REVELATION SERIES - Week 3 - September 2, 2026

Let's go ahead and get started.

Um my name's Ian Bullet, of course you know David, and uh I I don't know a lot of you, but uh I teach a Sunday school class here.

Um and uh I'm I appreciate David for asking me to come help teach this revelation class.

Now I was a teacher at Northside High School, and so we are gonna we start at six o'clock.

If you're late, you're late.

There'll be no tidy cards, but you'll you you're late, you're gonna miss it.

And I'm gonna try to finish at seven.

Okay?

Uh I don't mind staying around later, but as far as the class, the class will be done at seven.

So if you want to leave, you can.

You can just slip out, and if there's time for questions, you you can do that.

So let me open in a word of prayer and then we'll jump into it.

So, Father, we thank you for everyone here.

That it's it's not an accident that we're all together, and it's not an accident that we're studying the last book of the Bible.

Because we know that you want us to read it, and you have a plan and a purpose for this world, and we're gonna kind of get a glimpse of that.

And so we thank you.

We just ask that you open our hearts to the teachings uh that we're listened to.

Uh, I know we we a lot of us have um ideas that we're already bringing into this, but we just pray for an openness and that we'd be flexible, uh, but we stay within the guidelines of your word.

So thanks again.

We just pray that you'd be present and you'd work through us, David and I, as we teach.

And we thank you for Stephen and his ministry and the free use of his materials that he wants everybody to use, and we're so grateful.

So thanks again for all you do in Christ's name.

Amen.

Okay, so you should have got, we we've created an email list, and uh that's how you get your information.

You this class is only going to be valuable if you listen to that or read the notes.

Now, I by mistake I forgot to send out the video.

There's a video where you actually watch Stephen Armstrong teach.

And by the way, Stephen, Stephen passed away during COVID, so he's not around, but he he he has a great ministry, and his teaching is phenomenal.

But he's he's not around anymore.

But his material is for free.

He wants people to be able to use it and reproduce it, and no, no feed, nothing.

I mean, that this is his attitude about it.

The word of God is so important.

So it's it's a great ministry.

It's called verse by verse, and you can get online, but you should have got, you will get an email every Friday.

I'll send it out, you'll get a link to the notes, you'll get a link to the audio, and and now I'll add a video so you can watch it just like if you were in church.

You're not gonna get what you need out of this lesson if you don't watch it, if you don't read the notes.

You don't have to, but our time together tonight is a summary.

You that sheet that you have in front of it, you is a basic summary.

It's pulling out the main points of everything as we go through it that we'll be discussing and highlighting, and there's some things you just want to highlight.

Now, there's a lot I'm gonna miss.

There's a lot I'm not gonna talk about because you can't do it.

I'd be here for a couple hours trying to reproduce what he says.

So keep that in mind, okay?

So you have this sheet, and it's it's got all the scriptures, and it's broken down into the segments that he taught it, and uh, we will even go through his slides as we go through it.

Now remember, so let's get started.

And and he he did a little summary at the beginning that this is the last book of the Bible.

The very last book, written by a guy who was the oldest surviving apostle.

He was the last one, John.

And he I hope hope you got what he said about this.

This is the last book, the book of Revelation, but you cannot understand it unless what?

Anybody remember?

Unless you know all the rest, all the other 65 books, if you don't know that, and that's just isn't it good though?

Because that's what Greg's going through.

The whole, he's going through the whole Bible.

But unless you know all that, this is not gonna make a lot of sense.

It's and he uses the illustration.

You go to a bookstore and you want to pick up a book and you you open it and you turn to the very last chapter.

And you read it.

Is it gonna make a lot of sense?

No, because you haven't read all the other chapters leading up to it.

And all the well, it's kind of the same thing, the book of Revelation.

So it's it's real important that his job is to teach us a lot, and you're gonna see this.

We're not just gonna look at the book of Revelation, you are also gonna look at all the other books, Daniel, Ezekiel.

I mean, we're gonna be we're gonna be going back.

Because, and that's his job to teach us also about all the other stuff, which is kind of neat.

Okay?

So that's the first thing.

The second thing is there is a golden rule of interpretation.

Because revelation is kind of like anything goes, right?

We live in it, we live in a society now where anything goes.

Whatever somebody thinks it means, it well, that's what it means.

We don't do that with anything else that we study.

But revelation is we kind of that's kind of how it's thrown in.

There are rules, and if you stay in those rules, those rules of interpretation, it'll it'll make sense.

