His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Coming up next on His Perfect Love, a study in Revelation.

Matt VanderVen: When you think of the book of Revelation, what do most of all of you think about before the teaching today and we went through this and looked at the Old Testament scriptures? What's going to happen? What about the beasts? What do the horns mean? Where am I going to be? What's going to happen during the great tribulation? Meoto, chapter four, people pronounce that differently, after these things.

It's not a sealed book. Daniel was told to seal his book. This is, he said, Revelation 22:10, "Seal it not," or "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand." It's a series of visions expressed in symbols that deal with reality. The literal interpretation, again, is going to always be the preferred way unless John tells us and clarifies it otherwise.

Guest (Male): Well, many are under the impression that the book of Revelation is just about what's going to happen in the future. We're learning on His Perfect Love that the focus is really on Jesus and His next mission. And today, Pastor Matt VanderVen observes an outline that is actually given to us early on in the book. The things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. Here's Pastor Matt to help us understand this divine outline here on His Perfect Love.

Matt VanderVen: When Jesus entered Jerusalem on that final trip, He was welcomed with shouts. Do you remember what they were shouting to Him? Hosanna. That's right, Hosanna. You remember what Hosanna means? Osana in the Hebrew, it means "save now, salvation." People started recognizing, wait a minute, there was a group of people that started looking at both of those prophetic scriptures and going, wait a minute. Yes, the conquering King, but wait a minute, there's a King that's also going to bring peace through salvation that's going to come. And they start saying, "Hosanna."

However, what happens? By the end of the week, what are they saying? "Crucify Him, crucify Him," because they couldn't correlate it that it was the same Messiah. They didn't understand that. Look how much we have been given that we look back and understand all of these things readily, as even a newbie Christian understands these things. Well, what were they waving? Palm branches. Why is that significant? Not only do we see it in the book of Revelation and it means victory, but to Jerusalem, specifically to the people of Israel, what does our flag mean to you and I? It's a national symbol.

What was waving palm branches to the people of Israel? It was a national symbol of Israel. So they were looking at it nationalistically, right? However, instead of going into Jerusalem and conquering the Romans, Jesus entered the temple. And what did He do? He cleared out the money changers. Matthew chapter 21, verses 12 through 17. This threw them for a loop. Wait a minute. Nationalistically, here's our suffering servant who's coming, who's going to bring salvation. He's going to overthrow this government. Where's He going again? He's going to temple. What? He's kicking out the money changers? You mean He's overthrowing religion? That's not what I thought was going to happen.

He also indicated that Israel, at least that current generation, and this is sobering, Matthew 21, verses 33 through 43, that they will not inherit the kingdom. He specifically said that to that generation. They would not inherit the kingdom. He foretold of the total destruction of the temple, didn't Jesus say that in Matthew 24, which we just already read about in the Old Testament scriptures? These are not the words and deeds of a Messiah sent to free Israel from Roman domination. He was concerned about other things.

It was only after the resurrection that the disciples began to understand what Jesus had been telling them. We read that in John chapter two, verse 22. And even after the resurrection, they did not understand about the second coming because they asked Him, if you look at Acts chapter one, verse six, they go to Him and they said, "Is now the time? Are you now going to restore the kingdom of God? Is this going to happen now?" Expecting like right now, "Okay, you did what you had to do, you're resurrected from the dead. Okay, and go. Now you're going to restore the kingdom."

And what did Jesus do? In Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus told them very important for you and I because we're given that same marching order. Jesus told them that they should not be concerned about the timing of the coming kingdom. Isn't that interesting as we study the book of Revelation? But they should take the gospel to the whole world. That's what He wanted His children, the body of Christ, the born-again believers to do, to take His good news to the entire world. And He wanted to do it one heart at a time. And He wanted to do it using you.

Then what happened after that, you might remember, He was taken up into heaven. Two angels came and the disciples are looking up, watching this whole thing happen, which I would have done the same thing. And they said, "Men of Galilee," the angels say to the disciples, all those gathered, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven." That's Acts 1:11. Here we finally have a clear indication that there will be a second coming after an undisclosed time period.

This is important. The Old Testament had several mysteries regarding Messiah. Would He be a divine figure or a human descendant of David? Well, friends, guess what? As we just looked at it this morning and we've read our gospels together here, the New Testament gives us the answer: both, because of the incarnation, caro in the Latin. Would Messiah be cut off or reign forever? That was open for debate in the Old Testament scriptures, as we read here this morning. The New Testament gives us the answer: both, because of the resurrection.

Would Messiah come to suffer or did He come to reign? The New Testament once again gives us the answer: both, because He's coming again. He came twice. So looking at the scriptures, we understand that it was prophesied that Messiah would come to save His people and overthrow human government that was opposing and afflicting the Jewish people. It was certainly prophesied, but we also read that Messiah would be a suffering servant, beaten and hung on a tree while people were casting lots for His clothes. He would be acquainted with grief and a man of sorrows.

Now, this is important because it helps us understand why He wrote another revelation. Because the rabbis, many of the priests of the old ways, envisioned this to be contradictory, not complementary. And just like most of us, and I think it's appropriate to include us in this, they choose a sermon that was focused on the encouraging passages, the passages that highlighted Messiah's salvation, the passages that highlighted the victory and victories, the passages that show Messiah will overthrow the oppressive governments. But they choose, even to this day in synagogues and temples all over, they choose not to focus on the suffering servant of Jesus Christ who came to take away the sins of the world.

In fairness, it's easier for us to look back and say, of course, this was complementary and it would occur in two comings. The first coming, the suffering servant, we've talked about that. Obviously, then the Great Tribulation will come. You and I will be raptured out first. Then a 1,000-year millennial reign will come back, and Jesus is going to establish His theocracy on Earth and defeat all evil and wickedness. That's His next mission. He accomplished His first mission. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is about His next mission.

And it's very easy for us to look at this now and say, "Of course," especially again as we study all 66 books of the Bible, the inspired books. But the saints of old didn't have this full revelation, the full counsel of God's word, and didn't understand entirely how it all tied together as you and I do today. So it's important to understand that Jesus had two missions, each with its own revelation. One revealing God's plan of salvation, the other unveiling occurred in the gospels, which we saw and we read through our gospels.

The Pauline Epistles, the letters to Peter, the letters of Paul, Jude reveal all of this to you and I, and they are in perfect harmony. But the second, the apocalypse, the unveiling that you and I are reading together, we find in this book, unveils and uncovers a Jesus that is now the conquering King and the glorified King. That is the focus henceforth. And we know what we've been told to do: take the gospel to the ends of the earth. His revelation is unveiling and uncovering is different than that in the gospels.

It's not contradictory, it's complementary. But it has a new mission. He inspired an entirely new book to communicate this to you and I, to see Him in all His glory. And again, you will hear me say over and over again through these teachings that we don't become just distracted by only future events. This book is about Jesus Christ. In the gospels, we see Him in the days of His flesh, caro, but they do not give the full revelation of Jesus Christ that we will see in the book of Revelation in His glory. This is His unveiling.

We cannot go far in the study of Revelation without seeing the Lamb, like direction posts along the road that remind us that He, who by Himself purged our sins, is now highly exalted. And that to Him, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess He is Lord. He wants us now to focus on this new mission, and He gave us a very clear outline. That's how I know this, because if you look at that outline He gave us, it's very clear in Revelation chapter one. As a matter of fact, it's the only outline given to us out of all 66 books. It's the only one that gives us an outline. Jesus specifically built it in. It's succinct and it specifically covers the contents that must be discussed.

To show His servants again, verse one, the things which must take place. What does He do? He tells John very matter-of-factly and specifically in verse 19, "John, this is a command. Write these things which you have seen," past. "John, write the things which are present," church age. "John, write the things which will take place after this," future. And we'll find that the book further divides itself into a series of seven as we study this. Now, many of you know the number seven is not insignificant. Seven in Hebrew is the number for completeness.

And that's why as we go to chapters two and three, how many churches are there? Seven. Yes, each church is in Turkey, a church that John, Pastor John, would have been very familiar with after pastoring Ephesus and some of the other churches there in Asia Minor. But the number seven is significant because not only is it just seven individual churches that any church should run through the grid of scripture to say, "Which church are we?" I pray to God always we'd be the Church of Philadelphia. Doesn't matter our size, it doesn't matter our ability. Are we faithful to the scriptures, to Jesus?

