I'm very interested in the politics of the world at the
moment. As Christians, we should be.
We should watch on and see what's going on.
I see America is going through some big changes, some massive
changes. And so I find that the events in
America with Trump and Musk and, and all those things that are
happening in our, I find them fascinating.
Most fascinating because America plays no part in Bible prophecy.
As we read the Word of God, we find that fascinating, don't we?
Three things we Calvary Chapel pastors believe about why the
United States is in the prophetic picture, as the Word
of God tells us. One, the rapture, when it
occurs, will take so many from the nation that it will
devastate the nation. 2 That the internal conflict that bubbles
away, I mean, the, the war between the North and the South
and racism and things you don't have to dig very deep to find
they're still bubbling away in the United States.
And civil war could be the very next option as this great divide
now in politics between the Democrats and the Republicans.
It's become a very much a very emotive situation, their
politics. And so the third one is that
their own devastation themselves, they'll have so much
conflict within themselves is they just won't, won't be a
force in the world anymore because their home, their home
front will be just a mess, too difficult.
Trump has already put NATO and Australia and Europe, he said.
You guys, you know, don't depend upon us.
The war starts out and depend on us coming to save you like
before, because we've been paying for it.
You haven't been paying for it. We've been paying for it both in
money and in military strength and, and, and, and, and American
lives. And that's not, that's not the
future anymore. And China is flexing its
muscles. It just doesn't care about what
anyone does. And Putin, he just continues on.
Will there be a peace between Ukraine and, and, and Russia?
Who knows, but this was this is what we do know as we open the
Book of Revelation, we get told what is going to happen.
What is actually going to happen.
Roman sorry. Revelation chapter 1 The title
of today's message is do not be afraid.
Revelation one verse 9 I John, this is John the Apostle.
Notice what he writes both your brother, I'm a brother in Christ
and companion in the tribulation.
Now that's not the tribulation that we're going to look at
between chapters 6 and 19. This is the time of persecution
that the church was going through at that moment when John
is on the island of Patmos. I John, both your brother and
companion and in other words, he's he's undergoing persecution
personally in the tribulation and Kingdom and patience of
Jesus Christ was on the island that is called Patmos.
He was sent there because he was preaching the word of God and
for his testimony of Jesus Christ.
That's why he was banished. It says in verse 10, I was in
the spirit capital S on the Lord's day and I heard behind me
a loud voice as a trumpet saying I am the alpha and the Amiga.
So we're identifying now who this is.
This is God, the 1st and the last and what you see right in a
book that is the Book of Revelation and send it to the
seven churches which are in Asia, modern day Turkey, to
Ephesus, to Smyrna, Pergamos, Ayatira, to Saras, Philadelphia,
Laodicea. So John describes the Jesus he
heard. John again tells us that it's
he, it's the apostle John, your brother.
I'm the author, and I'm the one that's witnessing what you're
reading, the vision that I've received.
John will tell us once again that he is the author at the end
of this amazing prophetic book. Why is John going to detail
telling us that he's the author? And then again, I don't forget I
wrote this. Don't forget I wrote this.
Why is John saying this? Well, at the time the revelation
was written, it was an extremely bleak period for the church.
The Jewish religious religious community was very active in the
persecution of Christians. Cesar Nero had set fire to Rome
and had blamed Christians for the fire and the damage that had
blazed through the mighty city of Rome in AD 64.
It was also during that time that the apostles Peter and Paul
were executed and all the original disciples of Jesus were
being martyred. In AD 81, Domitian became
Emperor of Rome and it was he who banished John, the disciple
to the island of Patmos. Patmos is some 16 kilometres by
9 kilometres. It's just basically a rock in
the ocean. It's located in the Aegean Sea,
it's part of the Greek islands, and it's about 150 kilometres
from the city of Myelitis, which was about 57 KS South of
Ephesus, modern day Turkey. By now, as John is writing this,
all the disciples, all the 12 bar John, we're dead, gone,
killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.
And the church itself over all worldwide was discouraged and
had been dispersed. Such was the the persecution.
