Unveiled | Part 1: How to Read the End of the Story | Chris Vaught

♪ Hey, good morning CPC family ♪ ♪ It's so good to be in the house ♪ ♪ Lord with you today ♪ ♪ If you're joining us online, welcome ♪ ♪ Today we're calling on the Lord ♪ ♪ Let's stand to our feet ♪ ♪ Let's worship together today, church ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Well, let's say we come ♪ ♪ Well, we've come ♪ ♪ For a move of God ♪ ♪ We've come for the holy one ♪ ♪ All we want, come on ♪ ♪ All we hunger for is you ♪ ♪ Yes, only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, we've come with expecting heart ♪ ♪ Under knowing who you are ♪ ♪ Lord, we love for what only you can ♪ ♪ Do ♪ ♪ Oh, so we sing holy spirit ♪ ♪ Come like fire on the altar ♪ ♪ Press wind blowing through ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter you ♪ ♪ So make us an offering ♪ ♪ Or make us an emperor ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Yes, until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Make us desperate ♪

♪ Until our idols down ♪ ♪ We're repented ♪ ♪ This is still your house ♪ ♪ Yeah, you're minted ♪ ♪ When you said you'd pour your spirit out ♪ ♪ Oh, so we sing holy spirit ♪ ♪ Come like fire on the altar ♪ ♪ Press wind blowing through ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter you ♪ ♪ So make us an offering ♪ ♪ Or make us an emperor ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Yes, until we encounter you ♪ ♪ Until we encounter you ♪ ♪ They made church today ♪ ♪ We're calling on the Lord ♪ ♪ Asking for Him to do what only He can do ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen, let's worship together ♪ ♪ Come on ♪ ♪ Sing we need a move of God ♪ ♪ Calling the Lord today, church ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ We're hungry, we're desperate ♪ ♪ Lord, open the heavens ♪ ♪ Oh, come on ♪

♪ We need a move of God in His city ♪ ♪ And we need a move of God in His church ♪ ♪ Whoa, we need a move of God ♪ ♪ We're hungry, we're desperate ♪ ♪ Lord, open the heavens ♪ ♪ Yes, we need a move of God in our families ♪ ♪ Oh, we need a move of God in our hearts ♪ ♪ Yes, we need a move of God ♪ ♪ We're hungry, we're desperate ♪ ♪ Lord, open the heavens ♪ ♪ Fire on the altar ♪ ♪ Freshman blowing through ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter Him ♪ ♪ We'll make us an offering ♪ ♪ We'll make us in a brew ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter Him ♪ ♪ Fire on the altar ♪ ♪ Freshman blowing through ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter Him ♪ ♪ To make us an offering ♪ ♪ To make us an offer ♪ ♪ We're gonna stay here ♪ ♪ Until we encounter Him ♪ ♪ Whoa, we need a move of God ♪ ♪ Oh, come and move ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ Yes ♪

♪ Oh, we need a move of God ♪ ♪ We're hungry, we're desperate ♪ ♪ Lord, open the heavens ♪ ♪ We need a voice we need ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ Yes, Lord ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ Come on, cry out today ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ We're hungry, we're desperate ♪ ♪ Lord, open the heavens ♪ ♪ Every voice sing ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ Yes ♪ ♪ We need a move of God ♪ ♪ Oh, come and move ♪ ♪ We're hungry, we're desperate ♪ ♪ Lord, open the heavens ♪ ♪ Come on, lift your brace shirts ♪ ♪ Where we go now ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I'm calling on the God of Jacob ♪ ♪ Who's loving doors through generations ♪ ♪ I know that you will keep your colored knee ♪ ♪ I'm calling on the God of mostly ♪ ♪ The one who opened up the ocean ♪ ♪ I need you now to do the same thing for me ♪ ♪ For me, believe ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪

♪ Oh, I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh, I go rock of ages ♪ ♪ I'm standing on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ On your faithfulness ♪ ♪ I'm calling on the God of man ♪ ♪ Who's paid for rest upon the Lord ♪ ♪ I know where you are, things are possible ♪ ♪ I'm calling on the God of David ♪ ♪ Who made us shepherd but courageous ♪ ♪ And taught me not to face good life ♪ ♪ But I've got my own chance ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh, I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh, I go rock of ages ♪ ♪ I'm standing on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ On your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ How I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh, I go rock of ages ♪ ♪ I'm standing on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ On your faithfulness ♪ ♪ I'm standing on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ In every season you are good ♪ ♪ You heard your children ♪ ♪ You hear your children ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You enter prayers back ♪

♪ And you will answer now ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You were providing that ♪ ♪ You are providing now ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You move in power then ♪ ♪ God move in power now ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You were a healer then ♪ ♪ You are a healer now ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You were a Savior there ♪ ♪ You are my Savior now ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ You are the same God ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪ Rock your hands Rock your hands, baby I'm standing on your faithfulness On your faithfulness Hold on my God, I need you Hold on my God, I need you now How I need you now Rock your hands Rock your hands

I'm standing on your faithfulness On your faithfulness I'm standing on your faithfulness You never fail, you never fail You never see this You never fail me Oh God, my God, I need you Oh God, my God, I need you now How I need you now Rock your hands I'm standing on your faith On your faith Come on Church, can we praise the Lord today? Amen. He's so good. He's so good. He's so faithful. Thank you for joining us today. We do hear if you could Take a moment and scan the QR code on the screen Protects the word guest, the number, it's going to show up. There we go, 573-340-4037 Or you can just tap the tag on the seat back in front of you. We want to get to know who you are and we want to let you know who we are. Today, as you walked in Church, you should have grabbed your communion elements. Today is a body of believers. We want to take communion together. I was asked this morning, why do we take communion so often? It's a good question. I assume a lot of you may come from a church that only takes it maybe twice a year. Some of you I know come from churches that would take it every week. But the reason why we take communion is often as we do, why we take of the Lord's Supper is often as we do, is to remember what Jesus did for us.

