"I Am the Living One; I Was Dead, and Now Look…” | Revelation 1:9–20

Show Notes

Episode 743: 
In this episode, Jeff and Chris focus on Revelation chapter one, starting with John’s introduction as he describes his experiences and the powerful vision he receives while exiled on the island of Patmos. We discuss the vivid imagery of Jesus as depicted in this chapter—His white hair, fiery eyes, and the sword coming from His mouth. This portrayal of Jesus is a stark contrast to the more familiar images of Him on the cross, emphasizing His power and authority as the glorified Son of God.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. My name is Chris Stuffer, John Tzarba. My name is Jeffrey Michael Forrest. There you go. But you had a name change I did, yeah when you were. Yeah yeah, yeah, and that's been sealed and nobody knows. The records are sealed. That's how did you get that record? Yeah? But you were adopted, which makes it really cool. By the way, whenever you read verses about how God has adopted us and we are joint heirrors and we are his sons. Yeah, yeah, I was always God's plan to adopt you into his very own family, think and it brought him great pleasure. I always think, Wow, that's amazing. Like you have an understanding of that like few do. Yeah, which is which is very cool. That's true. That's a cool one. Oh, gay. So hey, today, Jeff we are going to dive into the Book of Revelation. We have like seven verses in the Book of Revelation, uh, where Jesus comments They're the red letter edition, right, red letters, the red Letters revelation. But before we dive into that, Desiree has us doing a segment called. Would you drive rather? Yeah? Would I like these? I like these? Yeah? And I haven't looked at these? Have you looked at him? I didn't look at it? Look at them? Look at all? Good? So you want to do the first Would you rather have a talking dog that insults you or a cat that sings? Opera? Oh? My goodness, it has to be the talking dog opera all the time. Yeah, they'd be rough, right, yep? I mean opera is like I put it on and I'm thinking, yep, I'm good for ten years. Although it's funny because I think cats have the look on their face like they're insulting you in their head a jerk, right, dog. Should have went the other way? Yeah, yeah, because because because cats would naturally insult you. Right, But what would you pick? You didn't pick one? Oh I didn't. I would do the talking dog too, Yeah, for sure. I think it'd be funny. Yeah, it'd be funny, and it's yeah, it's over after the insult. Hey, my kids insult me all the time. There, there you go. It's pretty brutal at my house sarcasm is a thing. Our whole family thinks it's funny. So you know, we don't cross the line. But it means tearing the flesh. Yeah yeah, yeah, so we we we like to be We like to poke at each other all the time. Yeah that's great. Yeah, so just have our dog do it too. Like jumps of them just insult. Hey, move to the left. Yeah, you get a hog up all the room. Yeah exactly, all right. Number two, Would you rather eat a weak old hamburger or drink a glass of sour milk? Are you kidding me? Oh? This is a tough choice. Wow, this is awful. I am more likely to eat a week old hamburger me too, especially it's been in the fridge. Yeah. It doesn't say it wasn't in the fridge. Yeah, it doesn't say left out in the sun. Yeah, but it does say the milk is already soured. Oh, let me tell you something. There's there's a few things worse than sour milk. If I ever tell you I told you about my. Wife is gagging listening to that. I told you when we were in uh right on the Tibetan border in China. And they like they make their cheese and their tea with soured milk and it's horrible. And so then the tea they don't use any water. They use yak butter, y butter, so and it's it's a soured butter. There's it's it's just it's essentially a soured milk that they turned to butter once the milk turned sour. And it is it's it has the consistency of like a cream of mushroom. That's what the tea. It looks oily too, and it feels that way, but the whole thing has this sour Did you ever it's rough? So I drank this. It's one of the hardest thing I've ever heard. Did you say? This is it's right on the border of China and Tibet. It's abet. No. I have a similar experience with the tea in India where they make it out of yak butter. Yeah. And uh and I I am about to tell you something. This is honest, goodness truth. I drank a little thing of tea this big they give me, you know, because it comes like this and it was like oily on the top and there was a piece of yak hair in my teeth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. I've had that. I've had that lots of times. It's awful, absolutely terrible memory. So I love I love Chima Salo right, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really good. But anyways, go ahead, Oh it's my turn. Would you rather turn invisible but only when no one is looking? Or fly but only three inches off the ground? Three inches? Yeah, that's rough. Three inches is rough. I would