Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: In fact, at one point they asked, "Lord, when are you going to come? When is the kingdom going to be established? Would you give us your timetable?" Jesus said, "It's not for you to know the time. That's in the Father's hand. But he is coming again."

Guest (Male): Have you ever looked at all the sin and suffering in the world and wondered, why hasn't Jesus already come back? Hello and welcome to another great day on Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Sheppard.

Well, not every question has an answer, but this one does, and you'll hear it in just a few moments as we kick off a month-long teaching from the book of Revelation. As we take this journey together, remember, the purpose of biblical prophecy is not to tell us when Jesus will come back, but to assure us that he will, and to tell us how we should live in the meantime.

Online you'll find us at pastorpaul.net where you can listen to Destined for Victory on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. Subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now, here's today's Destined for Victory message, "Jesus in High Definition."

Revelation chapter one, verse one. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw, that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near.

John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Paul Sheppard: I want to talk to you from the subject "Jesus in High Definition." If you're not yet in the 21st century, come on in. One of the common terms of our time is high definition. It has to do typically with televisions or other monitors that have been created with a technology that allows you to get an extraordinarily clear view and almost multi-dimensional view of characters or of the things that are projected.

And indeed, when you get to the book of the Revelation, although many people almost dread when their Bible reading plans take them to the book of Revelation because many folks say, "I just don't like reading through all that because I don't understand what you got going on with beasts coming out the sea and dragons and a woman clothed with the sun standing on the moon with a crown of 12 stars on her head. I don't get that book. It's too many symbols and there's too much confusion and I've heard all these different points of view on what it means and so I read it because it's in there but I don't really enjoy it."

Well, one of the things I want to assure you of is when you read the book of Revelation, although there are many things you may not understand, and there are indeed these camps that have been feuding over the centuries in the Christian church as it pertains to eschatology, which is the doctrine of final things or last things. And we're broken up into camps and we got the amillennial camp and the premillennial camp and the postmillennial camp. You got futurists and preterists and historicists and those who practice the school of thought called symbolism and all that.

You've got all kinds of stuff and we are debating some of the non-essential elements. But the one thing we can all agree on is that this book gives you a high-def view of God and his son Jesus Christ. You get to see him clear, you get to see him in his glory, you get to see him in his majesty, and I want to make sure that before I'm done we have a sense of the God that we serve.

Now let me take just a few minutes and walk you through some things in the prologue here, the first verses before I get down to verse four where I really want to park for a while. In the first few verses, you have it stated that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. I want you to see that in two senses. First, the revelation from Jesus Christ. "Of" is a synonym for "from." It is the revelation from Jesus Christ. We're told there in the first verse that God the Father gave this revelation to his glorified son who ascended back 40 days after his resurrection.

Jesus ascended back to heaven and that's when he sent the Holy Spirit and the church was born 10 days later on the day of Pentecost. But this revelation was given to the son by the father and some decades later he passed it on to John who at the time of this writing is in exile on the Isle of Patmos. And the Lord gave this revelation to John and so it is a revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I also want you to see it as a revelation about Jesus Christ. When you look at this chapter and when you look throughout the book, you will see Jesus very clearly because Jesus is not just the son here on earth. He was the son of God and the son of man. Now he is the glorified son of God, and we need to see him in all of his glory. And it's a revelation about Jesus Christ.

The other thing I want you to note is that the writer talks about this telling us things which will soon or shortly take place. And also in verse three, he talks about the time being near. And you may wonder, well why did John talk about things shortly to take place and the time being near? It's because the early church lived with a constant sense of imminence, the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord told them that I am coming back. Not only did the Lord tell them that, but the angels who met the disciples on that mountaintop as they watched Jesus ascend back to glory. I'm telling you, I remember the first time the shuttle was built and took off. I remember that first shuttle flight and how amazing it was to see something that looked like that go out into space. But I'm telling you long before NASA built the shuttle, Jesus took off from a hill and his disciples watched him ascend back to heaven.

And while they were standing there an angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, "Why are you standing here gazing?" He said, "Because the same one you've just seen go away, he is coming back again." And the early church had a sense of imminence. They didn't know when. In fact at one point they asked, "Lord, when are you going to come? When is the kingdom going to be established? Would you give us your timetable?" Jesus said, "It's not for you to know the time. That's in the father's hand. But he is coming again."

So the early church had that constant message of the Lord's return is near, the Lord's return is imminent. And even Peter wrote in one of his epistles because some were obviously beginning to ask after the decades began to pass, "I thought Jesus was coming right back, where is he?" And Peter wrote and said, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise." He said, "But he is long-suffering and he is not willing that any would perish but all would come to repentance."

And so what that means is we need to take the fact that Christ has not yet returned as a sign that it is time to get right and do it now. If you don't know Jesus as your savior, the time to surrender to him, give your life to him, be freed from your sins is now. Tomorrow is not promised to you. The Lord's return is and has always been imminent.