To remember the sacrifice that He made for us. Amen. If you don't have your communion elements or people walking up the aisle today, you can grab one of those if you're watching online. We would love for you to take communion with us. You can go into your kitchen. You can grab a cracker and some juice. Again, we'd love for you to do this with us today. In Luke chapter 22, we see Jesus and His disciples in an upper room. Just one day before Jesus would be crucified and He's sitting around a table with His disciples. And He takes a piece of bread and He said, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And He took a cup. And He said that this cup represents the new covenant in my blood. And again, He would say, "Do this in remembrance of me." Church, I need you to know that there's no power in this bread, in this cracker. There's no power in this juice. The power comes when we remember what Jesus did for us. This is all this is about. It's just remembering the sacrifice that He made, His body that was broken and His blood that was shed. Amen. Amen. Later that evening, He would take His disciples into a garden, a garden of Gethsemane. And He would ask them to pray that they not fall into temptation. And as they were praying, Jesus would go farther on, farther into the garden. And He would weep, and He would sweat drops of blood onto the ground. And He would say, "Father, take this cup from me, yet not my will. But yours be done." I think that's a prayer that we need to pray more often. We will never face the punishment that Jesus knew He was about to face. But we often find ourselves in tough seasons, in tough times. And we say, "Lord, get me out of this season. Get me out of this situation." When sometimes we may just need to pray, "Lord, not my will." Maybe God is using that moment, that time and that season to shape us, to mold us into the people that he wants us to be.

As Jesus was praying, his accusers would come close, led by one of his closest friends, one of his disciples, Judas, and they would arrest Jesus there in the garden and put him on trial for crimes that he never committed. In the following day, they would put him up in front of everyone, all the Jews that had gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. They would put him up there in front of everyone for them to decide what was to be done with this Jesus. And they shouted, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" So they did. He died a death that was the worst punishment by law for crimes that he never committed. And so they took him away and they beat him. The Bible says that he was scorched, the flesh from his back and from his sides was torn. It says that he was made unrecognizable. They would put a crown of thorns on his head, thorns that would dig into his scalp. Then they would put a cross on his back and he would march up a hill where he would be hung on that cross for six hours to struggle to breathe and to die a death that you and I had deserved. His blood was shed and his body was broken. This is what we remember today. We remember the sacrifice that he made for us. We remember that he paid the punishment, paid the debt of all of our sin and he took the punishment that we deserved. Amen. Amen. Let's grab the bread, just hold it in your hand for a second. Again Jesus said this was his body, his body that was broken, his body that was beaten for us. Lord Jesus, we remember today that you took the punishment that we deserved, that you died a death Lord that we deserved to die. We thank you for your body that was broken.

Lord, bless this Father, as we take it. Let's take the bread. And the cup, again Jesus said that this cup represents a new covenant in his blood. See blood shed is required for the atonement of sins, but there was a sacrifice once and for all who all call upon the name of the Lord, this blood, this cup that represents the blood of Jesus and now covers all of our sins. And we can receive forgiveness through that blood and only by that blood, amen. Amen. Lord Jesus, again we thank you, that you took the punishment that we deserved, that your blood was shed for us so that we may receive forgiveness of our sins and eternity with you Lord, bless this Father, as we take it. Let's take the cup. Again Lord, we thank you and we remember today all that you've done. Lord, you long to be with your creation so much that you would send your only son to this earth and live a perfect life, yet die the death that we deserve, die on a cross for all sins of all creation. We thank you Lord, that you took that punishment upon yourself willingly. You could have come off of that cross, but you didn't. You hung there for hours Lord, knowing that this was what had to happen. So Lord Jesus, we thank you and our response right now Lord is just praise and thanksgiving for all you've done and for who you are Lord Jesus. We love you and we thank you, it's in Jesus name and all God's people said, Amen. Church, we're going to go back into a moment of worship, our prayer workers are going to come forward. If you have a need today of any kind, I encourage you to come and let us pray over you, agree and prayer with you today. Let's continue to worship. [Music] [Music] I lift my voice and sing

I lay my life before you This is my offering Thank you Jesus Right now in this moment I feel you all around Have your way for Jesus But this is holy ground To the one who sits on the throne The lamb that was slain The lion who rose To the only one who's able to open the scroll Of blessing and honor to you and you alone As your people praise you As they look upon your face May you come, Lord Jesus May glory fill this place To the one who sits on the throne The lamb that was slain The lion who rose To the only one who's able to open the scroll All blessing and honor to you and you alone To the Lord, almighty the one Who saved me holy holy holy Holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, the Lord My King, holy, holy, holy Your holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, O of heaven sing, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, dear, we join

And sing, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, the Lord, who saved me Holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, the Lord My King, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, O of heaven sing Holy, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy to the Lord O my, dear, we join And sing, holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy to the One Who sits on the throne The Lamb that was slain The Lion who rose to the only One Who's able to open the throne Of blessing and honor To you and you alone The One Who sits on the throne O the Lamb that was slain The Lion who rose Only the Only One For blessing in honor to you and you alone To you and you alone God, we give you all the glory. Guys I could hear your voices behind the door and nothing brings me up more than just hearing the praise of all of God's people and the hearts behind that. I know that this morning some of you may not know but we had a little bit of a power outage and so there for a little bit we were working on the fly and I got to hear just the voices

