An Introduction | Chris Chadwick | Revelation 1:1-3 — Chris Chadwick

Open your Bibles to the Revelation this morning, and if you did not receive a Bible study handout, and would like one, would you raise your hand in our handsome happy ushers, we'll get that to you. And if you did not, we're going to be starting a new series in the Revelation. And so I compiled just kind of an introductory study that talks about things like the title, the author, destination, the occasion, background setting, purpose, key doctrines, and God's character. If you would like one of these, I think they're super helpful, kind of give you a good overview. If you raise your hand, they'll hand that out to you, just raise it quick and high, anybody. All right, good to go. That's great. My hand, I'm excited about the study. I told the 830 service earlier that back when I was in college, we used to have to do this for every book we studied. And some of you, excuse me, are old enough to remember, rubber cement versus glue.

And some of you don't know the difference between the two. Rubber cement was used because you could put it on and pull it off, and we used to have to like, type up words and cut them out and place them on here before word processors. How many of you remember life with just a typewriter? Just a typewriter. All right, yeah, you're not old. You're vintage. You're vintage. So am I. I remember life with just a typewriter and you'd spend all day at kinkos or a computer lab and you're getting it all lined up. You had to draw your own lines. I just compiled these like off of my the resources that I have and copied and paste it. And I put it all into AI and I said, please make me a handout. And in like three seconds later, he did it. I just want to say those of you in college today, I don't, you got nothing on us. You got nothing. Some of us did two hours worth of research and 10 hours worth of craft projects a week. And now you have AI.

Can I get an amen from the vintage folks in their own? Yeah, you young whiners there. I meant to hit that. Didn't work. Well, those of you that don't know me, my name is Chris Chadwick, the pastor at Canyon Ridge Baptist Church. And I've been gone for four months and it's awesome to be home. And so we're pumped to be here. The church is very gracious to us and encouraged Debbie and I to go in and sabbatical. And our first one since 2018. And it was very needed. And I did do a little bit of preaching before my sabbatical started. And then at the end of my sabbatical as well. And but Debbie and I, we were blessed in really some wonderful and amazing ways. Difficult to describe and just so encouraged and thankful for your kindness towards us and your faithfulness while we were gone.

And I'm also thankful for the pastoral care that our pastoral staff provided on Zane and Burnie and the trustees Charlie and Tyler and Mike and so thankful to them Christian preaching other guys. Thank you just for and to the church body. Thank you for your faithfulness as well. And sometimes you go to churches and when the pastors away, the people are gone and they live life in a very unchristly way. And I'm just thankful for your faithfulness to the Lord through all of our absence. And a church is the Lord, the church is the Lord's not the pastors. And that's why we're faithful to it. And so very thankful for your faithfulness to the Lord even in some challenges and times and Burnie and Zane how they helped you through that and thankful that they're preaching. Everybody said, man, they're getting better at it. And I'm thankful for that. And by the way, that's what a mature church allows younger pastors to preach in the auditorium.

I have a friend I know as a church planner we supported years ago in a distant state. And when he left to go be a church planner to a pastor at church that he was starting, he had preached in the junior church of their church five times and he left and he went to pastor. You said, what was it like? It was like a junior church. And he had not been get coached and prepared and trained by that church body because they they could not allow in their minds. They didn't want to allow for a younger guy to preach. And can you imagine? I'm so thankful that it's always been a part of our culture that we allow young guys to grow in the church body. And that's part of our responsibility. Well, people that's like pastor, what's you guys doing? You're sabbatical. We did a lot of things on our sabbatical. A lot. I've been in a lot of places. But the lion's share of our time, Debbie and I finished preaching August 27th or October rather April 27th.

I'll get the month eventually. April 27th, a church in Amarillo, Texas spent a few days with my parents who live in Amarillo. Then Debbie and I drove from Amarillo to Marathon, Florida. We spent about six weeks in Marathon, Florida. If you don't know where that is, it's the third key in the key. I got key cargo in Key West beginning and end. It's right in the middle. And it's a beautiful place. I'm sure it's wonderful in like November, December, January and February, March. But bro, it was crazy hot. Like 95 degrees, 90 percent humidity. No breeze. Fishing was great. That was fun. But they have these bugs. Those of you from Florida, from the south. You have mosquitoes that literally that are so big they can carry you away. But then their distant cousins are so small you can't see them. And they're called those seams. And you don't see them and you don't feel them. And one night I was out fishing on the dock. There was no breeze.

I got bit 150 times on both legs. Like it was so bad. I couldn't sleep. It was terrible. It was terrible. So we enjoyed Marathon very much. And then we drove back and we drove north. And as we're driving north, we stop and saw our church planters in what Chula, Florida, Jordan and Camelese, Hershberger, and spent some time with them. And then we kept driving. And as we're getting up towards like the Pensacola area, Debbie looks at me and she says, Hey, you want to go to South Carolina? Honey, is anybody wanted to go to South Carolina? Ever? Like no, I don't really want to go to South. She goes, I think we should go to South Carolina. Well, why should we go to South Carolina? I already knew the answer because Nick and Susan Ruby, who were the first staff members in the history of Canyon Ridge, after her church 22 years ago, to be missionaries. They worked at another church plant. They were missionaries in El Salvador for a while.

