If you grew up in the church, then perhaps you were like me in
that you have vivid memories of a variety of experiences that
you had in Christian meetings and events.
Some of those memories are good, some bad, some you're probably
still trying to figure out what category to place them in.
Out of the hundreds of services that I sat through as a child,
for some reason I have this strong recollection sitting
there in the main Sunday service, distracted during the
pastor's sermon. Hopefully that's not a common
experience for you, but I don't recollect my wandering mind
necessarily, but what I did in my restlessness.
You see, we had Pew Bibles available every time you came to
church. And so in trying to occupy my
mind with something sanctifying, I guess I grabbed one of those
Pew Bibles. And I began to comb through it,
trying to find something interesting to read.
And I realized that there isn't much time in the service.
So let me just go to the end of the book.
And what I stumbled upon is one of the most enthralling portions
in all of Scripture, the Book of Revelation.
And it didn't take me very long to be smitten by what my eyes
saw. Future catastrophes,
Unprecedented casualties like the world has never known.
The description of beasts and other strange creatures, This
tyrannical concept of the mark of the beast, the Great White
Throne, judgement, paranormal activity, and this description
of the new heaven and the new earth, among other things.
I can tell you with confidence that my brief exposure even as a
child to this book has such an impact on me clearly even to
this point in my life. And I don't think my experience
with this book, then, is a unique one.
What the Book of Revelation has to convey has captivated
millions throughout the ages. It attracts curious minds, It
has stumped critical thinkers. And it still has the ability to
fascinate even the casual reader, often times to the point
of dread. And I, I think it's safe to say
that for Christians especially, this book is more intimidating
than anything, mainly because of its cryptic and enigmatic style,
this rich symbolism and these mysterious references.
Believers really don't know what to do with it.
Even in teaching settings, you have many people who will go
through the book, maybe up to chapter 3, maybe entertain some
content in chapter 4 and five, but nothing beyond that.
If anything beyond that, maybe a brief description read from
chapter 21 about heaven. So throughout the ages,
throughout the centuries, due to frustration or fear, the Book of
Revelation has developed an unfortunate reputation.
Here's my heart on the matter. I don't want this church to be
content remaining intimidated or ignorant regarding its message
because the Book of Revelation is God's Word, and it's a book
that tells us right at its introduction that if you humbly
interact and apply it, you will be blessed.
I want us to be blessed. So that is why, beginning today,
we are starting a series in the Book of Revelation.
And before we open this door and step into the 1st chapter, I
want to take the time to present an overview of this book.
If you don't take notes, you're going to be a note taker in this
series. I think I want to establish a
proper foundation so that we can develop our understanding
rightly. And so we're not going in any
particular order today. We're all going to climb and
have a bird's eye view of the general landscape of this book.
Next week we will land and then we will begin our verse by verse
journey through this incredible book called the Book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ. Here's our aim today.
We are going to answer one question.
You're going to leave here with one main answer.
There are different answers under this one main answer, but
here is what we are going to explore.
What is the Book of Revelation? It's three things.
The Book of Revelation is three things, and the first thing is
that it is a letter. Open Revelation chapter 1,
beginning in verse 4. I say that because the apostle
John, who is the author of this book, informs us almost
immediately who his immediate audience was.
And the way he begins is how many other letters open in the
New Testament. Revelation One verse 4.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia.
Pause. Asia Minor, modern day Turkey.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia.
Grace to you, and peace from him who is and who was and who is to
come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and
from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first born of the
dead and the ruler of kings on earth.
People make the mistake in thinking that the only thing the
seven churches that John addresses received were the
short postcards that you find in chapter 2 and 3.
In actuality, the entire Book of Revelation was given to the
seven churches. And for what purpose?
You know what I admire about John?
And by the way, this is John the Apostle.
He doesn't need to explain who he is.
He expects these churches to know.
Oh, it's that John, the same John wrote the Gospel of John,
the same John who wrote the first, second and third epistles
with his name on it. And I admire John's writing
style because in his major pieces of literature he gives
his spirit inspired goal, the intent, the purpose of why he
wrote what he wrote. So many of you know John chapter
20, verse 31 in his Gospel account, but these are written
so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
So John wrote the Gospel of John according to his own words so
that those who would read it would believe and be saved.
That's why many people advise curious spiritual seekers, truth
seekers, to read the book of John of all books, because they
know that this is the intent of its content, that you may
believe and be saved. What about John's first letter,
First John? Does he tell us what that's for?
Yes, in first John 513 he says these things have been written
to you who believe. For what purpose?
For you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you
may know that you have eternal life.
So now John gives his first epistle to those who have
already believed so that they would be sure and secure in
their salvation. The Gospel John of John is for
those to be saved. The first epistle of John is for
the saved to be certain that they are saved.
What about revelation? Does John give us any clue what
this book is about? I believe so.
It's in the words of Jesus. In the 22nd chapter and the
seventh verse, Jesus says, behold, I am coming soon.
Blessed is he who keeps the words of this prophecy, prophecy
of this book. So if the Gospel of John was for
readers to be saved first, John was for the saved to know that
they're saved. I believe the Book of Revelation
was written for the people of God to be encouraged and
prepared for the Savior's return.
If one of the reasons why you're not attracted to the Book of
Revelation is because you don't think it has practical
relevance, I say this in kindness.
You are mistaken, greatly mistaken.
There are things that we are to keep in this book.
There are challenges, there are comforts.
There are principles. There are obvious pieces of
wisdom. And I'm aware that many have
made revelation about creating charts.
I can guarantee you there's there's not going to be any
giant charts behind me. I'm not going to be pointing at
anything with a stick. And there are others who have
the Book of Revelation in one hand and the recent newspaper in
the other, and they're trying to show how recent events are
fulfilling the most specific aspects of the Book of
Revelation. We're not going to go there
either. We are going to approach the
Book of Revelation in the way it was intended to be received.
That you would be conformed and that you would be greatly
consecrated to the cause and person of Christ so that He can
find you and I the way He desires.
And John understood that. That's the power of
understanding the truths of the last days, the study of the end
times. I mean, we can go to so many
places in Revelation, but let me take you to his first epistle.
So turn with me to 1st John and look at chapter 3, beginning in
verse 2. First John 3, verse 2.
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not
yet appeared. But we know that when He
appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He
is. What is He describing?
The return of Christ, The consummation of the age, us
being reunited with Him face to face.
Now look what He says in verse 3.
And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is
pure. What hope is he speaking about
here? The hope of his return.
And notice what he underlines here, that the hope of his
return, the understanding of our uniting with Him at the end of
all things, purifies us. Not then, now, today, it
purifies you. I can guarantee you if we
approach the Book of Revelation rightly, every time we go
through a part of it, we will be more pure than when we started.
This is what John has in mind. That's a consensus in the Bible
that understanding the things of the last days will have present
day glorious implications. And confirming that this is a
letter also helps us know why it was written the way it was
written. I'm speaking about Revelation
because some erroneously think that Revelation is just this
giant puzzle that's reserved for brilliant minds to put together.
And so it's kind of overwhelming, right?
It seems so mysterious, but I can guarantee you something.
It becomes less mysterious when you realize that the symbols and
the images and the visions are not new necessarily.
They're actually repeated from other parts of the Bible, parts
of the Bible that Christians tend to overlook.
In fact, some have done internal investigation on this, and it's
a general understanding that out of the 404 verses in the Book of
Revelation, there are at least 278 references connected to the
Old Testament. Not quotations, but references.
And if we go with that number, though it's disputed, right,
then you can say that 68.8% of the Book of Revelation is
saturated with Old Testament references.
Almost 70% of the Book of Revelation echoes from the
Hebrew Scriptures. Do you see why it's you can't
ignore the Old Testament and just start in Revelation and
expect to get some kind of understanding.
And that doesn't even include the hundreds of allusions that
are made interwoven from beginning to end of this book.
I believe one of the main reasons people experience
irritation with the Book of Revelation is because they are
unfamiliar with the Old Testament.
And I believe much of the misinterpretation of the Book of
Revelation stems from the same neglect.
Here's what I'm trying to explain.
One of the most important key interpretive things that you
must do to understanding this book is to be familiar with the
Old Testament. The modern day Christian may be
very troubled and trying to make sense of this, but you know who
would have had greater ease? The seven churches that John
originally wrote to, assuming that they were biblically
informed. So I can just imagine that as
this book came into their possession, they would have
said, Oh yes, that's in Daniel, brother.
So and so. Didn't we learn this from the
writings of Zechariah? Isn't that almost a copy paste
from the scrolls of Isaiah? Unfortunately, because again, so
many rarely visit those neighborhoods in their Bibles,
they are overcome by discouragement with the Book of
Revelation. And you know what stirred me?
What I learned about the early church?
External evidence about Christians who were eager to
understand the Book of Revelation.
And the one source that especially struck me was from
one of the early church fathers, Irenaeus.
Irenaeus was born in 130 AD. He was a disciple of a man named
Polycarp. Polycarp, according to history,
was a leader in the Church of Smyrna.
Is that name sound familiar? It should.
It's in the Book of Revelation. It's one of the churches that
are addressed. Polycarp was a Bishop in that
church. And here's the best part.
Polycarp was personally tutored by John the Apostle.
So Irenaeus, who is discipled by disciple of John in book five of
his collection of writings called Against Heresies, says
something that has helped many modern scholars today to make
sense of the background of the Book of Revelation.
Let me quote it to you. Quote Aaron A says here.
Quote We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing
positively as to the name of Antichrist, for it were
necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this
present time. It would have been announced by
him who beheld apocalyptic vision.
Pause. Here's what he's saying.
Hey, let's not try to figure out who the Antichrist is, because
if John really wanted us to know, he would have told us.
But it's the last part that is so intriguing, he goes on to
say, For that was seen what was seen, that apocalyptic vision
for that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our
day towards the end of Domitian's reign.
Domitian was a Roman emperor who reigned between 81 and 96 AD.
And what we see here from Irenais is that the original
compilation of the Book of Revelation was made near the end
of Domitian's reign. So that's why most say that the
Book of Revelation was put together originally in 95 or 96
AD. Now, some dispute that.
Some want to actually advocate for an earlier date during
Nero's time. And so they say that people are
misunderstanding Iranians words here.
And maybe Erinace didn't even understand the timeline of
Domitian's reign. We're not here to figure that
out. All I want to remind you is that
the Book of Revelation was in the possession of the early
church in the 1st century. I don't know about you.
That fascinates me. It's amazing.
And back then they were discussing what's this about,
Who's this about, When is this going to happen?
They were having those conversations.
I can say more about that, but I want to move on.
It also humors me that with a book that most consider to be
very confusing, you have one of the clearest outlines of most
books in the Bible. John actually provides us an
outline of the Book of Revelation.
It's in Revelation one, verse 19.
Let's look at it together. He was told by the Lord Jesus
right there for the things that you have seen, those that are
and those that are to take place after this.
So the command of Jesus here highlights 3 parts in which John
was to organize his account. We have here the past that you
have seen and the past refers to the incredibly detailed vision
that he has of the glorified Christ in chapter 1 that you
have seen, chapter 1 me and then from the past.
Now we go to the present, those that are and the present deals
with the condition of the churches that he was addressing,
namely in Chapter 2 and in chapter 3.
And finally, the last section, those that are to take place
after this, the future and the future is spelled out for us
from chapter 4 to chapter 22, which is a majority of this
book, which is a great segue to the second purpose of
Revelation. I told you that we were
answering the question, what is the Book of Revelation?
Well, one, it's a letter #2 it is a prophecy.
It is a prophecy. Go to verse 3 of Revelation One.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this
prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is
written in it. For the time is near.
Highlight the last part for the time is near.
