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Caption transcript for Revelation: Unveiling the Visions — “Message to the Churches” (1/8)

• 00:03 male announcer: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots"
• 00:06 with insightful Bible teaching by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:09 ♪♪♪
• 00:19 ♪♪♪
• 00:28 David Hart: Thank you so much for joining us today,
• 00:30 I'm David Hart.
• 00:31 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:32 Jeffrey Seif: And I am Jeffrey Seif.
• 00:34 And we are in a really tough world today, aren't we, like
• 00:40 century one, and Revelation gives voice to that world.
• 00:45 David: I think a lot of ups and downs in this series, yes?
• 00:48 Jeffrey: Yes, the book of Revelation is a rollercoaster.
• 00:50 It seems like it's going more down than up, but it ends good.
• 00:53 Kirsten: And it's interesting because right now,
• 00:54 we're in a topsy turvy time in our whole world.
• 00:59 We've walked through a virus, things are different.
• 01:01 They look different, but they looked different back then for
• 01:03 John too, didn't they?
• 01:04 Jeffrey: Yes, they did. And life can be very cloudy.
• 01:07 And the question is, can rays of hope shine through?
• 01:11 And I think this author is speaking to them about that,
• 01:15 and we want to talk to you about that as well.
• 01:18 David: Right now, let's go to Dr. Seif's introduction
• 01:20 on Revelation.
• 01:21 ♪♪♪
• 01:26 Jeffrey: Since the dawn of recorded time, people of faith
• 01:30 have been thrown up against turbulence of trying times.
• 01:34 They found themselves vexed, overwhelmed
• 01:37 by various circumstances.
• 01:39 And they wonder, "God, where are you?
• 01:42 Is it possible that you can show up in my world?
• 01:44 And for that matter, is it possible that the world itself,
• 01:48 even with all of these circumstance, is following some
• 01:52 kind of preordained trajectory?"
• 01:56 The book of Revelation has been a go-to source for a long, long
• 02:01 time, individuals trying to look at what's happening in the news
• 02:04 on the one hand, and to look at what's happening in the good
• 02:07 news on the other to see if there's a correlation.
• 02:11 Well, here we want to peek behind the veil and look at the
• 02:14 visions noted in the apocalypse.
• 02:19 On the front end, that is at this introductory segment, I'd
• 02:22 like to share with you some of the values, some of the ways
• 02:27 that I approach the literature, so that way as you go with me on
• 02:31 the journey, you'll have some sense of the way that I'm going.
• 02:36 With that said, to my way of thinking, we do well to look at
• 02:40 the Bible from the perspective of the first experiencers of it.
• 02:46 By that, I mean when the Revelation was written, and
• 02:49 we're looking at around 95 AD give or take a year, it
• 02:53 circulates among certain people at certain times.
• 02:56 In as much as moderns are concerned what it was all about,
• 03:00 for me the starting place has less to do with the modern
• 03:04 moment as it does to do with trying to climb into the world
• 03:08 of the original recipients of the vision, to wrestle with the
• 03:11 question, what would it mean to them?
• 03:14 How might they have understood it?
• 03:17 With that attended to, we'll look and see
• 03:19 how we might understand it.
• 03:21 Is the Word that was written yesterday speaking for us today?
• 03:28 I think the answer to that question is yes in so many ways.
• 03:32 Though personally more professor than a prophet, mindful of the
• 03:36 fact, as I said at the very outset of this introductory
• 03:39 segment, that people of faith have been thrown up against it
• 03:43 for the longest.
• 03:44 And indeed, when Revelation was written, those believers found
• 03:48 themselves pressed amidst the turbulence of trying times.
• 03:52 But it wasn't just then, it was believers from all times going
• 03:55 back to Abraham, who's on a precarious journey, experiencing
• 04:00 turbulence and disorientation.
• 04:03 Isaac, Jacob, they all did.
• 04:05 David thrown up against wars, the precariousness
• 04:09 of human experience.
