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"Here as in Heaven."
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Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're in part two of a series on the book of Revelation. We're doing a deep dive into how to read and interpret this amazing amazing book. Enjoy.
Darren Rouanzoin:Amen. Good morning, 10AM. Alright. Good morning, 10AM. Good
Darren Rouanzoin:morning. How is it that eight has more life than ten? Oh, it's so good to be with you. I'm grateful you are here. However you came and whatever condition, whether you wanna be vocal or not, I'm fine with that. We're in a series called Revelation and we're looking at the last book of the bible.
Darren Rouanzoin:We started this before my sabbatical. I took a few months off and I'm back and we're restarting it. So today, we're gonna review basically 16 sermons. So chapters one through 13 in a nutshell, that's what today is about. So I'm so glad you're here.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you missed the first half of the series, I'm just gonna fast forward you with maybe like a series recap. Does that sound alright? I'm gonna need a lot more amens and hallelujahs after that worship set. I thought something was going on. At least outside give me some amens and hallelujah.
Darren Rouanzoin:I see a lot of you out there. Yeah. There's so many. You guys can be praying. We are gonna pray like crazy for a new space because it's it's not it's it's not big enough for what God's doing right now and I get that.
Darren Rouanzoin:We signed a few year lease and outgrew it pretty quickly. There is some space next door. We're trying to secure for events in overflow. That's great but I want your prayers, your generosity, your sacrifice, your skills in finding retail space or or industrial space or old churches, whatever we'll take it. And believe me, our team is looking.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm back on like the the loop net and Zillow and driving. I'm like following the Lord on my drives and not just testing the Holy Spirit and I haven't seen anything yet but anyways. I'm excited to preach today. I got I got a a word today. So 13 chapters of Revelation kinda preaches itself.
Darren Rouanzoin:The the title which I never give titles right away I always figure it out afterwards. I have today is behind the curtain wake up worship and witness. So Revelation, the book is not a riddle about the end of the world. It is a discipleship manual for faithful resistance in the empire. May the fourth be with me.
Darren Rouanzoin:In a culture of compromise, I had I didn't say it in the first. I was saving it for you. There you go. I have self discipline. In a culture of compromise, distraction, and pressure, God doesn't offer the church escape.
Darren Rouanzoin:He gives the church a glimpse of his throne. So how will you remain faithful when the world pressures you to conform and to compromise your faith? The answer from the book of Revelation is fix your eyes on Jesus. Look to Jesus. It's not a seven step process of practicing your way into wholeness.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not do this mindfulness app. It's not resolve all of your conflicts and find this physical space of peace. I just wanna say side note, Jesus gives a peace that doesn't make sense. At some point your logic, your reasoning, your gripping your life is actually the problem with your anxiety. And maybe today it's simply surrender to a God that you're being introduced to you, introduced to and his name is Jesus Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:And the the solution that Revelation gives is simply a better image of Jesus. So let's get rid of all the distorted views that we've carried in here and fix our eyes on the resurrected Christ. You with me? So 13 chapters in forty minutes. You ready?
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's do it. I'm gonna fire hose you so if you're new to church, I haven't been to church for a while I'm so sorry but it's gonna be great. Buckle up, here we go. The question I'm gonna ask you today is are you awake? Revelation chapter one verse nine.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let me see those bibles today. I I wanna see that you brought the bigger the better. No, it doesn't matter. We're not trying to compensate for anything, know, like a small spiritual life. But anyways, Revelation chapter one, I said it again.
Darren Rouanzoin:So for those of you that need extra time because maybe you're not flipping through the pages during the week, but you need extra time, we're in Revelation chapter one. Was that a little spicy? Yes, it was. Believe me, I got a lot of them today because God is good. All the time.
Darren Rouanzoin:I just wanna sing Frank Forrest right now but I'm gonna just chill. Forrest Frank, whatever his name is. Connor Price, Forrest Frank, they're all blended together on Ezra's Spotify mix that plays. I am the top 001% listener to Connor Price. How is that possible?
Darren Rouanzoin:I'll tell you how it's possible. My son has the Spotify power. Okay. Revelation chapter one. John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the prison island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:I was in prison on an island because of the word of God. How's that? That's how it begins. Right? And let's keep going.
