Revelation (Part 2) Series

(Part 2)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/8/2017

If you weren’t with us last week, we just began an exciting new adventure into the world of Revelation. With all of its prophecies and puzzles, the book of Revelation is easily the most challenging book of the Bible. As I said last week it can give you a charley-horse between the ears. Its also the most abused book of the Bible with prophecy pundits constantly ripping Revelation’s apocalyptic imagery out of it’s biblical and historical context and forcing a wooden literalism onto it that does great violence to the original intended meaning of John’s vision.

Despite all this, the book of Revelation is intended to be a blessing to God’s people. In fact, as we saw last week, right in the opening paragraph of Revelation, we read: “God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says” (Revelation 1:3 NLT). So for the next several weeks, I want to help you see Revelation as the blessing God meant for it to be.

Last week, I outlined three keys to unlocking the meaning of Revelation: (1) the setting—Revelation was written to seven historical churches in the Roman empire in the first century, (2) the style—Revelation is written in a unique style known as apocalyptic literature, replete with figurative language and fantasy imagery, and (3) the symbolism—the fantastic beasts, battles and events that unfold in John’s vision are symbolic of real people, places and events relevant to John’s original audience.

By keeping these three keys in mind as we study Revelation together, we can unlock the meaning of this incredible book of the Bible. Are you ready to dive in?

If you have a Bible or an app on your phone, open it Revelation 1. It shouldn’t surprise any of us that the star of Revelation is none other than Jesus, himself! Right from the beginning, he steps into the spotlight. And the first chapter of Revelation makes it clear that this book is all about Jesus. In the opening chapter, John introduces us to Jesus by describing his advent, his activity, and his appearance—each of which carry great significance. First, John describes the advent of Jesus.

• THE ADVENT

After some brief greetings and opening comments by the Apostle John, Jesus suddenly bursts onto the pages of Revelation when we read: “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen” (Revelation 1:7 NASB).

We’re going to spend a little extra time on this verse, because this verse is the central theme of everything that follows in the book of Revelation.

This passage is often assumed to be a vivid and literal description of Christ’s glorious Second Coming (Advent) at the culmination of human history. However, I believe, when properly understood, this passage has an altogether different meaning. In other words, this is not a refence to Jesus’ final coming at the end of the world, but to a figurative coming at the end of the Jewish age. Why do I say that?

First of all, we need to remember that when dealing with apocalyptic visions, things are rarely as they appear. Just a seven-headed beast represents a succession of kings and a prostitute represents a great city, this vision of Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven also represents something beyond the surface.

Furthermore, John begins the book of Revelation by telling us, “This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place” (Revelation 1:1 NLT) and “he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3 NLT). Clearly, Jesus and John expected the prophecies of this book to be fulfilled in the very near future, not twenty centuries down the road.

Finally, the imagery of Jesus coming on clouds finds its origin in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Daniel, like Revelation, contains several apocalyptic visions. In Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar dreams about a statue with a golden head, silver chest, bronze belly and iron legs. Daniel explains that the four sections of the statue represents four successive kingdom that would rise and fall—the Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, and finally the Roman Empire. He then explains that it’s during the reign of this fourth empire that God would establish his kingdom on earth. Later, Daniel experiences an apocalyptic vision of these kingdoms represented by a series of bizarre beasts, not unlike the beasts of Revelation. When it comes time for God to establish his kingdom on earth, this is what Daniel see: