His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt says when you study Revelation, realize it's primarily about Jesus and our relationship with Him.

Matt VanderVen: He begins the introduction, the first verses one through eight in this letter. Everyone reading this, having a blessing of hearing and or reading for themselves. And it's all centered on a relationship. And he's drawing it back to that relationship with Jesus, the relationship you and I have today, the relationship with God.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks for hanging out with us. Welcome again to His Perfect Love, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. We're in the early stages of a brand-new study in Revelation and we're taking a slow, methodical approach so as to glean as much as possible from it. Today, Pastor Matt VanderVen focuses on chapter one, verses four through seven. Here Jesus mentions seven churches, and Pastor Matt is quick to point out the application to the church worldwide throughout history.

Matt VanderVen: Verse 20, Jesus explains the mystery. Now, this is important because he's going to talk to us about the church here. The mystery of these seven stars which you saw in my right hand are the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of these seven churches.

I believe he's talking about pastors, ministers. When we get to that passage in probably six months, the latter half of chapter one, as we get there, we'll go into it and we'll allow the word to speak for itself. We'll look through the scriptures and allow the scriptures to be the commentary on the scriptures.

But there's no way we could miss what he says next and the seven lampstands which you saw are what? Look at verse 20. He defines it for us. He tells us who it is. It's the seven churches, plural. I don't think anybody here can question the lampstand or the symbol of the lampstand in question. No, Jesus defines it for us.

And that represents the seven churches in Asia, which again are literally seven churches in modern-day Turkey. Nobody would question that. But again, some people are going to go through and what about the seven stars? We'll come to that passage and we'll discuss that when we get there.

But I want to bring out an important point that Jesus is revealing to us before we continue. Remember, verses one through eight is the introduction to the book. So, he brought it up. Jesus brought up these churches right in this introduction. And so, I don't want to just blow by this.

Someone might be sitting here and listening and maybe listening online and thinking, but pastor, specifically this is written just to those seven churches. This has nothing to do with you and I today. I might direct them to verse 11. I am the Alpha and the Omega. Maybe they'd direct me there and say, I'm the first and the last.

And what you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. See, Pastor, he's talking about seven specific churches. And who could argue that? I don't think that's wrong. I don't think that's something we have to divide over.

But I also don't think that precludes us from understanding the larger application about the churches and the church age. Specifically looking at the uniqueness of each church that Jesus is going to talk about and how that church is being run through the grid of scripture.

I think that's very meaningful for you and I, for church leaders, for the flock, for everyone to look at these things. Because I think Jesus' words, be it a commendation or condemnation, do not have an expiration date. Nothing that he wrote in chapters two and three say, and this was the way it was.

As a matter of fact, he says these were the things that were, these are the things that are, and then there are things that will be. We're still in the present tense. We're still in the church age. The church is still here. You're here. So, I believe these things aren't expired in regards to the churches.

Further, if someone needed more convincing, I might draw their attention back just to verse one. He said it right at the beginning of his letter. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants. Now, this word is bond-slave. It's doulos, plural. He's talking to all of us.

He didn't say just to those seven pastors or the seven teachers at those churches. As a matter of fact, he goes on to say, blessed are those who read, hear, and he's speaking to all born-again believers to warn them of what was, what is (the church age), and what will be after the church age.

So, when we get to chapters two and three, we're going to see that Jesus will conclude each of his letters to individual churches. But he's going to say something very important at the end of each of his depictions of these churches. Just turn over to chapter two, verse seven. You can see it yourselves.

He's going to communicate to them a similar message: He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Is that not any one of us? The church isn't a physical building in a specific locale. The Bible teaches us, as Hebrews does, that when the body of Christ gathers, we call that the church.

It's the ekklesia. Remember, we talked about it last week. It's the assembled ones. That's his own definition in the Greek of how he defined what we do here. We are assembled ones. We came out of our houses. We came out of wherever we were. We assembled together and we are under the word of God to be poured into.

Only to take that and go out to a world that does not know the word of God or does not know Jesus to be the example, to be the hands and feet, to be the salt and light, all of the things that Jesus told us. Therefore, Jesus said directly, not only to the church of Ephesus, but he says to the churches, plural.

Jesus also intended to communicate to all churches worldwide at any given point in church history over the last 2,000 years. And again, it's really important that we understand that before moving past the first eight verses. Now, the next thing we see in verse four, he says grace to you and peace.

Many of us are more familiar with that Hebrew word for peace, shalom, from him who is and who was and who is to come. So, that word grace, charis, it's very important. What does it mean again? It means unmerited favor. And then he says shalom, which means peace.

Now, again, this was the primary greeting that was used in the ancient world, especially during church. When they would see each other at church physically or when they would greet each other in the marketplaces or on the streets, they would say charis and or they would use their Hebrew title, inclusive of both Jew and Gentile, shalom, shalom, which would mean peace, peace.

Peace I give you, peace I leave you. Peace. And so, God is communicating something very important here regarding our lives in this world. And I think it is all about relationship because it's not the revelation of John, but it's the unveiling of Jesus Christ. It's the apocalypse.

And I think this is very important and very simple. We will never truly know peace without first understanding we have been given grace, unmerited favor from God through his son Jesus Christ. And I can't overstate how foundational that is. It's also important to understand that that work was completed on the cross and has been made available to every single human being, the gift of salvation.

And it's found in Jesus Christ alone. He begins the introduction, the first verses one through eight in this letter. Everyone reading this, having a blessing of hearing and or reading for themselves. And it's all centered on a relationship. And he's drawing it back to that relationship with Jesus, the relationship you and I have today, the relationship with God.

And how does this help us understand that? Because he's trying to communicate to us that God deals with us in the terms of grace. That's God's currency. God's currency is truth and love. Lest we forget, it's grace. That's God's currency in how he deals in relationships with you and I.

It's not condemnation. It's not guilt. It's not all of these other things. No, God's relationship has been established through grace. Salvation came by grace and sanctification is still carried out through grace. It's not like you're saved and now I take the grace away and you're under the law.

He didn't say that to you and I. And you think about how many Christians you might know that have struggled with that over the years where they go back to Galatians 2 and Paul comes to them going, brother, what are you doing? You're putting yourself back under law. You're putting yourself back in a prison of your mind. Did I tell you to do that?

I mean, Jesus, four gospels, Pauline epistles, you've got John, Peter's writing, you've got Jude. At any point, he could have come in there and said, and I want you to keep the feast days. I want you to make sure you keep the ceremonial practices that I had given to Moses and the father Abraham. I want you to have all of these.

Did Jesus ever say any of that? Or did he say, no, I've come and fulfilled the law. What I now give you in my relationship is grace. It's what saved you and it's what you're to live in. It is the currency of the relationship that we have in him. It's what our relationship is based on.

I mean, it was good enough to save us. Why isn't it good enough to keep us? So again, I want you to think about that because he deals in terms of grace when we were sinners. That was the only way that anyone can have peace is when you realize your relationship with Jesus is built on that gift of unmerited favor and recognize that God deals with me, with you, all of us in terms of his grace.

And that's exactly what he's communicating when he says grace to you and peace. And he doesn't say from John, but who does it say from? From him who is, who was, and who is to come. Now, this is really important. It's only through the correct lens that we see that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are the authors of this.

And we'll see that in verses four and five here. Now, I think this is revolutionary to the Christian. If you're sitting here today and you've never seen this, please, look at these things, underline them, study them, memorize them if you want. Because so many times we are convicted, which is good only to be drawn back to right relationship with God.

But in no way are we ever condemned. And in no way are we ever brought and taken like a plow over the back of a saint, just rubbing and ripping and tearing apart. That's not who Jesus is. And yet there's men that have tried and women that have tried to put good men and Christians back under the law.

Which was only meant to be a tutor and a measuring rod to show us that we were not able to save ourselves. It's like they missed the whole point. So, I believe it's revolutionary. And I hope because we're seeing this together here today and it's his revelation, it's his unveiling that we begin to understand the joy and then really a true peace.