Jesus had been gone, now ascended into heaven for more
than 60 years, and John himself is in his late 90s.
Worst of all, the church was losing its first love for Jesus.
It was walking away from it. In chapter 2, we'll pick this up
where Jesus writes to the Church of Ephesus, and the Church of
Ephesus covers the history of the churches through this
Apostolic period. He says there in chapter 2,
Nevertheless, Jesus says I have this against you.
You have left your first love. The church hadn't lost it.
It had left it. You know, when you go home, you
go out from home and you go my phone, I have left it.
You know where it is. But when you go out somewhere
and you you've lost it, you know, I don't, I don't know
where it is. And So what was happening, and
it's happening today, one of the signs of the last days is that
people would leave the church, walk away.
But in these bleakest of times came the light of God's Word to
John of Patmos, telling John and the church.
The Book of Revelation is telling us, be courageous,
continue in the faith, be ready. Jesus is still ruling from
heaven and he is coming back again.
To make sure the church knew the validity of the letter.
The Book of Revelation which was remember told to be read out in
detail to all these churches. John identifies himself three
times. I wrote this.
I know Jesus, I've seen him again.
And what I'm writing is real. It's true.
You can trust it. I, John, tell you this.
In other words, John is saying, listen up, it's me, John, stay
in the faith even though things are difficult.
And Pastor Greg Glory, who's one of the largest churches in
Calvary's Harvest, his son, his oldest son was killed in a car
accident. The age of I think he was just
32. And a devastated Greg, obviously
it would, he heard the news. And so all the Calvary's us even
here, we wanted to know, Sunday's coming.
What's what's Greg going to do? Is he going to get up in church?
Is he going to preach? What's he's going to say?
His eldest son has just been killed terribly in a car
accident on the freeways in California.
So Greg got up and he said, I still believe.
And he sat down and someone else taught.
He says, I still believe. You see, there are times in
which you and I go through great crisis and crisis in our lives.
And we we wonder, we see what's going to happen.
And in the time that you and I live now, we're going to see a
falling away. But as I said to you as we were
worshipping at the announcements today, as you come to church,
you're saying to the world, you're saying to the enemy,
you're saying to those who have written you off, I still
believe. I know God's going to come
through. I still believe and John is
saying this to the church. Stay in the faith, stay in the
faith even though John has been banished to a rocky, barren,
desolate island. God was declaring I have not
forsaken you John, I know you're there and neither have I
forsaken my church. Patmos was not a God forsaken
island because God was with John.
And it's interesting that John was allowed in God's will to be
placed on Patmos. Why?
So that you and I today in 2025 could read this vision, this
prophecy. That's why John was banished.
There was a purpose. There's always a purpose in the
sorrow and the persecution that you face.
It is never wasted. There's always a purpose.
Look at the book of Job. Job, who went through so much?
How much of you and I learn from Job?
Jesus said himself, I will build my church.
And what did he say after that? The gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. We have a building programme
we've sent into the City of Rockingham and I've said, oh we
don't like it, Paul Reed wrote. I wrote back to him.
I said I don't care. City of Rockingham doesn't like
it. God will sort it out.
We need you to pray, but we need
you to pray for God's will to be done and our extensions.
We want another 4 classrooms. We want a youth room.
We want it out the front there. That's where we want it.
John would be later freed from Patmos, his exiled by Emperor
Nerva, who did not formally recognise Christianity, said I
don't believe it's a religion at all.
Therefore anyone who could made a confession about Christ didn't
bother him. He said it's not a political
crime because I don't recognise religion.
And John returned to Ephesus, where he passed away a few years
later, dying of old age. John's circumstances on Patmos
remind us that the most difficult times in our lives can
also be the most fruitful. I don't like them, we don't
enjoy them, but when we look back, they are indeed always the
most fruitful. When Pilgrims Progress was
written, and I encourage you to read it once a year, it's a it's
a once a year reader. Pilgrims Progress should all
read it once a year. The author, John Bunyan was
serving a 12 year prison sentence for the crime of
preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ without a licence. 12
years. But in that 12 years he wrote
what you and I have. Pilgrims Progress.
