Alright. All right, all right.
Well you're finding your seat. We're going to get things rolling here tonight. You guys can have a seat. And I tell you, we could have, judging by everybody that's all over the auditorium, we could have done another verse of the fellowship time. I cut them off too quick.
And so, but no, I love being able to fellowship and being able to get to know, check in, say hello to different people and things like that. Hey, listen, great crowd here today. And I'm glad that you are here. We've had a beautiful day today. And I had a hurricane in the middle of the night last night, I feel like.
And so, but a great day today. And I tell you, we are thankful for that. And we're thankful that you are here on a Wednesday. Wednesday night. And so tonight, I always do this, and especially on nights like tonight, where we might have some people who aren't normally in here, you might not be in the routine.
But if you did not grab an outline on your way in, I got Scott at the back. And Bob, if you want to grab these, if you could slip your hand up. And also, I provided a full page timeline for you. And so if that is helpful to you, if you didn't grab one of those, you're welcome to one of those.
So you can kind of just slip your hands up and they can come to you and bring you what you got. And the reason that I'm doing this is just to keep you as engaged as possible. And somebody asked me on the way in, an adult, in fact, said, Does this come with crayons to keep me engaged throughout the evening? And so it doesn't, but we could implement that starting next week for people like Debbie Tilly who need those to keep her engaged. And but yeah, so I hope that this will help you here tonight.
And then I got a lot of feedback that the writing is small on the timeline.
So I wanted to provide you with one. Here's what I tell you to do. We're not going to print those every single week. It's a lot of color and a lot of pages. Fold that, put it in your Bible, and through this series, as we kind of work through this, just kind of keep it as a reference to help you out.
But we began, this is week number three, we began a series through Revelation, and I've entitled this The Returning King. The Returning King.
So I'll give you just a little bit of background. It's on your notes, so you can kind of follow along on this, but some stuff that we've already looked at. But the author of Revelation, the first point there, the author of Revelation is John the Apostle. John the Apostle, and he wrote this book. It said around 98 AD.
And so around 98 AD.
So he's in his 90s. He's receiving this revelation. Notice it's not a revelation of John. It's a revelation of Jesus that is being revealed to him. In fact, you kind of, as you read the book of Revelation, you have to think of it this way: that he's receiving like clusters of visions as he goes.
So there's a bunch of different things happening throughout, which is why God, when he is revealing himself and showing him all of these different things, he tells them 12 different times throughout the book to write this down because he's enamored by what he's seeing. And I think he's just in awe that sometimes Jesus is like, hey, John, don't forget, write this down. You need to put this in your writing. And so he tells him that many times. But he was on the island of Patmos.
Patmos was a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. And John was exiled there. He was not on vacation. There. It's important that you note that.
The reason why he found himself on Patmos is because Patmos was like a Roman prison camp.
So they would use that to put prisoners that would preach and teach in the name of Jesus. And in chapter one, we find that he was exiled there because of the testimony of the Lord Jesus and because of the Word of God, because he was preaching the Word of God to people. Number two, the purpose of Revelation. Here's what it is. You can write this down: to give us hope.
in anticipation about the imminent return of Jesus. To give us hope. In anticipation about the imminent Return of Jesus. That's the whole book. That's why we've entitled the book, The Returning.
Now the name Revelation It's from a Greek word, apocalypsis. It's where we get the word apocalypse, and the word literally means an unveiling. or a revealing.
So, what is happening here is Jesus is revealing what is to come and what is to John here. And so, you'll see that throughout the book. The book is all about Jesus, though. There are 32 different titles in the book of Revelation given to our Lord and Savior. And so, the book is pointing to Christ.
The whole book is there to exalt Christ. And so, it's important that we remember that.
Now, our interpretation. Of the book of Revelation. I mentioned that different people fall on different ends of the spectrum with this and how they interpret this. And a lot of this is to come.
So I'm never going to encourage you just to break conversation and fellowship because somebody kind of sees something about the end times, what is to come differently than you. But there's three different ways people interpret Revelation. The first one's allegorical. The second one is historical. And the third one is what we are going to use for our entire study.
And it is the literal interpretation of the book. The literal way, just so that you understand, claims that everything from Revelation chapter 4 and on are going to be fulfilled in a literal way. This is the view that I hold, and we're going to interpret Scripture this way as we move through Scripture.
