyond the walls of these seven churches to other churches in the areas as well. Pergamum, uh, third church up. Uh, he is, uh, is here going to commend them saying you're, you've held fast my name. You haven't denied my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness. We don't know who Antipas is per se, but church history holds that he was a martyr, uh, perhaps even one who gave his life in a pretty. horrific way. Um, I guess we, we won't dive into that for sake of the younger ears that might be listening to the podcast, but, uh, this is a man who gave his life for his faith. And so the church there was, was suffering, um, and enduring, and yet they had some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam and who taught Balak to put a stone in the back before the sons of Israel, uh, pastor Rod, what is the, the teaching of Balaam and Balak here? And how do we need to look out for that in, in our bits today? Numbers 25 is the text that you have to recall and sometimes it's hard with a text like this or with a, uh, with a plan like this because I don't even know the last time we were in number 25. It must have been February, March of last year. Do you recall even when we were in numbers? I don't know. You're looking at your thing right now. Do you, do you have it? Yeah, that was, uh, March 5th. March. Yeah. Okay, March of last year. So we'll hit it again March, March of this year. But if with the same situation like this, here's what I would recommend because this is what I had to do. When I'm going through a text and I recall, I vaguely recall, Oh, yeah, Bala, the talking donkey and he was hired. He was a prophet for hire that was used to to prophesy or utter curses against Israel. And so Uh, one of these things that I would suggest you do is write down the text in your Bible and then go back and read it. Even if it's just a brief overview of what you're seeing there, that's going to be helpful as you think about what's being referenced here. In fact, John does a lot of this. He's drawing on a lot of Old Testament narrative. Some of it is, you know, illusions that are subtle, and some of it is obvious. Here, for instance, it's obvious. He's talking about, um, he's talking about the, uh, the situation in number 25, the teaching of Balaam, this prophet for hire. And therefore, uh, one of the things that you're going to need to do as you make your way through this text is to give yourself a little more time than what you'd ordinarily Ordinarily planned for because you're going to need time to go back in your bible and say, okay Remind me lord of what that situation was and try to derive the point that john's trying to make out of that So that's briefly it you know, you remember this section the zeal of phineas. He's the one who well, uh, let's keep it pg He did the thing killing the people with the because of the situation. We all know what we're talking about Hopefully so but anyway idolatry is really what's going on there. Yeah false prophecy Exactly. Yeah. Next church up is the church in Thyatira. And again, there's, there's some that's good there. I know your work, your love, your faith, your service, your patient endurance, but I have this against you. You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and yet is seducing and so forth and so on. So the, the problem here was immorality, impurity that had crept into the church. And so there was, there was a holding fast, um, in some, some commendable things, some good things, and yet it had been tainted by this immorality that had crept into the church as well. And so he is threatening the church here. And that's something worth noting here that That these are our threats against the church's continued existence. Like you go to Ephesus today, guess what? You're not going to find, you're not going to find first Baptist church of Ephesus anymore. Ephesus, they apparently didn't heed the words of Christ here because he came and removed the lamp stand. And that's, that's the threat that's uttered in. It's not a, an empty threat. It's not vain. Uh, he's going to come in and actually do this. And yet the flip side is he holds out the promise of reward, like in verse 26 of, of this letter to. That's IRA there to 26, the one who conquers and who keeps my works till the end to him. I will give authority over the nations. So, um, there, there's this promise of reward, but also this threat. If the church doesn't turn around and get it to act together next up, we have Sardis. The angel of the Sardis, uh, to the angel of the church in Sardis, right? Uh, and he he has this greeting and each of these churches has a unique greeting that has to do with their situation But here he's saying you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wait Excuse me, wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die Um, that's another terrifying one If if ephesus is terrifying to to major in doctrine and in miss the devotion miss the love for christ You This one's frightening to do, and that is to just ride the coattails of a former reputation of a former vitality of saying, man, this was a really strong church, and it kind of rides that until it can't anymore. And it's it's fading because it's not shoring up the defenses. It's not continually making sure that it's has godly leaders in place and and a culture of godliness and and steeped in the word of God throughout the time. So Sardis is another sobering one for sure. Philadelphia is, I think, the only other church that does not have confrontation, um, here. And so, again, he's writing to a church that is suffering and saying that there are those of the Synagogue of Satan, probably the Jews persecuting the church there, the Judaizers, And he's going to come and exact vengeance upon those that are threatening this church there in philadelphia But philadelphia is another church That is commendable because there is nothing there that jesus calls out and says this is wrong And you need to correct this particular issue. All right laodicea everybody's favorite church This is the church of being vomited being thrown up being puked out of the mouth of jesus uh hot or cold and for the longest time I understood this as Jesus would either you be hot, meaning on fire for Christ or cold, meaning he would rather you just reject him outright than play a game by straddling the fence. But when I actually studied and preached on this a while back, it came up in my study that that this was actually the cold was positive and the hot was positive. The cold was the refreshing streams that were nearby Laodicea in the region of Colossae. And the hot was the warm, the hot springs that were also in that region. And they would both provide their own benefits for different ways. And so