It's confirmed back in verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave to show His servants the things that must
soon take place. The nature of this prophecy is
predictive. That may seem obvious to most of
us even have a basic understanding of Revelation, but
I'm here to tell you that there are other faithful Christians
who view this book differently. In fact, there are 4 common ways
that people approach the Book of Revelation, and though I can't
get into detail with each of them, I just want to give you a
general glance of how other brothers and sisters in Christ.
Would interpret this book so that you can just be aware and
be equipped and there might even be some people here who hold to
one of these views. And some of these views are more
popular than others. And I don't want you to get so
caught up in trying to memorize the titles of these views.
I want you to just at least have a general concept of them.
Here are the four common ways people approach the Book of
Revelation. The first approach is the
historic approach, and the historic aligns historical
events with that which is described in Revelation, in
essence, from the beginning of Revelation to the end of the
Book of Revelation, of this general timeline of the
development of the church. And so it's really about
different stages of the church throughout history from its
inception until the return of Jesus Christ.
And they try to look at this timeline and see where specific
predictions were fulfilled in history.
And so you have proponents, again, in the past who will look
at things like the fall of the Roman Empire and say, oh, this
is where Revelation predicted the fall or the invasion of
Islam in certain regions. Oh, this is where Revelation
spoke about that. And this view was especially
popular during the Reformation. Why?
Because you had so many of the believers there who viewed the
beast system in the Book of Revelation as the papacy, the
Roman Catholic Church. And so that was at its peak, I
believe, this view. But predictably, it declined in
its popularity over the decades. Why?
Because there wasn't a general consensus among these people.
They couldn't agree. And so this is probably the
least popular today. You're not going to find much
people who hold to this particular interpretation.
But we have also, secondly, the preterist approach, Preterist
approach. Preterism is from the Latin word
what is past. And so for the preterist, as the
name suggests, it is the belief that most of the Book of
Revelation has already been fulfilled.
Which parts exactly? From chapter 1 to chapter 20
generally, to which you may ask, when did they believe those
events were fulfilled? Answer the destruction of the
temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD. And there are two main reasons
why people espouse this interpretation.
The first is what Jesus said shortly after he predicted the
fall of Jerusalem in Mark 13. We studied the book of Mark and
hopefully you remember that after Jesus prophesied the
destruction of the temple, he also followed it up with a
description, a brief one of the tumultuous events that will
follow that will describe the end of the age.
Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, the
growth of false teachers plaguing the earth, the
abomination of desolation, celestial signs, Christ coming
in great power and glory. Now, for most people, that seems
to be something Jesus is describing about the future, the
events that will immediately precede his return.
And what's amazing is what Jesus explains in the Gospels, the
Olivet Discourse, right? It's just the synopsis of what
Revelation talks about. Revelation just expands on
Jesus's predictions of the last days.
But there's a particular verse in Jesus's teachings that
preterist really hold on to that challenge, the understanding
that this is something yet to come.
It's in Mark 13. Let me remind you.
And look here in verse 30, Jesus said as he was concluding this
teaching, truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass
away until all these things take place.
Here's the argument How can the catalogue of catastrophes that
Christ describes be future if he said that they would happen
within his generation? And because the destruction of
the temple did take place within this time frame, preterists
would also reconsider how these other predictions should be
interpreted. So here's what they will say.
The description of the cosmic chaos, the global meltdown, the
universal alteration is just symbolic language illustrating
what took place in Jerusalem in 70 AD.
And they bring that kind of a lens into the Book of
Revelation. So when you come to Revelation
and you read of events impacting the world, it's not really the
world, it's Israel. When it talks about nations,
it's not really talking about nations, it's talking about the
nation of the Jews. When you see mentions of tribes,
the tribes of the earth, it's not really the tribes of the
earth, it's the tribes of Israel.
So for the preterists, all these prophecies center around what
happened in 70 AD, and the apocalyptic language is just
hyperbole to define the seriousness and the significance
of the judgment that fell upon them then.