She said, well, Nick and Susan are there and we could go see them. Well, Nick and Susan are dog breeders that bred my dog, Molly Joy. And so Debbie had been talking about, are we going to get another dog while we're out here? So we went to the beautiful state of South Carolina and we went and saw Nick and Susan Ruby and we got a really cool new dog that we drove across the country. His name is Mac named after a preacher who died this year, very influential in my life, John MacArthur, Douglass MacArthur, their distant cousins. But the real reason that I named him, Mac, was the greatest book Louis Lamore ever wrote was last of the breed and the protagonist in that book was Joe Macatosi. And so I named him, Mac, for that tonight. I'm going to show you pictures of the best dog other than Molly Joy that has ever walked on the face of the earth. And so we got a new dog and then we drove across country with a 12 week old dog which was amazing.

It was amazing. It was wonderful. I've never stopped so much. If you think stopping with kids is a lot, stop with a dog. And so we had a great time and joy again to be back. As you come to the book of the Revelation, I'm very pumped about all that we're going to learn together. The Revelation is a wonderful book. Man, it's a wonderful book. With that said, it is also a very challenging book in the Bible. In part, because it is an apocalyptic book, the book of the Revelation beginning as it does with the Greek word, though Revelation is apocalypsis. And it's titled The Revelation Is That Greek Word. And it literally means a book which unfolds the future, the unveiling of that which would otherwise be concealed. So the very word, Revelation, to reveal, to reveal what, that which would be concealed, that which which has been concealed the Revelation.

Now, understanding, and then I know that you remember this, or I would encourage you to remember this, that in understanding biblical hermeneutics, we have to interpret the Bible correctly. And in so doing, it's imperative that we remember that every verse has a paragraph. And every paragraph has a chapter. And every chapter has a book that it was written in. And every book has a genre of scripture that it's written in, like, there's historical books and poetical books and prophetic books and apocalyptic books. And some books are interpreted like the epistles very straightforward. We were in the book of Romans for three plus years. And it's very straightforward when the Bible says, whoever shall call up on the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's not a lot of debate there. We don't have to deep dive that.

You could just understand the plain language of that book that if you don't know Christ as your Savior and you ask him to save you, he guarantees you that he will save you. That's the book. That's how Romans is primarily interpreted and understood and gathered. Zane has been preaching recently out of the book of Galatians. And Christian has been preaching out of Colossians. And Burnie's been preaching out of Job, which makes no sense at all. But Zane's Christian has been preaching out of the epistles and they're rather straightforward, rather straight forward. Well, the revelation being apocalyptic unveiling that which has been concealed operates through a symbolic unveiling rather than plain speech. And its purpose is to reveal heavenly realities that reframe earthly circumstances, that reframe earthly circumstances.

The revelation can also be challenging in that after chapter four, so the first three chapters are a little different, but after chapter four starts, four verse one, the book follows sequential order, but there are some pretty large parenthetical statements that have to be taken back to where they were originally said and things seen in light of that. So there's some symbolism in the book, more symbolism in the revelation than any other book of the Bible. Yeah, I shouldn't say the Bible, any other book of the New Testament. And saying all of that, I don't want us to get scared of the book of Revelation, but I do want to give some pastoral guidance. And that is this, that it's probably because it deals so much with apocalyptic or prophecy, it is one of the, if not the most, debated book in the Bible.

People argue about things in the revelation, they debate things in the revelation, they go home and they research things in the revelation and they get on YouTube and they find things on the revelation and it often becomes very divisive. And I would submit to us as a church body that there are a lot of things that we don't know and there's a lot of things we do know and we need to focus on what we know and what we're unsure about we should hold graciously with humility and it not become an issue of division and dissension. There, you'll see the perspective that we come from and let me say I'm super happy to discuss any aspect of prophecy or the revelation, but sometimes people get a little bit aggressive, if that's the right word, years ago I would have said weird, but Debbie has helped me with that.

So I'm just going to say aggressive about positions that they recently heard about on a YouTube commercial and they want to come and they want to maybe argue a point and try to persuade our church to believe something different than we've believed since we started the church 24 years ago. And I just want to say I don't think that that honors Christ when we use the Bible to breed division. And so we want to take this beautiful book of the Bible and we want to understand it in a great way. It is probably top five book of the Bible that provides a more complete theology than any other book.

