Revelation "the beauty of the church"

Revelation "the beauty of the church"

SLIDE 1 “THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH”

As we have started the book of Revelation the Lord has really wanting us to be grateful to a part of His eternal family to be a part of His church

Last week was the biblical timeline that the church is in “the church age” / to persevere as a follower of Christ / that we don’t want to miss Jesus’ second coming

The week before that also a blessing of being part of His church - being able to see things with a spiritual perspective / always having access to the Lord, to His throne as if part of His inner circle

Then before that we are told blessed is he that reads this book of Revelation and what those blessings look like

Revelation to the world (those who have not received Christ) is perceived as an apocalypse experience but to the follower of Jesus Christ Revelation seen a unveiling of Christ, going to be with Christ as we are part of His eternal church family

As Jesus went from place to place He would often talk about the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven and tell stories or parables which would show that there are saved and unsaved in that kingdom

We see from studying the word kingdom in the gospels not meaning actual heaven (actually says not to be confused with the actual kingdom) but a territory of royal power , rule or dominion. The word kingdom is basiliea where probably basilica comes from and we see the tie to the church

As Jesus would tell these stories about the kingdom of God or heaven - they were stories or parables about preparing for the real kingdom or heaven - being the eternal or saved part of the family of God. The preparing and non preparing actions (deeds) of those in these stories

The evidence that revealed the unprepared would be at the end each story was of those trying to enter the actual eternal heaven - “depart from Me I never knew you”

Just a few reference of the many about the kingdom of heaven - John the Baptist as he baptising said “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”

SLIDE 2

Matthew 3:1–2 (NASB95)

1 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,

2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus would say “from the days of John the Baptist till now the kingdom of God suffers violence and violent men take it by force”

SLIDE 3

Matthew 11:12 (NASB95)

12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

Jesus also saying how shall we picture the kingdom of God or by which parable shall we present it?”

SLIDE 4

Mark 4:30 (NASB95)

30 And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

And many many more Scripture reference but you can glean from all that kinda summed up like this - “THE CHURCH AGE IS BEFORE YOU; IN HOW WILL YOU BE PART OF IT IN WORDS AND DEEDS” / “REALLY IN A PURSUIT TO GROW IN THE LORD OR GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS”

So the Lord appears to John here in Revelation as he is in the Spirit and tell him to write to the seven churches (why seven / which seven / we will see that today)

The church wants to represent Christ as being a beautiful thing, its often been expressed through the buildings

SLIDE 5 “COUNTRY CHURCH PHOTO”

SLIDE 6 “LARGER RED BRICK CHURCH PHOTO”

SLIDE 7 “LARGE GRAY AND WHITE CHURCH PHOTO”

SLIDE 8 “DARK GRAY TALL STEEPLES CHURCH PHOTO”

SLIDE 9 “EVENING LIT UP CHURCH PHOTO IN ITALY”

SLIDE 10 “CHURCH OVER THE RIVER CHURCH PHOTO” (SOUTHWEST COLUMBIA)

Of course we could also show photos of the insides of churches and the beauty of that

In how they are set up, many very similar in how the design sets up what the focus should be or how it is to look in a spiritual way so to speak

But these are merely physical looks of beauty and the Lord wants us to get a look at what beauty He is interested in (I struggled with big lavish looking churches, more of the type being built today, how He dealt with me)

SLIDE 11

Revelation 1:10–11 (NASB95)

10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,

11 saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

In the Spirit is how we truly hear and communicate with God (God seeks those whose worship Him this way and has to be done in truth)

God’s trumpet will call His church home (fulfills the next awaited feast in God’s biblical time / feast of trumpets) The trumpet also announced war and will be the start of God’s judgement and wrath upon those of the world or remain in the world

These churches were not far from Patmos where John was and could have been much easier to deliver these prophetic writings of Revelation to (and then you can visualize the distribution and years go on even to our day and time)

Lets see the representation from heaven to the churches / what so to speak powers the church or makes it effective and not just a beautiful building.

SLIDE 12

Revelation 1:12–13 (NASB95)

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;

13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.

John was told to write these things and send it to the churches

We are going to see in the next verses everything that will back up the authority of Christ as head of the church, everything that truly empowers the church to be the church as he intended.

And to truly see what makes the church effective and powerful in a dying dark world

As we go through these I want you to do something, as we read through these next verses I want us to compare how our human thinking our intellect our earthly efforts, our own view of what makes the church function....okay?

Remember first we are going to see authority of Jesus in all His glory over His church

SLIDE 13

Revelation 1:14–15 (NASB95)

14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.

15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

SLIDE 14

Revelation 1:16–17 (NASB95)

16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

SLIDE 15

Revelation 1:18–19 (NASB95)

18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

19 “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

SLIDE 16

Revelation 1:20 (NASB95)

20 “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

SLIDE 17 “JESUS AMONG THE SEVEN LAMPSTANDS 1”

SLIDE 18 “JESUS AMONG THE SEVEN LAMPSTANDS 2”

SLIDE 19 “JESUS AMONG THE SEVEN LAMPSTANDS 3”

SLIDE 20

Revelation 2:1 (NASB95)

1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:

SLIDE 21

Revelation 2:2–3 (NASB95)

2 ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;

3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.

SLIDE 22

Revelation 2:4–5 (NASB95)

4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.

SLIDE 23

Revelation 2:6–7 (NASB95)

6 ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’

Church family how does Jesus want us to hear?

We do a lot of evaluating of ourselves...........and others

As a body of Christ we can never be the church He desires unless we take the time and meditate in the Spirit of God so that He can speak into us to be or how to be effective in His church.

Maybe corrections He wants in our lives, maybe things we haven’t noticed we need to repent of, maybe a whole new outlook, maybe a new dedication to Him to follow Him and pursue Him more instead of just going through the motions of what the earthy church looks like.

WORSHIP TEAM COME

SLIDE 24 “REVELATION - THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH”

*STORY OF A PICTURE FROM MY WIFE WHILE GONE ON TRIP - picture with every detail but had done a new thing*

CLOSE / PRAYER