Journey through the Scriptures

All of our future hopes are laid out in the book of Revelation. Not only is Revelation the inspired Word of God, it is also the only New Testament book that includes a special blessing for those who study and apply its message.It should be an essential part of every Christian's devotional life, and those who ignore Revelation, are depriving themselves of a rich treasure of divine truth, and those promised blessings that come from understanding that truth.

“Faith” is a very important word in Christian life. The word is found on almost every page of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.Faith is the means by which we receive everything from God. Hebrews 11:6 makes this very clear.This should be crystal clear to us. It is not difficult to please God – it is impossible to please Him! It cannot be done without faith! Without faith we can receive nothing from God. Without faith all the promises of the Scriptures are invalid.

The Bereans were enthusiastic Bible scholars who sought to understand God's Word and His intended way of living as believers. Paul held them in high regard because they diligently searched the Scriptures to confirm the teachings that he and Silas had shared with them. It is important to remember that back then, the only Scriptures that they had were the Old Testament, which contained promises about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.While the Bereans didn't question everything, they had access to the Old Testament, which allowed them to examine Paul and Silas's words and actions.Their commitment to studying and understanding the Scriptures earned them the title "noble Bereans." In the spirit of these eager and diligent Bereans, we need to open our hearts and minds to explore the timeless truths found in God's Word and discover the wisdom it holds for our lives today.

The whole of the Bible is about Christ, but particularly in the Gospels and The Acts, you find Christ manifesting the character of God through a human personality.When we come to the Epistles (the “letters”) – which occupy the largest part of the New Testament – we are dealing not with preparation or fulfilment, but with explanation.The letters of the New Testament are intended to explain and make clear to us, the mystery of Christ. The purpose of the Epistles is to present Christ on a kindergarten level of truth that we may understand, and thus enter into His life.

We learned in the last episode of this podcast, that the Old Testament is filled with pictures of the coming Messiah. In the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah, they spoke of the Messiah as coming as the King – the King of Israel. This is what the nation of Israel had as the portrait of Christ in their minds.Secondly, there are Old Testament prophecies which speak of Messiah as the Servant, as the suffering One. The prophet Isaiah gives this fore view. Jesus as the coming of One who is to suffer is also portrayed in the fore view of the story of Joseph in Genesis.Thirdly, the Old Testament pictures Christ's coming as Man. He was shown to be born of a virgin, grow up in Bethlehem, walk among men. There are pictures of his childhood, youth and young manhood.Finally, the Old Testament has a pictures which speak of him as God, the Everlasting One.

Why did the Holy Spirit move the writers of the gospels to give us four pictures of Christ? Why not just have one?Bible scholars are always working at the task of “harmonizing” the Gospels.Sometimes you can get Bibles that have the harmonies of the Gospels contained in them. These Bibles are trying to combine these four books and turn them into one, but if the Holy Spirit had wanted one, He would have the produced one.God wanted four separate and unique Gospels and I personally feel that it is not possible to harmonize the four Gospels, and that anyone attempting this, is wasting their time. This is because each of the four Gospels are given for a special purpose.

The prophets in the Old Testament are the expounders or “explainers” of the promises of God. What would we be without the promises of God?According to one person's count, there are 3573 promises in the Bible which are intended to be fulfilled in this life. So over three thousand promises are made for us today. How many of those have we claimed?We will now take a brief look at the final eight prophetic books. These are also known as the minor prophets. However the term “minor” here, means smaller in size, not less in importance.

With this podcast we are beginning with the prophetic books of the Bible. These Prophetic Books contain the mighty promises of God.So, what is your definition of a promise?When a man and a woman stand at the wedding altar and promise each other, what are they doing?They are committing themselves to give of themselves to each other. A promise then, basically, is a commitment to share yourself. If you give a promise to someone, you are committing or sharing something of your time, your energy, or your resources with that person.That is what a promise is. It is a sharing of self.The great promises of the Bible are the assurances of God to share Himself with us. When we understand God's promises, we will begin to understand something more of the nature and the character of our God. Every promise is a commitment, on God's part, to give of Himself.

