Revelation 1 Teaching Part 2
We begin part 2 at the end of verse 5 of revelation Chapter 1
John is expressing the readers that God in His manifest forms brings greetings to the believers of these 7 different congregations across Asia. John pays a special reverence to Christ as the one in the 3 part Godhead, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, who freed us, humanity, from our sins through the shedding of His blood on the Cross, reconciling us back to the Father. This in turn enabled us to become a Kingdom of “priests” for the Lord God the Father. Once again we see God the Father Given that prominence as being first. We see this in the scriptures, Yeshua, Jesus, insisting always pointing back to the Father, and yielding to the Father
John 5:19-20 19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the
Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show
Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
Now let us look at this concept of believers
becoming priests, in Hebrew Cohanim.
The concept of believers being priests has been
misconstrued and is the root of some of these replacement theology Doctrines
that are found amongst some of the denominations.
There is this widespread Christian doctrine that the
priesthood of gentile believers in Christ will flat out replace the Levitical
priesthood during the millennial Kingdom period because Israel has lost its
status before God the Father.
Ok so lets examine this..
First off let me just say we NEVER replaced
Israel nor will we EVER. We the gentiles, are grafted into that tree that
family in the Kingdom of Almighty God. Basically we are adopted and now have
access to the same promises and to God the Father through Jesus Christ
Romans 11:11-24 11 So I
ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather,
through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make
Israel jealous. 12 Now if their
trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the
Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion[a] mean!
13 Now I
am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the
Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow
to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the
reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the
dead? 16 If the dough
offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy,
so are the branches.
17 But
if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild
olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing
root[b] of
the olive tree, 18 do not be
arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support
the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then
you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because
of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become
proud, but fear. 21 For
if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of
God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to
you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be
cut off. 23 And even
they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God
has the power to graft them in again. 24 For
if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary
to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural
branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Even if this was true that God has flat out
replaced Israel with the gentile “church”, levites would be exempt because they
have not been part of Israel since early on in the Book of Exodus. God removed
the levites from the tribes of Israel and they were set apart as impartial
priests. This can be found in Numbers Chapter 1. So the levites are unique ad
set apart, not be to counted amongst the tribes of Israel because they serve
God above any tribe.
The other bump in the road we run into with this
theology is found in the book of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel there are several chapters
dedicated to having Ezekiel measure and document the temple that will be built
by the Lord to reign in during the millennial reign. Ezekiel chapter 44 in
particular explains all the duties of the levite priesthood that is to be re
established based solely on the descendants Tzadok, who was an heir in the line
of Aaron. The Lord actually describes who will be the priests of the millennial
temple in Ezekiel chapter 44:
Ezekiel 44:10-16 10 “And
the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away
from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. 11 Yet
they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the
house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and
the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister
to them. 12 Because they ministered to them before
their idols and caused[c] the
house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in
an oath against them,” says the Lord God,
“that they shall bear their iniquity. 13 And they
shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My
holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they
shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have
committed. 14 Nevertheless I will make
them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to
be done in it.
15 “But
the priests, the Levites, the sons of TZadok, who kept charge of My
sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come
near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me
the fat and the blood,” says the Lord God. 16 “They
shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to
minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.
Now a priest is one who is et apart to serve God. That is how all
believers should view themselves because the lord god views us as such. This is
what he Expects from us. However this is VERY different than being a member of
the official Priesthood that was created to serve God by carrying out specific
duties at His Place of Worship, His Sanctuary. In Ezekiel it becomes quite
clear that it is the levites who are descendants of Tzadok the priest who will
serve God at the newly built temple during the 1000 year reign. However there
will be plenty of other jobs within that Kingdom that we will be taking part in
and assigned by Almighty God as there will be a whole worlds worth of people on
the earth at this time.
Moving on to Revelation 1:7 7 Behold, he
is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who
pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail[a] on
account of him. Even so. Amen.
Now this verse kind of in a way makes reference
to 2 Old testament prophecies that we find in the book of Daniel and the book
of Zechariah
Daniel 7:13-14 13 “I saw
in the night visions,
Zechariah
12:10 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so
that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall
mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over
him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
This
verse in Revelation 1:7 is like the hub of the theme of revelation which is the
second coming of Yeshua, Jesus. What is conveyed to us is that the entire world
is going to be aware of His return. So they will be able to say they did not
know about this because he will be coming on the clouds, a global event in the
Heavens. The majority of people on planet earth will indeed witness this
incredible event prophesied for thousands of years. Imagine the breaking news
on that day!!!!! Oh is the propaganda machine going to quake in that day!!
