His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Jesus, the faithful witness, front and center today on His Perfect Love. It's time once again for His Perfect Love with Pastor Matt VanderVen, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore, online at hisperfectlove.org and now on oneplace.com. Pastor Matt is leading us through Revelation verse by verse, and we're quickly noticing this book is all about Jesus, the faithful witness of the Father and author of our salvation. We'll pick things up in Chapter 1 at verse 5. Find your place there now, and let's lean in and listen to what Pastor Matt has to say.

Matt VanderVen: Next we read about Jesus being this faithful witness in verse 5. "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead." That seems interesting. Why is that in there? "And the ruler over the kings of the earth." Let's take that apart for a minute. Just as Paul asserts in Colossians chapter 1, verse 15, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Speaking of the Godhead, the Father, Jesus is the faithful witness of the Father. This is important. No church or Christian fills that role. No single church or Christian has ever been called to fill that role. This is an essential understanding of the Christian faith. You know what that does immediately? It takes the weight off. There is no perfect Christian, and there is no perfect church.

Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, it says next. What is this speaking to? Why is he writing it in there? Because it speaks to His death and resurrection. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has now been accomplished and established. In paying for our sin, we all know that Jesus Christ went to Calvary. He suffered and died, and He also did something else there. Not only did He give us new natures, those that are willing to be born again, but He also established something that no other human being or other spirit being had ever done. He became the firstborn from the dead.

What does that mean? It means He conquered death. He's the first person ever to be born to eternal life after dying. He was the first person ever to be born to eternal life after dying. Wait a minute. What about the Old Testament saints? What about David? Where do we read that all the Old Testament saints went? They went to a place we read in the Gospels, to Abraham's Bosom. It's not until Jesus and the work on the cross that He sets the captives free. He goes down before He ascended and He opens the prison doors. He sets the captives free.

We have a beautiful picture of Lazarus and the rich man and how the rich man was separated by a chasm. These Old Testament saints were in Abraham's Bosom. It was a picture of heaven for us. Nobody has ever come and died and then been resurrected to eternal life before Jesus. It's really important to understand that. He's the first fruits of that. I wrote a book, a small little pamphlet, called The Harpazo. It talks about the Rapture because that's the Greek word for Rapture. *Rapturo* is actually Latin, and if you read an Italian Bible, you would see that word in there, or a Latin Vulgate. We read an English Bible, so we wouldn't see that. We'd see a Greek word called *Harpazo*.

In that pamphlet, I wrote specifically about the Old Testament saints before Jesus. What is the difference between the *parousia*, the Greek term, and the *harpazo*? The *parousia*, we're talking about First Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 15 through 19. He uses two Greek terms that are mutually exclusive. *Parousia* is the second coming. It means very clearly a second coming. It's what Jesus said. The *harpazo* means to be caught up. They're not saying the same thing. There are actually two Greek terms for it. You don't see that in the English. In the English, it just reads and the second coming, or the caught up. If you don't know the original Greek, it could be confusing like what is He trying to say here? It's almost like He's repeating Himself. He's not.

He's telling us about two different events that are going to occur. Just like the Old Testament church didn't understand there would be two comings. They thought there would just be one. He was coming to conquer Rome. They got it wrong. They didn't have the full revelation. You and I have the full revelation. We understand that there is a *harpazo* or a rapture coming. The church will be taken off the earth, and then Jesus Christ, at the end of the seven-year great tribulation, which we'll read about in Revelation, we will all come back after the marriage feast of the Lamb.

We have the full revelation, you and I. It's why it's an unveiling. It's supernatural. But getting back to the point is He's the firstborn from the dead. Again, it speaks to His death and resurrection, to the eternal life after dying. The other thing we have to remember for our nurses and doctors in here is that resurrection is not the same thing as a resuscitation. A resuscitation specifically says someone that was dead has come back to this same physical body, not a glorified body, not a temporal state of the spirit until they receive their glorified body. That is not the same thing as a resurrection.

