Greeting the Seven Churches - Revelation 1:4

Welcome to Discern in the Times, where we remind you that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you've never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I encourage you to do so today. Otherwise, if you leave this out of life without having received Him, you will spend eternity in the lake of fire separated from God.

So will you please give your heart to Jesus Christ on today? We see the words there, grace and peace. Grace is the Greek method of greeting and peace is the Hebrew form of greeting.

Just like today, we see someone, we say hello or we say hi. And we see that here because the New Testament was written in the Greek and Hebrew language. And that is something that I point out to those who get hung up on translations, like, for example, saying the King James Version is the only valid translation. And I tell people that is not the original that the Bible was written in.

It was in Greek and Hebrew when we look at the New Testament. But it is our relationship with God that determines grace and peace. So what is your relationship with God today?

Again, I encourage you give your heart to Jesus Christ if you have never done so. And then we find in the text there who is and who was and who is to come. This is a reference to God the Father.

We see his eternal nature that is on display, existing in the past, present and future. And when we combine that with subsequent texts, we saw in verse four here, the seven spirits, and then we'll see in verse five, Jesus Christ. It acknowledges the Holy Trinity, the triune God as the source of the greeting. So it is important when we're looking at scripture to make a distinction as to if the reference to God is referring to God the Father, because it could also mean God the Son or it could mean God the Holy Spirit. We serve a triune God. And in verse five, the reference that I was referring to there, it says, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

So again, we see this greeting of grace and peace at being acknowledged, coming through our holy triune God. Again, the Trinity, the seven spirits, we see that reference there. Notice that the word spirits is capitalized in the New King James Version. One thing we have to understand is that the seven spirits refer to the seven fold work of the spirit, the Holy Spirit. And that is revealed in Isaiah Chapter number 11, verse two, which reads and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. So we see there again the seven fold work of the one Holy Spirit.

The first that we see in that text is the spirit of the Lord. Number two is the spirit of wisdom. Number three, the spirit of understanding.

Number four, the spirit of counsel. Five, the spirit of might. Six, the spirit of knowledge. And then seven, the spirit of the fear of the Lord. That is very important that we understand that when we look at this text, that it is referring to not seven spirits, but again, the seven fold work of the one Holy Spirit. The number seven is the number of perfection.

It is the number of completeness. Therefore, it is the number of God. And as we look in our world, it is not a coincidence that people say this number seven is the lucky number.

You hear it all the time. The lucky number seven people who go out gambling, they are hoping that the number seven shows up because they feel that number is lucky. So we, of course, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not believe in luck.

We know there's no such thing as that. What we know is that that number is significant because it is the number of God. It refers to, again, his perfection, his completeness. But the thing about it is even the world who is in rebellion to God, who tries to deny him, yet they still know there is something special about the number seven. And so therefore they recognize it because it again is the number of perfection, completeness, the number of God. And you see seven throughout the Book of Revelation for that very reason.

Seven spirits again does not mean seven holy spirits, but it is the seven ministries of the one Holy Spirit. And then again, Jesus Christ, our faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. So Jesus Christ, he died on the cross. He went to the grave and then he rose again on the third day as again, the firstborn from the dead. And if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you put your faith and trust in him, you too will rise from the dead one day when our Lord comes back for the church, when his believers, his followers are resurrected, he was resurrected as a first fruit. Then we who believe in him will be resurrected at his coming of the rapture. So that is going to do it for this week.

Thank you for tuning in. Please come back next week as we will continue with Revelation chapter number one, verses five and six. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel. And to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Discerning the Times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.