Clouds?

You will never look at clouds the same way after this lesson. Or at least I don't. Main thing to remember ... CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN! It's not a fairy tale or some made up story, it's the absolutely truth!



Acts 1:11



This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.



How did He go? In a cloud (or clouds).



Acts 1:9



And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.



Look up Ezekiel 10:1-5; 18-19; 11:16-25 and read about the clouds. What are they? They are God's movement! God's very presence. So when Scripture tells us that Jesus was taken up in a cloud ... God is wrapping His very own self around His Son and taking Him Home!!!! (Can you see me jumping up and down and clapping my hands!) What a beautiful picture!



Matthew 24:30



And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming IN THE CLOUDS of heaven with power and great glory.



EVERY EYE WILL SEE HIM! How is this possible. Duh, internet, CNN, ESPN, anything else satellite that we now have. Many years ago this was thought impossible that EVERY EYE could see something at one time but it's not so impossible to us!



Jesus Himself said to Caiaphas in Matthew 26:64



I say until you, "hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, coming IN THE CLOUDS of heaven.



Matthew 24:30-31



And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man COMING IN THE CLOUDS of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.



It is no wonder that God predics that "all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."



The ones that have rejected the Christ and are eternally lost will wail.



If this book teaches nothing else, it clearly shows that JESUS CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN TO JUDGE THIS WORLD.



Read Rev 1:9-20



The early church was not given to the teaching that separated the clergy with the laity. This separation has done much harm in the churches of today. John was the oldest living apostle of our Lord at the time of this writing. Instead of calling attention to the fact that he was an apostle, he chose to identify with the people of the day. As a brother and companion in the tribulation. The tribulation that John was speaking of was that of the early church that was being persecuted. It had already claimed the lives of Peter and Paul and probably most, if not all, of the other apostles. John was possibly about 90 when this book was written. He was still refusing to stop preaching and glorifying God. Don't we all want to be that way. I want to be praising Jesus and God when I go out of this world!



v 10 refers to being "In the spirit on the Lord's Day".



Any day of the week is the Lord's Day and we can be in the spirit on any day of the week.



7 churchs of John's day were literal churches with which John was very familiar. Why might these 7 have been chosen?





7 basic divisions of church history. The study of history reveals that the Church has gone through seven basix periods or stages.



7 types of churches that exist today. Some trends are still in existence even in our own day.



7 characteristics that can exist in any church.



We can see that these 7 churches comprise 7 methods of attack by Satan on the Church or individual Christians within the Church.



Remember the 7 lampstands (The Church) ... a fitting description for The Church. Just as a lampstand does not give off a light of its own (it gets it's light from another source, whether electricity or fire, etc) likewise we do not give off our own light but that light that comes from Christ in our lives. Without Him, we have no Light.

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