Revelation 1:1-11
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
4 John, to the seven churches which 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,
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed [loosed] us from our sins in His own blood,
6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
9 I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,
11 saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." (NKJV)
“How Do We Understand the Book of Revelation?”
Are we as Christians even supposed to understand the Book of Revelation?
Let me say right up front that it is my belief that this mysterious book is for the Church – the seven churches in Asia Minor – and the Church universal until our Lord Jesus Christ returns at the “end of this present age”.
How does one presume to explain a book of the Bible that some of the greatest theologians and preachers did not deem it possible to explain correctly?
John Calvin wrote 22 Volumes of exposition on the entire Bible except for The Book of Revelation.
Charles Spurgeon’s published sermons fill 69 volumes with 3561 messages but there are only 74 messages preached from the Book of Revelation because, he said, “There is too much in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and the epistles that I have some light on rather than to preach on something in which I have very little understanding.”
However, not having understanding has not prevented our modern preachers and writers from coming up with fantastic views of the end times. Millions of people spend millions and millions of dollars on books and movies about the end times that have very little or no biblical support. But they are very entertaining.
A well known baseball manager said about one of his players that he had messed up left field so much that no one could play it.
So if the “left field” of Revelation is not so messed up that you cannot think about it without prejudice we are going to attempt its exposition.
Let me offer you some study materials.
There are three handouts:
Revelation: Four Views;
A Study Guide to the Revelation of Jesus Christ; and,
A Summary Statement of Amillennialism.
There is an insert in today’s bulletin that is also included in the Study Guide but I wanted you to have the chart on a single page that you can keep in your Bible as we move through the Book of Revelation.
One of the most important issues of interpreting The Book of Revelation is chronology. E.g., does chapter 4 follow chapter 3 and does chapter 20 follow chapter 19 in calendar time or are there “sweeps” through history that run parallel and present different aspects of events that will occur? That is my view and that is what the chart taken from Hendriksen’s commentary reflects.
In this series I will draw heavily on “The Spiritual Interpretation of Revelation”, the commentary by Charles D. Alexander.
As I neared the end of my series on the Gospel of John I was not sure of what to preach next but I soon came to see that John’s vision of the future given to him by the Lord was what I should do. Mr. Alexander’s insight into OT prophecy fulfilled in Christ and recorded by the Apostle John so impressed me that I wanted to follow John into the future.
So I will use much of Mr. Alexander’s work and will not attempt to give attribution to him every time I draw on his words but I am confessing now that much of this exposition will come from his commentary on Revelation.
Since I make little claim to originality and I do not intend to publish my work for monetary gain I believe that my ethics are intact.
In addition to Alexander, I have studied commentaries by Ray Summers, William Hendriksen, Bradley Jones, et al, about fifteen writers all together.
If you have "ears to hear", I promise to give you a fresh study of a subject that has occupied my time off and on for more than 25 years. That does not mean that I am stupid enough to be dead sure that I have this final word of prophecy all figured out but it does mean that I am not a novice when it comes to the interpretation of Bible prophecy.
Before we launch off into the Book of Revelation itself it is necessary to lay a foundation on how to interpret prophecy. All of the different interpretations of this last word from God vary because of certain principles of interpretation.
And the interpretation of the Book of Revelation involves eschatology or the doctrine of last things.
All genuine Christians agree that Jesus Christ will return to this earth in the same physical resurrection body in which He ascended into heaven forty days after His resurrection from the dead.
Acts 1:9-11
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
What Bible scholars and preachers do not agree on is what happens immediately before Jesus returns and what happens immediately after He returns.
Christ reigns for a thousand years, or a millennium, Amen?
But what is the “millennium”?
Is the millennium a literal thousand calendar years or is the millennium a symbolic or spiritual “thousand” years, i.e., a “perfect” period of time?
Is Christ ruling over His Kingdom from His throne in heaven as we speak or must creation wait until Jesus returns before His “kingdom” is established?
These are all questions that involve the interpretation of prophecy.
Does Jesus return before the “millennium”, defined as a literal thousand years? Pre-millennial.
Does Jesus return after the “millennium”, defined as approximately a literal thousand years? Post-millennial.
Are we in the “millennium” right now, defined as the period time between the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ? A-millennial. The “a” before a word in Greek means “no” or “not” so technically, A-millennial would mean no millennium. But what it means is that the millennium is not a literal thousand years but an indefinite but perfect period of time. I personally prefer the term “realized millennium” or “inaugurated millennium”.
Do not despair, we will explain these terms in due time.
Eschatology should not be a test of fellowship. By that I mean that you can disagree with my interpretation and I will still consider you to be a sister or brother in Christ.
One test of fellowship for me would be the deity Jesus Christ.
A person who denies that Jesus of Nazareth is very God denies the Scripture and is not a Christian. I will attempt to tell that person about Jesus Christ and the Gospel, but they are not a brother or sister in the faith.
Some preachers, especially in our own generation, think that they have this book so well figured out that they will not have anything to do with you unless you agree with their interpretation in every minute detail. In 1970 a preacher in Tennessee told me that I could not be saved unless I held to his version of eschatology which happened to be Dispensationalism. While he made his eschatology [doctrine of last things] a test of fellowship, I do not.
As for me, I fall somewhere between those who are fearful of “handling the Word of God deceitfully,” and thus avoid explaining the Revelation altogether, and those who are full of pride in their presumption that only they have the truth.
In my experience, especially with new believers, there is an interest in this mysterious last book of our Bible. Before they will study any other book of the Bible they want to study the Book of Revelation.
“How Do We Understand the Book of Revelation?”
But before that, how will you hear this exposition of Revelation?
If you have made an honest study of eschatology and have settled on a view that is different from what I will present then we will agree to disagree and remain friends. As for me I do not need to go back through all of the arguments for and against the various views because I believe that I have made an objective and honest study of eschatology. By an objective and honest study I mean that I did not start out with a particular view that I wanted to defend.
It is my studied opinion that many people who are persuaded of a particular view of eschatology have never sincerely considered any other view of eschatology than the one they first learned, then “pride of knowledge” may keep them from considering what I teach. It is very dangerous to be unteachable.
“Blessed are the meek.”
If you say, “I am not interested in studying eschatology at all” then you are in danger of being blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine and you will not have any discernment about how your eschatology rules your biblical interpretation.
Each one of you has some notion of end times whether or not you have adopted a particular system of eschatology. If that is true of you then you will simply accept whatever comes along and not be aware of the many contradictions in your beliefs about the end times.
Now let me lay down a few of my own presuppositions.
Your eschatology [doctrine of last things] will necessarily interpret Scripture.
You most likely will not understand the Book of Revelation correctly if you start your study by bringing to it all of your preconceived notions gathered from books and commentaries all oriented to one particular eschatological view.
Many [most?] of today’s sincere Christians have only been exposed to Dispensational eschatology, e.g., The Scofield Bible, or the Ryrie Study Bible and most of them are not aware that there are other views of last things. The current expression of Dispensational eschatology is seen in the very popular “Left Behind” series. A generation ago it was “The Late Great Planet Earth”.
When I taught the Book of Revelation in Sunday School back in 1991 and I began to present the four major views of eschatology a member of the class was amazed and said, “I didn’t know there was another view of last things!” All he had ever heard about was Dispensationalism.
We will briefly discuss the four major views of eschatology later.
It is my strong conviction that the proper way to approach the Book of Revelation is first to spend much time in the other 65 books of the Bible before you try to grasp a book that is nearly all symbolic or spiritual in its content.
Ah, you say, the Book of Revelation is not symbolic or spiritual, it must be taken literally. That only makes my point that your eschatology interprets Scripture. Is it literal? Is it spiritual? Who decides what is literal and what is spiritual in the Book of Revelation? No one can seriously take everything literally. Each and every one of us decides what is literal and what is symbolic.
Is the 144,000 [7:4] literal? If not, why not?
If the “thousand” of chapter 20 MUST be literal, why not the 144,000?