So the timeline of the book of Revelation, you'll see the picture here, I believe, as we kind of work through this together. I created this for you. I circled the church age. This is your big sheet.
So, if you can't see this or you need to look there or whatever, you can see it. The church age, that's where we are today.
So I circled that so that you always remember that's where we are today. The book of Revelation is broken up this way.
So remember, when Jesus resurrected, he showed himself to the apostles for 40 days. And then he ascended back up into heaven. And then that started the church age, which started at Pentecost. And that is where we are today. And so what you're going to find is Revelation 1 through chapter 3 is all about the church age, what we're in today, and where we've been since Pentecost.
In chapter 4 and chapter 5, it's going to talk about, and we're going to get there. It's going to talk about the rapture of the church. When Christ comes back, not all the way down to earth, we're going to actually go and meet him in the air. And that's the rapture of the church when the dead in Christ shall rise first and things like that. That's what Revelation 4 and 5 is about.
Revelation 6 through 18 is about the great tribulation or the seven-year tribulation that we're going to look at. That's 6 through 18. Revelation 19 is all about the second coming of Jesus.
So it's important that when we talk about the second coming, we're not talking about the rapture.
Okay, that's only partial. The second coming is when he's going to come and rule and reign for all of eternity. That's Revelation 19. And then after that, it's going to start the 1,000-year reign of Christ, the millennial reign of Christ. That's chapter 20.
Also, in chapter 20, we're going to learn about the lake of fire and the great white throne judgment. And then in 21 and 22, the book ends with what the new heaven and earth is going to look like. That's a little bit about your timeline that we're going to work through throughout this.
So, some background about where we were last week. The seven, this is on your notes, I believe. The seven candlesticks represent the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.
So we learned that at the end of chapter 1, verse 20, John mentions that these seven candlesticks or these seven menorahs that he saw in his vision are representing the seven churches that he mentions here. And it's important to note why. Because the menorah, or the candlestick, was the only source of light. In the temple. And in the tabernacle.
And when he's likening us to that, we're the church. And the church should be the light of the world.
So, when he sees these seven menorahs, it's a reminder that our church should be the light of the world.
So, when you see a dark world, and Pastor Fletcher reminded us about that. Here's what we don't do. We don't just scream at the darkness. You turn on the light. And so, if we really want to impact the dark world that we live in, it's going to take Christians and followers of Christ to go out of here and be light.
And turn on the light in our community in this dark world that we live in. Last week, we worked through the church at Ephesus in verses 1 through 7 of chapter 2. A couple of different things about the church of Ephesus. The time period that it represents is what we call the apostolic age. Which goes from Uh the time of Pentecost.
To about AD 100, which is when the apostles died. That's about when John, who was the final apostle to be martyred, this was about the time period that he's talking about. That apostolic age is representing, or Ephesus is representing that church age, if you would. The title that Jesus was given, because he's given a title. In every letter to the church, he's given a title.
The title mentioned there for Ephesus, this is all background, is he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. The seven stars were the angels to the seven churches, which, if you remember what we looked at last week, angels is not a spiritual being, he's talking about a messenger. Is the word here used? It's the pastors.
So he's mentioning that. That's the seven stars, and it says he holds them in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. The affirmation to Ephesus was that they were hardworking. persevering and discerning a false doctrine. The criticism of Ephesus this is all last week, so it's not on your notes.
The criticism of Ephesus was that they left their first love, and then the reward to the overcomers was they will eat of the tree of life in the paradise of of God.
So a couple of things before we get back into the second letter here. And we're only going to look at one tonight, but an introduction, it is on your notes, an introduction to the letters of the seven churches.
So a few reminders here. Number one on your notes is this: these were literal churches. These were literal churches. They existed in the first century in Asia Minor. We showed you a picture where that is, which is modern-day Turkey.
They were actual churches that existed during that day. And so these letters are going to a real church. But number two, these letters are applicable to churches today. They're applicable to Union Grove Baptist Church and to other churches like ours. Today.
And then these letters represent different time periods in church history. I mean, you can kind of trace this back. And so we're going to see that throughout, which will get us all the way to the church, the time period that we are kind of in today, which will be the final letter that we're going to look at.
