We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

In Chapter 1 verse 18, John writes what Jesus tells him. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

This week, we are going to analyze Hades. Before we go further, we must first define Hades.

There are two areas of Hades, also known as the place of the dead or Sheol, one area is filled with fire, torment and agony. The other area is filled with peace, love and joy. If you were to die right now and you do not believe in Jesus as the Son of God, you would go to the part of Hades filled with fire. It is critical to understand that once a person has died and is in Hades, it is too late to make a choice to believe in Jesus. We know this from Luke 16, starting in verse 22. “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side [heaven]. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”

There is no way to cross over the two areas of Hades. One area is the place of torment, full of fire and agony for those who die today without believing in Jesus. The other is full of love and peace.

Revelation 20:14 says, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵ Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

The lake of fire is Hell. We will study Hell more as we continue through the book of Revelation. Hades and Hell are two different places. For now, it is important to know Hell is real and people who do not believe in Jesus will spend eternity there. The Bible warns people repeatedly that anyone whose name is not written in the book of life (those who refuse to believe that Jesus is the Son of God), will go to Hades immediately when they die. The physical death is known as the first death, which sends people either to be with Jesus in Paradise (Heaven) or to Hades (Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:14). Then as we are told in Revelation, Hades is thrown into the lake of fire or Hell. This is the second death, where all people who are in Hades because of their lack of belief in Jesus will then spend their eternity in Hell.

We can think of Hades as a temporary holding place for those who die. For those who believe in Jesus, when they die today, they go to Paradise also called heaven. Even if someone chooses to believe in Jesus as they take their very last breath, they go to Paradise. We know this because the thief that was hanging on the cross next to Jesus was indeed a thief, he confessed to being a criminal. Yet, when the thief said to Jesus that he believed in Him, Jesus said to the thief, “I promise, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43. Not after the thief cleaned himself up or got down from the cross and did a few good things to make up for his bad behavior. Right then and there, Jesus was going to take the thief to Paradise.

Who do you need to tell about Jesus today before it is too late and they are sent to Hades, a place of torment and agony?

Jesus is now holding the keys to Hades, which gives Him all power and authority over physical death and eternal death. We will cover next week exactly how Jesus obtained the keys to Hades.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

In Chapter 1 verse 18, John writes what Jesus tells him. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death . . .”.

The book of Revelation is Jesus telling us what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. In verse 18, Jesus explains to John that He was dead and is now alive forever. But how was Jesus raised from the dead and what does that mean for us today?

When someone holds the keys to something, it means that they have authority over it. In verse 18, Jesus is telling us that He has all power and authority over death. On the cross, Jesus died and was then buried. Death was allowed to take over Jesus’ physical body so God could raise Jesus from the dead. Why?

Everything that God does is to show His glory, to show all humans that He is real. God allowed Jesus to die so that God could raise Jesus from the dead. There are many verses that tell us God raised Jesus from the dead. We will look at just a few. Acts 3:15 is addressing the Jewish leaders of the time and says, “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!” And Acts 4:10 is answering a question asked by the Jewish leaders about a man healed by Jesus, “he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.”

Galatians 1:1 says, “This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.” Colossians 2:12 says, “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.”

Acts 2:23 says, “This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

What does God raising Jesus from the dead have to do with our lives today? Romans 8:1 says, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. . . . The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” This means that once you believe in Jesus as the Son of God, you have the Holy Spirit living in you. This is the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, giving Jesus authority over death. When we sin, we invite death to come into our lives, so we need Jesus to save us from death (Romans 6:23). But what does it mean that Jesus saves us from death?

All humans will die a physical death, which means our bodies will die. Every human also has a spirit living in our bodies. When our physical bodies die, that spirit either goes to heaven or hell. If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, our spirit goes to heaven because we have the life-giving Holy Spirit living in us. We have been freed from the power of sin that leads to death. This does not mean physical death, but instead spiritual death. If we do not believe in Jesus, then our spirit goes to hell for all eternity, this is spiritual death. Jesus died on the cross to save us from spiritual death (John 3:16). All we have to do is believe in Jesus.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. We believe that He died on the cross for our sins. Thank You that Jesus is the perfect and final sacrifice. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

In Chapter 1 verse 18, John writes what Jesus says to him. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death . . .”.

Jesus explains to John that He was dead and is now alive forever. For those of us who believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, it is easy to miss what Jesus is saying. He is confirming that He was dead. To better understand what Jesus is saying, we need to explore several questions. Did someone else have the keys of death? And if so, who and how did they get them?

The keys of death go all the way back before the Garden of Eden. Before God created the earth, God created angels (Job 38:4 – 7). One of those angels was named Lucifer. He was beautiful, talented and a worship leader among the angels (Isaiah 14:12). Lucifer served in the very presence of God the Almighty. But a problem arose when Lucifer wanted to be like God (Isaiah 14:13-15).

Lucifer became filled with pride and wanted the angels to worship him, not God. Lucifer’s pride was a problem for a few reasons, pride is sin and sin cannot be in the presence of God. The other problem for Lucifer is that God will not share His glory (Isaiah 42:8). This may make God sound selfish if we do not understand that God created human beings to worship Him. For those that choose not to worship God, they worship all kinds of other things. For example, some people worship animals, trees or other people, but all of these things die. Some people worship money, fame or power, all of these are temporary as well. God is saying that He created us to worship only Him, a loving Father who is eternal and all-powerful. Worshipping anyone or anything else only dooms us in this life and eternity.

Once Lucifer tried to steal God’s glory, he was thrown out of heaven. Jesus describes this in Luke 10:18, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. God not only kicked Lucifer out of heaven, but He also renamed him from Lucifer, which means light, to Satan, which means adversary. When Satan was thrown down to earth, he became the ruler of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4 and 1 John 5:19).

We know that when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, “Sin entered the world because one man sinned. And death came because of sin. Everyone sinned, so death came to all people.” Romans 5:12. The keys of death were given to Satan by Adam. God gave man authority over the earth (Genesis 1:28 and Psalms 8:6). When Adam sinned, he handed to Satan the keys to death because “the one who sins is the one who will die” Eziekiel 18:1 and the “wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23.

All people are sinners; this means that we all fall short of perfection or being without sin (Romans 3:23). Once we sin, we are dead, spiritually dead. To be spiritually dead means to be separated from God and destined for hell, (which is different than Hades as we will see in a future post). Most of us sinned when we were children, we lied to get a cookie or took a toy that was not ours or any other number of things. Does it mean that we are still dead in our sin and separated from God if we have since tried to be good people? The answer is yes. We cannot be perfect, no matter how hard we try. Just looking at someone of the opposite sex and thinking a lustful thought is sin (Matthew 5:28). We all sin. So, what are we supposed to do?

Until Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for our sins, there was no path to be reconciled to God except that of the Old Testament. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy describe the sacrifices that were required for the people to bring to God for forgiveness of their sins. They would sacrifice animals when they sinned, but the forgiveness was not permanent. Each time they broke God’s Law, they committed a sin. Then the people would need to go to the Temple and make another sacrifice. Why? Because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22).

Jesus now holds the keys to death meaning that if we accept that we are sinners and He died on the cross for us, then we are free from death. We are free from spiritual death; this does not mean that we will live forever on earth and our bodies will never die. Our physical bodies will still die, but our spirits will go to heaven and spend eternity with Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross is a perfect, permanent sacrifice made for us. All we have to do is believe in Him.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. We believe that He died on the cross for our sins. Thank You that Jesus is the perfect and final sacrifice. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

In Chapter 1 verse 17, John writes what happened when he saw the risen Jesus. “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.”

John, the disciple who had walked and served alongside of Jesus for years in His earthly ministry is unable to stand after seeing the risen Jesus. Jesus places his right hand on John and tells him not to be afraid. Throughout the Bible, the right hand symbolizes protection, blessing, authority, and favor. Jesus also sits at the right hand of God the Father with all power and authority, (see Psalm 110:1 and Matthew 22:41-45).

Jesus explains to John all the reasons why he should not be afraid. Jesus is the First and the Last. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and everything in-between. Jesus is the past, the present and the future, He was, is and will always be (Hebrews 13:8). In other words, all things were created through Jesus and for Him. Jesus holds all of creation together. Colossians 1:16 says, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

In Revelation chapter 1, verse 18, Jesus tells John, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! ” Jesus is reassuring John, who saw Jesus die on the cross, that He is indeed alive. After Jesus died on the cross, He was the firstborn from among the dead, (Colossians 1:18 – 20). In other words, Jesus was raised to eternal life after his human death. Once our human lives on earth end, we are raised to eternal life in heaven if we believe in Jesus. For ever and ever is a hard concept for humans to visualize. Even though we cannot truly grasp what eternal life feels like, we are wise to choose where we will spend it. If forever exists, would you want to spend it covered with worms eating your flesh and surrounded by fire that never goes out (Mark 9:47-49) or in a place with no more hurt, crying, or pain and no more sorrow (Revelation 21:4)? Every human on earth makes their own choice as to where they will spend forever. Nobody can choose for you, once you die it is too late to choose, and not making a choice is a choice.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

In Chapter 1, verse 16, John describes Jesus. “In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword.” In verse 20, Jesus explains to John what the seven stars are. “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” We reviewed the seven lampstands and the seven churches in prior posts; we are going to focus on the seven stars in this study.

It is important to note that the seven stars that Jesus holds in His hand represent human leaders for each of the seven churches. The seven church leaders that Jesus told John to write to in verse 11 of Chapter 1, are Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

We can conclude the seven stars are the church leaders for three reasons. First, while it can be confusing because the word “angels” is used in many translations, the original word “angelos” means messenger. This is the word that was used at the time of the writing of Revelation to describe a human messenger, such as a pastor or elder, who carried an important message. The important message the angel of each church in Revelation would deliver was the letters that John was writing from Jesus. The pastor was to read the letter to the entire congregation of the church.

