We'll be continuing our study in the book of Revelation this morning.
So I encourage you to turn over to Revelation chapter five.
We'll be there in just a moment.
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Your gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've blessed us with, grateful for the life and the opportunity that we have to serve
you.
We're grateful for all that you do for us on a daily basis.
We're mindful of your blessings, of your care, your guidance, your provision.
We're grateful especially for your revelation that you have delivered to us through the work of Christ, through the message and the
uh work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets and the writers in the first century and all throughout ancient history.
We pray that we might always be attentive to the things which you have written in Scripture, that we might know both how to live and how to move and how to serve you.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we strive diligently to follow in your footsteps, to follow in the path that Christ led us in and showed us how to live and
how to serve you acceptably.
Lord, when we fail to do that, when we sin and fall short of your glory, we pray and ask that you will forgive us of those things as we're willing to repent of them.
Lord, we pray for the world and we pray for its leaders, we pray for the nations, we pray for those who are far off from your word and do not have easy access to it.
Pray that they might diligently seek
your word and that they might diligently seek to understand who you are and that they might have the opportunity in the life uh to be able to do so.
We're also mindful that we have a responsibility in that regard and we pray that we might have a mind to preach the gospel and to take it to every corner of the world.
All these things we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Thought we would do a quick recap as we get into chapter five and some visuals might be helpful along the way.
We open the book.
John is there in exile on the island of Patmos.
He is in exile for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
As John is there on the Lord's Day worshiping, he hears a voice behind him.
And when he turns to see the one who is speaking to him, he sees one like the Son of Man, glowing and white and surrounded by seven golden candlesticks.
And the one who is there in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks is holding seven stars, and he tells us what the stars are, he tells us what the candlesticks are.
So we know what they are.
The stars are the
angels of the seven churches, the candlesticks are the seven churches.
Then in chapter two, he begins the messages that will go out to the seven churches of Asia Minor.
And there's a brief map of the area where Asia Minor is and the churches located there.
Then in chapter four, as those messages conclude, John sees in the vision and he tells us he's
he's back in the vision.
He sees an open door and the one who spoke to him in chapter 1 invites him to come through the door.
So, he is called up as he goes through the door, he tells us in the vision that he sees a throne room.
In the midst of the throne room is one who he describes only with a
picture of color and eminence of His glory, the one who sits on the throne.
Then before the throne, He sees 24 elders on 24 thrones surrounding the throne.
Before the throne as well, He sees the seven spirits of God and pictured there again in the candlestick or the lampstands.
He also sees a sea of glass that
is surrounding the throne.
And then lastly, he describes the four beasts that are surrounding the throne.
And we mentioned as we closed last week that these four beasts are pulled from Ezekiel.
Many of these pictures are Old Testament pictures.
The sea of glass representing the nations is an Old Testament picture.
The thrones are an Old Testament picture.
That all of these things
are Old Testament pictures, they're not just figments of John's imagination, and by the way, they are not intended to be a forecasting of what heaven will look like.
That's not the point of the book of Revelation.
As a matter of fact, it is both comforting and somewhat perhaps distressing, depending on how you look at it.
to realize that the book of Revelation is really not intended to tell us about what heaven will be like.
Except to say that the book of Revelation reiterates the promises that are found everywhere else in scripture.
For instance, Jesus said, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Well, guess what?
For the Christian who overcomes, who
reaches eternity, God promises rest in the book of Revelation, just like He promises elsewhere in the New Testament.
When you picture and think in your mind concerning the things that Jesus said, for instance in John chapter 14 about a house and many mansions and a place prepared, well
certainly you see in the book of Revelation that God has preparations made for the faithful when they arrive.
Great.
What the point is, the visuals aren't there so we can know what heaven will be like.
You say, Aaron, how do you know?
Well, in 1 John chapter 3, John, the writer of the book of Revelation, tells us so.
In order for us to grasp this continual lesson that if the book tells us what it means,
That's what it means.
If the text of scripture tells us how we should interpret the book, then that's how we should interpret the book.