• 04:11 Not just men for that matter.
• 04:13 Oh goodness, women, I mentioned Esther to speak of her.
• 04:17 There she was for such a time as that, when the world
• 04:22 for the Jews was about to become unglued.
• 04:26 But there she was.
• 04:28 Oh, God has his people in different places, not just
• 04:32 Esther for such a time as this or for such a time as that, but
• 04:36 similarly prophets like Daniel, who envisioned wars, and beasts,
• 04:43 and the destruction of a temple, and global upheaval.
• 04:47 Ezekiel experienced that and gave voiced to that as well, but
• 04:51 he envisioned a world over the horizon, a new temple built.
• 04:57 He sees God making his entrance afresh on the stage of the human
• 05:01 drama to sort things out at the ragged edge of time.
• 05:07 I mention these prophets, Ezekiel, Daniel.
• 05:10 I should throw Zechariah into the pot as well because Daniel
• 05:15 himself makes use of those prophets.
• 05:19 In fact, you might find this interesting, I know that I did.
• 05:24 What's that?
• 05:26 Well, I remember once searching through Jewish religious
• 05:30 literature working with the question, how do religious Jews
• 05:34 that look at Zechariah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, how do they look
• 05:38 at the prophetic Word?
• 05:39 To me, it was strikingly unexpected, I should say, that
• 05:44 when you look at traditional Jewish exegetes, they're minded
• 05:48 to interpret the literature just like conservative
• 05:51 evangelicals are.
• 05:53 By that, I mean conservative Jewish theologs understand that
• 05:58 the ragged edge of time, there is going to be
• 06:01 a heinous world ruler.
• 06:03 There's going to be global upheaval.
• 06:05 There's going to be the righteous that are repressed,
• 06:08 and depressed, and so pressed, and oppressed under the thumb
• 06:12 of all this pressure.
• 06:14 And when it looks just like it's about to come unglued, then
• 06:17 finally the Messiah comes and makes his entrance onto
• 06:21 the stage of the human drama.
• 06:23 It's glorious, it's fascinating by the way.
• 06:26 And there's a certain congruence between the way Jews see it and
• 06:30 the way evangelical Christians see it.
• 06:32 Well, we want to climb back into the literature, Revelation
• 06:36 chapter 1, and work through it step by step by step as we go on
• 06:41 a journey into the book of Revelation and we look at
• 06:46 unveiling the visions that are noted therein.
• 06:50 Oh, what a story.
• 06:52 I hope you're excited, I hope you're ready to go.
• 06:55 Go with me on a journey not into my word, but this Word.
• 06:59 Not into my world, but the biblical world.
• 07:03 And together, let's explore whether there might be something
• 07:06 in that world that can speak to us today.
• 07:10 ♪♪♪
• 07:20 ♪♪♪
• 07:21 Jeffrey: I want to begin this segment by asking you to grab
• 07:24 ahold of your Bible.
• 07:26 I mention that because I have mine in my lap, and I don't plan
• 07:30 on closing it through the whole series.
• 07:33 What I'm interested in is walking through the literature,
• 07:36 making observations, making interpretations,
• 07:39 and then applications.
• 07:41 But I want you to have the book in hand.
• 07:43 It's a pet peeve of mine as a professor.
• 07:46 A lot of times in church, people talk about the Bible,
• 07:48 but they don't have it open.
• 07:50 But I really am interested in taking my lead
• 07:53 from the literature.
• 07:54 In the Revelation, called Revelations by many with an S
• 07:59 at the end, apocalypses, it's Revelation.
• 08:03 But there, to be sure, are a number of revelations therein.
• 08:07 We'll get to those fantastic visions in reasonably short
• 08:10 order, but here the literature starts in verse 1,
• 08:13 "The revelation of Yeshua the Messiah," the revealing.
• 08:18 And he speaks here to his servants about things that are
• 08:22 going to take place.
• 08:24 So, he's giving a vision of a moment and of things to come
• 08:28 according to the literature.
• 08:30 You'll see and is a standard introduction here, "Grace to
• 08:33 you," in verse 4, "and shalom," the Hebrew word for peace,
• 08:39 "from him who is and who was and who is to come."
• 08:43 He just transcends and traverses time.
• 08:46 And that's good to know, by the way, because he's the same
• 08:49 yesterday, today, and forever.
• 08:51 He'll be noted in the literature as the Alpha and the Omega.
• 08:55 That sense of omnipresence through the passage of time
• 09:00 I think can give us a kind of strength as we make
• 09:03 our journey through time.
• 09:05 Here, this is from in verse 5 Messiah Yeshua, referenced here
• 09:10 as a faithful witness and the firstborn of the dead.
• 09:14 Jesus was crucified and he rose again, noted in the literature
• 09:18 here and elsewhere as the firstborn, which implies there's
• 09:21 a second born, a third born, a tenth born, a millionth born.
• 09:25 He's the first of many.
• 09:26 And by the way, followers of him are included in that list,
• 09:30 come hell or high water.
• 09:32 He's noted here as faithful witness, not just witness.
• 09:36 And by the way, interestingly, the word that's employed for
• 09:39 witness in the Revelation, the Greek word is
• 09:42 we get the word "martyr."
• 09:44 Interestingly, they give it up to the point of putting their
• 09:47 own person in the equation, to the point of death if needed.
• 09:51 "He's the firstborn and the ruler of kings of the earth."
• 09:56 I think there's something prophetic there, that is to say
• 09:58 there will come a point in time when he will rule over.
• 10:02 He's the King of kings and Lord of lords to be sure,
• 10:05 and that's noted subsequently in the literature.
• 10:08 But evil reigns at the moment because he stays his hand,
• 10:13 he has his purposes.
• 10:14 And as Revelation unfolds, we'll be seeing how the prince of
• 10:18 darkness raises his hoary head and is finally, eventually
• 10:23 displaced, and a new kingdom comes.
• 10:25 And this king who is being revealed here incrementally
• 10:30 emerges in the passage of time.
• 10:32 "To him," we're told, "who loves us and has freed us from our
• 10:37 sins by his blood."
• 10:40 I think that's very important, by the way, for all times, not
• 10:44 just end times.
• 10:45 That is to say we all experience the stain of sins in response to
• 10:51 our own foibles and our own base nature.
• 10:54 Isn't it great to know that we've been set free
• 10:57 from the penalty?
• 10:59 We're told here in the literature in verse 7,
• 11:02 "Look, he is coming with the clouds.
• 11:04 Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him."
• 11:07 And here, we're harking back to a text in Zachariah, Zechariah,
• 11:12 where the author, the prophet gives voice to the fact that
• 11:16 there'll come a point in time when people will turn to him
• 11:19 whom they have pierced and mourn.
• 11:21 It says as much in the literature.
• 11:24 John in verse 9 is represented as a fellow partaker in the
• 11:28 tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance that is part
• 11:33 and parcel to walking with the Lord.
• 11:37 The word "tribulation" is a fascinating word from
• 11:39 the Latin tribulum.
• 11:41 It's the pitchfork that was used by ancient agrarians,
• 11:45 by farmers.
• 11:46 They would put the fork in the hay and throw it up in the air,
• 11:49 and the wind would separate the wheat from the chaff.
• 11:51 The understanding is that tribulation has that effect of
• 11:55 sifting, and purifying, and making ready
• 11:58 for the final product.
• 12:00 This author, who is a partaker in tribulation of Yeshua, we're
• 12:04 told in verse 10 was in the spirit in the day of the Lord.
• 12:09 And he says in verse 12, he sees golden candelabras, menorahs.
• 12:14 It's interesting, at 95 AD when the book was written, the temple
• 12:18 had long since been destroyed.
• 12:20 And in the temple, there were variety of menorot,
• 12:24 of candelabras.
• 12:25 But here, even though there is no temple, there is a spiritual
• 12:30 heavenly temple.
• 12:31 And the Lord is there, and he represents himself amidst
• 12:34 those light fixtures like the Son of Man.
• 12:38 This harks to a figure in Daniel.
• 12:41 Oh goodness, he harks back to this imagery, a very fascinating
• 12:46 story here of appearing with bright eyes, and hair,
• 12:48 and beard, et cetera.
• 12:50 Very interesting, very apocalyptic.
• 12:52 And we have here, as we get out of this chapter, we have in
• 12:55 verse 17 again reminding, "I am the first and the last,
• 13:00 the one who lives.
• 13:02 I was dead, but look, I'm alive forevermore, and I hold the keys
• 13:06 of death and Sheol."
• 13:08 They're amidst the turbulence of trying times.
• 13:11 And at the time of the writing of the literature, the original
• 13:14 hearers were pressed up against trials and tribulations
• 13:17 and persecutions.
• 13:19 But the Lord is there amidst it all.
• 13:22 Fascinating he is, colorful, present, available, the first
• 13:27 and the last, holding the keys to the future for them
• 13:31 and for us.
• 13:33 We'll continue our journey into Revelation as we consider
• 13:36 the Revelation, and we look at unveiling
• 13:39 these fascinating visions.
• 13:42 ♪♪♪
• 13:49 announcer: Our resource this week, the series
• 13:50 "Kings and Kingdoms."
• 13:52 These eight programs examine the rulers of ancient Israel and
• 13:55 Judah because within their stories, we find lessons of
• 13:58 godly leadership and principles we can observe today even
• 14:02 in our political leaders.
• 14:04 Get this series for yourself or to share with friends by
• 14:07 contacting us and asking for the DVD series "Kings and Kingdoms."
• 14:15 announcer: If you only watch us on television, you're missing
• 14:17 additional content available only on our social media sites,
• 14:21 Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
• 14:23 You can always visit our website, which is home base for
• 14:27 all of our ministry activities and information.
• 14:30 There you can sign up for our free monthly newsletter,
• 14:33 watch the TV program, or visit the online store.
• 14:37 You can sign up for a tour of Israel and Petra, or a cruise to
• 14:41 Greece and Ephesus.
• 14:43 Please contact us for more information.
• 14:45 ♪♪♪
• 14:50 Kirsten: Find us on our social media sites.
• 14:52 We would love to connect with you there.
• 14:54 David: Yes, one of the places that we will take you, if you
• 14:56 join us on a tour to Israel, Greece, Petra, one of our
• 15:00 favorite places is Ephesus, where we walk streets of marble.
• 15:04 It's fascinating, we would love for you to join us.
• 15:06 Kirsten: It's beautiful.
• 15:08 Dr. Seif will be actually talking about Ephesus as he
• 15:10 teaches on the book of Revelations, one of the seven
• 15:12 churches mentioned in that book.
• 15:15 And we are so thankful that you, throughout all of the crisis
• 15:19 going on in the world, have kept us on the air.
• 15:23 You know that it's vitally important to study
• 15:26 the Scriptures with Jewish eyes, and we thank you
• 15:29 for keeping this ministry alive.
• 15:32 Keep on keeping us on here, thank you.
• 15:34 David: Thank you.
• 15:35 Right now, let's go to Revelation 2 for our study on
• 15:37 today's program.
• 15:44 Jeffrey: For a book that starts off noting it being the
• 15:46 revelation of Jesus, I'm surprised by how few speaking
• 15:50 parts Jesus actually gets.
• 15:53 That's not a problem in the second and third chapter because
• 15:56 there he speaks a lot, but after that, he barely shows up until
• 16:00 the end of the story.
• 16:01 And there it is, at the end he shows.
• 16:05 And this book tells the story of his revealing through time
• 16:09 and circumstance.
• 16:11 There will seem a point in time when hope has gone away,
• 16:14 but the biblical testimony gives voice to the fact
• 16:17 that he's still present.
• 16:19 Well, we start off in the second and third chapter with a lot of
• 16:21 speaking parts, him speaking through messengers or an angel,
• 16:26 same word in Hebrew and Greek.
• 16:28 We're told in verse 1 of chapter 2, "The angel of Messiah's
• 16:32 community," that is to the church in Ephesus, he writes.
• 16:36 And then he has a word to them to not forget their first love.
• 16:42 That can happen through time and circumstance.
• 16:44 He says in verses 1 through 3 they're doing well, save the
• 16:47 fact in verse 4 they've gotten a little bit too casual.
• 16:51 He says, "You've forsaken your first love."
• 16:53 And he beckons them, "Remember then from where
• 16:57 you have fallen."
• 16:59 Oh goodness, it can happen.
• 17:01 People forget the initial enthusiams, whether it's on our
• 17:05 walk with the Lord or whether our walk with our spouses.
• 17:09 Best we be diligent to cultivate that.
• 17:12 And you have him saying as much in the second chapter,
• 17:16 verses 1 through 7.
• 17:18 In verse 8, there's a message to another church,
• 17:21 in this case Smyrna.
• 17:22 He says, "I know your tribulation and your poverty."
• 17:27 Interestingly, to walk with the Lord, it's not always, you know,
• 17:30 a cruise ship experience, where everything's brought to you as
• 17:34 much as you can eat, just have a blast.
• 17:36 Sometimes, it's a battlecruiser or things don't seem to be going
• 17:39 that well.
• 17:40 We take shots.
• 17:42 And it's not always easy, but he's there with us.
• 17:45 And he gives voice to the fact here there's some that claim to
• 17:48 be Jewish and are not.
• 17:49 I would imagine that they're claiming
• 17:51 to be authentic believers.
• 17:53 There are individuals who are disingenuous among us.
• 17:56 And the disappointment associated
• 17:58 with that can be striking.
• 18:00 If you've ever been in webs of relationships and someone's
• 18:02 turned out to not be what they presented themselves to be,
• 18:06 that can be really troubling.
• 18:07 And it is here, people claiming to walk with the Lord, but
• 18:10 they're not with him at all.
• 18:11 In verse 10, he tells them to be faithful unto death.
• 18:16 And he says, "I will give you the crown of life."
• 18:20 Again, here individuals are beckoned to carry on,
• 18:23 to tarry on, difficulties notwithstanding.
• 18:27 The Lord encourages the next church, Pergamum.
• 18:30 And by the way, I have some maps behind me.
• 18:33 When we look at these various churches, these congregations
• 18:37 were here at the western edge of what would be Turkey today.
• 18:43 People always ask the question, "How does this relate to me
• 18:45 today here in America or wherever we are?"
• 18:48 It's worth noting that the story takes place
• 18:50 in the ancient world, in the Mediterranean world.
• 18:52 And I have these maps behind me, Ephesus was a major city
• 18:57 in that world.
• 18:58 You've sent me there, viewers.
• 19:00 We filmed there on a number of occasions, a fascinating world
• 19:04 city in its day, one of the most significant ones
• 19:06 in the Roman world.
• 19:08 But there are outlier cities as well, fascinating in their own
• 19:11 right, and congregations were established there.
• 19:15 Here in Pergamum, not far off, he says in verse 13 that they're
• 19:18 doing okay, they're holding firm, but there's some problems.
• 19:22 They hold to the teaching of Balaam.
• 19:25 And here, we're looking at a story in Numbers of Balaam
• 19:28 and Balak if you can recall the story.
• 19:31 And there's a story here of a prophet who suggested, who told
• 19:35 a king, Balak, he said, "Listen, I cannot get God to turn away
• 19:40 from these people, but I can get these people
• 19:42 to turn away from God."