Darren Rouanzoin:I love this one. On the Lord's day, whose day is it? What day is the Lord's day? Sunday. And you're like, oh yeah, whose day is it not?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not yours. Something about the resurrection changes the priority of the week. Right. Now I love livestreaming. For those of you that have livestreaming, me just say it's not your day for pajama church.
Darren Rouanzoin:Boy. It's his day. It's his day. I just wanna make clear that this is the rhythm. You're here.
Darren Rouanzoin:Praise the Lord. This is the rhythm we find ourselves in as followers of Jesus. The cross was not convenient for our Lord and savior. And he gave birth to the church through his life and death. And our invitation is to see it's his day.
Darren Rouanzoin:And look what happened on the Lord's day. He says, on the Lord's day I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches. Now I just wanna say, John the apostle, the author of this letter was doing church by himself on a prison island. He was in the spirit, worship, prayer, some type of While he's doing amen all by myself worship on the Lord's day for the people in the back. Sorry, livestream on the pew just kidding.
Darren Rouanzoin:I love you guys. We have this encounter. The byproduct of one man's faithfulness to the rhythms of Jesus in his life gives us the book of Revelation. Isn't that interesting? So he has this encounter and he hears this voice that says write this letter and he turned around and he saw a voice that was speaking to him And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands.
Darren Rouanzoin:And among the lampstands was someone like the son of man. So Jesus. And then it goes on and it describes what Jesus is wearing. This is the resurrected Christ, the ascended Christ, and he has a vision of this Jesus. And if you study this book, wanna remind you we're not studying this with the newspaper as a lens for interpretation.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're studying this with the old testament as a lens for interpretation because there's over 500 references to the old testament. So you have all this old testament imagery that says, when I saw him I fell at his feet as though I was dead, verse 17. Then he places his right hand on me and says, don't be afraid, I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:And now look, I'm alive forever and ever and I hold the keys of death and Hades. How does the story begin in the book of Revelation? A picture of Jesus and with all of the chaos of empire, with all of the anxieties we cover in our mind and body, with all of the wreck the the need for reconciliation, with all of the pain and broken as we brought in here, with all of the fights and the unanswered questions. Jesus says, I am the first and the last. I am alive.
Darren Rouanzoin:I was dead and I live forever. I hold the keys of death. In other words, why are you afraid? If you've come to believe that he is Lord and raised from the dead then you realign the resources of your life. The trust of your mind and body to a God who holds all things together.
Darren Rouanzoin:He holds, he brackets existence. How we doing church? This is not a three steps to deal with your anxiety. It's fix your eyes on Jesus and watch what happens. Okay.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's just the way it begins. Now we gotta get through 13 of these chapters. So he begins to speak to the church and it says that, the son of man Jesus is standing amongst the lampstands. And would you go to chapter two? And now what we have is this first section where Jesus speaks to his church.
Darren Rouanzoin:A word of encouragement and correction. And these are seven churches that were literal places that in modern day Turkey today that were part of John's oversight as he speaks pastorally as an epistle to these churches. But he sees Jesus walking amongst the lampstands. The lampstands represent the church. So Jesus is not some far off place disassociated, disconnected from the activities of the local church.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's with them, in them, observing the uniqueness of each church. In chapter two verse one, it says to the angel of the church in Ephesus, these are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hands and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work, your perseverance. I know you can't tolerate wicked people, and that you've tested those who claim to be apostles and aren't false teachers. You fall You found them to be false.
Darren Rouanzoin:You've persevered and have endured hardships for my name and you have not grown weary yet. He's like, you're running alpha. You're doing homeless outreach. You show up on Sundays. You're going to the prayer rooms.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're doing all this great activity yet. You're orthodox. You resist the TikTok influencers with false theology. You're doing all the right things yet I hold this against you. You have forsaken your the love you've had at first.
Darren Rouanzoin:So he goes through a series of what our prophetic oracles or, general letters, like a general would write these letters to people under his command in the first century Roman empire, and he's writing in this similar way to the local churches. So he he gives seven different examples of the churches to encourage the local church to wake up. So you have various churches. Smyrna, you're suffering but and you're spiritually rich. No critique, you're doing great.
Darren Rouanzoin:Gold star or seven, however you wanna count. That was a revelation joke. Anyways, Pergamum, he he goes to Sardis, I love this one, the encouragement. Only a few of you are faithful. He's like, alright Garden Church I love the four services.
Darren Rouanzoin:8AM, you're crushing it. The rest, you're out. You have a reputation for life but you're spiritually dead. Now here's the thing about the seven churches. These are specific.
Darren Rouanzoin:We went through them contextually back in the fall of last year. So you can look at what's going on in Ephesus or what's going on in Laodicea when he says you're lukewarm. Laodicea had a specific aqueduct system that brought water from the outside that made its water bitter and lukewarm. So there's contextual things that make sense but he uses it as a way to describe what's going on not just with those local churches but what's happening in all the churches at all times. Would you agree that there are times it seems like we as a church, you as a disciple are lukewarm?
Darren Rouanzoin:You're not on fire, you're not cold, you're just kind of coasting through the faith? That's the point of these letters. It's to wake you up to the fact that some of you in this room are self deceived. And the holy spirit is moving in on you and Jesus is described as knocking on the door of your heart. Let him in.
Darren Rouanzoin:This isn't just for outsiders who don't know Jesus. This is for those who have been drifting into compromise and Jesus is wooing you and will you let him in? Will you let him into your heart? This is what the first section of the book of Revelation is about. The point is the greatest threat to the church and the church's ability to remain faithful to Jesus is not persecution.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's drifting into compromise. So Jesus begins Revelation by walking among the churches, speaking directly to them, and the next vision, it's like he's here, he sees the details. The next vision is John gets pulled back. He's invited to the backstage. We don't have anything past there.
Darren Rouanzoin:Back here is the con he opens the curtain. You can go back with Jesus. Siri's like you can't go back, you can. Revelation four he takes us back. Thank you for that.
Darren Rouanzoin:Appreciate that Dylan, Tim Tim. It's the it's John is inviting you backstage because behind the scenes of the church life is a curtain into the cosmos. Jesus's words are to wake us up to what's happening and then once we're we we wake up, he now anchors us with a different scene and it's the scene of reality. So go to Revelation chapter four. You guys good with this?
Darren Rouanzoin:Nice pace. I would say it's a little warm in here but that's because there's so many of us squish in this room. I got a lot of space up here though. That's great. If anyone wants to cool off later, there's baptism.
Darren Rouanzoin:Water's right here. Don't know how warm it's gonna be. Revelation four says this, chapter four verse one, after this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. So now it's a different vision. Remember when you read open what do you do?
Darren Rouanzoin:Double click the mouse and a window, a new window pops open. We're now brought into another vision. It's not a chronological sequence in the book of Revelation which I'll talk to in a moment about. We're not seeing this as this thing happens and this thing happens and this thing happens. What we have to ask ourselves is not what happened next but who what did John see next?
Darren Rouanzoin:So he's given a new vision, pulls us behind the curtains of reality and it says, and the voice I heard I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. So he goes from the activity of the church to Jesus saying, no no no, you gotta see what's going up. And he goes and he's in the spirit and he sees a throne and then he begins to describe what is drenched and dripping with old testament imagery. The ones who sat on the throne had the appearance of jasper and ruby.
Darren Rouanzoin:A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounded the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne room came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing and they were the seven spirits of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:Also in front of the throne there were what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center around the throne were four living creatures and they cried out day and night, holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And whenever these living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to those who the one who sits on the throne, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before him and say, you are worthy, oh lord and god, to receive glory and honor and power. You created all things and by your will you were created and have their being.
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. That's a big one. Yeah. Four. There you go.
Darren Rouanzoin:What's chapter four? It is the center of the cosmos. At the center of the cosmos is a throne. God is on the throne. And around the throne, the rest of creation is architected.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it points back to the throne. And at the throne, there are these beings that say, holy holy holy day and night. They exist to worship. And that word holy holy holy comes from Isaiah. The word holy we always think of it as a separate word to be separated from, but the Hebrew definition is dedicated to you.
Darren Rouanzoin:You are dedicated to God is holy. He's dedicated unto us. Holy holy holy. And when they hear the liturgy of worship in heaven, the 24 elders which represents the people of God, the 12 apostles as well as the 12 tribes. They take their crowns and they lay down and then they say this line, worthy.
Darren Rouanzoin:You are worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power. Now if you are listening to this being read in the first century, you'd be like time out, I've heard that song before. So you're like, okay, this is a crazy like this architecture of angels with eyes and all these things, but then all of a sudden, the soundtrack dedicated and created by Caesar called the imperial hymns is being played in heaven only it's not going to Caesar, it's going to the lamb. What's it saying? It's saying look everyone worships to It's not a Christian thing.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not a religious thing. Every human worships. The question is who or what do you worship? And the point of Revelation four is to redirect the cultural liturgies that are demanding worship and point them to the lamb. So in a culture it says identify yourself based on your identity, your sexuality, your friendship circle, your net worth, your job, your career, your family.
Darren Rouanzoin:Take those sources of worship and redirect them to Jesus. You're gonna use them to worship anyways. Why not worship the God who holds all things together in the first place? It is a direct assault against the propaganda of our cultural liturgy today. So take that soundtrack and redirect towards Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Are you with me? That's chapter four. So heaven's got a song and the rest of the world is being is begin like that's Sorry. Heaven's song is being sung and eventually all of creation will come back to that song. You good?
Darren Rouanzoin:Chapter five, John sees a scroll which is the redemptive plan of God for the rest of creation. What began in Genesis one that will end in Revelation at the end of the book. We see that this redemptive plan no one is worthy to open and unseal the scroll. So John weeps and an elder says why are you weeping? Look, the lion of Judah is worthy.
Darren Rouanzoin:And he says he says he hears the lion of Judah is worthy and he turns to look and he looks and sees the lamb that was slain. The lion of Judah is worthy but it's the lamb that was slaughtered he sees. Which is the paradox of the book of Revelation that the heart of Revelation is that power comes through sacrificial love not through conquest. So at the center of this chapter five is you see the lamb will conquer violence through laying down his life. He opens the scrolls and what happens next is all hell breaks loose.
Darren Rouanzoin:Chapter six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11. The rest of this section of of chapter four through 11 which we talked about last year in detail have these seals being unsealed, these trumpets has these bowls, it has this vision of a guy eating a little scroll and then it has a 44,000 being sealed. I know that's a lot to go over. But here's what you need to understand, All hell breaks loose because God's redemptive plan is unleashed and as God's kingdom breaks forth, the kingdoms of the world protest. And so we're given a glimpse through what is apocalyptic what is apocalyptic poetry.
Darren Rouanzoin:Vision telling, stories, a fantasy novel, a sci fi, may I say Star Wars epic in chapter six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11. And what's happened is we've read these stories, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The the the retelling of the seals and the trumpets in a way that we see the chaos and war and famine and economic injustice and death on a pale white horse through the lens of dispensationalism. Oh, it got quiet. So many of us in this room have a perspective of revelation that's been formed through a popular story called left behind.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's just let's just get out of the way. Raise your hand. Let's I I mean I was listening to those audible books going to UCSB backsliding from Jesus before I gave my life. I was terrified I was gonna get left behind. Anyone Can we just How many of us have been formed by Or or maybe your vision or understanding of revelation has been formed by Calvary Chapel or or or a Pentecostal or even Baptist theology that's been heavily ingrained in what is called dispensation.
Darren Rouanzoin:Dispensationalism. And I just wanna say dispensationalism takes kind of this literal future end times mapping and gives it as a lens to read this book. So Left Behind trained you to read scripture through the lens of dispensationalism. So that's why last week I talked about how to read Revelation with context and literary style and history and why it's a letter in apocalyptic language and it's prophecy and why that matters as we make this interpretation and make sense of this book. This book was never designed to be read chronologically or sequentially.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's apocalyptic, it's poetry. Dispensationalism is what I call plot twist theology. So let me make sense of this if you've never heard this word. Imagine you're watching the movie The Sixth Sense. Have you guys seen the movie The Sixth Sense?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's 20 something years old. Raise your hands. Okay. Great. So I'm not gonna spoil it.
Darren Rouanzoin:You've had plenty of time. Okay. But you get to the end and realize boom. Bruce Willis was dead the whole time. And now that ending shapes the way you see the rest of the story.
Darren Rouanzoin:Right? So you go back and you're like, oh my gosh he died in the first scene and the rest is him be dead counseling this poor kid who's seeing a ghost. And you're like, that's why his wife didn't talk to him at the table. You're like, it's You thought there was really bad marital problems. No.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's dead. He couldn't pay for the check. He's a ghost. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? Alright.
Darren Rouanzoin:Master first It's such good storytelling. It's so amazing. Now, dispensationalism is not reading or watching The Sixth Sense through a lens. Again, that's not it. What it is is taking all of m night Shyamalan's movies, every other movie you see, and every time someone looks confused you whisper to yourself, I bet they're dead too.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're not watching the movie anymore, you're rewatching the sixth sense in every movie over and over and over again. That's dispensational theology in the bible. So dispensationalism isn't just a take on end times, it's a full on reinterpretation of scripture. It's a system that has a plot twist and a template and it doesn't use scripture the way it's supposed to be. And that's really important.
Darren Rouanzoin:So biblical theology is exegetical. This is a systematic, if we call it a theology, top down that brings in all sorts of assumptions and retrofits the whole of scripture to fit its perspective. So we don't read that way here. We take Genesis all the way to Revelation and apply the same tools. Does that make sense?
Darren Rouanzoin:That's for some of you, you're welcome. Just think dispensational plot twist theology. Now, let's get back into this. So what's going on in chapter six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 with all this like locusts destroying, they're not helicopters, what is it? It's storytelling of life apart from God.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's showing you how far it's gotten in Genesis three to present where there's famines and economic injustice and you're looking at this crisis of world events from the lens of apocalyptic literature. That's why there's this hopeful moment in chapter seven of a 44,000 symbolizing the people of God being sealed during this great tribulation. What's that about? It's the Holy Spirit on the church. That the people of God throughout history are part of tribulation.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're in it and we're sealed with his presence. Not some separate event for a few, it's for all those who follow God. And then we get to chapter 10 where we're told, like John is told to eat this little tiny book and what That's the word of God in the gospel. What's the point? The point is the world is going crazy.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's chaos. Those chapters are not about you escaping through a rapture, the event rapture, the events that are gonna happen. It's you recognizing that you're called right into the battlefield to be filled with his presence and proclaim the gospel. It's about your witness. Revelation 10 recommissions a church to live as a faithful witness in a hostile war world.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're called to prophetically live in the world proclaiming the truth of God with all of the chaos that's in front of us. Are you with me church? There you go. That's a bunch of chapters. The main point of chapter six through 11 is you're not promised to escape your promises presence.
Darren Rouanzoin:You are sealed for the purpose of witnessing to the world. And so you get through those chapters and you're like, oh I made it. Thank goodness, you know, no locust coming after me. I got it. And then you get to the end of chapter 11, you're like, he's like, oh you thought it was that bad.
Darren Rouanzoin:I I I I was with you in the church and then I gave you a revelation in my throne room and then I showed you the redemptive history plan. What I've been doing from the beginning. And then he goes even deeper into it. It's like inception again. Another Nolan film.
Darren Rouanzoin:Here we go. It's like he he pulls you into a dream and then he does a dream within the dream. He's giving you a new vision because chapter 11 verse 19, go there please. Are you guys good with this? Are you following?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's a lot to go through. I didn't know if it was just me being a crazy professor or if it would be a good sermon but either way I tried my best. Here we go. Because you're getting hours and hours and hours and hours of research to make sense for for us to jump back in knowing that some of you weren't here in the beginning. So go back and listen to this podcast.