If God hadn't allowed him to go to gaol for that 12 years, we
wouldn't read that great book. Pilgrims Progress Who could
forget the great hymn writer Horatio Spafford?
He and his wife are buried in Jerusalem.
They went to Jerusalem later in the years of that life, they
served as missionaries there, cared for the homeless there.
Horatio Spafford, who lost all four of his daughters to
drowning through shipwreck on the 22nd of November.
And when Horatio Spafford sailed on a boat, a ship after
following the same course to England, coming across the
location where the captain of the ship said, Sir, this is
where it occurred. This is where the ship went
down. Your daughters were lost.
It's there that John Spafford, Horatio, sorry, Horatio Spafford
wrote. It is well.
It is well within my soul when peace like a river attends my
way, when sorrows like sea below's roll.
Whatever my lot you have taught me to say, it is well.
It is well within my soul. And you can go.
When we go to Israel, we'll take you to the place.
And you can actually see the handwritten lyrics of Horatio
Sperben. They contain on a wall in
Jerusalem. You can see them, but this is we
wouldn't have it as well. How many people have been been
touched by the power of God by singing it as well it as well
within my soul 1873 that occurred and many of the Psalms
we read that King David wrote were written during the period
that King Saul was out trying to kill him time and time again
month after month, David anointed king by God.
You Saul, King Saul is hunting him down trying to kill him.
You go how did this how does this work.
But during those that period of being haunted by Saul, David
wrote many of the the greatest psalms that we have in the
Bible. On a deserted rocky island, an
old man, the last living of the 12 disciples, received the
greatest vision ever recorded. And John receives the vision.
He says I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard
behind me a loud voices of the trumpet.
How would John have known it was the Lord's Day?
Sunday? Sunday was the Lord's day after
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Every believer, all believers met Sunday not on the Sabbath.
Jewish Sabbath was still Saturday.
Sunday. How does John know it's Sunday?
The paper didn't just roll up it, you know.
And here's a paper, John. Oh, it's Sunday.
He didn't have a calendar hanging on the prison wall.
No daily recording of days or months.
Was it because John purposely had, from the time he arrived,
took careful track of the days? Why would he do that?
Because he doesn't want to miss out church on Sunday.
Even on Patmos and on every Sunday, John prayed, worship and
met with the Lord. John worship.
The Lord is God even though alone on that day without fail.
It reminds me of Daniel and he's cohorts taken out of Israel,
young teenagers placed in Babylon, yet they lived
according to the time clock of the prayers and the sacrifices
that were still once had undergone in Jerusalem.
I want to ask you today, how do you treat gathering with church?
People say you know. Well, is it really important if
you know? Does it doesn't you know?
Does a Christian have to go to church?
No, doesn't make you a Christian either.
But here's the deal. And the writer of Hebrews writes
this Hebrews 1025. Let us not neglect our meeting
together as some people do, but encourage one another and why,
especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
You know, it's, it's, it's like everything else, how you treat
it. Church for me is important.
Why is it important? It's not about the church
itself. It's about my salvation and my
walk with God. I'm a Christian, this is what I
do. I used to be on 24/7 call with
the police and my job as a chaplain there.
But I reminded them, now you used to ringing me at 11:50 or
at six because my phone will be in my office and I'll be sitting
worshipping the Lord. You see, your clock should be
the Lord's clock. You don't fit in Christ.
Where? Oh, well, we got a few things
on. We're doing this that doesn't.
I can't comprehend that and John couldn't comprehend that.
This is not a casual get together.
It's not a, it's not a football club, a Country Club, a surf
club or anything like that. This is the body of Christ.
We've come to worship the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven
on earth, who has saved us. From our sins gives us mercy and
grace every day, feeds us, clothes us and allows my heart
to beat my lungs to work. Am I to treat that casually?
And it's interesting that marriage today and the way it
falls apart in so many homes is such a reflection on a on a
person's relationship with God. We sit use the Marriage Act in
the book of Ephesians chapter 5 where Paul tells what a husband
has to do and how a wife is to work and he says this is the
great mystery. It's the reflection.
