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Warrenton SDA Church

Mark Finley

Revelation’s Victorious Christ

Father, we're going to open your word just now.

And as we do, we pray that you'd touch our hearts.

We pray that you'd move upon us by your spirit.

August has been quite a month, hasn't it?

If I were writing on 1 newspaper headline, the news for the month of August, it would go something like this, Civil War continues to rage in Iraq and law and order is out of control.

If I were writing a one-page news headline for August, I would write about the ISIS group, the radical Muslim group and 2 horrible beheadings.

If I were writing the news headlines for August, I would have to write about an Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the hundreds that had been stricken with Ebola.

I certainly couldn't leave out, if I were writing a news headline, The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians and Hamas sending 3, 000 plus rockets or more into Israel and Israel's military pounding them back.

I certainly wouldn't be able to leave out the tragic death in Ferguson, Missouri of an African-American shot by a white policeman, an unarmed African-American, I might say.

I certainly couldn't leave that out in the protest that took place and the outrage and the national media attention.

When you really look at August, it was quite a month.

And you might ask, if you were a casual observer, God, where were you in August?

God, as many took a vacation in August, did you take a vacation then too?

Were you on vacation in Syria, where over 200, 000 have died?

Were you on vacation when 2 Americans now were beheaded?

God, were you on vacation when an African-American was shot and killed, a young man?

Were you on vacation when an Ebola outbreak took place?

You know, there are a lot of questions that 1 could ask about God.

Where is there a credible witness to who God is?

Where is there a credible witness to God's grace, God's love, God's mercy in the world?

And the answer to that question really is that a rebel angel has rebelled against God, a being of dazzling brightness, who was given the power of choice.

He wanted to be served rather than to serve.

And our planet is a planet in rebellion against God.

But this rebel angel has defamed God's name.

This rebel angel has distorted God's character.

This rebel angel has claimed that God is unfair, God is unjust, and that God's character is not 1 of love.

Has there ever been a credible witness of God's goodness and grace?

Take your Bible, please, and turn surprisingly to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.

There are many that see Revelation as a book of mystic symbols, of fierce beasts, of fearful sights and sounds.

But the book of Revelation, according to Revelation chapter 1, verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So the book of Revelation is a revelation about Jesus, about Jesus' special message in the end time.

And this morning we're going to focus really on 1 passage from the book of Revelation.

You might have the scrolls like I do in my hand, the written Revelation.

And I know you're looking at the text and not texting.

That was for the young people in the audience.

Please take the book the old people don't know how to text.

Revelation the first chapter and we're looking there at Revelation chapter 1, verse 5 and 6.

Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come.

The 1 who is and was and is to come is the Almighty.

He exists in the present and He will exist in the future.

And from the 7 spirits who are before the throne, the sevenfold perfect work of the Holy Spirit.

So here you have the Father and the Spirit, but now verse 5 is our verse.

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth." We're going to study today those 3 phrases of Christ.

He is the firstborn from the dead and he is the ruler over the kings of the earth.

Now the question we raise when we read verse 5 is from Jesus the faithful witness.

Who is Jesus a faithful witness of and what is Jesus a faithful witness to?

And how does that relate to this great controversy that's waging in the universe between good and evil?

First, who is Jesus a faithful witness of?

So John in his gospel describes the answer to the question, who is Jesus a faithful witness of?

Take your Bible, please, and turn to John The 14th chapter.

If you want to know what God is like, where do you look?

Do you look to ISIS and see the beheading of 2 Americans?

Do you look to Africa and see the Ebola raging and the disease?

Do you look to the tragic shooting of an African American young man and say, God, where were you when all this happened?

Where do you look if you want to see God?

If you want to know what God is like, you look at Christ.

We're looking there at verse 8 and verse 9.

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Revelation’s Victorious Christ

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