Hi. My name is Father Mike Schmidt, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the great adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation. That's where we are. Discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today in this day, 360. That sounds like a good number, very circular. We are reading from Revelation, chapters four, five, six, and seven. Okay, as well as the Book of Titus, a letter of Paul, Titus, chapters one, two, and three. Might be a big day today. You probably already know that. It's also Proverbs, chapter 31, verses 10-15. That's always the Bible translation I'm reading from is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in the year reading plan for these last few days, you can visit ascensionpress. Com/biblein the year. You can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates.

You know that. It's Day 360. We're reading Revelation 4:5, 6, and 7: Titus one, two, and 3: Proverbs 31:10-15. The revelation to John, Chapter 4, the heavenly worship. After this, I looked and behold in heaven an open door, and the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there appeared like Jasmine and Cornelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald. Round the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns upon their heads. From the throne issued flashes of lightning and voices and peels of thunder. And before the throne burned seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne, there is, as it were, a sea of glass like a crystal. Round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature, like a lion.

The second living creature, like an ox. The third living creature, with the face of a man. And the fourth living creature, like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them, with six wings, are full of eyes, all round and within. And day and night, they never cease to sing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne singing, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created. ' Chapter Five, The Scroll and the Lamb. I saw in the right-hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals.

And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I wept much that no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, Weep not, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right-hand of him who was seated on the throne. When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sang a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransom'd men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.

Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voices of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all therein saying, To him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said Amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. Chapter Six, The Seven Seals. Now I saw when the lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with the voice of thunder, Come. I saw and behold a white horse and its rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come, and out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that men should slay one another and he was given a great sword.

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come, and I saw and behold a black horse and its rider had a balance in his hand. I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A court of wheat for a denarius and three courts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm oil and wine. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come, and I saw and behold a pale horse and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him, and they were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had born. They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth. Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that has rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the Kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong and everyone slave and free hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand before it. Chapter 7, the 144,000 of Israel sealed. After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God.

He called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, though we have sealed the servants of our God upon their forehead. Heads. I heard the number of the sealed. A hundred and forty,000 sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel. Twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah. Twelve thousand of the tribe of Ruben, 12,000 of the tribe of Gad. Twelve12,000 of the tribe of Asher, 12,000 of the tribe of Naffdali, 12,000 of the tribe of Manassah, 12,000 of the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 of the tribe of Levi, 12,000 of the tribe of Esakar, 12,000 of the tribe of Zebulen, 12,000 of the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 sealed out of the tribe of Benjamin. The multitude from every nation. After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude, which no man can number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb.

And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night within his temple, and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scourging heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The Letter of Paul to Titus, chapter 1, Salutation.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God's elect with their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promisessays to me, that I have been trained to be a man of God for almost ages ago, and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God, our savior. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our savior. Titus in Crete. This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If any man is blameless, the husband of one wife and his children are believers, and not open to the charge of debauchery and not being insubordinate. For a bishop, as God's steward, must be blameless. He must not be arrogant or quick tempered, or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled. He must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine, and also to confute those who contradict it.

For there are many unsubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party. They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach. One of themselves, a prophet of their own said, Cretans are always lies, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuk them sharply that they may be sound in the faith instead of giving heed to Jewish myths or to commands of men who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelievin, nothing is pure. Their very minds and consciousnesses are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed. Chapter two, teach sound doctrine. But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine. Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Bid the older women, likewise, to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited.

Likewise, urge the younger men to control themselves. Show yourself, in all respects, a model of good deeds, and in your teaching, show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censored, so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say of us. Bid slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect. They are not to talk back nor pilfer, but to show entire and true fidelity, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our savior. For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce, irreligion, and worldly passions and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds. Declare these things, exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Chapter three, maintain good deeds. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for any honest work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs and hope of eternal life. The saying is sure. I desire you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds. These are excellent and profitable to men, but avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quardles over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him. Knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful, he is self-condemned. Final messages and benediction. When I send Artemus or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopoulos, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

Do your best to speed Zanas, the lawyer, and Apolis on their way. See that they lack nothing and let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds so as to help cases of urgent need and not to be unfruitful. All who are with me send greetings to you. Meet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 31, verses 10-15. Who can find a good wife? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant. She brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and tasks for her maidens. Father and everyone give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for bringing us. We're once again to this day, to day 360, we ask that you please continue to walk with us, continue to journey us, journey with us. Above all, we ask you, Lord, to please continue to guide us because without your guidance, without your word, without your direction, we are completely lost.

