Revelation

Revelation is a wonderful book to study through and most use it to see what the ends times will look at, but there is more to it than just that. Let’s first look at the author and the date for Revelation.

The author of Revelation is listed as John. He is associated with the seven churches in the Roman province of Asia which is present-day southwest Turkey. He is associated with their suffering, blessing, and perseverance. The author writes with prophetic authority. He writes with allusions to Old Testament and extrabiblical Jewish literature, which would suggest that he is a Jew. While we are going through this, you may see that there are parallels between the book of John and Revelation. It is extremely likely that both books were written by the same author. We do not know for sure that it is the same author, but there are many things that point to it being the same one, so it would be safe to assume that it is the same author.

Revelation was written during a time when Christians were suffering persecution. The general consensus for when this was written was between AD 70 and AD 95.

From about AD 53 the apostle Paul used the great city of Ephesus as a center for evangelism and church planting throughout the Roman province of Asia. Probably the seven churches of Revelation were founded during this time or shortly thereafter. It’s funny just how much influence Paul had on the churches in this area. While Paul was imprisoned he wrote letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon. Colossians was to be read in the church of the Laodiceans and the epistle from Laodicea was to be heard in the congregation in Colosse. Based on research, the practice of writing epistles for wider circulation than a single individual or group was an accepted one, as we will see in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation.

The book itself is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ is pictured as the glorified son of man, the lion of Judah, the worthy lamb, the son who will rule all, the bridegroom, the conquering king of kings and lord of lords, and the rightful ruler of his earthly and eternal kingdoms. We don’t need to forget that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. His person, victory, and rule result in worship and praise throughout the book of Revelation.

We will see Christ’s directions to the churches and it will describe the wrath of the lamb, His judgments on the sinful world, his second coming and his eternal rule.

The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus are the historical backdrop for his gracious offer of redemption from sin and eternal life. Believers and unbelievers are both urged to repent and to overcome by the blood of the lamb.

In the power of the Holy Spirit, John received great visions as well as crucial messages that the church needed to hear. In the spiritual realm, Revelation depicts a divine struggle against satan and his demons. Yet this battle against the deceiver of the world and the accuser of our brethren has already been won by the blood of the lamb. All that remains for Satan and his followers is to be sentenced to their just, eternal punishment by the Lord. Their doom is sure.

Now that we have seen a little background for the awesome book, let’s dive in to it.

Verses 1-3

a. In these first few verses we already see the beginning of the end. They are a few interesting verses. The first part, we see the introduction to the book of Revelation. The word revelation means an apocalypse or unveiling of those things that had been veiled. The Revelation of Jesus Christ can mean it comes from Christ, or is about Him-or in this case, most likely both, since he is the subject of the entire book.

b. We see that it says that this Revelation was given to show His servants. Who do you think that servants are? Simply put, his servants would be the believers. This was given to all beleivers. We will see this word recur in chapter 22:6. I bring this up because the different parts of Revelation reference to one another.

c. Things that must shortly take place. what things must take place? Well we can see that this is an allusion to Daniel 2:28,29 and 45. These verses say “But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed were these: As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be.” “ Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold-the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.” See, the writer of Revelation is saying that the things that must come to pass in the last days will take place in quick succession. While John is the human writer, Jesus is the divine author.

d. The word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ are the reasons John was exiled to the island of Patmos and are the reasons Christians are still persecuted today. All the things that he saw would be the visions of the Book or Revelation.

e. This section ends with talking about being blessed. When looking at being blessed here, it is to be spiritually happy. And as we study, we will see the beatitudes of Revelation as well. There are actually seven of them, and this is the first of them. We will actually see the number 7 several times throughout our study in Revelation.

Verses 4-8

a. Next we see that this is addressed to the seven churches in Asia. Like I mentioned in the introduction, this is today in southwestern Turkey. All these churches fit within a square 50 miles on each side and their names are given in order going clockwise from the southwest.

b. We have the grace and peace greetings again. The grace greeting is a common Greek greeting and peace is a common Hebrew greeting. It would be like us saying hope you are doing well, today.

c. John takes a great description in verse 4, when he describes God, who not only exists now, but always has and always will exist.

d. Don’t get caught up on where it talks about the seven spirits before His throne. Even after all the studies that have been done, there is still not a good interpretation of this. Some thoughts are that it may refer to the angels of the seven churches, to seven other angels, or to the fulness of the Holy Spirit.

e. So here we are, talking about Christ and you will see that it says the firstborn from the dead. There were a couple of people who were raised from the dead. Lazarus rose, only to die again. Christ rose to die no more. Christ’s resurrection fulfilled Psalm 2:7. Then His divine sonship as the human form of God was openly attested by the Father. So our resurrection, and our manifested sonship are connected. We too will be resurrected.

f. Kings and priests echoes the description of israel in Exodus 19:6, a description which is also applied to the church by the title “royal priesthood” in 1 Peter 2:9. Christ’s sacrifice of Himself has set apart believers as royal priests to offer spiritual sacrifices to God.

g. Now, where have we heard parts of verse 7 from before? Well, this is a recollection of Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7:13 and Matthew 24:30. But what a glorious second coming this will be! He will be coming with the clouds and every eye will see him! When we study about the first time that he came, it wasn’t available to every eye. Only those in and around Bethlehem were able to know at the time of his birth, but this next time, everyone will know. We know that the phrase pierced him is referring to his crucifixion, but the mourning, Israel will come to a point of mourning because they have rejected their Messiah. All tribes will mourn because of their own unbelief.

h. Verse 8. God self-describes here, he is the Alpha and the Omega, the first an dlast letters of the greek alphabet. This means he is Almighty from the beginning to the end of all creation. This should be a great comfort to us. The Lord is sovereignly guiding history toward its consummation, the victory of Christ over all.

Verses 9-11

a. This is so cool to me, in verse 9, John reintroduces himself. Now, this isn’t unusual, but there was only one other writer in the Bible to use the same type of introduction; Daniel. You can find those in Daniel 7:28, 9:2, and 10:2. While John was introducing himself, he was also explaining that he was also partaking in the tribulation that was happening already. Paul had even mentioned in Acts 14:22 that there would be many tribulations before the coming of the kingdom. But do we remember what those trials or tribulations bring? Patience and maturity in Christ. Based on this passage, enduring trials that come our way is a prerequisite for reigning with Christ. The suffering that John writes about is related to his exile on the small island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. He was exiled to this island to try to silence the word of God. He was exiled for giving a testimony! The greek word translated testimony literally means witness and is the basis for the English word martyr. His witness continued in the writing of Revelation.

b. Have you ever been so close to God that you could feel his spirit? John was in the Spirit, it was almost like he was having an out of body experience, he was in a spirit of elevated devotion. everything else around him had disappeared, he was that much in the spirit. He heard a loud voice like a trumpet. He isn’t saying that it sounded like a trumpet as far as resembling one, but rather, it was clear, loud, and distinct like a trumpet. They used trumpets for a lot of things in Bible times, such as calling assemblies together and marshalling hosts for battle. It was to get attention.

c. The voice (which if your Bible has it, is in red), told John to write to these specific seven churches. Surely there were other churches, but Revelation is going to make a point about each of these churches as we continue our study.

Verses 12-20

a. John is so much like us, he turned to see the person speaking, and he saw seven golden lampstands. See, I mentioned earlier that we were going to see the number 7 a lot. Those seven lampstands represent the seven churches that he is writing to. In the midst of them is one like the son of man. Which this is in reference to Daniel 7:13. See, he was in the midst of them and this speaks to his love and familiarity. Christ was fully man and fully God. The way he was dressed made him look like he was a high priest.

b. The white appearance is parallel to the description of the ancient of days in Daniel 7:9 and of Christ on the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17:2. The similar descriptions demonstrate the purity and eternality of both God the father and God the son. Additionally, overcoming believers will be clothed in white garments in Christ’s presence, symbolizing purity. While it could be scary to think of the eyes like fire, we can also look at it as His righteousness and His judgment of everything impure.

b. He continues to use imagery here to describe this person that he is seeing. We look at things on the surface, but when John talks about his feet, we can look at it as he has respect or power as well as His treading everything underfoot.

c. Do you think he literally had a sword coming out of his mouth? Of course not, but we can look at this as being symbolic of the judging power of the Word of God.

d. John fell down in reverence, but also in fear and I love that Jesus touched him and told him to not be afraid. Sometimes that is what we need is just the touch to say do not be afraid. But Jesus had to tell him who he is. He refers to his eternal existence, referring to His becoming man and dying on the cross, and His glorified resurrection state. He has the keys of Hades and death, he has the power over them. He has the authority over them. He also will empty and destroy them at the time of the white throne judgment.

e. At the end of this section, he goes on to describe what John saw at the beginning. The seven stars represent the angels of the seven churches. There is some debate as to what this truly means, some take it as those who are the ministers of the churches, while others take it to mean spiritual beings.

f. The seven lampstands refer to the seven churches. If you remember Jesus was in the midst of the lampstands. This can refer us back to Matthew 18:20 which says “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.”