nothing behind it nothing nothing at all but just the voice and the praise to Jesus and there's nothing more beautiful than that. So giving God all the glory my name is Cherish I'm your hospitality director here at Connection Point Church and I want to welcome personally welcome all of you to Connection Point Church and all of you online thank you for watching and just seeking God and what he has for you today. Some of you may know about our care portal and Cassie Wright leads the care portal she's the director and she does an awesome awesome job and she was planning on being here today to give you a little bit more information about volunteering because they can always use more volunteers they do so much for our community and they're able to take what you guys are giving and turn it into something awesome God multiplies it and puts it in their hands so they're able to like this week she said they put up a wheelchair ramp for someone in our community who needed it in their home and it's just awesome to know that because of your generosity we're able to see these things happening in our community and all over the world so thank you for that. There are four ways to give to continue that they are up on the screen you're able to text give to the number on there and then you're also able to go to our website you can also use the drop boxes in the back of the worship center or you can mail it into the website and so just because of your giving and your hearts that have been able to bless so many out there we're able to do those things keep in mind that care portal you can go to our website and the outreach the outreach portion of our website will show you kind of guide you to the care portal where you can volunteer Cassie will be back she's actually broken a rib so that's why she's not here just be praying for her and she could definitely use it she's in the ER last night and so we're praying over her just hoping that she's feeling a little better resting right now but yes she would be she would be really brought up I'm sure out of her her a little bit of pain she's dealing with right now just knowing she's got some extra volunteers supporting her so definitely jump on that website and see what we can do to show her our support as well and just want to go to the Lord and thanks this morning father thank you God for just where you've been moving so far today and all the hearts that are coming here seeking you Lord I'm just so thankful to know that

we serve a God who removed the veil and who allowed us to just seek his presence and to be here it's impossible not to feel your presence today God I love to see what you're doing in each and every one of us and Lord we're just so thankful for the word that pastor Chris has today I've gotten to hear it so far and it is amazing I'm so excited for everyone here to hear it everyone online to hear it God we're just excited for that to sink in and be something that they go and share with every single one of the ones out there who may not have that relationship with you yet Jesus so just help us all to tune in from Pastor Chris. And we're looking forward to hearing your word today, Jesus. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. - Amen. Well, how many is excited to be in God's house today? Can we give him our best praise of the morning? Come on in this house and online, amen. Hey, go ahead and fist bump a couple of people right now and tell them, good to see you this morning. What an incredible time together. Glad you're here. And we're so thankful for our online campus and those watching in prisons across America. Come on in, be a part of this. In house, you can grab your message notes and your journal, your Bible. We're gonna dive into that in a moment and then online, you can download them off any of our media outlets. Hey, I even forget about this. If you're on the YouVersion Bible app, you can also download our message notes there

and they come with even Bible verses already put in place for you and it's very in depth. If you like taking notes that way. So just come on, join us and be with us. We're gonna have a lot of fun today. We're setting up the next five weeks as we're gonna begin a new series called Unveiled and you're gonna understand why here in just a moment. But we're gonna have a good time today in the Lord's house. So I want you to get your Bibles ready and we're gonna dive into this together. Let's pray. That's the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Father, we love you. Thank you for allowing us to be here today. Thank you for the moving of your Holy Spirit, letting us worship you in song, worshiping you through communion and prayer time. Thank you for everyone who served. Thank you for those you're giving financially to support what you're doing here so that we can get the gospel to more people. Thank you, God, for your word. And today, God, we pray that you help us to hear what you have to say. God, open our ears to be attentive to the Holy Spirit. God, our desire is to have a mind of truth and a voice of hope, be a people with hearts of compassion, hands of service and feet of purpose.

So to do that, God, we need you to let the Word come alive inside of us. Let our minds comprehend it and our hearts receive it in faith so we can be more like you, less like us, help us, Lord, to become more salt and light in a world that desperately needs it. So God, speak God. What we're gonna dive into over the next five weeks will be a little challenging, but it could be so fulfilling at the same time. So God, speak God, we're listening in Jesus name and all God's people said. Listen, our growth and development pastor here at CPC, his name is David Hilliard. If you're new to the church and you're like, man, I wanna check this place out. I'm so glad you're here. Please stop and see me. I'll be right outside these doors after the service. But if you have like questions about the topic we're gonna be talking about, you're to email your concerns or questions to deheal your at your CPC.church. And the reason, I'm having a lot of fun with that because here's what's going on in our church. We're in a Bible reading plan. You can download a copy online or you can pick up a copy at the next step station. And what we're doing as a church is we're reading the New Testament and the book of Psalms this year.

So what it looks like is five chapters a week, one chapter a day, five days a week, and then a small section of Psalms. And we're reading through it, we're incorporating these huddles which people men to men, women's women can go and study the Bible together and keep a Bible study called a here journal where you highlight a verse and then you explain it and you respond to it, you apply the truth and you respond to it. And I'll talk more about that in a moment, but these are very important. And here's why I bring up David Hilliard is I think it was a little sneaky and sly on his part that he chose when he put together our reading plan that the day after Halloween is when we're gonna start reading the scariest book of the New Testament for a lot of people. So here's what's gonna happen over the next five weeks. You're gonna read through the book of Revelation, not revelations, it's no S at the end, it's the revelation, one revelation, you're gonna see that over the next five weeks. Generally, I preach from what you've already read and I'll pick a passage out of your five chapters and I'll preach it. For the next five weeks, I'm gonna actually be preaching before you read because what I wanna do is I wanna give you tools in your toolbox so you can go to this book

that I know some of you in this room and watching online won't read that you've never read before because you think it's creepy or scary or confusing and there's others of you who probably have been told by somebody who was well-meaning, don't read the book of Revelation, it'll drive you crazy. I've heard that and I've heard people say that and I just want you to know the end goal of mine today is to change your perspective. I wanna give you some tools in your toolbox to help you unlock the mystery. So that when you read it and you go into these huddles, if you're interested in a huddle, we even have a huddle interest meeting coming up. It's on the front of your worship guide there. If you wanna learn more about these huddles and launch into one in 2027. But I want you to understand that there are great truths in the book of Revelation that you need right now. And if you understand the book, it won't make you afraid of the future. It'll make you excited about the future and it'll give you peace in where you are right now with what you're dealing with. So this is what we're gonna do. Now let me tell you what I'm not gonna do in five weeks. I am not gonna unlock all the individual mysteries and answer all the theological questions you have about the book of Revelation. I am not gonna tell you who the Antichrist is.