The soul of man, in turn, is made up of three facets or parts: the emotions, the intelligence and the will.The book of Psalms records the emotional responses in man's soul to circumstances.The book of Proverbs is man's intelligence at work recording the experiences of life.In the book of Ecclesiastes the will of man is expressed.

The third section of the Old Testament – after the Pentateuch and then the historical books are the five poetical books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.Although we call these books “poetical,” it doesn't mean that they rhyme. It means they have a structure of repeated ideas. This is the form of poetry the Hebrews used. These 5 books are marvelous books of expression.The poetical books are a demonstration or reflection of the rejoicing and the protests of man in response to life. These books show all the feelings of the heart, and the yearnings and desires of every man and woman.

The story of the nation of Israel, the ten tribes which constituted the northern kingdom, is that of moral apostasy, the danger to a nation which gives itself over to what it supposes is liberty, disregarding what is right and just, and choosing instead to act in ways that ignored everything that God had warned them against since the Israelites had entered the Promised Land.There is one thing that we should all keep in mind when reading these books of the Old Testament. Although these problems occurred historically to the nation of Israel, they also have been recorded for us, as examples of what dangers and stumbling blocks the Church would encounter.Although these historical accounts were inspired by God the Holy Spirit, there is something in common between the nation of Israel and today's Church – both Israel and the modern Church consisted of human beings with a flesh-controlled carnal nature.

The story of David is perhaps the most wonderful story in the entire Bible. David was, as the Scripture puts it, a man: “after God's own heart”!David had an unwavering faith that already showed with him growing up as a boy. There was his battle with Goliath, living in the court of King Saul at the risk to his life, the story of his friendship with Jonathan, and finally being made king, first over Judah for seven years and then over Israel and Judah together for thirty-three more years, a reign of forty years altogether.However, there is a dark side to the story of David. There was a weakness in his life which resulted in the terrible moral fall of this man. He was an adulterer and murderer!How could he, God's own man, be guilty of these terrible things?

The historical books of the Bible give a special illustration of the perils, pressures and problems which every Christian believer will encounter, as they attempt to walk the life of faith. Each book not only shows us the perils that every believer will encounter but also the means of victory over them.These historical books of the Bible trace the history of Israel – a single nation with a special ministry – a representative nation. What happens to them is also a picture of all the dangers that men will encounter anywhere. As we carefully study each book for its peril, we will find right along with it the appearance of at least one individual who is given victory over that peril.

History is the story of man. God is in history, but He is working behind the scenes. History is the story of man's ongoing cycle of failure, the sequence of the rise and fall of one empire and kingdom after another – over and over again!Firstly, these historical books of the Bible trace the history of a single nation with a special ministry – a representative nation – Israel. What happens to them is a picture of all the dangers that men will encounter anywhere.Secondly, these historical books give a special illustration of the perils, pressures and problems which come upon every Christian believer, as they attempt to walk the life of faith. It is very important to know our enemies. These historical books show us the perils which beset the life of faith, and the means of victory over them.

The book of Numbers begins at Kadesh Barnea, right at the edge of the Promised Land. When we get to the end of the book of Numbers, we are back at Kadesh-barnea again.In spite of all the wonderful instructions the Israelites had in Leviticus, and the adequate provision already given to them, entirely by God, so that they might enjoy His presence among them, when we read Numbers, we see nothing but absolute failure because of the ignorance of the people.

The book of Exodus contains the complete lesson of redemption.The whole book of Exodus centers around three major incidents:Firstly the Passover. Secondly the crossing of the Red Sea, and finally the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.The first two of these, the Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea, provide a picture for us, as Christians, of the forgiveness and the freedom which God provides – and to teach us that freedom and forgiveness comes through God alone. Man can have no part in either of them.

The first five books of the Old Testament – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are called the Pentateuch in Latin, which simply means "five books". They are the five books of Moses.Usually we start off very well in Genesis and then move on into Exodus, but around Leviticus, where we get into all the strange requirements of the Law, we get stuck, and we never quite get through into Numbers and Deuteronomy.So why do we bog down?

We should never think of the Gospels as merely the story of the life of Jesus, with the most important part of the New Testament being the letters of Paul.Until we begin to learn who Jesus is and what He does, and then apply it our own life and heart, we could read our Bibles for years and years, and yet remain totally unchanged and untouched.

Imagine skipping the first half of any good book and then try to understand what the story is all about, in the same way, the New Testament is only completely understood when we see the foundation of all the events, and promises of the Old Testament.If you buy a murder mystery novel, and you only read the last few pages, so that you can discover who the murderer was, it will make the whole experience pointless. You will not be able to understand the characters, the plot, or the ending, and you will not learn how the crime was solved.So reading the New Testament only, where Jesus is revealed, and not seeing God's plan from the beginning, will only give you the final answer and never give you the full picture.This is why there are many people today, who only read the New Testament, can only go so far in grasping the fullness that is in Jesus Christ. It is because their hearts have not been adequately prepared.So this is why we need the ministry of the Old Testament.

It takes the entire Bible to show us how we can become the complete expression of JesusChrist in the world, and it takes the work of the Holy Spirit in interpreting this Scripture to us.In this podcast, we will take a quick look at how the Old Testament helps us to discover what God's plan for humankind was since the beginning.

I was asked once if there was a single Bible passage that fully explained the purpose of the Bible and what God's plan is for all of us. I felt that the answer could be found in Ephesians 4:11-13.Everything that God has done, and the entire focus of everything that is contained in the pages of the Bible, is aimed at one goal – and that is to mature all of us, so that the fullness of God can work within us. When the fullness of God can be found within us, we become filled and flooded with God Himself. The whole of the revelation that is given to us in the Bible is necessary to accomplish this.

In this podcast we come to the very end of Revelation – the final chapter – in more ways than one, and at the beginning of that chapter, we read about a river in the New Jerusalem.Here is described the life of the eternal city of Jerusalem, and it is a picture of abundant fertility, full of life. There is a river of life, and a tree of life.The tree, although also literal, is a symbol of Jesus Himself. He is the way, the truth and the life – the tree of life. When believers obey the Word of God, they are eating and feeding on Jesus and drawing life from that nourishment. That is what this signifies. It brings spiritual health. We flourish when we follow his word and obey and live by it.

Remember that God chooses to use literal things that are symbols. The cross we see behind many pulpits is literal, but it is also a symbol of the death of Jesus. It is both literal and symbolic at the same time. So, all through Revelation, we find the blending of the literal and symbolic.Personally, I do believe there will be an actual city of incredible brilliance and glory, located somewhere above or within the atmosphere of the earth, but at the same time the city symbolizes activities and relationships that are going on within the community of the redeemed.So we need to look a little more deeply into the symbolism to interpret these verses correctly...

Chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation contain almost everything that the Scriptures say about eternity. Most of the prophetic passages of the Old Testament, that picture a time of great blessing on earth, refer to the thousand-year reign of our Lord which precedes this last great event.Not much is said in the Old Testament about heaven. But Chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation describe heaven in detail.

Even in the most perfect moral culture that this earth will ever know, man will still love sin. Just cast your mind back to the perfect environment of the garden of Eden. At that time, there were only two people and they both chose to sin. And they did it from a state of innocence.So if Adam and Eve chose to sin from a state of innocence, what would humanity do from a state of depravity? It does not matter what kind of world they live in, depraved human beings love sin.And whether Satan is present or absent, it has nothing to do with depravity. People continue to say, “The devil made me do it!” but that is denying the truth and is a shallow excuse. It is not the devil that makes us sin, it is the devil that creates the system that tempts us.So even if Satan is removed out of this world there will still be depravity. Man is still going to love sin because it is in his nature.