If you go to a hospital, you'll see people that are resuscitated all the time, but that's not the same thing as a resurrection. By God's grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, He makes it clear. Because He has demonstrated the possibility of this, He has been the example of this. You remember the Sadducees and Pharisees fought about this? Because the Sadducees did not believe there was life after death, and the Pharisees believed there was life after death. They would fight and argue about this and go through the Scriptures. Jesus makes it clear in the unveiling here when He says very clearly, "Jesus Christ, the faithful martyr." That's that word witness. "The firstborn from the dead and ruler, sovereign God, over all the kings of the earth."

This is talking about His sovereignty, His supremacy. It ties in perfectly with what Paul was given by direct revelation of Jesus Christ in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. By grace through faith in Jesus, we too can receive eternal life. Isn't it one of the most common things written? John 3:16 and 3:17. You go to football games, baseball games, and they all have it written out there, and it speaks of eternal life. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus is the first fruits who guarantees the future resurrection. That's what He's communicating to us, and the future eternal life of His sons and daughters, which is in perfect harmony with First Corinthians chapter 15:20.

It's in perfect harmony. You can even look there, First Corinthians chapter 15, verses 20 through 23. Let's take a moment to do that. Turn in your Bibles to First Corinthians, if you would, please. Look at chapter 15, verse 20. "But now Christ," Paul writing to this church in Corinth, a church he spent a year and a half at. "But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." A very poetic term for those who've died. "For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at his coming."

Isn't that good? That's you and I. He's talking about the Bride of Christ, that you and I, if we're born-again believers, never have to wonder if we're going to be resurrected to eternal life. He has set for sons and daughters of the King that is exactly the future that awaits you and I. We're either going to be doing that by one of two plans: either by the *harpazo* where we receive immediately our glorified body and we're with the Lord and we're up in heaven. I'm all about that plan. The other plan I'm not so crazy about. I don't mind death, it's the whole dying thing, the pain and things that go associated. I'm not crazy about that plan, but that's sometimes the plan. Even through that our eyes close. He said "fallen asleep." Notice the terms that He's using to describe this. Because for the born-again believer, we really don't die that way. Yes, we physically in the flesh, but our spirit never dies. Born twice, die once.

What's the other? Born once, die twice. You understand now why people started saying that in the early church. Now you know why. Because it was an easy way for them to understand and give the picture to other people that when you are alive and born of the spirit, that spirit never dies. It simply closing your eyes almost like sleep, a picture of death, and our eyes opening and seeing Jesus and being welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven by the first fruits of the resurrection. This is what He's giving us. What a wonderful gift in just the introduction to the book. His beautiful gift He wants us to understand these things. He also said in John 14:19, "Because I live, you also will live."

In verse 6, He goes on to say, "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." Making sure we understand He's the author of salvation and it's His own blood. "And has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." So be it, that's the truth. That's what that word means. The other thing He wants us to see here is that we are kings and priests in service to God, His Father, which is also our Father, Abba.

Why did He call us kings? Because we're part of His Kingdom. We're told in other passages that we're co-heirs. We're kings. But He also said something really interesting here. He says we're priests. Friends, what does the Bible say that the ministry of a priest was? We know that Jesus in some ways did away with the priestly ministry. If you think of the Old Testament sacrificial, the Aaronic priesthood or the Levitical priesthood, Jesus did away with that. You and I don't come here. I didn't see any cows or animals out there. There's no brazen altar that you guys are grabbing and brought your turtledoves and we're sacrificing that. There was none of that. Even when that was being practiced, what was that? It was only a covering. It wasn't even a removal. It was like somebody took and lifted the carpet and put the carpet down just like when I was a little kid. No, there's no sin. There's nothing here.

