The Mystery of the Church – Part 2

Who can tell me what we talked about last week? Can you remember that far back? We talked about the mystery of the church, and it was more or less an introduction. We saw how the sanctuary shows us the way, the truth, and the life. Remember those three doors in the sanctuary? And we saw a little bit about how that connects with the book of Revelation, even, because in the beginning of the book, it describes a way, or a path.

In the end of the book it talks about the life, and throughout the book, it talks about the truth, and contrasting the truth with the lives of the world. And you remember that we saw a little bit about Revelation and the different ways that you can organize the book, or categorize the book. This is one way, and it shows us this mountain-like illustration, where we have comparable themes on each side. Then at the point, the summit of the mountain, that's like the most important part in some aspect, and in this case, it talks about the confrontation between the righteous and the wicked, the church and the devil.

We're going to talk a little bit more about how the churches fit into this outline of the book of Revelation. And I want to start by going to the book of Zechariah chapter 4. In this chapter, the prophet Zechariah is describing a vision, and he saw an angel. And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is waked out of his sleep, and said to me, what seeth thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold, a candlestick, all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. So it's like a candelabra, like the Jews had with seven branches and seven individual lights or lamps on each branch.

But he continues, and he says, he saw two olive trees by it, upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these, my Lord? I wouldn't know either. This, I think, is a nice illustration to give us a picture of what he saw.

He saw the seven-branched candlestick, the lampstand, and then he saw this bowl, and this is all between two olive trees. And the two olive trees had a pipe that drained the oil into the bowl, and the bowl drained the oil into the lamps, and the lamps burned the oil to make their light. Now, this picture is just a symbol.

The trees and the lampstand with the seven lights, these are all symbols for something else, and it's up to us to learn and understand what those symbols mean. What is the real thing that God wants to tell us through this vision that Zechariah saw? Now, I want to show you that this relates to something we have seen many times before now. Hopefully, we're starting to get a little bit more familiar with this picture.

Here we have the sign of the Son of Man formed by two comets over a certain time frame, and we've talked about how this shows us the Alpha and Omega, and that's Jesus's signature, and the two key constellations, both in the Greek language, they both start with the letter Omega. Orion starts with Omega, and the Horologium starts with the letter Omega, and they're the only two constellations in the sky that start with that letter, which is interesting because they're both right here, and they're both clocks.

One is clearly a clock, and the other one is also sometimes known as an hourglass. Now, these are like on either side of this sign, and in the middle of the sign, what we saw last week is how the seven churches are all in between. At each point, this is the path in the heavens of the churches, just like it's a reflection of what is on the earth, where the churches that were named in Revelation, they were all along a path, and it's a similar thing in heaven.

But notice where the Horologium is, there's no church, and also where Orion is, there's no church. The seven churches are not the same as the two clocks. Can you see the resemblance to what we saw, or what Zechariah saw envisioned? On the two sides, you have the olive trees, and in the middle, you have a candlestick with seven branches, just like we saw with the churches.

On the two sides, we have Orion and the Horologium, that's where it goes there. They are the olive trees in the vision, and then the seven churches, they are represented by the seven-branched candlestick, and so what we see is something we could illustrate it like this. Now, I put the trees here in a different orientation.

You know, in space with the constellations, everything is just kind of floating around, so forgive me for making the trees float around too, putting them in the direction of those constellations, but this is the idea. You have one olive tree for the Horologium, and one olive tree for the constellation of Orion, and then remember there was the bowl that was on top of the seven-branched candlestick. That bowl is where the oil would go, and that's the oil of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is represented by the dove, and even has the olive branch in his mouth. So we see a very clear, I think, description of Zechariah's vision shown in the heavens.

He's seeing the sign of the Son of Man in this chapter of Zechariah 4, and therefore it makes sense when he asked the angel that he didn't know what they were. When the angel that talked with me answered and said to me, knowest thou not what these be? And I said, no, my lord. He didn't know what that was, because it wasn't possible to see this until a specific point in time. You know, that's how God works. These constellations have been there forever, or at least for many generations. Not all of the constellations were labeled at the same time.

There are some that are very ancient, and then there are some that are relatively modern. The Horologium, for example, was assigned to that constellation in, I think, 1755 or around there, and that's one of the more recent ones, but God knows the end from the beginning, so there's no limitation. It doesn't mean that it's not significant or biblical just because it was discovered more recently.

It was assigned, really, by an astronomer. He looked at the heavens in the southern hemisphere, and he named a number of different constellations that cover the rest of the sky, so that today, with our modern astronomy, we have the entire sky covered in constellations, and God uses whatever is available. Whoever arranges the things, the astronomers who look and they divide the constellations, that's not a limitation for God, and it doesn't mean that He doesn't use that.

Everything that God does, at least almost everything, he's done through people. We have the Bible today, but who wrote the Bible? Did God write the Bible? We call it the Word of God, but who wrote it? There were many different people that wrote it. God gave them the inspiration, he gave them the visions, and then they expressed it in their own way.

Yes, he gave the oil, the spirit, and then the people themselves expressed it, and they put it in their own terms, and then those things are what we call the Word of God, and it is. And so it is with when we see things in the heavens. I used to wonder, should we really concern ourselves with the boundary lines? I mean, isn't that kind of arbitrary? But God uses what we see, and he teaches us through the things that we see. You know, just like Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he was sitting on the mountainside, and so he starts talking about the lily of the fields, things like that, that the people can see.

In that case, he used his own creation, but he also used examples in other cases of things that were in common knowledge, or were man-made perhaps, so that shouldn't be a stumbling block for us when we see that God uses a clock that was assigned by an astronomer. Okay, so back to our story. We have these two olive trees.

They're described as olive trees in Zechariah's vision. Let's continue reading, because he says something interesting in chapter 4, verse 6. The angel said, do you know what these are? And he said, no, I don't know, and so the angel answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So, by my Spirit, that's the relationship to the oil.

The olive oil represents the Spirit, not might, not power, but Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord, and then he gives some specific things to Zerubbabel. I'm not going to read those, but I will read verse 10, because he talks about how Zerubbabel will do a work, and he will finish that work. Then in verse 10, he says, for who hath despised the day of small things, and that's something that we can associate with very well in our ministry, because sometimes, we feel like we're such a small group, and yet we have this message that nobody else in the whole world has, and it's full of wonderful and amazing things that explain the mysteries of the Bible that have been there for many ages, and nobody really has a good grasp of what these symbols mean in the Bible, especially in the book of Revelation. People have many different ideas, and you ask them, but they don't come together.

One person says this, oh, the two witnesses. What are the two witnesses? People think that the two witnesses are two men, usually illustrated with beards and gruff, wearing sackcloth, and they think they're going to show up in Jerusalem one day. People are waiting for the two witnesses to appear in Jerusalem, because in the book of Revelation, it talks about two witnesses.

We'll look at that in just a minute, but God has given to this ministry many precious gifts, and as we have already seen now in this chapter, he's pointing specifically to this sign, and he gives the admonition, Who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and foe through the whole earth. He's talking about the seven lamps, the Spirit of God that goes through the whole earth, and then Zechariah wants some clarification.

Then answered I and said unto him, in verse 11, What are these two olive trees upon the right hand, right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again and said to him, What be these two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? So Zechariah is having a conversation with the angel, and he's asking him, Hey, what are these symbols that you're showing me? What does it mean? And the angel answered and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then he said, These, the two olive trees, these are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. This is a very important line.

These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Now go to Revelation chapter 11, and let's look at verse 3. This is the chapter that talks about the two witnesses, and this is where they are introduced. He says, I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three score days clothed in sackcloth.

And this is why people think that there's going to be two people that give witness. They teach for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, and they're going to be dressed in sackcloth. And later it talks about, well, yeah, they expect that in Jerusalem.

But then the very next verse says something very interesting. Verse 4, These are the two olive trees. So wait a minute.

Are these two witnesses people, or are they olive trees? It describes them first as two witnesses that prophesy. They give a prophecy. But then it says, these are the two olive trees.

Then he goes on, and he says, and the two candlesticks. And then he says, standing before the God of the earth. Remember those words? It's the same words that we saw in Zechariah 4, verse 14, Then said he, These are the two anointed ones. And when they would anoint someone, they would anoint them with olive oil. And they stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

So this is what we're seeing here. The two witnesses are these two olive trees and the two candlesticks. We talked about that last week, how there's two lights that are shining.

We need to talk about that a little bit more. But my point here is to show very clearly that these two witnesses are symbols. We shouldn't be looking to Jerusalem or anywhere else to find these two witnesses.

They are olive trees. They're candlesticks. Different symbols for the same concept.

When we look in the heavens and we see the relationship to Zechariah's vision, where we have the two olive trees with the seven churches, and Jesus said, you are the light of the world. He told his people, you're the light of the world, his disciples, who are the churches. And so they are the lights, the seven churches that are surrounding the Spirit.

Or put another way, the Spirit is in the midst of the churches. And then we have the two witnesses on either side. And what I wanted to point out earlier was that this picture could never have been seen until these comets were discovered.

For thousands of years since Zechariah had this vision, God was looking all the way until 2022, at least. Because that was when this comet, E3, was finally discovered in the sky. 2017, they discovered this one that was coming.

And then in 2022, they discovered this one. And as they looked at them, then they learned what path they're taking in the sky. And that's how we came up with this picture, by using that information and with other biblical clues, we were able to identify this time frame.