rather. Okay, So that means that implies that if you're going to be invisible and somebody turns around and looks at you, you become visible. Yes, I would see. Okay, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I can't choose invisibility at all, because it's just a recipe of sort of getting you in trouble. Right, Like what what the purpose of invisibility? I don't know, Yeah, right right. Because it's stealth, and stealth is either going to be funny or it's going to be you know, mischievous of some kind of including like. Listening, unless you're like in special Forces. Oh yeah, yeah, then be invisibly pretty good. Except the problem is you're only invisible when nobody's looking, right, So you're not stealth, and the only practical one is three inches flying three inches off the. Ground, right, and and that might be fun if you're lazy and you don't feel like walking. Yeah, it'd be cool, kind of cool, kind of like instead of a hoverboard, you just kind. Of go, Yeah, you just sort of lay down. These electric bikes everybody has. Could you wait? Could there riding? Do you stand up and flying three inches off the ground? I would imagine, because I doesn't say you can't like Superman? Yeah, yeah, that'd be really weird. Woa a pup? That's good, all right? Would you rather be known as the person who makes finger guns in every photo or the person who whispers pew pew during serious meetings? Aren't you already the person who does the finger guns and everything? I don't think I've ever done a finger gun and a photo. Have I I'm not sure I've ever done. I don't know, but finger guns are funny. I would say I would say pop pew, pew pu pe. Yeah, I would do the finger guns, would you? Yeah, because it's a serious meeting. How do you know? Because it says serious meetings during it does say serious, I would go ahead and choose the. Finger I'm gonna say finger guns too, I'm gonna say finger guns too. Yeah, serious meetings like can you imagine? Yeah? So, uh, pastor Crisp, I need to talk to you. My aunt died that would you rather be chased by a giant rubber duck or a swarm of inflatable flamingos? What a senseless question? Yeah? First of all, who would choose to be chased? Period? Well, you have to know by a giant rubber duck? What's the difference? Are they gonna catch me? What are they gonna do to me? It's it's a single duck or a swarm of inflatable flamingos. Yeah, but it's a giant single duck. Yeah? How big is giant? Well, giant I interpret giant is like a giant home. Smashing buildings, yes, or just a whole swarm of flatable flamingos. Yeah, I'm going to say. I'm going to say the giant duck because it feels like it's going to be slow and it feels like I could outrun it. Yeah, that's what you'd think. But even like Godzilla, his steps are just so big, yeah that you know you'd have to run. His steps are blocks long, and you know you can't run blocks faster than he can take one step, you know, because I watched the show. Now, how do you know how fast I can run? You can't run as fast as Godzilla can walk. I can tell you that. So, so these are the deep kind of conversations we have when when if anybody ever asks, what's it like when you guys are off the air, it's pretty much just like, this is rubber ducks and Godzilla's okay, So which is it? Is it the rubber duck or is it the inflatable flamingos? All right, I tell you what. I changed my mind. I'm going to go with inflatable flamingos because it doesn't say that I can't have a machete. It doesn't. It doesn't say that I'm going to take them all down. Yeah yeah, just quick, and it might be. Kind of fun, I mean swarming around me. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Hey, it'll be like Sash Sword. What's what's the game Candy Crush? That's the game you thought of, But what's that? What's the one where you're doing all the. I was thinking of like Fruit Ninja or Fruit. Injura, that'd be better. Yeah, Fruit Ninja, that's the game Candy Crush Fruit Ninja, not Candy Crushes Fruit Ninja. Yeah. Wow, Yeah, you just get done saying a couple episodes that you play mobile Call of Duty sometimes. Yeah, but I don't play any of the things where you're smashing or cutting stuff. Okay, But but the thing you came up. With, I couldn't. I don't know. I knew what I was thinking. I just couldn't get it out. You know. Usually it's me who chooses the things that aren't the manly things, and you make fun of me. So I don't want to know about I don't want to let it go. You know about Candy Crush. I know about Candy Crush. I've never played it. All Right, we need to get We need get go. Hey, by the way, speaking of crushing, you know who's crushing it. Jesus crushed it. Jesus crushed this next segment. That's awesome. Yeah. So we're gonna read in the Book of Revelation. Yes, and we're reading Revelation chapter one, and actually I want to start with verse nine. If you don't mind, I do not, is it okay? It says I John am your brother and your partner in suffering in a God's kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. Wow, that's a full sentence from an old Christian. He's over one hundred years old at this. Point, and he's banned to the island of Petmas. Yes, and he'd already been boiled in oil and survived. Yes, and survived. So I am John. Let me go back and read this again now with that in mind. I John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God's kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. That's heavy. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God, and from my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord's Day and I was worshiping in the spirit, and suddenly I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet blast, and it said, write in a book everything you see and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thiatyrus, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven golden lamp stands, and standing in the middle of the lamp stands with someone like the son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze or find in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp, two edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was like the sun in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead, But he laid his right hand on me and said, don't be afraid. I am the first and the last. I'm going to keep going. I am the living one. I died, but look, I'm alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death in the grave. Write down what you've seen, both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw on my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches. That's kind of cool. Yeah, and he launches into a bunch of read letters. The whole chapter two is all Jesus. Yep, he's just talking. He's talking to all of the churches. Yeah. And chapter three, by the way, yeah wow, so so yeah, there's a note in my Bible. It's the and by the way, this is a different Bible. This is the Transformation Study Bible by Warren Weersby. Yeah. I love that one. That's one of my favorites. Yes, And and it talks about it makes a note about this, and it says the special messages each to the seven churches are given in chapters two and three. Some students see in these seven churches a paranorma of the church history from Apostolic times ephesis to the Apostate days of the twentieth century and Laos laodice Laodicea. Yeah. That see, that's the reason why you read the scriptures, because I mispronounced. All of the Apostate Was it from the Apostolic times in Ephesus to the Apostate history for days of the twentieth century, which is he's saying it is Laodicea. Yeah, Yeah, okay, yeah, I. Just think it's interesting how there's so much symbolism and revelation, and how there's seven lamp stands and it represents seven churches, and then there's a sword, a sword coming out of his mouth. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Yeah, of course, it's all symbolism, right right. The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two. Or that's what the bookie Hebrews says. Yeah, so it's just that's the word of God coming out of. His mouth and his eyes flaming fires. Yeah cool, Yeah, it's extremely cool. So the next time you see Jesus, yeah, it's not a lamb getting whipped at the whipping post and nailed to a cross. Certainly not right. So a lot of people, really they find a lot of fondness in the crucifix. But the crucifix is history. It's not the present. It's not now. It's not what you're going to see in the future. Right, you won't see Jesus nailed on the cross, having been humiliated and beaten and tortured. You're gonna see this vision of Jesus gold sash across his chest. Right, his hair is white like wool, his eyes are like flames of fire. His feet are like polished bronze brass and a furnace. His voice is going to thunder like mighty ocean waves. It's got the sword of the Word of God coming out of his mouth. It's pretty cool. It's very powerful. You know. I've always once I heard this, you know, I was a young Christian. I heard this. Sometimes you see a crucifix where Jesus is on the cross, and then sometimes you see an empty cross, right, or just a plain cross without Jesus on it. And it wasn't until somebody had made a comment and said, hey, we show we showed just a plain cross without Jesus on it, because Jesus is no longer on the cross. It's not on the cross right, right, he is. Buried and rose again for our sins. That has post resurrection, and now the cross becomes a symbol of how Jesus paid for our sins, right. And I just always thought that was neat, because I bet you there's a lot of Christians out there who probably never quite think about the difference between a crucifix or a cross that's by itself. I think it was Carveccio, one of the painters that were famous for light in their paintings. Back in the day, when I was in Paris, we had a long layover. One time, it was like ten hours or something. So we left the airport and we went to the louver. Oh yeah, and I wanted to go see the Mona Lisa. And there's like a gajillion people in the Mona Lisa's like the size of a postage stamp. It turns out