• 19:44 And you know how you can get men to turn away from God?
• 19:46 Women.
• 19:47 And lo and behold, they were beckoned
• 19:49 through sexual immorality.
• 19:52 It's noted explicitly.
• 19:54 It's one of the more famous tools in the devil's toolbox to,
• 19:59 you know, dislodge people from faith and virtue.
• 20:02 Moving on in verse 18, there's another message to the Messiah's
• 20:07 community in Thyatira, "Thus says the Son of God."
• 20:11 It's an interesting term that's used, Jesus,
• 20:14 Yeshua being the Son of God.
• 20:17 He says that, "You tolerate the woman Jezebel."
• 20:22 We're speaking figuratively here, and it presupposes
• 20:25 some understanding of the older testament.
• 20:28 You might recall Jezebel is bad to the bone.
• 20:33 Bad girls of the Bible, she's one of the worst kitties
• 20:35 in the litter.
• 20:37 She married a rather sheepish, docile, acquiescing king.
• 20:41 And she was just out of control.
• 20:43 We're told here that those that mess with her and with all that,
• 20:47 with sexual immorality, will be thrown into a sickbed,
• 20:50 and those who commit adultery in great tribulation.
• 20:53 Well, sexual impropriety, those who get engaged in it,
• 20:56 it does have a deleterious effect on them to be sure.
• 21:00 We're told here as we read on in verse 23 that everyone will be
• 21:04 given according to their works.
• 21:08 What are we looking at here in the literature?
• 21:10 Now, there's aspects of Revelation
• 21:13 that are hard to understand.
• 21:15 This isn't one of them.
• 21:16 If you look at the red letter edition of the newer testament,
• 21:20 where Jesus, where Yeshua's letters are in red, he gets a
• 21:23 lot of speaking parts here at the beginning of revelation, not
• 21:26 so much in things to come.
• 21:28 In the third chapter, we'll be hearing from him directly, but
• 21:31 then we hear from other ways as we make our way
• 21:35 through the literature.
• 21:36 But here very explicit, very direct, not hard to understand.
• 21:39 Believers are beckoned to be faithful.
• 21:43 When things get bad, people get discouraged, they want to drink,
• 21:46 they want something to take their mind off their mind.
• 21:49 Here believers are beckoned, "Be faithful to the Lord
• 21:52 even amidst the difficulties, even amidst trying times.
• 21:57 Walk with him."
• 21:59 This is one of the key messages in the Revelation.
• 22:02 And we'll be looking more at the messages therein as we look at
• 22:05 Revelation, looking at unveiling the visions.
• 22:09 ♪♪♪
• 22:19 ♪♪♪
• 22:30 ♪ Lord, I hear you weeping, ♪
• 22:34 ♪ sorrow for what might have been. ♪
• 22:38 ♪ Your hand outstretched upon the cross, ♪
• 22:42 ♪ reaching for the souls of man. ♪
• 22:46 ♪ Lord, I hear you praying for those who are so lost. ♪
• 22:54 ♪ To simply ask forgive me, ♪
• 22:58 ♪ Lord, I understand the cost. ♪
• 23:05 ♪ Lord, I hear you praying for those who are so lost. ♪
• 23:13 ♪ To simply ask forgive me, Lord, ♪
• 23:20 ♪ I understand the cost. ♪
• 23:30 ♪♪♪
• 23:40 ♪♪♪
• 23:48 David: And that was a song from our founder, Zola Levitt.
• 23:51 We love bringing you his music.
• 23:53 Really there's a theme to this whole series, and I think a lot
• 23:56 of people need to hear about it to not give up in the good
• 24:00 times, in the bad times.
• 24:01 So, there's a--there's a prize at the end of our life, right?
• 24:04 Jeffrey: There is.
• 24:05 I like to refer to the triumph of God in human history.
• 24:09 And that's not just true historically generally, but an
• 24:12 eventual triumph for us as individuals as well.