If he's a person or a system, I'm not gonna tell you what the mark of the beast is or isn't other than I will just tell you. It's probably not a chip in your vaccine. It's probably not a stamp you're gonna get on your actual hand. All right. Anyway, what I'm not gonna do, I'm not gonna tell you if the raptors before a tribulation period or after or if the tribulation period's even a real thing or if it's symbolic. 'Cause here's, there are mysteries that we can go back and forth on over and over again. And I can't do that for you skipping five chapters a week. But what I am gonna do is hopefully help you find the biblical truths of how to study the book so that when you read it, it starts making sense. And then the Holy Spirit begins to reveal to you from the book and you can dive in and actually apply it with some hope. So I want you to really dive into this with me over the next five weeks. Today we're gonna dive into this and we're gonna see some hope in the book and find some relevant pieces to pull out to help us in our faith. We call this unveil. I want the word of God to be unveiled before you and for you to see as John pulls back the curtain

who's standing on the stage in full authority. There's where we're going over the next five weeks. 'Cause let's just be real, our culture can't stop talking about the end of time. If you wanna sell a book, write a book about the end times. If you wanna get some views on your social media platform, put out a video about the end of time. Just pick up something in the modern newspaper, wait till the next political season comes around. 'Cause we're good about this in America and let's turn everything in the political season to something in the book of Revelation and we can get people stirred up really quickly. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And listen to me, that is not what the scripture says. Listen, I need you to know fear sales and our world is built on fear about the end of time. Back in September of 2025, a South African pastor said he had a vision on TikTok. He said, I had a vision and the Lord Jesus has told me he's coming back and the rapture of the church will be on September the 23rd, 2025. It went viral, it went all over the world. It even got its own little hashtag, rapture talk. And people just went crazy. Listen, people literally started selling their houses, quitting their jobs, giving away their retirement because there's like, hey, what am I gonna do with it? I'm gonna be gone. I just don't know what they thought everyone else

was gonna do with it, it got left behind. But anyway, they started selling everything off and they started quitting their jobs and this, it went viral all over TikTok. Here was the problem, leaning close. I wanna give you an answer. They woke up on September the 24th and they were still here. Without their jobs, without their homes and without their retirement. And then they're trying to put it all together and think what in the world's going on and where's God right now? And listen, this isn't the first time we've been here. Come on, somebody. How many of you were around here in Y2K? I mean, the whole world. Everybody was up on December 31st watching the clock 'cause they didn't know what was gonna happen when we went from 1999 to the year 2000. Everybody thought the world was gonna come to an end and all the computers are gonna crash. Everybody's gonna starve and go hungry and everybody was sitting on the edge of their seats and then the year turned to 2000, guess what happened? Nothing. Then after Y2K came the 2012 Mayan calendar, surely that is gonna get us. How many of you remember the calendar?

That's gonna get us 'cause you know, the Mayans, they have a wisdom that didn't come from this earth because they were able to build temples back when they didn't know what they were doing. And they probably were aliens and they're in the book of Enoch and they're gonna come out in the UFO files from the government. And ever, and listen, by the way, don't come. No, we can't have to talk about the book. Here we go. It's not listen. We've been here before. If you fear sales and people, listen, we are so wrapped up with the end of time. In fact, since 1947, did you know that scientists have been trying to predict the day that we as a human race will annihilate ourselves? They created a clock to count down the time. It's called the doomsday clock. And every year they come out the first of the year and say, we are eight seconds from elimination. And everybody gets afraid. Let me ask you, how many of you have been afraid to read the book of Revelation in the past? How many of you have been told don't read the book of Revelation? I remember as a kid, I says how it was explained to me. It's written by the spirit. And unless you're in the spirit, you can't understand it.

And here's what I want to say. We're saved. We're Christians. We're filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe we should be able to understand a little bit, don't you? We may not get all the mysteries, but we should be able to come to some comprehension just like watch us leaning close, just like the first Christians did when they got the book themselves. So we're going to jump into this today. Are you ready? My goal today is to give you four keys on how to unveil the truths from the book of Revelation. I'm going to give you four keys to dive into. So set up straight, listening close. I'm going to go fast. And we're going to dive into this because I want you to be able to go out here with some confidence when you read the book. For one thing, you need to know what the word apocalypse means. It does not mean the end of the world. Everybody thinks of the word apocalypse and they immediately go to danger and demons and the devil on earth, the antichrist rule in the world. When you go to the negative, here's what the word actually means. And unveiling and uncovering of something that is hidden. The apocalypse means that there is an unveiling

of something that is hidden. It is like John through God is pulling back the curtain so that when he pulls back the curtain, you see who is standing on the stage and it's going to be Jesus, not the antichrist. Jesus is the one that's going to have the last word. By the way, in this house online in prisons across America, how many of you are excited enough to know about God that the end of the story, God is the one who will have the last word. Amen? He's the one who's going to have the last word. In fact, I'm going to break down the first seven verses of the book for you. Here's the very first two. Look at it. The Revelation, somebody shout the apocalypse of who? Jesus Christ, the book isn't about the antichrist. It's not about Satan and his kingdom. It's about Jesus and his. This is how the book begins. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his service. Shout that silence. What must soon take place? He made it known by sin and his angel to the servant John who did what? Testified to who? To the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatever he saw.