the, the angel here is not saying, I would rather you reject Christ than be neutral. He's saying, I'd rather you do something, contribute some way, be positive as a presence as a church, rather than just being kind of passive in, in not doing anything. And that's why, because they're stagnant, they don't want to, Jesus doesn't want anything to do with them. He says, look, if you don't get hot or get cold, I'm going to be done with you. I'm going to spit you out of my mouth as you would stagnant water. If you were to take a big swill of, uh, of a cup of stagnant water. So I think the idea then, uh, the application is still the same. God doesn't want us to be lukewarm. Uh, but maybe the starting place is, is something that we could try. Take a lesson from cold, good, hot, good. Would that you were helpful to the church in some way, shape, or form. Would that you had some productivity, some vitality, but if you're lukewarm, if you're just kind of skirting around the edges and playing church, uh, that's something that Jesus is going to spit out because neither one is being affected. You're not hot. You're not cold. You're just this tepid, stale water that nobody wants. Well, chapter four, the scene shifts, uh, to the throne room in heaven. And John gets a view of. of the throne and the one seated upon the throne has the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian in around the throne is a rainbow in there's 24 thrones around there with 24 elders. These appear to be the representatives of the church around the throne of God here in there's rumblings and there's the four living creatures. There's so much here that that shares a lot of imagery with Ezekiel and the vision of the glory of God that we find there in the book of Ezekiel as well. And John is seeing this and it's a scene of worship in in glorifying God and then in chapter 5 He sees this lamb and he sees an another angel with a scroll and The scroll is sealed and no one is able to break the seals and John begins to weep thinking that that he's not gonna find out or know why or what the scroll contains until It's pointed out that the lamb is worthy, uh, to break the seals, to take the scroll and break the seals. And that lamb, of course, is Jesus, the lamb standing as though he was slain. And he's the one that's going to be worthy to break the seals. And what's taking place here is this is the beginning of the judgment that is going to be poured out upon the earth and upon the earth. Upon those that have rejected Christ. And so Jesus is the judge. We've been talking about that in John That he has been given the right and the authority to judge by the Father And so as a result of that He is the one worthy to take the scroll of judgment and begin to break the seals and the seal judgments unleash The rest, the trumpet judgements, the bold judgments, all of these things that take up the rest of the book of Revelation. But John sees this scene as, as everything shifts away from the church, now it's shifting into this period of judgment, like we talked about at the beginning. The church is gonna be off the scene for quite a while until it shows up again later on in the book, but for now, he's about to turn to, this is what's gonna happen during the time of what we know is the the tribulation period. So it seems like from chapters four, really through the end of the book, you're looking at what we believe to be the future of things to come. John kind of adds his own little, I guess it'd be an outline, where he says in verse 19 of chapter 1, write therefore the things that you have seen, what he's gonna see here, those that are to come. Those that are and those that are about to take place after this. And so you have kind of a rough and dirty outline. Here's the things that are, here's how the churches are doing. And here's are the things that are going to take place after this. So in chapters one, two, and three, what we're looking at is basically a, the state of the church state of the union address and pastor John writing from his, his exiled Island. Is sending these letters to churches that he probably knew pretty well. He probably pastored in the area, if not in Ephesus itself, then in and around these areas. These are all churches in the same western region of Asia minor, now modern day Turkey. Chapters four or five and onward, we're looking at future events. And the question that we have to answer here is in what order do these events take place? And there's a few clues that give us insight into this. Tomorrow when we get into our, when we get back into the text, we're going to look at the seven trumpets, um, which contain or rather the seven seals, which contain The seven trumpets, which contain the seven bowl judgments. That's kind of the way that I've been able to wrap my mind around this book, and kind of put it in a sequence of sorts. There's a few chapters in between, though, that cause me to say, hmm, what's happening here? We'll cover those when we get there, but this is an exciting thing to go through. The Bible says it's of itself in chapter one here, blessed are those who read this prophecy, right? And then you have the end, where John is given that same commendation. This is, this is a blessed thing to go through. So even though this is hard, and it's hard for us too, Probably for different reasons, but even though this is hard, this is well worth your time. Well done. You're almost at the finish line in just a few days. We're going to be done with the whole Bible. That's pretty amazing. It's crazy. What a good, what a good investment, worthwhile investment for sure. In fact, on that note, show up at church tomorrow and find out why the Bible is the single greatest resource you have to make 2025 your best year yet. Wow. We're going to be looking at that from the book of Hebrews, actually. Oh, Hebrews. My favorite coffee. Yes. Common grounds. Serving Hebrews is right. All right, y'all. Well, let me pray and then we'll be done. God we we pray for wisdom and understanding as we study such a heady book a difficult book to understand like revelation with a lot that we simply just have to Acknowledge we won't fully know until you tell us Unfold these things, and we are watching from heaven with you is as you unfold your judgment on earth. God, we tremble at the thought of of that time, especially for those that we know that don't know you as savior yet. We pray that you would save them, redeem them so that they are. With us as well at that time and not objects of your wrath at that time So use us in any way possible to make that happen. We pray in jesus name. Amen. Amen Keep reading your bibles tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily bible podcast. We're almost done. Happy new year