God's promise of the earthly Kingdom of the Messiah is found throughout the Old Testament. You can find references in Second Samuel, Psalm 2, and a large number of references in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel and Zechariah.When you read through the New Testament, Matthew 24 focuses on the time when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven, and Jesus comes with the angels to gather the elect from the four corners of the earth. That heralds the beginning of the glorious Millennial Kingdom.So both Old and New Testament are just loaded with promises with regard to the Kingdom.In Revelation 20, we are shown the earthly Kingdom of the Messiah. We are actually looking at a restored earth, almost restored to its original glory. It is ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ and the saints of all the ages. Up until Revelation 20, everything has been pre-millennial. Everything has been pre-Kingdom.

Chapter 20 is one of the most important chapters in the whole of the Bible. In every way it is a climactic chapter, bringing us to the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth in His coming glory in His Kingdom. His Kingdom is the climax, it is the completion of God's plan of redemption as it unfolds in this world, and therefore it is also the completion of all of human history.

Many believers like to visualize Christ as a very gentle, meek, lowly Savior, regarding Him rather as the suffering Messiah of the Cross, or the baby in a crib. They never think of Him as a coming judge.We should not be surprised that He will come as a judge, but we should marvel that He ever came as Savior to sinful men.

We are embarking on a new section of the book of Revelation that starts with the return of Jesus Christ, and the establishment of His millennial Kingdom, and then the coming of the new heaven and the new earth, which will be for eternity.This is the final section in the book of Revelation, and we will have to go through it carefully and thoughtfully and look at every part of it as we have done all the way through this wonderful book.The Second Coming of Jesus is the great climax of all history. All human events, since the beginning of time, have been moving towards this is the single divine event.

Even though judgement fills up the Book of Revelation from Chapter 6 through to Chapter 18 it is important to understand that judgement is not the theme of Revelation. The book is about the revelation of Jesus Christ. The theme is the coming of Jesus Christ in glory. All the scenes of judgement, even though they are so comprehensive and detailed, are simply a backdrop for the glory of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are all affected and dependent on the economics of our world. We are affected by the current state of the world economically. We're all anxious to hear about the condition of world trade, global commerce, the value of our currency against the US dollar, the British Pound and the European Euro. We are all aware of economics, and more than ever before in history, we live in a world where we are all tied together very closely in what amounts to a giant global economy. There are fewer and fewer isolated national economies – and we have become part of the global village, and we have a global economy.That is very fitting, because that is precisely what Revelation chapter 18 tell us what the world will be like, just before the return of Jesus Christ.

Satan wages a constant war against God, to get people lured into and trapped within false systems that do not worship the true God, but some abomination claiming to be God. All false religions are essentially identical at their core. They just have different names and different rites and ceremonies, but at their core, they are systems that focus on imagined deities, and teach that man can save himself by his own efforts, his own achievements, and his own self-righteousness, and that the way to god, is through ceremony, ritual and rites.

When dealing with the book of Revelation, we have to, whether we like it or not, talk about the wrath of God.In the global church in this age of post-modernism, the wrath of God not a particularly common or a popular subject among preachers, and it is not a common subject of discussion for believers in general today. Nevertheless it should be something that is preached, if we are to be faithful to the Word of God.In John 3:36 we read that Jesus said: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”Yet only a few verses earlier, in the most well-known part of the entire New Testament, Jesus told Nicodemus that: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”So here in John 3:36, Jesus speaks of the “wrath of God” remaining on those who reject Him.

The Bible is filled with hope, but it is also a book of full of judgement. Jesus Christ preached often about judgement. He spoke more about hell than any other preacher or prophet before Him.Many Christians today would insist that the Old Testament was written by a God of judgement, and the New Testament was written by a God of grace, but this could not be further from the truth.

The book of Revelation is a record of God's solution to the crisis of creation that is under the dominion of sin. It is also a record of how He will bring about the long promised world of peace and blessing.After thousands of years of patient waiting and putting up with mankind's arrogance, hate, greed and the bloodshed that has plagued our earth so long, God has declared that there comes a time when He will say “enough is enough” and bring an end to the whole problem!