Are the locust [9:7] literally creatures with bodies like horses and faces like a man? How do you decide?
All I am trying to do at this point is to show that every one of us decides what is to be taken literal and what is symbolic. What is obviously literal to you may be obviously symbolic to someone else.
For what it is worth, I did not start my study all those years ago with a view of eschatology that I had learned apart from even knowing that there were different views. For the first few years of my Christian experience eschatology was not a concern to me.
But when I began to study about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ I saw that there were conflicting views of the events before, during, and after Jesus returns. How then to resolve this question of which eschatological view is the most consistent with the context of the rest of Scripture?
In my case, I began to study the different views without a prejudice to protect any particular view. Since I did not have a particular view to protect it did not matter to me which view was “right”.
Also, by that time I had already spent several years reading the through the entire Bible over and over and thus I had a biblical “filter” that I could use to compare one view with another.
It may be that I do not have the correct view but my odds are better than those of someone who has never seriously considered a view other than the view they were first exposed to. Or, if they simply dismiss out of hand any challenge to the view that they subscribe to.
There are many questions to consider in a study of the Book of Revelation:
Is the Book of Revelation mostly about the millennial reign of Christ over a restored Jewish nation in modern Palestine? Or, is the Book of Revelation mostly about a final word of assurance to the persecuted and tried Church?
Is the Book of Revelation mostly about the Second Coming of Christ or is it mostly about the present victorious reign of Christ over evil and the devil?
What about the millennial reign of Christ? Is Christ on His throne and reigning over the Kingdom of Heaven as we speak or is His kingdom yet in the future?
What about the dispensations or ages of history?
How many dispensations or periods of history does the bible reveal?
Are there seven dispensations of time or only two?
In all of my reading the Bible I have discovered only two biblical ages. Read the Bible and you will only find: “this present age” and “the age to come.”
And where in the Bible does it say that there will be a literal thousand year reign of Christ on the earth?
Search out your New Testament looking for a literal thousand year reign of Christ on the earth and you may be surprised to find that the only way to come up with a literal thousand year reign of Christ on earth is to bring that preconceived notion to Revelation Chapter 20 and insist that the “thousand years” must be literal. That makes my point that your eschatology interprets Scripture.
Charles D. Alexander said:
“Never underestimate the power of a preconceived notion.”
We will discuss the “thousand years” when we get to it but for now consider this.
If the thousand years is literal then the Devil, who is a spirit being will be bound by a literal or physical chain.
Revelation 20:1-3
1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years ;
3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
But you may say, I know the “thousand years” is literal but the “great chain” must be symbolic. Okay, how did you decide that?
The “thousand years” is mentioned six times in Revelation 20. How do you know that this is a literal thousand? Let me give you something to consider.
The Greek word translated “thousand” is chilioi (khil'-ee-oy); plural of uncertain affinity; a thousand:
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
See if you can find a literal thousand year reign of Christ on the earth in the Bible. You have to impose that interpretation on Revelation 20 because the Bible nowhere says that Christ will reign on the literal earth for a literal thousand years.
If ever there was a place to mention a future literal thousand year reign of Christ it would be Romans 11, but somehow Paul forgot to mention it.
Romans 11:25-27
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins."
Your eschatology determines the definition of “all Israel”.
Is “all Israel” the nation of Jews or is “all Israel” the “Israel of God” mentioned in Galatians 6:16?
“And so all Israel will be saved…”
One view says this is a chronological expression, i.e., Gentiles and then Jews. I rather believe it is “in this manner”, elect Gentiles and elect Jews make up the single olive tree in chapter 11, and “in this manner” all Israel will be saved.
Romans 11:26 is one of the “proof texts” for the restoration of the nation of Israel. The problem is that Paul doesn’t say that. You must impose that preconceived notion upon the text because Paul simply doesn’t say anything of the sort.
So do some Christians hold to a more literal view of prophecy and others a more spiritual view? Are the “literalists” more conservative than the “spiritualists”?
