By Your Blood You Ransomed People

Revelation 5:7-10 - And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Mark 10:45 - For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Application:

·         The sacrificial death of Christ is central to New Testament teaching.

·         I have been bought at a price.

·         Jesus gave His life to release me from bondage to sin and death.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Jasper...Carnelian...Emerald

Revelation 4:3-4,9-11 - And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads…And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Ezekiel 1:28 - Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Revelation 5:5-6,9-10 - And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth…And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Revelation 7:11-12 - And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Application:

·         When God’s glory was symbolically revealed, it took the form of brilliant light.

·         Lay their crowns is acknowledgment that God alone is worthy of ultimate praise and worship.

·         Bearing the marks of its slaughter—the Lamb has come to power through His death.

·         The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, has triumphed.

·         In the Old Testament a new song celebrated a new act of divine deliverance or blessing.

·         The sevenfold list of attributes (praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, strength) expresses complete or perfect praise.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Throne In Heaven

Revelation 3:22-4:2,9-11 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne…And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 2:7 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

1 Kings 22:19-20 - And Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left; and the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said one thing, and another said another.

Ezekiel 1:28 - Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Psalm 47:8 - God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.

Application:

·         God and man will be restored to the perfect fellowship that existed before sin entered the world.

·         Lay their crowns is acknowledgment that God alone is worthy of ultimate praise and worship.

·         A true prophet was one who had, as it were, been made privy to what had transpired in God’s heavenly throne room and so could truthfully declare what God intended to do.

·         When God’s glory was symbolically revealed, it took the form of brilliant light. In His vision of the restored Jerusalem the prophet saw the glory of the Lord returning.

·         Seated on His holy throne is in the Most Holy Place of the temple, where He takes the reins of world rule into His hands.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Conquers

Revelation 3:20-21 - Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

James 5:9 - Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

Revelation 5:5 - And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Revelation 2:7 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

2 Timothy 2:11-13 - The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

Application:

·         The Judge is standing at the door is a reference to Christ’s second coming and the judgment associated with it.

·         The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, will triumph.

·         The challenge to overcome occurs in each letter to each of the seven churches in Revelation.

·         Faithfully bearing up under suffering and trial will result in reward when Christ returns.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Crown Of Life

Revelation 2:7,10-11 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’…Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

Daniel 1:12 - “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Revelation 4:9-11 - And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Application:

·         Ten often had the symbolic significance of completeness.

·         God alone is worthy of ultimate praise and worship.

·         The challenge to overcome occurs in each letter to each church in Revelation.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Who Say They Are Jews

Revelation 2:8-9 - “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life. “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

2 Corinthians 6:3-10 - We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

Romans 2:29 - But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Job 1:12 - And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Job 2:3 - And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without reason.”

Application:

·         True wealth does not consist in worldly possessions but in being rich toward God. I, even if I had nothing of this world’s goods, have everything in Him who is Lord of all.

·         The true sign of belonging to God is not an outward mark on the physical body, but the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit within—what Paul meant by circumcision of the heart.

·         Satan, the accuser, is given power to afflict but is kept on a leash. In all his evil among men or in nature, Satan is under God’s power.

·         God cannot be stirred up to do things against His will. Though it is not always clear how, everything that happens is part of His divine purpose.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Paradise

Revelation 2:7 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

Genesis 2:9 - And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:22-24 - Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Luke 23:43 - And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Application:

• Paradise is originally a Persian word for a pleasure garden. In Revelation it symbolizes the eschatological state in which God and man are restored to the perfect fellowship that existed before sin entered the world.
• Tree of life is signifying and giving life, without death, to those who eat its fruit. Adam and Eve possessed both life and moral discernment as they came from the hand of God. Their access to the fruit of the tree of life showed that God’s will and intention for them was life.
• Sin, which always results in death, cuts the sinner off from God’s gift of eternal life.
• Only through God’s redemption in Christ does man have access again to the tree of life.
•  In the Septuagint paradise designated a garden or forest, but in the New Testament it refers to the place of bliss and rest between death and resurrection.

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All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Son Of Man

Revelation 1:12-15 - Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

Daniel 7:13 - “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

Mark 8:31 - And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Isaiah 1:18 - “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Application:

·         Son of Man is a title that Jesus applied to Himself.

·         Son of Man is Jesus’ most common title for Himself, used 81 times in the Gospels and never used by anyone but Jesus. The Son of Man is pictured as a heavenly figure who in the end times is entrusted by God with authority, glory and sovereign power.

·         White as snow is a powerful figurative description of the result of forgiveness.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

The Lord's Day

Revelation 1:10-13 - I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book 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.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

1 Corinthians 16:2 - On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

Revelation 3:14 - “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

Exodus 25:40 - And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

Zechariah 4:2 - And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it.

Application:

·         Every Sunday each person was to bring what he had set aside for the Lord’s work—an amount proportionate to his income. Since it was to be brought on Sunday, the new day for worship, probably it was collected at the worship service, not at home.
·         Laodicea is near modern Denizli. The wealthiest city in Phrygia during Romans times, it was widely known for its banking establishments, medical school and textile industry. Its major weakness was lack of an adequate water supply.
·         The lampstands were to be mode according to the pattern shown Moses on the mountain. If these lampstands are representative of the church, then the best way to be a light to the world is by operating as God has shown us.
The bowl represents an abundant supply of oil, symbolizing the fullness of God’s power through His Spirit, and the seven…seven represents the abundant light shining from the lamps, which is representative of His church.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV

Almighty

Revelation 1:8-9 - “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Revelation 15:3 - And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

2 Timothy 2:11-13 - The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

Application:

·         Nine of the 12 occurrences of Almighty in the New Testament are in Revelation. The other three are in Romans, 2 Corinthians and James.

·         The Lord God Almighty’s deeds are marvelous.

·         Faithfully bearing up under suffering and trial will result in reward when Christ returns.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV