OPEN: Years ago, there was a TV show called Kojak. It starred Telly Savalas as a lollipop-sucking detective who always went around saying, “Who loves ya, Baby?”
Welcome: Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking deeper into the “Last Chapter, or Last Battle” as some like CS Lewis call it in the Bible. This week we look for Hope in Revelation Ch 8.
“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so”
- He “… loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” Revelation 1:5
- He has “… made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father…” Revelation 1:6
- He has given us robes made “… white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:14
- ”… he’ll guide (us) to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from (our) eyes.” Revelation 7:17
- We will conquer Satan “… by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of (our) testimony….” Revelation 12:11
- We have “his name… written on (our) foreheads…” Revelation 14:1
- And we sing “… a new song before the throne…” Revelation 14:3
https://www.rockofages.org.sg/pastoral-reflections/2020/3/11/daniels-seventy-weeks-prophecy
Revelation 7:4b-8 – “I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of JOSEPH,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.”
“… he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart…” Romans 2:28-29
“But now IN Christ Jesus you who ONCE were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13
Back in 325 A.D. the church held a conference in the city of Nicea. We’re told that there were 318 delegates who attended. Of those 318 delegates, “fewer than 12 had not lost an eye or lost a hand or did not limp on a leg lamed by torture for their Christian faith.” Vance Havner.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Scars.html?id=eM0LvgAACAAJ
https://www.equip.org/articles/what-really-happened-at-nicea/
C.S. Lewis once said: “As you perhaps know, I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
https://www.lewisquotes.com/quotations/happiness/happiness-and-religion.html
Ephesians 2:1-5 tells you and I “… you (and I) were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Revelation 19:11-13 “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.”
II Corinthians 10:3-4 “… though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…”
Revelation 8:1-5 “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
“Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.”