Revelation Chapter 2

Revelation Chapter 2 Welcome back for a bit of review of Revelation Chapter 1 If you were to share chapter 1 with a friend how would you tell them about it? Do you remember what or who the book of Revelation is revealing and how did this bit of History get to us? It might help us remember if I repeat the step by step process. Actually just thinking of steps will help us burn an image in our minds eye. The Apokolyspos (Apocolypse meaning Revelation) Which came to us in steps throughout History began with: God to Jesus to The Angel to John to The seven churches to You and I today. John then wrote down the things which he saw Those who read, hear and keep the things that are written in the Book are blessed because… THE TIME IS AT HAND. Conveying the sense that nothing more has to happen before the next item on God’s calendar occurs, that being…..the RAPTURE. Yes, I know the word Rapture is not in the Bible. But the word Harpotso (Snatching away) is, in the Greek, so instead another word in our language conveys the snatching away of the Church. I mean can you imagine people standing around wondering where so many people went. Yes, that will be a tragedy! I can just see those that were left behind trying to remember that Greek word and trying to tell their neighbor, I think they were Harpooned, or Harpotzed, no Harpotsoed. And their neighbor asking, what’s that? Raptured will be something that those left behind have heard something about by this time in History. But more on that later. John then continues to greet the churches in the Ephesus area, Asia Minor. Paul was now dead and Jeursalem had fallen by the hands of Rome in AD 70. So John, as he pastored the churches in that area, told them of the message he now had from the Angel of God, of the... Faithful witness The first born from the dead The Prince of Kings The One who loved enough to die to forgive sins and wash them away with His perfect sacrifice. ( Zechariah 12) The One that “ WILL BE COMING IN THE CLOUDS” and every eye will see Him, and all those who pierced Him, and all the Kindreds of the Earth will WAIL when they see Him. Who? The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending as described by the first and the last letter of the Greek Alphabet) Jesus and the Outline of the Book: Which was Which is And which is to come. Just in case you still don’t recognize who that is, John makes it clear again…..The Almighty! Then John described a Vision of the Son Of Man…Jesus. Remember John is using words in his vocabulary that attempt to describe things no one had ever seen before… and was told to write about it. I know that when I am writing, whether it be a short story or a novel or a letter, I stumble over my words and struggle to find just the right ones to convey the message that needs to be etched into the readers mind or heart. So let’s give Pastor John a break as we read the things he shares in this book. Revelation, like other books of the Bible, have a historical, geographical, time and place. However, these times and places span thousands of years of History. In the Old Testament the prophets tried so hard to understand the times in which it looks like we are living, but the words that were given them by God, did not allow for them to see the future clearly. Sometimes the time lines fo History overlapped, or stretched out beyond the days of Abraham and jumped ahead in History and yet the words that were shared seemed to cover both of...