But also because seven means complete, He is telling us that all seven churches also speak of the completeness that I'm speaking to the entire church as a whole, not just individual churches. And each division that He gives us is as orderly as it possibly could be as we go through this book of Revelation. No other book of the Bible like this. Now, the best way to read this book, as I get ready to close here, just a couple final comments, the best way to read this book is to take a literal application of past, present, and future end-time events, but not without consideration for the symbols found throughout the inspired work of Christ.

This was given to the church during a time of, again, severe persecution. Not only for John, who is exiled to the Isle of Patmos because Domitian was unsuccessful on his first attempt to burn him alive, but for all Christians that were afflicted by Emperor Domitian. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is to again show His servants what must soon take place. The book is filled with mysteries unveiling about things to come, and it is the final warning that the world will surely end and judgment will be certain. It gives us a tiny glimpse of heaven and all of the glory awaiting those who keep their robes white.

Revelation takes us through a Great Tribulation with all its woes and the final fire that unbelievers will face for eternity. The book reiterates the fall of Satan and the doom he and his angels are bound for. We are shown the duties of all the creatures and angels of heaven and the promises of the saints that will live forever with Jesus in the New Jerusalem. And like John, we're going to find it hard to describe what we read in this book. Now, there are six striking features. I can't get through all of them today, nor do I want to. I want us to take our time.

But I'll just go through a couple, like I said, to close with you, something so unique to this book and again, not a coincidence. I love this. He does this in His gospel which opens with this, John speaking, the vessel that God uses, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That's John 1:1. What is he doing? John reached further back before creation, before anything else, to teach us that Jesus always existed and God always existed. They were not created beings. They've always existed. And for many of us, we don't understand how to process that. But John, through his gospel, made that very clear to us.

What does he also do? He moves up further in regards to verse three in John 1 where he says He made all things, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. He also teaches us that Jesus was a part of all creation and nothing was created apart from God. And then we have the book of Revelation. What does John do here? Then John writes the book of Revelation where he reaches farther into eternity future and the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ than any other person of the Bible.

Another interesting fun fact: it's the only prophetic book in the New Testament. Think about that. The book of Revelation. In the Old Testament, we had 17 prophetic books, but only one in the New Testament. The other thing that's very interesting about this book compared to any other part of scripture, there's a special blessing which is promised if you look at verse three to the readers of this book, not only readers but hearers because remember when this was given, many people couldn't read. There was a lot of illiteracy. So even those that would come in could just hear would get and receive a blessing.

But friends, there's also a very stern warning given at the end of this book issued to those who tamper with its contents. And I take this very serious as a pastor, as an undershepherd, reading the word of God with you here this morning. Revelation chapter 22, verses 18 and 19. It's sobering and it makes sense because the stakes are so high. We're talking about human souls. He didn't want a single portion of this work tampered with. It's not up to the liberty of a pastor in how he teaches it because He built in the outline specifically.

He said, "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall surely take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in the book." Again, the warning is to make sure that anyone who teaches the book of Revelation understands that they don't have liberty to remove, add, change anything.

It warns us to focus and stay focused on the three elements He gave us: what was seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place. And I will just say this, and I hope you understand and receive it with the right heart. I hope you know me well enough by now when I say these things to you. Unfortunately, and I won't say all, but most of the popular prophetic teachers today are those who have gone out on limbs, many focusing only on the sensational components of this revelation. And this has raised a very serious problem within the church and it will have repercussions.

When you think of the book of Revelation, what do most of all of you think about before the teaching today and we went through this and looked at the Old Testament scriptures? What's going to happen? What about the beasts? What do the horns mean? Where am I going to be? What's going to happen during the great tribulation? Chapter four, people pronounce that differently, after these things. It's not a sealed book. Daniel was told to seal his book. This is, he said, Revelation 22:10, "Seal it not," or "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand."

It's a series of visions expressed in symbols that deal with reality. The literal interpretation, again, is going to always be the preferred way unless John tells us and clarifies it otherwise. So as we come to this, I want us to think about John, who's some 80 to 90 years old. He's the only living apostle left on the earth. And he's receiving all of this. And he identifies very clearly and knows what age he's living in. He's living in the church age. Some historians today, even in science and different areas of acumen, turn around and divide the world or the ages into epochs. Maybe you've heard of them: Middle Ages, Modern Age, Postmodern Age.