Everybody would like to see the end of the pandemic, and to have our society return to normal and for there to be better times. Everyone would like to eliminate poverty and disease and crime, and all of those things that plague our culture.But I have to be a prophet of doom, and speak the truth. There is not going to be a better day but a worse one. A better day is not coming.What is coming is a terrible, eternal tragedy. The world of the future will not be a utopia, but the inhabitants of the earth will feel the fury of God's judgement like no one else has ever felt it.Things are not going to get better. They are going to get infinitely worse.In Revelation Chapter 14, it will become clear to us that these passages record the judgement of God to come. Starting at verse 6, we encounter three angels. While their messages are messages of judgement, they do contain elements of grace, hope and salvation. But the doom of the world is clear.

Human beings love the image of a winner, or a conqueror. We do not like losers. If they are rugby coaches, we fire them. If they are politicians, we vote them out of office. We want winners. We want people who can face the greatest danger and be triumphant in the end.I came across a wonderful inspiring quote from John Wesley when I was preparing for this podcast.He said: “Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.”In Revelation 14:1-5, we will be reading about the 144 000 men that Jesus will use to shake the world in the closing days of this age.

God's plan to redeem men and to establish the kingdom of Christ has never been easy. It has always been a battle. It is a battle, because Satan and his demons have fought God, every step of the way. The most effective and potent weapon in Satan's arsenal against God, and God's purpose, can be summed up in one word. This is the word “deception.”Satan is a liar and is the father of lies. He is a deceiver. He is disguised as an angel of light, and his messengers and servants are also disguised as angels of light though they are the agents of darkness.Satan has always tried to confuse people by covering up the truth of the saving gospel. To obscure the truth of the Word of God with lies that are masquerading as if they are the truth.

I would like to introduce you to the most infamous character in the whole of Scripture – the false Christ of the Great Tribulation – the coming world leader known as AntiChrist.Our Lord Jesus Christ said many false Christs would come and we should to expect that, and we have been warned that these false Christs would lead many people astray.Jesus said that there will be many false Christs. There will be many who will attempt to take the place of Christ but there will be the final Antichrist, the final false Christ, the final individual who attempts to take the place of Christ and he will be more devastating than any other before him.

Currently, Satan has access to heaven. He does not reside there, but often he appears before God to accuse believers, The book of Job tells a story of Satan appearing before the throne of God to accuse Job, and to seek permission to attack his body.However in the midst of the tribulation, Satan will lose his access to heaven. Bible scholars differ on whether this is a reference to Satan's work of corrupting one third of the angels of heaven, or if it points to his immense earthly power at this time. Either way, Satan and all rebelling demons will be cast down and barred from their normal access and communication with God. So there is a sudden change of scene. We are no longer looking at the events on Earth but looking into heaven, and seeing a scene of conflict, invisible to earth but taking place in heaven.

There is a lot of rich and powerful symbolism in Revelation 12:1-6, and we have to interpret the symbols correctly, to understand the reality behind them.Two of the three symbols that appear here in these verses, are quite easy to identify, but the identity of the woman who appears clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and twelve stars in a crown around her head, is not easy to interpret, unless you see the symbolism and where else in scripture these symbols appear.

In Verse 13 of Chapter 11 or Revelation, in a display of His power and judgement, God shakes Jerusalem with a devastating earthquake, when He resurrects and snatches His two witnesses away into heaven.God never lets sin go unchecked. Many times He prolongs judgement, but at other times He judges sin immediately. In the case of the unbelieving world's treatment of His witnesses and their subsequent celebration after their murder, God's judgement falls immediately.This earthquake levels one tenth of Jerusalem and immediately snuffs out the lives of seven thousand people.

Jesus is the main character and the central theme of the book of Revelation. The entire book focuses on His second coming, His return to earth in glory, to judge the wicked, and to reward the righteous. This book tells about the events leading up to His return and the events following His return.Do not try to understand these events of Revelation as a series of chronological events but as degrees of intensity. The judgements of the seven seals of Revelation take place in the seven-year period that the prophet Daniel identifies as the last days. The sounding of the seven trumpets, however, are a return to that same 7-year period and focus on a deeper and different perspective of judgement.John is sent back over the terrible times of judgement to focus on certain characters and personalities, and to give us more detail about them. John is told to prophesy again about “many peoples and nations and languages and kings”. That is going to be the theme of the next chapters of Revelation.

