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I’m going to encourage you to the book of Revelation. That’s where we’re going to be at together today. The book of Revelation. And we’re kicking off today, chapter one of the story of Revelation. And I gotta say, uh, you guys knowing that we’re going to read Revelation together, um, I have had more people excited about this book. Tell me they’re looking forward to this than some of you have been messaging me. Is it this weekend? Is it this week yet? I didn’t give you a date. I just told you we were going to do it. And. And so I’m happy to be able to get in this book. I find most people look at this book and this, like, excited mystery. And one component I know that’s not everybody, but some of us look at this in this excited mystery. I got to tell you, from a pastor or preacher’s standpoint, that’s not always the case for pastors and preachers. They kind of they kind of balk at this book. You should not ever do that. By the way. We don’t that’s not what we do. That’s not our M.O.. We believe as a church. The truth is what sets you free. You should run to the truth, not be afraid of the truth. And just let’s let the chips fall where they may. God’s big enough. He’ll work it out. Right. So we want to be in pursuit of the truth.
But I think one of the reasons people are a little bit timid around this book, especially those that might teach it, is that there are people in life that that go through this, this book and create these very particular ways of viewing it and have no flexible room at all and get argumentative over it. Right. And I’m just going to tell you in the forefront, if that’s you, ABC, you do not belong. Right. Like that’s that’s just that is that is not our heart here. We certainly there there are hills to die on in Christianity. The first coming of Jesus. Right. The identity of Jesus, the inerrancy of Scripture, the the, the Godhead, the triunity those are all hills to die on the second coming of Christ. That for us, those are paramount things, right? For for Christianity, how the details of that work out specifically? Like, I think it’s important to study to understand, but but not necessarily the particulars of the details are worth dying for, right? That Jesus is God. I hope to think I would die for that. If someone says renounce Jesus or not, I would like to think I would give my life for that. Right. But when it comes to the specifics of the details of eschatology, I give some flexible room there. I hold to the second coming of Christ. I believe it’s important. You’re going to find out as we go through Revelation where I lean.
But but when you come to this book, I think it’s important to to appreciate the mystery of it, because I understand that other people, if you’ve ever been taught this book, sometimes you’re taught it in a way that when you think about Revelation, you’re like, I don’t want to deal with this. This is like, I’m afraid of this. And if I’m being honest, from my personal experience, when I first came to know Jesus, I remember going to this event where they wanted to show us this movie and tell us about Christ. And then they had some things afterwards. And I remember I sat down for this movie, and it was very much an apocalyptic movie, I guess, based somewhat out of Revelation, I don’t know, but it felt like their only goal was to scare the hell out of you. That’s that was their, like, driving force. And and look, I guess that’s a method, right? Like, but I think that the walk that God calls us on is not to live in fear. In fact, Scripture says that God doesn’t give you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind. Like, I guess you could leave here and walk afraid if you want to, but. But I want you to know that what God is more interested in is where you’re going and your connection to him. Now, our focus for your life is walking with Jesus.
That’s what we want for you. And so some people, some people have taken this book and just have used it to create a bunch of fear. And I don’t think that’s the intention of Revelation for us. And we’ll get into that in a minute. But but rather when you study this book and you really see what’s taking place. Revelation, I believe, is the most beautiful book in all of Scripture. It takes these motifs, these Hebrew images and and John when he writes this, but he draws from these beautiful examples of the Old Testament to talk about what God is doing today. And, and it’s it’s an incredible book of the Bible that that really brings to life all of Scripture. One of the reasons I think people have such a hard time understanding the Book of Revelation is because they don’t understand the Old Testament, where John draws from repeatedly, over and over again when he’s writing this letter to us. And so when you take the time to understand Revelation, it really opens up for you all of Scripture and understanding what God is doing. Because John is articulating for us that God’s ultimate grand redemption story for humanity and Revelation is the last book of the Bible. And and John is drawing all of Scripture together to, to bring us to this conclusion, to show how God has been faithful in declaring for us his grand redemption story.