Help us to be yours this day and every day in Jesus' name we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Okay, so we have the letter Paul to Titus, which is really brief, obviously. It's a brief letter, only three chapters. In it, I just want to highlight one piece, and that is that St. Paul, as he's reigning to Titus. Titus is in Crete. One of the things that even Paul quotes, he says that one of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always lies, evil beasts, lazy, gluttons. Then Paul says, That testimony is true. I agree. Those Cretans, that situation. But what Paul is pointing out is that a lot of these Cretans who have become Christians are not necessarily living converted lives. He talks about, Okay, so have the older women live like this? Have the older men live like this? Have the young women and younger men live like this? If you're a slave, live like this? The reason essentially is because Christianity has to become credible. Again, the Gospel has to become credible. At this point, you realize that if Christians are living among the world and in the world and are living no differently than anyone else.

Like if here's a Cretan Christian and they're just a Cretan and they're not living any differently from each other, then that's a problem. What Paul is saying is he's basically saying, You're giving witness, you're bearing witness to Jesus, or you're bearing witness to the ineffectiveness of the gospel if you're no different than the people around you. I would say that probably the upshot of this particular letter of St. Paul to Titus is that, yeah, we give witness to the power of the gospel, or we give witness to the of the gospel by our lives. If we live like everyone else, then the gospel is powerless. If we live differently, live lives that are changed, then we bear witness that the gospel has power. Has power to change our lives, and has power to change the people's lives among whom we live. But I know what you're waiting for. You're waiting for St. Paul... Not St. Paul, St. John's revelation, the Apocaly of John, because, oh, gosh, all the imagery. Now, hopefully some of this imagery is going to be completely familiar to you because here's what happens. Chapter four hits and John says, After this, I looked.

Remember, we ended yesterday with the messages to the churches? That's on Earth. Chapter four opens up, After this, I looked and behold, in heaven, an open door. The first voice, heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, 'Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. This is so important. This is the next number of chapters is John in heaven. John is relating to us what he saw in heaven. This is bananas. It's incredible. He sees the one on the throne and he sees on about there's 24 thrones with 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns upon their heads. Now think about this in verse 5, From the throne issued flashes of lightning and voices and peels of thunder. What does that sound like? That sounds like Mount Sinai to me. I don't know if it sounds like that to you, but it sounds like that to me. Also, these 24 elders, they're both kings and they're going to be priests. This is going to be absolutely critical to notice that they have crowns like kings and they worship like priests.

Bananas again. We have the four living creatures like the lion, like an ox, the face of a man, and the flying eagle type living creature. We saw those things, those creatures before as well. What have they never ceased to sing? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. I don't know if you've ever been to a Catholic mass, you know that that's what we sing. It's called the Sanctus. It's the holy, holy, holy. One of the things that I just want to remind you, every one of us, every time you go to Mass, this is what's happening. You're being brought up like John into the heavenly throne room. You're being brought up like John into heavenly worship. That is the secret of the Book of Revelation, is that whenever we walk into Mass, we're there, we're in the place. We are in the place that we just heard described in chapter four and five and following. This is incredible. What happens? Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him, who is seated on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their thrones before the throne. The cast their crowns before the throne, singing, 'Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created. ' This is just incredible. That's this worship. Now, chapter five has this scroll. On the scroll, there has seven seals. I heard someone describe this, and they pictured it like this. They said, Don't picture a scroll with seven seals in terms of seven seals along one edge. If you can picture that right now. Here's a paper rolled up and here's one edge. But imagine it rolled tightly. With every roll, there's another scroll or another seal. If you were to say this, and this was described and I thought this is interesting, the seventh seal would be the one in the center of the scroll, right in the center of being rolled up. That would be the last one to be broken. The first one would be on the outside, right? But if you crack that first one, you could read that first message. But maybe the next message wasn't for you. You crack the next one and the message is for someone else who could read your message and their message.

But the third message isn't for you. The third person cracked that seal and now the third person could read the first and second person's message, no problem. But there's their third message. That makes sense. It's like this unrolling of a scroll. I thought that's helpful for me visually because what we see here is we see, first, the lament. The lament is, There's no one worthy to open the scroll and break open its seals. No one can do this. Who is going to do this? John himself begins to weep. One of the elders says, Weep not, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals and seal a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and seven eyes. The numbers of the Covenant, maybe, possibly? The seven horns and seven eyes symbolize Christ's full power and full knowledge. Seven horns are a symbol of power and eyes a symbol of knowledge. Seven and seven, right? That number of covenant, full power, full knowledge, Jesus Christ himself, the one who is living forever. What can happen? He can open the scroll.

When he had taken the scroll in verse 8, chapter 5, When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp with golden bulls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sang a new song singing. Now, the prayers of the saints right there in chapter five, it's one of the reasons why we believe that those holy ones on earth, the holy ones on earth, Christians around the world, that the saints in heaven, those 24 elders, those saints in heaven are lifting up the prayers of the saints on earth. We see that these were prayers of the saints here, the golden bulls full of incense. They sang a new song singing, Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, goes on to say, You were slain by your blood. You ransom men for God from every tribe and nation and tongue and people, and have made of them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then, bam, this is this massive, praising God. Again, verse 14, end of chapter five, And the four living creatures said amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.

This is the picture of heavenly worship, worshiping not only the one on the throne, but also the lamb who was slain and lives forever. Then in chapter six, the lamb opens one of the and you have this succession of, I don't say woes come upon the earth, but definitely some hard times coming upon the earth. We have the first horse, the four horsemen. The first one is the white horse with the rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out to conquer. Second one was another horse, bright red, and it took peace away from the earth. There was war upon the earth. The third was a black horse, and Ryder had balance in his hands. This is an interesting thing because it could be worth noting. I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, this is verse 6 saying, A court of wheat for a denarius, and three courts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm oil and wine. I read it in a commentary that talked about like, What is that? They highlighted the fact that the time for the oil harvest or the olive harvest was a different time of year than it was for wheat and barley.

What this proclamation essentially could be saying is that this was a temporary affliction. This is not complete destruction for an entire year, but only for a season. I think I was like, Wow, that's really important. That makes sense. Wheat is down or wheat is up and barley is up, but the oil hasn't been damaged because that wasn't around for that time. If that makes any sense. Fourth seal, there's the pale horse. In fact, I think of translation, I came across a sickly green color, not pale, but sickly green. Its writer's name was Death and Hades followed him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine with pestilence and wild beasts in the earth. The next number of, well, X2 really, seals that are opened bring, again, destruction, and they bring pestilence upon the earth. Now, Chapter Seven is the Seventh Seal. This is very fascinating because we have 144,000. What is that? Well, 144,000 are 12 times 12 times 1,000. So 12 times 12,000 is 144,000. That would essentially be the idea of here are 12 tribes of Israel, named here in Chapter Seven. You have 12,000 people from the 12 tribes of Israel, and they're being brought back, they're being reunited, they're being restored essentially in God's presence.

That is really important to understand. Wait, why 144,000? Because 12 times 12,000. The numbers of tribes of Israel, and 12,000, which is, again, that number 12 being a very powerful, complete number that here's God who wants to restore Israel. You could also say that here's God restoring the new Israel. This could be God restoring Christians, those who belong to him. Now, again, there are different scholars who say different things, but what is very clear, very clear is that this is the restoration of the Kingdom of God in the Old Covenant. He even mentioned, he even names every one of the 12 tribes of Israel. This is very, very important that these are the Jewish people. Again, this is so important. Sometimes people can think that the New Testament can be anti-Semitic, but it's not when we realize that the people who wrote it were Jews. Not only that, but here in Chapter Seven, 144,000, this is the proclamation, the prophecy that says that, this is a restoration of the people of Israel. But then after that, this is incredible. In verse 9, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no man could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb.

Again, everyone's worshiping. This is just incredible because not only are the Jewish people meant to be saved, meant to be restored, the kingdom of Israel meant to be restored, but us, Gentiles, who belong to the Lord God, get to participate in heavenly worship. Last line, verse 13. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothes and white robes and from where have they come? I said to him, Bro, you're the one who lives here. He says, Sir, you know. He said to me, These are they who have come out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. These are the martyrs. The martyrs have a special place. Isn't incredible, right? These are the martyrs. After this, I looked, as John says, And behold a great multitude, which no man could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues. These are the ones who have come out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. They have a special place. That's one of the things that's true, right?

That some people have a special place in heaven. That's okay because everyone's loved. But there are those who have givenThey've been born witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord, with their very lives. Remember that even at one point Peter says to Jesus, he says, Lord, we've given up everything to follow you. What did we get? Jesus says, Oh, you'll get blessings in this life and persecution, and you'll get eternal life and this blessing in heaven. But we recognize that what we do on earth makes a difference in how we live in heaven. The more righteous we live on Earth, the more we cooperate with God on earth. The more we say yes to Jesus on earth, the more glory he gets in heaven. I just think that's the heart of everything. We're going to talk about more about this in the chapters to come as John learns more and more about heavenly worship. But one of the things that seems to be revealed, and again, it seems to be revealed, maybe it's just my interpretation, but how we live on earth, those righteous deeds, they amplify, they glorify, they exalt the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit for eternity.

It just seems like one of those situations where it's like, don't we want him to receive the maximum amount of glory through our lives on Earth and through eternity in heaven? Not just about making it to heaven, but about living in such a way on Earth that he's glorified even more with every passing breath, with every passing moment in heaven. I don't know. That's one of those things that just lights a fire beneath me, and I wanted to pass that on to you. Of course, everyone is loved by God. He will never stop loving you. He has never stopped. He will never stop loving you. The question is, will I let him love me? Will I say yes to him today? I'm praying that you do. I'm praying that I do. I'm praying that all of us can be in that number of people who are worshiping the Lord not only in this world, in the Mass, but also in eternity, in heaven. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.