Revelation Introduction

Introduction

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 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, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 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.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

4 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, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Vision of the Son of Man

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

This week we begin our series through the Book of Revelation, not ‘Revelations’ (with an ‘s’) but Revelation. Or what has also been historically referred to as John’s Apocalypse. As we approached the end of Matthew’s Gospel earlier this year I contemplated what book I would teach out of next, and I had always assumed we would move immediately into the Book of Acts to pickup where Matthew left off, and to follow the beginnings of the early church. And I still think that it would be a good book to tackle in the near future, however, as we walked through Matthew 24 and 25 last year, which was followed up by a four part series on eschatology, I realized that it might be a good opportunity to build upon that foundation while it was still somewhat fresh in our minds.

It’s also a subject that I’ve been studying, personally, for several years now, and given my own time constraints for studying, it seemed like a natural opportunity to tackle Revelation next. I also read recently that that the Book of Revelation is the the number one book in the Bible that church members wish their pastors would preach through, while simultaneously the number one book of the Bible that pastors avoid preaching through. I think reading that has both challenged me to do it, and has given me a desire to help others Christians understand and apply this book, that the Book of Revelation would become helpful to you.

My desire is that as we study this book that you’ll not only understand it, but that you’ll see its role and purpose, that this letter and vision was intended not merely to be a cryptic future telling prophecy, but that it was intended to bring both warning and comfort to the Christian church, and that it was intended to show how God was carrying redemptive history forward. And the more you understand how Revelation does this, the more helpful it’ll be to your Christian life, and the more you will see Christ more clearly.

Now, this week, we’re going to begin by way of introducing the book. I want you to have a good handle on what kind of book this is, it’s genre, style, and what to expect, then next week we’ll look at how the church has historically understood this book. We’ll look at four categories, or views, of interpretation. Interpretations that all fall within Christian orthodoxy, but have waxed and waned in their popularity at various times in church history. Then in week three we’ll survey the book and I’ll argue for a particular view that we’ll use to walk through the rest of the book. I will survey the major characters of the vision, who they are, and how they play into the book’s storyline. From there we’ll walk through the book, chapter by chapter.

Eschatology

That being said, let’s begin with some introductory remarks related to the book and eschatology in general. First, eschatology, is the study of last things, or end times, and certain areas of eschatology are secondary, if not tertiary doctrines. While it’s essential that we agree upon the yet future second coming of Christ (which is an essential doctrine), whether you’re premillennial, amillennial, or postmillennial won’t determine your salvation. Your salvation also does not hinge upon which of the four orthodox interpretations of the Apocalypse you take. Therefore, Christians should not divide over these issues. In fact, many of the major doctrinal confessions like the 1689 London Baptist Confession and the Westminster Confession deliberately any particular eschatological position, save the second coming of Christ. So, no one should be planting local churches on the basis of their eschatological viewpoints.

Eschatology not unimportant

However, this isn’t to say that eschatology is altogether unimportant, or that eschatological positions don’t have a genuine bearing upon how we conduct our lives. Eschatology is not unimportant. Just because it’s not the most important, doesn’t mean that it’s unimportant.

In fact, the Bible is filled with eschatology, therefore it follows that the Spirit of God intends for us to study it. The very fact that the Book of Revelation is in our Bibles means it was given to the Church for her building up, that it too is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. We don’t ignore eschatology simply because it can be difficult to understand, or because we think it less important or divisive. If the Spirit of God saw fit to give it to the Church, then we should, like all other portions of Scripture, receive it and seek to be nourished by it.

Eschatological expectation

For example, prior to Christ’s first advent, the people of God, for centuries, even thousands of years, looked forward to his coming, and over time God progressively revealed to them, through the Scriptures, prophecies that foreshadowed his arrival. And they were expected to understand and anticipate the fulfillment of those prophecies. One example is found in Luke 2:25, where we read,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel,

or in Matthew 2:3-6 when Herod was troubled that wise men from the east were looking for one who was born, king of the Jews, and we read that,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6  “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

The advent of Christ was their eschatological expectation, just as the second coming is ours. And ever since the first advent of Christ the church has regularly celebrated those prophetic, eschatological passages, and their fulfillment in Jesus. Eschatology is not unimportant. While on one hand we don’t want over emphasize the importance of certain doctrines, we don’t want to think that they’re unimportant either.