And that bleeds into a lot, including this may shock you for
some preterists, what they find in Revelation 1911.
You know this passage very well, but let me read it anyway.
Revelation 1911. Then I saw heaven open, and
behold, a White Horse. The one sitting on it is called
faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges
and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of
fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name
written that no one knows but himself.
He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which
he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven,
arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on
white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp
sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule
them with a rod of iron, and he will tread the winepress of the
fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, the Preterist.
Some would come to this text and say this happened at 70 AD in a
phantom way, in an invisible way.
Jesus came in vengeance and he poured out God's wrath upon
those who rejected him. So this is quite interesting
because some might respond, wait a minute.
So do Preterist deny the physical bodily return of the
Lord Jesus Christ? And how does preterism explain
the transition from this age into the next age?
And I want to let you know that most preterists do believe in
the bodily return of Jesus Christ, but in a different way
than you might. And if we're not careful, this
can easily become an elaborate explanation of these viewpoints.
So I'm going to be brief here. But here's how they would
understand the return of Jesus, since the pinnacle of God's
judgement was known back in 70 AD.
What we can expect as the church with the Great Commission is
that the world is only going to get better and better and
better. Not worse, worse and worse, but
more improved. And so for preterist, they don't
just believe that most people at one point will become
Christians, but that even institutions and nations and
laws will be conformed to the law of God and the gospel.
And so it's really a complete takeover and the Millennium
reign is something that we as the church build.
And once we reach the golden age of the gospel and nations have
been discipled, then Christ will physically return, will rule and
reign forever and in a sense congratulate a successful
church. That is what preterism holds to.
And this is just again one of two main reasons why they have
this view. The second explanation, it's
because how John speaks of his events himself.
Let's go back to Revelation chapter one.
Look at verse one again, The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave him to show to his servants the things that
must soon take place. He made it known by sending his
Angel to his servant John. Look at verse 3.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the the words of this
prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is
written in it for the time is near.
OK, that's the beginning of the book.
Now you go to the end of the book.
Look at chapter 22 verse 10. John was told and he said to me,
do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the
time is near. If John said soon that it must
mean soon. 2000 plus years does not sound like the time is near.
So the preterist would believe that these things John spoke of
must have happened soon after he completed this letter.
Remember I told you how Irenaeus was a clue for people to believe
that the Book of Revelation was written in what, 95 AD?
Most preterist would challenge that and they would say no, no,
I had to be in the 60s when Nero was reigning and persecuting.
Why? Because if John wrote this after
70 AD, then how is this prediction about the fall of
Jerusalem in 70 AD had to have happened before 70 AD?
So that's why you have some who will challenge Irenaeus as a
source for dating this book. That's all I'll say about
preterism for now. And then these viewpoints, we're
going to maybe touch on them as we go through this book.
But let me add one more thing. Everything that I just described
to you, I hope this doesn't confuse you.
Everything that I just described about preterism is what?
Partial preterist belief? You have a fringe of preterism
called full preterist. What do they believe?
Everything in Revelation has been fulfilled.
Everything. The eternal age, the return of
Christ, our resurrection heaven, everything.
That's dangerous. That's false teaching in my
books. But even partial parts like no,
no, no, we're not those guys. Just to make you aware.
They're out there. I've had somebody, when I was
walking in the faith early on, challenge me as a full
preterist. I had a lot of questions.
Let's go to the third approach. Remember, there's four
approaches to interpreting the book.
Let's go to the third. We dealt with the historical
view. We dealt with the preterist
view. Now, which is probably the most
familiar to us, the futurist approach, the futurist approach,
the futurist interpretation views Revelation in the exact
opposite way of the preterist. If the preterist believes that a
majority of the Book of Revelation has not has been
fulfilled, rather the future says most of it has not yet been
fulfilled. And these events are still to
come to be realized near the end of the world, at the end of the
world, in a future period called the Tribulation, which will
immediately precede the Second coming, the establishment of
Jesus, earthly reign and the eternal age.
That's what the futurist holds to.