Though it is apocalyptic in character, the emphasis of the book is eschatological, it's just a big word that just simply means that dealing with last things eschatology, the study of last things or the doctrine of last things, the word of this prophecy verse number three that we'll read about in just a few minutes, it is the book of Revelations of revelation is Christological in nature. Again, another big word. I promise to define them all. We want you to learn them and know them. Christology is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the study of Jesus Christ, Christological deals with the doctrine of Jesus Christ and his study. So it is more Christological than I think any other book in the New Testament. The material of this book relates to the revelation of Jesus Christ and the object is to reveal him as the glorified one.

As we go through this book, you will see Jesus Christ in glory, time and time and time again, which is in contrast to the gospels. I just finished reading through the gospels again in my private worship time. It is in contrast to the gospels, the gospels present Christ, we see Christ in humiliation, we see Christ in suffering laying down his life so that we might have heaven is our home. We see him as the second Adam dying so that we might go free because of his sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for our sin. If you're here today and you don't know Christ, you want to thank God for the gospel because it gospels, because they present Christ as the the meek and humble servant savior of mankind and any who call on him for salvation, he guarantees that he will save them. It's wonderful. But when we come to the revelation, same Jesus, different perspective here, he's the glorified one. Here he's the one unlike all others.

Here he's the king of kings. Here he is on the throne. Here, verse number five, he is the faithful witness. Here he is the first begotten of the dead. He's the prince of the kings of the earth. Here he washed us from our sin in his own blood. Here he is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. He was and he is and he is to come and he is almighty. Here he's the king, capital K, I, N, G, king. And this book will climax in chapter 19 with the second coming of Christ as he sets foot back on this earth to rule and reign for 1,000 glorious years before he takes us to the new heaven and the new earth. I just want you to get a little bit of the picture this morning, close before we dive into the text. A little bit of the picture this morning, folks, that Jesus Christ is not today some sniffling little god over in the side of the room hoping that people will follow him. No, he holds the world in his, the palm of his hand.

He directs the heart of the king. He is the sovereign savior of the universe. You know, serve some little god. It was Christopher Hitchens who said and it has been picked up by ecumenical and evangelical atheist like Sam Harris and others who say things like Christianity as a religion for the weak. I would agree. I'm weak. I can't save myself. But I'll tell you this, we don't serve a weak Savior. We serve a glorified king who rules the world with the word of his mouth. Both of y'all said that at the same time. That's good. Devin, I've been in churches in the south where they didn't say amen. I was excited about going to church in the south. I thought they were going to run the aisles and throw the offering. I was pumped about it. I've never been before. And those of you that aren't from the south, you don't know the south supposed to be like that. But we just went, they were quieter than we are.

I was like, come on, y'all need to get together, like have some excitement in your church. And I just, I mean, this is the fact that I quit letting Debbie pick churches. So give you a silly, this is not a silly layout. I'm being silly is what I meant to say. To give you a brief background, the book of Revelation is going to be laid out. Things which have been past tense stuff, Revelation chapter 1, verses 1 to 20, the entirety of chapter 1, things which have been, things which are. We'll be chapter 2, verse number 1 through chapter 3, verse number 22, things which are. And then we will talk about what everybody thinks about when they think of the book of Revelation. And that is the apocalyptic side, the prophetic side, both of those unveiling things which had not been known before. And that will be chapter 4, verse number 1 through chapter 22, verse number 21.

Our text this morning, we're going to use the, we're going to look at the first three verses. Now it's debatable whether the first paragraph runs through verse number 8 or verse number 11. I would argue verse number 11 is the length of the first text, but I did not want to take that big of a bite this morning because I knew the introduction would be longer than normal as we introduce the concepts of the book this morning. And so next week I'm very excited that we get to talk about Jesus and how good and great He is. And we'll do that. I believe, I believe, don't hold me to it, but verse number 4 through verse number 11 will be next week. But this morning I want to look at the first three verses and they've been so enriching in my own life. I would like you to notice firstly in verse number 1, the inspiration of the revelation.

The inspiration of the revelation, the Bible says, ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.’ The word inspiration just simply means God breathed, just simply means God breathed. Second Timothy chapter 3 verse number 16, the Apostle Paul is writing Timothy and he's helping Timothy to understand the Scripture and the holiness and the authority of the Scripture. And he says this in verse 16 of chapter 3, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's like this. It's this is what inspiration kind of means.

Again, it'll be it'll be crude, a crude illustration, not dark crude just imperfect in its understanding. Just help give us a window of it. It's as though God is in heaven literally breathing into the ear of the writer and using the writer's personality, the writer is writing exactly what God is breathing into His ear. It is God breathed, God using human beings to write down His eternal word for all mankind everywhere for all time. I think it's imperative in a in a multicultural church to remind folks that the Bible is not an American book, it is not a Western civ book, it is not a white guy's book or a Hispanic guy's book or an African guy's book or a Middle Eastern book. The Bible is God's Word written for all mankind everywhere for all time. And he breathed it into the author's ear, if you will, and they wrote down what he said, bring the verse back up and he inspired it.

