 Okay. Good morning. Welcome everybody to the course BC 308. We're going to take a moment to pray together and then we're going to get started. Could somebody please lead us in prayer? Okay Avni, you want to lead us in prayer, please? Yes, Pastor. Good morning. Thank you. Father God, we are so very thankful to you for a new morning, for your tender mercies, for your grace, for your abundant wisdom, Father, that you rend your children, Father, for which we are here, Father, and as we are in your presence, Lord, lead us by your power with your wisdom and help us to understand a lot, Father, the word in a way that enriches us, builds us up for your glory on it and grace to be manifested on this earth as to be assault and right on this earth, Father. And whatever we are learning, Father, may it build us up in your most holy faith, Father. Lead us through pastor anointing, Father, bless him with good health and long life, and for all the students and all those who will be hearing the lectures that they will be utterly blessed by the word that has been released on us, Father, today. In Jesus' name, we give you glory, honour and praise and ask this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Ravan. So, we are going through the book of Revelation. We just started still in chapter one, and we are going through Revelation. Our call is to go through it, worst by worst, and I see what the Lord has given to us already concerning the end times and things yet to come. So, we were actually in verses four and five of Revelation chapter one. That's where we stopped last week. The Lord Jesus is speaking to John through his angel, messenger, and he's giving a message right at that point. He's saying, John, speak to the seven churches which are in Asia. So, what we said was that the seven churches were actually there at that time, and we should take them as the Lord's message to each one of those churches. He was observing them and he's giving them a message. However, when we read those messages, we can learn a lot for ourselves because if the Lord Jesus was evaluating or he was assessing or observing those churches, what was going on there, and he had something to tell them, then we can definitely learn from that, just like all the other scriptures where, for example, the Apostle Paul may be writing to the Corinthian church or he may be writing to the church in Galatia, but through all of that, while it is for them, it is also for us. So, it is very useful and we are going to do that as we go through chapters two and three. The only thing that we should not do is to say that each one of these seven churches represent seven dispensations or time periods, and then we say, okay, so we are right now in the seventh church period. That is not the correct way to interpret chapters two and three because these churches were there at that time. They were actual churches. Jesus was not referring to time periods. He was speaking to each one of those churches. So, sometimes you may hear some messages like that, and you just have to keep in mind that it is a misapplication of Revelation chapters one, two and three. It is not right. That is not what the Lord intended. So, we mentioned that. And then in verses four and five, we saw there are three times the word from is used. The first time in verse four, from him who is and was and who is to come, God the Father, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, God the Holy Spirit, verse five, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. So, that third from is God the eternal Word. So, in these two verses, we see the Godhead revealed to us. That means this is the Godhead speaking. Now, think about this. The beginning, the first few verses, it's saying Jesus is speaking, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which he gave to John. But verse four and five is telling us it is the Godhead who is speaking. So, what does that tell us? That when one person of the Godhead speaks, it is as good as the Godhead speaking. They are perfect unity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. Perfect unity. So, if the Holy Spirit is saying it's the same as the Father and the Lord Jesus saying, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of the Father. If the Father is speaking, it's the same as God the Son, God the eternal Word and God the Spirit speaking. They are in perfect unity. The other thing, so we will start from, so all of that we said till last week, we are moving forward from there. Now, verse five, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. Look at the titles that Jesus is using for himself. Faithful witness, first born from the dead. The ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests, to his God and Father, to him be glory, dominion forever and ever. Look at these three titles. The faithful witness, the first born from the dead. The ruler over the kings of the earth. The faithful witness. So, the Lord Jesus is referring to, so it's very interesting. At this time of the revelation, the Lord Jesus is in his glorified state. He has ascended to the Father, seated the Father's right hand. He is in his eternal glory. And yet, the things that were attributed to him during his earthly ministry are continued to be referenced to him. That means this eternal Son of God is now called the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb of God, or, you know, other titles, the Son of Man, or so on. Those titles are there. And one of these titles is the faithful witness. When was he a faithful witness? While he walked on the earth, he bore witness to the Father and to that the Father has sent him. And so, that same title is applied to the eternal Son. Now, he is in his glory, the faithful witness. The first born from the dead. The first born from the dead. What does that mean? Were there people who were raised from the dead before Jesus? The answer is yes. In the Old Testament, there were people who were raised from the dead. In the New Testament, Jesus himself raised people from the dead. But all of them died again. They died later. So they are still yet to be resurrected. But Jesus Christ was the first one who was resurrected from the dead. He was raised from the dead, never to die again. So in that sense, he is the first born, or first begotten, first born from the dead. Now, there was a teaching that came out. Again, this was part of the charismatic movement and so on. It came out, you know, I think maybe in the 70s, you may hear it here and there. And the teaching was using, you know, the scripture and related scriptures, that using the term first born, the teaching was Jesus. And it is wrong, right? I'm just telling you it's wrong. So in case you hear it, you know that you don't need to subscribe to it. But it was part of the charismatic movement. The teaching was Jesus was the first born again man. And because they took this term first born from the dead and extrapolated it, saying, oh, he was the first born again man. So the inference that was made from that was, therefore, every born again person is equal to Christ. Now, that can't be true because Christ, after he was born, raised from the dead, he went to the father and he received the eternal glory, which he had laid aside before he became man. That means the Christ is eternally God. He is in his eternal glory. He cannot equate the born again believer to the glorified Christ. Cannot do that. The glorified Christ is God. The born again believer is not God. So just because it says he's the first born from the dead and we are all going to be resurrected doesn't equate us. There's a big difference between the born again believer and the glorified Christ. So we don't subscribe to that. Jesus is the first born again person and, therefore, all those are born again are equal to Christ. We don't subscribe to that. Do we understand it? That's just a side note. It's not the main message, but I just wanted to keep you informed. That kind of teaching came out. It's died out now. You hear it too often every now and then you might hear it, but just keep in mind there's a big difference between the born again believer and the glorified Christ. Christ today is in his eternal glory. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's omnipotent. So we can't use this phrase, he's the first born. It is true, he was the first person to be eternally resurrected and we are going to be resurrected, but we can't mix the two. Charles, you have a question? Yes. Thank you, Pastor. I am inquiring about being first born again and the rose again. Those things are now, I don't know. Would you shed more light? First born again and the rose again. So thank you. Maybe you will see how hundred eat, but it is trying to make me not understand. Thank you. So first born from the dead simply means he was the first person to be eternally resurrected from the dead, never to die again. But there was a teaching that came out some decades back where they used this phrase first born from the dead incorrectly. It was the wrong way to use it. They used that phrase first born from the dead saying, oh, he was the first born again man. That's the wrong way to use it. I'm just saying that's what the teaching was in those days. First born again man, because of the phrase first born from the dead. So their thought was he became sin like us. He died and he was raised to a new life. Like how we Roman sixes, we died. We were raised to a new life. So they kind of make that parallel. We just not intended by this phrase first born from the dead. That's a wrong thing to say. But that was the teaching in those days. And then they said, okay, if Christ is the first born again person, then all of us who are born again are equal to Christ, which is wrong. God has graced us and in one sense, yes, we are sons and daughters of God. We are coheirs with Christ. That is true. Keep in mind that Christ is eternally God and we are not. We are not born again. People are not God. That's what I was trying to explain. Is that clear, Charles? I think we keep coming slowly. Thank you. Okay. If you if you if it's not clear, don't worry about it. It was just a side note. You know, in case you come across that teaching these days, it's not to don't hear it too often, but in case you know that. Okay. It's it's not right. Say your question, please. I'm sorry for pressing on this issue again. I was just wondering another light. Could it be another light to see first born from the dead is pertaining the fact that many of the saints of old Abraham, David, and the likes of them could no way enter into heaven until Jesus Christ made that accession with them over to heaven after his resurrection. I don't know if that's another way also to see it as first born from the dead. Well, what you said is true. That is the Old Testament saints could not go to heaven until Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ rose up from the dead and he ascended and he took them up with him. That is true. But the Old Testament saints we they according to Hebrews 11. They would not receive their full consummation of their resurrection with apart from the New Testament saints. So based on Hebrews 11, we could say, look, they are yet to receive the glorified bodies. So in that sense, their spirits have been taken with Jesus to heaven, just in the same way that today when a believer dies, the believer spirit goes to be with Jesus in heaven. But we are all waiting according to Romans 8 for the manifestation of the sons of God for the fullness so that we can then receive our resurrected bodies. So it's it's a future thing. And there will come a time. First, there's learnings after 4, 1 Corinthians 15. When we will receive our resurrected bodies, whereas Christ is already in his glorified body. So that's the difference. But what you said is true. He took they couldn't go to heaven until Christ rose from the dead. So that is true. Is that implied here? Could be. But I'm thinking more of the emphasis on being him being resurrected from the dead in the sense of receiving an eternally glorified body. And he will never, never taste death again in that sense. Thank you, Pastor. Agreed. I