And this is the most important thing about those who are
futurist. Don't you love labels, Futurist?
Futurists argue that a consistently literal and plain
interpretation of the Book of Revelation is necessary in order
to understand it. So futurists will say, look, you
have to honor the rules of grammar, and you got to stay
consistent with the historical framework, and you have to
consider the context in order to determine your conclusions.
So futurists will try to take the Book of Revelation as
literally as possible, but they do not deny figurative or
symbolic imagery. What they are reluctant to do,
though, is to stretch metaphors or spiritualize passages.
Any other view apart from the futurist finds great liberty in
allegorizing the Book of Revelation, making it sound or
be something that doesn't seem to be the case.
And it's literal. Understanding The futures,
though, it's like, no, no, no, we got to honor this as plainly
as possible, as clearly as possible.
And that's what they do. And that's why they arrive to
the conclusions that they arrive to.
And though, again, I do not like labels, if there was one that I
did favor, it's this one. And that's how we're going to be
approaching the Book of Revelation from a futurist
approach. Why?
Because John was told to write about the future, and the events
that he describes have not yet happened.
Unless you analyze it allegorically, then it could
really mean anything. But if you take it literally, if
you take it plainly, then you have to be honest and say, yeah,
there isn't any time in history where we see these kind of
events taking place. There might be similarities,
there might be some overlap, but as you're going to discover, the
intensity and a universal impact is unprecedented.
Let me give you some examples. Go to Revelation 8, verse 8.
This is under the series of the trumpet judgments.
We'll explore that. I don't know when, but we will
in Revelation 8, verse 8. Notice what happens after one of
these trumpets are blasted. The second Angel blew his
trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire
was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
1/3 of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the
ships were destroyed. A future to say we're talking
about a real thing, an object from the heavens that crashed
into the water and it actually killed animals and it actually
destroyed infrastructure. Anything beyond the futurist
would allegorize this passage. They would spiritualize it.
OK, let's look at another example.
Look at Chapter 9. We're still under the trumpet
judgments. And look at verse 18 of
Revelation 9. By these 3 plagues, 1/3 of
mankind was killed. That's a lot of people by the
fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
So again, a futures would say 1/3 of mankind means 1/3 of
mankind. Other approaches would say no.
This might actually mean it's just really a symbolic picture
of how throughout history God has judged nations and he's
allowed for devastations and great loss.
And if anything, this also shows God's grace because it's only a
third and not the complete picture.
Which brings me now to the final approach to the Book of
Revelation, the idealist approach, the idealist approach.
The idealist approach differs from the first 3 and that it
refuses to identify any particular historical events.
It doesn't look for institutions, it doesn't look
for people with the visions of this book in mind.
It doesn't do any of that. Revelation to the idealist, is a
symbolic representation. It's a poetic parable.
It's a figurative drama that depicts the ongoing struggle
between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the darkness in
good and evil, between the church and everything that
opposes the church and the gospel.
That's the idealist approach. And so it's not a timeline of
anything. It doesn't deal with history
past. It doesn't deal with the future
to come. It's just really a collection of
windows that we get to look through to give us
encouragement, to know that in the end the church and Christ
will be victorious. And in some of these windows
you're going to get moral lessons.
And really the final window is how Christ will come back, rule
and reign forever. We will be successful, we will
win. So they're not looking for
anything, they're just seeing this as a book to bless the
believers that were originally written to who were enduring
persecution. And we get to benefit from that
as well-being the church. So it's all symbolic.
It's to communicate the victory of Christ in a more robust and
enriching way. It's one thing to say Satan will
be defeated, evil will cease, but when you include imagery
like Dragons and swords and the lake of fire and explosions and
all these things, it just kind of hypes you up a little bit
more. It does something to you more
emotionally. It excites you on a different
level. That is how the idealist views
the Book of Revelation. So they'll teach this.
And you know, I was interested actually knowing in advance that
at some point we were going to touch on this book.