Now, it just so happens that when it comes to the Book of Revelation, that it’s the last book of the New Testament written, and it’s the last book of the Bible, but I think it’s important for you to know that your Bible is not put together in chronological order. That can get confusing for people. When you pick it up and you start reading from the beginning and think that you’re going to go in this succinct order, that’s not how the Bible is put together. It’s put together according to literary genre. And so when you come to like the New Testament, for example, the first four books, not necessarily the first four written, but those are the Gospels, then you have the Book of Acts, which is considered more of a historical book, which tells us how the Spirit of God worked in the people of God, or the church of God to accomplish the will of God. And then after that you have the epistles, and there’s there’s a lump of epistles, there’s the Pauline epistles, and then there’s the general epistles. And even Paul’s epistles are not put together according to chronological order. They’re put together based on the size of the book. The biggest book is first, and the smallest book is last. And then you have the general epistles from all the other apostles. And then it’s like, as they put the book, the Bible together, like.
And then there’s this one category. It’s called apocalyptic literature. Let’s just throw it on the end. Right? Like so I don’t think that’s how they put it together. But they did. They did put that genre towards the end. And so this book is an incredible book. Sharing God’s redemption story for us. And so it helps us start to begin to understand why it was written. Why is this written? John’s tying a thing together. But but even more contextually important than that, this book was written between the 60s AD and the 90s ad. Somewhere in between that that time period. I find more people lean towards the 90s than the 60s, but this literary genre is written somewhere between the 60s and 90s by the the, the apostle John. And when he’s writing it, get this I think one of the first things I should teach you is that this is this is Revelation, not Revelations. There’s no s at the end, okay? If you don’t do anything else throughout this entire, you know, section that we’re going through in the Bible, um, please know it’s called one revelation, God’s grand redemption story for us. This is one revelation for for you and for me and what’s happening in the early church, the reason that John was led to. To write this book is because of the circumstances in which the church finds themselves. You know, in the early church began, they they were looking forward to the second coming of Jesus, so much so that they thought that it would be immediately after his first coming.
I mean, I’m talking like seconds after his first coming. In fact, in the book of acts, when you read about the early church God commissions to go into the world, he tells them, I’m coming back. And in verse nine, this is where Jesus. He ascends into heaven and look what happens. Verse nine. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him into go into heaven. And so here’s kind of what happens after Jesus. It’s not kind of this is what happens after Jesus is resurrected. He spends 40 days with his disciples, and then he ascends into heaven. And they know the second coming of Christ is is in the future and it’s imminent. It should happen any time. It could happen at any time. And so they believe that so much that when he ascends, they’re like kind of looking up and then looking at their watch and looking up and and then it’s like kind of like God’s looking down from heaven being like, what are they doing? Like, they can’t just stand there all day, right? So he sends some angels.
He’s like, oh, tell them they need to do what I called them to do. Go out into this world and be a light. And so that’s when they kind of they disperse. And so when they start to go out and preach the gospel, what you find is persecution breaks out. Pretty soon Stephen is stoned. The apostle Paul starts killing Christians. His name was Saul at the time. And he wasn’t. He wasn’t converted Paul and Saul. He had both names at the time, but he wasn’t converted. And then he comes to know Christ and he continues to preach the gospel. But as the church is moving forward, they continue to face persecution to the point that even Nero the Emperor persecutes Persecuted Christians and persecution got so severe that it said that Nero would take Christians and use their bodies as torches to light his gardens at night for his parties. Nero under the reign of Nero. This is when the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul are martyred. In fact, by the time John is writing the the Book of Revelation. The emperor Domitian is now ruling. He continues to persecute Christians. The Apostle John is the only remaining apostle on earth, and even the Apostle John under Domitian.
They attempt to boil him alive and he survives, so they exile him to the island of Patmos. In fact, he says that in Revelation chapter one, verse nine, I, John, your brother and fellow participant in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And so you can imagine, if you’re a part of the church and you’re looking forward to the second coming of Christ, yet you look at what’s happening to your brothers and sisters in Christ, this moment could become a discouraging moment. In fact, you might feel defeated. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today. What do you do when you feel defeated? And there’s this tendency in life that we see the truth of what God says, and then we look at the circumstances where we might find ourselves. And then we say to ourselves, well, how does the truth of what God says connect with where I am in life? Because this is hard and is what I believe truly what’s going to happen? Or am I enduring this hardship with an erroneous expectation? What is what is going on? God? And you know, I think that’s what’s happening with the early church. And and to be honest, when you face adversity in life, that’s something that you might wrestle with too. And, God, how do I how do I conceive of what’s taking place? You know, I got to say, for years I have wanted to go through the book of Revelation.
I’ve just held off, but I don’t. I don’t feel like there’s ever been a better time for us as God’s community, looking at the world around us, to say we should engage this book when it feels like everyone else is taking crazy pills. Um, like, God, what? What am I supposed to make of this in light of who you are when I’m feeling defeated, what is it you want me to know? Let me give you point number one in your notes is this. Recognize my perception impacts my outlook. My perception impacts my outlook. This doesn’t mean you ignore your adversity or try to pretend like it doesn’t exist, but rather we need to put it in a greater perspective. And if I were to maybe give us an example, I would do it like this. Um, let’s pretend for a moment you wanted to rent a hotel room. And, you know, this is a pretty, fairly modest looking hotel room, but. But if you rented this hotel room and you were told when you rented it, you were getting the honeymoon suite and the Ritz Carlton. And you showed up to this, right? You have this perspective, and then the outlook is not quite what you anticipated, right? If this is what you booked as a honeymoon suite at the Ritz Carlton, you’re going to have some words with hotel management.
This is this is underwhelming in your expectation. There’s something is something has gone wrong. But if I said something like, um, you were. You were thrown into Alcatraz and this was your jail cell, you’d be like, all right, I can do this. This is this is fantastic. I mean, you might just thumb your nose at all the other prisoners because, you know, you’ve scored the jackpot in comparison to other people. The perspective. Right. The the perspective, the outlook matters when just just a matter of some details. And it helps you put things in light of the circumstance. And Revelation is one of those books where from beginning to end, this is what John wants us to do as God’s people, to be able to put this into perspective. So we understand in light of the situation where we discover ourselves as God’s people. Am I forgotten? Does he not care? Is even. Is this even true? Right. In fact, when you look at Revelation chapter one, verse three, I’m going to come back and read the whole section right here. But verse three. Look what John says about us in the midst of a persecuted people. As a guy who’s writing this book, having been exiled and attempted to be boiled alive. This is what he says, the very first word of verse three, that we should consider ourselves as God’s people, especially as we go through this book.
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. That idea of time is near is saying, look, you need to let this put things into perspective for you so you don’t lose sight of of where we are in our space to understand the position. Maybe not in a hotel room right now, but the position that we find ourselves in light of who God is through our circumstance. And he says, when you allow the Lord to put this in perspective for you, because we easily forget in hardship you are blessed. And so he goes on from here and paints this picture, and he says, he blessed the person that reads it aloud and blessed the people that hear it because he’s writing to a society that’s only about 15% literate. So he’s saying, look, if you know how to read, read this thing, and if you can read, read it out loud for those around you to hear it, because all of you are going to be blessed because of it, because point number two in your notes, let me give you this. God encourages us to view our circumstances through what is eternal, true, and guaranteed. What is eternal, true, and guaranteed.
You know these these three words eternal, true and guaranteed. Really, the idea of it comes in these these this verse, particularly as we’re talking about the literary genre. Right. You see verse one and verse three, I highlighted some words here. It’s faintly highlighted. But but it identifies for you the type of literary genre that Revelation is. And this matters. Anytime you’re reading a book of the Bible, it’s important to ask what what literary genre are you engaged in as you’re reading? Because there’s there’s ways in which you will interpret different types of literary genre. Meaning the way you read a narrative story is different than an epistle. Narrative is just describing what happened, not necessarily commanding you to do things. An epistle might more directly tell you in an imperative sense, this is what you should do. Or a proverb is unique to to a narrative and an epistle. Proverb is generally a good idea, but not not always an absolute truth, um, or a parable, you know, and especially this is true with apocalyptic literature. This is not a literary genre that we’re we’re commonly engaging in life today. And so coming to it, there’s a little bit of uniqueness in the way that we might interpret it. But the idea of, of of Revelation carries the thought of being eternal. You know, when you hear that word Revelation, you. Some might ask, well, why in the world, if this is very unique for us? Like this isn’t a common way of writing? Why would John write this way? And I think there’s a few reasons.
Um, when it comes to apocalyptic literature. One, it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful style of writing. If you just simply read through the images, the motifs that are there. Two John uses this to tie things together throughout Scripture. He’s really going back into the Old Testament and taking a lot of the thoughts of the prophets, and he’s pulling it all together for you in Revelation, seeing, saying, see how God is faithful. Do you see how God has fulfilled everything that he’s promised and will continue to fulfill because of that? And so he’s he’s drawing all of Scripture together. And another reason people think John wrote this way is because, well, Rome is persecuting Christians. And if he blatantly just calls out Rome in the midst of this, it could it could inflate the persecution that Christians are going through. And so rather than that, he’s he understands that if he writes this in apocalyptic style, drawing from the Old Testament. Anyone that just picks up this letter that doesn’t know the Bible won’t know what he’s talking about. And so it’s for the believers who understand what Scripture is declared. And through that, then you understand the beauty of what Revelation is. And so he gets his message out. And in this apocalyptic form. Now, when it comes to Revelation, the word is Apocalypto, right? But many people, when they hear that, they think, oh, man, doomsday, I don’t want to go through a doomsday book.