agree. Abraham's question. In the light of this, who is the new creation born again in simple terms? So the word born again, John chapter 3 is simply to receive life from above. And it has to do with us human beings, not Jesus Christ. So in simple terms, we human beings were dead in our spirit in sin. Ephesians chapter 2 was 1 and 2. Ephesians chapter 4 was 17. We were alienated from the life of God. So we were dead in our spirit. That doesn't mean our spirit didn't exist. Our spirit existed, but it did not have the life of God. So we were dead in our spirit. And when we received Christ, we received life from above. We received the Zoe life of God. So we were born from above, born again. Or as John says, first John 5 verse 1, we were born of God. That's being born again, simple terms. Okay. All right. Fine. So I didn't want to spend too much time on this. There's a side note. This is verse 7, verse 6. So this is who Jesus is, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead. And he is ruler all the kings of the earth. So think about this. He's emphasizing that our leaders on the earth, but Jesus is Lord over all of them. Verse 5. And what has he done for us? He's loved us. He's washed us in his blood and he's made us kings and priests to God. Threefold aspect of who he is, threefold aspect of who we are or what he's done for us. Who he is, faithful witness, first born from the dead, ruler of the kings of the earth. What has he done for us? He has loved us. He's washed us in his own blood. He's made us kings and priests to God. Right. So he's saying, look, he's writing to his people and he's saying, people, I want you to know I love you. I have washed you in my blood and I've made you kings and priests. So the Lord Jesus is recognizing his people. Now think about this. In chapters two and three, he's going to be correcting his people, these seven churches. But as he opens his address to these seven churches, he's saying, I loved you or I love you. I have washed you. I've made you kings and priests. That's who you are. But he still has some message of correction to six of the seven churches. So understand that dynamic where he loves us. We are washed in his blood. We are kings and priests. And yet he wants to perfect us. He's working in us as a church to perfect us. And therefore he would speak to us the way he spoke and he would point out things that are not pleasing in his eyes, as he did in six of the seven churches. Think about the terms kings and priests. I'm just moving a little fast. And now I realize in the middle of early March, we need to finish by end of April. So, oh yeah, Simran, your video is on. You can turn it off if you want. Think about the term kings and priests. Kings and priests. As kings, we represent God on earth. As priests, we represent the earth before heaven. We take the matters of the earth before God in heaven. That's the priest. He's representing people before the father, representing earth before heaven. We are representing heaven on earth. We are representing the king who's ruler over all kings. We are representing him here on earth to bring his kingdom here. So we have this dual role as kings and priests. And that is given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He made us kings and priests to his God and father to whom we glory and dominion. Verse 7. So, now he's saying, look, he's coming. Every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. Verse 7. Parallels. Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 where it says that when Christ returns, and this is at the end of the battle of Armageddon, when he comes, those who pierced him will see him and they will mourn. So Zechariah, the prophet Zechariah, Zechariah 1210, wrote about the coming of the Lord at the end of the battle of Armageddon. He will come. He will pour God, he will pour out his spirit of grace and supplication. All the people, Christ will come. And those who pierced him will see him, meaning the people, the Jewish people. They're going to see him. That's repeated here. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. So Revelation 1.7 is talking about Revelation 19. And at the end of the battle of Armageddon, Christ will come. And all the armies of heaven with him and every eye will see him. Now, how this is going to happen, we don't know. You say, what do you mean? Well, you can imagine, you know, the Bible says that Jesus is going to come and he's going to descend on the Mount of Olives, a localized spot on this earth, coming on, descending. There are people all over the globe. How are they going to see him? Every eye will see him. How are they going to see him? We don't know. It could be a supernatural act of God at that moment, causing people to see him descend on the Mount of Olives in some way in order to fulfill the scripture. But it says, every eye will see him. And those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth, they will mourn. That means they'll be in such shock. And it's going to be, you know, they're going to be grieved that they did not receive the message of Jesus Christ. They'll mourn at that moment. So Revelation 17 is pointing to Revelation 19, which we will see. That's what happened at the end of the battle of Armageddon. Now, once again, Jesus introduces himself. You know, it's interesting to see all the titles Christ uses for himself. He says, is the Alpha and Omega. That means the beginning and the end. He's at the start and at the end at the same time. That's interesting. What does that mean? It means he's standing outside time. And that's why he can be at the beginning and at the end. So always keep in mind, God is living in a realm that's outside time. And in his realm, he's at the beginning and at the end at the same time. Time for us is linear. Okay. That means tomorrow is yet to come. And day after tomorrow is yet to come. And the future is way out there. But for God, he's outside time. He's Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end. So he's at the start of time and he's at the end of time at the same time. He's Alpha and Omega at the beginning and the end. Who is who was and who is to come, the Almighty. He's the eternally self-existent One. He always is. He always was. And he always will be the same One. He doesn't change. He doesn't have to grow. He doesn't have to mature. He doesn't have to grow old. He's not increasing. Neither is he decreasing. In other words, he's eternally the same. The constant One. He was, he is, he is to come. The same One. So he's introducing himself in this manner. Verse 9. So let's read. I think we read till verse 8. So let's pick up from verse 9. Let's read through verse 20. So Revelation chapter 1 verse 9 to 20. Are you all with me so far? Yes, sir. All right. Revelation 1. 9 to 23 verses each. Please read. Anyone? Sir. Revelation 1. 9. Hi, John. Your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was at the island called Patras on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesians and to Spirna and the Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sartis and to Philadelphia and to Lavadosia. Thank you. Someone else? Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band, his head and hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like fine brass as it refined in the furnace and his voice as a sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars out of his mouth and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength and when I saw him I felt his feet as dead but he laid his right hand on me saying to me, do not be afraid I'm the first and the last. I am he who lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys and I have the keys of hate and of death write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstand the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. Thank you. Let's go from verse nine. Thank you. So John, he says he's writing to the churches and obviously these churches know who John is and it's interesting he says I John, I'm your brother and your companion in the tribulation meaning at that time they were going through a lot of persecution and it was because of that John had been banished to the island of Patmos. So he's saying look I am also going through all of your sufferings all the struggles that you're going through and part of the kingdom and I'm enduring for the sake of Jesus Christ. It is interesting that John refers to himself as your brother. He could have very well said I'm John the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He could have said that which would be absolutely true. Nothing wrong with it. Paul did introduce himself as an apostle in his writings. He did introduce himself. So not saying anything wrong but John was in one sense he was one of the 12 apostles with Paul was not. So in that sense and he these 12 apostles are very special place in the New Jerusalem. You'll see that in Revelation 21. So John could have elevated his own status who as who he was in God's kingdom I John and beloved apostle. He could have used the title beloved apostle but no it's very interesting. He chooses to use a very simple word I'm your brother. And I'm also your companion meaning a fellow pilgrim and I'm with you. I'm joining with you. So something to keep in mind if we would like to is as leaders yes we know God has called us. We know God has anointed us. We know God has given us that place of responsibility and spiritual authority. We are aware of it. I'm not denying it but we also need to make ourselves on level ground with the people we serve. He said I'm your brother I'm your companion and I'm with you going through what you're going through meaning look we're making this journey together. I'm not some super special person. I'm your brother. We're going together in this. So this beloved apostle of Jesus is just making himself on par same level one with all these believers in these seven churches that he is writing to. Something to keep in mind for us ourselves as leaders that we just come down and walk at level ground with the people we serve or we minister to or are speaking to. Verse 10 he says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. The Lord's day meaning Sunday. So people will ask why is Sunday called the Lord's day? Why is it special? Because that's how the early church saw it. So we continue to reference Sunday as the Lord's day, the first day of the week. So there was a transition from keeping the Sabbath to worshiping on the first day. So the Jewish tradition was keep the Sabbath. They went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, which was the seventh day, the last day of the week. The New Testament church moved to keeping or gathering for worship on the first day of the week. And Paul writes that and we can see it in his writings to the Corinthians. They moved to the first day of the week. Mainly that was the resurrection day and so here John is referencing that on the Lord's day. So it's okay for us to call Sunday as the Lord's day recognizing he was resurrected on the first day of the week. And that's the day of the week that the early church moved to meet and gather together and worship together. So the Lord's day, the first day of the week, the day of the Lord's resurrection. So he says on the Lord's day he was caught up in the spirit. That means his physical body was on the island of Patmos. But God took his spirit into heaven into the spiritual realm. So this is something you and I I'm not saying all of us are going to experience this but we need to understand this and we need to be aware of what the dynamics are in the spiritual realm. So John was taken into the spiritual realm. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And now he's hearing and seeing things in the spirit. So he says verse 10 I heard behind me a loud voice as about trumpet. So there is sound in the realm of the spirit. I heard a voice like a trumpet. There is direction in the realm of the spirit because he says I heard behind me. That means there's a sense of direction in front of me there is behind me. So it's not like you're in the spirit realm and everything is hazy and direction less. There's a sense of direction in the spiritual realm because he says I heard behind me. So we can get some insight what the spiritual realm is like. We can put these pieces together and we will see more of this as we go through revelation. So you can hear sound in the spiritual realm. He said I heard behind me. And you can have a sense of direction in the spiritual realm. Now we need to keep in mind that the things John is seeing are things he is not familiar with at all. Meaning as a human being we are all familiar with things we see in our natural world. If I say car in the house I say dog or I say the sound of a dog barking the sound of a vehicle or an airplane those are things we are very familiar with in our natural realm. But now John has been taken into the spiritual realm. He doesn't live in the spiritual realm so he's going to be exposed to things he's unfamiliar with. So what's he going to do? He's going to use the language of the natural world to try to communicate to us the unfamiliar things he's hearing and seeing in the spiritual realm. So as far as possible he will try to correlate things. Example if he sees something like a star in the spiritual realm he'll say yeah seven stars. He sees something like candlesticks oh seven candlesticks and the stars candlesticks are images from our natural world which John knows. But then he will see things that he may not be familiar with. For example he sees Jesus on the throne and he sees his eyes so he has to think of something in our world to express what he's seeing. His eyes oh they're like a flame of fire. That's the best he could use best language he could use to describe the eyes of the Lord. But remember he's using language from the natural world which he's familiar with to try and express what he is seeing in the spiritual world. So he says his his hair was white like wool meaning there is this whiteness all around him. So he says it's white like wool. His feet were like fine brass shiny brass that has been clean and polished like that. And as if it's refined in a furnace pure brass right. So he's using language from our world to somehow express the unfamiliar things he is seeing in the spiritual realm. He doesn't see that every day. In fact he's probably seeing it for the first time. You know he must be awestruck and so much so he says like I fell as one who was dead in verse 17. This is too much for me. I can't take it. He's hearing sounds seeing things and he's feeling in the spirit. He's so overwhelmed by what he feels. He says I fell down verse 17. I fell down like somebody was dead. This is too much. Can't take it. I just can't contain it. So all it just drops down to the ground like dead. I can't handle this. So the spiritual realm is so real it's so overwhelming and there is all these realities you can see you can hear you can feel there is sense of direction and there is things that are so unfamiliar to us. The Apostle Paul said I heard and saw things I cannot even express. I cannot write about. Second Corinthians 12 he says I was caught up into the third heaven and I heard and saw things I can't even express it. And John is doing his best here to express in our language the amazing things he is seeing in the spiritual realm. Now verse 11 the Lord is giving John instruction what do you see right in a book that means this entire everything that's written for us in the book of Revelation verse chapter 1 to 22 was something God showed John most likely we don't know whether it was one singular experience or whether it was two separate experiences or whether it was more than that the reason I say two separate experiences is because in chapter 4 verse 1 there is once again another where John writes he says I heard a voice that said come up here and I went and there was a door that was open to me so does that mean it was the same experience continuing where God shows him into into an open door and speaks to him or is it something that happened on another day it's not very clear but let's assume and I'm saying it's an assumption because we can't say it very definitively it seems like chapters 1 to 22 was a singular experience and in that there's a lot of things he is seeing hearing going on how much time did it take we don't know was it one hour was it five minutes was it 20 hours where all this is we don't know but what we do know is this after he had that spiritual experience when he came back into his physical body to sit down and write that is what the Lord told him what you see right in a book he was able to recall every detail and there are lots of details in the book of Revelation so which means this interconnectedness between the spiritual realm and the natural realm is so real that you can be in the spiritual realm experience things you come back and whatever you have experience in the spiritual realm is very it's retained and it's very what to say you can recollect all those details are still with you the spirit carries all this knowledge and is then able to through the soul and the body the mind of the emotions write that's a physical work when John sat down to write in a scroll that was a physical thing he was doing it in the natural realm but he had seen everything in the spirit so the spirit had the information the spirit had seen heard, felt got all the knowledge come back to this body and now is able to retain all that information and is through the body mind and body is writing Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 what man knows the things of a man say the spirit of the man who is in him that means the spirit the human spirit is a carrier is a repository of spiritual information and from that the spirit is able to release it through the soul and the body into the natural world are you with me so far yes sir so that was John's experience and that's what we have recorded for us in Revelation chapters 1 to 22 let's pause here I know it's almost break time pause here we'll go for 10 minute break and we'll pick it up we'll spend a little bit more time here on this passage and then we'll move forward so let's come back in 10 minutes please