So leaning close, let me tell you about the book of Revelation. It is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ from Jesus Christ about Jesus Christ, period. The book of Revelation is by him for him and about him. And that's how you've got to see the book. When you go into reading it, if you read it from any other point or standing, you will miss what this book is all about. Jesus is the author. Jesus is the subject and Jesus is the point of the book of the revelation. How many of you have a screen protector on your cell phone? If you're like me, you do, right? And the reason why we do is 'cause we use it all the time. We always have it in our hand. That means we drop it, we knock it off tables. It gets broken a lot. Come on, somebody shouting, man. And what happens is every once in a while, my screen protector will be so messed up that it looks like my phone is messed up. And I'll be like, I can't get that button to work. And then, oh, I just did something. All right. And what we find out is that it's not my phone is messed up behind the screen protector. It's my screen protector keeping me from getting to the full use of my phone. And so all you have to do then is start peeling

off the screen protector. And you find out the phone is actually all right behind the scene. And you put on a new screen protector. I had a mama come up to me after last service, said you ain't gonna believe this. As you were talking before you did the phone illustration, my son was peeling off his broken screen protector, said you got his attention. He wanted him to hear, right? Here's what I want to understand when God pulls back. Listen, sometimes our world looks like it's in a mess and it's chaotic and we don't know how things are going to end up and we get, we get, we become afraid, lean and close, lean and close. When you read the book of Revelation, what this should do for you is allow God to pull the screen protector that's broken off and let you see that behind the scenes, the kingdom of God is running and the kingdom of God is hit, is handling the situation, heaven's not shaken even if you are. God is on the throne and He has the last word and you can have some hope because you can see how this thing is going to wrap up some day, amen? In fact, in fact, here's what I need to challenge you to do. Are you listening, shall I'm listening? Here's what I want to challenge you to do over the next five weeks while we go into the book of the Revelation. You're going to read the first three chapters this week. I need you to be very careful that when you go in to read the book, you don't read into the book.

You let the book speak for itself and you read out of the book. Let me give you two terms that's going to make you look really, really educated when you go have lunch after church here in a minute. Say these to your waiter or waitress and look really good about yourself, okay? Two fancy words. I don't care that you actually know the words. I care that you know what they mean. They're two ways of studying scripture, isegesis, exegesis. And here's what you need to understand about the two differences. Isegesis, ise means into. And this is when you go to a passage of scripture and you read into the verse, your preconceived ideas, notions, or interpretation. And this happens all the time. This is how one Bible verse can be used to preach a message that God never intended to be preached and you get false theology or cults can be created using Bible verses. Because if you're not careful and listen, we all can do this. It's so easy to do. You go to a Bible verse anticipating what it should be saying and you make a verse find, you find a verse that says what you want it to say so you can believe what you want to believe. That's called isegesis. I'm putting into the text my interpretation. Exegesis, exe means exit. And out of this is you are pulling out of the text what God is trying to say. You're not breathing into the text, what you wanted to say, you're pulling out of it, what it should say. The reason I brought up the huddles a moment ago, if you're interested, we got a meeting coming up, is in those huddles we teach you how to do a hear journal. H-E-A-R.

Our hoe going this church is to be a church that preaches exegetical sermons. What does that mean? It means I'm not going to get up here every week and give you my interpretation of what I want the Bible to say. And so I go find verses to say what I want it to say for you so I can preach whatever I want to preach. That's not how we do it here. The reason I show so many verses and the reason you have an outline where you're filling in answers is I want you to have to go to the Scripture find out what the Scripture said in context, pull the truth out, and then apply it to your lives. We don't make the Bible line up to us, we line up to the Bible. And in your hear journals, that's how we teach you to read the Bible. And it's very important when you go to the book of Revelation, because here's going to be a big struggle for many of you in this room and watching online, is you've already been influenced by books and movies and charts and other people's opinions about the book and you've never read the book for yourself. And so here's going to be the struggle for you. And I'm just bringing it up and throwing it out on the table. You're going to have to get with God when you start to read the book and say, "God, help me not come to this with my own interpretation and my own perception. Help me come to the book and find out what it meant to the first audience so you can tell me what I should learn from this book and do it with an exegetical method. God, what are you trying to show me? The reason I'm giving you these four keys to understanding it is so that you understand how to do this. How do you go back to the original audience and find out what it meant?

Listen to me, the Left Behind book series sold over 65 million copies. That's a whole lot of influence of one perception of the book of Revelation. And you can read that and then go read the Bible. And you say, "Oh, that's what it says right there. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't." You've got to go back and do the real work of the Bible. So here's the first one I want you to write down, write this down. I want you to know when you go to the book, I know some of you were told never to read it, it'll mess your mind up. But if you read the book from the right context, you will find what the first century found out. It's not a book of fear, it's a book of hope. In fact, look at the third verse of the book of Revelation. We told you this about Jesus. Let me show you the third verse. Everyone read out loud with me in house online in prison. Go, blessed is the one who avoids the book. (audience laughs) That's how some Christians told you. No, the word is blessed. How many won't be blessed in the house online? Come on. Blessed is the one who reads, allow the words of this prophecy and blessed are the ones who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it because the time is near. The Bible says you're blessed if you read it, not if you avoid it. Then you've got to ask this next question,

who was it have written to? Now I'm going to upset some of you. Remember the email that you send your complaint to. Deheal yourt at your CPC.church. (chuckles) All right. This is how most American Christians read the book of Revelation. We have the Bible in one hand. We have our newsfeed in the other. Every four years they're in a political season. We think the book of Revelation was written to Americans about Americans and American politics. We're constantly looking at the signs in our newspaper on our phones and then trying to tie it to the book of Revelation. That is not how the first century Christian read the book of Revelation. They read it with the letter of Revelation from John in one hand, watch this, and the Old Testament in the other. This is going to blow some of your way, but we're going to dive into this. Who was this book actually written to? Here's the problem. We think the book was written to us. It wasn't. It's written for us, but it was not written to us. It was actually written to real Christians.

