Wednesday, January 30, 2013

1-30-2013 Vol. 7 Part 2 Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:7,8)

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Psalms 89:8-24 O LORD God of hosts, Who is mighty like You, O LORD? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them. You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all its fullness, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name. You have a mighty arm; Strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all day long, And in Your righteousness they are exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, And in Your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the LORD, And our king to the Holy One of Israel. Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy one, And said: "I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found My servant David; With My holy oil I have anointed him, With whom My hand shall be established; Also My arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down his foes before his face, And plague those who hate him. "But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, And in My name his horn shall be exalted.
Father God, we give you all the Glory, Thanks, Praise, and Honor. I ask that you bless all of those that read these messages, and to bless their loved ones. Open our hearts to comprehend your words, our ears to hear your words, and our minds to be changed from any false beliefs, to the truth that lies in your words. In Jesus name I pray. Amen!
Revelation 1:7- 8 NKJV
Last week we covered the introduction and greetings of this great book and this lesson will contain the theme of how Jesus is coming, who will see Him, who will fear Him, why they will fear Him, and His Almighty Wisdom, Power, and Judgment.
7    Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Behold, He is coming with clouds; When Jesus comes at the end of the Great Tribulation He is coming with clouds and not on a cloud. Many think He’s coming in a cloud, on a cloud, or through the clouds. The clouds spoken of here, is all of His Saints and it will be a cloud of Saints. That is what the word “with” is pertaining to.
These Saints, as explained in previous lessons are Born Again Saints, true believers that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and have ask Him to come into their hearts to rule and reign their lives here on earth so they will have eternal life in Heaven with Jesus. This massive cloud of Saints will be from the past, present, and our future. Those that will go up to Heaven by means of the Rapture will also be included in this cloud of Saints. These Saints spoken of here are not man proclaimed saints. We have religions that proclaim an individual to be a saint due to their acts of good deeds and kindness in society and around the world. Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not judging these man proclaimed saints, because it is very possible some of these individuals have lived by faith and not works, and if that is the case then they are Saints in God’s eyes. God sees what is in the person’s heart we can’t. I’m just merely stating that mankind tends to believe what man says and not what God says. Why, maybe due to the fact that they haven’t read or understand what God’s Word says. Here are some verses that refer to the Second Coming of Jesus; Acts 1:9-12 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.  10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,  11 who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." 12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. Jude 1:14-16 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,  15  to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."  16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. I Cor. 4:5; II Thess. 1:10; Heb. 10:37; Rev. 1:7; 3:11; 22:20.
Every eye will see Him; This phrase doesn’t mean that every eye on the face of the earth will see Jesus when He returns because Jesus is going to return at the same place that He ascended into Heaven, which was at the Mount of Olives. See the verse above Acts 1:12. The two men adorned in white states this to the Apostles, and also for us to know. Where Jesus is going to return is also stated in Zechariah 14:1-7 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst.  2 For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.  3 Then the LORD will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle.  4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south.  5 Then you shall flee through My mountain valley, For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee As you fled from the earthquake In the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Thus the LORD my God will come, And all the saints with You.  6 It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish.  7 It shall be one day Which is known to the LORD Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light. Did you notice that Jesus is going to divide the Mount of Olives for His people to escape just like God parted the Red Sea? Awesome! Did you also notice that the sun or moon will be greatly diminished? All this will take place in the evening and that Jesus will be the light that is needed, fore He is the Light of the world and the light of those with eternal life? Genesis 1:16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. Revelation 21:23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
Does that mean that those around the world won’t observe this event? No, I believe with modern technology meaning TV, those around the world that are left behind, meaning believers that proclaim with their lips and not with their hearts will view this earth-shattering event. Matthew 15:8-9 'THESE PEOPLE DRAW NEAR TO ME WITH THEIR MOUTH, AND HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME.  9  AND IN VAIN THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.' "