And he he's gonna explain that even in just this first lesson, what those rules are.

We're not gonna guess.

Well, I think that means this.

I think that means that.

Oh, really?

Where'd you get that from?

Well, I don't know.

I just think it.

Well, that's not good enough.

God is not a god of confusion.

And Revelation is a confusing book, and that's why nobody studies it.

It's not taught in churches anymore, very rarely.

Because there's too much controversy, there's too much, you know, misunderstanding.

So let's just not talk about it.

Isn't that a shame?

Because we're gonna see, we're gonna see what he tells us here.

So there are rules of interpretation, and we're gonna look at those as we go along.

We don't guess.

The third thing is it's a symbolic book.

There are symbols.

Lots and lots of symbols.

But whenever you come across a symbol, somewhere, somewhere in scripture, there's that symbol is represented somewhere else in scripture, which will un which will help you understand what the symbol means.

And we're gonna see an example of that tonight.

Okay, you got it?

Those are his true rules.

And uh I've I've got the if you can see this, we'll kind of go through these slides too.

But he he kind of lists those up there.

And the the plain sense, when you read it, whatever the plain sense uh it makes common sense and you see no other sense.

Whatever you it's you think it what it says is that's what it says.

Don't try, well that must mean this, or this must mean this.

It's not.

Whatever the common sense, a common plain sense, I've got to shrink that down a little bit.

Okay.

Seek the meaning in the text itself, whether it's in the same passage or in an earlier passage.

The meaning of these symbols is either gonna be right there in the passage, and you're gonna hear Stephen say a lot if you listen to the lesson.

And if you don't find the meaning in the text immediately or in that book, then where do you go?

Back.

You just keep going back, keep going back, keep going back until you find it, and then it explains it.

Okay.

Okay, let's jump into it.

So here's the uh first three verses, and you've got a kind of a summary on your first sheet.

This is uh kind of the prologue, and it basically the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place.

And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant John.

Okay, in this first verse, there Stephen brings out that there's a what?

You remember?

Chain of custody.

It starts off with uh where is it, starts off with God who gave it to him, who's him?

His son, to show his bondservants.

Us.

We are his bondservants.

Bondservants actually just means slaves.

We are slaves to Christ, not to sin, we're now slaves to Christ.

Okay, so this this book is to us.

This chain of command that came from God to Jesus to us.

Now, how did it come to us?

Uh, which actually the things which must where is it here?

Bondservants, the things which must take place soon, soon take place, and he sent and communicated it by his what?

Angel to his bondservant?

John.

You see the chain of command?

The chain of custody?

So it says God to Jesus to an angel to John.

Now here's the question: why is that important?

Why is it important to have a chain of custody like that?

Does anybody remember from the message or what he what uh Stephen said about this?

Why is this such a big deal that we know where it came from?

We can trust the scripture.

We can trust it.

Does anybody know what was going on at this time?

Huh?

He was on Patmos, yeah, but what else was what else what other things were floating around at that time?

False teaching.

Yeah, you remember in Thessalonians where uh you know the the the church was just they were just freaked out because they thought a false teaching group had come around and said, Jesus saw he come back.

He's already been.

You missed it.

And they and so he has to write to them and to explain to them, no, they hadn't missed it.

It's you're okay.

But there was false tea, all sorts of false teaching.

This was to encourage them that they could trust this that of the chain of custody that it came from.

Okay?

So it can be trusted.

We can trust it today.

With all these things floating around out there, okay.

Second thing, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ and all that he saw.

What do you think about that?

He didn't hear it, he visually saw it.

He saw it.

It wasn't it wasn't narrated to him.

I max.

Yeah, it's it's like going to the movies.

It's it's like, hey, come here.

You know, come here, and he sits him down and he sh he sh shows him all this stuff.

Now you gotta think about this.

This is way back 2,000 years ago to things that are gonna happen, what, where are we, 2026.

Now, could he explain, could he understand it?

Didn't have to.

No.

His his job was not to understand it.

His job was not to write it down and then interpret it and understand it.

That was not his job.

His job was just to write it down.

Guess whose job it is to understand it.

All of us, yeah.

It's our job to understand it.

And that takes effort, that takes a lot of work.

And this is why Satan has made it so confusing because he doesn't want us reading this book.

He doesn't want us to understand this book.

Okay.

So he visually saw it.

It was not dictated in a narrative form, hence it's symbolic, very symbolic.

And we've got to figure out what those symbols mean.

This is where all the misinterpretation comes from.

Okay?

Verse 3.

