Larry Parsons
April 22nd, 2010, 04:38 PM
Beginning at verse 4 “John to the seven churches which are in Asia” Remember, John is writing to actually historical church’s that was locate in the country of Asia during the time of great tribulation that took place during the middle of the first century. It is believe that John was personally acquainted with the members of the seven churches. Know doubt he knew their names and names of each of their family members. John was no stranger to these church members.. When John wrote the letter of Revelation he was writing with a heavy heart. He knew exactly what each member of the 7 churches was facing. They were facing persecution from the “Beast” The word beast was a code word for Nero and the Roman Empire. John doesn’t mention the Roman Empire in the book of Revelation if he did the letter would have never reach the seven churches that he was writing to.
Here a question why was the Roman Empire arresting and persecuting and murdering the Christians. One of the reasons the Christians was an enemy of the state of Rome. Rome didn’t care who or what the people worship as long they worships Caesar first. The Romans wasn’t killing and persecuting the Christians because they were worshipping Christ they were being killed because they refuse to worship the Beast (Nero). In the eyes of Rome Caesar was God and all other gods was below him. But the Christians refuse to bow down to the beast. Because of this the Christians were breaking the law in the eyes of Rome the Christians were bunch of outlaws opposing the Roman government.
Remember now, Rome wasn’t the only ones that was persecuting the Christians. Remember between the time Stephen stoning by the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem and July 64 AD between those time only the old covenant non believing Jews was the Christians thorn in the flesh. But after the great Roman fire in 64 AD. The Roman pagan also declares war on the saints. And for three and half years both the old covenant non believing Jews of Jerusalem and Roman pagan was attacking the Church.
In verse 4 we also see John is wishing his first century readers peace but we known that peace must be rooted and grounded in God’s grace. If it not there, there will be no peace. The new covenant Christians of that day I believe had inner peace with God but they just didn’t have outer peace because they were constantly being attacked from every direction from their two great enemies. In that day the Christians didn’t have a chance to defend themselves against there enemies. For three and half year the tribulation saints had to kept running and hiding to remain safe. The only weapon they had against their enemy was to pray but at that moment it didn’t seem that pray wasn’t doing much good. They were completely hopeless against any physical attack that came from their two enemies.
I believe God is in control of all things and he can control the future. In the 24 chapter of Matthew Jesus told his disciples “And except those days (In the days of the great tribulation) be shortened, there will be no flesh (Christians) saved, but for the elect sake (the church the body of Christ) those days shall be shortened.” (I will deal with this idea how God cut those days short)
Now at verse 5 we have John telling his first century readers that the letters that they are receiving was also from Christ himself. Who was the faithful witness of God? He was the true witness of God the Father. He was a trustworthy representative of the Father. Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the father. In other words Jesus Christ has made the Father known to the world. Christ was a faithful witness even into His death.
“And the first begotten of the dead” What this phrase of this verse is saying or implying Jesus was the first to conquered death but He won’t be the last! What do we mean by that? We all have heard story from the Bible were people rose from the dead but every one of them die again but when it come to Jesus he died and He was buried but three days later he rose to die no more. Jesus has conquered death and one day as Christians we will die and we will rise to die no more just like Christ did.
“and the prince or the ruler of the kings of the earth….’ Who know the words of Jesus that found in the 28th chapter of Matthew may be still ringing in John ears when Jesus told his disciples “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on the earth ...” Later on in his letter of Revelation he also writes about a voice that came from heaven saying “The Kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, (who is Christ). In both of these cases in Revelation John is writing about something that has already taken place before he wrote the book of Revelation.
“To Him who loves us and releases us from our sins by His blood” Here John is reminding his readers that they have been free from their sins. This is also true with each of us. If we have confess our sins then Christ is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse (or release) us from all our unrighteousness. I’m reminded of old hymn we sing in our church sometime and the chorus goes like this: “He sought me and bought me with His redeeming Blood. He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him. He has plunged me beneath the cleansing flood” Because of his great love he has release us from our sins by his blood. (If those tribulation saints that John was writing to knew the old gospel song I believe they would be singing “In the dark of the midnight I oft hid my face while the storm howls above me and there no hiding place. Mid the crash of the thunder precious lord hear my cry keep me safe till storm passes by. Till the storm passes over till the thunder sound no more till the clouds roll forever from the sky. Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of thy hand, keep me safe till the storm passes by”. As you know by now the tribulation saints that John was writing to was in a storm but the storm wasn’t going to last forever God was going to cut those days short for the elect.
Let’s take a look at Verse 6 “And He has made us Kings and Priests The question How did we become kings or a kingdom over the earth? We need to go back to the beginning when God created the first man he was place into a land and he was given dominion over it. God created Adam as a King. He was to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Of course Adam wasn’t the absolute King. Remember God created him and order him to Ruler But Adam was not the absolute ruler he was to ruler under God. But Adam became unfaithful unsatisfied being a ruler under God’s law’s and for this crime of rebellious he was cast out of the Garden (The Kingdom) The second Adam who was Christ who came along later to accomplish the task that the first Adam fail to do. You will notice throughout the Old Testament the prophets look forward to a time when would appoint a king to set on the throne. In Psalm 72: makes it clear that the coming King would be like Adam He would ruler over the entire world.(read verses 8-11)
In 2nd chapter of Daniel. We have a statue that represents the four empires Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. We also read about a stone that struck the statue that became a great mountain that fill the whole earth. Later in the same chapter we have Daniel saying “In the days of those kings (which were during the time of the Roman Empire the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed and that Kingdom will end all other Kingdoms, but the Kingdom that God set up will never end. During the time of the Roman Empire the second Adam who is Christ the king would perform the task assigned to the first Adam. He would cause the Holy Mountain to grow and to spread through out the world.
In the 7th chapter Daniel we also see Christ as the promised King: Read 7:13-14 I know we have some who believe that Daniel is referring to Christ 2nd coming. But this idea completely ignores the fact that Daniel had already prophesied that the Kingdom would beginning in the days of the Roman Empire. When you take a good look at these two verses you will notice that the Son of Man who is Christ is going up Christ is not descending in clouds to the earth, but ascending to his father. Daniel is not predicting the 2nd coming but the climax of Christ first coming.
Ok Notice what else this verse is saying “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood”
Here John reminding the tribulation saints of his day that Christ loves them. Here John is including him self in this love. We can also include ourselves in this love. In Gospel of John “For God so love the world (that us) that he gave his only begotten son…”
Thanks
Larry Parsons
In the 2nd chapter of Matthew we have the story of the magi coming from the east to worship the King who was baby Jesus. In the 3rd chapter Matthew is jumping 30 years ahead and here we found John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” In the 4th chapter Matthew turns to the ministry of Christ and we have Christ himself preaching “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And this Kingdom that Jesus and John were speaking of was not some far off Kingdom that would come together after his 2nd coming. Jesus told Israel to repent now because the Kingdom was at hand. Remember he told his disciples “I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom” Here again Christ was not talking about some far off Kingdom but a Kingdom that was at hand. The Bible says the Kingdom has arrived and some modern theologians are telling us that it hasn’t. Who are we going to believe?
Here a question why was the Roman Empire arresting and persecuting and murdering the Christians. One of the reasons the Christians was an enemy of the state of Rome. Rome didn’t care who or what the people worship as long they worships Caesar first. The Romans wasn’t killing and persecuting the Christians because they were worshipping Christ they were being killed because they refuse to worship the Beast (Nero). In the eyes of Rome Caesar was God and all other gods was below him. But the Christians refuse to bow down to the beast. Because of this the Christians were breaking the law in the eyes of Rome the Christians were bunch of outlaws opposing the Roman government.
Remember now, Rome wasn’t the only ones that was persecuting the Christians. Remember between the time Stephen stoning by the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem and July 64 AD between those time only the old covenant non believing Jews was the Christians thorn in the flesh. But after the great Roman fire in 64 AD. The Roman pagan also declares war on the saints. And for three and half years both the old covenant non believing Jews of Jerusalem and Roman pagan was attacking the Church.
In verse 4 we also see John is wishing his first century readers peace but we known that peace must be rooted and grounded in God’s grace. If it not there, there will be no peace. The new covenant Christians of that day I believe had inner peace with God but they just didn’t have outer peace because they were constantly being attacked from every direction from their two great enemies. In that day the Christians didn’t have a chance to defend themselves against there enemies. For three and half year the tribulation saints had to kept running and hiding to remain safe. The only weapon they had against their enemy was to pray but at that moment it didn’t seem that pray wasn’t doing much good. They were completely hopeless against any physical attack that came from their two enemies.
I believe God is in control of all things and he can control the future. In the 24 chapter of Matthew Jesus told his disciples “And except those days (In the days of the great tribulation) be shortened, there will be no flesh (Christians) saved, but for the elect sake (the church the body of Christ) those days shall be shortened.” (I will deal with this idea how God cut those days short)
Now at verse 5 we have John telling his first century readers that the letters that they are receiving was also from Christ himself. Who was the faithful witness of God? He was the true witness of God the Father. He was a trustworthy representative of the Father. Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the father. In other words Jesus Christ has made the Father known to the world. Christ was a faithful witness even into His death.
“And the first begotten of the dead” What this phrase of this verse is saying or implying Jesus was the first to conquered death but He won’t be the last! What do we mean by that? We all have heard story from the Bible were people rose from the dead but every one of them die again but when it come to Jesus he died and He was buried but three days later he rose to die no more. Jesus has conquered death and one day as Christians we will die and we will rise to die no more just like Christ did.
“and the prince or the ruler of the kings of the earth….’ Who know the words of Jesus that found in the 28th chapter of Matthew may be still ringing in John ears when Jesus told his disciples “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on the earth ...” Later on in his letter of Revelation he also writes about a voice that came from heaven saying “The Kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, (who is Christ). In both of these cases in Revelation John is writing about something that has already taken place before he wrote the book of Revelation.
“To Him who loves us and releases us from our sins by His blood” Here John is reminding his readers that they have been free from their sins. This is also true with each of us. If we have confess our sins then Christ is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse (or release) us from all our unrighteousness. I’m reminded of old hymn we sing in our church sometime and the chorus goes like this: “He sought me and bought me with His redeeming Blood. He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him. He has plunged me beneath the cleansing flood” Because of his great love he has release us from our sins by his blood. (If those tribulation saints that John was writing to knew the old gospel song I believe they would be singing “In the dark of the midnight I oft hid my face while the storm howls above me and there no hiding place. Mid the crash of the thunder precious lord hear my cry keep me safe till storm passes by. Till the storm passes over till the thunder sound no more till the clouds roll forever from the sky. Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of thy hand, keep me safe till the storm passes by”. As you know by now the tribulation saints that John was writing to was in a storm but the storm wasn’t going to last forever God was going to cut those days short for the elect.
Let’s take a look at Verse 6 “And He has made us Kings and Priests The question How did we become kings or a kingdom over the earth? We need to go back to the beginning when God created the first man he was place into a land and he was given dominion over it. God created Adam as a King. He was to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. Of course Adam wasn’t the absolute King. Remember God created him and order him to Ruler But Adam was not the absolute ruler he was to ruler under God. But Adam became unfaithful unsatisfied being a ruler under God’s law’s and for this crime of rebellious he was cast out of the Garden (The Kingdom) The second Adam who was Christ who came along later to accomplish the task that the first Adam fail to do. You will notice throughout the Old Testament the prophets look forward to a time when would appoint a king to set on the throne. In Psalm 72: makes it clear that the coming King would be like Adam He would ruler over the entire world.(read verses 8-11)
In 2nd chapter of Daniel. We have a statue that represents the four empires Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. We also read about a stone that struck the statue that became a great mountain that fill the whole earth. Later in the same chapter we have Daniel saying “In the days of those kings (which were during the time of the Roman Empire the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed and that Kingdom will end all other Kingdoms, but the Kingdom that God set up will never end. During the time of the Roman Empire the second Adam who is Christ the king would perform the task assigned to the first Adam. He would cause the Holy Mountain to grow and to spread through out the world.
In the 7th chapter Daniel we also see Christ as the promised King: Read 7:13-14 I know we have some who believe that Daniel is referring to Christ 2nd coming. But this idea completely ignores the fact that Daniel had already prophesied that the Kingdom would beginning in the days of the Roman Empire. When you take a good look at these two verses you will notice that the Son of Man who is Christ is going up Christ is not descending in clouds to the earth, but ascending to his father. Daniel is not predicting the 2nd coming but the climax of Christ first coming.
Ok Notice what else this verse is saying “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood”
Here John reminding the tribulation saints of his day that Christ loves them. Here John is including him self in this love. We can also include ourselves in this love. In Gospel of John “For God so love the world (that us) that he gave his only begotten son…”
Thanks
Larry Parsons
In the 2nd chapter of Matthew we have the story of the magi coming from the east to worship the King who was baby Jesus. In the 3rd chapter Matthew is jumping 30 years ahead and here we found John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” In the 4th chapter Matthew turns to the ministry of Christ and we have Christ himself preaching “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And this Kingdom that Jesus and John were speaking of was not some far off Kingdom that would come together after his 2nd coming. Jesus told Israel to repent now because the Kingdom was at hand. Remember he told his disciples “I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom” Here again Christ was not talking about some far off Kingdom but a Kingdom that was at hand. The Bible says the Kingdom has arrived and some modern theologians are telling us that it hasn’t. Who are we going to believe?