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Muskegon SDA Church

Keys of Revelation

Kameron DeVasher

1. The Next World Superpower

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this evening.

Thank you for this time you've given us, brief as it may be.

Lord, let us come apart for just a few moments, study your Word, and through the power of your Holy Spirit, understand it with the minds that you've given us.

Please guide our study tonight and be our instructor, for we pray it in Jesus' name.

Please take out your study guide, study guide number 1, The Next World Superpower.

And you're going to take out your Bibles at the same time, and we're going to go to the book of Revelation.

Starting with chapter 1 and verse 1, we're going to start at the very beginning.

Again, I'll remind you here, the little notation, the little number at the end of the text reference there is the page number for the pew Bible that's in front of you.

If you're not familiar with the books of the Bible, that's not a problem.

If you just know how to count, that's all you need to do.

And go to page 1174 in your pew Bible or Revelation chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 as we begin.

The last book of the Bible opens with these words, the revelation of, and what are the next 2 words?

I'm gonna be willing to guess that most people, when they think of the book of Revelation as revealing something, it's not Jesus.

I'm guessing most people have a picture of end time events and plagues and disasters and beasts and imagery and the Antichrist and all kinds of scary things.

But the opening language of this book tells us something otherwise.

And he goes on to say, which God gave him.

God, apparently here, God the Father, gives Jesus Christ this message about Jesus to do what?

To show his servants, now this is going to be key, things which must shortly take place.

Not just telling what things were or even what things are at the time of the writer, but to the writer, he says, I'm showing you a picture of Jesus, which includes things which must shortly take place.

Now you'll notice in your study guide, it doesn't just has text references, it has opportunities for you to take notes.

I would encourage you, bring a pencil or pen each evening.

Notice right there, the purpose, with a little check mark.

The purpose of the book of Revelation, according to its own testimony, is to reveal whom?

The purpose of the book of Revelation is to reveal Jesus.

Far from being sealed, and I don't want to take a show of hands, but I'm guessing that there are some of you in this room that have heard that the book of Revelation is a closed book, it is a sealed book.

The title of the book is Revelation, means to reveal something.

Basically, God is saying, I want to show you something about Jesus, and yet many Christians believe that is closed or sealed book.

Far from being a closed or sealed book, look, let's go back at scripture and what it says about itself.

Again, we'll start with verse 1 to cover the same territory, but moving on.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly take place.

And he sent it and signified it by his angel to his servant, whom?

John is the human author of the book of Revelation.

It was his pen, but it was God's message.

John was the messenger, but the message was from God.

Speaking of John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony, " here it is again, "...of Jesus Christ, to all the things that he saw." Now carefully notice verse 3.

"...reads, and those who..." Friends, if you can't even keep up with the reading, as long as you're hearing the reading of it, according to those own books testimony, there's a blessing there for you.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it.

So again let's go over our first 3 answers, these first 3 keys of Revelation.

The purpose of the book of Revelation is to reveal Jesus Christ.

Far from being sealed, God promises to Bless those who read and hear this prophecy.

And notice that Revelation doesn't merely claim to be a good book.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him.

Now, sometimes when we speak about religious things or spiritual matters we blithely pass by oh, yes the Word of God But that's a huge claim This does not intend to set out creative human authorship.

It's not trying to show man's ingenuity of coming up with a really interesting plot twist at the end of a book.

It doesn't claim to be man's book at all.

There are plenty of books that claim to be good.

Classic literature, things that people are well aware of, well-read, well-versed people know these books.

But this does not claim to be a good book.

That is a claim that distinguishes it from every other book you can pick up But that's the claim that's made right here that this is a message directly from God Revelation doesn't merely claim to be a good book.

It claims to be God's book I want to focus on a little bit of that tonight.

Now again, we're not going to get through all the book at all tonight, we're just going to introduce ourselves to these concepts.

But think about what that means, that something claims to be from God.

Because if we can't get past this idea that it's God's book, we're going to read the rest of our time together like this is just interesting reading or good literature.

And we can pontificate back and forth, well, I think it means this and I think it means that, but really never get to a foundation belief that it's relevant or purposeful in our lives.

But if, however, it can be demonstrated that God's book is indeed just that, a message from God to us, Well, that changes the game.

So we go to our next section, the next key, the Bible's great claim.

If you can go there quickly, If not, it's right there on the page there.

And also, of course, the page number is given.

2 Timothy 3, in verse 16, the Apostle Paul writes to his protege about Scripture itself.

He says in verse 16 of chapter 3 of 2nd Timothy, all Scripture, how much Scripture?

All Scripture is given by Inspiration of whom?

So not just the book of Revelation, but the entire canon of Scripture, according to this writing right here, is given by inspiration of God.

The word in Greek there that we translate inspiration means breath of, breathed.

Now I'm not asking you to believe this claim yet.

I'm just asking you to understand the claim.

For instance, I could claim to be Superman but I'm guessing you wouldn't believe me now you give you evidence after evidence but I'm guessing you well I probably couldn't even give you evidence after evidence let's be honest and as laughable as it is that I could be Superman there are people in this world who think it's laughable that this book is actually from God.

All scripture, it says again in verse 16, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.

2. Watch Out!

Message number 2, study guide number 2, entitled Watch Out!

Now as you're finding your Bibles and opening to the book of Revelation, the very first chapter that we're going to begin, I want to briefly review what we learned last night.

First of all, we demonstrated, I believe sufficiently from Scripture, that Scripture is reliable.

That believing in God, believing in the message of His Word, that the Bible is not just a good book, but that it is in fact God's book, is not something you have to accept blindly.

And the greatest evidence of the scripture's authenticity and reliability is prophecy itself.

That the Lord God can line up things before they happen, and not just a day, or week, or month, but years, hundreds of years, even thousands of years in some cases, and say, now watch, and you will see that no other thing that claims to be God can do what only God can do.

And so he demonstrates through prophecy that his word is reliable and trustworthy.

So we go to Revelation chapter 1 and we find that very thing.

Revelation chapter 1 says it's the revelation of what?

In fact, it's not a revelation of what anything, it's a revelation of whom?

Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must what?

God gave a message about Jesus Christ to John for him to write down about things which must shortly take place, things in the future.

So if God got things about Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, and the dividing of Rome correct, surely he can get the end of the story correct as well.

Jesus says, I write these things not so that you'll be afraid, but so that you don't have to be afraid, I'm the 1 who holds the end and the beginning, and I'll share it with you to ease your fears and to draw you closer to me.

Now, before we begin our study tonight, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for allowing us this little space of time where we can come away, come fellowship with each other, but more importantly, Lord, to study your Word.

Give the same Holy Spirit who inspired its writing to now inspire our understanding and our reading.

Bless us to that end, Lord, as you've promised in your word.

Again, Revelation chapter 1, starting with verse 1, the book of prophecy opens with these words.

And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all the things that he saw.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, and here's the reason why, for the time is what?

Now here's the question, the time of what?

Behold, he, and that's with a capital H, this is a reference to Jesus Christ, 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 Now you recall from last night in our study of the image Babylon Medo-Persia Greece Rome then divided Rome And it said during the time of those Kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom cut out without human hands.

This is a reference to the coming of Jesus.

It was during the time of the divided Roman Empire.

During that time, the time in which we are living, we should expect to see Jesus coming again.

Now notice, go to the other end of the book of Revelation.

The very last page of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, the closing passages of the entire Bible, and you'll see that this coming of Jesus is the great anticipation of all Scripture.

Behold, I am coming, not just coming at all, but coming how?

Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book sounds like what we just read in the introduction yes he said in the beginning blessed is he who reads because the time is near and at the end he says I'm coming quickly blessed is he who keeps the words of this book It's the bookend promise of the book of Revelation that Jesus is coming quickly.

Quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to everyone according to his work.

Finally, as if that wasn't enough, we go down to verse 20.

He who testifies to these things says, surely I am coming, how quickly.

Go to your worksheet now for the fill in the blank.

The last repeated promise of Revelation is that Jesus is coming soon or quickly.

The last repeated promise of the bible and especially in this book of revelation is about the coming of jesus There's no doubt that the purpose of this book was written so that we would reveal jesus and be prepared for his coming now Last night again, we said outlined babylon meet a persia greece rome divided rome and during that time jesus would come Well, that's that's a pretty big expanse of time.

And we're living in a day and age when we anticipate Jesus coming, but he hasn't come yet.

And so many people start to snuff out and try to investigate and try to figure out when Jesus will come again.

Notice the lineage, the lines that are used are written in scripture there at the end of the book of Revelation, it doesn't say Jesus is coming on this day or this month or this year or this hour.

It just simply says he's coming quickly, quickly, quickly.

So a lot of people try to calculate when is Jesus coming.

But this is not what Jesus himself told us to do.

Go back to the book of Matthew, when Jesus, when he was here on earth, explained things about his own return.

When Jesus was here at the first coming, He was constantly looking, pressing people to look to His second coming, but He never said to calculate the timing of the second coming.

Matthew chapter 24, let's go down to verse 42.

He says, Watch therefore for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Now this is the Lord Himself telling us about His own return.

And He says to watch because you don't know when.

You can imagine in your mind, by the way, if you had a specific date or time, you wouldn't necessarily have to watch for anything.

Somebody will flash a little button, and oh, it's getting close, but he says, no, no, no, I'm not telling you what day.

You can't put a reminder on your calendar.

You have to watch, because you don't know the day or the hour.

In fact, he goes on to say, but know this.

All right, so he says, don't look for a time, but know this.

If the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." So is he returning?

And will that be a literal time when he comes?

So he says, don't just try to calculate and figure out what the hour is.

You should just be watching because you don't know when the exact time is.

Turn to the right in your scriptures, 2 Peter chapter 3.

