Everything We Need To Know About Jesus Christ Series

Throughout history many predictions have been made concerning the future.

"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax." - English scientist William Thomson, 1899.

"Television won't matter in your lifetime or mine." - Radio Times editor Rex Lambert, 1936.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olsen, president, chairman, and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977.

"By 2000, the machines will be producing so much that everyone in the U.S. will, in effect, be independently wealthy." - Time Magazine, 1966.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"You ought to go back to driving a truck." - Concert manager, firing Elvis Presley in 1954.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music." - Decca Recording Co., rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"It doesn't matter what he does, he will never amount to anything." Einstein's teacher to his father, 1895.

When we come to the book of Revelation we find a book with many predictions. 1:3, "Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it: for the time is at hand." At the close we read, "And he says unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand" (22:10).

Revelation is primarily a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is also a book about the future -- a book of prophecy.

The book gives predictions about what will happen in the future.

• John writes with an obvious excitement and spiritual renewal. Fresh from a worship service that really impacts you: tell somebody with excitement.

• Like John the Baptist who doubted while in prison, John the Apostle while on Patmos might have struggled also.

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood-- 6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The book is written for seven churches. "Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."(11)

These seven Churches are not all the Churches that existed at the time the book was written. The number 7 is the number of completion. Seven colors make up the light spectrum.

There are seven notes in the musical scale. There are seven days in one week.

God commanded seven feasts in the Law. Seven secrets in the Christ’s parables of the kingdom.

There were seven sayings of Jesus on the cross.

At Jericho seven priests carrying seven trumpets marched around the city for seven days.

On the seventh day they marched around the city seven times.

In this book, the number 7 is used 49 times, which is 7x7:

• Seven Churches – 1:4 Seven Spirits – 1:4 Seven Stars – 1:16 Seven Seals – 4:5

• Seven Horns – 5:6 Seven Eyes – 6:6 Seven Trumpets – 8:2 Seven Angels – 8:2

• Seven Thunders – 10:3 Seven Heads – 12:3 Seven Crowns – 12:3 Seven Plagues – 15:1

• Seven Vials – 17:1 Seven Mountains – 17:9 Seven Kings – 17:10

• God is our resource for two important things: Grace & Peace

Grace is God’s freely given unmerited favor based upon the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ. Gift wrapped packed with bill attached?

God insists on neither worthiness nor competency. Instead He glories in calling into His service people who are neither worthy nor adequate. He makes them worthy in Christ alone, never in themselves. Then He makes them adequate through the mighty working of His Spirit within them. JERRY BRIDGES

Only reason people stop fighting wars is to give themselves time to reload.

Peace is something the world will never know but the Christian can experience within.

Peace is a fruit of God’s Spirit, an evidence of His working in us.

What comes out of us when the world starts to squeeze?

1. THE FATHER from Him who is and who was and who is to come,

God dwells in all the tenses of time. He is the eternal God.