Are you leaning in close? Real Christians in real churches under real pressure of the first century. In fact, it's verse four. Look at verse four. John, say it with me, Rego, to the seven churches in Asia. These are real churches, grace and peace to you from the one who is who won who was and the one who is to come. His name is Jesus and from the seven spirits before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us. How many know he does? And he has sent us free from our sins by his blood. How many thank God for that? That's all of us. And he has made us, here we are, a kingdom of priests to his God. How many believe that? To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever and all God's people said, Amen. That is for us 'cause we have had our sins washed by his blood. We are love. We are a kingdom of priests

and we deserved, or he deserves our worship. But it was written to real Christians in real churches in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. Lisa and I have visited every one of these sites where these churches were. Hopefully one day I'll lead a tour there and you can go with us. It's an incredible trip to actually stand in the cities where Christians stood when they received the letter of the revelation. But you have to go back and ask yourself the question, what did this mean to them? Let me tell you this. It confuses us when we read the book of Revelation. It was not a book of confusion to the first century Christian in Turkey. It was a word of encouragement. And that's where it's gotta get back to for us. If it's not a word of encouragement, we read it wrong. For these early Christians, look at me, they're under horrible persecution. There's two different dates that could go for revelation. Some believe it could be around 65 to 68 AD. That's an early written folks that maybe as an aneero, most scholars agree that it was probably more around 95 AD while Domitian was the emperor and Domitian was one of the most evil rulers in Roman history against Christians.

The persecution was horrible. These Christians are dying. And so John has this revelation. He's writing to these early Christians in real churches and they're struggling and they're hurting and the message is to go out. It wasn't a message of confusion, but of hope. And you think, well, what about all these symbols and all these images and why did John write that? First of all, he's trying to describe what he has seen. Second of all, he's writing with Jewish references to numbers, symbols and the Old Testament. And this would make a lot of sense because of the persecution of the Romans. If the Roman leadership intercepted one of the letters going to one of the churches and they tried to read it, what did it read like? Like a kid's fairy tale, it was gibberish. It made no sense. And so it would pass on. But for the Christians, they understood the Jewish symbolism, the Old Testament references, the number system. And all of a sudden they could decode what John was trying to say. How many of you've ever been on a text thread with a group and somebody has an inside joke on somebody else and the ones that are in the group that don't know the inside language, don't understand the text thread, but the ones who know where the joke is,

they're dying laughing back home. That's what's happening here in the book of the Revelation. In fact, here's something you need to know. The book of the Revelation holds more Old Testament references than any other New Testament book. There are 404 verses in the book of the Revelation over 500 references to the Old Testament. It is completely full of Old Testament references and Jewish numbers and images. Let me just give you a few as an example. See, when you read the book of Revelation, you're going to read about plagues of locust, blood, frogs, hail and fire. If you were there in the first century and you knew the Old Testament and you're looking at the past, not the future, so you could better decipher the future, where have you read about God's judgment with frogs, blood, locust, hail and fire? It's the Exodus. It's how God delivered them from the empire of Pharaoh. When you read John's visions, you can't understand John's visions. If you don't go over the Old Testament and read the visions of Daniel, they connect. You can't understand the New Jerusalem unless you go see the vision of Ezekiel and the Old Testament and his vision of the heavenly temple. You're going to come to chapter 12 and you can read about a woman, a child and a dragon.

Guess what? The woman, the child and the dragon go all the way back to understand it. You've got to know Psalm two. You've got to know Matthew chapter two where the virgin gives birth to a son and the dragon tries to kill him through a guy named Herod and to understand that, you've got to go back to Genesis chapter three. To a messianic prophecy, yeah. In the book of Revelation, the Old Testament figures start popping back up, Balaam and Jezebel return, Babylon returns and the tree of life in Genesis two shows back up in Revelation chapter 22. We want to read the Bible with a newspaper in hand. First century Christians read the book of Revelation with the Old Testament in hand and then they understood God and his character and how the future would unfold. So this week when you start getting to something that's like, oh, I don't know what that means. Before you pull up Google or chat GBT or Claude, see what the Old Testament references first and go back to the Old Testament and read that so you can get a better interpretation before you then look at the future, okay? I want this to help you. The second key is this. It's like a house, not a track. I can illustrate this one pretty quickly.

When you get to the book of Revelation, you start reading to here's how we are in our society. We like tracks. We want a starting line. We're gonna run one track until we hit what? The finish line. And then we're like, whoa, we accomplished something. You can't do that with the book of the Revelation. It's not like a track. It's like a house with many doors and many rooms. And every room is decorated with its own unique theme. It's all in the same house, but one room doesn't correlate with the next room and you don't understand the theme until you walk through the entire house. Let me give you an illustration. I just mentioned a woman, a dragon, and a baby in Revelation chapter 12. That is the birth of Jesus. That is how Satan tried to destroy him. It goes all the way back to Genesis with the promise that he gave to Eve, the first Messianic promise. Watch this one chapter before that. Revelation 11 talks about two witnesses who die and rise again on the streets at the end of time. You would think chapter 12 should then be about something that happens after that. It's not it actually goes backward to the birth of Jesus. You cannot read the book of Revelation and think of it in sequential ways or chronological order. That's not how it's written. Every chapter is a room and you have to stop in the room and you have to ask the question this. Are you ready? What is God showing me about his son in this room right now? How many of you have ever watched a movie that keeps jumping timelines? Have you ever watched one of