So let's dive into it. The second letter that we're going to look at is found in verses 8 through 11 of Revelation chapter 2. It is the letter to the church. At Smyrna. The letter to the church at Smyrna.
So join me in Revelation 2, verses 8 through. 11. I'm only going to read these verses tonight. It's not many. And so it is four verses.
And I know what you're thinking: is wow, he's only reading four verses.
So this should be a short sermon. There are no promises, okay? And I can pull a lot out of four verses. I'm just going to tell you. And we do have a lot to look at in these four verses.
So here we go. Verse number eight. And unto the angel, messenger. of the church in Smyrna, right? These things saith the first.
And the last, which was dead. And is alive. There's Christ's title, I know thy works. in tribulation and poverty, But thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer, Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison. that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown. Of life. Verse 11: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
He that overcometh shall not be hurt. of the second Death.
So here in these four verses, we have the letter to the church at Smyrna.
So there's a little bit before we dive into the outline. You can write some of this down as it kind of comes to you. But the time period that's really representing or that Smyrna represents is around 100 AD to 300 AD. And that time period in church history is often referred to as the suffering time period for the church or the persecuted time period for the church. I'll get into why that is here in just a moment.
But Smyrna, the city of Smyrna, we don't know a whole lot about Smyrna. If you look throughout your Bible tonight, you're not going to find anything about Smyrna except for what we find right here in Revelation chapter 2.
So what you have to do is you have to go into some of church history to kind of learn anything about Smyrna.
So here's a few things just to tell you about the city of Smyrna. It was a port city right off of the Aegean Sea. It was a major commercial and central hub. And so it was very popular for trade. And so many believe that this was in terms of wealth.
This was the second church right behind Ephesus. We looked at that last week. And Smyrna would kind of be right behind Ephesus as the second wealthiest city that John writes his letters. Letters too. And so today, Smyrna, if you try to find it on a map, you're not going to find Smyrna except for a little city in Georgia, actually.
There is a Smyrna, Georgia. But that's not what it's talking about, okay? And so, but Smyrna, if you look on a map in Asia Minor, we know that Asia Minor is now modern-day Turkey. There is a small city that is believed to be where Smyrna was. It is the city of Izmir.
There's about 250,000 people that live in that city today. The word Smyrna It comes from a Greek word. You can kind of see it. Right here in the middle of the name, it is the word myrrh. It's the word myrrh.
It's very important because what myrrh is and how myrrh comes about is actually very indicative or it parallels with Christ's message to the church at Smyrna. Myrrh, it's no secret, myrrh is throughout scripture. Myrrh was an aroma. Substance that comes from like a thorny tree. And what you have to do is it must be crushed in order for it to give the aroma.
That you're trying to get from myrrh.
So, what you do is you take the myrrh, you crush it, and out of that flows the aroma that you are trying to do.
Now, the crushing is very important to what Christ is going to talk about to the church at Smyrna.
So, don't forget that. But it is an aroma and it is a fragrance. It is used in scripture in a number of different ways. If you trace myrrh throughout Scripture, you're going to find that in Exodus chapter number 30, myrrh was used as anointing oil for the priest when he went into the tabernacle. In Esther chapter 2 and in Psalm chapter 48, you're going to see that myrrh was used as a perfume.
In John 19, very familiar passage when Nicodemus comes to embalm the body of Jesus, like he comes, and he brings myrrh.
So it is an embalming oil. Fourth, you're going to see that myrrh was expensive. If you remember, one of the most common things about myrrh that we remember, at least when I studied it, first thing that popped into my head was that was one of the gifts of the wise men when they came to baby Jesus. And so we learn a little bit about myrrh as we go through this. But the church at Smyrna, I just wanted to give you a little bit of background about what we learn about the city.
But many refer to this church and the time period that it represents as the suffering or the persecuted church. Church. If you know or study anything about church history, You're going to find that the first century church, and really going into what we're learning about here today, this was probably the worst time period in church history of persecution. And let me say this to us. We do not understand persecution the way that the early church experienced it.
Okay, and so I know sometimes we watch the news here in America and we think, man, this is what persecution's like. You do not understand it. You do not understand what they experience. And in fact, there are parts of the world that still experience deep persecution in similar ways like the early. Early church.
But the time period in which the uh Smyrna represents was a terrible time for for the church. In fact, it was the time of Nero. Very familiar. You would know a lot about Nero. He burned, you know, when he burned Rome, he blamed Christians.