it's not that it's like this big bit. I mean, there's like a million people trying to see it. But wandering through the louver, I came up on this painting I was listening to a walking tour took me there. It was one of the painters of light and it had this picture of the cross and Jesus on the cross, and there was people around it, and for whatever reason, I just stood there and got like these big tears of one. It was a beautiful painting. And I'm not normally super emotional about that stuff, but that painting, for whatever reason, in that moment, just got me. It was strikingly beautiful. It surprised me. I didn't realize I was walking up to it and I just stood there are big tears in my eyes for a long time, almost embarrassed, you know, the tears of my eyes. So there's beauty in seeing Jesus on the cross and realizing what he did for me. Now, so I understand that painting he had a couple of stripes and a couple drops of blood down his face. That's not exactly how it was. The Bible says you couldn't tell he was a man, he had been so horrifically beaten. But in that moment, it was the idea that Jesus was there for me was beautiful. So I'm not against a crucifix with Jesus, oh certainly, not not against it artistically if it's reminding what Jesus did for you, just understand that wasn't the end, right, right, So he's not there now, and this is who he is now, ye, right? Is this He's going to come back. And when you read the description of Jesus returning to defeat you know, all the armies of the Earth and all that kind of stuff, he's this warrior that's coming back. It's just incredible, uh description. But I love this, uh, this this picture of him as well. So yeah, and and so Jesus is described as the one who is going to defeat evil, and in Revelation he casts uh, you know, casts the evil one into the lake of fire. And there is there is there is no question who's in charge, right, there's no question who gets the victory. And uh, all the way through the scriptures, when Jesus was on the earth, it said that the demons trembled when they came across across Christ right, right, and and they said, they said, please, please, please, don't don't harm us, don't let us, let us go into the pigs, you know. And and and in the Book of James it says, uh, surrender, submit yourselves therefore to God. Was this the devil? And he will flee from you? Right? Uh? You know. The Bible also talks about uh demon possession, which we don't often talk about, do we. We don't talk about demon possession very often. But if but if somebody, uh you were to come across has some sort of a demonic possession, uh, they're cast out just by the name of Jesus Christ. So somebody came up to me not too long ago. Actually it was that heritage on the hill. Right. So when we baptized what was that five weeks ago, before weeks ago, something like that, and uh. And they come up to me and they had said, Hey, we're worried about evil presences in this house that we are in and uh and I said, well, did you did you pray through the house? Did you walk into each room? And did you speak the name of Jesus Christ? And they said no. And I said, do that, you know, have somebody, have somebody do that, Just just proclaim the name of Jesus Christ in every single room. And I haven't heard back from them, but that that'll do the trick. Yeah, if their followers of Christ, they can do it. You don't have to have a priest. Come and do it. That's right, that's right, Come and do it. It's anybody, because you have the Holy Spirit in you. That's right. And greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, is what the Bible says. Yeah. Right, So we believe in the priesthood of the believer, which if Peter tells us that we are a royal nation of priests, every one of us that has the Holy Spirit in us, right, that trusts Christ. So you can do it. It's nice to do it together. We're two or three. I gathered my name there I am in the midst Jesus says, right, so it's good to do it together. But you don't have to have some religious leader come and do it. It's a yeah. So there's that. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. There's a really great note in the Life Application Study Bible that says this. The son of Man occurs men many times. The title son of Man occurs many times in the New Testament and is used by Jesus to refer to himself. John recognized Jesus because he had lived and traveled with him for three years and had seen him both as the Galilean preacher and as the glorified son of God at the transfiguration. Right. Remember that here Jesus appears as the mighty son of Man. His white hair indicates his wisdom and divine nature, and that's also mentioned in Daniel chapter seven. His bright eyes symbolize judgment of all evil. The gold sash across his chest reveals him as the high priest who goes into God's presence to obtain forgiveness of sin for those who believe in him. The Book of Revelation will challenge how you picture Jesus Christ. What forms your impression of him? Right now? Famous paintings, movies, Sunday