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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

The Experience of God’s Prophetic Movement

Father in heaven, we're grateful that we can come with our Bibles in our hands, knowing that you are going to speak to us.

So Father, it's that very thing that I ask you to do right now.

In the great book of Revelation, there are 3 chapters where you find God's people described in great detail.

During our Bible Prophecy Seminar, we spent a bulk of our time on 2 of those chapters.

In Revelation chapter 14, you find the message that God's people will proclaim in the last days.

It has been defined as the 3 angels' messages.

We've talked a lot about that during the course of our Unlock Revelation seminar, so we won't go into that this morning.

In Revelation chapter 12, you find the characteristics of God's people in the last days.

They keep the commandments of God and they have the testimony of Jesus.

In Revelation chapter 10, you find the historical experience that God's people would go through.

And this is where we're going to spend our time together in our study this morning.

If you want to know who God's people are in the last days.

These are the 3 chapters that you wanna study in great detail.

You wanna know what message they're going to preach, you wanna know what characteristics they have, and you wanna know what experience they are going to go through.

So this morning, if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to the book of Revelation, the 10th chapter.

We will not have time to go through the entire chapter.

I will ask for forgiveness for that ahead of time, but we will look at the overarching themes of the chapter.

We're going to begin at the top of the chapter, and I'm going to pick a few verses here.

You can read the rest of it this afternoon if you choose to.

The Bible says this, and I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with the cloud, and a rainbow was upon his head.

And his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.

And He had in his hand a little book open.

He set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth.

And he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth.

And when he had cried, 7 thunders uttered their voices." We'll jump down to verse 8.

"'And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again and said, go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

And I went unto the angel and said unto him, give me the little book.

And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

And I took it, and I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

And as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

And he said unto me, thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.

Let's just quickly review here what we see in Revelation chapter 10, just some of the themes that are going on here.

Revelation 10, we have an angel that comes down from heaven to earth.

He has a little book in his hand that is open.

He has 1 foot on the sea, 1 foot on the earth, kind of symbolizing world dominance or world power.

He cries with a loud voice as when a lion roars and then 7 thunders are uttered.

He swears by him that liveth forever and ever that there should be time no longer.

It's sweet in his mouth and then it makes his belly bitter.

And after that bitter experience, John is told that he must do what again?

In other words, he must share the experience that he had gone through in this act at parable.

There are 3 things that we're going to look at in Revelation chapter 10.

We are going to identify who the angel is, what the book is that is in his hand, and what is this bittersweet experience that they have gone through.

The rest of the details we can look at another time.

But those are the 3 main things in Revelation chapter 10.

Who the angel is, what the little book is that's in his hand that is open, and what is this bittersweet experience that God's people were prophesied to go through.

Revelation chapter 10 and verse 1, the Bible says, and I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, a rainbow was upon his head, and his feet were as it was, as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.

His face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.

And he had on his head, in his hand, a little book opened, and he said, his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth.

And when he had cried, 7 thunders uttered their voices." So let's look at 4 characteristics here that are given in the description of this angel in Revelation chapter 10.

The first thing that we find out or the first description that we see rather is that he has the face as a sun.

His feet are as pillars of fire the Bible tells us.

His voice is like a lion when a lion roars.

And then the Bible tells us that there's a rainbow that is upon his head.

Now it's very interesting as you look at the description here of the angel in Revelation chapter 10, and you look at the description of Jesus in Revelation chapter 1, you will actually find that they are described in very similar terms.

In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 16, Jesus is described as having a face like a sun, or his face lit up with the sun.

In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 15, his feet are talked about as pillars of fire, or like brass.

In Revelation chapter 5, he is identified as the lion of the tribe of Judah.

And in Revelation chapter 4 in verse 3, we find the rainbow element in the description of Jesus and his throne.

So it's very interesting when you look at the angel in Revelation chapter 10 and you look at the description of Jesus throughout the book of Revelation, you actually find that they're described in very similar terms.

Now some people get a little nervous with this and they think, well, maybe that means that Jesus was created.

Now, the Bible is very clear that Jesus has always been and he always will be.

Now, it's true that angels are created, but in the Greek here, the word angel comes from the Greek word angelos, which simply means a what?

Now does Jesus have a message for us, yes or no?

And in Revelation chapter 10, it appears like that message has something to do with something that is in his hand.

It is called the little book that is open.

I'm not saying, when I identify the angel in Revelation chapter 10 as Jesus, I am not saying that Jesus is created because the Bible is clear that he's always been and he always will be.

However, I do acknowledge the fact that the Bible tells us that Jesus has a message and it appears in Revelation 10 that it has something to do with that little book.

So we've identified who the angel of Revelation 10 is.

But what is this little book that is in the hand of the angel that the Bible describes?

Revelation chapter 10, going back to the chapter here, verse 2, the Bible says, and he had in his hand a little book opened.

Now, when it says that it's opened, what kind of connotation does that give us?

In fact, in the Greek, the word opened gives you very clearly that idea, the ideas being conveyed that the book was once closed, but now it has been open.

So the Bible says he has a book that is open in his hand that at 1 point it was closed.

He set his right foot upon the sea, and the Bible says his left foot upon the earth.

So what is the little book that is in the hand of the angel or in the hand of Jesus?

Some think that the little book might be the book of Revelation because it's a mysterious book and difficult to understand.

Some think that the little book might be the 7 seals that were sealed but no man could open them.

However, I believe that there's a very clear biblical explanation of what the little book is that is in the hand of the angel.

Now, those of you that came to the Bible prophecy seminar and those of you that have been to these seminars, you understand that when you read the book of Revelation, there is a companion book that you need to be able to understand the book of Revelation, and that is the book of Daniel.

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The Experience of God’s Prophetic Movement

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