You remember that? And you would know that story. But also, one thing about Nero that he would do is the emperor of Rome. And Nero, what he would do is a lot of times he would take, his people that worked for him would take Christians right there in their community there in Rome, and they would burn them alive on a stick, and then they would light them on fire, producing light in the community there of Rome. That's persecution.
That's what the early church experienced during this time. It's estimated in church history that this time period, there was around six million Christians that lost their lives only for the sake of the gospel. during this time period. It's one of the worst time periods in church history because of this. In fact, one thing that will really resonate with you, because many of you might wear this in jewelry, or you might have something on your car, but we would all understand the fish.
Logo.
So you understand this.
Well, in this time period in the early church, this is when this came about. Because people were so afraid to talk about, and you can read about this and study this in your own time, but people were so afraid to talk about their faith because they knew that they would lose their life. Is that this is where this came about, just giving you a little bit of history? Is that what they would do? Is I came up to Bob and I was carrying on a conversation with Bob is a lot of times that what they would do to kind of know, I couldn't just come out and ask him if he's a follower of Christ.
Because if Bob is, you know, not a follower of Christ, he'd turn me in and I could be one of these Christians that get burned alive or something like that.
So, what they would do in their conversation is they would draw in their sand with their foot, they would draw the top arch. And if Bob is a Christian, Bob would finish the bottom arch of the fish. You might not have known that, but that's how that came about. And so it came about in this early church period, this early church history, that this was a way for Christians to kind of secretly identify themselves as a follower of. Of Jesus.
And it's kept itself all to this point. The reason why the fish, just so that you know a little bit more about it, is that the symbol for the word fish, it actually comes from a Greek word. I think you pronounce it ichthos. And if you follow that Greek acrostic, it actually spells out this, which is why they use this symbol. It spells out, the Greek acrostic spells this: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
And so, this was a way that early Christians would identify themselves without living their life. Could you imagine for a moment living like that? We're in the Bible Belt. People that People that don't even go to church. Talk about Jesus.
Right, could you imagine living in a place like this where you had secret kind of codes to kind of identify yourself with another follower of Jesus? That's what the early church was experiencing, and that's why they're called the suffering persecuted church, the church at Smyrna, is because they were experiencing such persecution. Which, if you remember what myrrh is, the only way myrrh produces the aroma or the oil that you're looking for is it must be crushed. Which is what was happening to the early Church during this time period.
So it's important for us to understand this. The second thing I want you to see is. Is this Jesus' title to the church at Smyrna? Every church that we're going to look at, all seven of them, give a certain title to Christ. Jesus' title here, and you can write this on your notes, it's right here found in verse number eight.
is this. The first And the last. It's not up on the screen. The first and the last. Which was dead?
And is alive. The first and the last which was dead And is alive. Listen, here's what I'll tell you. Think about what we talked about with the church at Smyrna and what they were experiencing. Here's what I'll tell you: to a suffering church, what encouraging words.
Think about it. You're getting, you're thinking, man, I'm going to lose my life. Because I believe in Jesus. And what this letter is reminding them is that Christ has the authority over time, the first and the last, and He will have the final word over us. Because he was dead and is now alive.
What encouraging words to a church suffering severe persecution, wondering about their future, and being just listening to the words here, this letter to them, encouraging them, saying, Hey, listen, Rome doesn't have to have the last word of your life. Persecution doesn't have to have the last word. over your life. Christ, the first and the last, the one that was dead and is now alive. He has the victory over time and he has the victory over death.
So even if Rome kills you, it is, as the words of the Apostle Paul say, it is gain for the follower of Christ. What encouraging words that they were receiving right here. The other thing, the affirmation, it's on your notes, the affirmation. to the church at Smyrna. It's found in verse number nine when he says, I know thy works.
And tribulation and poverty, that thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not. But are the synagogue of Satan.
So the affirmation Now, remember, every Church, all seven of them, they're going to receive either an affirmation. A criticism and some receive both.
Okay, so last week, Ephesus received an affirmation, but then they also received a criticism. They lost their first love.
So here, the affirmation to the church at Smyrna is this. And it's right there in verse number nine. It's not on your notes. They were afflicted. They were poor.