What does it say?

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.

Does it say you have to understand it?

No.

It says you have to read it and you have to heed it and you have to study it, and what's going to happen?

It's a blessing.

I don't know what it is.

A specific blessing.

Yeah.

We're all gonna get different blessings from it.

Bound to be good.

So I don't know.

You all when we get through all this, something's gonna happen in your life.

It's gonna be different for all of us.

You see why Satan doesn't want you to read it?

Are there any other books that say this where it's a blessing to read the book?

This is the only one that says it.

Okay, let's go on.

What is it?

Verse 4.

Now we'll go four through eight.

And he's and we'll look at these.

So it says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne.

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood.

And he has made us to be a kingdom of priests, priests to his God and Father, to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.

So it is to be.

Amen.

And in verse 8, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

Okay?

So let's go through some of this.

So what is it?

What's the first part?

What is he right?

Who's it addressed to?

Seven churches.

Seven churches.

Why seven?

The seven is perfect.

Yeah.

100%.

If you listen to the message, because I mean you I tell them to care about this, my wife.

There's no Galatia, there's no Thessalonians, there's no Corinthians, there's no what about all those?

The one at Jerusalem?

I mean, there's hundreds, there's probably hundreds of churches by this time.

Why those seven?

Why pick why pick seven and why pick the number seven?

Well, it's because think of the creation.

How many days in the creation?

Nine?

Seven.

Seven means complete.

It just means our common hundred percent.

Whatever hundred percent is, full, complete.

So what that's telling you is he's this is to all the churches.

At that particular time and now.

I mean, think about how many churches there are.

Thousands and thousands.

This is included in them.

What other number could you use to reach all the churches?

Seven.

Seven has that number.

Just remember that.

Okay?

From him who is, who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne.

Now we don't know what.

This is symbolism.

Seven spirits.

What are we talking about there?

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.

Now, notice that the Trinity is here.

Okay?

The Trinity is all in this verse.

People say, well, there's no word Trinity is not in the Bible.

No, it's not.

Just like rapture, it's not in the Bible.

But you can see it.

Just because the word's not there.

Notice it says the Father, who is and who was and who is to come.

Okay, and by the way, look at this.

I am the Mount Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come.

The Almighty.

That's God the Father.

Seven spirits.

Now, what does seven mean?

100%.

What are we talking about?

What are we talking about?

The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit.

Can He be divided out?

Yeah, I mean, He's everywhere all at one time, but can't he could he actually be in one place at one time?

If he wanted to be?

Yeah, and that's this.

Right here.

He's in one place.

Once again, seven represents 100%.

He's 100% here at this particular time.

That's what that represents.

Okay.

And then it says Jesus.

It talks about Jesus.

And notice Jesus Christ, this is the third, the faithful witness.

Now what do you think?

This is basically broken up into three parts of Jesus' life.

Number one, the faithful witness, it's in your notes.

Where was he at creation?

He was right there.

He was a witness to God the Father.

And he was actually used to create the world.

Okay?

So he was a witness to it.

So this is pre-this is the faithful witness part is the pre-Jesus on earth.

Okay?

Then look at the second one.

The firstborn from the dead.

Who was that?

While he was here on earth.

So you got the pre-Jesus, you got the Jesus while he was here on earth, firstborn from the dead, and the what?

The ruler of the kings of the earth.

What are we talking about that?

The one that's coming.

So you see his three ministries here?

The three times he's been here.

Or the three ways he's going to be here.

To him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood.

Talking about Christ.

Okay?

So you see that?

Jesus named the three ministry periods.

And then it's broken down there.

Christ is a witness.

And then Colossians talks about being the firstborn on your sheet.

What is it?

What do you think it means?

And does anybody get this where it says, and he has made us to be a kingdom, that's talking about us.

To be a kingdom, priests.

What do you think that means?

Priests to his God and Father.

Moses.

Moses was an intercessor.

Okay?

Jesus is our intercessor.

Do you realize?

You've heard of the priesthood.

We are the priesthood, the believers are the priesthood.

Do you realize this responsibility we have for the unbelieving world?

Do you realize you're the intermediary?

When you pray for those lost people, you're the You are the one who can.

That's what he means by priests.

We are all priests.

Do you ever see yourself like that?

Or you see yourself like somebody sitting in a booth listening to somebody talk to you?

I mean, those are priests, you know, but.

Okay?

Look at this.

Behold he is coming.

Notice this.

I'd put this in, it wasn't in there, but behold he is coming with the what?

