Revelation Chapter 1, October 6, 2024
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Revelation Revelation 1: Jesus among His Churches
When Aragorn arose all that beheld him gazed in silence, for it seemed to them that he was revealed to them now for the first time. Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him. And then Faramir cried: “Behold the King
One of my favorite book series growing up as with many others was JRR tolkien's Lord of the rings I've read it several times and I hope to read it with my girls. I loved it when the movie series came out for several years ago.
If you don't know the story of Middle Earth is a land threatened by a vile overlord but it can only be saved by the daring deeds of a few hobbits. If you don't know what hobbits are you're missing out on the most delightful creatures in all the literature. Unknown to the hobbits they're helped on their quest by the true king of Middle Earth working undercover. The hobbits think of him as strider the humble Ranger who roves the land homeless and seemingly friendless.
And in the final battle at the end of the age good is engulfed by evil until at the last minute frodo The Hobbit performs a heroic deed and darkness turns to light. Finally al Goran the king is revealed in all his splendor. This book certainly points towards the true king who is revealed in all of splendor and that's Jesus. Poking knew that human history is really all about the battle between good and evil and the true king has not been revealed in splendor as he fully will be but it's coming. Jesus is coming.
So tolkien's books are based on the understanding of God's power and the victory of God in the battle of good and evil. When we look at revelation we've got to understand that it is a portrait of good engulfed by evil until good finally prevails until the real king Jesus is revealed. As one author puts it what John or rather what Tolkien presents in fiction John shows us what will be in reality. Revelation is about the true king. Revelation is all about us seen the king unveiled. It is about us seeing Jesus.
OK as we get into these first 8 verses we will be introduced to both the author and the theme of the book. These first 8 verses are a lot more like the epistles or letters then the whole rest of the book.
The first vision of John is going to begin in verse 9 and go through the next three chapters for the most part.
The Title Page
The Title Page
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.
When we look at this phrase of Jesus Christ we need to recognize it can also be translated from Jesus or about or belonging to Jesus. For as many theologians and interpreters who have tried to lay claim to this book it's about Jesus. Not the angels or human beings it's about what Jesus will do has done and what he wants to reveal.
Now what has stumped translators and believers for centuries is the phrase must soon take place. And so many times we read the scripture and we read prophecies and we think if this is imminent if this must soon take place then while it's been 2000 years why hasn't it happened yet? How do we understand this whole book with a statement like that in the first verse?
The key is to take this verse and frankly all of the rest of the Bible from the perspective of heaven and not earth.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
So from God's perspective the events in revelation were written down less than two days ago :) it will still be soon if God waits a few more days :)
What we also need to see is that John refers to himself as a slave, or servant of Jesus. We will continue to see this theme throughout the book.
2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
So this is the witness of the book this is the authority of the book. Who's testifying to what he saw. Kind of saying this is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But this is also explicitly stating that what follows is both the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. So the witnesses here are basically Jesus John and God!
Also, and interestingly, we call the entire Bible the word of God. Revelation claims that title explicitly for itself.
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.
First of all we need to see this as a book that's coming from God. The impetus for this prophecy is God reaching out to reveal something to us. And what we need to pay attention throughout the whole book is that God promises blessing for obedience to the book's teachings so again we need to figure out what this book is teaching.
Also, this is the first of seven times that we're going to see this word blessed. It means how fortunate or ohh the joy of. Jesus used it in the sermon on the mount and in this book in this letter it commands us to read to hear and to take heart what is in the book.
Jesus used this same word when he spoke about keeping the commands of our father in heaven.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
This passage is also one of four times that John refers to this book as a prophecy. Prophecy in the Bible can be either a fourth telling or a foretelling. Let me explain
Foretelling-(Direction)
Foretelling-(Direction)
This means some prophecies simply tell the direction in which God’s will is moving or rather the results of disobeying God.
Kind of like your parent telling you that if you disobey them, you will be grounded or lose screen time.
Foretelling-(Prediction)
Foretelling-(Prediction)
This is when a prophecy predicts an event that will happen in the future.
This is all the prophecies in the Bible that pointed to Jesus.