So turn to 1 John chapter 3.
1 John chapter 3 verse 1, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God.
Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
But we know this, that when He is revealed we shall be like Him
for we shall see him as he is.
Now why would the Holy Spirit inspire through John a message to say to the Christians, don't know what we will be like, we simply know we will be like Christ when we are in
eternity, and then turn around and inspire John to paint a picture of what we'll be like?
The answer is because he didn't.
This tells us what we know about what we'll be like in eternity.
Not the book of Revelation.
Revelation is a picture of what God was doing in terms that humans can understand.
And John tells us what we'll be like in eternity.
It's not something that humans can understand because we'll be like him.
And everything in the book of Revelation doesn't look like eternity.
It looks like the earth.
It looks like the creatures around the throne.
What do they all look like?
earthly creatures.
The people who are around the throne, what do they look like?
Human elders.
The thrones, what do they look like?
Thrones you'd find on the earth.
Do you think God sits on a throne in heaven that looks like a throne on earth?
No, I don't think so.
The glory that emanates around it, how is it described?
In terms of colors from gems and jewels and things that exist on the earth.
What is this telling us?
It's telling us that we're, God's doing
this vision and giving this vision in a way that John can actually describe it to another human.
Because if he gave a vision in heavenly terms with heavenly visionary elements with things that no one had seen and no one could grasp, John couldn't communicate it to anybody.
We are not to come to the book of Revelation and open the book and say, here's what I read, now I know what heaven will be like.
No.
You want to know how?
We know that because John specifically tells us that's not what he's doing.
He's telling you what he saw in a vision and what it means.
So in John chapter four, he sees, now you're gonna see in some of these pictures, like, wait a minute, I don't remember reading that in John chapter four, where did all these
people come from?
They come from the rest of the book.
You're gonna find them later introduced into the book.
So the multitude surrounding the throne in the picture, trust me, it's there, John just hasn't described it yet, all right?
So then we see the elders.
What do they do every time the four beasts cry out, holy, holy, holy?
Lord God Almighty.
What do the elders do?
They take their golden crowns of overcoming of victory and they cast them before the throne and they worship the one who's on the throne.
Now we said last week that John chapter 14 verse 3 tells us what these two chapters, chapters 4 and 5, are all about because Jesus tells his disciples, if you believe in God,
believe also in me.
And that message is the message of Revelation 4 and 5.
Chapter 4 is dedicated to, here's the one who's sitting on the throne.
Here's God the Father.
Caesar's not on the throne.
Rome is not on the throne.
God is on the throne.
And His glory is such that He can't even be described in human terms.
Then we have the ones who surround the throne, we have the ones who are God's judgment actors who are before the throne, and they're all declaring only one God is holy.
And only one God is worthy of worship.
So we get to chapter five.
In chapter five, the message is Christ is on.
the throne, and he's going be pictured before the throne, but we're going to see him presented with the same declaration, he is holy and he is worthy.
Okay, so chapter five, as we conclude chapter four, verse 11, you are worthy, O Lord, speaking of God the Father, to receive glory and honor and power.
For you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.
And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals.
All right, so again, I'm gonna keep using the movie picture imagery here because we're all used to movies.
Imagine.
John first walks in the throne room and the very first thing the camera focuses on is the throne room.
And then it widens out and zooms out and here are these elders.
And then John focuses on the beasts and the sea of glass and he sees these things and now chapter five opens up and he suddenly zooms in on something that's in the right hand of
the one who's sitting on the throne.
Now question.
Does the eternal...
Spirit of God who is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent have a physical right hand.
but in order to communicate the vision, God is pictured with a right hand.
Not only is God pictured with a right hand, He's pictured with a scroll in His right hand.
Why you scroll?
You know, with God being omniscient and omnipotent and knowing everything that would happen throughout history, why not a data center in his right hand?
You can fit a whole lot more information in a data center.
Why not?
The answer is because the people there in the first century needed to be communicated with.
And guess what they communicated on?
Scrolls.
Not because scrolls are eternally in heaven.