Does it say in the clouds or with the clouds?

What do you think?

What do we where can we go to figure out what these clouds are?

Are they puffy white ones or are they tornado ones?

Or what kind of clouds?

Well, I've got a verse down there, and it says uh Hebrews, surrounded by a greater cloud of witnesses.

You know when Jesus comes back?

You know who's coming back with him?

I hope your horse riding skills are really good.

And notice this every eye will see him, and even those who pierced him.

Now that's important.

Who's that?

Who are the people who pierced him?

Besides the Romans.

The Jews are the ones who rejected him.

And they will one day look on whom they pierced.

Zechariah 12, 10.

Yeah.

Plus all unbelievers.

Plus all the unbelievers.

And that's what it says there.

And it says, uh, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him.

So it is talking about all these other nations are gonna mourn.

Oh my gosh, we messed up.

We messed up.

So it is to be amen.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, and says the Lord God.

Okay.

So that's that one.

Let's go on.

John's situation and commission.

Uh John is exiled on Patmos.

Uh I'm I'm not gonna pull it up here, but Patmos is a little island.

It's right off of the coast of uh Turkey at that, Asia Minor at that time.

And he and it's right across from the church at Ephesus.

And by the way, that's where his main church was, was Ephesus.

And he was uh, you know, evangelizing and they didn't like what he was doing, so they exiled him.

And he was probably in his 80s, he was near the end.

Okay, and Domitian died, who was the emperor at that time, and uh so all the persecution quit, and so he probably went may have gone back for a little while.

But who actually put him on Pat Moss?

God sovereign God put him on Patmos.

Why?

You have this book you think Domitian really shut everything down?

I'm gonna exile you.

And look, look what we got.

We got the book of Revelation.

Unbelievable.

Um and it says, it says that he was on, uh, where is it here?

Let me see.

He was on the Isle of Platmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, and I was in the spirit on the Lord's day.

Now it doesn't actually say we think of Sunday or something like that, but it actually means Lordy Day.

In other words, it's kind of a day where you're just kind of excited about knowing the Lord and you you're kind of meditating, or whatever.

It's just an it could have been the Tuesday, who knows, you know.

But it was a day where he was in the spirit.

And uh what happened?

He's sitting there in meditation, quiet time, I don't know, you know, whatever they did back then.

And bang, what happens?

It's uh a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet behind him, and he turns around and uh he he sees he sees this.

I mean, can you imagine?

I mean, I know what it's like just with my alarm going off in the morning, let alone a trumpet.

And notice that the trumpet just doesn't blow.

What does it say?

It's a voice.

The trumpet actually speaks.

So it's speaking something.

Right?

Isn't that what it says?

Voice.

A loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet.

And what does the voice say?

Not yet.

It says, write in a book what you write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thire, Sadus, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Now we're gonna look at uh we're gonna look at those next week.

We're gonna look at one next week, and then the next week after that we look at three, and then next week after that we look at the next three.

You don't want to miss next week because it it tells you why these churches are important.

Okay?

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to uh his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash.

His head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.

His feet were burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars, and in his left hand, and what is it?

And out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the shining sun in its strength.

Is that it?

Yeah.

That's what he saw.

Seven golden lampstands.

You've seen pictures of this.

You don't, so you have to what how do you find out what the lampstands look like?

You go back.

You have to go back.

You go back, back, because it's not right what not right there.

You have to go back, back, back, and you go to Exodus.

And guess where there's lamp stands?

Right there.

And they're the menorahs, the seven things, you know.

So that's where the lamp stands.

Okay.

What does it mean when it says like a son of man?

What do you think that means?

It looks like a man, but way more than a man.

Right?

It doesn't say a man.

It says like a man.

Jesus was fully man and fully God.

Anytime you see throughout scripture like a man, we're talking about a pre-incarnate Christ, or we're talking about Christ.

More than a man.

Okay?

So that's what we're talking about here.

So this is who he's seeing.

Who's he seeing here?

He's seeing Jesus.

Karen and I have talked about this today, and this bothers a lot of people.

When we get to heaven, when we get to heaven, we're gonna what are we gonna see?

Are you gonna see the, I think Steven says the blue-eyed, blonde, beautiful looking, handsome one that we always have pictures of in our house, and we and we have is that who we're gonna see?

Do you realize who you're gonna see?

Right here.

That's who we're gonna see.

Now I'm not gonna go into detail about all the different things there.

The appearance of the hair, it's not just gray like mine, it's it's white.