The
second part of verse 7, the tribes of the earth will mourn him. This is a reference
to the 12 tribes of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun,
Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh.
We know
that in comparison to their population over the course of time, few Israelites
have accepted their own Messiah, Yeshua. Those who have rejected him are
waiting on an alternate messiah that unfortunately will never comes
This
mass mourning will sadly be because they have realized the grave error they
have made rejecting their own Messiah, realizing fully that their ancestors
celebrated and took part in the killing of their own Savior. Oh the wailing
that will go up from earth on that day. If we think the wailing wall is
anything well the wailing on that day may be defeaning.
Ok now
let us go back to Daniel 7 for a moment. So Daniel 7 as a whole speaks of these
4 symbols that represent 4 kingdoms on earth in the future time Daniel saw ¾ of
these Kingdoms come after Daniels time, Babylon was the only Kingdom
represented during Daniel’s time. We have to make sure not to make the mistake
that the events Daniel speaks of, they could happen in a different order,
remember this is a vision he is seeing, and Daniel is seeing things he does not
understand and is not used to seeing at all. So we cannot assume some precise
order or timeframe for these kingdoms and their horns. The 4 Kingdoms came and
went over many centuries for example, it was not bam bam in succession.
Daniel 7:9-14
9 “As I looked,
11 “I
looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was
speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body
destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. 12 As
for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives
were prolonged for a season and a time.
The Son of Man Is Given Dominion
OK
verse 9 where we begin, there is the mention of the Ancient One which refers to
God the Father. So this is a biblical representation of God the Father.
This
is a vision revealing something very important happening in Heaven. This is
very similar to the words John used is revelation 1:7 to cause the reader to
make a correlation to Daniel. And John and Daniel assign “like the son of man”
to Yeshua, they are speaking about Jesus.
Now
there is something very important here because replacement theology has muddied
the waters on some things that I believe the Lord NEVER wanted the waters
muddied on.
In
verse 13 of Daniel 7 it makes it crystal clear that there is no equality or
equal authority between the Father, the Ancient One, and the Son of Man,
Yeshua. WHAT?!!!
Yup
you heard me. We have Father, Son, Holy Spirit they are 3 but they are 1.
However even though the three make up this one ruling body it does not mean
their powers are Equal.
The
best earthly example I can give you to help you with this concept is a royal
family here on earth. You have the King, then you have the King’s firstborn son
who is an HEIR to the throne, however that transfer of power either happens
through the King’s death OR the King has to delegate certain powers to the
prince. A Prince, the Kings oldest son, does not have NEARLY the power and
Authority the Ruling King Does. They have delegated authority given to them by
the King Himself, and those delegated powers are what they have. However the
King has FAR GREATER power and Authority than His son because the King is the
One sitting on the Throne RULING and making decisions that the Prince does not
have jurisdiction to make.
Co
equal Status between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit actually defies Scripture,
both in the Old and New Testament and especially what we are reading now in
Revelation. They are 3 of a different level of power and authority that make up
one ruling body. So it is more like a ladder this ruling body of 3 with 3
levels all pointing back to the top level which is God the Father
Now
why was this doctrine created in the first place, where did it come from? It
was created by gentiles with the goal of minimizing and even discarding the
ever ongoing role and supreme authority of God the Father. BUT WHY
The
answer; Mainstream Christianity has a tendency to want Jesus Christ to be the
God of Christianity while God the Father is presented as the God of the Jews.
It is sometimes even taught that God the Father handed ALL His authority to
Jesus and then flew the coop. Like I said the Father has to die for the Son to
receive ALL the power and Authority of the Kingship, and well God is not dying
anytime soon NOR will He EVER. So this is our hierarchy of powers, because
there is a hierarchy to this, where these 3 entities who have a different
amount of power make up 1 authoritative body. In New York for example, I know
NY is a hot mess right now but we will use this state, you have mayors, the
governor, congressmen/women and senators. They all have a different level of
delegated power however together they make up the governmental body of NY
State.