And then all of these connections started to come together. So this is prophecy being fulfilled. Very old prophecies.

Older than even the time when Jesus was here on the earth. Zechariah was an Old Testament prophet. And I think that's really amazing.

It shows us the importance of the time that we're living in. This is no ordinary time. This is a time that all of the prophets of the Bible, they all looked forward to this time.

They were longing to understand this time. The angel asked him, you don't know what this means? No. He didn't know, but he wanted to know.

What are these olive trees? What does it mean? And today, after so long, God is revealing it. He's showing us these are the olive trees. And the olive trees are the two witnesses.

Last week, we talked about how the seven churches, of those seven churches, there were two churches that Jesus had nothing negative to say about them.

The church of Smyrna, he said, you will endure a lot of trials, and some of you will die, you will be killed. But he said, be faithful to death, and I will give you a crown of life. And then the other church that he had nothing negative to say about was the church of Philadelphia.

Revelation 3, verse 10, he says, because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation. So He's encouraging them because they kept the word of his patience. Now, when you're patient for something, what does that mean? You have to wait.

It necessarily means you're waiting. If you're patient for something, you have to wait. That means there's a time that you have to wait.

And so we see this relationship to the church of Philadelphia, this relationship to time. They kept the time, the word of his patience. That's interesting also because it shows us that Jesus is being patient.

He wants also that sin is dealt with and that he wants to be united with his people, just like he told in the book of John, chapter 14. He said, if I go, I will come again and receive you to where I am at. He wants that, but he's being patient.

And this is very interesting because he says, you have kept the word of my patience, the time, you've kept the time of my patience. I've been waiting, but you have kept that time. So it shows that the time that Jesus has been waiting has been kept or committed to, guarded, safe kept by this church of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia understands the time, is how we could put that. And because of that, I also will keep thee, or preserve thee, from the hour of temptation. So he gives a blessing to the church of Philadelphia in that, because they kept the time, they understood the time and guarded it.

This word keep, it means to guard or protect, to save, all of these things are included. And unfortunately, much of God's church today has forgotten the time and many even deliberately don't want to know the time, but this promise isn't for them. This promise is for those who are willing to keep the time, to appreciate it.

Thank you, that's a better word. And this hour of temptation will come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. This is the time that we are, like we talked about in a couple of weeks ago with the seventh trumpet.

The seventh trumpet is announcing essentially this time, that's the time that we're in. The closer we come to the end, the more trials the world will be enduring. But God says that he will keep us from that hour or preserve us through that hour.

You know, just because we're on earth in the midst of a lot of trouble, it doesn't mean that we are directly involved in that trouble. He will keep us one way or the other from the hour of trial, in the ark of safety, and that's what we see here. This is the ark of safety.

Now, if we look just at this part, I have two different pictures here. What do you notice is different? One is pointing this way, the other one is pointing that way. Now, when we look at this picture and we see our map of the seven churches, we have the Spirit is here, and then the churches are around.

Here we have the church of Philadelphia. This is the church that is depicted in the river, and this is the river. There's even a person illustrated there, and that shows the symbol of baptism.

And baptism, with the dove, even it shows a picture of Jesus' baptism. And just as Jesus told his disciples, John and his brother especially, they wanted to be near to Jesus in his kingdom, and Jesus said, are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? So he was saying that baptism is about an experience, and there's a special experience that Philadelphia has that we just talked about. That's that experience in the word of Christ's patience, in the knowledge of time.

Philadelphia has that experience of time, and so that's a form of baptism, just like Jesus said, the baptism being an immersion in an experience. And then if you look over here, the constellation that corresponds with Smyrna is the Dorado. That's a fish that is known in this part of the world.

It's golden in color, therefore it's called Dorado, which means gold in Spanish, or golden. And so when we look at that picture that I just had, we see that this tool can point toward the Dorado or toward the man in the river. This is significant because it's like a seal.

When you put a seal, it's like writing. You write on someone's forehead. That's how the Bible describes it.

And here we have the head of the fish, and in the other direction we have the head of the one being baptized. So this is a symbol that shows us that these two churches are representatives of the witnesses. They're not the witnesses, but they shine with the light that comes from the witnesses.

So in this picture, where we have these seven churches, notice the vision of Zechariah. It shows us the relationship of the Holy Spirit with the churches. We have the two olive trees, and they give oil.

Looking at the symbols, the two trees would give oil to the bowl, and the bowl would distribute that to the lamp stand. And so we see how it works. The two witnesses are the two clocks, the hourglass, as Orion is, and the other clock.

They give the oil of the Spirit, that's illustrated here, and that's distributed to the seven churches that are around it. And notice that the picture that's described, it talked about two pipes that come from two branches of the olive trees.

And there's one pipe, if you will, that comes from Orion, and there's one pipe that comes from the Horologium. And those go and they form the sign in which the Spirit is given. So the oil of the two witnesses is given by the means of these comets.

That's how we came to understand this vision. It's how we came to understand many things in the Revelation, through the observation of these comets in particular, but also some other ones. When we look at the seven churches in the book of Revelation, they're right at the beginning, where Jesus describes those seven churches.

And that corresponds to what is written at the very end. In the last two chapters, it talks about Jesus being with the holy city. I'd like to look at that a little bit.

Revelation chapter 21 and verse 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Now this is the same language that's used for the church, the bride for her husband, Jesus.

So verse 3, and I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. So in the beginning of Revelation, Jesus sends his letters to the seven churches. They're scattered.

They're not all in one place. But in the end of the book, Jesus is dwelling with his people. God himself shall dwell with them, the Bible said.

The tabernacle of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. So we see this union from the individual churches to now. In the end of the book, they're united.

God with his people. And that is the picture also that we see in the sign of the Son of Man. To each of these seven churches, Jesus gave counsel, he gave warning, and he also said to him who overcomes.

Each of the churches, he gave a promise to those who overcome. And so we see in each case, there is a part of the constellation that's outside, and a part that is inside, and a part outside, a part inside, for each of those seven churches. And that represents those who have overcome, they are inside.

And those who don't overcome are outside. And then in the end of the book, we see the one group all together. Jesus is with his people.

This is the sign of the Son of Man, Jesus. And he's with his people, with those who have overcome and are represented therefore inside, in Christ, not outside of Christ. And that's why for Laodicea, where he says, if you don't repent, I will spit you out of my mouth.

That's what we see here, and it's entirely outside. But what about those who repent from Laodicea? They also may come inside, because there are the dogs outside the city that is from Revelation chapter 22, but they also have a little bit that's inside. And so those who are on the outside of the city, whether Laodicea, who's been spit out, or those who are listed in among the dogs, we talked about that once before, in Revelation 22, verse 15.

For without, outside the city are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters, whoever loveth and maketh a lie. So, these are a description of those who are outside the city, the dogs. And they're in the same camp outside, like Laodicea, who has been spit out.

And those who repent from that group are represented also inside. So, Jesus calls his people to overcome, to repent from those things that are wrong, which, by the way, includes certain false doctrines. He admonishes a couple of the churches, saying, you have this doctrine that I don't like, that I hate.

And many times, especially in our day, we don't want to tread on anyone's toes. We don't want to disturb anyone. We want to be nice to everybody.

And therefore, the church has lost a lot of its power, because instead of saying, hey, there are certain doctrines that you shouldn't believe, you shouldn't have these doctrines, false doctrines. Nobody wants to talk about those things. Nobody wants to change what they believe.

But Jesus says, no, that's part of overcoming, those who overcome those things, those who overcome the wrong concept of time, especially relevant to our day. Those who overcome are with Christ in the end. And so, I would just appeal to everyone watching this video and everyone here to look in your lives and hear God's voice.

Because just as the comets go through each church, and for each of those churches, Jesus says something at the beginning. After he introduces himself, he says, I know thy works. To the next church, he says, I know thy works.

To the next church, he says, I know thy works. For all seven churches, he says, I know thy works. Jesus knows us.

He knows your heart. He knows what's there that shouldn't be there, what false doctrines there might be. And he gives us counsel, and he gives us encouragement, and he invites us to repent and to overcome.

And so, that's what is necessary so that we can be among those united with Christ that are described in the end of the book of Revelation. So, I invite each one to take that seriously and personally, because Jesus knows your works personally, and not just collectively as a church. But each one is saved or lost personally according to their relationship with Christ.

And so, it's necessary for us to reflect on our hearts and hear God's voice to us and what he speaks to us through his written word and also through what we see in the heavens. So, with that, I would like to close with a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for showing us another one of your wonders in the heavens.

It never ceases to amaze me how much you have put into one small area of the heavens, how many prophecies, how many visions point to this one area, and not just an area, but it's a time. It's a time in history when we can see these things that have been prophesied by you, who knows the end from the beginning, and you care for your people, and you know our works, and you invite us to surrender our lives to you, and you are true and faithful, and we can trust you, and you have shown yourself trustworthy that even though for many generations your people have not completely understood your prophecies, though they have been beneficial. But in these last days you have spoken from heaven with time, and you're pointing to this very time and this very sign showing us that Jesus indeed is coming, and this is His sign, and we believe that, and we ask that you will abide with us as the Spirit is depicted in the midst of the sign. We thank you for hearing our prayer and for guiding us in these troubled and confusing times in the world.

We love you. We look forward to being united with you at last, in the end. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our Savior, and in his new name, Alnitak, the wounded one.

Amen. Thank you, and we'll see you next week where we'll talk more about the sign of the Son of Man.