What did the priest do? Think about it. He had a twofold ministry. They represented God before the people. How did they do that? Certainly, the priest would handle the Word of God. We understand that, the sacrifices. What was the other thing the priest did, and specifically once a year? Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement. The priest would go in and the first thing he would do is consecrate himself. After consecration of self, then he would go and he would make a consecration for the nations, for the people. What did he do? He represented the people before God. That's really what a priest did. So twofold: they represented God before the people and they represented the people before God.

Fast-forward to you and I. Do you realize that we are priests and kings as Jesus just said? We have a twofold ministry. Our priesthood isn't a sacrificial priesthood as we found in the Old Testament. He fulfilled that law and He fulfilled the ceremonial sacrifices and all of that. We don't do that anymore. Jesus Christ is our once and for all propitiation for all sin, past, present, and future. Amen. This is why these things are really important because you see how cults get started. They come in and they start meddling with God's Word and well, was He divine, was He human? The Gnostics, all the humanists, and they start messing with the Word of God. All of a sudden, you start taking away people's hope and faith and security in what God is trying to give them for what is true and what He established through love, through grace.

So what is our ministry as priests today? If we're no longer a sacrificial system, it's different but it's similar. Now we represent God before the world. How do we do that? We are salt and light. We are living epistles to be known and read by men and women. When we go out into the world, by our conduct, by our actions, by how we speak, all of that, we represent God before this world. What did Jesus say about salt? That if you take salt and it's trampled underfoot of men, it's no good anymore. Why? Because you can't re-season salt. Can you salt salt? No, you can only add more salt.

What's the second thing? We also represent the people before God in our intercessory prayer. A few weeks back as we were going through and I was talking about in the introduction the importance of prayer in Acts 2:42, I actually got a letter. Somebody wrote in very passionate and very concerned. Pastor, you know, you were really beating us up about not coming to corporate prayer and how we need to be pray. You should spend less time talking about yourself and spend more time focusing not on prayer but on the Word of God. May I draw our attention: you are kings and priests to His God and Father.

Paul said you are soldiers and you are not to entangle yourself in the affairs of this world. We represent and we see soldiers when they wear uniforms. We know who they are. A soldier when he enlists, or an officer when they enlist, they typically do it for a period of time contractually. While they're in the service, they don't generally get the opportunity to say, "I'm just going to come and go freely as I would like." That doesn't work out so well. You are government property to some extent and you've signed a contract accordingly to give a certain amount of time and service to your country for good reasons. I believe it's wonderful and I thank all our men and women that are service members. Thank you for your service because that is a sacrifice that you're making so that you and I can sit here today and open the Word of God that is provided to us by blood, by men and women that have counted that cost of sacrifice.

We have no problem understanding that. But when Jesus Christ says that He has enlisted us in His army and that we are soldiers and ought to look that way and not entangle ourselves in the affairs of the world, what is He telling us? He says we're blood bought. As a matter of fact, He used the word right in the beginning in chapter 1, verse 1 so we don't get confused in who we really are. We are *doulos*. You are bondslaves. We actually freely gave up our right and gave it to the Lord and said, "Jesus, this is without expiration. I give my life to You. What You so freely gave to me, I have freely given back to You. It all belongs to You."

I'm not here to fulfill my dreams. Lest we get caught up in American Christianity and the American gospel that we actually think we're here to do what we want to do and that our lives should revolve around our plans and futures. I want to be careful how I say this. I don't want to browbeat anybody. I want to be biblical in how I say this. There's nothing wrong with a vacation or anything like that. But our lives do not revolve around us, lest there be any confusion. We are here for the service of God. He says it here. "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us and washed us from sins in His blood and has made us kings and priests to His God."

To Jesus's God. Who is Jesus's God? Abba. To His Father. It's like when Jesus said, "I have only come to do what I want to do or I've only come to do my Father's business." Jesus didn't confuse it for us. When He's asked, "Peter, Lord, you don't need to go to the cross," get behind me Satan. That's not Abba's plan. I'm sure Jesus would have thought, like any of us as a human being, the human side of us would have been like, "Is there another way?" He kind of prayed that, didn't He in the garden? Let this cup pass from my hand. But not my will, Your will be done.

He subjected Himself. He submitted and surrendered Himself and said, "No Abba, it's Your will." And that's what it is to be a Christian. Just like *doulos* and the word He used when He says His servants, it was one who did it freely. It was not out of obligation. It was not like any of us here has been forced into slavery for Christ, lest we get the wrong idea here. When we were blood bought, we freely said, "Jesus, I receive You. When I receive You, I believe in the property of the forgiveness of sin." None of us have a problem with that this morning.

But so many will question His lordship. Abba, You are Master. Abba, not my will but Your will be done. Not my plan for this life, not the way I want to live, not the way I want to endure and be comfort and all these other things. This is not the Christian plan. It's become the American gospel in this country, but it is not Christianity according to the Word of God. I don't know what it is. It's an alternate doctrine. Look at the church up there. Which one was it again? Well, many of them. Needed to repent, got into a false prophetess. And the worst yet, Sardis, what were they doing? They were lulled to sleep.

Who was the only one commended? The one that faced the same kind of persecution and affliction everybody else did. But you know what that church did? They put their hand on the plow. The cross before me, the world behind me, no looking back. That's what it means. That's what He's talking about here. That's what it means to be born again. It means dead to self. That's why He said look, lest you misunderstand me. Die to yourself. Every day you take up your cross and you die. Speaking of the carnality, the flesh. Death, life to the spirit. Galatians 5:16, there's a battle waging on in your soul and spirit between the flesh and the spirit. Lest you fulfill the lust of the flesh by walking in it. Do not fulfill the lust of the flesh but walk in the spirit that ye will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

He tells us very clearly and adamantly because He knows we're going to do what we want to do. Or maybe that's just me. I'm going to have my own ideas of what I think marriage should look like, what I think a family should look like, what the job and the world and how I treat other people. I got a whole lot of opinions on what the church should look like. You with me or is that just me? You can pray for me. No, I'm a priest. I'm a king. And so are you. I represent God before the world I live in.

I also represent the people before God. How do I do that? Through my intercessory prayer. When I intercede one to another for a brother or sister, that is me fulfilling my calling. Guess what, I can do that in these four walls. But it's great when we can get outside of these four walls. The church is not just here. We're going to close at verse 7. "Look, He made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." That's the truth. "Behold, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes will mourn because of Him." Now John tells us Jesus is coming with the clouds and everyone alive at this time will see Him. We know that is the second coming of Christ. The second coming of Christ is referenced many times in the Scriptures with over 1500 passages in the Old Testament. One out of every 25 verses in your New Testament mentions the Messiah's return.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. You can hear the study from Revelation again when you visit hisperfectlove.org. We're thankful for the listeners that come alongside of us with their prayers and financial support. If you're interested in supporting this radio ministry, there's a place to do that at hisperfectlove.org. Together, we can reach people with the love and truth of God in these last days. Pastor Matt loves to hear from his listeners. Even just a quick hello telling him where you hear the program and how you're blessed by it means a lot. Email us there at the website hisperfectlove.org.

Whether you live in or around Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, or will be visiting the area soon, we'd love to have you join us for a service at Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Sunday morning services begin at 8:30 and 10:30. We have a midweek service too, Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You'll find us at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Are you looking for a Christian school that offers a quality education and a nurturing environment for your children? If so, you might be interested in Calvary Chapel Christian Academy, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Calvary Chapel Christian Academy is a non-denominational Christian school that serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The Academy's mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that equips students to love God, love others, and serve the world. The Academy offers a rigorous academic curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a caring and supportive staff. The Academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. For more information, please visit our website at ccharrisburg.org/academy. Well, that'll do it for today, but come back next time when Pastor Matt will again study the Book of Revelation with us here on His Perfect Love. His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.