But because this is how we communicate with people, we give them a frame of reference so they understand the picture.
So John zooms in, as it were, in the text and he sees a scroll in the right hand of the one who's sitting on the throne.
But what is unique about the scroll?
The scroll is written inside and on the back.
So in other words, if you were to
unroll a scroll, you generally have the text on the inside of the scroll.
Except this scroll, John says the text is on the inside and the outside of the scroll.
Front and back, it's covered.
The message is a voluminous message of what God has for humanity, but what's the problem?
It's sealed.
eh Take your mind back to an ancient time and an ancient way of making sure that only the people who are authorized to view the message get to view the message.
What would they do?
All right?
They'd seal it with hot wax and then the person with the authority would push their signet ring into the hot wax and that would indicate that only someone who was authorized to
touch that signet, to break that seal, could open the scroll.
But how many seals are there?
Seven.
Not only is it a scroll, it's a scroll sealed, sealed, sealed, sealed, sealed, and sealed.
Or in other words,
there's a progression of messages.
So when you open the first seal, you can only see so much.
You open the second seal, you can see a little bit more.
The third seal, can see there's a progression of information.
Okay?
That's why there's seven seals.
And by the way, the rest of the book of Revelation is going to be the opening of the seven seals.
All the way to the end.
If you were to think about this, inside the book of Revelation there's a series of seven things and if you were to think about it in an outline form, you're going to see in
chapter 6 seal 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
All of them opened in chapter 6.
And then chapter 7 there's a pause and in chapter 8 the seventh seal is opened and inside of that are seven more messages.
inside the seventh seal.
And inside the seventh of those messages are seven more messages.
They're all happening inside the seventh seal, inside the scroll that's going to be introduced to us right here in chapter five.
Okay?
So everything that happens from now until the end of the book is happening inside the message of the scroll.
Okay?
Now, or not inside the message, but inside the revelation of the scroll.
So, John sees the scroll in the right hand of the one who's sitting on the throne.
Then I saw a strong angel proclaim with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?
Again, take your mind back to maybe one of those Errol Flynn movies of the good old yesteryear of Hollywood.
and here comes the king, the king sitting on his throne, you're viewing the throne room and off to the side here comes a herald and the herald declares the message of the king.
The herald has been sent by the king to find someone.
They're looking for someone who's worthy to open the scroll.
It has to be someone who has the right authority, it has to be someone who has the right power, someone who has the right significance and the herald's message is we gotta go find
the right
person.
So he makes this declaration and John hears the declaration made and they begin searching.
And verse 3 says, no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and to look at it.
Now is John pulling forward some Greek mythology that there's a bunch of population of people living under the earth?
No?
Then what's John mean by under the earth?
They're dead, right?
Nobody in heaven, not the angels, not the heavenly beings, not the beasts that are around the throne, they're not worthy of opening the scroll.
Not any heavenly beings, not any cherubim, not any seraphim, none of those, nope, they're not worthy.
None of the angels, they're not worthy.
None of the humans that are alive are worthy.
None of the humans that are dead are worthy.
We've gone through all history and we've interviewed everybody, the angel says, in the vision.
There's not one who's worthy.
Notice John's reaction, verse four.
So I wept because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it.
John sees himself in the vision.
and he sees the message from God sitting there waiting to be read, and he so desires to see and to understand the revelation of God that when he realizes, nobody's worthy to open
the message.
that he sees himself in the vision weeping and mourning for the absence of having access to the revelation of God.
But one of the elders, now, what elders?
one of the 24.
So again,
We're going to struggle with consistency in the vision if we take everything in the vision to be physically literal.
Because what do the elders do all the time?
They're all the time getting out of their chair and casting their crown down on the ground and worshiping the Lord.
Why are they doing that all the time?
Because the beasts are saying, holy, holy, holy, all the time.
Well, how in the world did an elder take time out of the casting the crown down to come over and talk to John?
The answer is because the vision gives you details, but you're not supposed to make the vision argue with itself.
The message of this is what the elders do all of the time is they're eternally worshiping the one who sits on the throne because guess what?