I mean, it's it's really eyes of fire, all these different characteristics.

Now, by the way, anytime uh Jesus shows up in the Old Testament, guess what he looks like?

He looks less like this.

I'm not gonna go over it.

Stephen did.

Daniel 7, 9, that's what he looked like.

Daniel 10, 5, that's what he looked like.

You go back and read them tonight, it's just what he looked like.

Isaiah 11, Psalm 93, all these are examples of this, this pre-incarnate Jesus.

And I taught my class a while ago.

We'd we're going through uh the book of Matthew.

Does anybody remember in the Mount of Transfiguration?

Jesus invites three of the guys up there, right?

And what does he do?

He transfigures.

Anybody, any guesses what he looks like?

Of course, Peter's like, oh, that is great, let's build some booths, you know.

This is awesome.

Well, next minute they fall down because an angel comes to them and says, listen to him.

And they all collapse on the ground.

They all, you know.

So this is interesting.

So, just as a just as a cross-reference there, you've got all these.

What is John's response?

Oh, by the way, there's Pat Moss.

Here's Pat Moss.

Uh, here's here's Ephesus, right here.

But now remember, this is Asia Minor or Turkey, and here's the little island of Patmos right here.

So see, notice how close it is to Ephesus.

Okay.

And we'll we'll go through the other churches.

Here's Smyrna, Pergamum.

Uh I I think that's the other one.

Philadelphia, Laodicea.

So you see these churches are all pretty close in proximity.

Those are not the lampstands.

We all think of these as the lampstands, but this is actually what they look like.

Okay.

Here's a good thing.

You know how he talked about he's got seven stars in his hand and he's walking around in the lampstands?

What do the seven stars represent?

Well, if you go, remember what I said about interpreting?

You you it's if it's not in the immediate context, then you go back.

Well, it just happens that this one is in the immediate context.

If you go just go down to verse 20, here it tells you.

What does it say that?

What does it say that the uh seven stars are?

What is it?

As for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are angels.

So he's got these in his hand, he's got these seven stars, so they represent angels, and each angel over each church.

Stephen also talks about did you know you have an angel assigned to you?

I mean, if the churches have got them, we're part of the church.

It talks about that angels are made to minister to us, to protect us, to to help us to do what God wants us to do.

You ever had those incidents?

Man, God, I'm man, I I just about to kill myself.

How'd that happen?

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

Clearance! Clearance! Every time a bell rings, a little bit of truth to that.

Get my wings, you know.

Okay, and then what does it say?

The angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands?

Ah, the seven churches.

So you want to know why he's standing in the midst of these uh seven lampstands?

He's standing in the midst of these seven lampstands where it represents all the church, and what's he doing?

Walking around.

He's in charge, he's in charge of his church.

We think we're in charge.

He's in charge.

And also the angels are in his hand.

What does that mean?

He's in control of his angels.

He's in control of those angels.

Hey, go, go, go, go to something, listen, hey, go.

You know, I mean, this is what we you get the idea of the symbolism, though?

We don't have to guess.

You don't have to guess, you just have to look, study.

And Stephen does a great job of this.

He really does.

What's the response?

What does it say?

Like a dead man.

Yeah.

And if and if you read back through all those other Isaiah and Daniel and all the all those guys who the pre-incarnate Christ appeared to, they face in the mud.

You know, they're just out.

This is like a dead man.

Now think about this.

John.

He spent 60 years.

He spent he he was probably became a disciple apostle when he was in his 20s.

He spent 60 years knowing Christ.

He spent a long time.

How could he how could he fall down like this when he when he when he saw Christ?

He saw Christ in a totally different way.

Right?

Are you getting the picture of what's ahead of us, guys?

When we get to heaven, that's gonna be wonderful.

But you're gonna see Christ like what we're seeing here.

He came the first time.

Hebrews talks about him coming humbly.

Lower than the angel, a little lower than the angels.

He came humble.

That was a short period of time, he came.

But the rest of the time he's like this, what we're seeing about.

Okay, that that was a picture when he saw him.

No, just just guessing here.

Notice that Jesus identifies himself by earthly, not uh by eternal, not earthly terms.

He doesn't say, hey, I'm Jesus.

Remember?

Remember you lay on my breast at the last supper?

He doesn't address him.

I'm Jesus, you know, the one who healed.

He addresses him as I'm the first and the last.

The eternal qualities of God.

Not the human qualities of God, the eternal qualities of God.

The living one, holder of the keys of death in Hades.

Okay.

