Revelation 1

Lens one: Historical Context

I wanted to start with a nursery rhyme that you probably all said at one point or another….

Humpty Dumpty Graphic

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again

What does this mean?

Like really, what is the moral of this story?

What is Humpty Dumpty? Is it an egg? Should we not sit on walls?

And the reality is that since all we have is this information we can come up with all kinds of scenarios for Humpty Dumpty

We can speculate as to his backstory…He is obviously royal, because he has the kings horses and the kings men at his disposal…So maybe it’s a parable about “Pride coming before the fall”

Yeah, I think we can speculate on that…Maybe Humpty Dumpty is a leadership parable that reminds you to not let power go to your head and don’t be arrogant or else you will fall down and you are going to break yourself…

We could write books about this new leadership parable

We could go on speaking tours about our newfound meaning to the Humpty Dumpty story

We could record podcasts on it

But what would really matter is what Humpty Dumpty Actually mean….Not what we are trying to make it mean…

This is where I want to warn us to all be cautious when it comes to Revelation…

Because we can speculate on the meaning…and we can get to all sorts of strange places

But, our speculation is just that, speculation!

And Speculation and theology dont necessarily work well together!

But what if there was a tool that would help us understand Humpty Dumpty in its original context ?

It turns out that History helps us to understand Humpty Dumpty

It was a story to remind the people of England of the siege of 1648, called siege of Colchester.

Humpty Dumpty was the nickname of a huge cannon that sat on top of a fortified city that was defending the monarch, the king of England…

The parliament forces were attacking the kings fortresses and they destroyed the church tower that was holding up a giant canon nicknamed “Humpty Dumpty”

The monarch eventually lost that battle and the king was killed, because all of the kings horses and all of the kings men, couldn’t lift Humpty Dumpty back up the wall to fight again….

All of the sudden a little nursery rhyme that is essentially nonsense becomes clear right? It is a Nursery Rhyme for kids to understand the english civil war and how England got their Monarchy/ Parliament

But you would never know that if you didn’t understand it in its historical context.

Revelation is Coherent:

Many people believe the book of Revelation is incoherent because when they read it they don’t understand it

But as we go through this series there will be two keys that I will try to give you every single week that will help you understand.

The second most impotrant thing is historical context

What was actually happening when John was writing? The most accepted date that John wrote this book was 96AD, during the Emperor Domitian.

The author was the apostle John, the disciple who was with Jesus and wrote the book of John.

He was exiled to an island called Patmos

Many times people will ask, why is this book so hard to understand? And the reality is that John had to write in a way that allowed the book to pass by his Roman censors…they would have look at this book as the ramblings of a mad man.

And the first most impotrant thing is the Old Testament

Scholars have found a staggering 579 allusions to the old testament in the book of Revelation

You literally can not understand the point that John is making without reading the Old Testament

So, First, in this series we have to understand the history of it all!

Second…We have to understand, not just when this book was written but in what Genre it was written in…

The book of Revelation is……

1. A letter: (Rev 1:4) This is the longest letter in the Bible…And why is that important? Because it is written to a specific group of people in a specific time and location in history who are all experiencing life in a specific way. John is first and foremost a pastor, writing a letter to the people whom he is pastoring. So what he writes is for the people he is pastoring to be able to deal with the issues that they were facing. Revelation begins and ends as a letter

2. A prophesy: (Rev 1:1, 1:3, 22:10)Five times John or the angels, calls the work, “The Prophesy” The purpose of the prophesy is to, “show things which must shortly take place” (1:1) Now we have to understand that in biblical terms the word Prophesy does not mean prediction, it is better understood as a declaration….The heart of biblical prophesy is not, “look what is coming” but “Thus says the lord”

So calling this book a prophecy means that God is revealing something that requires a response…It is like getting that email from a superior that says in the subject line, “Please reply”

You might be thinking…Okay, I need to think about how I am going to respond.

3. An Apocalypse: Now when we hear this term Apocalypse, we might have some really specific thoughts going through our heads…Most people today think, “end of the world” type scenarios…In the 80’s future technology was going to cause it…The Terminator In the 90’s Hollywood was convinced that some asteroid would cause the apocalypse, or aliens now its zombies, Disney even jumped on the bandwagon with Wall-E….

Well if these movies are what you think revelation is going to be,

I have some really boring news for you.

The word Apocalypse simply means unveiling or disclosure.

Jewish Apocalyptic writings were a common form of writing in the first century

So there are many things to look for in the Apocalyptic style of writing that are important.

People are often represented in the likeness of animals

Historical events often take the form of natural disasters

Colors and numbers are symbols that have meaning

Now most importantly, this style of writing helps to set the present in light of the unseen realities of the future

and secondly and probably more importantly, it seeks to set the present situations in light of the invisible realities of the present

The main thrust of this type of writing is “Things are not as they seem” There is more than meets the eye…John is trying to tell his people, God is at work, there is more that is going on than you can see.

Apocalyptic writing almost pulls back the curtain on the present and shows what is really happening behind the scenes…

So probably the best way to show what an apocalypse is, is in modern political cartoons…

Obama Care Picture

Donkeys are Democrats and Elephants are Republicans and they are fighting over a giant pill called Obama care…Now Obama care was policy not a pill…But the point that I am trying to make is people are represented as animals and policy is represented as a giant pill…and the point is obvious…

The politicians can fight as much as they want but the ones they are really hurting are the public..

That is the point of this author

Its helpful to think of Revelation and the style of Apocalyptic writing as a giant political cartoon

The book paints a picture to convey meaning to the Christians who were living in a Roman pagan world…They would have read this book in light of living under the temple of Domitian.. In light of the killing of Christians…In light of the Romans trying to gain political and religious significance…

But see two thousand years in the future people pick it up and tell a totally different story from the one in which the original meaning was…

We have to delicately look at history and meanings of words to uncover the true meaning of what is being said…

But just as we look at these political cartoons and say, hey these are clear, the earliest readers of Revelation would have gotten it…

Animals, visions, numbers…they would have understood…

We are the ones who need to roll back time and understand them…Because when we do I believe we will find one of the most profound love letters to humanity that we have ever seen…

It is my prayer that through this series, you will see Jesus as he is now, on his throne, in command, victorious, the first and the last, the alpha and omega the God who is alive and working in history…

And that just as encouraging as this letter was 2000 years ago, it will be that encouraging today…

So lets dig right in!

Revelation 1:1–3 ESV

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

So we covered this in our intro in what type of writing this is, but something we need to pay attention to is this phrase

“for the time is near”

The time is consistently near. He is moving even now…We have to be careful with this phrase…So many people want the time to be right now…But this simply indicated that God’s time is not our time…

Verse 3 is a Beatitude or a blessing and there are 7 of these scattered around the book. Probably no one in John’s day would own scriptures, so this was John’s way of saying, make sure that you read this aloud to the churches

The churches play a pivotal roll in the book of Revelation so listen to these words and obey them! The church

That Jesus is still waiting and empowering his church to fulfill the mission on earth…

Revelation 1:4 (ESV)

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,

Ok so believe it or not there is a ton happening in this one verse

First John is telling us that this is a letter to seven churches in Asia. Now this will not even remotely be the first time the number seven is used

In fact it is used again in this same verse to talk about the seven spirits who are before God’s throne.

So here we need to talk about Numbers in the book of Revelation, how do we treat them?

Well the number seven is the perfect number in Judaism, it is the number of the days of creation, it means perfection, completeness or wholeness , and it shows up everywhere in this book

Here is the first spot we need to pause and make a decision.

Are numbers Symbols or Statistics? Well in Jewish Apocalypse they are always symbols

So yes there are seven churches, but this letter is for us too…Its for every church that calls Jesus Lord

And seven Spirits …Again this is a symbol not a statistic.

In John’s letter

There are seven seals on a scroll

And when each one is popped open there are seven elements to the judgment that happens

The lamb has seven eyes and seven horns

There is a lampstand that will be talked about and the lampstand that you should have in your mind is a Menorah, which spoiler alert has seven candles on it.

The reason why I bring this up is that right in the beginning we have to make a decision on how we will treat numbers…

And while there were these seven particular churches, All the way through the book, John will use numbers to point to something even greater

So I think that the most faithful way to read revelation in light of all the scriptures is to say that they are symbols and not statistics.

Next: from him who is and who was and who is to come

Now I only draw this out specifically to show you the way that John is writing this book.

Yes: John does get a vision and he writes it down, but we shouldn’t expect John’s writing to be like home video shot for shot of the vision that he Got.

We know that John alludes to the Old Testament hundreds of times and he actually wants us to know that.

So how do we know this.

The phrase: From Him who is and who was and who is to come

This actually comes from Jewish reflection on when God gives his name at the burning bush, in Exodus 3:14

Exodus 3:14 ESV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

If you were to read the Greek Old Testament you will see linking words

But John does something here that is very impotrant.

He uses what is called a Solecism: A Solecism is an intentional stylistic error. Now John has hands down the best Greek of the New Testament Authors, but right up front he makes a stylistic error.

There is a commentator named Beale who has made this point brilliantly:

he says to think that “It would be a blunder for modern readers to judge this as a mistake of one who did not know his Greek very well”

Beale’s goes on to say that John has lifted this from Exodus 3:14 and not changed the grammatical error on purpose so that he can point his reader back to the burning bush!

Now why does John do this?

He wants his reader to know that Jesus and Yahweh are one in the same!

John is also writing in a setting which there is a pantheon of Greek Gods and at the top of the Pantheon is Zeus

In Greek writings that were dated to slightly before the book of Revelation Zeus is described as

“Zeus was, Zeus is , Zeus shall be. O mighty Zeus”

John wants you to know right up front that Jesus is the same one who was standing in that burning bush!

That Zeus is just a parody of the real thing and the only one with real power and authority is Jesus!

At the very end of this letter John will say this about Jesus

Revelation 17b-18

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades

So this comes in the context of Jesus now calling himself the son of man…First and last is a description of Yahweh …But he now says, he died and is now alive, forever and he holds the keys to death and Hades!

What John is trying to do here in Chapter one is show that Jesus has equality with the Father!

This is first century Christology!

And we have so much more to cover today:

Lets keep reading:

Revelation 1:5–6 ESV

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 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Here John gives three titles to Jesus that would have been as special encouragement to a church who was suffering

1. The faithful witness: (John 3:11, 1 Tim:613) Jesus is the ultimate witness (John 3:11) to the father and was faithful in his trial before Pilate and was crucified (1 Tim 6:13)

2. The firstborn of the dead: (Col 1:18, Heb 1:6) This was a standard way for Christians to say that Jesus was the first to rise from the dead and was especially an encouragement to those who would face death for his namesake. (Col 1:18, Heb 1:6)

3. Ruler of the kings of the earth: (Psalm 89:27)This language alludes to Psalm 89:27 and would be a strong encouragement that Jesus is in control even over the Roman Emperor

And then what does he call the church?

Jesus has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of Priests!

In Jesus we are saved from our sin for a greater purpose (Rev 1:5-6)

And that Purpose is that we are priests to the nations, God’s spokespersons to the world! This comes all the way from Exodus…That God was raising his people up to be a nation of priests but they blew it!…And now in Jesus we are saved for a purpose

To be God’s spokespeople to the nations

Do you know that if you have said yes to Jesus then you also have a purpose?

Revelation 1:7–8 ESV

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

Not will come, but is coming (Rev 1:7)

His coming causes upheaval in the world

So in one sense the book of Revelation describes how when the church is a faithful witness then it is like Jesus is always coming to the world, and one day there will be a renewal of all things when Jesus himself will actually come.

I am the alpha and the omega means I am the one who holds all of human history in my hands!

I am the almighty the one who holds everything together. Alpha and Omega are the beginning and end of the Greek Alphabet and we have to understand that these early Christians lived in a world where these romans Gods were all over town and they were often marked with a Greek letter to denote which h deity it was…

And Jesus said hey…I was before all those things and I will be here long after they are gone…

I am the God who you can fully trust…I am coming!

Let’s keep going Revelation 1:9-11

Revelation 1:9–11 ESV

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. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 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.”

Remember the main conviction of this type of writing is “Things are not as they seem” There is more to reality than what meets the eye! See Revelation even boldly seeks to make us undermine the confidence of our own eyes and ask, Lord what are you really doing…

So John is “in the spirit on the Lord’s day” he was worshiping God and he heard a voice

And we know that this was a physical voice because look what is next the first central vision:

Revelation 1:12–16 ESV

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

First he turned to “see the voice” had this just been a voice in his head he would not have turned, there was something physically there calling to him…

He sees the son of man, and John is choosing his words carefully because this was a Hebrew way of saying “human being” but John uses it as a much different meaning

He was referring to Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7…And just so you know Daniel 7 is very prominently quoted all through revelation especially chapters 4-5…

let me just read you two verses:

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

“One like a son of man” refers to the central figure of all of human history

So John turns and he see’s lampstands, and later John will tell us that those lampstands represents the seven churches that are on his heart

And here is what is important for us to get…The risen Jesus is with his church! He is with us even right now…

So I want to break down what Jesus looked liked and why this all matters

Dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest: Why is Jesus dressed this way? The robe is a priestly robe, and when a sash or a belt is worn around the waste it means that the person is going to work, when it is worn around the shoulder it means the person is resting in a great accomplishment…It means that Jesus is our high priest, our pastor and he is resting in his accomplishment of removing the sin of the world and conquering death… This is a way for Jesus to declare that he has won!

The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow: 1. These words declare that Jesus is the ancient of days, of what we just read in Daniel 7, that Jesus was and is and is to come, but also, the color white refers to his sinlessness and his character

His eyes were like blazing fire: Jesus was not only pure, he was purifying. The eyes of the Lord not only look at us but look through us. They burn away the facades we put up…We can almost use this as a prayer, Oh lord look at me and burn away the junk that us ruining my life…

His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace: Now again this points back to the book of Daniel, you may remember that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had a vision…and in that vision, all the kingdoms of the world are represented in a huge statue

A head of gold, shoulders of silver, waste of bronze legs of iron and feet of clay w/Iron the feet are obviously not strong enough to support this statue and that’s the point…All these human kingdoms are built on a shaky foundation!

Jesus now is being described as having feet of burnished bronze

Right in the beginning John wants us to see if we have faith in these other kingdoms, well they have a foundation that will eventually crumble, they look great but they have feet of clay.

But Jesus! The son of man! has an unshakable foundation, he will stand forever!

What John is saying here, is that Jesus is the firm foundation, his kingdom rests on feet that will last and stand forever.

his voice was like the sound of rushing waters: This was almost like a figure of speech, to say that when Jesus speaks you hear it…His voice drowns out all others…when Jesus talks to you…It is the voice that drives all that you do..

COIN PHOTO

In his right hand he held seven stars Now this has an amazing double meaning.

First, we are told that the seven stars represent the angels to the seven churches

But also, there were 7 planets known to man at this time. People believed that all of life was under control of these 7 planets, and the Greek God Hekate was always depicted holding seven stars and at the time of John’s writing this coin was in circulation, showing how he deified his son…

So the early believers of Jesus would have had this in their purses and used this on a daily basis, but here comes John saying he sees Jesus holding seven stars in his hand!

Jesus holds all control! Had John’s sensors know what they were looking at they would have executed John on the spot!

Coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword: The word of the lord really cuts through all of the talk of our world…

Peter understood this (John 6:68) all of Jesus’ followers were leaving him and Jesus said, don’t you want to go too?

And he said, Lord, “you have the words of eternal life.” This is why I push so many people to read the Bible. Because Jesus’ words are not limp, they come right up to us and cut through our willful resistance…they distinguish good from evil.. they establish righteousness…

His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance: I mean can you hear john stretching here for a way to convey the unspeakable?

For him to just describe the brilliance of the moment. In the Old Testament the blessing of Arron was for the lord to shine his face on you. It was the greatest honor one could have…

Every vision of God’s throne room is really mixed in to what John is conveying here, there are too many references to go over them all today.

Revelation 1:17–20 ESV

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

He says don’t be afraid, I hold the keys…I was victorious on the cross…Jesus has stolen the chief weapon of the enemy! Jesus has stolen the weapon of fear!

Fear is a weapon of the enemy that in Jesus we can overcome

Just let all of this imagery grip you for a second…Jesus has overcome death and he now holds the keys

He is present among his church

he is resting in his victory!

He is unshakeable!

He is holding the seven stars in his hand

Who do you have your faith in? This chapter is designed to ask you, who is in control in your life? is it the cosmic Jesus? Does Jesus have all power and authority in your life

Or are you constantly going back to the old statue of human kingdoms and human power?

In Jesus we have the complete vanquishment of fear….And I think he is here today inviting you to relationship!