Doctrine matters

All doctrine has an inescapable impact upon how we live (no matter how small), what we we believe fundamentally impacts how we think and act. We make decisions based upon what we believe. For instance, if you believe that the world will only get worse leading up to the return of Christ, then you might find yourself retreating from the world, having less children, preparing for the worst, stock piling your resources. Whereas, if you understand the kingdom of God as having an impact upon the world such that governments, increasingly, are brought into submission to God’s law prior to the return of Christ, that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God, then you will likely find yourself investing more of your resources into it, and more actively engaging the world.

Or if you think that you’re going to be raptured out of this world before a great tribulation then you probably won’t prepare yourself for it, whereas if you believe that you will have to endure a great tribulation, then you’ll probably prepare yourself for suffering. Now, my point here isn’t to argue for one doctrine or another, but simply that what we believe about tomorrow impacts how we live today, therefore eschatology is not unimportant.

Revelation and the OT

That being said, let’s talk about the Book of Revelation itself. This first point I think goes without saying, but I want to flesh it out. The Book of Revelation is hard to understand. In fact, it is undoubtedly the hardest book in the NT to understand. At one point we get the impression that John himself required an explanation of the vision. We read in Revelation 17:6-7 that John saw a woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, and when he saw her it says that he marveled greatly. “But the angel said to [him], “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman...”” This is also why we have four historical views of interpretation on the Book of Revelation. It may be why John Calvin, who wrote a commentary on nearly every book in the NT didn’t for the Book of Revelation.

But there are specific reasons this book is hard to understand. The primary reason being that Revelation is the most Hebraic book of the NT, far more than even the Book of Hebrews. It’s Hebraic in two senses, first, while the book is written in Greek, it’s style and grammatical construction look almost Hebrew, as though written by a man who had Hebrew as his first language and Greek as his second. Secondly, some estimate that there are more than 500 quotations and allusions to the OT in John’s Apocalypse. That it draws heavily from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Ester, and especially Ezekiel and Daniel. In fact, many have referred to the Book of Revelation as part two of Daniel, that John’s book essentially picks up where Daniel left off.

And the reason this presents a problem for many of us is that our familiarity with, and understanding of the OT is often inadequate and weak. While much of the OT narratives are straight-forward enough, much of the OT context and symbolism escapes us, so when we read Revelation this problem becomes readily apparent. If much of the themes and symbolism of the OT has already confused us, then Revelation is going to feel impossible. We’re often accustomed to interpreting the NT with very little reference to the OT, which immediately makes books like Hebrews and Revelation difficult.

Picture book

We also need to realize that Revelation is primarily a picture book, filled with apocalyptic language, a highly symbolic language. Even the title of the book reveals this without reading a single verse, John’s Apocalypse. Our word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokalupsis, which simply means an uncovering, unveiling, or revealing, hence the modern title, Revelation.

Symbolism is the rule

This is significant because this means that the book is not historical narrative, despite many modern commentators treating it as it were. Overlooking the genre of the book and its literary style will get us into all sorts of trouble when we attempt to understand it. In this book symbolism is the rule, and literalism is the exception. When we read apocalyptic literature we should expect highly symbolic language, and assume a symbolic interpretation before attempting to interpret the text literally.

Maintaining a literal interpretation

Now, this might immediately make some of you uncomfortable. Aren’t we supposed to take the Bible seriously, and therefore to take it literally, at face value? Well, the answer, of course, is yes, we should take the text seriously and interpret it in one sense literally. When I say that symbolism is the rule, and literalism is the exception, we haven’t ceased to take the Book of Revelation literally (as some might argue). Rather, to read Revelation literally means that we first recognize that it’s written using highly symbolic language. Which means we don’t want to treat the symbols as if they weren’t symbols, because by doing so we would do violence to the text.

To read Revelation properly we must use the same method of interpretation that we use everywhere else in Scripture, we use what’s called the grammatical-historical method. This approach considers the historical setting of the text, its grammar and its syntax, as well as the type of literature. Therefore, the reader should read Revelation in light of the kind of literature that it is. The book isn’t historical narrative, it isn’t intended to be a list of chronological events like we read in books like Kings and Chronicles. And while it’s a highly symbolic book like the Psalms, that it’s not poetry either. The Book of Revelation is also not like Ecclesiastes or Proverbs, it’s not wisdom literature. Instead John’s Apocalypse is primarily prophetic and apocalyptic.