school art. Do you ever picture Jesus with a gold sash and snow white wooly hair? Do his eyes flash fire and his feet glow like bronze? When you imagine Jesus speaking to you? Does his voice thunder like mighty ocean waves? Reevaluate the way you think of Jesus as you read instead Revelation and allows powerful presence to transform your life. Man, if you have him behind you a lot of times, you know, our paintings of Jesus are quite honestly, most of the paintings of Jesus. Right, he looks like he's about to cry. He's got these long, delicate fingers, pale white skin because he's never been out in the sun. Yeah, vidosa soon hair. Yeah, yeah, flowing hair, beautiful hair, right, just very very feminine and weak. Yeah, it's no wonder we we we we are so full of fear all the time because that's who we have standing behind us right right. And you know what's so funny about that is when some people hear that there it's guaranteed, right now, it's guarante offended. Somebody's offended, guaranteed. And but but you have to realize something in God's eyes. Uh, it's just a painting made by somebody in the seventies. Yeah, or or even before that. It's usually modeled off off of paintings of Jesus, right, yeah, and some of these yeah, yeah, or the the during the Enlightenment, in the Renaissance, there's all these kind of sissy pintings of Jesus. Yeah, we're not we're not. We're not commenting on Jesus himself, right, We're commenting on somebody's interpretation of what they think perhaps Jesus might have looked like. And so, yeah, you're right, it's usually very feminine. Right, and it certainly wasn't who Jesus was a carpenter who only worked with his hands. If they planed aboard, they had to plane it by hand. If they saw it aboard, they had to saw it by hand. If they put a hole in it, they had to drill it by hand. They when they polished it, they had to polish it by hand. Everything. Jesus probably have pop eye arms, right, and then they would work outside. They didn't build buildings big enough to be It wasn't like he was working in a big shop indoors. He's working outside the story. He was probably was deeply tanned. He's probably very muscular. We know he had a beard and all these things, and he probably wasn't you know, it didn't look like a European with long hair. Right, So we tend to draw Jesus the way we are living, in the way we think in our culture, right, that's what happens, and so that's what they did. But when God describes Jesus man alive, there's a big differen between this Jesus, this sword coming out of his mouth and fire out of his eyes kind of guy. You know, when I was in high school, my best friend Steve. All I know is we don't know how much he could lift because he didn't lift like that. He just worked hard. But he laid down one time on a machine and lifted bench pass three hundred and fifty punds until his brother told him to stop, just kept going. Six foot three, six foot four something like that. Just this monster, strong guy. I saw him and his brother pull a viight engine out of the front of their dad's truck Ford pickup truck. Just the two of them, they just lifted it out, right, that's how strong they were, unbelievably strong men. So, boy, I had the sassiest mouth in the world when Steve was with me, right, because nobody's gonna miss it. His muscles had muscles, you know what I mean. So you have so much more confidence when you've got a powerful man behind you, a strong enforcer behind you, you have so much more confidence. Times Christians walk in a weak kind of way, a lot of fear in their life because they've got the painting Jesus and not the fiery eyed sword coming out of his mouth Jesus behind him. That's what they're thinking, right, I think you need to change your image of who Jesus is. You have way more confidence. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And the first thing that he says when he speaks in Revelation one here is don't. Be afraid, exactly right, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of me, and don't be afraid of anything else because you have me. And then he says, I am the first in the last, you know. In another translation, says Alpha and Omega. It says it in verse eight, verse eight, I am the alphaise. So the first and the last. So you know, he always was and always will be. So Jesus says himself, or or the Bible says that he has no beginning and no end. So in all of eternity past and all of eternity future, God is, And the Bible actually says, in the beginning, there was God, right, that's right, and so it's just it's it's just an amazing no matter how far you go back in time, you can go all the way back and put a stake in in the timeline and and and there always was God before before, no matter how far you go back. So and then I love the fact that he holds the keys to sin and death, and we've been convicted and then he's the one that sets us free. It's pretty cool. That's very cool. All right, welly, that's our time, and so hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible. Guys. H