I thought, you know, I'm going to listen to brothers in Christ
who are idealist and how they teach through the Book of
Revelation. So I've been listening to series
in the Book of Revelation from those who believe this.
And I want to give you just an example of how they might look
at some of the details, right? Some will just overlook the
details altogether. They'll just look at the whole,
they'll kind of look at the main idea.
This is about suffering in the world.
This is about God's call to repentance.
This is a picture of God's wrath.
But one of them actually went a little bit deeper and it really
interested me. So if you go to Revelation, I
want you to see what I heard in chapter 6 in verse 5, this is
when the seals were opened, the scrolls were open, the initial
set of judgments. And look what we read here in
the third seal, verse 5. When he opened the third seal, I
heard the third living creature say come, and I looked and
behold, the Black Horse and it's rider had a pair of scales in
his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a
voice in the midst of the four living creature saying a quart
of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a
denarius and do not harm the oil and wine.
So if you look at this from a literal standpoint, what do you
have here that there's going to be a judgement released upon the
earth that's going to affect the global economy and certain goods
will be impacted, while certain other goods will actually be
intact. So again, you're seeing this as
a plain depiction of something, prediction of something.
The idealist wouldn't see it that way.
Again, nothing in Revelation has any connection to any point of
history. And So what I heard was, no, no,
this is describing a spirit that has been on the earth from the
beginning, has been released. And what the spirit does, it
convinces people to pursue things that they don't need
while neglecting the things that they do need.
So what do you need? Wheat, barley.
That's for your sustenance, that's for your survival.
Oil and wine, that's more luxury.
And what the Spirit does is convinces people you need these
things that don't really matter while you are starving.
The things that do matter, namely the truth, a relationship
with Christ, the gospel. I don't want to offend anybody,
but that's a stretch. And it's like, where where's the
limitation on this? You can make anything, say
anything then. And that's why I think it can be
dangerous. So you just heard briefly the
four common approaches to interpreting the Book of
Revelation. And I want to encourage
everybody here. Let me say this at this point,
you may hold to one of those views.
You may not hold to the futurist approach.
And I get it. The futurist approach has not
developed the greatest reputation either has its own
weaknesses. And I think one of the
weaknesses of those who believe that all these things, most of
these things are still to come is that it has inspired
sensationalism. People want to make everything
seem like it's in the Book of Revelation and they they missed
the point, which I'm going to get to as we close in a moment
here. But for every person here, I
want to let you know that it's going to be, by the grace of
God, my duty to try to make the Book of Revelation as
understandable and as clear as possible.
I'm not here to impress you with anything, with any lingo.
I can't even pronounce some of these words.
I myself can't. So I'm, I don't impress myself.
I just want people to leave here with a greater relief.
That book is amazing. Wow.
Can I ask something of you as we go through this book?
I'm sure we're going to talk about it in fellowship.
I'm sure you're going to take some of these points and relay
it to others, maybe message others, call others.
Depends how much this means to you.
Can we journey through this in humility please?
The church has disagreed on some of these details, some of the
timing of these events since the beginning.
And we want to be a church that can say on these non essential
matters. We all agree Christ is coming
back. He's going to rule and reign.
We're going to be with him forever.
We can have healthy, encouraging discussions about things that we
can debate over, but we should still be able to come here, look
at one another in the same Pew, lift our hands and our hearts,
and sing to the same Jesus. That's what we're doing here.
So I don't want us to go downstairs, and I don't want to
hear debates where people are throwing food at each other
because so many people have worked hard for that food.
And that's not the goal of the Book of Revelation being
studied. If you're going to have debate,
let it be in humility, let it be in joy, let it be in love.
We're still answering the question, what is the Book of
Revelation? It is a letter, It is a
prophecy. And lastly, it is a revelation.
Let's go to Revelation one verse one again.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to
his servants the things that must soon take place.
He made it known by sending his Angel to his servant John.
If you didn't learn anything today, at least leave with this.
This is the Book of Revelation, not Revelations.
There's no S at the end of Revelation.
