Revelation - Lesson 1

A Singularly Magnificent Revelation

Prayer: God you are magnificent, and yet even that word doesn't start to express your majesty, you are wonderful and have created a universe filled with wonders, a universe that is phenomenally complex on both a grand and a minute scale.  We are puny and insignificant, in the words of the David (Psalm 8:4) "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" - yet, you invest yourself if mankind, you reach out to these puny rebellious creatures with love and compassion beyond understanding.  Help us God to grapple with this Revelation that you have given to us as a precious gift, help us to treat it as a precious gift, help us to not be frustrated or confused by this Revelation, help us instead to respond to it with awe and wonder.

As I was sitting to prepare today's lesson I approached this lesson with more than a little caution.  The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse beyond the veil, a glimpse into the future as well as a glimpse into the throne room; but it does much more than that, it gives us a glimpse of the mind of Almighty God.

If we approach this book expecting to come away with a completely clear understanding of it, then we approach it with arrogance.  I don't want to be arrogant, that's not what God wants me to be!  Don't get me wrong, God wants us to study this book, God wants us to understand and know what He is communicating, but sometimes our very ability to think and reason can get in our way.

As I was pondering all this, and praying, I glanced at my cat Oreo.  I thought about how she trusts me and loves me and wants to be near me even though she doesn't understand a word I say; even so, she loves it when I talk to her.  I thought Oreo could probably understand God much better than I do, she simply trusts and loves, and that's how we should approach God.  As we approach this particularly special book of the Bible we need to approach is with simple trust, seeking to know God better and love Him more because He cared to talk to us and tell us these marvelous things - things we aren't likely to completely understand.

Before we even crack open the book of Revelation there are a couple other passages we need to look at first.

James 3:1 - a warning to teachers - my prayer is that nothing I teach would confuse or mislead or be against God in any way, I take this warning seriously.

Acts 17:11 - the Bereans - I want you to make sure you don't simply believe everything Annette teaches, I want you to prayerfully and carefully examine the scriptures for yourself.

I was reading a commentary by J Vernon McGee and he called out two reasons why he was approaching doing a commentary on Revelation with caution.

First - he felt that to understand Revelation you must first have a firm grasp on the other 65 books of the Bible.

Second - he felt that he was in the midst of dark, evil days - and that was in 1975.

I find I disagree with McGee in this: I think Revelation has something to teach every believer no matter how well they know the remainder of scripture; however, the better grasp you have of scripture as a whole the better you'll be able to understand it.   Because general Bible knowledge is needed for a better understanding there will be times when I will sidetrack us to other portions of scripture, which shouldn't be a surprise to those who have been attending this class.

I agree with McGee that the times we live in are evil, we live in a time when the light of God is becoming more and more obscured - some from forces outside the organized church, some from within the organized church.  

Mark 4:30-32 - mustard seed - the mustard seed was the smallest seed known & used commonly throughout Israel, they are very tiny.  When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God here He was speaking of the Church, His Church, the True Church which is the collection of His believers throughout the ages.  His Church is now humongous, there have been millions if not billions of believers throughout the ages.  His Church can be found among multiple human denominations, and you might think of these "branches" in the parable as a denomination or particular theological viewpoint.  Some of these branches have become a place for birds to perch - what does this mean?  Birds are symbolic in scripture of evil spirits, in fact in an earlier parable in Mark 4 they are specifically associated with Satan.  Satan and his minions are busy at work not just to attack the church from the outside but to attack it from within as well.  So the light of God in this world is obscured, the True Church is under attack, and believers are becoming more and more ineffective.  God's light hasn't changed it is still there but not clearly seen.  

My Dad's best friend is named Terry, his wife's name is Mary.  When I was a kid we did a lot of camping, when Terry & Mary were dating they came on a camping trip with my family and some other families we were friends with.  Mary was from L.A., she'd grown up there & lived there all her life, she'd really never been far from L.A.  The camping trip in question was in a remote area in the Desert.  At night, at some point, she was away from the campfire and the lights & looked up at the night sky, and was completely terrified... she thought the sky had exploded!  The city of L.A. is so bright with city lights she'd never seen the stars well, and the Desert is so dark and such a wide expanse and so dry that it makes just about the best place to view stars with the naked eye.  The sky hadn't changed, the stars had been there all along, Mary had just never seen anything like the starlight she saw in the Desert that night, once she knew everything was OK she was in awe.  My prayer for each of us as we study this marvelous Revelation is that we would be astonished by the light it brings, that we would come away with a deeper awe and reverence for God.

What is the title of this book?  Not Revelations, but Revelation - one singular marvelous revelation.  In the Greek the word is Apocalypsis, but it doesn't mean something terrible it means: an uncovering, an unveiling, a disclosure, something that is revealed to us.

