Revelation Unveiled: Hope in Christ for the Church

So if that's you this morning, listen. When the winds blow and the storms come and the gales crash in, you have no hope of standing if you're not standing on Christ the cornerstone. You have no hope of surviving what we're going to read about without the hope and the promise of Christ Jesus. So you need to let go of fear. You fear this book. You fear the things it says. Let go of that fear. Confess it, and step back into obedience. Some of you need to quit standing at a distance and come to him with confidence knowing that the same Jesus who reigns in glory is the one who saves, forgives, forgives, and restores. [00:57:01] (51 seconds)  #StandOnChrist

But secondly, I wonder if we would respond like John. In awe, this is God. He made me. He sustains me. He gives me my breath to breathe. So in awe, but then in fear, at the same moment, because he knows every idle thought I've had, every word I've spoken against a brother or sister, every lustful thought, every every transgression I have ever made, he knows, and he is perfectly holy, holy, holy. You see there's an admission here by John. I'm a sinner. I am a sinner. [00:50:05] (44 seconds)  #AweAndRepentance

Faith is simply this. You're a sinner and could do nothing about it. Jesus died for your sin because he was perfect and could do something about it. Then he rose from the grave to give you life eternal if you will follow him. That is the gospel. You can't clean yourself up. You can't work towards it. You can't do anything to get it. It is a gift of grace but we complicate it. Well same way we complicate the book of Revelation. It's not a riddle to be solved. It's not a riddle to frustrate faithful Christians. The book of Revelation is a gift. [00:31:27] (35 seconds)  #GospelByGrace

The promise isn't to every person that masters the symbolism of the book of Revelation. It doesn't say if you can figure it all out, you'll be blessed. It doesn't say if you can if you can understand everything. If you're an expert in the prophecy of it, you'll be blessed. No. The goal of revelation is obedience, not speculation and guessing. Read it. I encourage you to read at home, read along, read aloud, you know, read ahead. If you read the book of Revelation 10 times while we're preaching through it, it wouldn't be a bad thing. [00:34:27] (43 seconds)  #ObedienceOverSpeculation

So we begin the journey through Revelation with this hope and the promise that he is among his church, that he will never leave us or forsake us, that he has not pushed us away because of our sin, that he is there, and he is with us, and he will stay with us to the end. Revelation begins with hope with hope because of what Jesus has done for us. So as we begin this journey, it's not a call to have everything figured out because we won't. It's a call to trust the living Christ, to place him first in your life, to worship him in awe. [00:55:25] (49 seconds)  #RevelationWithHope

My goodness. Have you ever been so enraptured in the presence of God that that there is actually fear that you are not holy and he is? And have you ever sensed him say, fear not. I'm with you. I'm your I I am your comforter. I am your strengthener. I I am the one who gives you courage and fullness. I am the one. Fear not. I I guess the Lord had me focus here because I don't know your heart, and you really don't know my heart. But I know what worship should look like. [00:53:21] (45 seconds)  #ComfortInHisPresence

That's why a lot of people don't like the book because we can make it say a lot of things. But I wanna tell you something I read that changed my whole perspective of how I read the book of Revelation. And maybe you've had this happen to you in your life. You'll you'll go along thinking one thing's one way and then somebody will say something. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, well let me read it that way. The book of Revelation cannot say anything to us that it didn't say to them. [00:25:05] (31 seconds)  #ContextMatters

Listen. Our circumstance has nothing to do with whether we can choose to worship or not. It's amazing that the the times that I've most been enraptured by the spirit of God was in worship. When it becomes a form of prayer and heart cry to God and and all of a sudden you are almost like John transferred. You're just in God's presence and time fades and and and you're just there. If you could be there for hours and look at the clock and it'll feel like a minute. [00:39:36] (42 seconds)  #WorshipTransports