Sermon Tone Analysis

We are starting a new teaching series today called Unveiling Hope: A Study in the Book of Revelation.

I think this works well coming off of our last series about misunderstanding scripture because I’m not sure if there is a more mis-understood or more mis-interpreted book of the Bible than the book of Revelation.

I have heard some terrible theology spouted out of this book and I know far too many Christians who avoid the book completely when they read through the Bible.

The book has a reputation of being about the end times, the apocalypse, of terrible judgments upon the earth and of God judging us.

People read it and envision a barren wasteland with lakes of fire intermittedly spread about.

They create timelines of when everything is going to happen, debating whether God is going rapture his people pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation or post-tribulation and whether or not this will take place before the millenium , after the millenium or if there even is a millenium.

They try to figure out which nation the Anti-Christ will come from, where specifically the battle of Armageddon will be, and who the 24 elders are.

And if you have no idea about what I am talking about, you are truly blessed.

But within this book, there are parts of it that refer to wars, famine, pestilence, eathquakes, Christian apostasy, and other things that when we look around today, make many people wonder if we are truly in the end times.

So, we wanted to set your mind at ease.

The answer is yes.

We are in the end times.

But we have been in the end times since Jesus ascended back to the father so there isn’t a reason to panic.

But holding to a theology where we acknowledge we in the end times, but live by faith and not fear, will actually help us to understand this book better and how God wants to speak to our lives in the here and now.

So let’s read the first eight verses of Revelation 1.

Pray.

Before we get too far into this, I want to be very clear.

We are not going to be looking at timelines, we are not going to determine whether Christians are a part of the great tribulation or not and we are not going to create a nice and neat “End Times” box of theology for you.

Using the book “Discipleship on the Edge” by pastor, professor of preaching and author Darrell Johnson, our hope is that you see that the book of Revelation is primarily a book designed to help you grow in your faith.

As I studied this passage this past week, and wanted to help us understand how and why we should study this book, I thought we should approach it by asking three questions.

1.

What is this book about?

Earlier this week, I was picking up my daughter, Hannah, from school and I brought my dog, Max, with me.

He loves car rides and loves attention, and I’ve brought him before to come with me to get Hannah.

We get out of the car in the parking lot and I attach his leash and instantly he is pulling hard.

And he’s a pretty strong dog.

Then a car door opens and he sees his former family so he was very excited to see them.

I visit for a minute, let them pet Max and then I take him across the street to the school.

And he’s still pulling hard.

He’s pulling to the right, then crossing in front of me to go left, and then backwards and then pulling forwards.

There are people everywhere and he’s looking around like a kid in a candy shop.

He’s distracted by the sheer amount of stimulation around us.

And I think that sometimes, we can be like that with the book of Revelation.

There is so much packed in these 22 chapters that we can get distracted from the purpose of the book - from what it’s really about.

The key to understanding this book is found in the very first verse.

The original word used here that we translated as “revelation” is “apokalupsis” from which we get the english word “Apocalypse.”

It literally means “to uncover, to reveal, to unveil.”

Let me illustrate: do any of you make any homemade soups?

You know when you boil down the stock and the mirepoix and then you take the lid off and it gives that amazing smell?

That’s apocalypse.

Or if you’ve ever been able to go backstage at a concert?

It’s like a whole, other world there and there is a sense that you got to peek behind the curtain.

That’s apocalypse.

Apocalypse does not mean the end of anything, except maybe ignorance.

So the book of Revelation starts with this idea that this is a revelation - an unveiling FROM Jesus.

Other translations say it’s a revelation OF Jesus.

So which one is it?

It doesn’t really matter because both are true.

The book of Revelation is fundamentally first and foremost a book about Jesus.

It’s an unveiling FROM Jesus - a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when the kingdom of God breaks into the kingdoms of this world.

It’s an unveiling OF Jesus - this book exalts our risen Lord like few other books of the Bible and leads us to a deeper worship of him.

Just look at what it says in verse 8:

Now, if you have been around church for a bit, you may have learned that Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Jesus is the first and the last - he is eternal - he existed for eternity before humanity and will exist for eternity after us.

He is the beginning and the end of our faith - it’s all in him.

But then the passage seems to re-iterate or define the phrase by calling Jesus “the beginning and the end.”

But the word for “beginning” in the original Greek is “arche” from which we get the word “archetype.”

Jesus is the archetype of humanity - the perfect example of what we all should be.

And the word for “end” in the Greek is “telos” and it means the inherent destiny of a thing.

The inherent destiny of a baby is to become an adult.

The inherent destiny of an acorn is an oak tree.

The inherent destiny of a pie is my stomach.

Jesus is the inherent destiny for everything.

That’s why Paul can write

The book of Revelation is first and foremost a book that is about Jesus and we need to be wary of all the things that can easily distract us from it.

The second question we need to ask for today is:

2. Why did John write it?

The apostle John is the author of this book and the one who received this vision from God.

But he didn’t write this so we could compile a timeline of events for the “end times.”

He didn’t write it so that only Christians in 21st Century Canada could look around, see the signs, and declare we are in the end times.

This book has had, and still has, practical implications for the way that all Christians live, no matter where or when they lived.

Its important to see within this book that John wrote it in three different genres, each for a specific reason:

It’s a letter: John was a pastor who wrote this letter to address the specific needs of a specific people in a specific time.

Most scholars agree it was written about 96 AD.

This means that the Roman persecution of Christians, which started under Nero, was reaching it’s devastating peak under Emperor Domitian.

He was a wildly insecure man who forced everyone in the kingdom to worship him as Lord and God.

So everyone had to go to a temple built in his honour, take a pinch of incense, throw it on the fire of the altar and say, “Caesar Kurios” which means “Caesar is Lord.”

Most people were fine with this because of two reasons: 1) They were polytheists so they were used to worshipping lots of different gods.

What was one more?

2) You didn’t actually have to believe, you just had to do it.

But for the Christians of the time, this was a huge deal.

John himself didn’t participate in this idol worship so he was arrested and banished to the island of Patmos - which was a rock quarry populated by criminals and enemies of the state.

It’s from there he writes this letter to remind his people that there is only one true Lord - only one who commands our absolute and undivided allegiance: Jesus Christ, the resurrected Saviour.

This book is a letter of challenge and encouragement to Christians facing the pressure of fitting in to avoid being persecuted.

This letter is a reminder to keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

It’s prophecy: Prophecy isn’t just a prediction of the future - it’s more about a proclamation from God. John writes what he sees and hears because God is trying to communicate something that requires a response from us.

He tells his audience some things that will “shortly take place” so that they can respond in faith, with obedience to the will of God and devotion to the person of Jesus.

It’s apocalyptic: That means it’s full of symbolism, where things like colours and numbers mean something and where people are often depicted as animals and events as natural phenomena.

Imagery is used to help the message stick better in the minds of people, especially in the minds of illiterate people, like the majority of those who were the original audience.

Let me show you an example:

But most importantly, apocalyptic literature seeks to do two things:

1) Sets the present in light of the unseen realities of the future.

If we know what the future holds, it affects our actions here and now.

For those who invest, if you knew there was going to be a huge drop in value coming in three months, would you change something in your portfolio?

Jesus gives his original audience and us a reminder that even though it may look bleak for a time, in the end, Jesus wins.

That there is coming a day when our faith is justified before God and we experience peace and rest in the fullness of what those words mean with no sin and no shame holding us back.

It might not look like it it’s coming, but it is.

2) Set the present in light of the invisible realities of the present.

There is always more than what it seems in life.

More than just a world that we experience with our five senses, there is the unseen world of demons and angels, of Satan and God, where temptation takes root and deliverance is found.

The Book of Revelation pulls back the curtain on that world and reminds us stay the course of faith because, Jesus has already won.