No modern equivalent

Which is precisely what makes it challenging to understand. In fact, we don’t even have a modern equivalent to the apocalyptic genre of John’s day. We’re not naturally familiar with the rules of interpretation like we are with other types of literature. Therefore, we often end up applying rules of interpretation to Revelation that are intended for other kinds of literature. This is why many interpreters will attempt to read the book as purely a chronological account of events. It’s why most interpreters in our day use the rule of thumb, “always literal, unless totally absurd.” And while this rule can be helpful when studying a more technical genre of literature, it has disastrous effects when studying the Book of Revelation.

Now, I think many modern bible scholars fear abandoning this rule of “always literal, unless totally absurd” because they believe that by doing so the book is turned into a wax nose, that we will lose the objective meaning of the text. Which is why the Apocalypse has been frequently interpreted as merely a historical narrative of future events. So I think most modern, popular interpretations of the book have been borne out of a good desire to take the Bible literally, rather than just any way the reader wants to. However, as it pertains to the Book of Revelation, this has resulted in a literalism that often misses the symbology and literary genre of the book, and thereby misses its meaning.

Analogy of scripture

So, how do we avoid turning Revelation into a wax nose, making it mean whatever we please? Well, we use the same principles we use everywhere else, we consider the audience, the context, and we use especially the analogy of scripture. We compare scripture with scripture. We use scriptures elsewhere in the Bible to aid us in identifying and defining the symbols throughout the Book of Revelation. We don’t get to attribute whatever meaning we prefer to these symbols, we should always seek scriptural warrant for whatever meaning we attach to them. And the vast majority of all the symbolism can be found to one degree or another in the OT, therefore we must use what we already know about those symbols to inform our understanding of them in Revelation.

Those symbols include beasts, dragons, harlots, angels, cherubim, thrones, spirits, stars, lampstands, seals, rainbows, gems, and so on. There are symbolic numbers throughout, including 4 beasts, 4 riders, 7 angels, 7 churches, 7 hills, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls, 7 seals, round numbers like 1,000 years, 144,000, 24 elders, etc. It should be obvious to the reader that most of what we read in Revelation is going to be symbolic, and certainly these symbols point to true realities, and how we interpret those symbols will dictate the storyline of the book. Therefore, the better we can be at rightly identifying the symbology, the better we’ll be at rightly understanding the book, and the better we understand the book the more helpful it will be to us.

Advantage of symbology

Now, you might be like most of us who wonder why John couldn’t have just give it to me straight. Why does he use so much symbology if he could have just spoken to us in plain terms. Well, first, we have to recognize that this vision was given to John by the Spirit of God and that he was instructed to write these things down. In other words, God’s intention is for us to do whatever work is necessary to understand him on his own terms, not ours, but he doesn’t do this arbitrarily.

Symbolism has many advantages over other forms of literature. As poetry can adorn the attributes of God with language more befitting of his majesty, the symbolism within Revelation is able to communicate categories and concepts far more vividly than historical narrative. And symbolism can do it while being far less verbose, in other words, the use of symbols gives the writer the ability to convey more information using less text. And if these symbols already carry with them meaning from other books like Ezekiel or Daniel then John can use those symbols to communicate ideas already expressed elsewhere. Certain symbols and imagery, like a beast or harlot, carry with them entire categories of thought without requiring an explanation or description. Therefore, in a very real sense this book is a picture book, a book of imagery, but it will require us to grapple with that imagery first before its meaning can be unveiled. And ultimately this is how we’re going to settle on a particular understanding of Revelation, by identifying the most clear and obvious symbols within the vision to anchor and establish its narrative.

Revelation is prophecy

It’s also important to remember that Revelation is prophecy. Look again there at Revelation 1:3,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy,

and again at the end of the book in Revelation 22:10,

English Standard Version Chapter 22

10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

While the Book of Revelation is highly apocalyptic, it’s also prophetic, it’s a prophecy of real historical events. Therefore, we should expect the prophecy to come to pass in history. The symbology is tied to tangible events. Notice what it also says there in Revelation 1:1,

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.

then again at the end in verse 3, John says, “for the time is near.” The idea here is that the visions in this book are related to events that must soon take place, events that are near. In fact, John repeats himself at the end of the book in chapter 22:6, reiterating, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” So, John indicates that these events are soon to take place, that his audience is to expect them in their day.