Revelation 1:1: Whose revelation is it?  God the Father gave it to Jesus who gave it to His Angel who gave it to John (the beloved).  The Revelation is God's (the Father's), it was given to Jesus by the Father in some form of communication that is completely foreign to us.  Jesus somehow managed to communicate this Revelation to His Angel, an Angel specifically chosen to serve Him in this manner.  The Angel then communicated it to John.  Some translations are clearer in the meaning of a portion of this verse which indicate that Jesus sent and signified it by His Angel to John, this wording is important as it tells us that Jesus had to interpret the revelation for the Angel in order for the Angel understand and transmit the message to John.  Right away we are being told that symbols and figures are needed to communicate this message since the communication that went from the Father to the Son is more than even this Angel could understand.  Finally John communicates it to you and I, one thing you will recognize is that there are things in this book that John struggles to attempt to put  into human language, so word-pictures & figures are needed.  The particular greek word for signified means to give a sign, to indicate, to make known - this indicates that there are symbol-codes or figurative representations, symbolic language.

This brings us to our first hurdle in the study of Revelation - the various positions regarding the events in this book.  Some of these differences are because of the symbolic language... that doesn't mean that the entire book is nothing but symbols though there are some that hold that position.

Positions:  There are 3 major positions: Amillennial, Post-Millennial, and Premillennial.

Amillennial - there is no literal 1000 year reign of Christ (a.k.a. Millennium).

Post-Millennial - we are already in the Millennium or it has already occurred - i.e. we are within or living after the 1000 year reign of Christ.

Some Amillennial and Post-Millennial viewpoints:

These views are held by some liberal and orthodox churches:

Preterist - applied to the problems and persecutions of the early church, intended to encourage the church throughout its trials under Rome at that time, and written in a way to prevent the book from being understood by unbelievers.

Idealist - the entire book is simply allegorical - its a series of parables designed to encourage troubled believers to trust in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, of Christ over Satan.

These views are/were held by many protestant churches, which consider Roman Catholicism to be an evil force in this world.

Historical - the events symbolically represent a sequence of events from the time of the writing of the book until the coming of Christ. 

Cyclic - similar to Historical, but in a repetitive & cyclical manner.

Most who are of the Amillennial or Post-Millennial positions don't bother to study most of Revelation because it honestly isn't something they're concerned about.  Either they don't think it involves real events or they think the real events are mostly or fully in the past (exceptions between the viewpoints start at about chapter 20).  I'm going to just state up front that I'm not going to keep these two viewpoints in mind as we study.  That said lets stop here and be very clear, we must not be divisive if we have differences of opinions with our brothers & sisters in Christ, let us be gracious and agree to disagree.

Premillennial - literal future fulfillment.  This is the position I take, not because it is the position of the Baptist church in general, but because a simple straightforward reading of the passage leads me to believe this.  Among those who are Premillennial there are 3 major positions: Pre-Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation, Post-Tribulation.  This has to do with the timing of the resurrection of the saints - whether it's before (Pre) in the middle (Mid) or after (Post) a 7 year period of trouble described in Revelation which we call the Tribulation.  Those among the Premillennial who take things more symbolically tend to lean toward Post-Tribulation, those who are more literal tend to lean toward Pre-Tribulation.  Personally I've heard very good arguments for all 3 positions and the philosophy I take on it is this: I'm hoping for Pre & preparing for Post.

Revelation 1:2: This verse points out that the John in question that is given the Revelation is the John who testified to Jesus Christ, the John who was called the beloved (the one the Jesus loved), one of Jesus inner circle, one of the pair of brothers known as the "Sons of Thunder" - a nickname given to them by Jesus.  We'll talk a bit more about John when we get to verse 9.

  

Revelation 1:3: Why should we study this book of Revelation?  It is the only book of the Bible that promises a blessing to those who read or hear it and take it to heart.  If you read this book, if you study this book, you will be blessed - this is a promise of God and His promises can't be broken!  It also tells us the time is near - near in our terms, it's hard to know, but near in God's terms - in other words it is imminent, it will come to pass.  I want to point out something else in this verse, it proclaims this is a book of Prophecy.

Revelation 1:1-3 (re-read): God, right up front, is telling us what the purpose of this book is - it is His revelation given to us, given to us to bless us, given to us so that we will know what will take place.  God very specifically sent this revelation for our sakes, and did some pretty remarkable things to get the message to us, that alone should get our attention & create in us a hunger to understand the message He is sending.

Before I close us in prayer are there any questions?

Closing Prayer:  Lord God we've just barely scratched the surface, yet already we've learned that you have a blessing in store for us.  Thank you for this very special message that you revealed to us.  Amen.