It's just the Book of Revelation 1 Revelation and it's the first
words of John where the title is derived from.
And in the original Greek the word is apocalypses.
Does that sound familiar? It's where we get the word
apocalypse from. Now, when you hear the word
apocalypse, what comes to mind? Nuclear wars, right?
The Earth melting, mountains plunging into the sea, people
losing their lives. Catastrophe, horrors.
That's not what apocalypse means.
Apocalypse simply means to uncover, to unveil, to reveal
the revelation, the revealing of Jesus Christ.
It's to make something that was once unknown known, something
that was hidden, now seen. And the object of this
revelation is Christ. It's as though John is saying
you're going to see something, you're going to see a side of
Jesus of Nazareth that you didn't see in the Gospels and
that you couldn't picture in his apostles letters.
We're going to remove something concerning Christ that you've
never seen before. I will admit this.
When I was young, Revelation intrigued me.
Remember when I told you that I was looking at it in the Pew?
I was terrified, but I was curious at the same time.
I mean, the pastor preaching must have thought this young
child, he's a prodigy, he's reading the Bible while I'm
preaching, following me. No, no, no.
I was just trying to understand what I was looking at.
Nothing related to the sermon, to my shame, but I'll say this,
even after that moment, being familiar with some of the truths
of Revelation, I've always been intrigued early on because I
said something about the future and it seemed like these codes
that if you prayed hard enough and read up on history enough,
you can kind of crack some of them.
But after I got saved especially and especially after I got
mature in the Lord and still maturing in the Lord, the thing
that captivates me the most about the Book of Revelation is
Jesus is Christ. That's what excites me about
Revelation more than anything else.
This book is about Jesus in Revelation One.
He's the living one who has conquered death forever.
In Revelation 2 and three. He's a purifier of his church in
Revelation four and five. He's the theme of Heaven's
worship. In Revelation 6 to 18, he is the
perfect righteous judge that patiently calls sinners to
repent. In Revelation 19, He is the
coming King who will Vanquish and defeat Satan.
Sin forever In Revelation 20 he is the promised seed of David
who would declare to the universe that he kept his word
by ruling and reigning on the earth.
In Revelation 21 and 22, he is the bridegroom who has come to
rescue his church and to dwell with us forever.
The book is about Jesus, and the issue is if you approach this
text so focus on small details of the visions and try to match
current news headlines with the book's predictions, and you miss
Christ in the process, you miss the purpose of the book you did.
If you care about knowing more about Jesus, you will care about
the Book of Revelation. So here's a summary of what the
Book of Revelation is. The Book of Revelation is a
prophetic letter that depicts the current and coming glory of
Jesus Christ and the descriptions of the awesome
implications of it. The Book of Revelation is a
prophetic letter that depicts the current and coming glory of
Jesus Christ and the awesome implications that come with it.
Are you ready? Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you that you've allowed us as a church to come
to this point in our growing knowledge of who you are.
And we do pray, Lord, that our hearts would be humbled, that we
would approach this with gratitude and love.
That if the fruit of this study would be anything, yes, the
knowledge of you, greater worship for you.
But Lord, would it also bring us closer together?
Would it inspire Christlikeness? Well, we do pray that you
protect us as we study this truth.
That you keep us from dangers, That Lord, you would keep our
hearts pure, You would keep our hearts hungry.
And that, Lord, we would be able to end the study should you
tarry being more in love with Christ.
We asked Lord that for any disagreements, Christ like us
will still be seen in our conversations.
It would be felt in our dialogue.
And Lord, lastly, help us see your Son Jesus Christ from
chapter 1 to chapter 22. Help us, Lord, as we go through
this, not get sidetracked, not get swept up by anything else
with whatever portion of this book we cover.
We pray that Christ would be on our minds.
And so, Lord, we just as a church, ask for you to be our
guide. And Lord, we sing to you now
because we've tasted your goodness.
Even in this brief overview of this glorious text, we thank
you. We worship you in Jesus name,
Amen. Let's stand and worship the Lord
together, shall we?