One of the most common questions that Christians have to deal with when talking to agnostics or atheists is why God allows sin to continue uncontrolled. Why does God allow sinners to prosper and succeed, and why does God allow Satan to continue to deceive and to destroy? For millennia, righteous men have been crying for God to intervene, and we have not stopped asking: “When will God speak? When will God break His silence?” God has promised that the day will come when the mystery of His silence will be broken and that day is linked with the seventh trumpet in Revelation Chapter 10, Verse 7.

God never intended to convert the world through judgement. What judgement does, is makes us listen to Grace. It makes us take seriously, what God is offering as the way of escape. In these terrible judgements we see the power, the majesty, the might, and the inescapability of God, and we have to ask ourselves, “What can I do to be saved?” That is the effect of judgement. God then provides to those who feel their peril is a message of grace. It is not when judgement threatens that we turn to God. It is when we see God's suffering love that gives itself for us, that carries the hurt and agony and pain. It is that that breaks our proud hearts, and that opens the door to salvation.

If you have ever watched a launch of one of the SpaceX rockets on television, for instance, you will notice that at various times during the launch, part of the picture will perhaps focus on a part of the rocket that is entering into orbit. At the same time another part of the picture will focus on the main booster returning to earth and landing again on the launch pad. It is all one and the same event, taking place at the same time but focusing from different viewpoints. The events of Revelation are similar to this.

Revelation is a book of symbols, and a revealing of God's plans. The Greek word for “revelation” is “apokalyps” which literally means “an unveiling.” A revelation is therefore a removal of the veil which obscures our understanding. It unravels the mystery. It explains the meaning. The book of Revelation should never be read as a historical record of future events or even a chronological account of a series of events.

So, as we come to the middle part of Revelation, Chapter 7, we come to a text in which we see God as Savior, saving people in numbers that have never been seen before. This is a time, in future history, when God's most massive saving work will take place in a very brief period – only 7 years. Who are these uncountable masses of people from every race and nation? We know that they are all martyrs. They must have died for the sake of Christ during the Tribulation, and they now appear before the throne of God as victors over death and hell, joining the angels in worshipping before the throne. So during the darkest hour of human history, that is yet to come, the greatest harvest of souls the world has ever seen, will take place! Millions who have never heard the gospel today will one day be brought into the kingdom of heaven!

Christ's 144 000 witnesses will fulfil the word of Jesus that this same “gospel of the kingdom” will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations before the final judgement of God will descend upon the earth. These 144 000 servants will proclaim this gospel during the seven-year period which we call “the last days” of the time of “the Tribulation.” This band of Spirit-filled Israelites, converted to Christ after the church has been taken out of the world, will go throughout the world like 144 000 Apostle Pauls, preaching the gospel of the kingdom during the time of the cataclysmic judgements of the end times.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures record the past and future history of the world primarily as it relates to the nation of Israel. Of course, in the Old Testament, Israel is exclusively at the focus of events. However, in the New Testament, a new concept is introduced – a church comprising not only Jews but Gentiles as well. But, even in the New Testament, it is Israel that occupies center stage, for the promises that we, as believers, cherish, were given originally to, and belong to, the Jews.

In Daniel 9, the prophet was given a great prophecy of events, that spanned more than 2000 years, from his own day on into our own future. Marked out on this prophecy, is a period of seventy “weeks” of years or 490 years. The 490-year period began with the building of the wall of Jerusalem, in the days of Nehemiah, until the end of the age. Before His crucifixion, as Jesus talked with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, He told them what would happen in the period just before His Second Coming. In that passage, He refers several times to what He calls “the end of the age”. This is the same final seven year period of Daniel's prophecy that Jesus refers to when He speaks of “the end of the age.” This seven-year period of both Daniel's prophecy and Jesus' prophecy contains the fascinating – and frightening – series of events we are currently exploring in Revelation 6 through 19.