Revelation: "One God, One Book, One End"

Every age has had it’s darkness and dangers, the task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives, but to understand it’s problems and respond appropriately to them.” Carl Trueman, in ‘The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self’

In J. Greshem Machens day it was liberal Christianity. When I was in college, the issue of the day was the challenge of post-modernity. By the time we understood how to engage and the church shifted, we had moved way past that and the issues of millennials was upon us. That quickly past and it was/is the breakneck speed with which the transgender sexual revolution came.

There are things common and uncommon to every age, and for every church. Problems and solutions, cultural issues and historical challenges.

Faithfulness to Christ through the ages is the goal. Faithfulness, which means engaging and understanding, as best as we can, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, our hearts soft, our head sharp, our hands busy, our ears attentive.

I don’t want to blow through this section. I also do’t want to spend forever here. I want to take a few off ramps, explore a town or two, then get back onto the highway.

Intro/Recap

Q: Why study John’s Revelation? Not to find the antichrist. or develop charts and “end times’ maps and timelines. How does this serve us as a church, individually. Seeing that the issues of their day are the same issues in our day. What are they? In the church? In the world?

Written to seven churches in modern day Turkey. Map.

This letter is for our benefit, it will shape our practices, our disciplines, and form the way we follow Jesus through this life to the very end, together and individually. It should shape the way we teach our children, speak to our neighbor, engage in and look at this world. It will shape and sharpen your worldview. It is a reminder of what is true reality, man’s need for the gospel, what the gospel land what it is not.

People often come to the study of this book with presuppositions, or preconceived ideas about what the book is or isn’t about, perhaps because of previous teachings, books, movies, personal study, etc. Dismissing the book because of either the result of others overemphasis on particular portions, or doctrines of the book OR Dismissal because of an underemphasis, assuming it is unimportant. Martin Luther on the book of Revelation: "I feel an aversion to it, and to me this is sufficient reason for rejecting it.” He was wrong in this.

There is a unity of this book that I want emphasize to us throughout our study of it. The division of the book is important, because it helps us to organize our thoughts but the unity of the book is important because it helps us maintain focus and remember what the purpose of this book is all about without getting lost in the weeds.

Two major divisions reveal a progress in depth or intensity of spiritual conflict. The first sections reveals the church, indwell by Christ, persecuted by the world.

The second division reveals a deeper spiritual background of this struggle. The conflict between Jesus the Christ and the dragon in which the church in Jesus is victorious.

This morning: the prologue and the epilogue package the entire letter together with the reality that the trinitarian God have been at work and continue to be at work, together, leading

God Father and Jesus the Son, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, completing together their eschatological purposes, completing the redemptive story.

Context

Written in 96 AD during the reign of the Titus Flavius Caesar Domitianus Augustus; lived ad 51–96; Roman emperor from ad 81 to 96. The third (and last) emperor of the Flavian Dynasty. Known for his rigid, efficient autocratic style, Domitian shifted the power from the people (senate) to the ruling class (the rich). He also strengthened the Roman economy, won numerous wars, expanded the borders of the empire, and prepared the Roman Empire for prosperity in the second century. Under Domitian’s rule, the economy of the Roman Empire experienced a significant boost. Roman currency increased in value, and Rome underwent significant reconstruction, which included the addition of numerous buildings.

Domitian transformed the role of emperor into one of religious and moral leadership. For Domitian, the capital of the Roman Empire was not Rome but wherever the emperor traveled. He also deified himself and began referring to himself as Dominus et Deus (“Lord and God”). Despite resurrecting the imperial cult and pronouncing family members as gods, Domitian maintained a deep reverence for the goddess Minerva. Domitian’s reign saw the construction of numerous religious temples and allowed the practice of foreign religions, so long as they did not interfere with Roman life.

It is in this context that Jesus is revealing to his church his lordship and authority, some as we will see have forgotten that.

When God reveals himself to people, and specifically his own people, it is to encourage but it also to warn those who are in danger. Danger of forgetting who it is they serve, home they have loved, who loves them, and a reminder that ultimate victory in this world in in Christ and through Christ and for Christ.

Our Outline/Our Focus

Last week:

God Breaking Through (The Supernatural into the Natural)

God Bearing Witness (Through His Son and Servants)

God Building His Church (The Spirit of Jesus Among Us)

This Week:

One God, One Book, One End.

The Text

About the Prologue and the Epilogue, and Greeting: they are used by John to tie together the Creative and Eschatological work of both God the Father and God the Son, as one. We see the Doctrine of Christ: His Person and his Work, i.e. Christology

The Prologue

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.

Consistent with John’s Christology in his gospel:

John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

cf. 7:16, 12:49, 14:10, 17:7,8

“God the Father has committed to Jesus the government of the world in the interest of the church” Hendrickson

1 Corinthians 15:24-28, (Paul speaking to the resurrection and the whole point of the resurrection) Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

Philippians 2:9, 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Php 2:9–11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and (those) who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Seven beatitudes “blessed” in Revelation: 1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, 22:14

“The time is near…” These symbols and prophecies begin to be fulfilled immediately, it is not a far off thing that will happen but something that is going to happen for these churches specifically.

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

(7) seven = completeness, sometimes both literally and figurative (sprinkle seven times, I will punish you sevenfold). Seven coming form the completion of creation, 6 days, then the 7th sabbath rest

These letters are for not only these churches but also for the church universal, for every believer in every church throughout the centuries until the end. There is nothing common to these believers that is not common to us today.

Seven historical churches are viewed as representative of all the churches in Asia Minor and probably, by extension, the church universal. A reference to the full church universal is pointed to, in particular, by the figurative reference to worldwide judgments in the number of the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls, by the fact that after chs. 2 and 3 “it is the universal church that is centre stage, with no further mention of congregations,” and by “the definitiveness with which he seems to envisage his prophecy as the final culmination of the whole biblical tradition” throughout the entire book.

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 (released) 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.

“him who is…” This is the Father, giving the church in the NT an OT transhistorical perspective of his sovereignty, instilling confidence in his sovereign guidance of all earthly affairs instills, to stand strong in the face of difficulties that test faith.

The one “who is, was, and is to come” = his eternity in relationship to the world/his people, Exodus 3:14, he will be who he is forever to his people, a savior, he chooses to be with us (we are chosen) and we choose to be with him.

Ex 3:13–14 “Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 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.’ ”

twofold and threefold temporal descriptions of God in Isaiah which, are reflections from the “I am” of 3:14

Isa. 41:4; “Fear not, for I am with you..Who has performed and done this,

calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first,

and with the last; I am he.

That’s an incredible thought. This God chooses to be with you and me despite our weaknesses, failures, flaws.

Ex 19:5–6 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

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.

“Behold…” The second coming is not the central theme of this book however, it is not without consideration that the Lord is going to return, there is a timeline that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The historical redemptive narrative called life that we find ourselves in has an end point, and living in such a way that acknowledges that reality, that truth, is one of the motivations for us in working out our own salvation AND evangelism and discipleship.

clouds = reference to coming in “glory”

Daniel 7:13 13 “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. 14 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.

Mark 14:62, 60 And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” 61 But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

They then called him a blasphemer.

Ezekiel 1:4-28, 4 As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.

Revelation 14:14, 14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

“Those who pierced him…”

Zechariah 12:10ff, 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

John 19:34-37 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

The consistency of John’s wirings. The purpose is so that people might believe the story. The spirit opening us up, softening our hearts, looking on him and calling to him.

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

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.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the (seven golden) lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 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.

17 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, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 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.

The book is bracketed by God speaking 1:8, Christ speaking 1:17, God speaking 21:6, Christ speaking 22:13

The Father and the Son declare the same title.

Q: What does this mean?

1. Jesus Christ belongs unambiguously to the fulness of the eternal being of God.

2. The “I am” is in control, despite what it looks like all around you, align your head and your heart to the true reality of life and history ALL of which is under the sovereignty of God. (Getty song)

Isaiah 40:12-26 (let’s turn to it and read…?)

There are seven occurrences of this self designation = divine completeness, Jesus and YHWH are one, the Greek Alpha and Omega (IAW) and YHWH in the Hebrew

Only the Holy Spirit could lay out this book so perfectly, Letter to the Church in Laodicea.

One End