Build the bunker. Right? Like, we don’t I don’t I don’t want to deal with this any more than where society is right now. But but can I tell you the word revelation does not mean doomsday. Rather, the word in its very simplest form means unveiling or revealing. And so it has this idea that word revelation has this idea of let God just pull back the curtain to put it into perspective for you where you are in light of who he is as his people. You are going through a difficult place. Your your perspective and outlook. It just it needs to be arranged according to the way that the Lord has called you to in him. So it’s this pulling back of this curtain, this unveiling, for you and for me, so that we can see the the grander story of God and how we fit in it. And to be honest, depending on which side of the fence you’re on should determine whether or not you see Revelation as doomsday or this unveiling of something beautiful, right? Because when you read Scripture, you find God. Really? He categorizes us in one of two places. Either you’re with him or you’re not. Either you belong to him or you don’t. And when you read apocalypse in terms of that, in regards to that, in Luke chapter 21, verse 28, look what it says.
It’s talking about believers here, and it’s talking about the second coming of Christ. And it says, but when these things begin to take place, Straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near. So when you talk about apocalyptic revelation, when you think about the future, this is not something for you to hide or run away from or be afraid of. But rather, this is for you to boldly run forward, lifting up your head in great anticipation because you know what awaits you as God’s people. This is not something to walk in fear in, but this is something to rejoice in. The truth that washes over you with what John says in this book. But on the other side of that, in Revelation chapter six, it says this. Then the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich and the powerful, and everyone slave and free. So he’s saying, any person doesn’t matter. God’s. God’s not biased in these people. He’s saying they hid themselves 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. Now, this has always blown me away. But here’s what it’s saying.
There’s a group of people that recognize Jesus is coming, and rather than repent and turn to him, they would rather ask rocks to fall and crush them than to give their lives to Christ. They would rather continue to to live their lives as if their king, not as he’s king, to the point that they would die in that position rather than give their lives to Christ. And the book of Revelation. Really it’s identifying for us. It’s one of two places. But as God’s people, this is not a book to be fearful of, but rather in the midst of a broken world. To understand where you’re at in light of who he is, to put things into perspective that are eternal, true, and guaranteed. So as we get ready to dive into this book in the weeks ahead, I want to give you some thoughts that you should churn in your mind as as we’re studying this book together, these are some thoughts that are going to help us in our understanding as we work through this book of Revelation. And the first is this. This is one that I want us to to as we think about approaching Revelation. We come to humbly, humbly with with reverence to the Lord. Because anytime you study eschatology, it’s important to know that no one in the first century especially got Jesus’s first coming, right. No one understood Jesus first coming. Even the people that walked with Jesus and Jesus is telling him, I’m going to die.
I’m going to die. I mean, Peter’s like over my dead body. And Jesus is like, get behind me, Satan. Right. Even the people that walk with Jesus didn’t understand his first coming. And I don’t want us to be so arrogant as to assume we have every detail of his second coming. Correct? Right. Even Daniel, who wrote some of the most particular prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. Even Daniel in his own book, repeatedly said over and over, God, I don’t understand. God, I don’t understand. Even at the end of Daniel, listen to this chapter 12 of Daniel and verse eight it says, but as for me, I heard, but did not understand. So I said, my Lord, what will be the outcome of these events. Now, here’s Daniel writing some of the greatest prophecy in Scripture, and Daniel doesn’t even understand. So so we want to walk humbly as we work through Revelation two is to understand when you deal with prophecy or a book like this Revelation, its intentions are not for you to get out your flip chart to predict every detail of the future. In fact, when the prophets would declare the coming of Jesus and His first coming and second coming, the way they often describe it is they’re looking out at the mountain peaks. They can see the mountain peaks of what’s to come.
And they’re telling you that because this helps you move forward in hope to know that you’re not forgotten. God still has a plan. So they see the mountain peaks, but what they don’t see is the valley in between. In fact, even the Apostle Paul, as he’s writing to the church, between the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus, which are both are in the Old Testament, that what was what was a mystery was that valley in between, which was the church age. I mean, Paul even says in Ephesians chapter three, the first nine verses, that the church was a mystery revealed. So they don’t see necessarily every detail of what’s taking place in the in-between, but rather to know that there are things that transpire in between the first coming and the second coming of Jesus. But one of the things we definitely want to walk with an understanding in is that there is a second coming of Jesus, that God has given us a promise, and we want to hold that with a closed fist that he will return for his people. And as you go through this book, something else that I want to keep at the forefront of our mind is that Revelation has been relevant for every generation. In fact, anytime you read a book of the Bible, you got to always ask the question, what did it mean to the people there? And then, before we begin to understand what it means for us in the here and now, anytime a book of the Bible is written, it was written to that first group of people to answer questions or to encourage them in a certain pursuit of their relationship with God before.
Before it is thought about in the 21st century. Meaning. When John wrote the Book of Revelation. He’s not thinking, man, I can’t wait till 21st century America gets Ahold of this. You know, that’s not even a blip on their radar. And so to try to interpret that book from from that vantage point is going to lead you astray. What I mean is, rather than read this book and then look to the world around you and think, how does this fit? What you want to do is go back to the Old Testament and say, okay, how do these images John’s talking about? What did that mean to the Jewish mind? Where did these images even come from? How did John gather those? And then when you understand how the first century would have, would have interpreted or understood those images, then you can begin to apply it to your life. I mean, you run the risk of misinterpreting scripture if you just read it and simply just start applying it. And most of the time when the epistles are written, the writers of the epistles are answering a problem that the church is facing and encouraging them in the relationship of God in light of that.
And so to not take time to understand what’s happening in that church can lead us from misunderstanding what the point of the letter is for. And the same thing is true with the Book of Revelation. It’s always written for them there and then, and rather than simply just jumping to us and here and now, some people read Revelation with the idea that it’s been irrelevant for 20, 20 centuries. But thank God we finally have that book today, and we can finally interpret it and apply its meaning for us now. It’s been relevant for every generation of God’s people, especially for the first century. And so you think in terms of of how this book applies for all of us. And then and then last, we want to have a consistent hermeneutic. I know that’s a nerdy word hermeneutic, okay, by enhancing our vocabulary today, but but it really is a the word hermeneutic means a method of interpreting. We want to have a consistent hermeneutic, which means if some people come to Revelation and they want to take everything dogmatically literal, and there’s other people that want to take it all figurative, and then there’s some that kind of waffle in between. I found a lot of people fall in that category. They waffle in between and and whether or not they take it figurative or literal, is really dependent upon if they can take an image and figure out how somehow it relates to a 21st century idea that they have.
And so if they can do that, then, then, then it’s literal. And if they can’t, well, then that part’s figurative. But there’s no way to really determine in Revelation if it’s figurative or literal. And most of the time when you study scripture, you want a literal grammatical interpretation, historical, literal, grammatical interpretation of Scripture, meaning it was first written to them there, and then the historical context to be taken literal. And you apply the that grammatical structure literally to your life. But when it comes to apocalyptic literature, it’s a little bit unique. And and where where you fall in your interpretation of Revelation, let me just say whatever style of hermeneutic you take, whether literal or figurative, you need to be consistent all the way through. Now, the problem with taking literal, consistent all the way through is you find yourself in some some difficult passages. Let me just throw out a few. These have been some of my most entertaining that I have had as I’ve talked to people, but I have heard some wild things that people have said. The 144,000 represent the 144,000 Jewish males. Is that literal? Is that figurative? I don’t know, stay tuned. We’ll find out. And then and then one of my favorites, especially growing up in the South is, is when it talks about the locusts or grasshoppers with human faces.
You know, I heard someone teach about this once in a southern church and and they said, you know, in the first century they have no concept of helicopters. And that’s obviously what this is because it’s got a human face and they’re flying around like a grasshopper. Only in the South, they don’t call it helicopters. Sometimes they call it helicopters. So that’s that’s the interpretation of that. Rather than go back and say, how did the Jews picture grasshoppers and locusts? And then what does it mean then that it has a human face painting the picture from the Old Testament, or the Mark of the beast? That’s an entertaining one. You ever go to the the Some people will say, well, you can’t take the mark of the beast. So if they ever try to put a computer chip in, you do not take that right because the beast will control you. And if you ever go to the grocery store to buy something and the total turns out to be six, six, six, you need to turn around and buy something else immediately, right? Because that is a curse upon you, right? Is that what that means? I mean, what is John talking about? Or a New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven and describes it for you at the end of in Revelation even describes for you the dimensions? You know, as it’s coming down, you read that you’re like, what in Star Trek is happening here? And there are some people that take this so literal that they’re like, okay, there’s this many billions of people that have existed in all of history, and there’s this many that have probably been Christians.