Someone says, “I take the Bible literally and that makes me conservative and your symbolic or spiritual interpretation makes you a liberal.”
Those who claim to be more literal have a huge problem when it comes to what is to be taken literally and what should be taken as spiritual.
If you have bought into the proposition that you have a more literal view, you need to get over the idea that you are more literal and admit that everyone must decide what is literal and what is spiritual.
So my first principle is that your eschatology interprets Scripture for you.
Another important principle of interpretation is that the NT interprets the OT and not the other way around.
When James or Peter or Paul makes a NT application of an OT prophecy that should satisfy us. But the futurists deny this principle and insist that most of the OT prophecies about national Israel are yet to be fulfilled and that they must be fulfilled literally and not in any spiritual application to Christ or the Church.
Take Acts 15:13-18 where James quotes Amos 9:11-12.
The context is the Jerusalem Council where the issue of whether or not a Gentile man had to become a Jew before he could become a Christian. The Judaizers insisted that a man must be circumcised in order to become a Christian.
The marvelous statement made by Peter in Acts 15:11 makes it clear. Look at the order of Peter’s words. “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [we Jews] shall be saved in the same manner as they [the Gentiles]”
There is only one Savior and everyone who is saved has been saved the same way, by grace through faith.
Now read Amos 9:11-15
11 "On that day I will raise up
The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom,
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,"
Says the LORD who does this thing.
13 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD,
"When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
14 I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
15 I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,"
Says the LORD your God.
Now listen carefully. If you did not have the NT to interpret Amos you could only conclude that Amos is prophesying about the restoration of national Israel. And that may well be what Amos thought it meant.
But when James under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit interprets Amos as referring to the Gentiles being in the Church along with the Jews then that is what it means. It does not matter what you think it means; if you disagree with the inspired apostle you are wrong! It is likely that James understood Amos to mean the restoration of national Israel UNTIL the Holy Spirit spoke through him.
It is also important to see that James does not try to explain what Amos thought it meant because now that does not matter at all.
Listen to James:
Acts 15:12-18
12 Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.
13 And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, "Men and brethren, listen to me:
14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.
15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
16'After! this I will return
And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;
I will rebuild its ruins,
And I will set it up;
17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD,
Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the LORD who does all these things.'
18 "Known to God from eternity are all His works.
Here is the Church in the OT and yet the futurists say that the Church is not found in the OT but Paul clears that up in Galatians 4. We will briefly look at that next week if the Lord so wills.
Again, when John, or Paul, or Peter, or James bring in Zechariah, or Joel, or Isaiah, or Amos and then interpret what the OT prophet meant we have no license to say they [the apostles] are in error. Many times even the prophet himself did not understand the meaning or application of what he spoke.
Another deciding issue in the interpretation of prophecy is what is the nature of the Kingdom of God? Is the Kingdom of God yet future with Christ sitting on a literal throne in a restored Jerusalem to be set up on the earth or is the Kingdom of God “at hand”?
Some scholars try to make a distinction between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven but Jesus made no such difference in Matthew 19:23-24;
23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
The context of Jesus’ words is so tight in these two verses that there is no way that there is a difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Still another matter that must be settled is what is the focus of the Bible?
Is the Bible primarily about national Israel in the OT with a “parenthesis” in time involving the Church with national Israel to be restored in the future? Or, is the main thrust of the Bible in both the OT and the NT about Christ and His church? As we continue in this series we will come back to every one of these questions of interpretation and try to satisfy the honest inquirer.
“How Do We Understand the Book of Revelation?”
Try to imagine yourself as a second generation Christian in Asia Minor [modern Turkey] and you are a member of a local church in Ephesus, or Smyrna, or Pergamos, or Thyatira, or Sardis, or Philadelphia, or Laodicea.
Jesus was crucified over 65 years ago and you are living under one of the most oppressive and cruel despots that the world has ever known. The emperor is Domitian and his favorite sport is to torture Christians in the most dreadful ways.
Public games are devised around ways to use Christians in brutal fights to the death and with vicious beasts to rip and tear them to death. Instead of oil lanterns Christians are covered with tar and burned.
The Book of Hebrews which was written during the second generation of Christianity and about 25 years before the Book of Revelation describes some forms of persecution that believers suffered.
Hebrews 11:35-40
35 Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented —
38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
But here you are under threat of torture and death and a messenger brings a letter from the Apostle John to your church. We thought surely that the Apostle John was dead by now.
On today’s calendar the year is 95. That sounds strange. Not 1895, or 1995, just 95. Of course our calendar was not put into usage until 1582 by Pope Gregory VIII. But for our understanding we will use the year 95.
Here you are under a real threat of persecution and the apostles are all gone except for John and he is in exile on Patmos and he can’t preach comfort to us in person.
PATMOS
[PAT muhs] -- a small rocky island to which the apostle John was banished and where he wrote the Book of Revelation (Rev 1:9). The island, about 16 kilometers (ten miles) long and ten kilometers (six miles) wide, lies off the southwest coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Because of its desolate and barren nature, Patmos was used by the Romans as a place to banish criminals, who were forced to work at hard labor in the mines and quarries of the island. Because Christians were regarded as criminals by the Roman emperor Domitian (ruled A.D. 81 AD - 96 AD), the apostle John probably suffered from harsh treatment during his exile on Patmos. An early Christian tradition said John was in exile for 18 months. (from Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Copyright (c)1986, Thomas Nelson Publishers)
The writings of the apostles are scattered about in letters being circulated among the local churches and you only have a few parts, certainly not a leather-bound volume with chapters and verses and notes in the margin. There aren’t even any commentaries at “LifeWay” yet.
Paul and Peter and James and Luke preached that the Lord was going to return and the Lord Himself said we would suffer persecution and that we must “endure to the end” if we are truly saved. [Matthew 10:22]
You live in Asia Minor and you have family members who have already been captured and killed by the soldiers of the Roman Empire and you are probably going to suffer soon.
In the face of persecution how do you keep your hope of Christ alive?
In God’s own time the Apostle John is given a vision of the risen Lord. Write to the churches John, and gives them the message of victory.
“I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last ….”
“How Do We Understand the Book of Revelation?”
We begin our understanding by reading what the Book says about itself.
APOCALYPSE is a Greek word which means “to unveil” i.e. to reveal.
The Title is therefore "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." (1:1) It is not plural “Revelations.”
John is “in the Spirit” i.e., under Holy Spirit fullness on the “Lord’s Day”.
Some believe this “Lord’s Day” is a Sunday. I rather think it is visionary of the Day of Judgment referred to as the Day of the Lord by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Malachi, Luke, Paul, and Peter.
The context, it seems, are the trials and tribulations of the Church until Christ returns at the end of this present age to usher in the age to come. That will be the Day of Judgment.
Just one quote from over thirty references that refer to the Day of the Lord as being the Day of Judgment:
Isaiah 13:9-11
9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes,
Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger,
To lay the land desolate;
And He will destroy its sinners from it.
10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth,
And the moon will not cause its light to shine.
11 "I will punish the world for its evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity;
I will halt the arrogance of the proud,
And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
The Revelation is prophecy [3].
What is prophecy? Prophecy is a word from God.
Prophecy tells what is to happen in the future.
There are prophecies in the Bible made and fulfilled in the time of the Bible.
God revealed to Noah that a Great Flood would come upon the earth in 120 years and so it did.
If your eschatology allows it, you believe that Joshua 21:43-45 means that the promise of physical land to the Jews has been already been fulfilled, and you will not look for a future fulfillment.
Joshua 21:43-45
43 So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it.
44 The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand.
45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. NKJV
Prophecy may or may not have been yet fulfilled.
This is where all of the different interpretations of prophecy conflict.
The Book of Revelation is prophecy and it is my desire to understand as much of it as is possible.
As with any Book of the Bible, in order to understand it, it is necessary to know who wrote the book, to whom was it written, when was it written, what were the circumstances that are addressed, and what is the application of the book to you and me as Christians today.
Who wrote The Book of Revelation?
