The Key to See Revelation Correctly

INTRO.

[SP/Emcee Note: 3 ways you can introduce this tension. 1. Tell a story of a time when you misunderstood a situation or a person because you had partial information. 2. Show a zoomed-in picture of a weird section/ugly section of a famous piece of art and then show the whole picture to reveal that it’s a famous piece of artwork. 3. Show a screenshot of the Falcons/Patriots 28-3 scoreboard in the 3rd quarter. Here’s the point the tension should make: partial information leads us to live in a false reality.]

Welcome to WEDNESDAYS! [Name Slate Slide] This is my favorite night of the week and we are in my favorite time of the year because it’s football season y’all! Is your college football team still in the playoff hunt? Is your fantasy team still alive? How’s your NFL team doing?

TENSION.

If your college team is out, if your fantasy team is done, if your NFL team is already thinking about getting the #1 pick, don’t worry. If the Falcons have taught us anything, it’s that you have to play the WHOLE season, just like you have to play the WHOLE game to get the WHOLE picture.

Anybody remember this? [Super Bowl Scoreboard Picture] For those of you who don’t know, this is a picture of the scoreboard from the 2016 Super Bowl where YOUR Atlanta Falcons were winning 28-3 against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. And they weren’t just winning 28-3, they were winning 28-3 with 17 minutes left in the game!

Now, 8 years later, we know the story of what happened over the next 17 minutes. The Patriots completed the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and ended up beating the Falcons 34-28. But, I know MANY people who didn’t stay up to watch the WHOLE game and went to bed early that night thinking that the Falcons had won the Super Bowl. Think about that. There were people who for 8-12 hours lived in a reality that the Falcons had won the Super Bowl.

Of course, they hadn’t. But based on the partial information that they had about the game, it seemed like the Falcons had won when, in reality, the Patriots had won.

Partial information leads us to live in a false reality. If we don’t have the WHOLE story, we might not have the RIGHT story.

That’s why we’re jumping into a series this month on the book of Revelation called Revelation 101. Because Revelation might be the MOST misinterpreted and misunderstood book in the Bible. And because it’s the most misinterpreted and misunderstood book of the Bible, I think many Christians are living in a false reality where we’re scared by Revelation when it was intended for us to be blessed and encouraged by it.

And so as we begin tonight, I want to start this series by answering 2 questions:

What is the key to see Revelation correctly?

When we see Revelation correctly, what is Revelation actually about?

TRUTH.

So, let’s start by answering: what is the key to see Revelation correctly? Well, first we need to understand what Revelation is and what it’s not.

For starters, it’s NOT called Revelations, it’s Revelation

Revelation IS actually a letter written by John. The same John who was a disciple of Jesus, writer of the gospel of John, and one of Jesus’ 3 closest friends. And John’s letter was written to 7 churches about a vision that God gave John for the purpose of blessing the churches with a heavenly perspective.

It’s an encouragement to the church to, regardless of what is happening in the world around them, continue to live faithfully to Jesus because, at the time, the church was facing extreme persecution and opposition.

That’s why Revelation was written. Which means it was NOT written as a secret code to help the church know when Jesus is coming back. Some people treat Revelation like Nicolas Cage treated the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure. They think there’s a treasure map that’s been hidden for thousands of years in the text and it’s their job to decode it. It’s NOT that

But, the reason that it gets misunderstood in that way is because it does use a lot of symbols and metaphors. But the symbols and metaphors actually make some sense once you realize that they are borrowed from earlier parts of the Bible like Exodus, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. In fact, I saw a video of Pastor Matt Chandler quoting another theologian on Revelation and he said:

“There’s nothing in the book of Revelation that isn’t already in the Bible somewhere.”

Which actually make sense when you remember that it was written during a time when the church was facing persecution and opposition. John wrote this borrowing off of the language of the Bible because it was a common language that those in the church would understand but that anyone on the outside wouldn’t. That’s why it can feel “coded” at times, because, in a way, it is.

That’s what Revelation is and what it is not. And so now, let’s talk about the key to see what it is correctly. There’s a key phrase that gets repeated twice in the book, once in Revelation 1:8 and again in Revelation 21:5-6. Let’s look at it together [Production note: make this slide a split screen so that we can see these passages side by side]:

SCRIPTURE.

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

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

Do you see the phrase that gets repeated?

This is actually the only two times in the book that God the Father is quoted directly. Both times He says about Himself, “I am the Alpha and the Omega…”

Does anyone know what the “Alpha and Omega” means?

[Pause and let students answer]

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last letter. It’s the equivalent of God saying “I am A to Z.” Now, that phrase isn’t random. God specifically picks that phrase because He was making a point about Himself.

What do you think God is trying to tell us about Himself by calling Himself the “Alpha and Omega?”

[Pause and let students answer]

Here’s how I interpret it: God is in control. A to Z and everything in between in under His control.

Revelation 1, literally the first chapter of the book, starts with God telling us that, whatever comes next, He is in control of it. And then Revelation 21, the 2nd to last chapter of the book, ends with God telling reminding us that everything that happened, He was in control of.

Now what’s interesting about that is that the bulk of the book of Revelation happens between those two chapters (1 and 21). Most of the content happens in between A and Z.

Part of what messes people up when they’re reading Revelation is that, when they’re reading somewhere between chapters 1 and 21, they’re not seeing the WHOLE story, they only see the PART of the story that they’re in at that moment.

In the middle, the score looks like it’s 28-3 sometimes, but c’mon, we know that even when the score is 28-3, Tom Brady is in control of the game

When you’re reading Revelation, especially in the middle, don’t forget that God is in control of everything that is happening.

The key to see Revelation correctly is to see that God is in control.

Now that we have the key to see Revelation correctly, what is Revelation actually about?

Here’s how I would summarize what Revelation is about:

God is in control

Things are hard

Faithfulness is worth it.

Next week we’re going to talk about the reality that Revelation teaches and doesn’t shy away from: things are hard. Scripture doesn’t sugarcoat that or pretend like that’s not true. It just gives us hope in the midst of it and strength to walk through it.

And then for Friendsgiving, our last WEDNESDAY before Thanksgiving, we’re going to celebrate the truth that Revelation also teaches: faithfulness to Jesus, even though things are hard, is worth it.

We’re going to get to all of that, but tonight I want us sit with the thought that God is in control. Because I think that’s such a basic thought that there’s a very real temptation to just move past it.

APPLICATION.

But when it comes to Scripture, I think God is VERY intentional about the order of things. He is a God of order – just read the book of Leviticus! Order matters to Him, which means that order should matter to us. And the order in which God instructed John to lay out Revelation was to start with the foundation that God is in control.

It's really interesting. Chapter 1 of Revelation starts with John giving the credentials for where the book came from and why it was written, then he says hello to the people he’s writing the book to, and then he closes the chapter with a “vision of the Son of Man.” The “Son of Man” was Jesus’ favorite title for Himself, and it comes from a prophecy about Him in Daniel 10.

As John sees Jesus, he writes down in detail what He looks like, and then he gives a message from Jesus to the churches. Here’s what He said,

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.

There’s so much here. First, when John saw Jesus, just seeing Him was so overwhelming and awe-inspiring that John fell down at His feet.

John seems to indicate that, while He is tender and loving, His presence is overwhelming. The true picture of Jesus is a terrifying one. It’s one that brought John to his knees.

Is that how you see Jesus?

For many of us, that answer is no. In fact, it sounds almost wrong to say that Jesus is terrifying. But remember, God is very intentional about the order of things. There is a reason why a picture of Jesus that is different than our normal picture is placed here.

In part, I think it’s because God wants us to see clearly that we are deeply loved by the most dangerous person in the story.

Revelation is full of beasts and dragons and demons and devils. There is temptation after temptation in the middle of the story to bow in fear before them. If we do not have a vision of Jesus that causes us fall on our knees before Him, we will not have the courage to stand up to the false gods between A and Z that demand us to bow before them.

We are deeply loved by the most dangerous person in the story. And if we are faithful to Him, no matter how scary things seem in the middle of the story, in the end we will have nothing to fear. But if we are not faithful to Him, no matter how relieving things get in the middle, in the end we will have everything to fear.

And so, I want us to spend a few moments before we go to group simply getting a truer vision of Jesus. Something that’s honestly been so helpful for me in this has been this Instagram account called @theaibibleofficial.

[Production Note: play the video in the background WITHOUT audio while the SP is talking]

It takes passages of Scripture and inserts them into an AI image generator to get an idea of how some hard to picture pieces of Scripture might’ve looked. Hear me, it’s not 100% accurate. The pictures that this produces aren’t what the real thing looked like. But I’ve found it an incredibly helpful tool to help me get a bigger picture, specifically of Jesus.

So, I’m going to turn the room into an art gallery for a moment. And I’m going to cycle through a few different pictures of God the Father and of Jesus Himself that this account has produced. And I just want you to sit in your chair and experience them like you would a great piece of art. Allow them to move you and speak to you.

And ultimately, allow them to give you a bigger vision of the God that you serve and who calls you to be faithful.

[AI Jesus/God the Father Slides]

CLOSE.

[SP/Emcee Note: come up and share 2 minutes of heart after looking at the slides. Pray and send to groups to close.]

Revelation was written to bless the church with a heavenly perspective. My friends, I hope as we go through this series that you too will be blessed with a heavenly perspective. I hope that you can get a bigger vision of Jesus than the one you’ve had since you were 5. I hope that God would allow you to see Jesus as the most dangerous person in the pages of Revelation. One who is mighty, strong to save. The one whose name makes demons run and flee.

And at the same time, I hope that you would experience how deeply THAT Jesus loves you, how hard He fights for you, and how safe you are with Him.

Let’s take a moment and talk with Him and ask Him to do all of that and more in us these next 3 weeks.