Chapter 3, we'll go to verse 3, speaking of the coming of the Lord.

This is the Apostle Peter's take on this event.

He says, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of what?

So apparently at the last days, the days in which Christ has promised to come, there will be people who are scoffing.

To make fun of, to taunt, to tease, to ridicule.

There will be some people looking at those people who look anxiously to the coming of Christ, and they're gonna look at them and say, why do you keep looking at the sky?

3. Did God Make the Devil?

There are plenty of people in the world who are questioning God, questioning His existence, questioning His character.

What kind of God is this if this is the kind of world that He has?

If there is evil, if there is wickedness, if there is such a thing as Satan or the devil, why in the world would a good God allow him to be and why would he allow him to continue to be?

It's an important question and we find that at the heart of the book of Revelation.

But before we get into a study of God's Word, we always need to begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for being a God who creates and then communicates with your creatures.

You could have just left us to spin out there in space on our own, but you wanted a personal relationship and so you gave us your word.

So now Lord, tonight we ask that that, the same God who sent his Holy Spirit to inspire the writing of Scripture would now inspire our understanding of it.

Make it clear, and more than just information, Lord, begin a transformation in our lives to be more like Jesus.

Now let me just give you a brief outline of the book of Revelation.

This won't take long, but the book of Revelation is basically built in 2 halves.

2, there can only be 2 halves, of course.

The very first chapter and the very last chapter correspond with each other pretty well, as we saw the other evening.

It opens with the promise of Jesus coming.

It ends with the promise of Jesus coming.

It starts with a blessing on those who would read and obey, and it closes with a blessing on those who would read and obey.

And so it has these beautiful mirror-like bookends to the book of Revelation.

Now the first half, in fact take out your Bibles here to the very first page of the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 1.

As John is instructed to write, we're going to go to Revelation chapter 1.

Jesus himself comes down to the Apostle John, now the Prophet John, or John the Revelator, as he's often known, but...

He says here what it was like to encounter Jesus Christ.

In Revelation chapter 1, we're gonna go to verse 17.

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

But he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, do not be what?

And just in case you're not sure who that is, I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.

This is clearly Jesus Christ who has those accolades, yes?

Now, he says, amen, and I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Now watch carefully what he tells him to write down.

Verse 19, write the things which you have seen, the things which are and which will take place when, After this.

So notice he says, I've shown you things, and those things include things that are present tense for you now, John, things that are, but also things that will take place after this, the future.

So he communicates to John at that time, the present, going into the future.

And of course, the great hope of the book of Revelation culminates with the coming of Jesus in the clouds of glory, where he says, Behold, I'm coming quickly.

So basically, the book opens with the Jesus telling John I'm going to tell you things that are now and things that are to come and the great culmination is the second coming of Jesus at the very end.

Now, structurally, the book of Revelation has those 2 halves.

In the beginning, it has the introductory scenes, and then it has the covering of 2, 000 years of history over several times repeated.

By what I mean by that is, John, for instance, was shown the 7 churches, okay?

Each 1 representing a different phase of Christian history throughout the time after Christ came and before he returns again.

That same span of history repeated the 7 churches.

Then you see 7 trumpets, each 1 layering, repeating that same history from the time of John until the coming of Jesus.

The first half of the book of Revelation covers those repeating series of sevens, the church's history from the time of John until the coming of Jesus.

Which of course, John lived during the first coming of Jesus so you could just basically say from the first coming of Jesus till the second coming of Jesus.

The second half of the book of Revelation zooms in on the very last events leading up to the coming of Jesus.

So the first half is a broad, sweeping history of 2, 000 years.

The last half gives details about the final events before Jesus comes.

But right in the middle, right in the heart, the very center of the book of Revelation, is this beautiful background story as to why there's even a problem at all.

And that's what I'm gonna direct your attention to tonight and tomorrow night as well.

Tonight's message entitled, Did God Make the Devil?

Finds its roots in Revelation chapter 12, right in the center of the book, and we're going to go to verse 7.

There's only a few places in Scripture, and we're going to see all of them tonight, or at least most of them tonight, where the Bible pulls back the curtain on sacred history and shows us the very beginning of all the problems that Jesus came to fix.

And what we see in Revelation chapter 12, we start with verse 7, it describes a war in heaven.

Watch this, chapter 12, verse 7, the book of Revelation.

And war broke out, say it with me, where?

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and remember the book of Revelation has a lot of imagery, and the dragon and his angels fought.

By the way, if the idea of a dragon disturbs you, it tells us in just a moment who that dragon is, so just keep reading.

But it says they did not prevail, that is the dragon and his angels, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

Now does it say the great dragon was blotted out of existence?

No, he was merely cast out or removed from his position in heaven.

Now you might be thinking, as many people would, well if you had a chance to kill Satan right then and there, why?

Well that's the burden of our message tonight.

What are we seeing and why are we seeing it?

But we go back now verse 9 So the great dragon was cast out and who is that great dragon that serpent of old called whom the devil and Satan?

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