At the first coming, he's a baby in a manger, nowhere to lay his head, humble servant, not in time number two. Dr. Tony Evans says the Bible paints a different picture for the second coming of Christ. He is coming back as king of the earth without apology.
When he comes back, he's taking over. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. It's been said that a smart person learns from their own mistakes, but a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. Today, Dr. Evans kicks off a study in the book of Revelation, beginning with an overview of the book, and then moving on to an examination of the biblical letters written to the first century church, each of them with important observations that should serve as reminders for us today.
Let's join him as he begins. Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the most difficult book of the Bible, difficult because of its symbolisms and because of its subject matter. The subject matter is prophecy.
Its symbolisms are all through the book, and even though you may not technically understand it all, it still is a book that cannot be taken lightly. In fact, go all the way to the end of the book, and you'll see how seriously God takes the book of Revelation. He says in chapter 22, verse 18, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.
So this is a win-or-lose situation here. In other words, God takes seriously the book of Revelation. The subject matter of the book is in the first line of the first chapter. It says, The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
That's what the book is about. The word Revelation means unveiling or disclosure. So it's disclosing or unveiling Jesus Christ at his second coming. The Gospels give us Jesus Christ at his first coming. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John talk about Jesus Christ and his coming to earth the first time. The book of Revelation is concerned with the second coming of Christ when he is unveiled or made manifest or disclosed in things related to his second coming to earth, which God gave him to show to his bondservant the things which must soon take place. And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his servant John. So now we know who the author of the book is. It is John, the bondservant of Jesus Christ.
Let me just say a word here. You will regularly see the apostles referring to themselves as bondservants, writers of Scripture, slaves. That means a slave. The best way to get God to talk to you is to be a slave.
Because slaves have to listen to their master. The more humble you are that is dependent upon God and yielded to God, then the more data that's available to you. He testified to the Word of God, verse 2 says, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. So John is going to let us in on what he saw on this special occasion that led to the writing of this book. Why did I ask you to read the book? Because of verse 3. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy.
So I want you to read the book and then I want you to hear the book. And then the third thing is to heed the things which are written in it. So read it, hear it, and heed it. And he says you'll be blessed by it. For the time is near. You'll see the words near and soon. Words like that all coming in this realm of what we call immanency. That is the any time return of Jesus Christ.
There's a reason why those words are critical and we'll get to that. So John is writing in verse 4 to the seven churches. The seven churches that are in Asia.
Asia Minor we call it. The seven churches. So this prophetic word is given to the church. So even though it's words about the future, prophecy, it's word to the church about the future.
So he wants us to know now, as the church, what God's prophetic program is. All through the book of Revelation, you'll see the word seven this, seven that, seven this, seven that, seven this, seven that. Because the number seven is the number of completion. So when you see the word seven attached to something, which you will see it attached to many things in the book of Revelation, it is because he wants you to know about the completing of something, the fullness of that thing. So when he talks about I'm writing to the seven churches, he means he's writing to all churches. Seven representing the fullness, or this applies to any church, every church, all churches that are his church. He speaks of seven in terms of fullness. And so he says, that's who I'm writing to, and it's from him who is, who was, and is to come.
All right? Who is, who was, and who is to come. So God is all three.
He's yesterday, today, and tomorrow, because he's eternal. And from the seven spirits who are before the throne. Well, if it's seven spirits, it's the complete. So it's the fullness of the spirit. So really you have the Trinity. You got Jesus Christ, you got God who was, and is, and is to come. And then you have the seven or fullness of the Holy Spirit.
So you have a Trinitarian analogy given there, all tied to the throne or the rule of God. And that's why he brings in, in verse five, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead. Why is he the firstborn from the dead? Because having resurrected from the dead, firstborn from the dead, he is the first of a whole company of people, you and me, who will also rise from the dead as part of our resurrection as his children. So he's the firstborn. He's the lead-off guy when it comes to resurrection. And the ruler of the kings of the earth, bringing in that kingdom thing, he is the ruler of the kings of the earth, which rulership will be made manifest in the book of Revelation at his return.