It's inspired by God and because it is inspired by God, because it is literally breathed by God, because of the the authorship of the Bible. Yes, God used human men and their personality, ability, experiences and all of that. Yes, he used that for sure he did that, but he told them exactly what to write and they wrote exactly what he told them to write. And because the word of God is inspired and the revelation is inspired, it is profitable for doctrine. This is how we learn truth about God through His Word, for reproof, for correction, for correcting our lives, for conviction in our life. The Bible is good for that. Why? Because we serve a loving savior who guides us into all righteousness. Why? Because it's inspired.

So when I hear the word preached or I read the word or I talk to a godly friend about the word and the spirit of God uses the word of God to bring about reproof or correction in my life, I change the way that I live and I begin to live in righteousness because the word of God has instructed me and it is profitable for me to live according to the inspired Word of God. That's what the word means. It's going to unfold some things. So we see here in this text, God the Father giving the message to Jesus. Jesus is giving the message to the angels, probably Gabriel. We don't know for sure, obviously, but he seems to be the the the the emissary if you will in a lot of scripture and a lot here in the revelation. And the angel, whoever it was, tells John the Apostle. It's inspired. We live in a world with so many voices. There's so much chatter everywhere you go. Used to years ago when I first started traveling and preaching.

I used to love to go to the airport. The airport was cool back in the day. Some of you don't know that, but it was cool back in the day. You didn't have to go through security. How many of you remember being able to go all the way to the gate? Like you just went to the gate, like you could just go park at the airport and hang out in there if you were weird. You could just do that. I mean, you could go all the way to the gate, but I was at the airport, Debbie and I just got back from Hawaii preaching at who we call the Baptist Church. And in the airport, you hear music coming over that, speakers. You hear people talking. That's always been cool. But now you hear all kinds of people playing videos, music, podcasts, listening without headphones on everywhere you go. There's just noise. It's not escape the believer.

According to AI, there are currently being regularly produced 50,000 self-help podcasts being regularly produced weekly or monthly. 50,000. There are several hundred thousand, some even argue upwards of a million podcasts that are out there, but they're not being updated regularly because people start podcasts and they get tired of them. And I'm not against podcasts. I'm not against podcasts. I'm not against podcasts. We will produce another afterthoughts podcast tomorrow. It'll be our hundredth episode that will produce tomorrow. So both of you that have watched all hundredth, thank you. Very happy for that and get your collectors cup later. I'm not against podcasts. My point has nothing to do with that. You can add YouTube videos in here and now podcasts are often videos. So many of you will sit down and watch me and say, talk. And we feel bad for you. My mom, I'm like, mom, you ever listen to my podcast? She's like, no.

Okay, there you go. But I think with all the noise that is out there and all the self-help that is out there begins to be a sense of, if you will, too much information. And we begin to take the Bible and the Bible is to be the ultimate authority in our life. And we begin to bring the Bible down and we begin to use podcasts to argue with the Bible. Well, the Bible says that man shouldn't lust and that porn is bad. Well, I listen to a podcast that said it's okay. By the way, they're out there. And I listen to a podcast that said it's okay. And so now we start using ungodly podcast to challenge the purity of the word of God and theologically erroneous podcast to challenge the doctrinal purity of the word of God. And we just add voice after voice after voice in our head. And before long, the Bible is just another one of the hundreds, if not thousands of voices that are going on in our head.

I would submit to you today, brothers and sisters in Christ. I would submit to you. We need to remember that the Scriptures alone are authoritative in the life of the believer. It is the word of God that will not return void. Not your favorite podcaster. Well, but I think they have a point. If their point violates the Scripture, they may have a point. It's in contradiction to the Scripture and its end is destruction and their God is their belly. And the believer needs to take strong concern and strong care before allowing anything into their life. Well, they're super popular. Well, let me just tell you, the Bible wasn't written to be a popular book. And I would submit to you. It's not trying to be a popular book. The Bible is simply the revealed word of God that he has given to us through his servants so that we would know how to live.

So when the Bible says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, I don't need to go to a podcast to figure out whether or not God's Word is true. No, the Bible said it. Therefore, it is accurate. I might need some help in application. By the way, I wouldn't start with a podcast. I would start with a local New Testament church that I'm a member of. You say, well, why would you say that? Because the Bible says I'm going to be influenced by preachers and teachers whose faith I can follow, whose faith I can see, whose lives I see lived out on a regular basis. You ever meet anybody or hear people? They're great. They're great. They're great. They're amazing. They're great. They're great. And then you meet them and you get to know them and you're like, they're not great. They're not great. They're not great. They're not great. Get away from them. Yeah, that's what the Bible says. Who's faith follow?

Who's faith follow? One of the hardest things for Debbie and I while we were gone was like not having a church like that we could be a part of on a weekly basis because I need you and can I say this with humility, you need me. No, you need me. Now, one of these days I won't be the pastor here. And all God's people said, Amen. But one of these days I won't be the pastor here. There'll be somebody else who's the pastor. And if God allows me to be a member here, which is our Debbie and my prayer is that we'll be members here. We'll need him. Why? Because we'll need to see this that his life is living out the Word in the way that he preaches. Not that he's perfect. No one is, but he's making an aggressive attempt by the goodness and grace of God to go that roots. It's inspired. I got to hurry on. I want you to notice as well. It's timing. Verse number one, the Bible says, the things which should shortly must shortly come to pass.

John Walvoord in his excellent commentary on the revelation said this, that which Daniel declared would occur in Daniel 2, 29, the Christian read earlier, that which Daniel declared would occur in the latter days is here described as shortly, that is quickly or suddenly coming to pass, indicating rapidity of execution and after the beginning takes place. The idea is not that the event may occur soon, but that when it does occur, it will be sudden. So he says, it must shortly come to pass. Now that phrase there doesn't mean that the Lord's coming back tomorrow. The idea of the soonness or the brevity of this life as we know it will be seen later, but this word here, the idea of this word here is that when the events take place that the revelation is going to talk about, that when they take place, it's not going to be a long drawn out thing. It's going to happen and it's going to happen quickly.

And then we see the theme, verse number two, who bear record of the Word of God and the testimony of Christ and of all things that he saw. Bear record, testify to offer firsthand authentication in favor of affirmation of someone to be a witness. What is the primary theme of the message of the revelation? The primary theme is the truth about Christ himself and the opening verse introduces immediately the central theme of the book of Revelation. Namely, Jesus Christ in his present and in his future glory. What did John bear record of? He bore record of the Word of God that was spoken to him and all things that he saw. And then we see in verse number three, the blessedness of the revelation or the blessing of the revelation. I love this verse because it's so instructive to me. God literally says there's a blessing connected to this book. As a matter of fact, there are seven big blessings in the revelation.

Here, there are two listed and then there's five throughout in chapter 14, 16, 19, 20, 22. There are blessings. The word blessed here is the Greek word makarios and it means possessing the favor of God, the state of being marked by fullness from God. The believer, if you will, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because of Christ and as a result, it should be fully satisfied no matter the circumstances. This word makarios differs from the word happy in that the person is happy who has really good circumstances. To be blessed is equivalent to having God's kingdom within one's heart. Eros Aristotle defined this word this way. The blessed one is the one who is in the world yet independent of the world. His satisfaction comes from God and not from favorable circumstances. The blessed person here is one who's satisfaction comes from God and not favorable circumstances.

I sometimes hear preachers preach and they say things like Christ will change your life. He'll make your life so much better. He'll make things just work so much more smoothly in your life. And I don't think they're trying to be disingenuous. I just think it might be a little bit wrong headed the way that they're saying it. And some people are trying to be disingenuous where they convey an idea that Jesus will make everything in your life amazing. Can I be super candid with you? You could come to Christ today. If you're not a believer, you could come to Christ today. I will never guarantee you that Jesus will make your life better. Not here. But in fact, Jesus said it this way. In the world, you'll have tribulation.

When you're on the narrow road and you're one of the few and you're the only guy at your job that's living for Christ and everybody else is getting drunk and going places they shouldn't and doing things they shouldn't and they mock you for your Christianity and you have a target on you and they make fun of you and your purity and your chastity and your fidelity to your wife or whatever the case may be, there's some difficulty that goes on. I cannot guarantee you that Jesus will make your day-to-day life easier. But I will guarantee you this. He will make your eternity better. No doubt about it. And he'll be a friend in you that sticks closer than a brother and they'll be a peace in you that passes all understanding and a contentment in you that can only come from God. The God who created this universe, who gave us his word, who blesses those. He wrote them about to say who read here and obey the prophecies that are written in this book.

Regardless of your circumstances. Oh, it did. Christians get sick. Christians go through divorce sometimes. Do we hate it? Christians have problems and they have financial struggles. Christians have loved ones die. Christians have difficulties like the rest of the world has difficulties. But the blessing that John is helping us with in this text is that our satisfaction comes from God not from all our circumstances being right. So we are commanded here to read the word, which means read, hear the word, listen to, be attentive. It's actually active listening and then keep or obey or conform to what we have read and heard. And by the way, verse number three, all of those are present tense. We're supposed to be doing that today. Not I've read or I've heard or I've obeyed. No, I read, I hear and I obey. Now, it was common practice in the first century church to gather when the church would gather on Sundays in Bible study times.

It was common practice for one person to take their copy of the Scripture and to read it because they were cumbersome, they were huge and they were very expensive and very rare. And so one person would take the Bible and they would read it to the entire congregation. And the entire congregation had to actively listen because they were not going to take their copy of the Bible home. I absolutely love the fact that we can take the Bible home with us. I love that, make no mistake. But I think that sometimes they had a little bit of an advantage because if they wanted to know the Word of God, they had to really pay attention during the church service. Because Monday morning, their private worship time was not grabbing the Bible and reading something for five minutes and going about their day. Their private worship time was meditating on what they heard the day before.

And that's what it would have been Tuesday and that's what it would have been Wednesday and that's what it would have been Thursday and that's what it would have been Friday and Saturday and then Sunday they could go and somebody else is going to read and expound and they're going to hear a sermon, they're going to hear a read and that's going to be the entirety of their life. And so as John is writing here, he is exhorting them that they need to have a good memory and they need to pay attention and they need to guard their mind and control their thoughts as the Word is being read because they need to hear the Word because they need to obey the Word. And finally we see in verse number three, this little phrase, for the time is at hand. We see the urgency of the revelation.

The word time here is different than what we read earlier in verse number one where things which must shortly come to pass, the word time here is the word caros, it kind of conveys the same idea and remember when a Hebrew writer, John was Hebrew, obviously it was one of the disciples, John was Hebrew and when a Hebrew writer would make the same statement or they give the same idea with different words, he's drawing attention to that, he's like putting an exclamation underlining it, highlighting it, something like that. And so John is wanting us to understand that the time is at hand. Now the word time here is not like a word for a clock, it's time to go, it's rather the word here means a season or an epoch of time or an era of time. It's often used to describe the set time of the coming Messiah in his kingdom or in his judgment, which John MacArthur who said, the next great era of God's redemptive history is near.

The imminent return of Christ, the rapture, is the next major event on God's prophetic calendar and it's near. And church family, Christ is going to return, you say, Pastor, when's he going to return? We don't know the day, we don't know the hour, but we believe that it's short, it's soon. And for the record, the church has always believed that it was short and soon. This is not new, we didn't come up with this. It's always been that way. Just to help you understand if you want to do a little Bible study with me, would you turn over if you're fast enough and I'm going to try to give you ample time, Luke chapter 12 in your Bible, if you're new to church and struggle to find the passage, just feel free to look on the screen, they'll be there.

But if you want to underline or highlight something in your Bible, Luke chapter 12, you know on the screen, it'll only be verse 37 because I gave them the, I didn't give them the complete verses earlier, so that's on me. But I'd like to read verse 35, the Bible says, let your loins be cured about and your light's burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding, that when he come with a knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes shall find watching. Verily, I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch, I'm sorry, and if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants.

And this know that if the goodaman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be, therefore, ready also for the Son of Man come with at an hour when you think not. The Lord's return is going to be sudden and unexpected. Paul believed he would be alive at the Lord's return, turned to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, 1st Corinthians chapter 15, verse number 51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on in corruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall we brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where's the sting? Oh, grave, where's the victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore may my beloved brethren be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, verse number 15. Am I with this for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain into the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself, verse 16, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with a voice of the archangel with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Notice the plural pronouns, verse number 17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so shall we ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these words. Paul is saying to the church at Thessalonica, hey guys, the Lord is coming back, He'll descend with a shout with a voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the dead Christ are going to rise first. Verse number 15, we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, so not prevent them which are asleep. Paul believed he was going to go up with the Lord in the rapture. Hebrews chapter 10, verse number 25.

The Bible says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. He said, hey, be in church, go to services, don't miss a service. Some people are missing services, but don't go, encourage one another. You need encouragement and you're going to need more encouragement, the closer we get to the return of the Lord. James encouraged patience till the coming of the Lord. James chapter 5, verse number 7. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husband, wait for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. He's given a farming analogy. He's just waiting for the fruit to grow, don't pick it too early. Wait for the rains to happen at the right time. Verse number 8, be you also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord. Draweth nine.

The Lord's return is soon. Grudge not one against another brother unless you be condemned. Behold the judge standeth before the door. Peter reminds his readers in 1 Peter 4, 7, but the end of all things is at hand be therefore sober and watch under prayer. Hey, the end of all things is at hand. They're here. This matters to the believer. Why? Because we love the Christ who first loved us and our lives are living sacrifice for him. So take comfort in the reality of Christ's eminent return. You say, pastor, do you think he could come back today? Yes. And I think that I should live as though he will come back today. Yeah, things on this side of eternity. They grow cold. Calus. Dark. I was in Florida on Tuesday. It was raining. Surprise. It was raining and hot. So Debbie and I went to the gym and worked out. And then we stayed longer because it was raining and hot. The gym had air conditioning.

We left and we went and we got some coffee and we're sitting there and all the sudden my phone just starts blowing up. Now, our church staff doesn't blow up my phone. They just call me incessantly. No, they just call and they don't we don't get like 40,000 texts or anything like that because it's not it's not my thing. I don't I'm not a big fan of like text me 500 times. And by the way, this is not I don't know anybody in our church that does this. But if you need to say like 10 things, please put them in one text. I don't need 10 texts. Going to the store. Do you need anything in the chip aisle? They have freedoms. I don't I'm number one. I don't know that I even need to know that. But number two, can you just put that in one? So I don't have like 15. Now some of you are like, Oh, no, that's the way I do it. Praise God. I love you. But that's just my phone.

When my phone blows up, I know it's related to the chaplaincy because it's something going on at the PD. And so my phone I'm drinking coffee and I get like a text and I don't check it immediately. I was reading a book and then like within a short brief period of time, seconds, not minutes, I probably had 50 text. I was like, what in the world? And I take my phone and I turn it over. And I see that there's a shooting at the mosque in Balboa and they go, five. Oh, my word. That's in my neighborhood and in a neighborhood where I live. That's in my division where I'm a chaplain. I know that my cops are responding to that. And I'm like, holy cow. And so I'm trying to think through my head like, okay, it's Monday. It's in the tens. Who's the sergeant? Who's going to be working that beat? Would that be 110, 111, 11, something like that? Who's going to be working that beat? Who's going to be responding?

I mean, my stress level just goes from like normal to super high knowing this as well that if I'd been in San Diego, I'd be on scene, I would have been in a car. I'd have been right there. And praise God, there was tragedy, the loss of life, three different people, three men lost their lives. And it was a tragedy. You don't need to go into all of it. This is what I want to talk about. Men lost their lives protecting children at the mosque. And again, we disagree with Islam, but we don't hate Islamic people. We love Jesus and Jesus died for the sins of all people. And we want them to see the love of Christ demonstrated in our lives. And so I get on the phone and Tuesday or Wednesday, whatever day it was. And I call Burnie. Our church is in lockdown. Our day cares in lockdown. I mean, we're following all these protocols and procedures and just making sure. I think it's the only work thing I did the whole time that I was just gone.

And as I'm getting off the phone with Zayn and Bern, and we're talking, I ask him to get John. I'm like, hey, JC, would you order some flowers and just send them to the mosque? That's all I'm just going to ask you to do. Would you just send flowers? I love San Diego. And we sent flowers when the Jewish community center got shot up and the Mormon church got shot up. You say, pastor, is that mean you agree with them? No, didn't mean I agree with them at all. Didn't you know I agree with them at all? I just want to know that there's some people in San Diego, though we disagree with you theologically. We love you because Christ loves you and gave himself for you. And we're going to demonstrate Christ like love to the best of our ability. And so I just asked him to send it. Well, I don't know if you saw it, but some famous social media guy, who I don't know, caught the delivery guy, delivering the largest flowers I've ever seen.

It was massive. And I'm like, Colin, John, like, how much did you spend? And he's like, pastor, you said $3,000, right? I'm like, no, I'm going to take that out of your pay. And no, it was, it was, it was beautiful, what the guy delivered. And they interviewed him and they saw that it was from me and Canyon Ridge. And like, hey, our thoughts, but not our thoughts. I don't even know what that means. But our prayers are with you during this time of great difficulty. Pastor Christian, I reckon, Canyon Ridge, we have a shirt, something that we said like that. That was it. We're trying to make a name for ourselves. We're trying to do anything. We're trying to say anything. We didn't post it. I told him we just stay quiet and do it in secret. And that's the thing. And man, he went viral within like an hour. There were like thousands upon thousands of things and people's responses. And then I started getting messages.

It's like, I can't believe you do that. And just the vitriol that was said towards us, because we were showing Christ's like compassion to people we disagree with. But we were showing Christ's like compassion to people and the callousness of folks that are in this world. This world is a, I said all that to say, this world is a very hard place. It's why Peter described us in 1 Peter 2 11 as strangers and pilgrims in this earth. Who are to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against your soul? Dearly beloved, I would see you as strangers and pilgrims, strangers and pilgrims. Now, I used to define those words and it's a beautiful message to preach, but just in general sense, I used to define those words, strangers and pilgrims with an analogy, an illustration. And the illustration was camping. But every time I would illustrate it that way, I would go home and my daughters who are older now, every time have rebuked me, every time. Why?

They'll say, Dad, you have never taken us camping in our entire lives. Now, those of you that have little kids and you're like, I can't wait for my kids to get older. Oh, you'll regret that statement's big time because they get older and now there's nothing you can do when they talk trash to you other than encourage them to leave your house permanently. But your wife won't let you even do that. So you're kind of stuck. And then, Dad, you never took us camping. Dad, you never took us camping. I'm sorry, I've been camping. I've preached like men's campouts and I've slept in tents on the floor or I guess you called the ground. I've slept on the ground and I'm just being honest with you. How many of you are like me? You're like, if I had to camp, I would, but praise God, I like a bed and I don't have to camp. Anybody like me? Yeah. How many of you are like, I love to go camping. It's like my thing. Well, God bless you both.