And they were persecuted. But remained faithful. and rich in Christ. I know that's a lot. They were afflicted.
They were poor. And they were persecuted. But they remain faithful and rich. In Christ. The word poor here I i i if you follow the word it it has to be more than just financially put Poor.
For the early church during that day, when they trusted Jesus as their Savior, they literally almost lost. their livelihood. Their family would forsake them. They'd be kicked out of the home. And they'd lose everything.
Many of them would lose their job. And perhaps their life. And so for them, the idea of poor, being poor, was way more than just, man, their bank account. It's way deeper than that. It's really talking about being destitute.
Because they were cut from everything. And so, but what Christ is reminding them is this: maybe that's true, that you lose everything, you lose your family. And you lose your money, and you lose your job, and you lose your home. And you lose it all, but what he reminds them of is that if you have Jesus, you're still rich. In other words, if you lose everything but have Jesus, you are still the richest one in the world.
And that's what he's reminding them here. Because true value is not your bank account. True value is your relationship with Jesus. And that's where true wealth. Is from.
And when you think about being rich in Christ, I want to remind you about a couple of things because scripture talks about this. Throughout. I mean, just in Paul's writings alone, he talks about our riches in Christ. If you want to write fast, you can write these down. Ephesians chapter 3, verse number 8.
When he's preaching to the Gentiles, Paul reminds them that they have unsearchable riches in Christ. In other words, if you're like, how rich am I in Christ?
Well, listen, I can do my best to try to describe it for you tonight, but how rich you are in Christ is unsearchable. It can't be explained by any man. Because his riches always outweigh that in your life. Romans chapter 2, verse 4, he talks about the riches of his kindness. Romans 11.
33. The riches of his wisdom and knowledge, Romans 9, verse 3. The riches of his glory, Ephesians 1, verse 7. The riches of his grace, Ephesians 1, verse 18. The riches of the glory.
Of your inheritance. And so, as he reminds me, saying, Listen, church, you're persecuted, you're afflicted. But don't forget. How rich you are. in Jesus.
And by the way, for you That's a reminder for every single one of us. Like we look at our bank account We look at our family, we look at our position, we look at our career, we look at our promotions, we look at our toys and hobbies, and we identify ourselves, whether we're rich or poor, based on everything that I just named. And what Jesus is reminding you here tonight is that true wealth and true value is not found in any of those things. Where true wealth and true value is found, it's found in a relationship with Jesus. And if you have that, You are rich.
You are rich in him. And he reminds them of that. But there is a mention here of some that blasphemed. During this day. At the end of verse 9, he talks about him.
Jews then are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Pretty intense words. John recalls right here what we would call the Judaizers. These were Jews by physical birth. But spiritually, they were not followers of Christ.
Does that make sense?
So they were born into the Jewish family, but spiritually speaking, they weren't a part of God's family. And here's why: is because here there was a lot of Judaizers, and what Judaizers did is they were Jewish, but they added works as a necessary means to accomplish salvation or to inherit salvation.
So they would say things like this: Jesus plus works equals salvation, whereas true believers would say it this way: Jesus plus anything ruins everything. And Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Does that make sense?
And so, what he's talking about here is that those who add things to the faith and those who add things to the gospel. Are really of the synagogue of Satan.
So those who would say, hey, you can be a Christian if you trust in Jesus and abide by this list of rules that I'm going to give you, and many of you, that might be your church background. I don't know what your upbringing was, but anybody that adds things to the gospel, Here works for the synagogue of Satan. Does that make sense?
And so that's what he's talking about here. They're a tool of the enemy, it's heresy, and it is blasphemies. Blasphemous. And so it's important that we understand that. The criticism, as we continue to move through this, the criticism to the church at Smyrna.
Which is the next one. You can write right next to that. Is there wasn't one?
Okay. There wasn't one.
So this is one, this church, the letter to the church at Smyrna and the letter to the church at Philadelphia are the only two of the seven that do not receive a criticism from God. Or from these letters.
So there is no criticism here to the church. But then he talks about the reward. to those that overcome. The reward to those that overcome. There's two things or two rewards given here in our text in verses 10 and 11.
The first one's found in verse number 10, and it says, First, overcomers will receive A crown of life. Overcomers will receive A crown of life.
Now, I know time's getting away from us, but I want to talk real brief about these two rewards to the overcomers.
So the crown of life, what does that mean? What does that look like? And here's what I'll tell you: there's five crowns. Not the game, not the card game, okay? But there's five.
Any of you ever played five crowns?
Okay. There is a game literally called that. I've played that. I think we've played it with the senior adults a time or two. But not talking about that.
But there is five crowns in scripture that talks about that we'll receive in heaven. Here you have Revelation 2:10, what we just read, the crown of life. It's also mentioned in James chapter 1. In verse number 12, you'll learn about the crown of life. But in 1 Corinthians 9, You learn about the incorruptible.
or the imperishable crown. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. You learn about the crown of rejoicing. And then in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 8. You learn about the crown of righteousness.
And then in 1 Peter chapter 5. You read about the crown of glory.
So you have the crown of life. The incorruptible or imperishable crown. The crown of rejoicing. The crown of righteousness. and the crown of glory.
So these five crowns are what in life you're going to maybe perhaps receive those.
Now I know if you're like me and you're somewhat success driven, you might be thinking, wow, That's going to be something. I can't wait. I mean, some of you are probably thinking, man, I just hope I get one crown. And then there's some of you that are probably arrogant enough to, in your head, think, man, I wonder how I'm going to balance all five of these on my head when I'm in heaven. I say that jokingly.
But these are five crowns that we don't know how they're going to be dispersed. But here's what I'm going to tell you. Don't get wrapped up in what crown you're going to get. Because here's what I'm going to tell you. is that Revelation teaches That whatever crown you might get It's not going to last with you very long.
Because in Revelation chapter 4, we have a vision of the elders. John sees this vision of the elders right around the saints of God gathered around. And when they're given the crowns that are mentioned, that we think are these five crowns that Scripture talks about, it says this: that along with the four, all these elders that are around there, Revelation chapter four, we'll get there eventually. But what he does is all of them together in unison begin to lay their crowns. At the feet of Jesus.
And while they're laying their crowns there, it says this in Revelation chapter 4, verse 11. It says that we're going to be singing and saying this: You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory. An honor. and power. For thou have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were.
Created.
So, don't get wrapped up in any crowns because here's what I'm going to tell you: is that when you get to heaven and perhaps you get a crown, the first response when you're in the presence of Jesus is not to think about how good you are or how good you've been. Because what we're going to do in the presence of Jesus, when we see him face to face, we're only going to be reminded of how unworthy and how truly small we really are in the presence of Jesus. And your only response is to lay your crown at the feet of Jesus and proclaim and declare how glorious, how honorable, how unworthy you are, and how worthy He is. Yes. You see, that is what we are going to do.
So don't get wrapped up in these crowns and thinking about things like this. If you were thinking about your crown, you'd probably feel super guilty right now. And that's not my intent. But I want you to understand that what we do in life does matter. But here's what I'm going to tell you.
When we get in his presence, nothing we do matters. He matters. And he is worthy of all glory that we will receive. And so it says here that the overcomers. Will receive a crown of life.
But then the second thing is this: overcomers will be unhurt. By the second death. Look at what he says at the end of verse 11. He says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt.
of the second Death.
So he says that if you overcome. You're gonna be you're not gonna be hurt By the second death. And so here's what I'll tell you: is that scripture teaches this. And I get it. It's Wednesday night.
We're doing a study on Revelation. This is like the core of the core.
Okay? I get that. But I want to kind of remind you of a couple things. Here's what Scripture teaches. Is that If you are born twice.
You're gonna die once. But if you're born once You're gonna die twice. Let me explain that. I know we have some younger ears in here that are really confused and they're looking for mom and dad to explain that right now. Like, what in the world is he saying?
Okay. Many of us are like Nicodemus. You remember Nicodemus chapter number is that John 6? John 6, when Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and he comes to Jesus, and he asks Jesus, you know, about this, about whatever. And Jesus tells him.
Except you be born again. You cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. And And, you know, Nicodemus, like us, are like, what does that mean? I'm going to have to crawl back in. How awkward is that going to be?
Hey, mom, here I come. You know, I'm going to crawl back in and that kind of thing. It doesn't make any sense to our human minds when we use the phrase born again. And we know now what Jesus was referring to, he's talking about not a physical birth, he's talking about a spiritual birth. And so the point is: is that what Scripture teaches is this: that when you are born.
Twice, that is a physical birth. And a spiritual birth. Born again, that's salvation. If you're born twice physically and spiritually, that's your two times. Then Then you're only going to die once.
You're only going to die once. I mean, Revelation chapter number 20, verse number 14. I think we have it up on the screen. It says this: in death. And hell or Hades were were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second. Death.
So So, when he talks about this, death and hell are going to be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Death, here's what he's referring to: the book of life. That is written, here's what happens: is when you are spiritually reborn, it says that your name is written down in the Lamb's book of life. That's your second birthday, if you would.
You could say it this way, that's like your spiritual birth certificate.
Okay. That your name's written down in the book of life. And so, what it's saying here is this: if you're born again, that's your spiritual birth, your body will die. We've all buried loved ones that knew Christ. But the good news is for you Because you've been spiritually reborn, your spirit will live forever with Christ.
You get to live forever with him.
So, in other words, like here, you might face physical death, and many of you have lost a loved one that has faced that. But if they knew Jesus, here's what should provide comfort for your soul: is that their spirit is alive and well in the presence of God, laying his crowns at the feet of God, saying, Glory and honor. Be with the one who gave me Life. to begin with. You see, if you're born twice, you're only going to die.
thy wants. But here's the warning. That we learn from this is this. Is that if you're only born once, in other words, you're only physically born, but you never have that moment in your life where you trust in Jesus as your Savior, your personal Lord and Savior, that means that you've never been born again. It says that you are going to physically die.
That's life, all of us. That's your death. But then there's going to be a second death. There's going to be a second death reserved. For those that reject Christ and refused to be born again.
You say, what does that mean? It's the lake of fire. In other words, that's the final resting place for those who refuse to trust in Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior. Listen, here's what I'll tell you. If you're in here tonight, I don't care how long you've been to church.
I don't care if you've been a church member on our role for any length of time. If there is any doubt in your mind and soul tonight about this, I encourage you, ask someone, come to me, and let's get that settled tonight so that you can have the assurance that you've been born twice, so you don't have to fear a second death in your life. That's what needs to happen.
So if that's you tonight, get it settled. Don't worry about me. I've been a member of this church. What's everybody going to think? Who cares?
Because you do not want to risk your second death. over what people are thinking about you here. And by the way, if they're judging you for a decision you're making here, they're not where they need to be either. And so that's what you need to deal with. And here's what we learn.
From this, I know that we don't like talking about this second death because many of us have probably said goodbye to loved ones who. who might have to experience that one day. And we hate kind of learning about it. We hate studying it. But here's the good news for you: there's a gospel message in this.
Remember, that scripture is pointing to one narrative. There's not just a thousand stories, there are, but every story is pointing in one direction of what Jesus has come to do for us. The Messiah has come. And you say, why is that significance for this? It's because of this.
Jesus, and this is where we'll land tonight, Jesus took. the second death upon himself.
So that you and I could be born twice and only have to die once. That's the gospel. That's what Jesus has done for you. And for me. Is that he came to this earth realizing that if he left Josh Evans and put in your name, if he left us on our own.
Every single one of us. Would stand one day to be thrown into the lake of fire and die that second death because none of us are worthy enough. to be in the presence of a righteous holy God.
So, because God realized that, he loved you, and he loved me enough that he said, you know what? I'm going to send my one and only begotten son, Jesus Christ. He's going to come. and he's going to experience death.
So that you and I. could experience Life. You see, that is what the gospel is all about. And the good news is this: listen, it's so good because here we do have the presence of God living inside of us, so we have His presence right now, which should provide such comfort to your soul. But this is what's so awesome.
is that the Savior that died for you so that you could live forever. He's coming again. The returning king. Is coming soon. We don't know when that is, but we know it could be at any time.
I mean, we learned already in our study that the time is near. The time is near. And we're getting closer and closer to Christ coming back, and one day. We're going to be able to look our Savior in the face. The one who gave us life.
And it's not going to be about anything you've done. All you're going to be doing is being overwhelmed and fall to your feet just like John did, undone. In the presence of God, because that's the only response that we're ever going to have. Don't think that you're going to go up to Jesus and say, What's up? You're gonna fall.
in his presence because he's the only one that's worthy. To receive all honor and glory and power and dominion forever and ever. The returning king is coming.
Soon.
