Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

The foyer.

This is a we are about to start the final sermon in the sermon series.

We've been doing it for the entire school year and I partly because we were doing Revelation.

There's no more story to tell afterward.

And also, I'm going to be gone next weekend for a conference and you can see information about it in your bulletin.

It's at Camp winema, which is right on the beach to be like to spend the more of a weekend at the beach.

This is one way you can do that.

And the focus of the Explorers conference.

This year is on dual, citizenship mean how we navigate life, as Christians are citizens of Heaven and the citizens of our nation.

And so I'll be one of the speakers talking about what the Bible has to say about about Believers rolls, and politics.

And then we'll have a historian named Doug Foster's, a very excellent.

His story who's going to be presenting on how Christians throughout history since the church have answered those questions.

So if you're interested in being part of that, Encourage you to register.

As we move into this final episode, as you can tell by the title, we are completing the story that the Bible tells we've been going from, we started with Genesis in September and now we finally reach Revelation today and I'm going to try and recap that whole story for you before we dig into how the story ends.

All right.

So remember that we've been telling the Bible, the story this way it is the story of God's plan, to establish a Place full of people who live out their purpose in his presence at every stage in the Bible.

That is what God is working to do.

At the beginning.

He created the world and he put people in us and he created us for the purpose of ruling over creation on his behalf over last week.

I use that metaphor or my kids at the Lego table and we gave them the Lego table and all my old Lego so that we could play together and build with it.

And that's kind of the image that the new that the Old Testament gives us of what God, how God originally made the world.

And then he came down to live with us on the seventh day.

But the problem is that we don't really like to rule, according to God's design.

And so instead, we started rebelling against him and setting up our own kingdoms and and it resulted in a lot of payoff.

So we see through the first 11 chapters of Genesis.

And so then in Genesis 12 gauge starts, his plan to restore his design through a guy named Abraham and Abraham's family Israel becomes an example to the world to show the world, what God's design is supposed to look like.

So he gives that one people in particular place the land of Israel and he comes down to live with them in that place in the temple.

And then he gives them the law of Moses to show them.

The exact instructions on how they can accomplish their purpose, which is to reveal to the world, who got his.

So, the law of Moses was very meaningful, set of rules that would have the world would have looked at Israel.

Following those rules in the God's presence and it would have shown them who got is and what he wants for his people.

The problem is that the Israelites weren't any better at following God's designs than the rest of us are until they continually failed and built their own kingdoms and did everything, but rule, according to God's will, until eventually, he sent him into exile to show the world.

What they're doing is not what I had in mind.

As the Jews started to come back to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and rebuild the Temple.

They ultimately ended up learning the wrong lessons from the Exile.

Because what they learned was that they need to be hyper focused on meticulously enforcing all of the laws and that the Gentiles and the lawbreakers are a distraction for that.

And we need to exclude them.

We need to keep them out.

We need to be the holy huddle and just stick to ourselves and and violently defend the law from other people, which is actually the opposite of what the laws for, because the laws meant to show the world who got who got is what he wants for his people.

And so after about Five Hundred Years of them, trying to restore the relationship with God, by building these walls, both spiritual and literal is a real true slim Jesus appears on the scene and Jesus announces.

The kingdom of God is coming, which means god is ready to fill his plan to accomplish the mission that he had with his real to restore his design.

And he says, repent and believe mainly.

Meaning that the Jews are going in the wrong direction.

And if they want to be a part of what God is doing, they need to change direction.

They need to be God's people in the way that Jesus is teaching them to do.

So, Jesus goes around and he teaches this way of being God's people to the Jews.

And then ultimately comes into the temple, and and prompt the juice to make a choice.

You going to follow my way.

Are you going to follow this this way of keeping everybody at arm's length and violently defending a lot.

Did you choose to reject Jesus message?

And they hand them over to the Romans and the Romans kill him.

But then in the resurrection, Jesus returns to life to this new eternal life.

And what that shows is number one.

Jesus was right, all along about how we are supposed to go about being God's people number to, it shows that he really is the leader of God's people.

And number three.

It shows that his death really did deal with the sins of the world.

So that God can forgive us and still let the world know that he's not okay, with sin, right?

That it's not that he's just decided, send isn't a big deal, but he has dealt with since through the death of Jesus.

Jesus ascends and holy spirit comes down on to the Jewish.

Believers showing that they are the true people of God.

They are the ones that are truly being faithful to God and carrying out his design and they begin to build these communities the community in Jerusalem.

That is exactly what the law of Moses always had in mind is exactly the kind of community that God wants people to live in.

But that provokes, the Jewish leaders to persecute them, which scatters the Jews into the known world and then something truly amazing happens as they travel throughout the known world people.

From other nations were not Jews who are never part of this.

This, this design of God or this plan start turning to him and start following Jesus.

And following his way, what they realize is that God is reuniting Humanity in the church.

The church isn't just the new Israel.

The church is the new Israel and the new nations being united together as one people.

And then last week, we saw how the last the end of act sets.

The story on this launching Point as Paul reaches, Rome and is building a church right under the nose of Caesar and we see that the gospel has the potential to begin spreading all across the world and uniting people from all over.

And that is where the Baton is handed off.

To the next generation of Believers and kind of a...

And and it's the Baton is handed off generation after generation until it has been handed off to all of you who are followers of Jesus and that's where the story before us ends.

But God doesn't just leave them in the Bible with here's the Baton and I'll figure out what to do with it.

The Book of Revelation plays a key role in the handing off of that baton.

Because it teaches the, the following generations of Believers where the course is going to go.

It shows them where the finish line is.

Cuz if you're going to be in a race, if someone just walked up to you on the street and you baton, would you know what to do with it?

No, you got to know where the, where is the race course?

Where is the Finish Line?

What's the goal?

Should I be sprinting?

Or jogging?

You know, is this a 100m or a marathon?

And so the Book of Revelation tells the church where they're headed, what to look out for and where the finish line is.

So what we're going to do is we're going to start by reading the introduction to the Book of Revelation, which is a very unique kind of book is an apocalypse, which we don't really have modern apocalypse as we don't write in this way anymore.

So I'm going to read the introduction and we're going to get our bearings from there.

We're going to look for our coordinates.

Remember that, as we read a story, We want to watch for, who are the gods, whose the story about?

What is there?

Where is their home?

How can they meet with God?

And what did God tell them to do? Ruby watching for those, we want to answer those questions as we launch into the story of Revelation, result starts John to the seven churches in the province of Asia Grace and peace to you from him, who is, and who was into his to come into the seventh and from the seven spirits before his throne and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness.

The first one from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the Earth.

By John your brother and companion and suffering, and Kingdom and patient endurance, that is ours, and Jesus was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God, and a testimony of Jesus on the Lord's Day.

Yeah, I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice.

Like a trumpet was said right on the scroll.

Will you have seen and send it to the seven churches to Ephesus Smyrna, pergamum thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and laodicea.

I turned around to see the voice in that was speaking to me.

And when I turned, I saw seven golden lamp stand among the lamp stands with someone like a son of man dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash across his chest when I saw him.