John’s Audience

Which leads us to another important consideration and tool of interpretation, the audience, or who the author is writing to. Whenever we interpret a book of the Bible we must always ask ourselves, “Who are they writing to? Who is their audience?” When interpreting Scripture we must take into consideration the writer’s original audience. This is important because if our interpretation of a particular book renders the book unintelligible to the original audience, or doesn’t take into account that audience’s historical context, then we’ve probably failed in our efforts to understand the book.

As we walk through Revelation it’s essential that we realize, and keep in mind, that this book was written to seven churches in Asia Minor, and not just the first 3 chapters, but the entire book was written for those churches. In fact, John admonishes them in Revelation 22 to keep the words of this prophecy, therefore the entire book was intended to be relevant to the church’s in John’s day.

I think many of us who have read Revelation have, without thinking about it, separated in our minds the first 3 chapters of the book from chapters 4-22, as though the first 3 chapters were obviously written to the 7 churches in Asia Minor, while chapters 4-22 were obviously written largely for a future generation who would immediately precede the second coming of Christ, but I think to do that would be to render chapters 4-22 meaningless to the churches in John’s day. So we have to keep John’s audience in mind as we consider this book.

Revelation is pastoral

And lastly, it’s important to point out that the Book of Revelation is also pastoral. On one hand, as we’ll see later, the book is intended to depict how God has carried redemptive history forward by the coming of Christ, but on the other hand, the book is genuinely pastoral at its heart as well. John is writing to real churches in history who were suffering tangible persecution, and this book and this vision is intended to give them hope. We read there in verse 9, of chapter 1, “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” John is writing to saints who are experiencing tribulation, tribulation that he shares in, on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

And if correct, Church tradition teaches us that John was plunged into boiling oil, but miraculously escaped, and so he was exiled to the island of Patmos. We also know that the church suffered immense persecution from the Jews as recorded throughout the Book of Acts, and later at the hands of the Roman Empire starting in AD 64 when the Emperor Nero began covering Christians in pitch and oil to light them on fire to illuminate the imperial gardens at night. These are the conditions that the churches faced at the time John penned this letter.

Therefore, John writes to them to comfort them, to remind them that their persecution is not in vain. He writes to them to give them hope amidst their persecution. He writes to them that they might persevere with endurance. John writes to give them courage. John writes to remind them that their persecution is intended to test their loyalty. In the letter to the church in Smyrna we read in Rev. 2:10, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” John also describes in Revelation 12:11 that they have overcome the dragon (who is the devil) by the word of their testimony, and by loving not their lives even unto death.

The apocalyptic vision that John receives is meant to pull back the curtain of heaven, that the church might see that while the battle may seem bleak on the earth, that they have not lost the war. That their suffering is not in vain, and that the dragon has not won, but rather his time is short, and that the fierce persecution they have experienced will not last forever, but that Jesus will vindicate them, that Jesus will pour out his wrath against their enemies.

Various spiritual conditions

And lastly, the audience that John is writing to are local churches who are suffering from various spiritual conditions. Each of the letters to the 7 churches in chapters 2 and 3 are either rebuked, commended, or both for various reasons. Therefore, John writes for their sake, he writes that the churches in Asia Minor might repent and to heed what the Spirit says, that they would overcome.

Conclusion

So, as we start in on the Book of Revelation, keep these points in mind. That eschatology is not unimportant, and that while Revelation can be hard to understand, that we’re meant to understand it, that it is meant to be profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness. Keep in mind that this book is not like other NT letters, that it is written in a literary genre that has no modern equivalent, that it’s written using apocalyptic language and as a prophecy of real historical events. To not be intimidated by its symbology, but to understand that as we become more acquainted with the OT that Revelation will begin to spring into clarity. And finally, remember that Revelation is pastoral, that it isn’t intended to be merely a cryptic future telling letter, but a letter that blesses and strengthens the church. So, as we continue in our series I hope that all of these considerations will prove helpful in understanding this hard but glorious book.

Prayer