Biblical history can be divided into different eras as well. Those divisions emphasize on God's interaction with His creation. If you go to seminary or if you've gone through a seminary, you know those divisions are called dispensations. At the time we're living right now, this is called the dispensation of grace. That's how they would define our epoch or our time. But more broadly, biblical history can be divided in really into two periods, roughly following the division of the Old and the New Testament: the Age of the Law and the Church Age.

The Church Age is the period of time again from Acts 2 to the rapture foretold in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18. That will culminate the end of the Church Age. And it makes sense that it's called the Church Age. I'm building this because we're going to go into two and three and we're reading about the present Church Age. So I need us to understand that's talking about us now, right? And it's important if we don't understand that we're in the dispensation of grace, then again we don't understand the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Grace upon grace. He is grace and truth, the fullness of love and truth.

But there is coming a time, friends, where the church will be removed. And when that church is removed, God's restraining hand will be removed. And we will no longer be in the dispensation of grace. Those who are alive that are not saved, the born-again believers in Christ will be raptured out as it's taught very clearly in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18. He uses two words in the Greek: the parousia and the harpazo. Greek matters. That's why we spent time going over the slides and we're going to do that a lot through this book. The original language matters. We're not going to rush it.

The parousia is the second coming where He physically touches down, as we read already, terra firma, coming to Earth. The harpazo is the rapture or the catching up. 1 Corinthians 15 also discusses that. It's in a twinkling of an eye. So I love focusing on the future and the things that are, but I also want to be faithful to understand: where are we now? And what is He trying to communicate to His church? Because He still calls us that right now because we're in the Church Age.

But as I mentioned, you're going to see after chapter four, He no longer mentions the word church all the way through chapter 19, 18 really. And by the time we get to chapter 19, He won't call us that anymore. You know what He calls us? The Bride of Christ. Do you ever notice that? We're now His bride. He describes that intimacy, just very unique to a husband and a wife. Only one, only one husband and a wife. Intimacy, beautiful intimacy. That's what He has planned for us.

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love with our first of many studies in Revelation. You can hear it again at HisPerfectLove.org, OnePlace.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, Pastor Matt, you alluded to a literal approach to the book of Revelation unless the text says otherwise. But as you know, not every Bible teacher takes this approach. Would you explain why taking the Bible literally is a good idea, even here in Revelation?

Matt VanderVen: Larry, I believe in the literal approach to scripture is always the best approach until the word of God tells us otherwise. God is not grammatically challenged. He uses words like "like" or "as," which clearly expresses a simile or metaphor or symbol. You know, the contrary of that is true as well. When Jesus says, "I am the way to the Father," and no one should in any capacity think He means that He's sort of jesting or you know, it's a symbol. No, there is not multiple ways to get to heaven outside of Jesus Christ. None of us have a problem with that. Coming to this book is likewise we should take a literal interpretation.

You know, so much of the false gospel and false teaching comes from misapplying or the misinterpretation of scripture. There are very plain rules of hermeneutics and language construction. You know, the study of the word of God always involves text and context. The minute we start trying to reinterpret or not follow these guidelines is right about when we start to open a door to reading the Bible or a passage out of its intended or original meaning.

The approach leads to, and I believe fundamentally, a dangerous territory: lifting our opinions and our feelings to God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible word. And last I checked, that's fundamentally idolatry. You know, we open the door to mirror reading or reading our ideology into the word of God and trying to make the Bible say all kinds of things that it clearly doesn't. You know, this is the recipe that has led to false gospels, false teachings, cults, and Paul warned against it in Galatians chapter one, verse six.

It's a slippery slope. If the text doesn't tell us it's metaphorical or allegorical and we add that interpretation, my question is when does it stop? Doesn't that lead to sort of the distrust of the word of God like a slippery slope? Again, it opens the door into misinterpretation of all scripture and deception at a time when we need truth. Truth is in such a high demand today. And misapplication causes readers to question the historicity and the accuracy of the inspired text.

Guest (Male): Very helpful. Thanks again, Pastor Matt. And if the Lord is leading you to support this ministry with a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, you can do so through the website at HisPerfectLove.org. There is much more to come in Revelation. Don't miss a moment of the journey here on His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt.