Tony Evans — The Key to Prophecy
Because I am not going to be ashamed of somebody who's given me all that he has given me, who's provided me all that he has provided me, who's forgiven me all that he's forgiven me. If you don't want Jesus, leave me at home.
Do you know the key to understanding prophecy? There is a master key to make sense of God's prophetic program.
This is Tony Evans with "The Urban Alternative," and I am so excited to be doing this prophecy series. It's so relevant for the days in which we are living.
And today I want you to get the key, because this key unlocks the door to all the various elements of God's prophetic program. So, sit back, relax, and get ready, because we're going to pull out this key, and that's going to open some prophetic doors for us today.
Today I want to give you the master key to prophecy, the key that will unlock all the doors of God's prophetic program. I want to go to the central verse for today, Revelation... it reads as follows. John, the writer of the book of Revelation, says in verse of chapter, "Then I fell at his feet to worship him.
But he said to me, 'Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'
So, the master key that will unlock the prophetic doors that we will walk through is the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the master key of prophecy.
First of all, Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of prophecy, the centerpiece. All of history revolves around Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians says, "With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth."
That's God's philosophy of history. When God looks at history, and God perceives time and space, he says, "It is the summing up." When God does his arithmetic, when he does his mathematic formulas, it is the summing up of all things in Jesus Christ, both in heaven and on earth, both in eternity and in time.
Everything from God's point of view is centered in Christ. We want to move now to understanding that Jesus Christ is not only the centerpiece of prophecy, he is the cause of prophecy.
God exists as a trinitarian being. God has never been alone because he exists in a community of Gods: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one person, or one being composed of three co-equal persons who are one in essence but distinct in personality. We call that the trinity.
God exists in community. These three are intimately connected to one another. There is no disagreement, there is no conflict except when Jesus died on the cross. There is camaraderie that is eternal in nature. Each member of the trinity promotes the other member. So, they're always hooked up and hooking each other up.
And so what the Godhead decreed was to create other spirit beings, God is a spirit, that would reflect back to God God's own greatness and glory. And these beings were called angels. And he organized them according to a chain of command, a hierarchy. And at the top of the chain was chief angel in charge named Lucifer.
He used to lead all the other angels in the worship of God to reflect back to God his glory. But according to Isaiah chapter, he developed a theo ego. That's a God complex. He looked in the mirror and said, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all?" The mirror lied to him, because he developed an ego.
And five times you will see in Isaiah , he says, "I will, I will, I will, I will, I will," negative volition. He declared he would be like the Most High. "I don't want to be under God anymore. I want to be God." He said, "I want to establish my own kingdom. I want to establish my own followers. I want to establish my own posse. I want to be like the Most High."
Now, what was it about God that Lucifer wanted so bad? He knew he couldn't create anything. He knew he, you know, was a creature, he was created, because he leading in the worship of God. But there was something about God that he wanted badly. And he said, "I will be like him."
And so he developed a coups d'etat, a rebellion against God. In this rebellion, the Scripture says one third of all the angels followed him, which will tell you how powerful this being is, that all the other angels, who were living under God, looking to God, dependent upon God, could be tricked by this star.
So, one third of all the angels followed him in his rebellion against God to set up his own kingdom, his own rule, independently of God. The problem with his rebellion is it's hard to have a coup against an omniscient being.
It's hard to rebel against God and he not know about it. So, his coup was uncovered. The trinity gathered together and held a trial. And Satan and the angels who followed him were found guilty of treason.
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