And so they’ll tell you how much square footage you get as a person based on, based on that description in New Jerusalem. Now, is that literal or is it not for people that are very rigid? On taking it literal, I usually ask, well, if you’re going to keep a consistent hermeneutic, what about the great whore of Babylon, right? Like it says, the great prostitute is going to ride on the back of a seven headed dragon across the sky. Do you literally think you’re going to see a prostitute on a seven headed dragon floating across the sky? If you do, you don’t belong to Jesus. Then you need to hurry up and repent and belong to Jesus. Okay, that’s that is your sign that your heart needs Christ. Right. But. Or is John doing this figuratively in Revelation chapter one, verse 20? John takes some images here and helps you understand. Look, this is not this is not necessarily literal. He says the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this the seven stars are are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
So John is saying, look, from the get go. He’s helping us learn. He’s taking images that communicate something different to us. There are these motifs in Hebrew scripture. One of my favorites. And I’ll be done with this all the time. Someone called me in 2020 so excited about their study in Revelation. It was an election year for them. They felt like they needed to study this book, and they got and they called me like, I know who’s going to win the election. And I’m like, what are you talking about? It’s Revelation. It’s in the Bible. Who’s going to win the election? Like, okay, where are you finding this? And they’re like this verse. And then they’re like, and they read this to me. And then they see in verse 13 it talks about the eagle. And this is this is America’s bird. So we’re talking about they took that to mean this is America. And then there’s this warning. If people don’t turn because there’s going to be this deliverance from trumpets. And they said, yeah, it’s the trumpets. Don’t you get it? The trumpets, trumpets, trumpets. He’s going to save us, right? It’s like I’m like, I don’t think that’s what it’s talking about, man. Like like I like I don’t think I don’t think you know that when the Bible is written, it wasn’t written in English.
Okay? That’s just that’s how we translated it. That’s the this is this is a gross misunderstanding of the Bible. This is definitely not what we want to do with the book of Revelation. This is not what John’s doing at all. John’s not like, oh, I can’t wait till the 21st century when Trump and Pence run like like the saviors of the world. Like that’s not what’s happening at all, right? And so there’s there’s a way to to view Revelation that is dangerous. And there’s a way to view Revelation that is incredible and beautiful. And it reveals to us the motifs of the Hebrew images that brings the Bible to life and the faithfulness of God’s redemption story. But the outlook happens for us as we keep this eternal perspective. And in this true perspective and what’s guaranteed, you know, the idea of truth certainly comes from this prophecy that’s written, which was highlighted in verse three. Prophecy written. And prophecy is not just simply predicting the future, it’s it’s declaring God’s truth. That’s that’s the root meaning of prophecy, declaring God’s truth. So many times people think prophecy is just revealing to you things that haven’t happened yet or but but often it’s just declaring to you what God says. That’s why the prophets of the Old Testament kept saying, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. And when you read the apostle John in Revelation, what you find is that John’s not really giving a lot of new Revelation.
He’s really just taking what God has already said in the Old Testament, and he’s he’s recapitulating and resharing it with you so that we can understand in light of where we are now, how God’s going to work things out. And so he’s declaring to you God’s Word, the truth of who God is, and then offering us the guarantee. And the guarantee for us comes in the identity of of who Christ is. And I need to read this quickly, but I just want you to see, like John is saying, look, church, I know, I know how you’re feeling because I’m exiled, I’m struggling. And these things need to be put in perspective for us. And here’s here’s how it shapes. Here’s here’s how we discover that reminding yourself of the greatness of who Jesus is. So this is where John starts. John, the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. That’s the father in this, in this particular verse and the seven spirits. This is the Holy Spirit, which we’ll get to later. The idea of sevens and what that means, and the seven churches and what seven means and who are before the throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, that that witness is literally martyr. He’s faithful with his life, the firstborn of the dead in Ephesians four or excuse me, Exodus 422 tells you, the firstborn doesn’t literally mean first one born.