Because here's my question: you and I did it our way. For some of you, you know what that was. That was self-medication. What did we call that self-medication? Booze, alcohol, drugs, entertainment, distractions. How are you doing? Did any of that satisfy your soul? Complete your soul? No, it only left you wanting more.

You were still thirsty. It's only Jesus that gives the true living water. Then you won't thirst again. And if we have a true born-again relationship with Jesus, if we're truly born-again in the spirit, we're not craving those things. It doesn't mean there's not temptation, but we know there's so much more.

Now, look at the latter half of verse four and the beginning of verse five. We're told that this was not something that the apostles thought of. This was not a work of man. Please notice that with me, but of the triune God. Now, let me explain why I say the triune God because it doesn't say the trinity right there.

And some of you have every right to question that. What are you saying, Pastor? Are you adding words to the text? Which would be an anathema. He's already told us do not add or take away from this letter. So, it would be an anathema upon myself, a curse, certainly I wouldn't do that.

John describes that. Who is he describing in really verse four when you think about it? He says grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is to come. Next, we read from the seven spirits who are before his throne. And third, we read from Jesus Christ.

So, it can't be from Jesus Christ, the first from him, because Jesus Christ is written out the third person down. So, who else can it be? Is it the seven spirits? Have we ever heard God the Father referenced that way, Abba? No. But what is he trying to tell us? He's telling us who it is.

For him who is, who was, and who is to come. He is telling us that this person is outside time. So, that means that this person is not mortal or immortal because they're still, they still have a co-factor of time. Satan is still bound by time.

There will be a time and an end to his reign as the prince of the air. Even though he's an immortal being, he will one day be cast in that lake of fire and his time, not that he'll cease to exist, but he'll be in hell where there will be gnashing of teeth eternally, forever and ever and ever.

But he will no longer have reign or be the prince of the air here. Who is the only person that we know that's eternal and that's not Jesus and possibly not the spirit, the Holy Spirit? Is it not Abba? Is it not our Father? Because he fills the past, the present, and the future.

And he uniquely does it all at once. It's what we call eternality. We all good with that? Next, we read of the seven spirits who are before his throne. So, the question is, who's this describing? Now, the identity of the seven spirits again, it's not explicit in these passages, but arriving at a proper interpretation I believe is pretty straightforward.

We know Father, we just said Abba. Now, the seven spirits cannot be the seven angelic beings that he just talks about, the seven messengers or angelic beings. It can't be them. There are pastors that try to teach that. There's a problem with that. Because it can't be the Seraphim and Cherubim because they don't have eternality as we just discussed.

A pastor, a priest, a minister, they're not of the order of Melchizedek. Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek. In other words, it's an order of one. Every other human priest or pastor you know has an expiration date apart from the rapture. They live and they die. That's not eternality.

So, it can't be one of those messengers like that. It can't be an angel, the seven angels that maybe somebody says, oh, well, he's talking about, Jesus used that later on in Revelation chapter one. So, it can't be these angelic beings.

John says that grace and peace are coming to the churches from these three sources. He actually says that it was told him he who was, is, and who was to come, Father (verse four), and the seven spirits before the throne (verse four), and then in verse five, it says and Jesus Christ.

Again, this is a depiction of the trinity. Grace and peace are given by Father Abba, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, the three co-equal persons of the Godhead. In Revelation 3:1, just look there. Please see what it says. Jesus holds the seven spirits of God. Right in Revelation chapter three, verse one.

He says he who holds the seven spirits of God. He possesses it, it's a part of the seven spirits of God. So, I wonder who Jesus is co-heir with that way or co-equal persons. And then in John chapter 15, verse 26, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit from the Father to you, the Paraclete.

Both passages suggest a super-ordinate role. Many of us are familiar with the term subordinate. This is a super-ordinate role of the son and the subordinate role of the spirit here in this context. And in Revelation 4:5, since you're right in three, just turn over one more page.

Look at Revelation chapter four, verse five. The seven spirits of God are symbolized as seven burning lamps that are before God's throne. So, we need to stop and ask ourselves for a minute. Is there anywhere in God's word, maybe in the Old Testament scriptures, that is a similar idea, a picture, or something we've read before?