Okay, the last thing, the outline, and we're gonna get into this next week.

He then goes on to say, is that what there was?

Yeah, verse 19.

He says, therefore, therefore, we're getting ready.

We're getting this is the outline.

He now gives them the outline of the whole rest of the book.

He's gonna give them an outline of the whole rest of the book.

And he says, therefore, write the things which you have seen, and we'll talk about this next week.

Have as what?

Past tense, and the things which are present tense, and the things which will take place after these things.

Future.

So you've got the breakdown of the book right there: past, present, future.

Now we will get into this next week.

We'll start the actual lesson.

And if you listen to it, watch it, read the notes, you're gonna come, you're already gonna know the answers.

But it's broken into these three parts.

Okay.

Part one is real short, part two is two or three chapters, and then the whole rest of the book is all the things that will come.

Okay.

It actually tells you on your sheet there.

Chapter one is the things which he had seen.

The things which are are chapters two and three, the letters to the seven churches, and the things which will take place after these things are four through twenty two.

Okay.

And in the last part there, verse 20, interpretation is given in the very text itself.

That was what we just looked at in 20, right?

Okay.

How's that?

38 minute summary.

Now, we now David and I we we want, I know we're supposed to be done at 6.

But we I mean seven.

The things that were.

But we want to we want to give you time, you know.

We want to uh we want to ask if you have any questions or any um thoughts or something's not quite right.

Well, I think one of the interesting things is that John, as Christ's beloved apostle, that he saw Christ in the flesh during his ministry, and then he saw uh Christ, uh the resurrected Christ, and then at some point on there he at the Naval Transfiguration he saw Christ, and then uh the ascended Christ, and now he's falling on his knees.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it is interesting, isn't it?

Yeah, he knew him real well.

Yeah, but he never never acted.

When he sees him now, he sees him as who he truly is.

And that's one thing we need to grasp out of that is when we get to heaven, it's not gonna be a little buddy buddy here.

But let me put my arm around you, Jesus.

Do you recognize who anymore as God?

God Almighty, think about who we're doing what we're dealing with here.

Does that which that's a great does that bother you?

Does that does that bother any of you?

I know it bothers Kara.

Yeah, because we talked about it.

She goes, you know, I I just thought we'd be out.

A little hugger.

We are gonna be like him because we see him.

Yeah, that's true.

That's a great quote.

We shall be like him, yeah.

So that's we're not gonna be dead.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe our own self.

Yeah, yeah.

And we'll we'll be like him.

Yeah, yeah.

It's great.

Well, I'm kinda like to ask for the devil because I remember him talking about the seven churches in reference as seven major denominations.

Oh, interesting.

And I think he even referenced it to today's seven major denominations.

Churches with seven problems, seven different churches.

Now remember, seven represents all the churches.

They all got problems.

It's got people they got people in the church.

People.

Yeah, we we as long as they're in these bodies, there's problems.

We're gonna be gonna be problems.

Because what what resides in these bodies?

Sin.

Sin.

This is where sin lives.

Until we get rid of that.

Yeah, good bad.

Yes.

It it's nice to think we got angels looking over.

Uh says messengers.

Messengers.

Yeah.

I've heard that interpreted pastor.

Yeah.

Good.

So just thought I'd throw that in.

Yeah, that's great.

Now I remember, yeah.

Now you remember Daniel who was studying and was reading and got it all wrong.

He was getting it all wrong.

He was getting it, you thought, my gosh, we're we're out of here.

And you know, and God sends a messenger.

Now.

Was Gabriel, but he was the best chap to correct him.

And actually, you know, it's not it's not gonna be long.

I think right after we get through the seven churches, we're gonna be jumping straight into Daniel.

You cannot understand the book of Revelation unless you understand Daniel.

They're like this.

That's why, that's why Revelation doesn't make any sense if you haven't read Daniel.

And we will spend time in Daniel.

If you've got the curriculum, you'll see what what uh what lessons are on Daniel.

Any other thoughts?

Questions?

If anyone did not get the get the email sent to you, we need to you need to get with us afterwards, get with the Ian, so we can get it corrected to make sure that you get it, alright?

We we have a hundred and seven people getting this lesson.

Yeah.

Now they can't be here.

A lot of them are workers and other people, but you you're not the only one.

You're the lucky ones who actually get to kind of go back over it and ask questions and hash it out.

But this is a you know, that's a lot.

That's a lot of people that are gonna get a blessing from going through the book of Revelation.

So that's a lot.