Darren Rouanzoin:But then you have verse 19 it says, then God's temple in heaven was opened. There's that word, that verb. So now it's a new vision. Double click the mouse, new window pops open. This is not what happened next.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is what John saw next. Now we're seeing something else and what do we what does it see? He sees the temple and the ark of his covenant And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a severe hailstorm. What's going on? Old testament imagery of the presence of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is like we are in the heavenly realms. You with me? And then there's this story which is straight out of every fantasy movie or novel ever. A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Darren Rouanzoin:Then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on his head. If you're new to church we're so glad you're here. This ancient library books has dragons in in it. Yes. The inspired word of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'll get to it in a second. So this ten ten crowns. Its tail swept a third of the stars. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's a messianic psalm referring to the Messiah who is Jesus. Her child was snatched up to God and to his own throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God where she might be taken care of for a period of time. Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought fought back, but he was not strong enough and lost their place in heaven.
Darren Rouanzoin:The great dragon who was hurled down, which is literally translated to bounced out of heaven, and then it names it the ancient snake, Genesis chapter three, called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled down to the earth and his angels with him. And then here's this thing, we'll come back to it, and it says at the end then chapters verse 17, then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring. Those who keep God's commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. Chapter twelve thirteen introduces something to us as disciples and what's going on.
Darren Rouanzoin:First of all, the woman represents Mary. This is the apocalyptic Christmas story. The three wise men come you know and and then the shepherds in the fields and the red dragon waiting to eat the baby. This is John's retelling of that story, the nativity story. And what's happening is it it's the woman symbolically represents Mary giving birth to Jesus but also the people of God, Israel giving birth to the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:The child represents Jesus and her offspring is the future church who believe in Jesus. And the devil has been working against God's people from the beginning. Right? John says this in one of his Jesus says this in John. Jesus Oh sorry.
Darren Rouanzoin:Satan, the devil has been sitting from the beginning. What's he referring to? The beginning, Genesis. People always ask when did spiritual warfare begin? Genesis chapter one in between chapter one and verse two.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just read your bible, do a little bit of study on the words used there and we see he creates the heavens and the earth, something happens, the earth was formless and void. It was in chaos. We are we are created as humans into cosmic conflict and our commission was to go into Eden and bring Eden to the rest of creation in loving relationship with God. This is the Genesis one and two. Are you okay with this?
Darren Rouanzoin:I see you're like, oh my goodness. It didn't start in because there's a snake in the garden. There's a serpent. Right? And so the story of God and our story is simply this, we are not disciples in peacetime.
Darren Rouanzoin:We are made for wartime leadership. In other words as John is being given a revelation of life he's saying there's a war behind all wars. There's conflict behind all things. The dragon you The dragon is Satan and he'll go on in chapter 13 to say, Satan will use the power structures of this world to wage war against the church. So you should go and listen to chapter 13, the talks we did on the beast from the earth and the beast from the sea.
Darren Rouanzoin:You see that the dragon is kicked out and he's waging war against the church and John shows the dragon stand by the sea and pull out this giant beast. And so many of us are like, who's the beast? That's not the right question. It was never the right question. This is not some future event.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is an event that continues to occur throughout history. That Satan uses corrupt political powers for his will of destroying God's good and beautiful creation. Is that alright? Messing some of you up? Some of you are like, great.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm getting the right theology right from a young age. This row right here, let's go. You just like I don't have the baggage that the rest of y'all have. It's true. I know for some of you you're hearing this and you were you came to faith in a different theology and this kind of teaching is messing with you because you love that teacher.
Darren Rouanzoin:You love that experience and I'm teaching something where you're like, oh my gosh is this guy a heretic? No. So many more scholars teach this. It's just been popularized and redramatized for you to be obsessed with. And let me let me just say, it came in the eighteen sixties under John Darby and then made popular through the Schofield bible.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's only a hundred and a few It's a few hundred years old and it's primarily America that's obsessed with it. Because that philosophy is like America dominance. But there's no dominance in Revelation. There's surrender and submission and slaughtering lambs who have power through laying down their life. That's the way.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's no other way. Are you okay? Until we get to chapter 19 where Jesus does come back on a white horse and he does judge. He brings righteous judgment. And I know we've kind of placated this and we've just washed over that.
Darren Rouanzoin:He will make things right because he's righteous and he's justice oriented. And what he's gonna do is destroy, that's a hard word to say, I can't wait to teach it. All the evil that's been wreaking havoc on his kids. We'll get there when we get there though. Gotta build up to it.
Darren Rouanzoin:So the dragon uses the Satan uses power. He uses politics. So in the first century as they hear this they're saying the first beast, the beast from the sea is Rome. And but it's not just that because we'll see later on that it's not just Rome, it's Babylon. It's the Assyrians.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's Egypt. It's Jerusalem. In the book of Revelation any power that's co opted co opted by Satan to do the will of hurting God and his people is seen as marked by a beastly power. Oh man, this is good. I know.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm just realizing how much work's going on and you're new and you're getting baptized like what did I get into? Oh no. The beast of the sea is political powers that are corrupt. You guys okay with that? The beasts from the earth are the religious powers that are used to deceive the world.
Darren Rouanzoin:This person or it's not a person but it's a character in the scripture used to describe all religious systems and ideologies that deceive the world into false belief systems. So it was, the cult of the emperor in first century Rome. It will be false prophets and teachers later on that are within the church. Right? We talked about this in Matthew.
Darren Rouanzoin:I prophesied and I healed. I I did all this in your name and Jesus is like, I never knew you. False teaching, false prophets. Are you guys okay? And then it talks about the mark of that beast.
Darren Rouanzoin:Obviously it's Amazon Prime or the vaccine. You know clearly you were on those websites you know with this During that crazy season, I know. It's it's not that. That in Revelation 13 it uses the mark as on the head and the hand borrowing it from Deuteronomy six four the Shema prayer. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Darren Rouanzoin:It says bind them on your forehead and on your hands. It's the first time that phrase is used. It's a mimicry of worship that shapes your thought life and your behavior. And the religious powers of the day, the false ideologies of consumerism shape your thought life and your behavior, doesn't it? So that it is Amazon Prime.
Darren Rouanzoin:And your Zillow account. And your you know online shopping, your window shopping, and your Instagram algorithm, and your TikTok, and your friendship circles, and the desires of your heart that have been co opted and singing the songs of the world not redirected towards God because that's the point. Remember get back to chapter four and recognize the mark of the beast happens when your worships misdirected. So you don't realize you're sleeping into compromise. So wake up, get the right worship song directed to the right person and then you'll see clearly that you are not living at a time that's peace.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's filled with war. There are beast like powers, God like powers trying to get you to compromise your faith. Trying to get you to see that the addiction that you have is because you've partnered with an ideology of despair that says things will always be this way. And he says stop believing those things. Take off the old self and put on the new.
Darren Rouanzoin:Renew your mind which is being transformed into Christ likeness. This is the goal is to recognize it starts with you who are simply just chilling out. Coasting towards a sinful life not realizing it's sin because the spirit no longer convicts you. Because he's outside of the door of your heart knocking. Will you let him in?
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. Yes. I open the door and once he gets there he's like okay. Now what got you here was grace but now I'm gonna recon reconstruct your life around the grace. I'm gonna redo your identity.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna redo the places of value. I'm gonna reconstruct your past life so that your your future is is your present is shaped by your future self. I'm gonna bring a new community that holds you up not criticize. I'm gonna give you a way of speaking that doesn't gossip and slander. I'm gonna invite you into a life of ongoing reconstruction.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then I'm gonna give you a glimpse of my goodness and you're gonna come every Sunday on my day And you're gonna bring your best. And you're gonna redirect the worship culture of the world back to Jesus. Because something about that realigns the rest of your life. Because when you go out from here, when the saints gather here, we go out on mission, recommissioned into the world of chaos knowing that our battle is not physically seen. There's a scene behind the scene with dragons and beasts influencing the world but we see clearly because we see the lamb.
Darren Rouanzoin:Are you with me church? Yes. Revelation one through 13. If you could summarize it in a sentence, it's wake up church. Couple sentences.
Darren Rouanzoin:Sing worship songs to the lamb. Live as a witness to a broken and hurting world overwhelmed by cosmic warfare. Now let me just go back real quick to chapter 12 because there's this line that has to mark our church. It says this about those who are faithful. They triumphed over him, Satan, by the blood of the lamb.
Darren Rouanzoin:They didn't conquer Satan by good practices. Although practices are important. They didn't conquer conquer him because they showed up to the prayer room. And that matters because you think God loves you more when you do more church activity. No.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. No. The way we conquer, the way we triumph is by the blood of the lamb. By just surrendering to the reality that Jesus defeated all. And by the word of their testimonies, they did not love their lives so much to shrink from death.
Darren Rouanzoin:What I love about Revelation is it's a challenge to the conquest narrative of dispensationalism. Over and over again, John uses this literary tool that the blood of the martyrs are a sign of his conquest and victory on the cross. That when you are faithful even unto death, it's a symbol of Jesus' victory. So it's not let me win my group, it's let me remain faithful as I gently restore this group to wholeness. It's not like the political slogan let's vote our way into office which politics aside, this is an invitation to live in a way when politics don't align.
Darren Rouanzoin:I would say when politics do align we are more in danger of sleeping in and compromise when they're not. I'm telling you right now, it was a lot easier when the politics looked different than the church. You Whatever side you're on, there's like a a power that comes out. We're like, okay, the other side's in power. Now we gotta go.
Darren Rouanzoin:The other side's in power. Now we gotta go. The whole point is Jesus is on the throne. We don't play by those rules anymore. Why do we think we're gonna win any nation through the ways of the world?
Darren Rouanzoin:The only way is the cross. So that's where our victory is, that's where our hope is, that's where our activity is and we are invited into that lifestyle. So as a church we live in response to the word of God and he says to the church wake up. Some of you need to wake up and stop sleeping in. Christianity is not a Sunday event, it is a lifestyle transformation.
Darren Rouanzoin:He wants you to stay awake. Second, worship the lamb. Realign your resources, your life, and bring your best to him when we gather at home. Third, live as a witness in the world. Do not shrink back from the world but triumph over all the powers through the blood of the lamb.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let your testimony be a testimony of transformation. Now, in the ancient church, can I say this is the best symbol? Baptism was more than a symbol. It was a declaration of allegiance. It was saying, I switched sides.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm with team Lam. I'm leaving team Dragon and I'm joining team Lam. In a world of compromise and convenience that tempts us to make it something else, there's a simple declaration to the world, you'd get dunked in the water. That's how you know. You see what I think has happened in our culture is we made Christianity so convenient.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you look biblically there's no alternative to faith other than dunking in water. There isn't there We made up this prayer. I've I've prayed raise your hand, say a prayer and then you'll believe. We take it from Romans like if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart you will be saved and I believe that but brothers and sisters, the biblical model is baptism. So we're reviewing chapters one through 13.
Darren Rouanzoin:Now, next week, new content. We get into chapter 14 and then fifteen and sixteen and it's gonna keep going for the next like twelve weeks. But I wanna encourage you bring your bibles, get plugged in, jump into the word. God is doing a renewal work. We have seen hundreds of people accept Jesus or rededicate their life in the last several weeks.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're seeing families being restored, seeing healings break. We're seeing salvation. Seeing some of you are here and you're new to church and I just need to say there are so many people around the world going to church right now because God is drawing people to himself. I don't care what church you end up going to. Go to church.
Darren Rouanzoin:God is doing a renewal right now around the world, but he also wants to renew you. So can you just close your eyes for a moment? We have, we're gonna do baptisms in just a second. So we have had a lot of people signed up today at the 20 something people have signed up for the four services. We had some spontaneous baptisms last service.
Darren Rouanzoin:Some of you didn't know coming here that you were gonna get baptized. Because you're realizing you like convenient Christianity and I'm no longer accepting convenient Christian Christians in our church. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I just wanna invite you to go all in with Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:So Lord would you just release the saints today to worship you. Holy Spirit I pray that you draw people to you. Wake them up to the reality that you are Lord and you are raised from the dead. Would you bless my brothers and sisters that want freedom today? That really wanna walk this faith out.
Darren Rouanzoin:Give them the courage to step in and follow you for the rest of their lives. In Jesus name, amen. Thank
Intro/Outro:you so much for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.