Zechariah. Just hold your finger here. Turn in your Bible to Zechariah chapter four, please, and look at verse two. It's almost identical to what we had just read in Revelation. Zechariah chapter four, in verse two: And he said to me, what do you see? As the angel is talking with Zechariah.

So I said, I am looking and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. Two olive trees are by it, one on the right hand and one on the left. So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked to me saying, what are these, my Lord?

And he goes on and he explains exactly what it is and who he is. We're going to come back to this here in a minute. But when you and I read or if you went into a rabbi or you went into a synagogue or even today as we look behind us, we have a lampstand.

And as a matter of fact, notice this is seven stems and not eight. That's significant. It's not the point right now, but the kind that would have been in the tabernacle or one that would have been found in the temple. And what do we put in there? That's actually from Jerusalem.

So, if I was to take and fill that, what am I going to fill that with? Oil. What kind of oil actually was used? Olive oil. And then we would put a wick and that would burn and we would have light to the sanctuary. And that's what they would use. Now, I want you to think about that.

Remember we talked about typology throughout scripture. Who or what type do we have when you think of the persons of the trinity mapped directly to oil? The Holy Spirit. Zechariah said exactly what Jesus said in Revelation. We read about it in Zechariah in the same place in chapter four there.

He's trying to help us understand what he's communicating here. And then he goes on and even more, he says a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and the seven lamps on it. Again, the olive oil goes in that. It's a reference to the Holy Spirit. We understand it.

In Revelation 5:6, slightly different, but in Revelation 5:6, there are seven spirits with seven eyes. We're going to get there in a little while, not today. Но he says of the Lamb, and they are sent out into all the earth. These seven eyes speak of the spirit and the Lamb's omniscience.

And the fact that he is sent into all the earth speaks of the omnipresence or being everywhere all at once. Now, once we identify the seven spirits as the Holy Spirit, the question remains: why are there seven of him? Why? We've talked about the symbolic aspect of seven.

The Bible and especially the book of Revelation again uses that number seven to refer to fullness, perfection, or completion. We've all already seen that together this morning. John's vision included a picture of a perfect and complete Holy Spirit. That's why it's the seven spirit, that's what he's trying to show us here.

So again, let's stop again. Pastor, you're reading into this. I'm a Berean here. You've taught me to be Bereans. The last nine years I've sat under the word with you, you've taught me to be Bereans. You told me not just to listen to a man. Show me where that is. And I'm glad you asked.

Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 11. Maybe there's something similar in the Old Testament scriptures written by the prophets that liken the spirit of the Lord and the seven spirits. If I turn to Isaiah in my Bible and I go to chapter 11 and I look right in verse two.

Some of you who studied Isaiah, you know this is the seven-fold ministry speaking of Messiah but and of the spirit of God. You know it's the seven-fold ministry. You already know the passage I'm in. But those who have not studied this may not know that. Just read this at first hand or clear text.

Again, Isaiah chapter 11, verse two: The Spirit of the Lord. Who are we talking about? The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord. Everybody your Bible even has the 'S' capitalized. We're all good. We're good in the Hebrew. Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Who's him? Messiah.

Messiah that we just, we were told that would happen. So, that's the first thing we see. The spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding (that's the third one), the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

So, the prophecy in Isaiah 11:2 specifically talks about how Messiah is going to be empowered by one spirit described seven ways. The seven-fold witness of the Holy Spirit.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. We're going through Revelation at the present time, and I'll remind you that you can hear the program again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. That's hisperfectlove.org. We can't thank you enough for your prayers for this ministry.

Please pray that as God's word goes forward, that lives will be greatly impacted for the glory of God and people would grow by his grace and love or even enter into a relationship with him. And if you have a prayer request, please send that our way. You can email that to us through our website at hisperfectlove.org.

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The Academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA. For more information, please visit our website at ccharrisburg.org/academy. There is much more to come in Revelation. Don't miss a moment of the journey here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.