He is the ruler, not yet made manifest. So, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood. So therein is the saving message of the cross that belongs to every believer and every true member of his church. He made us to be a kingdom, a priest, to his God and Father. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
Amen. So you and I were saved, not just to go to heaven, but to be a kingdom of divine representatives. Priests represented people to God and God to people. So you and I, every man and woman here who's part of the church, because he says I'm writing to the church, is a priest. In the sense that your job is to be an in-between person that represents men to God and God to men. Now, you may not have known you're a priest, and you may not be functioning like a priest, but you are a priest, part of a kingdom of priests that are representatives of God, because you're part of a kingdom, he says. So you're representatives of the king's priesthood on earth.
So you bear spiritual significance as part of the family of God. And the goal of this is to bring God glory and the dominion, again rule concept, forever and ever. Amen. So he's looking at the long-term plan of God. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him, the Jews, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him, so it will be.
Amen. Every eye will see him. When Jesus Christ returns, it's going to be some spectacle, because every eye will see him.
Every eye will see him. Now the question is, how can that happen? That's a practical question, and people have wondered that over the years.
If nobody knows when he's going to return, how can that happen? Of course, technology has created ways for things to be seen now worldwide. So you can go to the remotest part of the world there, and they got something that they can see something on. So it could be technology.
We don't know for sure. I will grant you up front that a lot of what we're going to go through will sound like sci-fi. In fact, a lot of sci-fi has been taken from the Bible. So a lot of those movies you like, they just took the Bible and played with it a little bit.
Because a lot of it sounds that way. But when you understand as we walk through it, I think you'll understand it is not as fictional as sometimes it may feel, although it can feel that way, given the symbolism that is in the book. But he is going to come, and every eye is going to see him. When Dr. Evans returns in just a moment, he'll have more for us on how the book of Revelation describes Jesus Christ. First though, I want to tell you about a brand new resource from Dr. Evans called Trusting God in Turbulent Times. This is a 30-day devotional guide that will help you find comfort and strength in God's faithfulness.
Clearly displayed in God's Word, in church history, and in the personal experiences of millions of believers around the world. Each entry in this book contains a relevant scripture passage and encouraging devotion, designed to help you grow through life's difficult seasons and emerge stronger than you were before. We'd like you to be one of the first to receive a copy of this new devotional guide, and we'll send it to you with our thanks when you make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. And as an added bonus right now, we'll include all 10 messages from Tony's Revelation series.
You can get them on your choice of either CD or digital download. This is a limited-time offer, so get in touch with us right away to request it. You can do that online at tonyevans.org. That's tonyevans.org. Or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night.
That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat our contact information for you after part two of today's lesson and this. It was my first time meeting Jesus in the Bible. That's what one student is saying after studying bibliology through the Tony Evans Training Center, taught by renowned theologian, Dr. Tony Evans. These online courses feature compelling and exclusive video and audio teaching, plus an interactive scripture-based curriculum you can access online or through the mobile app. Sign up now at tonyevanstraining.org. Take a course with Dr. Evans and explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere.
tonyevanstraining.org. He says, I'm Alpha and Omega. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He's the beginning and the end. Says the Lord God, who is and was, and who is to come, the Almighty. So I John, verse 9, your brother and fellow partaker of the tribulation and kingdom, ruled, was on the Isle of Patmos because of the word of the Lord and the testimony of Jesus. He's in the spirit on the Lord's day.
The Lord's day is the first day of the week. It's Sunday and he is in the spirit. That is, he is in the realm of the spiritual. He is thinking and functioning spiritually. He is, he is engulfed in this spiritual framework and then in this engulfness, being in the spirit, being in the atmosphere of the spirit's work, he is captured by it and now he hears a trumpet and the saying, write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. So that's representative seven of all churches, to Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea. You write, when I'm getting ready to write to you, you write to the seven churches, which is all churches given to us. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.
Well, here we go with the light that the churches are supposed to illuminate. And in the middle of the lampstand, I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like earnest bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace. His voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars. Out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, word of God, and his face was like the sun shining in strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man, and he placed his right hand on me. Do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last. First Alpha, last Omega, beginning in the end. So what is he seeing? He's seeing a revelatory picture of Jesus Christ, unlike you've ever seen him before. Because at Jesus' second coming, he's not coming like he came at the first coming. At the first coming, he's a baby in a manger, nowhere to lay his head, humble servant, uh-uh, not in time number two. When he comes back, he is a beast. He is coming back as judge of the earth, as king of the earth, without apology.
As you'll see when we get further on, when he comes back, he's taking over. Do not be afraid. I'm the first and the last. I'm the living one.
I was dead. Behold, I am alive forever, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Keys mean access.
I've got the access to death, and I've got the access to hell. Therefore, write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars, which 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. So here you have an illustration of symbolism with the definition.
So he gives the symbolism, but then he says, well, this is what I mean. The seven stars are the seven messengers. Those are the seven pastors, the seven people who are declaring the word. He says, then there are lampstands, which are the seven churches. That is the light of those seven churches, which leads him then to begin discussing the seven churches.
Each of these churches are in Asia. They're representative of the whole church, and it leads him to begin to talk about what he is expecting from the church right now before we get to the things that are to come. So these are his expectations of us while we are anticipating the prophetic time. We do not know when Jesus is going to return.
We have no idea. We just know it's imminent means it can happen at any time. We don't know when it is, but this is how we ought to function, and he uses each church. So each church I'll give a theme to, and I will summarize the point that he makes to that church and how you and I today fit into this message to the completed church that he uses when he talks to the seven churches.
Of course, we've spoken a number of times about the first church, the church at Ephesus, and we will call this the loveless church, the loveless church. He compliments them to the angel of the church in Ephesus' right. So the angel, you know, sometimes Pastor Gibson will talk about the angel of this house.
The person, the word angel is from a Greek word angolos, which means messenger. So to the messenger of the church, the person who's speaking or bringing the message from God to the church. He says, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the golden lampstand says this.
Okay, watch this now. So when we have church, Jesus is walking. You see that? To the one who walks among the seven lampstands. And the seven lampstands are in the church. So when we have worship, Jesus is in the building. He's in the building spiritually.
He's not in the building physically. The Spirit of Christ is in the house. And when the Spirit of Christ is in the house, he says, I know what's going on. He says in verse 2, I know your deeds. I know what you do.
Your toil, you work hard, your perseverance, you hang in there. You cannot tolerate evil, you know, you have a standard. You put to the test those who call themselves apostles. That is, you test everything by the Bible.
You're orthodox and they are not and you found them to be false. You have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. He says, you got a lot of good stuff happening there, but I have this against you.
Okay, this is the guy. So right now, he patted him on the back, but now he changes. He says, but I have this against you, you have left your first love. In other words, you've got truth, you've got doctrine, but you don't have a heart. And the key word there is really not love.
The key word is first. In other words, your relationship with me is not your priority. Probably there's not one person in here who has not been guilty of putting things, even good things, because he compliments them, before our relationship with the Lord. I've often put ministry before a love relationship with the Lord.
Ministry is a good thing, but you can do that. You can put a person, a relationship, you can put things before your love for the Lord. And how do you know when something is first love as opposed to second, third, fourth, or fifth love? Because first love always involves passion. First love always involves passion.
So there was no passionate pursuit of a person, even though they were operating a program. So the church must be careful, our church must be careful, any church must be careful, not to put the program above the person, not to put the activity above the relationship. Dr. Tony Evans, with some important lessons we can learn from God's assessment of the early Christian church.
He'll return with a closing word in just a moment. Before he does, though, I encourage you to take advantage of that special two-part resource package I mentioned earlier, all ten messages from Tony's current sermon series on the book of Revelation, along with his brand new 30-day devotional guide, Trusting God in Turbulent Times. They're both yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported program coming your way. Just visit TonyEvans.org to make the arrangements, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222, where team members are standing by to assist with your request. That's 1-800-800-3222, or online at TonyEvans.org.
Well, Dr. Evans is back with one final word to close our broadcast today. The greatest need in all of our lives is for the forgiveness of sins, and there's only one person who can do that. That's Jesus Christ. That's why He died on the cross and rose from the dead, and He offers forgiveness of sins. If you're carrying guilt for what you've done, fear for what you've done, Jesus Christ is right here, right now. If you go to Him, confess your sinfulness to Him, and trust Him to forgive you, He will do it on the spot and also grant you eternal life. If you're ready to accept that offer of salvation and forgiveness, take the time to visit TonyEvans.org and click on the link at the top of the home page that simply says Jesus. Tony has more information there about becoming a follower of Christ, as well as some free resources to help in your journey. Keeping a fire going means you've got to feed it, and the same is true for our relationship with the Lord. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans continues his look at the struggles and triumphs of early Christians, encouraging us to remember our first love for God and to seek ways to strengthen our connection with Him. I hope you'll join us for that.
