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Today we finished our study, “Characters of the Bible.” As we unwrapped each character, we discovered God used the many innate personalities of each to shape that person into the person He wanted them to be. When we started with Eve, the “Mother of All Living Things,” we find that she, like her husband Adam were made as perfect creatures (“Let’s make them in Our Image). Yet God gave them a free will and they failed by yielding into temptation. Why? Because of the sin of PRIDE – the same sin that got Satan and his followers thrown out of heaven. Since that fall, the other characters we studied had many flaws. Some were weak and made strong; others were strong and made weak. Even the Godlier men and women we studied had their various faults. But God having shaped them into the person He wanted them to be, used each of them for His Glory.
I pray it was as much a blessing to you as it was to me. While we could have continued to cover more characters (there are many), I felt the Holy Spirit pulling me to go in a different direction. If you look around at the events taking place in this world, you may understand why. As I mentioned this morning, this study has both good news and bad news.
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”
What I failed to mention is that we may not get that far into the study, at least not here on earth.” I urge you all to come prepared by starting to read and/or study Matthew 24 & 25 – “The Olivet Discourse.” The discourse is the longest part of Jesus’ discussion in the Gospel of Mark and serves as a strong warning of the judgment on both this generation and impending tribulations. It also gives us assurance of His Second Coming! You may also want to bring a notebook and pen or pencil to take notes.
The reason I urge you to read and/or study it will become clear, while it prepares you for what is yet to come. Many Bibles title this book as, “The Revelation of St. John, the Divine.” However, such titles were not in the original New Testament Greek manuscripts. Others like Douay-Rhiems Bible call it Apocalypse. Yet I have not found one single translation yet that does not show the same real name for the book, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Even the Clementine Vulgate written in Latin translated below in the Douay-Rhiems Bible shows the very first verse 1 to so name the Book.
“1 1 Apocalypsis Jesu Christi, quam dedit illi Deus palam facere servis suis, quæ oportet fieri cito: et significavit, mittens per angelum suum servo suo Joanni, 2 qui testimonium perhibuit verbo Dei, et testimonium Jesu Christi, quæcumque vidit. 3 Beatus qui legit, et audit verba prophetiæ hujus, et servat ea, quæ in ea scripta sunt: tempus enim prope est.”
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to make known to his servants the things which must shortly come to pass: and signified, sending by his angel to his servant John,
2 Who hath given testimony to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, what things soever he hath seen.”
Check out for yourself what Chapter 1 Verse 1 calls it in your own Bible. In addition, people often speak of it as Revelations. Yet, this book is only one Revelation given to the Apostle John. I look forward to this study and pray you all will too.
While I take a short break of two weeks to revise and restudy this Indepth book, Rob Moritz will fill in those next two weeks to cover the Book of Philippians. Rob already presented the Introduction to this book. For anyone who missed it, here is an Introduction from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Php). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
“Philippians overflows with joy and thanksgiving. Paul wrote to the church in Philippi to thank them for a gift. He reported the joyful news that Epaphroditus, who had brought their gift to Paul, had recovered from his illness and was returning to Philippi. Paul said that he had learned the secret of being content in any situation, and he told them about his situation in prison. He expressed joy that more people were hearing about Christ even if some were proclaiming the gospel with bad motives. Wanting the Christians in Philippi to be unified, he challenged them to be servants just as Jesus was when he “emptied himself” and became a man rather than clinging to the rights of his divine nature (2:1–11). Paul wrote this letter while in prison, probably in Rome about a.d. 60.”
Come join Rob as he brings us through Chapter 1 of the “Book of Philippians.”
We start promptly at 9:15 – yes A.M. this coming Sunday, March 31, 2019.