He's never getting off the throne.
He's never being supplanted.
He's never going to be replaced.
He's always going to be worthy of worship.
He's the one who is, who was, and is forevermore.
So the elder comes over and he talks to John.
Notice what we read.
But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep.
Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and elusive seven seals."
John is mourning over the absence and the lack of access to the revelation and as he's mourning over it, one of the elders says, oh, problem solved.
It's already done.
He already opened it.
You go, wait a minute, when did that happen?
It happened in the vision.
It happened as John was mourning.
It happened because he was already worthy.
because they already knew who the only one worthy was, but John had to see the failure to complete finding someone who was worthy.
The vision's there to help us understand if you searched high or low in all eternity, everywhere in heaven and on earth, to find someone comparable to Christ, you never would.
You won't find Mohammed comparable to Christ.
You won't find Joseph Smith comparable to Christ.
You won't find Buddha comparable to Christ.
You won't find any king or any ruler or any magistrate of any nation under heaven, anytime in history, comparable to Christ.
when the angels of heaven looked for somebody who was worthy to open the scroll and declare the message of God, there was no one found except the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Now again, John's message reaches back into the Old Testament and pulls out declarations and prophecies from the very end of the life of Jacob.
concerning Judah and his line and from David and his reign.
John doesn't need to explain all of these metaphors because they're all in the Old Testament.
They're already there.
There's an abundance of scriptural context to tell you exactly who this is.
It's the line of the tribe of Judah.
It is the one who is the root of David.
and notice the elder says he's prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.
And I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four creatures a lamb, sorry, in the midst of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a
lamb as though it had been slain.
What's the dichotomy in the picture?
What's the paradox?
Dead animals don't stand up, excluding chickens for a short period of time.
But lambs, when they've been slain, don't stand up.
What does the standing tell you?
He's alive.
Dead creatures don't stand up.
Living creatures stand up.
But the visual image, if you had looked at the lamb, you would have looked at him and his appearance would have been one who had been slain.
But he's not dead.
He's not slain.
He's alive.
He's standing.
and his proximity to the throne, if you take that imagery, you take that description, is he is right next to the throne.
He's closer to the throne than the beast.
He's closer to the throne than the elders.
He's right there as if John saw all of this and there was no lamb there.
And then John zoomed in on the scroll and suddenly there was the scroll and just showed up.
and then John watches them go search heaven and earth and there's no one who's found who's worthy to open it and then the elder says, John, look!
the Lamb, we found it, the one who's worthy, and he's right there next to the throne.
when Stephen was stoned by the Jews and Stephen had the vision into heaven as his life was coming to a close, what did he see?
He said he saw one like the Son of Man standing.
Interesting phrase there.
Standing at the right hand of the throne of God.
Most of the rest of the time in the New Testament when Jesus is pictured at the right hand of the throne of God, he's pictured sitting.
But not when Stephen's being killed and not here.
When Jesus is sitting...
His authority, his rule, his unchallenged, unmatched, and he is sitting in victory.
And every time you see him pictured standing, his people are being persecuted.
and he's going to defend them.
So here in the text, John looks and sees the one who's next to the throne and he sees him as a lion, but he also sees him as the root of David.
And he also sees him as a lamb all at same time.
Are there three different things before?
Nope, there's one.
And all of them are pictures from the Old Testament of who Christ is.
By the way, what does the lamb represent?
from the Old Testament.
the sacrificial lamb of the Day of Atonement.
There was the lamb in the Day of Atonement.
There was one that was let loose in the wilderness.
And then there was one that was sacrificed.
Also pictured, the Passover lamb.
The lamb that was slain to bring Israel out of Egypt.
All of these are pictures of Christ.
Okay?
He says, looked and behold, verse 6, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Now wait a minute, another picture of the Spirit of God.
Before the Spirit of God was pictured as what before the throne?
in Chapter 4.
Verse five.
All right?
Seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.
Now we have another picture.
So, the spirit of God, who is that by the way?
The Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit throughout the book is not pictured in bodily form.
He's pictured in function form.
He's active.
He's doing things.
He's watching.
He's burning.
He is the one enacting the will of the Father and the Son in the form of revelation.
He's delivering the message.
Okay, that was the function of Holy Spirit.
So, when God, the Father's pictured before the throne, or on the throne, here's the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, in the form of these seven burning lamps before the throne.
Now when Christ is pictured, the Lamb who was slain, who's alive, and He has seven horns on His head and seven eyes, and guess what?
The Spirit works with Him too.
When Jesus said that He was going away, did He say He was going away and leaving the disciples alone?
No, that's right.
He said he would send a comforter.
And the comforter wasn't going to speak of himself.
He was going to speak whatever was given to him to speak.
And he was going to guide the apostles into all truth.
Guess what?
When Jesus came and Jesus was on the earth, Jesus said, I don't speak of myself.
The words that I declare to you are from the Father.
So when the Spirit was sent, He's declaring the words of Jesus which originated with the Father.
When Christ was here, He delivered the words of the Father.
So all through these pictures you've got the Godhead working together in roles and functions to accomplish a mission.
Same pictures here.
Here's Christ, He's alive and yet He sees everything that's going on.
How does He see everything that's going on?
He's got seven eyes, He's got perfect vision.
Some people harass people who have four eyes.
Christ had seven eyes.
He could see everything.
He has seven eyes.
And he sees everything that goes on in the earth.
Why?
Because the seven eyes are representative of the Spirit of God going throughout the earth.
In the vision, John sees the one who's the lamb, the one who's the lion, the one who's the root of David go up to the throne and take the scroll.
Verse 7, then he came.
by the way, the lamb isn't an animal.
The lion isn't an animal.
It's a he.
It's Christ.
Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, uh each having a harp and golden bowl full of incense, which
are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue
and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.
And then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and
thousands of thousands.
saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing in every creature which is in heaven
and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them.
I heard saying blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.
As Christ
goes from beside the throne to the throne and takes the scroll, John hears an eruption of praise.
Why?
Well, the angels and the messengers in heaven had just spent all that time, as it were, as John sees it in the vision, searching heaven and earth and under the earth, grave
everywhere.
There's nobody worthy to open the scroll.
Not in all creation, not in all humanity, not in all heaven is there anyone worthy to open the scroll until here is Christ and He's worthy to take the scroll and to open it.
And the moment He does, there's a recognition
of who he is.
Remember what Jesus said?
If you believe in God, believe also in me.
And so the message is pictured.
The vision describes how worthy Jesus is.
The one who's on the throne is worthy of worship.
The one who comes and takes the scroll is so worthy of worship
that the elders immediately fall down and declare him worthy of worship.
And the beasts fall down and declare him worthy of worship.
And the angels that are around the throne, which you didn't even see in chapter four, declare him worthy of worship.
And the saints who are around the throne, who are numerous, so numerous that they're described as ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands.
How many is that?
It's all of them.
Christ is worthy.
This symbolizes.
Well, let me answer that in the form of a yes and a no.
This symbolizes to the church, there is exactly one person who's on the throne
and it's Christ.
There is exactly one power in all the universe and it is God and Christ.
And that that hasn't changed.
You see, as this message is beginning to be opened up,
The first thing that Christ is going to say is, there's persecution coming.
And when you understand there's persecution coming, your first question is, if you were to think back to all of those Old Testament Psalms, God, are you still on the throne?
God, are you still in control?
God, when are you going to do something about this?
God, do you see your people and how they're suffering and how they're being betrayed and how they're being persecuted and how they're being killed?
God, when are you going to act?
And God's message through John is, I've always been on the throne and I never stopped acting.
And while you might go through this, understand this, I knew this was coming long before it ever got here.
And I'm going to deal with those who are persecuting you.
So while the picture is as if Christ just came to the throne,
That's really just the visionary element.
That's John seeing the progression of the vision, not Christ initially taking authority.
What you have here is Christ is reigning.
He was reigning in chapter one.
He was reigning because he said, I'm the one who holds the keys.
He's the one who has power over heaven and earth and over death and life.
He's the one who was, who is, and is to come.
who died and is alive forevermore.
So if the question were to be asked, is this the moment Christ returns having ascended into heaven?
No.
But is this a picture of Christ's eternal glory and power having been resurrected and ascended back into heaven?
Yes.
Okay.
Turn to Daniel chapter seven and let me show you a picture here that might help.
Daniel is going to write a series of visions.
Many of the pictures and the imagery of the book of Daniel, you're going to find them in the book of Revelation.
Because the book of Revelation, if I could sum it up in one sentence, is a fulfillment to the visions of Daniel.
That's what the book of Revelation is, though it weaves in so many other prophets as well.
But in Daniel chapter seven,
We read beginning in verse seven, sorry, not in verse seven, in verse one.
In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed, then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts.
Daniel spoke, saying, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
Wait a minute, have we seen a great sea somewhere?
yeah, that's right, we saw it right in front of the throne of God.
All right?
And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other.
The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.
I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
And suddenly another beast, a second like a bear, and it raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.
And they said thus to it, arise, devour much flesh.
After this I looked and there was another like a leopard which had on its back four wings of a bird.
The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it.
After this I saw in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.
It had huge iron teeth.
It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.
It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots, and there in
this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words.
I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated, his garment was white as snow.
and his hair was hit the hair of his head was like pure wool his throne was like a fiery flame and its wheels of burning fire a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him
a thousand thousands ministered to him ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the court was seated and the books were open sound familiar
we're going to keep reiterating everything in the book of Revelation borrowed.
It's all borrowed from the Old Testament.
It's all borrowed from the visions.
But watch what happens.
So, just to give you a little insight, the four beasts aren't the four beasts that are the four creatures around the throne of God.
They're four nations.
They happen to be the same four nations as in Daniel chapter 2.
And we know who those were, right?
Because Daniel 2 told us who they were.
The first one was who?
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.
The second one was who?
Medo-Persian Empire.
The third one was who?
Greece.
The fourth one was who?
Rome.
You remember that indescribable beast?
What were his teeth made of?
Iron.
It's Rome.
Okay?
So in the midst of this indescribable beast, and by the way, if you follow the rest of the vision, he's persecuting God's people.
And in the midst of the vision, while the indescribable beast is plundering and persecuting, Daniel looks up and he sees...
One who is described almost just like Jesus was described by John in chapter one.
White hair, glowing appearance, except this one sitting on the throne.
And this one has a throne with wheels around it and flames of fire.
And this one sits down and you have a throne room picture.
And what's surrounding the throne?
All of God's ministers.
And in the midst of the one sitting down on the throne, what does he do?
He opens what?
He opens a judgment book.
And notice, I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking, I watched till the beast was slain and his body destroyed and given to the
burning flame.
As for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
I was watching in the night vision, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, and he came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before
him.
Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed." Now most people take that text and they say, see this is
the judgment day.
This is when Christ takes the throne and this is when eternity begins.
Wrong.
The picture here is in Judgment Day.
It's Ascension Day.
when Christ ascends back to heaven.
Notice the direction He's coming.
He's not coming from the Father on the day of judgment, coming to us.
He is going to the Father and He's taking His authority.
and when he does, Daniel says, I saw that indescribable beast dead.
and the book of Revelation is the fulfillment of Revelation of Daniel chapter 7.
So, in Daniel 7 you see Christ ascend and take the throne and begin to reign and a kingdom is given to him.
Well, what is the kingdom?
the Church specifically, and His rule over all things, heaven and earth, generically, right?
Jesus Christ said in Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, all what?
all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
Daniel 7.
Christ takes the throne.
Christ's kingdom begins.
Acts chapter 2, his reign commences.
Over in Revelation, what you're seeing in John's picture is he's already on the throne.
He's already reigning.
And in the midst of that, here is this vision.
of his authority and his power.
Alright, we're going to pick up here.
Not next week.
I'll be in Florida, but the week after.
Thank you for your attention.