What it’s saying is the preeminent one over those who have passed away. He has the authority and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Could you imagine that in a time where the emperors are killing the Christians, John saying, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not the real king. There is a king of the kings, and he’s the one in charge. And so he’s the he’s the king of the rulers of this earth. And to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom and priest to him, to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and even those who pierced him. And the tribes of all the earth will wail on account of him. So they thought they won from from their perspective. They thought they won. But but we’re going to put it in a godly perspective and they are not victorious. He goes on and says, I am talking to the Lord. He’s the Lord says, I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord, who is, who was, who is to come the Almighty. This is Jesus here. So the same idea of who the father was in verse four is now how Jesus identifies himself in verse eight, who is, who was, and who is to come, which is, which is the name of God.
In the Old Testament, this is Yahweh, the I am the self-existent one, the one that declares that I am not dependent on anything, but everything is dependent on me. The uncaused cause, the Alpha and Omega, the one that all things in life look to him. He is in control. This is what’s eternal, true guarantee. John is saying, rather than put your hope in anything in this world and think, this is it. No one, no one has defeated Jesus. They may think they won. They have not won, but rather you have. And this is why. Because of who he is. And so John paints this beautiful picture of who Christ is. And let me give you the last point that in your notes so that we can discover this and this, this answer is in verse five and six two. By the way, but in Christ I am free from the past. Loved in the present and given a better future. I am free from the past. Loved in the present and given a better future. And this is exactly what what John says. Wedged in the identity of God. He starts off in the beginning talking about God. He ends in the section talking about the greatness of God.
But if you look at the second sentence in verse five and in verse six, it says, look at this. To him who loves us, this is active right now, right? This is him who loved us, who freed us from our past, from our sins by his blood. Verse six. And made us a kingdom of priests to him, God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. This is an eternal perspective. It’s because of who he is that we have this able to have this tremendous outlook on where we are as people. It’s it may be difficult right now, but when you understand the circumstances, this is just a minor moment in time comparison to what God has. God’s people have to hope for in him. And John now is revealing to us all of this beautiful story of of how this plays out and that the greatness of who God is has been made known. And he is Victor. His second coming is is is is a reality. It’s true. It will take place. And you know, this reminds me, and I want to give these couple of illustrations and close for us, like how this has worked for all of God’s people. You know, after about a millennium of ruling and reigning the people of Rome, they thought Rome as as time went on after Jesus, more and more people in Rome became Christian, even emperors becoming Christians.
And the Romans started to believe. Well, maybe, maybe we’re ushering in the kingdom like we’re seeing Christianity on the rise. And then all of a sudden, at the beginning of the fifth century, the Goths invade Rome, and they kicked down the doors. And now the people of Rome are running as refugees, and they’re running into northern Africa, and they’re asking the question, what in the world is happening? They need perspective. And Augustine, who was a church leader at the time, he writes a book called The City of God. And in this book, he describes for them what it is to live as God’s people in a broken and fallen world. This world is not your home, and the things of this world are not your ultimate hope, but rather you belong to another city and another people whose king is God. And he writes this book to encourage those who are facing adversity, which is the very same thing John’s doing for you. This is this is not your world. This is not your home. But you’re a wanderer for a greater kingdom whose light is with you wherever you go. That gives you a greater hope in his story. In fact, there’s even in the first century a letter or, excuse me, the middle of the second century. There’s this letter written by an unknown person to a guy named Diognetus. And in this letter.
And this is the front cover of it, this. There’s multiple pages to it, multiple chapters. But in this letter, he says this about the early church. He says they love everyone and by everyone they are persecuted. They are unknown, yet they are condemned. They are put to death, yet they are brought to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich. They are in need of everything, yet they abound in everything. They are dishonoured, yet they are glorified in in their dishonor. They excuse me, are they are slandered, yet they are vindicated. They are cursed, yet they are blessed. They are insulted, yet they offer respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers. When they are punished, they rejoice as though brought to life. And so Christians, when punished daily, increase more and more. Do you not see how they are thrown to the wild beasts to make them deny the Lord? And yet they are not conquered? Do you not see that as more of them are punished, the more others increase? These things do not look like human works. They are the power of God. And this is what the Book of Revelation is. In the midst of a fallen and broken Babylon. God, how do I honor you? And that story begins for us by looking at the greatness of who he is.