Marriage is a reflection of our relationship with God and you
know your marriage will fall apart if you treat it casually.
Where should a husband be? Where should a wife be?
What should they be doing on on days and and whatever it's
pretty simple. It's clear, don't toy with
something that is precious and turn it into something that is
indifferent and without emotion, impact or passion.
And that's how marriages fall. And that's why people walk away
from the Lord because they treat it well.
It doesn't really make any difference if I don't go.
It doesn't matter. Skip and miss, Hit miss.
No, I won't be home in a marriage.
I won't be home this week. Oh, OK.
So you're not a husband this week.
No, no, be back next week. We do that with parenting.
Kids are the same. We parent doesn't let them, just
let them go. You know, we parent every now
and then when the need arises. No, you parent 24/7.
You parent all the time. It's not just when the need
arises. Let us not neglect our meeting
together as some people do. Don't you be as some people do,
but encourage one another. See you in church, see you
Sunday, see you Wednesday. Especially now that the day of
his return is drawing near. Because I tell you, Jesus is
coming. Did John recognise that voice
when Jesus spoke to him again? Absolutely.
But there was something about this voice at this time.
He knew that voice. Verse 12.
Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having
turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands, and in the midst of
the seven lampstands one, like the Son of Man, clothed with a
garment down to the feet, girded about the chest with a golden
band. His head and his hair were white
like wool, as white as snow, his eyes like a flame of fire.
His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace.
And his voice as the sound of many waters he had on his right
hand, 7 stars out of his mouth when a sharp 2 edged sword.
Now obviously a sword didn't actually go out of his mouth.
It's the word of God. And his countenance was like the
sun shining in its strength. In other words, his overall
appearance was dazzling, dazzling.
John describes now the Jesus he saw on Patmos.
John struggles to detail just how he saw Jesus and all his
glory he's trying to describe to us glorified Jesus.
So John uses symbolic and comparative language as he
struggles to put into words to explain the glorious appearance
of Jesus, the risen Son of God in all his glory.
The first thing John sees and describes, he says, And having
turned, I saw 7 golden lamp stands, 7 lamp stands.
They represent the seven churches we're told he is
writing to. And John sees Jesus.
And where is Jesus? He's in the midst, in the middle
of the churches. In other words, he sees Jesus
walking amongst the lamp stands, just as we are reminded on the
story. And Daniel of the three young
teenage Hebrews were thrown into a blasting fiery furnace by
Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Daniel 324 King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished as he peered into
the blaze and spoke, saying to his counsellors, Didn't we cast
three men bound into the midst of the fire?
They answered, Said the king, true king.
Look, he answered, I see four men loose walking in the midst
of the fire. They are not hurt and the form
of the 4th is like the Son of God.
What does that mean for for us today in June 2025?
You and I today can know with confidence and you need to be
confident, not confident in yourself.
I'm hopeless. Conrad came around, was doing
some work at our house electrician this week and I
explained him. Conrad can't dig a hole.
I can dig a hole, it'll fall in If I drill some the holes too
big, too small, something will break.
I'm just hopeless. I am.
I could never be a tradesman's assistant.
I'd be the tradesman's nightmare.
And so my confidence, I have none in me.
And as I grow older in decision making and being wise and what
to do, I have no confidence in me because you know what?
I look back and I've gone, oh man, make some mistakes, costly
mistakes, but my confidence in God is, is full blown.
I know. I know what God's word says.
I know Christ is coming back. I know what he's done for me.
I know that I don't have to fear anything.
And so in June 2025, you and I can know with confidence that
Jesus Christ is walking with you.
He's with you and I today. He's walking with you and I
today in the fires of our afflictions because each and
every one of us will come into them.
We'll go out of them and we'll some of you are in them, some of
you are just coming out of them, and some of you are about to go
into them. But know this.
Wherever you are in that line, there's someone walking with
you. He walks with you in the trials
and the storms that each of us are enduring at this moment and
wonderfully to note this, and you and I need to note this,
that Jesus is in the very midst of this, His church, Calvary
Chapel, Secret Harbour. This is his church.
He's here, He's in the midst of it.
The Bible tells us that he's the head of the church.
He's the head of the body. We are not alone.
The council can say we don't like that.
Good. Thank you.
Sort it out with the Lord, sort it out with the Lord.
He'll sort it out. He'll make his way through.
He does everything now. So we give the problem over to
him. We say, God, we have a situation
you, we give it to you now. We place it in your hands.
Your will be done in this matter and we'll go you beauty, however
it works. Verse 13 And in the midst of the
seven lampstands, one, like the Son of Man, clothed with a
garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a
golden band. Jesus is clothed with a garment
down to his feet, and he has a gold band across his chest.
This is the exact same description of that which was
worn by the whole High priest, reminding us that Jesus Christ
is our High Priest. Hebrews 414 Seeing then that we
have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, he
ascended up into the clouds in the next heaven to the other
heaven, and he's now seated at the right hand of the Father
Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession,
for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our
weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet
without sin. Let us therefore, based on all
that the writer of Hebrews says, come boldly.
How that's confident? Boldly.
I'm going to pray. God's going to sort this out.
I'll give it to the Lord. I'll bring the matter to him.
Yeah, I'm going to Miss Lord. I'm bringing it to you.
Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.
It's not a throne of judgement. Oh, you idiot.
You don't like you mucked it up again.
You're a drongo. No.
Aren't you glad that God's not like you?
You'll be pretty tough as God. You would have killed everyone.
But it's a throne. It's a throne of grace.
You know what grace is. God does not give us what we
deserve. I know what I deserve.
I deserve a good clip, good boot in the behind.
God doesn't give me that. That we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need.
Mercy. And you know what you can do?
You can call on him now. As our High Priest, Jesus prays
and intercedes for us. He invites us to approach him.
God encourage you. Come.
You ever had a mum and dad go? No get away.
Maybe some of you have, but the God who is our Father in heaven,
you know what he wants. He wants you to come.
You know that in the Psalms it says that God is ready to
forgive. He knows we've played up we've,
he knows we've broken the law. He knows we've bundled and
stumbled and done things wrong. And it says in the Psalm that
paints the picture, God says, I want you to come.
You know why I want you to come? Because I want to forgive you.
I'm ready to forgive you. You just need to come.
You need to come to him. Let us therefore, come boldly to
the throne of grace. And as our High Priest, Jesus
prays and intercedes for us, invites us to approach him and
his throne of grace by prayer. At any time, no matter where you
are, you can pray and you're at the throne of grace.
I can be sitting on a surfboard out in the ocean and I can pray
and I'm at the throne of grace. But especially when we need
mercy. And you know who needs mercy?
I need mercy every day. If I got judge, I'd be dead in a
second. God give me mercy.
Help me not to say that again. Help me not to do what I just
did. Help me not to think that God
give me mercy when we are deeply in need.
It was young John the disciple back a few years you remember,
who was the lone disciple found looking on at the foot of the
cross at Calvary when Jesus was crucified.
He was young John who witnessed first hand the Roman soldiers
playing and gambling for for Jesus seamless garment all that
he owed, owned. But now an old frail John sees
Jesus his and our High Priest, our Lord and Saviour, but this
time he's glorified and robed in the priestly garments.
It says his head and hair were white like wool, as white as
snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire.
Jesus hair and head were white like wool, revealing to us and
representing Christ's absolute holiness, His purity.
The prophet Isaiah tells us. 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 be as wool.
Our sins were Crimson, deep red, and have been made white as snow
through God's forgiveness by the substitutionary death of Jesus
on Calvary's cross. Our sins are horrific, aren't
they? We would never want anyone else
to know what we've said and done or thought.
Isaiah 53 Jesus was pierced for our rebellion.
He was crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be
whole. He was whipped so we could be
healed. And his eyes like a flame of
fire. Christ's eyes burned like fire.
Fire for us as a church and believers also represents now
how Jesus evaluates us, weighs us up.
He weighs our work and our lives and how they are lived for Him.
Now this is not Speaking of judgement over our sins, because
Jesus has already taken the judgement upon himself for our
sins at Calvary. But it is the judgement of our
lives as believers that you and I will see the very eyes of
Jesus looking on us. You and I as Christians will
stand before the Lord on what's called the Bema seat and there
will face the Lord and he will look at our sight with these
eyes. Paul writes about it.
For no one can lay any foundation other than one we
already have, Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that
foundation may use a variety of materials.
How you live your life, gold, silver, jewels, wood, high and
straw. But on the Judgement Day,
Christian fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has
done. The fire will show if a person's
work has any value. Have I been doing things just
for myself, or am I actually living for God?
Am I serving God as God wants me to, or am I doing God my way?
Because if you're doing God your way, when you stand before God
and say, Oh God, look what I've done, I wouldn't stop.
But when you've done what he has asked you to do, gold, precious
metals, jewellery. His feet were like fine brass,
as if refined in a furnace, and his voice is the sound of many
waters. Brass in the Bible is always
aligned with judgement in the Scriptures and Christ's voice
and his voice is the sound of many waters getting on the beach
when the when the the waves are just massive and in Sacred
Harbour you and I can hear it at different times where he just
that's the voice of God powerful.
Why is it described like this? Because this explains Christ's
authority, His word, His authority we need to pay
attention to. Were you ringing me, Rosemary?
I'll get back to you. That's God's voice, Rosemary.
God so much. The word of God is Christ's
authority. How loud does God's word speak
to you? Is Christ Lord in your life?
Is God's word Lord in your life? Is Christ the Lord of your life?
It means everything that you have is got in charge of it.
Or do you these these, This is your area, this is your room,
it's locked off. This is what I do.
He had on his right hand seven stars out of his mouth when I
sharp 2 edged stored and his countenance was like the sun
shining in its strength in Christ's right hand always
speaks of strength seven stars in verse 20 will tell us that
these are the messengers to the seven churches and out of
Christ's mouth the Lord's mouth A2 edged sword telling us the
power of Christ's word to do what it sets out to do.
I want to give you some advice. You may read a lot of Christian
books and that nothing wrong with that.
You we can read Bible commentaries, nothing wrong with
that. But you do need to read God's
word. You can't have one for the
other. You need God's word because it
is God's word alone that penetrates into our hearts, that
divides our soul, the Spirit. It's God's word as you read it
and as you say it to someone. And if you're counselling
someone, be careful. Don't give them your opinion.
Read to them the word of God. Let God's word do what it does.
Isaiah 5510 and 11 My word shall go forth from me, and it shall,
and it shall do what I sent it to do.
It shall not return to me void. God's word is sharper than to
any 2 edged sword. You need to know it, you need to
read it, you need to speak it, and you need to hear it.
The appearance of Jesus to John was so bright and so impacting
that he could not stand before him, reminding us of when Jesus
appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus before it became Paul.
What happened? It's so dazzled Saul.
He's knocked off his donkey, can't see, He's blinded.
Lord, what would you have me do? Same thing here.
The same Jesus, dazzling in all his glory.
He dazzles John, causes John to fall at Christ's feet as though
he were dead. It says Now being a 90 year old
guy, that's easy to do. It was the holiness of God.
We don't hear about that now. The holiness of God.
Remember, John had known Jesus. He had lived and walked with him
intimately for at least three years.
No one was closer to Jesus than John.
He was the disciple who at the Last Supper evening, remember,
sat next to Jesus and rolled his head over and had his head on
Jesus chest. But we don't see John speaking
irreverently, mate. Casually high fiving Jesus.
Great to see you man calling him by a nickname.
Some believers today speak as if Jesus was their mate.
This passage penned by John magnifies the holiness of God.
If this vision of Jesus caused John, who knew Jesus so well, to
collapse as if dead, what then should be yours and my response
today? Church?
Now we need not fear Christ in terror, no, but we and our
children also must reverence Him in His Holiness.
This is why we ask you not to move around during the service,
not because we just want to be that way, which I believe that
moving and jostling around you see in churches is not treating
the word of God or being reverent to God or worshipping
him with the reverence he deserves.
John is laying face down at Jesus feet and Jesus now
lovingly touches the old disciples shoulder and says to
him, look what he says. John, don't be afraid.
Go through the Bible. I did it one time through all
the God. Just go through the gospels and
underline this. Read through speed, read every
time Jesus said to his disciples, do not be afraid.
You know why he says it over and over and over?
Because you and I are always afraid.
We're afraid of this. We're afraid of that, this each
and every one of us. We have these phobias.
We won't tell anyone what they are.
We're afraid. Oh, what if I do the wrong
thing? What if I if I said this?
What if, what if they laugh at me?
What if I, what if, what if we're afraid?
Jesus says to John here the word of God, do not be afraid.
Why? He says, I have the keys of
Hades and death. Death is what happens to the
body, and Hades is the place to where the body goes in the sense
of and the rich man, the Lazarus, go down as a great
divide. Jesus tells the story.
The rich man who just blown it all didn't bother with God.
He's on one side. There's a great divide on the
other side as Lazarus. He's comforted by Abraham and
Abraham's bosom, that place where the dead go now and they
await the second resurrection. That's Hades.
On one side, it's been empty because Jesus tells us,
descended into hell, took all those because they needed to
seek Christ, that those have been held captive by death, took
them to be with the Lord. But on the other side, still on,
each time someone dies who's not a believer, that's where they
go. Well, it tells us in the Book of
Revelation chapter 20 that both death, because there's no more
death in heaven, and Hades, the place where they did go, they're
going to be cast into the lake of fire, no longer to exist.
Revelation 2014. Jesus says, hey, John, I cut the
keys. You never tried to get in
somewhere. You need something and someone
says got the key. Hey, it's got the keys.
Jesus says I'm in control of everything.
In other words, Jesus reminds John and you and I today that he
is in control of everything. He conquered our greatest enemy.
What is a man's greatest enemy? Fear of death.
Everyone out there in the world, their greatest fear is dying.
That's why they're Botoxing, Jimming and trying to, you know,
paint themselves. They look orange and they want
to live to 100. And you see these people, you
go, that's not a real good look and I'm fit.
No, no, I want a new body because this one's worn out and
God's going to give me a body created by him that's going to
be absolutely perfect. He conquered our greatest enemy.
Death and the sting of the grave.
He lives forever more. Jesus says he has the keys.
He gives us eternal life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him
should not perish, be separated from him, but have eternal life,
but will always be with him. So he's going to walk with you
forever and ever and ever. This walk that he's on with you
now, it's never ending. I I love that.
And so we need not fear anything.
Albanese, Penny Wong, don't fear them.
On John 418, there is No Fear and love, but perfect love casts
out fear because fear involves torment.
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
This morning as we wrap this up, whatever might be bringing fear
into your heart today. And if you look at the world,
man, it's a terrifying world. Another machete attack in
Melbourne, more anti semitism. You know, they've they've
blocked Jewish influencer for coming into Israel, blocked his
visa. Australia has blocked his visa.
Anyone else can come. Whatever things from your past
that are bringing fear into your heart, whatever things that are
problems that you are fearful of today, right now, and whatever
concerns you're fearful of for your future, we can cast all our
cares on Him, for He cares for us.
Peter tells us Jesus places his hand on your shoulder this
morning, just as he did with John, and he says to you, I'd be
afraid. Isn't that great?
Don't be afraid. How Jesus appeared to old John
must have been so wonderful for John personally, don't you think
alone, frail in age. The last disciple he'd been
thinking was Patmos, to be where he would die alone.
Is this it forgotten? Then he gets this, the greatest
prophecy ever written. John says this prophecy, it's
authentic, He's coming. Are you ready?
Are you ready for the coming of the Lord?
Because the world is about to go into this area here and Jesus
said it's never seen anything or experienced anything like this
ever before. Except those days.
Be short. Even the very elect wouldn't
make it.