The second reason the term angels refers to the church pastor is that portions of the letters are addressed to an individual. When Jesus is speaking to the pastor of the church, the grammar is singular. There are some instances where the pastor either causes or allows things to occur in the church that Jesus does not like. When Jesus addresses the entire congregation of the church, the grammar is plural. His tone and grammar changes to convey whether the pastor or the congregation is allowing problems in the church.

The third reason we can conclude that angel means pastor is that there are several verses written to an individual that call for repentance. Angels who are the heavenly beings have no need to repent. If they committed sin; they would not be beings in heaven, sin cannot be in the presence of God. Jesus did not die so angels could repent and inherit eternal life, He only died for humans. The heavenly angels have already had their eternity decided based on their choice to follow God or Satan (see 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6). We will cover the calls to repentance for specific individuals in future posts as we study each letter in detail.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

The voice speaking to John is the risen Jesus. He is walking among seven golden lampstands. In verse 20 of Chapter 1, Jesus reveals to John what the mystery of the seven lampstands is. A mystery is something that was hidden, waiting to be revealed. Jesus does not want us to be confused about the things that He is showing John. Jesus wants us to understand what has happened, is happening and will happen. One of the reasons why we should study the book of Revelation is because Jesus reveals to us things that were once hidden.

Verse 20 says, ^“The mystery of the . . . seven golden lampstands is this: . . . the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” The seven churches that Jesus tells John to write letters to were actual churches at that time, (check out the post where we dug into the details).

Do not be confused and think that these lampstands only represent churches from a long time ago. This portion of Revelation represents the Church Age or the current time we are living in. The Church Age began at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the group of believers (Acts 2). The current period we are living in is called the Church Age because believers are still on the earth. When those who believe in Jesus Christ are taken up to heaven, the church will have left the earth and that will be the end of the Church Age. The believers are the body of Christ also called the church on earth (Ephesians 3:6, 1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:24). The seven lampstands symbolize all churches throughout history, from the church’s inception to the present day.

What is John supposed to write in the letters to the churches? Jesus instructs John to record all that he sees and hears. Jesus is about to dictate to John seven letters to seven different churches. Each letter John writes corresponds to a type of church that has existed, exists now, and will exist. While these letters are addressed to specific churches, we must consider our own church as we read them. Which of the seven churches could be your church? What message would Jesus send to your church, and what changes might He want your church to make?

What do the seven letters and lampstands mean for us today? These letters should be treated as if Jesus was telling your church what to do. James 4:17 says that if we know what to do and we do not do it, it is sin. While these letters may seem irrelevant, they are anything but. Jesus is the Head of the church, every single church that exists fits into one of the seven letters. Jesus is telling His church what to do. If we read these letters and do nothing in our own churches to obey what Jesus said, then we have ignored Jesus and are guilty of sin.

It is important to note that Jesus is walking among the lampstands, He is not far off somewhere observing the churches. He is a God of details and is closely involved with His churches. Jesus knows every church then and now; He knows the heart and desire of every congregation. Jesus also has the power to remove a lampstand or allow a church to shutter their doors if there is sin or the church has become lukewarm in their love for Him.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

We have been working through a series on the book of Revelation. This book of the Bible can be difficult to understand for a variety of reasons, so we are taking it slow and studying it bit by bit together.

“From John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

There are seven letters written to seven churches. There are seven spirits before the throne of God, which represent the Holy Spirit. We studied these details in a prior post.

The seven churches that Jesus told John to write to are listed in verse 11 of Chapter 1.

“Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

In a prior post, we studied the seven churches.

As we continue our study next week, John will describe Jesus walking among seven golden lampstands and holding seven stars in His hand. In verse 20 of Chapter 1, Jesus tells John what the seven lampstands represent, ^“The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

In future chapters of Revelation, we will see the pain and suffering of the people on earth who refuse to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This suffering is unleashed by seven seals on seven scrolls (Chapters 5 and 6). There are also seven horns and seven eyes representing the seven spirits of God (Revelation 5:6).

As the period of suffering begins, there are seven angels (Chapters 8, 15, 16, 17 and 21) that are given direction to blow seven trumpets (Chapter 8). The seven trumpets unleash a time on earth full of tremendous suffering unlike anything ever seen before that includes seven plagues (Chapters 15 and 21) and seven bowls of pain (Chapters 15, 16, 17 and 21). There is also a beast that is destroying life and inflicting unimaginable terror. The beast has seven heads representing seven hills and seven kings (Chapters 12, 13 and 17).

The number seven in the Bible means completion. As we will study next week, the seven letters, the seven lampstands, the seven angels of the churches and the seven churches represent every church from the past, present and future, so it is a complete set. The period of suffering that we will study in future chapters brings about the completion of an earth that has evil in it. For those who do not believe in Jesus, there will be no second chances. The time of suffering will be the completion of their opportunity to choose Jesus and have eternal life.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the wisdom that we have in the Bible. Lord, help us to apply Your Word in our everyday lives. Lord, help us to study Revelation and give us understanding. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.