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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Adrien Charles-Marcel

Eyes of Fire

Dear Lord, thank you so much for bringing us safely through another week and for giving us this opportunity to Be here and to study your word To be transformed by it and to learn more about you.

Lord, I pray that This morning as we study your word that you would teach us things that we have not seen before.

I pray Lord that we would be transformed by what we see.

And Lord I pray that Jesus would be lifted up.

Please pray for me as I speak this morning, because it's a huge responsibility to preach the word, as it says right here.

I'd like to share this morning a message that is basically the result of some personal Bible study and some things that I believe God has been showing me in studying His Word and I'd just like to share it this morning so that we can all receive the benefit.

You may have seen the title, Eyes of Fire, and wondered what is that about?

And so hopefully by the end of the message it will be a little bit clearer and hopefully my prayer is that at the end of this message we would all be drawn closer to Jesus through his love and a greater understanding of who he is and what he's done for us.

So like I mentioned, it will be a Bible study, so I hope you brought an electronic Bible, I hope you brought a paper Bible, and If you didn't bring a Bible, I hope you find somebody who did, because we're going to be going through a lot of verses this morning.

First of all, we're going to take a trip back several thousand years, Back before there was such a thing as the internet, before there was the United States of America, before cell phones, even before printed Bibles like this right here.

All the way back to the time of the Roman Empire.

And we're going to go to a small island called Patmos.

And it was a Sabbath day and he was listening to someone speak.

So right now let's just turn our Bibles to Revelation 1, 11 through 19 to hear what he heard.

The text will be on the screen, just the references so that you can look it up and so you know where we are.

Revelation 1 11 through 19 and I'll be reading from the New King James Version throughout this morning.

Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, and what you see, write in a book and send it to the 7 churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me.

And having turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the 7 lampstands, 1 like the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

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

His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice is the sound of many waters.

He had in his right hand 7 stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, Do not be afraid.

I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

And I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this.

So suddenly imagine that we're with John, and we see this amazing picture of Jesus.

It's breathtaking, it's dazzling, His face is as bright as the sun, his eyes look like fire.

It's no wonder he fell like a dead man at his feet.

This is the same Jesus who in Hebrews 13, 5 promises to never leave you nor forsake you.

Mark, the disciple, writes that when little children were brought to him, Jesus took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Yet here in Revelation, we see a Jesus who's so bright we can't even look at his face without turning away.

So how is it possible that this amazing being is able to be so close to us sinful human beings?

Put that question on a shelf in your mind because we'll come back to it.

But first we're going to look at how Jesus describes himself.

He describes himself as the first and the last.

So that means if we look far back into history, as far as we can go, we'll see Jesus there.

And if we go as far forward into the future as we can possibly see, we'll see him there as well.

It also means that if we look in between, he'll be right there waiting for us.

So the furthest point back in the Bible that I'm aware of is Ezekiel 28 verse 12 or Isaiah 14.

Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre and say to him, created.

You were the anointed cherub that covers.

You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.

You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you.

By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within and you sinned.

Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones." So who is this covering cherub that the Bible is discovering here?

Well if we go to Isaiah 14 and also to Revelation 12 we'll again see the same motif of somebody being forced out of heaven.

So let's turn to Isaiah 14 starting in verse 12 and going to verse 13.

The Bible says there, How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.

Verse 13, For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High." So this is, again, another description of this same being.

We see him here saying, he'll be like the Most High, and He fell from heaven.

So when we go to Revelation 12, verses 7 through 9, we'll again see this falling from heaven again.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

That serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him." So again, we see Satan here being cast out of heaven and This is the same being that we saw earlier in Isaiah and in Ezekiel.

But now I thought we were looking for Jesus, right?

We said as far as we go back into history, we'll find Jesus.

Well, let's go back now to Ezekiel 28 and noting specifically verses 13 and 15 where it says that Lucifer was created.

Well we're going to look and see who created Lucifer.

John 1 verse 1 is where we'll be going next.

In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So here we see who it is that created everything, the Word.

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Eyes of Fire

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