And that's awesome. So I used to illustrate that way. But now I have an illustration that I think we can all understand what a stranger in a pilgrim is. And that is Airbnb. It's light camping, but way better. Way better. Debbie and I were in Marathon for six weeks. It was wonderful. We stayed in the Airbnb condo. It was nice. Debbie found it. It was comfortable. It was air conditioned. It was cool. The air conditioned work. We go through town and we meet people from time to time, maybe at the gym or the restaurant or church or something like that. And people would say, oh, do you live here? No, we're just, and we would make this statement. We're just staying here. Oh, where do you live? Well, we live in San Diego, but we're staying at those condos across from the gym and next to the water. There's something fishing village, which you don't get a lot of fish there, but whatever.

And they're like, oh, yeah, I know the right way of that place here. So you live there? No, we just stay there. Oh, so you don't live here? Oh, no, we don't live here. We just stay here. We're just here for a little while. Stay live, stranger, permanent resident. So, because I was just staying there, I didn't worry too much about where I was staying. There were things that just weren't important to me that if I lived there, they'd be important to me. So, I didn't like the way that the blinds closed. Like seriously, I didn't like the way that they have white blinds in an Airbnb facing the eastern side of the island. So, as soon as the sun comes up in the morning, all you have is a super bright room at like 5 a.m. So, did I go by new blinds and put them up there and fix their problem permanently? I'm going to be there six weeks. Of course, I did.

No, I took the comforter off of the bed and I wrapped it over the curtain rods so that I didn't have to go by anything. Why? Because I don't live there. I'm just staying there. So, we walked up and no lie, it looked like it was upstairs bedroom. It looked like a camp, Clampitz, those of you that are young, it's the Beverly Hillbillies, a Clampitz reject with like this quilt falling off. And so, we got like these closed pins and we hooked them up there just to keep it from falling off. What? I would never live like that for longer than college. But, I'm just staying there. I didn't like the porch light. I didn't go to Home Depot to fix it. I didn't like the bed where it was in relationship to the air conditioner. I didn't feel like I got enough AC blowing on me at night. How many of you mean no? You got to have AC. If you have AC, you want it blowing on you. You got to have air current moving.

If you don't have that and you're like, oh no, I like a still calm room. We have a nursery room just for you, just for you. It'll be cool but there'll be no air flow. No, that was a total problem for me. So, did I move the bed? No, didn't move the bed at all. Slept on the couch. 31 nights in a row. You say you can't be serious. No, 31 nights in a row. You say, was it comfortable? Not at all. But at least I had the air conditioner on me. Some things are important. Didn't like where the cabinet trash was. I could keep going. It just didn't matter to me because I was a stranger in a pilgrim. I just stay in there. I didn't live there. Some a house. It's not my home. I liked it. It was wonderful. Left to five star review. Five stars. You know, there's stuff you didn't like. Yeah, but it wouldn't bad. It's just preference stuff. You can't leave a bad review because you prefer something different. That's just weak emotionalism. Let me say that.

That's just weak emotionalism. Some of you're just like, I better write that down. Some of you should. That's just your preference. Your preference over their preference. That's just preference. I just didn't ought to have done it different. I could make a ton of applications here. And if I did, I'd be in jeopardy of over-applying the texts and taking away the work that I think the Spirit of God has done in my own life and hopefully in your life. So let me sum it up this way. Are you evaluating what's important to you based on this passage? If the Lord would return today, would you be able to say, I'm living for God? Or would you have to say, I'm just doing religious things? Would you be able to say when He speaks through His Word in your private worship time or through His Spirit and your daily life or through the corporate services and the preaching at Canyon Ridge or a community Bible study group or conversations with a godly friend?

And the Spirit of God begins to convict you and challenge you and mold you into a Christ-like image and and to set your affections on the Lord and that you begin to do what verse number three says. And that is to obey or keep the things of this prophecy. Would you be able to win the Lord return suddenly? Because that's what verse number three is saying. It's going to happen. It's going to happen quick when it does. It's all going to unfold super fast. And when it does, would you be able to say, God, I'm allowing you to change my life? Or are you just incredibly rigid in your rebellion or incredibly rigid in your resistance? Or somewhat rigid in your ambivalence? Brothers and sisters in Christ, could I encourage you to stay faithful? Christ is coming again. There's going to be times when you struggle. There'll be moments of doubt and discouragement, maybe almost even a feeling of defeat or disillusion. Understand, Jesus is coming again.

And you say, Pastor, when is it? I don't know, but I believe it soon. And when he comes, all that is wrong will be made right because of who he is. And there might be somebody here today that's a friend that says, Chris, I'm not sure that if I die, I'd go to heaven. I'm here to investigate the claims of Christ. Friend, he will return soon. And I encourage you to pursue the claims of Christ with purpose and passion. And talk to me, one of the pastors that will be in the back, talk to some of us to make sure that when you meet the Lord through the rapture or death that you meet him as one of his children whose life has been redeemed by the blood of Christ and Christ alone.