And if you if you know of anybody else who's interested and you'd like it and you think it's good, tell tell people, send me, send David or me their email if they if they're interested.

Yeah, you need to put our email on the okay.

And hey, that was another thing.

Is one of the things that would help us, I think, when we send this out to you, when you go through the lesson, if you have questions, if you would send us back your questions before the class, and then we'll be able to spend a little time instead of just off the cuff and you know wasting time.

So that would help us too.

And as we get deeper into this, you're gonna start having a lot more questions.

Pretty simple right now, but it's gonna get where you're gonna be having a lot of questions.

I'm curious, how many of you read or listened before you came?

Oh, that's great.

That's awesome.

Can you give us your emails?

Just let us write it down.

Well um, yeah, I I could I'll write it down up here.

Mine will be legible.

David's David's won't be.

Mine won't be.

I brought a few books.

I've got two or three.

Anybody that wants to read about erasing Israel, anybody raise your hand would read the book.

I got three.

I'm going to way back there.

And uh I I brought a couple other, look, here's a couple of books.

If if if you want either you can't have these, if you want to go deeper, if you want to go deeper, you know John Walvard is kind of the encyclopedia of Revelation.

He's taught at Southwestern Seminary.

And he's one of the resources that I use and a lot of people use.

Here's another little book.

So if you want to write that one down, Revelation, John Walvert, get that one.

March Hit Mark Hitchcock is another guy that I follow quite a bit.

He's got a new book, he's just got out the Revelation Answer Book.

The 125 top ask questions of Revelation.

So if you want to go deeper, those are a couple other Hey David, can you put the name of those books in the email or one of the emails?

You send them to me.

Okay.

David, another thing that's easy is Gary Hamrick studied under the top eschatology.

Yeah, there's yeah, there's 20 guys that I like to listen to, and he's one, he's a he's a good one.

And you just gotta be careful who you're listening to.

But Gary Hamric is actually.

I think you're you're really gonna enjoy Steven.

I mean, he's very, he shows his work, he's very thorough.

He's not going off on a lot, he's not just guessing and thinking, and uh, you know, it you're gonna find, and it's gonna blow you away some of the things he talks about.

I mean, you're gonna go, my God, I didn't get that.

I mean, it's I thought it was excellent.

Uh, it was almost overwhelming.

Uh, the amount of information.

You've got your notes, you've got the videos, you've got, you know, his lecture, which I thought was excellent.

And David and I both went through that, and it was really, really good.

But it was pretty daunting, the amount of information.

I I love that side.

That was really, and for them to share that, now that's in San Antonio, where he was, and it's sad that he's not here now.

Yeah, this was the fifth time that he taught Revelation, and this is the last book that he taught before he died.

So he's taught every book.

Yeah, he's taught every book in the New Testament, and probably 20 in the Old Testament.

And he has his ministry, is that he wants to give this out free so people can learn.

And uh I think from my standpoint, he is the best that I've ever seen of being able to tie the Old Testament to Revelation and put it all together.

Here, here are his studies.

Um these are all the New Testament ones.

So uh, and and my Sunday school class, we're going through Matthew right now, we've been doing that for about a year.

And so it's and then these are his Old Testament books.

And if you go through Genesis, David's taking his Sunday school class through Genesis, and it'll take a couple years.

I mean, it's really good.

You know, one thing I'll say is look, you are you're not going to agree with everything that he teaches, and I don't, and Ian doesn't.

You know, I think we need to take the book, like the Bereans talked about in the New Testament, is that we take and study and handle it with care, and God will give us understanding.

But I, you know, there's some things that that that we deal with in our Sunday school that Tommy and I have got some problems on things that we just don't exactly agree with.

But look, I like it that he brings it all out and we can go through it and talk about it, and that that helps us a lot.

But he's really gonna, he's gonna bring alive the Old Testament with Revelation, where you're gonna see how it all just fits together.

And I think a lot of the things that we believe that we have and are what we teach, it's going to solidify them for you and make you really understand why we believe what we do as a church.

It's gonna help you a lot.

It's most certainly giving me so much more confidence and peace about what we study.

And I think you're really gonna be excited.

I am.

Anyway.

Yes.

One thing um that I noticed was in uh it's more like a son of man standing, you know, in the midst of the landstands.

Um wasn't just really saying, like, oh, he's a ripened shiny human, but he was kind of making a reference back to uh Daniel 7 when he's talking about the ancient days.

It's all one like a son of man being given you know glory.

And I think that's also kind of a full reference to Jesus during his early.

