Hartland Summer Conference 2021: Revelation's Cosmic Conflict

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Revelation

Chris Holland

01 Revelation’s Warning to Anesthetized Souls

02 Revelation’s Exhortation for Half-Hearted People

03 Revelation’s Cure for Lost Love

It is good to be with you again, and I am excited to be here and be a part of this Heartland Camp meeting as we explore Revelation's cosmic messages.

You know, as we look at the book of Revelation, it is important, as I'm sure has already happened during the week, to understand what Revelation is.

It comes from the Greek word apokalupsis, from where we get the English word apocalypse, but literally translated means the unveiling.

What is the unveiling of the book of Revelation?

Because as we talked about last night, He is the only 1 that has the solution to all of the problems that exist in this world.

It is only Jesus and His second coming that will bring an end to all injustices.

It is only Jesus and His second coming that will bring an end to all matters of political strife.

Too often we have hung our hat or our dependence upon ourself or others.

And the book of Revelation teaches us that that, frankly, is a foolish endeavor, because it is only Jesus who has the answer.

Heavenly Father, as we study once again, we are thankful for the opportunity to be here.

We are thankful for the opportunity that we have the freedom to worship, because Lord, we do know there are places in this world that worship is not freely practiced.

And so Lord, as we spend these moments in Your book, we pray and ask that you would reveal to us something tonight to help us understand.

When we look at the book of Revelation, I have always found it to be important to have some context.

Of course, we know that the book of Revelation was written by the Apostle John.

But sometimes we miss the context in which the apostle John was writing the book.

John was pastoring the church there in Ephesus.

And there in Ephesus, if you visit that ancient site today, it's considered by many to be 1 of the best ancient sites.

Because it has been maintained from its ancient glory.

And so, as you walk along the intricately paved Roman road there, And there you see the library of Celsus.

Along your journey, you are confronted with the realities of first century Christianity.

You see, John would have been confronted on a daily basis with the false worship of these false gods.

But that was the least of John's worries.

Because there was a lunatic of an emperor who came to power in Rome.

And Domitian did something that no other emperor prior to his existence had done.

You see, all other emperors prior to Domitian would be deified once they died.

Meaning that they would be made a god after their death.

But Domitian thought so highly of himself that he made a decision, an executive decision, to deify himself while he was still living.

And so the Romans wanted to make sure that the members of the Roman society were submissive to the government of the Caesars.

And so they visited Ephesus, and there in Ephesus, they demanded an offering be made to the newly deified God of Domitian.

The apostle John at that time, the last of the apostles to be alive, All of the rest of his friends had been martyred.

The last living apostle would refuse to take salt and cast it before the altar of Domitian.

And this, of course, did not make the Roman authorities happy, so they promptly had John drink poison to kill him.

But then the Romans had a problem on their hand because he did not die.

And so then the Romans, not too happy with this, now we're going to make John pay.

And so they were going to boil him in oil.

How many of you have ever worked in fast food?

Don't worry, I'm not going to call you up here.

I actually believe it should be a requirement of life to work in fast food.

If you can deal with people who have so many problems with their food, you can deal with anybody.

Those of you who have worked in fast food, have you had the distinct pleasure of being burned by oil?

I'll never forget, I was working in a restaurant.

Prior to my becoming an Adventist, I managed restaurants and not that you can't be an Adventist and manage a restaurant, it just happened to be the order of things in my life.

And I'll never forget they were cleaning out the oil and I was unaware that they were cleaning out the oil, and they had taken the greatest safety precautious, and I'm being very sarcastic right now, and they had emptied the fryer into a 400 pan, which for those of you who have never had the pleasure of working in food service, that is a deep pan that is twice the size is a 13 by 9 and twice the depth.

And they safely placed it upon the top of a five-gallon bucket and filled it with oil that was approximately 335 degrees Fahrenheit and I was working in the back and I came around and I did not know the oil was there and I knocked the oil off of the five-gallon bucket and it promptly went on to my feet.

I was wearing shoes, thank the Lord, but my shoes began to get a little warm and so my shoes were taken promptly off of my feet very quickly along with my socks and the workers were casting ice upon the place in which I was standing and thankfully I did not burn my feet.

When you're heating oil and utilizing oil in cooking, Have you ever had the opportunity where your oil begins to smoke?

That means you've reached what is called the smoke point.

You didn't know you're gonna get a lesson on cooking tonight, did you?

If you would continue to heat that oil to higher temperatures, beyond the smoke point, your oil would eventually begin to boil.

And then it would reach, as it came to the boiling point, what is called its flash point.

And that's when things get real exciting.

Because what's happening at the boiling point of oil, which is called the flashpoint, is the oil is boiling, and as it's boiling, it's vaporizing.

But here's the problem, as it vaporizes, it ignites.

And so now I want you to envision the apostle John is now taken to Rome where he is going to now be boiled in oil.

And so as the Apostle John would have approached this large cauldron that had been promptly prepared to fry him to death, the oil would have been boiling and vaporizing, and so there would have been flames skirting across the oil.

You see, sometimes we just say, oh, and they try to boil John in oil, and we kind of go, oh yeah, that's kind of interesting.

I want you to envision now for a moment that the Apostle John is then taken and he is cast into this cauldron of oil that is boiling and on fire on the top.

And to the utter amazement of the Romans, he is not scalded 1 bit.

So now they don't know what to do with him, except for 1 thing.

They take the approximately 90 some odd year old John and they take him to the island of Patmos.

I've had the opportunity to be on the island of Patmos.

Patmos prior to the Romans was a Greek prison colony.

If you go there today, It's a pretty place.

There's a nice harbor and a little walkway along the waterfront where there's all kinds of nice restaurants and wonderful Greek people.

However, outside of that is what John would have experienced.

The island of Patmos is an island less than 9 miles long and less than a couple of miles wide.

It is basically a rock that extends out of the water.

Typically you can get there from sailing out of Athens, Greece, or you can sail there from what would have been, at the time, Ephesus.

The journey from Ephesus in a modern day boat takes about 3 and a half hours, or at least that's what it's supposed to take.

When I visited Patmos, the winds were a little high that day, which meant the waves were a little bit high, and our tour director really wanted us to have an intimate moment as a tour group, so we were in a smaller vessel.

And that 3 and a half hour trip almost took 5 hours.

And the boat went up and down and up and down.

And we were having this wonderful moment, D.

We thought it would just be such a nice thing that we would study the book of Revelation on the lower deck and Andy Nash was leading us and I'll never forget, the boat was going this way and I was sitting this way and at some point as the boat is going up and down and up and down both my head and my stomach told me I really don't like this anymore.

My wife being the smartest of the bunch never left the upper deck to which she was sitting directly in the middle of the boat and as the waves are splashing over she would get a drip or 2 on her but she looked out on the horizon kept the focus on the horizon with her ginger candy in her mouth and she did not get sick.

Series

Revelation

02 Revelation’s Exhortation for Half-Hearted People

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

End Time Gospel Message

Timeline of Forgiveness

1h 1m

GYC SE 2012 Seminar: Lessons in Warfare

Special Forces

51m

Whose Side Are You On?

1h

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables

Present Truth or Cunningly Devised Fables-Part 1

1h

Revelation’s Seven Churches- Part 2

51m

The Power of Perspective

Two Altars

53m

The Converting Light

46m

1. The Undoing of the Saints

36m

Keys of Revelation

16. The Day the Devil Dies

57m

ASI 2010 Plenary Meetings

Expounding the Faith

1h 30m

Beauty and the Beast

51m

The Three Angels' Message for the Millennial Generation

2. Fear God and Give Glory

1h 23m

Sound Doctrine