God
the Father has such vast power and authority beyond what we could ever fathom
that we need to recognize that as such, there is NONE above Him and there is
NONE that MATCH Him!
Now
this is NO WAY should diminish the importance of the role or divinity of
Yeshua, Jesus, in the lives of believers. Rather look at it as better defining
what Christ’s role truly is in the Heavens and on earth. It also puts into
perspective the supreme, Alpha and Omega, nature of the Father
Phillipians 2:5-8 5 Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the
form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross.
Matthew
26:39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on
His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass
from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
John
6:38 For I
have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent
Me.
John 5:19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something
He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son
also does in like manner.
This all matches what the
book of Revelation says because John wrote this book, it was constructed With
the Father as Top Tier leading, meaning He is set Apart, His power far exceeds
anyone else’s and any spiritual entity. You need to understand this in order to
go forth interpreting revelation and understanding the true meaning of its
context.
Matthew
6:6 6 But you, when you pray, go
into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in
the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will
reward you [a]openly.
Now we come to the Father
in the name of Jesus, Yeshua,
John 14:6
NKJV. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you had known
Me, you would
have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him
and have seen Him.”. Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is
sufficient for us.”.
Jesus’s Words hold a
greater importance because they are not divinely inspired but given as a divine
oracle.
Now John 14:9 is where
some get hung up on this
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me,
Philip? He who
has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Now this is referring to
the Father’s character and nature NOT that Jesus and the Father are
interchangeable because of John 14:6 . No one comes to the Father except through Me. They are two
separate entities and we need Jesus and the Blood of Jesus to gain access to
the Father
John 14:15-16 15 “If you love Me, [a]keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another [b]Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
In this verse Jesus
clearly is in submission under the Father, meaning he has to petition the
Father and in turn the Father will answer and send who we know to be the Holy
Spirit
This is the perspective
you will see John coming from throughout the Book of Revelation. We must be
careful not to read our beliefs and traditions back into this incredible book
we know as the bible
Now revelation 1:8 the
lord solidifies this by telling John he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending. The speaker identifies themselves as the God of Heavens Armies.
In the old testament in
Hebrew is Yehoveh Tzava’ot. It is repeated as well “who is and who was and who
is to come, the Almighty.” This we also saw
in Revelation 1:4. So the one who truly is giving this vision is identified as
God the Father.
In revelation 1:9 John
changes directions for a moment and speaks about himself
I, John, [a]both
your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word
of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Obviously John has been through it, I mean
through a lot of very difficult things, persecution, now he has been banished
to this island of patmos.
John is writing this revelation he has been given
to believers this is clear. Remember there is a promised blessing we spoke of
for those who read and believe
Revelation 1:3 3 Blessed is he
who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things
which are written in it; for the time is near.
WHAT IF… The promised blessing is being spared as
believers from the worst of the events. At some point before the beginning of
the last 3.5 years of the great tribulation, the promised blessing is we are
spared as believers and children of God? Something to think about isn’t is….
Now John talks about being in the Spirit. Well
Old Testament prophets spoke about this as well including Ezekiel who was taken
up in the spirit to the Heavenlies
Revelation 1:10 10 I
was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud
voice, as of a trumpet
Ezekiel 3:12 Then the
Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice:
“Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place!”
So John is being shown the day of the Lord, the
voice that was like a trumpet tells him to write down what he sees. This is not
up for debate people, this is a command not a “would you be a peach and mind
writing this down” NOOO This is a command from God the Father that the angel
directly communicates to John.
Now we get into these 7 letters to 7 specific
Congregations across the continent of Asia
Revelation 9:11 Asia: to Ephesus, to
Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
Revelation is full of the number 7 you will see
this as we continue in this study. Number 7 not only has to do with Divine
completion, but of finality as well. Revelation is just that. It is about the
complete finality of the earthb as we know it, the end of days and the
Judgment.
Interestingly enough when a map is examined
pertaining to the whereabouts of these churches there is an interesting reason
these particular churches/congregations may have been identified. They all
existed along major routes that connected the major cities. Even more
interesting these congregations/churches are named in a particular order that messengers
would deliver letters going from northwest to northeast and then to the south.
No this is not the united states postal service we are talking about here.
These are true messengers carrying letters.
Also to note that the spiritual condition of each
congregation in the specific order they are given demonstrates John presenting
this in a very jewish way. A literary technique called chiasm
What is chiasm: is
a writing style
that uses a unique repetition pattern for clarification and emphasis.
Chiasm is pronounced ky′-az-um. Often called the chiastic (ky′-az-tic) approach
or the chiastic structure, this repetition form appears throughout the Bible
yet it is not well known.
Chiasm is used throughout
the Old Testament and we see it is revelation as well.
To give you a better
example of this we will choose 3 letters of the Alphabet.
X Y Z, if each letter
represents specific characteristics, in chiasm we read the same characteristics
applied a bit differently in a reverse order of ZYX
XYZZYX notice the first
and the last are similar they are both Xs, the second and second to last would
be similar, both Ys, and so on. Now since jewish people are raised to
understand this they would recognize it immediately as a chiasm and know to
make the connection and would help in remembering important points in scripture
or associated points
Why are we going through
this? Because it applies to these 7 letters..
The 1st and the
7th letter both speak of congregations who are in the gravest of
spiritual danger, the 2nd and the 6th letters are the
congregations named as the most faithful and true, and the middle 3 have a
combination of faithfulness with identified faults that are in need of
addressing.
Now John was a Jew. The 7
“churches’ he was writing to were actually not churches at all but synagogues
that were led by believers. What we may call messianic Jews!
Now Revelation 1:12-13
(CJB) I
turned around to see who was speaking to me; and when I had turned, I saw seven
gold menorahs; 13 and among the menorahs
was someone like a Son of Man, wearing a robe down to his
feet and a gold band around his chest.[c]
Now I used the complete
Jewish bible translation for good reason here. In other translations it says
gold lamp stands or candle sticks. This is Heaven people! I would think this
would be more elaborate than a lampstand. Menorah is the correct word as
translated. The menorah used in the temple is made of gold and the ones John
saw were also made of gold, and I am guessing a pure gold we do not know on
this planet!!
And one like the son of
man was standing amongst these menorahs, which was Yeshua , Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus was Jewish on earth john identifies these as menorah’s
The Son of man is never a
title that is equated or assigned to the Father BUT In revelation 1:14-15 14 His
head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow,
and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His
feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace,
and His voice as the sound of many waters;
Now this is sort of
referencing the words given by more than 1 prophet in the old testament.
Daniel
10:5-6 5 I
lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen,
whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! 6 His
body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of
lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished
bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Ezekiel
43:2 2 And behold, the glory of
the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like
the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory.
All three of these verses align with what John
saw and wrote. What John Wrote are indeed Old Testament descriptions of the
Father. There is an added phrase in there that points at Jesus which is “like
the son of man.” Interestingly enough a son would resemble His Father, so
wouldn’t to some degree Jesus resemble in physical appearance God the Father?
John is comingling Father characteristics with
characteristics of the son, Yeshua.
We also must consider how close John was to Jesus
while he was on this earth. He even identifies himself as “the one whom Jesus
loved” so wouldn’t John be able to identify Jesus even in a glorified body? Mysterious
isn’t it…
The divine being he sees NEVER identifies himself
as God or Jesus, and neither does John. Instead John is very descriptive of
exactly what he sees “write down what you see” he is following orders.
Revelation 1:16-17 16 He had in His right hand seven
stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His
countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And when
I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me,
saying [i]to me, “Do
not be afraid; I am
the First and the Last.
So here is another 7, 7
stars. It is clear john is not sure who this individual is otherwise he would
of blatantly stated it. John did not understand the meaning of the 7 stars or
the double-edged sword, this is clear as well.
John does what any human
encountering a terrifying divine being would do, he falls down flat on his face
like he is dead, frightened and confused.
Double-edged sword is
unique to John, Paul in Ephesians 6 never discusses a double-edged sword, only
the sword of the spirit as part of the armor of God.
So what is this double-edged
sword, these stars, these lampstands? This we will answer as we finish up
Revelation 1 and go right into Chapter 2 at the next Study….
Source:
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Jesus-Christ,-Relation-To-Father
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Jesus-Christ,-Relation-To-Father
Torah Class Revelation 1
Biblegateway.com
www.bible-discernments.com/joshua/whatisachiasm.html