Yeah.

Refers to himself as the son of man like eighty-something times.

It's kind of a sneaky way to sort of claim that divinity and not be like under the side just like straight off.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, when you think about it, what were the who were the who were the disciples when they were preaching the gospels?

Who were they who were they speaking about when they taught people about Jesus?

The Old Testament.

They were using everything what you're talking about.

That's all they had.

They didn't have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John written down yet, right?

So the Old Testament is is is such a a whole book.

You know, I think about whenever Jesus was on the road to Emmaus and he's talking to these two guys that are walking with him, and he says he took the scriptures and walked through everything about why he had to come and who he was.

So you think about walking on the road for four, five, six hours and telling them all the scriptures that fulfill everything about the Messiah.

Well, that's what they were, that's what they were teaching and preaching about after Jesus rose from the dead.

The Old Testament.

That's what they had.

And it definitely tells a story about Jesus from beginning to end.

Do you realize how much more you have than what the apostles had?

I mean, they had no clue what was going on.

That's why you see them just doing what they do.

We we we are it just overwhelms me how fortunate we are to be alive today, to have the the lost book and all the New Testament.

They didn't have that.

They were starting to get it, you know, but we we have it all.

We there's no excuse for us to not know what's going on.

Because we have it all.

So much has been given to us, you know.

So yeah.

So I like I like that.

To whom much is given, that's us, much is required.

What are you doing with it?

What are you doing with all this?

Then it's ministry.

We should be reaching the lost.

Guys, this is getting close.

I wanted to put this up here because Stephen does this.

He he teaches uh that uh the kingdom, you because you read about the kingdom, the kingdom is divided into four phases.

The first one is the kingdom promised to Abraham, that he's offering a kingdom, that you're gonna have a there's gonna be a kingdom one day, and you're in the land and all that stuff.

Then there was a kingdom proposal, and that was where Jesus came to who?

The Jews, and he offered them the kingdom, and what did they do?

They rejected him and killed him, and he said, Okay, I'm done.

And then he and then he turned to who?

Us, the Gentiles, and now we are in what's called the kingdom program, which is the church.

One day we're gonna go into the kingdom place.

You know where that is here.

It's not it's not floating around in the clouds playing hops.

That's not the kingdom place, the kingdom place is here.

I'm still about it, I'm still gonna be able to go surfing.

Yeah, but not on the sea that you're you're talking about.

But the reason I wanted to show you this is because what you're studying here in Revelation is this in-between.

How do we get from the kingdom program to the kingdom place?

That's what the book of Revelation is.

The book of Revelation is revealing how we get from this kingdom program to this kingdom place.

Is that not exciting?

And we are right on the verge of it.

Excuse me, why do you think the kingdom place is here?

Well, scripture is a good thing.

Well, what's when he comes back, what's he gonna do?

What's he gonna do?

Or he's gonna live Christmas first.

Yeah, and then then you're gonna then what he's coming back?

And how long are we gonna be here?

Well, a thousand years to start off with.

At least this is why revelation is important and numbers matter.

Because it says we're coming back and we're gonna be here a thousand years.

Right here.

And we would just stay here permanently.

At least for a thousand years.

Now, when you get to chapter 22, things kind of change a little.

Well, that's there's another thing.

That's when sin and death are eradicated and the new Jerusalem comes down.

That's what we that's what we ultimately think about heaven, but we got a thousand years in between of a refurbished earth.

Then we're gonna get a new earth.

Dr.

Billy Graham wrote an entire book believing that what John saw was a new heaven and a new earth.

Yeah.

And he believed and taught that heaven will be on this orb, on this globe, and it'll be sanctified, it'll be clean, all the sin will be gone because of the presence of the Father.

By the way, the Father's in this earth right now.

It will look different.

Yeah.

You ever watch those shows on TV where they where the uh people come in and they uh they take those old houses and they uh what what do they call those shows?

They restore those houses?

Guess what?

Our house is gonna be restored.

It's gonna be unbelievable.

That's what's coming.

Let me pray.

Father, thanks so much for today, and we thank you for the encouragement.

That's why we we're here, that's why we're excited, and we thank you for the book of Revelation.

We thank you that you gave it to us.

And you gave it to us with a purpose, and you want us to know uh what's going on.

You are not a god of confusion, and we thank you for that.

We pray that you go before us this week.

All the people we're gonna run across.

Just help us to be witnesses for you, and we just thank you for that.

Thanks again for all you do and what you're gonna do in Christ's name.

Amen.