Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s a book I’ve hesitated to preach and/or teach, not because it’s not good or worthwhile; on the contrary:

My hesitation in preaching/teaching this book of the Bible is the plethora of opinions and interpretive views.

And, yes, I know what the word ‘plethora’ means.

Let me illustrate.

While I was a student at Manhattan Christian College, I was the weekend preacher at a small country church: Barnes Christian Church in Barnes, Kansas.

One week during the Bible Study hour before worship, we were studying the book of Revelation.

Of the 10 or so people there, we all took slightly different views from one another.

Earl and Betty, Mel and Liz, John and Leona, Jim and Dot, and good ol’ Mabel all piped up with their view on the book (several of them more informed by that ridiculous ‘Left Behind’ series than the Bible).

I shared what I believed as an 18-19 year old Bible college student (which is to say I was still trying to figure it out and stumbling around).

We talked pre-millennial, post-millennial, preterist, amillennial and a bunch of other random thoughts.

That’s when John Mark spoke up.

He said proudly, definitively, assertively: “I am a pan-millennialist.”

We all looked at him curiously.

I was trying to think if I knew anything about that view; others asked him what that was.

John Mark smiled and said, “It’s simple: I believe it will all pan-out in the end.

I’m a pan-millennialist.”

It was a much-needed light moment in a conversation that can get really heavy if you’re not careful.

No exaggeration: I’ve seen Bible studies on the book of Revelation nearly come to blows.

People get really, really worked-up over this book, like “fightin’ mad” over this book.

It’s whackadoodle.

There are so many strongly-held views when it comes to Revelation, so many misinformed views, so much confusion.

There’s even a bit of fear when it comes to reading this book.

9-10 years ago, the Wednesday Night Bible Study here twisted my arm to go through Revelation.

After a while, I agreed.

I then promptly sat some ground rules.

There would be no fighting or arguing or mocking of another’s view.

Absolutely no reference to the ‘Left Behind’ series—the books or the movies.

It’s fiction, and not very good fiction at that.

And yes, I’ve read them all and watched them all.

Dozens of hours of my young life I’ll never get back.

The best thing you can do with those books is roast s’mores over them, if you catch my drift.

Don’t call it “Revelations”.

It’s “Revelation”, no ‘s’.

It’s the revelation of Jesus Christ, singular.

One revelation of Jesus Christ given to John.

One.

RevelatioN.

So, with those ground rules in place, we hit the ground running.

I don’t know for sure, but I’d say it took us the better part of a year to get through Revelation in Bible Study.

For our purposes here at the start of a new year—2022—I plan to preach this book in 7 sermons.

I don’t want to get bogged down in the minutiae; I want to give us a general overview of the themes of the book.

I might post on Facebook some supplemental, more detailed material throughout the week.

You’ll be able to read along or ahead, whatever you decide.

The primary reason for studying Revelation is how the book begins.

The fact that it’s the first Sunday of the New Year is rather appropriate; I can think of nothing more important than to make the focus of Revelation 1 the focus of our lives as individuals and as a gathered church.

The focus of Revelation 1 is that we would have a big view of Jesus, a proper view of Jesus, a Biblical view of Jesus.

Revelation 1 is perhaps the best picture we have of Jesus—especially for the time in which we live.

John grasps for every descriptor the Greek language can give him; what he sees is going to take every word he can bring to mind and every OT image he can borrow.

The end result is a true and proper picture of Jesus.

That’s what we have here in Revelation 1.

More often than not, our picture of Jesus (mental or otherwise) falls woefully short of how the Bible describes Him.

If you believe Jesus is your buddy or your therapist or a good teacher, you’ll treat him just like that.

If you see Him smaller than He is, you’ll live as if He’s a small and inconsequential part of your life—just a Sunday morning thing...

If you believe He’s your buddy, you’ll treat Him like you do other friends.

For too many of us, Jesus is a friend who doesn’t need to have access to every part of your life, a friend who doesn’t get to tell you what to do, a friend who doesn’t get to correct you.

Your friends, Jesus included, are just around for a good time.

Your friends are supposed to go along with whatever you want to do, smile, and give you a pat on the back.

If Jesus is your ‘pal’ and nothing more, you’re gonna have problems.

J.B. Phillips wrote a book in 1961 entitled “Your God is Too Small”.

I can’t think of a better title for a book or a more accurate diagnosis of what ails us as individuals and us as a church.

Our mental image of Christ isn’t big enough.

A number of people believe that Jesus was a pretty cool guy who had some miracles up His sleeve, but mostly (as Will Willimon writes) we picture Jesus as some “itinerant therapist who, for free, traveled about helping people feel better.”

That’s not the Jesus you’ll find in the Bible.

That’s the version of Jesus you’ll find by tuning into Joel Osteen or by picking up any number of contemporary Christian living books.

Matt Proctor writes: “It’s not that we don’t think about Jesus; it’s that we don’t think big enough about Jesus.

It’s like we’re seeing Him through the wrong end of the telescope—He looks smaller than He really is.”

Sad to say, for far too many of us, our picture of Jesus is way off.

And when our picture of Jesus is off, our lives as His disciples will be off.

Our churches will wander and veer off-course, following the world rather than the Word.

When we lose sight of Jesus, everything falters.

Everything.

Like Peter sinking beneath the waves, the church with a low- or improper view of Jesus will also drown.

We need a right picture of Jesus.

Revelation 1 provides us with exactly that.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Revelation 1. We’re going to read this a section at a time, so keep your Bible open in front of you.

Let me challenge you here: you’ll be aided immensely by having your own Bible with you in worship.

I encourage you to bring yours with you.

Because the time is near, we need to see Jesus as He has revealed Himself in the Bible.

I believe this to be the crux of Revelation 1.

This is Revelation 1 in a sentence.

John is writing this to the seven churches in the province of Asia.

These are the first readers, the first recipients of this letter.

Not that there are only 7 churches in Roman Asia; there are way more.

John is using “seven” here as a symbolic number meaning “completeness.”

This is a symbolic language (used extensively in Revelation and other apocalyptic literature).

This is addressed to the whole Church, both then and now.

John’s greeting here comes from all three Persons of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit (Revelation presents the Holy Spirit as one person of the Trinity, but He also appears as “seven spirits”, representing the Holy Spirit’s perfection; the Holy Spirit is ever-present, all-knowing).

John describes God as Him who is, and who was, and who is to come.

God is eternal—He has always existed and will always exist.

He has no beginning and no end.

What’s more, God doesn’t just exist; God acts.

He will come.

God will one day come again in the person of Jesus, to bring about His eternal kingdom.

John identifies Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.

John pulls out his copy of the Psalms and turns to to Psalm 89 for a way to describe Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the One who came into the world to bear witness to the gospel, to bring salvation.

Jesus offered, not a sacrifice for our sins, but offered Himself.

Jesus died for us.

And then He rose from the dead—the firstborn—in order to obtain new life for the rest of God’s children.

Jesus freed us from our sins by His blood.