• 24:15 Kirsten: And we need that because what the world has
• 24:18 walked through with the whole Coronavirus, there've been some
• 24:21 difficult times.
• 24:22 Not necessarily as difficult as it was in the Mediterranean
• 24:25 world back when the Revelation was given, correct?
• 24:29 I mean, that was--that was some hard times.
• 24:31 Jeffrey: Tough times there.
• 24:32 They had plague in the ancient world,
• 24:34 there was political upheaval.
• 24:36 Today, there's political upheaval, there's--but
• 24:38 it's not like it was back then.
• 24:41 You know, there's--it was a changing world back then,
• 24:44 and it's a changing world today.
• 24:46 David: I think a lot of takeaway for us to study this
• 24:48 series, what happened back then, a lot of things happen today.
• 24:52 Jeffrey: Yeah.
• 24:53 I mean, it's just good to get into the book, to the Bible,
• 24:56 and to just ask the Lord, "How might this apply?"
• 24:59 And you know, I and we serve as tour guides in effect.
• 25:03 And you know, you take people to Israel, you take people to the
• 25:05 sites, you talk about it, but they derive their inspiration
• 25:08 from the site more so from than your explanation.
• 25:11 Similarly, people just go to the literature itself
• 25:13 and ask the Lord.
• 25:15 They might be helped along by people that have some
• 25:17 flashlights to shine on it, but the end of the day, it's going
• 25:19 to the literature to get the help and the hope.
• 25:21 Kirsten: Well, that's what you do so well, and that's what
• 25:23 has been characteristic of this program from the beginnings of
• 25:26 time is to look to the Bible, look through the Bible
• 25:30 with Jewish eyes.
• 25:31 But I don't think we'll understand the book of
• 25:33 Revelation, everything you've taught, if we don't look through
• 25:36 the eyes of the Jewish world in the first century.
• 25:39 Jeffrey: Well, flattery will get you everywhere,
• 25:40 let's renew that contract.
• 25:42 It's true that we want to look at the literature the way
• 25:47 the first recipients did.
• 25:48 And that's what's been lost through time and circumstance,
• 25:52 that it's important to understand the first
• 25:54 interpretation of a text belongs to the original readers.
• 25:57 We want to climb into their world, and it necessitates
• 26:01 climbing into a Jewish world.
• 26:02 David: And it wasn't all good news.
• 26:04 It was kind of a rollercoaster ride, I think,
• 26:06 throughout Revelation.
• 26:07 Jeffrey: Yes.
• 26:09 To the point made earlier, what makes the good news so good is
• 26:10 the bad news is so bad.
• 26:12 There can be trying times, but God's got it all.
• 26:15 Kirsten: Right, and the writer was very specific to some
• 26:17 of the first churches you mentioned today about,
• 26:20 "Here's your message, here's your message."
• 26:22 Does that relate at all to our modern world, or was that
• 26:25 specific to that time period?
• 26:27 Jeffrey: Well, there's different approaches
• 26:29 to the literature itself.
• 26:30 I think that it relates to all people in all times.
• 26:33 And you can look at what he says to those congregations, those
• 26:36 communities of faith, those Jewish believers, and derive
• 26:40 applications certainly 'cause it talks about the temptations,
• 26:43 immorality, disengagement, losing the first love, things
• 26:47 that are a problem in modernity much as in antiquity.
• 26:51 Kirsten: Well, we're excited for the whole series.
• 26:52 David: Yeah, it really is like a college--a free college
• 26:55 course for all of us.
• 26:57 You're going to love this series.
• 26:58 Jeffrey: Oh, you're kind.
• 26:59 David: I can't believe we're out of time already.
• 27:01 Lots more to come on Revelation.
• 27:03 Jeffrey: There's more to come, we're just starting.
• 27:06 It's a great book. A tough book, but a great book.
• 27:08 But time to go now.
• 27:10 As you go, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:13 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
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