those kind of movies? How many does that drive you crazy? How many of you love those? You're like, "Oh, this is so cool. Yeah, we're in the future. We're in the past. We're somewhere in between." But here's what the deal is. At the end of the movie, it all comes together. When you read the book of the Revelation, the timelines are all over the place. But in the end, here's what I promise you, is tell them one story. And John is pulling back the curtain to let you see who's standing on the stage in the end. And it's not about the devil in his kingdom, it's about Jesus in his kingdom. Amen? Key number three, when you read the book, understand it, it speaks in pictures for purpose. You're going to get called up at times. Some of you are going to be like, "This is the greatest reading plan ever." And others are going to be like, "This is driving me crazy. Can we get to December and read the book of John?" Some of you will be wondering, "Why didn't we read Revelation at the end of the year anyway? Why is it a month ahead?" Because I told him I wouldn't preach in Revelation at Christmas. That's exactly the reason why it's this gospel of John. All right, here we go. You're going to times go, "What is this image? What is this number? What is this picture that is trying to be shown to me?" Because they're all throughout. Remember, John is a Jew. And in the Hebrew language, there's only about 8,000 words. We're in English with all our different dialects. We have somewhere between 700,000 to a million words. This is why when you try to translate the Bible from Hebrew or Greek into English, it's why we have so many translations, we can have 50 English words for one Hebrew word. And so you're trying to find the best one to fit the context. So watch this, watch this, watch this. John hears painting pictures using symbols and images that they understood. And one thing you're going to have to do is you're going to have to think less like an American when you read the book of Revelation and more like a Jew. Are you going to get caught up and it's going to mess you up? You have to understand what the symbolisms are there for. Let me give you a quick example. You don't open there, just read it like your first century Christians. You're getting the letter of John. The preacher's going to stand up and read you the letter. And you're under great persecution. What images come to your mind when you start reading John's letter? Listen to what he says. "I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus. I was on the alipatmus because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet saying right on a scroll, what you see and send it to the seven churches,

Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thaittara, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Then I turned to see whose voice it was. It spoke to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And among the lampstands was one like the son of man dressed in a robe. And with a golden sash around his chest, his hair was as white as wool, white as snow. His eyes were a fiery flame. His feet were like bronze in his fire that's been fired in a furnace. And his voice was like the sounding of cascading waters. He had seven stars in his right hand and a sharp double edged sword came out of his mouth. And his face was shining like the sun in its full stream. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me and said, don't be afraid. I'm the first in the last. I'm the living one. I was dead. And look, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades, therefore write what you have seen, what is and what will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. What kind of image come to your mind when I Was it this one that you grew up with? This is how most of us see Jesus right there. Sweet, kind, nice. Some of you dudes have a hard time coming to church 'cause this is who you think Jesus is. This is what you think Jesus is like. Look up here and let me tell you something. Meekness is not weakness. He may be meek, but I promise you, he's not weak. Net first century church, those seven churches, man, they're struggling, they're under Roman rule. Everywhere they go, there's images and statues of the Roman power, they're being dominated, they're being thrown to the lions and the Colosseum. They're being dominated and death is happening every day in that church.

When they read about Jesus, they didn't need this picture of Jesus. They needed that picture of Jesus. They needed to know he was strong and mighty and powerful. And as God is pulling back the veil, he's telling them at the end of time, I wanna tell you who's sitting on the throne, Jesus Christ is on the throne, powered and lifted up, almighty, all knowing, all powerful. And you may think the devil's won, but I promise you this, the devil won't get the last word, Jesus will. Amen, that's what John wanted these early Christians to see. That's what he wants you to know. When you read the book of Revelation, it'd be a good little Google search for you to say, what do numbers mean in the Jewish mind? 'Cause you're gonna see all kinds of numbers. I'm gonna give them a few of them to you quickly that you're gonna see over and over again in the book of Revelation, you're gonna see the number one, which means God's oneness, God's unity, the Lord our God is one. In fact, when you understand the number system in the Bible, the Bible will come alive to you. The number three, all through the Bible, you'll see it a lot in Revelation, it always means strength and the completeness of God, the Trinity, the three pilgrimage festivals of the Jewish people.

The number four, it means the earth, the four winds, the four corners of the earth, look up here, look up here, remember I told you, don't think like an American, think like a Jew, please, do not leave church today saying, "My pastor said the earth is flat." (congregation laughs) Please do not hashtag me on that one. (congregation laughs) Think like a Jew, not an American. What this simply means is there's not a corner of this earth that God didn't develop and God doesn't have his eye on all at the same time. Amen? The number four is the earth. The number six is the number of humanity. It always means incompleteness and it always means you're falling short. Six stone jars at the wedding of Kaina. Goliath, 600 shekel spear pharaoh, 600 chariots. Babylon is named six times in the book of Revelation. The number of the devil, the unholy trinity of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet in Revelation is what? Six, six, six, it's not, this everybody's scared. It's at a chip, is that a vaccine? Come on. What it's telling you is, is whenever you follow the devil in his ways, you're always gonna come up short. You'll never satisfy you, all right? Listen to me, there's more to this than what meets the eye.

The number seven is perfection, completeness, totality. Seven days of creation. You're to forgive 70 times, seven times, seven churches. The number 12, it's the number of God's people. 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 24 elders around the throne. Amen? Y'all good? I'm eight minutes over, are you mad? Get over it. I want to help you. I'll be done just a couple. If somebody laughed at that, they're like, yeah, what? Whatever. Let me show you one more illustration, then we're gonna wrap this thing up. I want you to see numbers as how they really are. You remember in Mark chapter six, Jesus goes to Bethsaida and feeds 5,000. How many baskets of food leftovers did he take up? 12, why 12? Have you ever wondered? I'll give you the answer in a minute. Two chapters later in Mark chapter eight, he feeds 4,000 at the Decapolis. How many baskets? Seven. How many loaves of bread? Seven. Remember the numbers I just shared with you? Real quickly, let me give it to you.