John the apostle, who wrote the Gospel that bears his name, also wrote three epistles and this same John is the human author of The Book of Revelation.
The Apostle John, a “son of thunder”, is tamed by Christ and becomes the “apostle of love”. John does not identify himself as the writer of the Gospel or the epistles that bear his name due to genuine humility. He is the “disciple that Jesus loved”.
Mark 3:17
James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, "Sons of Thunder ";
But now John is the apostle to the Church and he is “your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”. [9]
John is given the last word from God now for over 1900 years. [2006-96=1900]
In the Gospel of John, Jesus told Peter how he [Peter] was going to die and then Jesus rebuked Peter for his curiosity about John’s death.
John 21:20-23
20 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?"
21 Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this man?"
22 Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me."
23 Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?" NKJV
There is a sense that John is still with us because of what he has given to us in this book that reveals the victorious Christ.
John is with the Church in her tribulations. He was a prisoner on Patmos for the Church and there he received this chart of the Church’s journey through time.
In Revelation Chapter 5, John weeps for the Church til the answer to the Church’s sufferings is made clear.
It was for the Church that John “ate the little book” of divine testimony [sweet in the mouth but bitter in the bowels] denoting a span of time during which the Church would testify of Christ but suffer the bitterness of the world’s opposition and hatred. [Rev. 10:11-12]
To whom was the Book of Revelation written?
We do not have to guess because John tells us in verse 4”
“John to the seven churches which are in Asia…”
As the Church strains under great persecution the Church is comforted that the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, is on the throne and nothing is beyond the sovereign decrees of God Almighty.
The Book of Job assures us that behind the afflictions of God’s people are the envy and hate of the Evil One. Job further assures us that Satan can do nothing without divine permission; his liberty to do evil is harnessed to the secret purpose of God to confound him by the faith and endurance of the persecuted and tried Church of God.
The overall purpose is the vindication of the divine righteousness, the glory of the Eternal Son of God, and the everlasting joy and peace of the redeemed Church.
“That is a great word in the Book of Revelation: Rev 12:11
And they [the Church] overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
That is the testimony of the true Church in all ages. Not by physical or political power, or art, but solely by their faith in Christ and the preaching of the Word of God, victory lies with the people of God.
That is what the Book of Revelation is all about and this is the last inspired word of God to be uttered. Behind all the power of this world system as it raises itself against the Lord’s people, is the power of that Old Serpent, the devil and Satan, no matter what earthly form that opposition may take.
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
2 Corinthians 10:4
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
Without this word of prophecy all human history, especially the history of the Church, is dark and confused, and often terrifying. There is no meaning to the seemingly aimless and endless tangle of events. What is it all about? To what does it lead? What is the end and purpose of it all? No one can answer these questions except through the sure word of prophecy.
2 Peter 1:19-21
19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
The Book of Revelation is prophecy and it graphically describes in advance the progressive march of events to a grand and eternally glorious conclusion.
The trouble and turmoil, anguish and conflict lead unerringly to the goal which is the unity of God with redeemed man, in an eternal marriage in a state of joy realized in Christ, the Incarnate Deity, the God-Man, who has redeemed His Church by His own blood, and through death destroyed death forever.
God scans the future because He has fixed it. No matter how little we understand the circumstances of life we can trust God who determined the future.
But then some interpreters say that after Chapter 3 the book is no longer meant for the church but for some future generation of Jews.
But the end of the book is clearly for the church.
Revelation 22:12-13
12 "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last."
But then out of “whole cloth” an interpreter denies all of the chapters between 3 and 22 to the Church. If that is what you have accepted I ask you to listen to this exposition and try to see that John is writing to the Church in this entire letter.
If the Lord is willing we will take up this exposition of the Book of Revelation the next time I preach.
In this series on the Book of Revelation I do not intend to do very much review of previous messages. If you miss a message and would like to have a tape or a DVD of the service let me know.
As we close this message today, do you have the comfort that Jesus is your Lord and Savior? The message of comfort and assurance in the Book of Revelation is for believers.
Amen