We live in the last days. In fact, we live in the last of the last days because technically the last days began on the day of Pentecost because Peter stood up that day as they spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem and glorified God through the messages he had put in their mouths. When people said, "What in the world does all of this mean?" Peter stood up and said, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, that in the last days saith God I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh."

So on the day of Pentecost, which was 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus, Peter said, "This is the beginning of the last days." And if that was the beginning of the last days, I submit to you that we live in the last of the last days and Jesus' return is soon to come. You can confirm that simply by looking at various places in your Bible that give you the signs of the times.

In one of his letters to Timothy, Paul said in the last days perilous times would come. And then he began to talk about the symptoms and the signs of those last days. People will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God, people will be high minded and children will be disobedient to parents and people will be without natural affection. He just goes on down and when you read that you can just check it off. Check it off. And since you can check them off, we know that we're in the last of the last days.

Guest (Male): Don't go away. The rest of today's Destined for Victory message featuring Pastor Paul Sheppard is coming right up. In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."

Our mission at Destined for Victory is to share that timeless truth, Jesus himself, so that as many people as possible can be saved. You can help keep these messages going around the world and coming your way by sending a generous gift today. Stop by pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. That's pastorpaul.net or call 855-339-5500.

We may not know when the Lord is coming back but we do know his second coming is closer than it's ever been. The rest of today's message now, "Jesus in High Definition."

Paul Sheppard: Some of you have heard me tell the story of the little boy in his grandfather's clock shop but others haven't heard it, plus I want to hear it again. Let me tell it real quick. Little boy was in his grandfather's clock shop. In fact, he had learned how to count from one to twelve by listening to the chimes. His granddad had taught him how to count by listening to the chimes at the top of the hour.

And so one day granddad figured he would play a little game on his grandson and he set one of the clocks to chime thirteen times. Told his grandson, "Now I'm going to have this one chime and I want you to tell me what time it is." And it began to chime and the little boy started counting in his head. And then when it got to twelve he thought that would be the end but it chimed one more time. And granddad said, "Alright now tell me what time it is." Little boy thought for a moment, he said, "I don't know but it's later than it's ever been before."

Let me tell you something, I cannot tell you when Jesus is coming by the date and by the month. But I can tell you that it is later than it's ever been before and that Jesus' return is imminent. I want you to also realize that he mentions blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and who take to heart what is written in it.

And that's because in those days of course you didn't have the blessing of having your own Bible in your own hand. In those days the Old Testament scriptures were written out by hand and in the Jewish community handled by the priesthood and those who led the people in the things of God. And as the early church began to be established they too read from the Old Testament scrolls. And so it was a matter of reading and even when the apostles began writing their letters to the church those too were written by hand and a single letter would be taken around and read to the various churches.

And so when he says blessed is the one who reads, he's talking about literally the reader, but he says blessed also are the people who hear it and who take to heart what is written in it. That's just a reminder for us to know it's not good enough to just read the word. That's the beginning of the blessing to read the word, but you've got to also continue on and he said blessed is the one who hears it and who takes to heart what is written in it.

You are blessed not only when you come to church and hear the preaching of the word, you are blessed when you leave the church, take it to heart and put it into practice. Here's how James put it in the first chapter of his letter. He said, "Don't just be a hearer of the word and so deceive yourself." He said, "Be a doer of the word also."

Because he said those that are hearers but don't do it are like people who go to the mirror, look at themselves and then they walk away and forget what they look like. What's the implication? James said, "You know if you go to the mirror, the mirror is designed for you to make some adjustments. Think about the way you looked first thing this morning. I know you're cute now but you were jacked up first thing this morning."

You had some serious problems and situations going on first thing this morning. But when you got into a mirror the mirror was designed to show you where you are, what you really look like right now before you get all cute. The mirror showed you the real deal. The mirror showed you if your face was wrinkled because you've been sleeping on a certain part of it. The mirror showed you if you had stuff coming out your eyes and all that. So you who are droolers, the mirror showed you you had some little bit of dried up drool right there. Oh I know you don't want us to know that you were looking like that.

But the mirror was designed to expose what you look like and designed to give you a place where you can adjust what you look like. And that's why you're here now because you got in the mirror and you took care of business. And I want to let you know the word of God is a mirror, and it's designed for us to take care of business. It's designed for us to realize that God wants to tell us his truth so that we can adjust our lives according to his truth.

So he said blessed are not only those who read it but blessed are those who hear it and who take to heart and put it into practice. In fact James went on to say you will be blessed in what you do. So you begin being blessed by what you hear but the rest of the blessing is in what you do about what you hear.

So just some comments on the prologue. Now I want you to look with me at verse four. And there you will see that he says this is to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Now we're talking first century AD, not twenty-first century AD. He is not talking about the continent of Asia as we know it. He's not talking about that vast land where there's China and all of the various countries.

He is talking about the Roman world. This was written in the Roman world and there was a province called Asia in the Roman world. It's also called, if you read from time to time study in your study Bibles you'll see it referred to as Asia Minor. The idea is that in the Roman world there was a province called Asia, today it is called Turkey. And in the land we now call Turkey there were seven churches and these letters were addressed to seven of the churches along a mail route if you were, along the Roman road in the province of Asia.

And so the idea was that God gave these letters to John and they were to be read first to those churches on that Roman road but also by way of inspiration those letters would contain information that will bless the church until Jesus comes again. You know your Bible is inspired like no other book on the planet. You need to understand that your Bible is divinely inspired. It's not humanly inspired.

There are a lot of humanly inspired writings, there are a lot of things that we have valued over the years because that was written so well and all but that's human inspiration. When you get to your Bible you're talking about divine inspiration. It is the only book on the planet of its kind. Do not put it in the category with other so-called holy books. Do not put it in the category with the major books of man's religions.

The Bible is a one-of-a-kind book because it's the only one on the planet that was God-breathed, inspired by God. And that's why it is the all-time bestseller and it will be because people have recognized over the years there's something about this book. And I've heard the skeptics and the naysayers try to tear it down and tear it apart, but I want to let you know the book is here to stay because it is divinely inspired.

It was written over a period of fifteen centuries, over fifteen hundred years. It was written on three different continents. It was written in three different languages. And there were more than forty people who God used to pen the words that he gave them. But it doesn't read as a compilation, it reads as one book. Why? Because it is not only history, it is his story.

It is the story of God redeeming mankind. It begins with us falling in paradise and it ends with paradise being restored. And in between you see the love of God coming down and loving us and redeeming sinful man back to himself. And so this is an inspired letter and it's not only good for those seven churches from the first century but by way of divine inspiration it is good for all of us here and now.

Now let me get to what I want to say to you in the heart of this message. Look with me at verse four and there you will see that he says to the seven churches in the province grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come. From the seven spirits before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

I won't get to all of that but let's just start with the one who is and who was and who is to come. I want to help you see that here you get a high-def view of Jesus and the first thing I want you to note about that and the only thing I really get to discuss is that God here is seen as the eternally present one. The eternally present one.

It's to the one who is. Notice that it says he is first. Now if he was trying to simply give us a chronology he would say to the one who was and is and is to come. But that would suggest to you that there was a beginning, there was a middle and there was an end. So he's trying to show you no, when we're talking about God, you're not talking about that. You're talking about the one who is.

And he is in the past which we call was. And he is in the future which we call will be. I want you to know that your God is the eternally present one, the only being in the universe who is, eternally is. Here's the way I put it, God has eternal is-ness.

God has eternal is-ness. The first thing you see in a high-def view of Jesus is that he has eternal is-ness. He is the one who is. Well when did he start being is? In the past. He is past tense. He is present tense and he is future tense. But he's never a was. We call it was because that's the best we can do to describe it. But he identifies himself here as the is-ness.

Guest (Male): I hope today's Destined for Victory message has been an encouragement to you. Remember, God wants us to use his revelation not to look into the future and make predictions, but to look in the mirror and make changes. The kind of changes that will help us lead others to faith in Christ and give ourselves a life filled with peace unsurpassable and joy inexpressible.

If you missed any of today's message or want to listen again stop by our website pastorpaul.net. You'll find the program there on demand and more details about how to listen to Destined for Victory in your favorite digital platform. While you're there you may also want to check our online store for some great resources to help you grow in your Christian faith, including books and video messages from Pastor Paul Sheppard. Go to pastorpaul.net.

You know it can sometimes be easy to be nice to strangers but what about the people closest to you? We've got a brand new resource to share with you that may help. It's a booklet called Clothed in Love, Seven Gifts for the Ones Who Matter Most. Based on Colossians 3:12-15, Clothed in Love will challenge you to direct your best selves towards the ones who matter most.

Pastor Paul Sheppard points you to seven virtues: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance and forgiveness; and how giving these gifts away can transform your most important relationships. That's Clothed in Love, Seven Gifts for the Ones Who Matter Most, and it's our gift to you today by request when you give your generous gift to Destined for Victory.

You can give by phone by calling 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California, 94538. Well, God always keeps his promises, but more often than not, there's a condition attached. Here's Pastor Paul.

Paul Sheppard: We got a generation of Christians who have candy store fixation. They just think God is a cosmic Santa Claus and he has come to just give you everything you want and you got folk trying to claim promises and leave off the condition.

Guest (Male): That's next time in our continuing message Jesus in High Definition. But until then remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ. You are destined for victory.