Bethsaida is in the Jewish-owned territory around the Sea of Galilee. The Decapolis was the Gentile-owned area. What does the number 12 mean? And in Gomatria, the study of numbers under Jewish lineage, the number of completeness for the 12 tribes of Israel. Four, meant what? The earth. Gentiles, there were seven Gentile nations represented in the Decapolis. How many loaves of bread? Seven, how many baskets? Seven, in Acts, or Mark chapter eight, after this one, this miracle, the disciples are complaining in the boat about not having enough bread. Jesus says, how many baskets do you take up when I fed 5,000, 12? How many baskets did you take up when I fed the 4,007? Jesus asked this question, do you not get it yet? Jesus is the bread of life for all Israel and all the nations of the world, the entire earth. Jesus is enough. Amen. Amen? And some of you all said, I knew that, no, you didn't. (congregation laughs) Let me give you the last thing here. This calls for an act of faith, not a waiting faith. Now listen, y'all be nice to the crowd outside

when they're trying to get your parking spot on the way out, okay? But I need you to get ahold of this. Why is this so important? As we wrap this up, how many of you remember what Jesus' final words were before He went to heaven? Matthew 28, 1920, that's reading out loud together. Ready, what's the first word? Go, therefore, and do what? Make disciples wear all the nations, doing how, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have taught you, or commanded you, and remember? Come on, read it, read it, read it. I am with you always even to the end of the age. (congregation applauds) When you read the book of Revelation, don't sit there and worry about every mystery that you can't figure out. Don't be sitting around looking for every sign. Remember what the book is about. It's about Jesus, it's for Jesus, and it's written by Jesus. It's because Jesus wants you to know where to be busy, going, making disciples of all the nations, till time is no more, and He's with us to the end, and in the end He has the last word.

In fact, you don't know, some of you may not realize this, but this period at the end of Matthew's gospel is not the last piece of the conversation Jesus had before He went to heaven. You gotta go to Acts chapter one to pick up the rest of the conversation. The disciples actually at this moment, look at Jesus and say, is this the end of time? Is this the fulfillment? And Jesus says in Acts one, seven, it is not for you to know the times or periods the Father has set by His own authority. But you are to receive power when the Holy Spirit's come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, and say, here's what I want you to understand, we were never saved to sit and wait. We were saved to go and tell until Jesus comes back. And where you have confidence is knowing that no matter what happens in this old world, we know who stands on the stage at the end, and we can stand with some hope. Listen, I believe Jesus doesn't wanna come and say, why are you waiting on me for? I believe He wants to come

and have to tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, you can quit working now. It's time to go home with me. And we look at Jesus and say, I almost got a one to you Lord. Give me 30 more seconds. That's what I believe Jesus wants us to get. And when you read the book of the Revelation, listen, it's not like rapture talk, we're not supposed to be sitting around selling off and stop living. The book of Revelation say, get up and keep going. You know who wins in the end. Can I get a name in from somebody in this house? Come on. (congregation applauding) All right, Revelation wasn't written to make you afraid of what was coming. It was written to make you sure of who is coming. Come on, somebody. In verse seven says this, it's already out loud and I'll let you go. Look, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him. Even those who pierce Him and all the tribes of the earth will come. Amen. Come on, let's stand together. Let's give him praise like he deserves. He is our conquering King. He is our Lord, our Savior. He is coming back one day. Do you know we can live for him? We can serve him. He is with us even now. Amen. Amen. Heads about all over the room. Thank you, Jesus, for this incredible moment.

Thank you for allowing us to just worship you and glorify your holy name. Thank you for the hope we get from the book. God, there's a lot of mysteries, help people be okay with having mysteries, knowing what the end of the story looks like. God, help us to interpret the scriptures correctly and see you in every chapter. Bless your people as they read the book. May they be blessed in Jesus' name. Heads are bowed all over the room. If you're in the room today or watching online or in a prison across the America and you're like pastor, I'm scared of the end times. I'm scared of when Jesus comes back. I'm scared to meet him. Friend, you don't have to be. The reason he wants you to hear this book is because he wants you to know you can know the one who wrote the end of the story. He loves you. He wants to give you eternal life. I want to tell you, already this morning, multiple people have made a decision to follow Jesus. And I want to tell you, my friend, not out of fear, but out of hope. Today you can trust Jesus and you can have hope for today, tomorrow, and all eternity when you put your trust in the one who wrote the end of the story. If you're in this room or watching online and you're not a Christian, you're not right with God, but you want to be today. I'd love to pray with you. I'm going to count to three and I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to ask you simply to raise your hand all over this place. If you're watching online, put a hand up in the comments so we can pray over you. And then I'm going to give you some instruction of how to get some hope. On the count of three, that's all I'm going to ask you to do. If you're ready to trust Jesus, if you want to invite Jesus in your life, on the count of three, raise your hand. Let's pray together. One, two, three all over this room and online, lift those hands up in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Lift it up. Amen. Lift it up. Amen. God bless you. God bless you. Come on, raise it up. God bless you. Amen. He loves you. He brought you here today. God bless you. I see you. Lift it up to him if I see you. I see you. God bless you. Come on. Lift it up. If you're watching online, lift your hand up to the Lord right now. Pray this prayer with me. Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. I believe you wrote the end of the story. I believe you wrote my story. Jesus, I invite you to come into my life right now. Forgive my sin. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me have the courage to follow you and to trust you that in the end you will stand and have the last word over my life and over my eternity. I follow you now Jesus. I receive you now in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Come on, let's give God a praise this morning for every hand. [BLANK_AUDIO]