READ THE BIBLE WITH AMANDA GRACE--BIBLE STUDY NOTES FOR REVELATION CHAPTER 1 PART 2

 

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,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

    there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

    and was presented before him.

¹⁴ And to him was given dominion

    and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

    should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

    which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

    that shall not be destroyed.

 

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,

thrones were placed,

    and the Ancient of Days took his seat;

his clothing was white as snow,

    and the hair of his head like pure wool;

his throne was fiery flames;

    its wheels were burning fire.

¹⁰ A stream of fire issued

    and came out from before him;

a thousand thousands served him,

    and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;

the court sat in judgment,

    and the books were opened.

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

¹³ “and behold, with the clouds of heaven

    there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

    and was presented before him.

¹⁴ And to him was given dominion

    and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

    should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

    which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

    that shall not be destroyed. I saw in the night visions,

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.

Now Jump to verse 13 ¹³ “and behold, with the clouds of heaven

    there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

    and was presented before him.

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 1^st and the 7^th letter both speak of congregations who are in the gravest of spiritual danger, the 2^nd and the 6^th 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 7:9 “I watched till thrones were ^[a]put in place,

And the Ancient of Days was seated;

His garment was white as snow,

And the hair of His head was like pure wool.

His throne was a fiery flame,

Its wheels a burning fire;

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

https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/is-god-a-trinity/jesus-christs-submission-to-the-father

Torah Class Revelation 1

Biblegateway.com

www.bible-discernments.com/joshua/whatisachiasm.html