Even they who pierced Him; Do you know who this phrase is referring to? Mainly of course, the Jewish people that rejected Jesus as their Messiah, but also the Gentiles that reject Jesus as the Saviour. Anyone that had not accepted Jesus as their Saviour has also had a part in putting nails through His hands and feet and piercing His side. There were Jew and Gentile alike at Jesus trial and they all cried out to crucify Him because they rejected Him. Some denominations read the Passion of Jesus Christ on Palm Sunday and some have plays portraying this event. With the reading of the Passion it was always the people’s part in the church to cry out, “crucify Him”. As a young adult this really bothered me because Jesus was and is my Saviour and I believed in Him and what He did for me, therefore I just wouldn’t say it. If the church you go to does this, does it bother you?
Can you imagine how those that will be left behind from the Rapture will feel, when they see Jesus coming on a white horse with His cloud of Saints? The Jewish people will suddenly realize what they have done and will cry out loud in mourning, they will be grief stricken. This is all prophesized in Zechariah 12:10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. They not only rejected Jesus, but they accepted Cesar as their king. John 19:15 But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"
Stop and take a few moments and try to imagine how Jesus must have felt. His own people not wanting anything to do with Him, in fact they want Him killed. Is it a mystery to you as to why Israel couldn’t see who Jesus really was? Ponder this thought for a while. Jesus wasn’t their Messiah because their view of a saviour was someone that was going to deliver them from the Roman empire, and the Jewish nation would rule and not be ruled by the Romans. They were looking for a King not a Saviour. They wanted something to satisfy their flesh and not their spirit. They were looking for something they could see, touch, feel, and experience. Not something they could not see or touch like eternal life. This is the down fall of mankind. As human beings we tend to believe in tangible things and not intangible things. This still holds true for today and the reason why so many don’t believe.
So not only will the Jewish people mourn at the Second Coming of Jesus, but anyone living in sin, and has a knowledge of the Gospel will be in mourning, because they too have denied Jesus as the Saviour of the world. When one rejects God or anything of God, it comes down to a total rejection of God. If you claim to be a Christian, do you accept God’s Plan of Salvation and Sanctification? If one does not accept the finished work of the Cross and goes in another direction, then they become blind, a veil is placed over them causing a spiritual blindness. Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,  18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.
All the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him; Mourn means to grieve over, wail, cry out, or moan. All of Israel tribes around the world will mourn because they will all of sudden realize what they have done. Every Gentile will mourn because they will come to the realization of living a life of pleasing themselves. This event will bring forth the realization of the destruction of the inherited sin nature that inflicts every human heart.
This fear of Jesus second coming, and mourning when He does come is proof that deep down in one’s spirit, not soul, that mankind believes in eternal punishment. They know they are guilty and judgment will be placed upon them. If they were innocent, then they would have nothing to fear. Some believe God is so loving and kind that all who die go to Heaven. If this were the case then why do so many people fear death? If one fears death, where is their faith?
To put this in perspective, let’s say you are in a vehicle accident that was your fault. While texting on your phone you cross the line into oncoming traffic, luckily the person in the other vehicle was ok and you required first aid by the paramedics. When the paramedics arrived on the scene and came toward you, were you fearful of them? No, because you knew the paramedics would not place judgment on you but just fix you up and help you to feel better. This for the most part is what the modern day church does, makes one feel good. Now the State Trooper approaches you, what is going through your mind now, as he comes towards you. Some fear sets in because you know you were in the wrong and you will have to pay the consequences. This is what will happen to those when they see Jesus coming with a cloud. Before they see Him they will think they are doing and living right, but as soon as they see Him a terrifying fear will set in from deep within, because they will realize they will have to give an account for their lives.
Jesus is coming to judge, to see who will be worthy to enter into the Kingdom Age where Jesus will rule from Jerusalem. He will judge the nations and how they treated Israel. He will fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant. Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." This judgment is talked about, and we studied it in Matthew 25:31-34 "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
 Even so, Amen; This is a double expression of so be it, assuredly, certainly. The idea which John is conveying is that the coming of the Lord Jesus, and the consequences which he says will follow, are certain to happen.
8   "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Jesus is proclaiming that he is the first and the last and one and only that ever was, is, and will be. He is coming in all of His splendor and might. He is almighty and over all of creation, and capable of all that is stated in this final book of the Bible. He has his hand on all things, is all knowing, all present, and all powerful.
Knowing this, all we have to do is place our faith in Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us to sanctify us. With a proper relationship and faith in Jesus we will be taken care of as sons and daughters. 2 Corinthians 6:18 "I WILL BE A FATHER TO YOU, AND YOU SHALL BE MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS, SAYS THE LORD ALMIGHTY."

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…...
Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Bill Wiesbrock

Last Week’s Trivia: Who was Aeneas?
Answer: He was a paralytic in Lydda who had been bedridden for eight years. Aeneas was healed in the name of Jesus Christ by Peter. Acts 9:33, 34.
This week’s Trivia: Who was Agabus?

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