When I first sensed that God was leading me to preach through the Book of Revelation several months ago, I had a great sense of excitement that was certainly tempered with a great deal of trepidation. Although I have taught and preached on the Book of Revelation in the past, I am convinced that because I am further along in my own spiritual journey than I was then, I am responsible before God and before all of you to approach this study in a much different way than I have dealt with it in the past. And to be real honest, I’ve come to wonder, at least humanly speaking, whether I’m up to the task. But I do know this: the God whom we serve is certainly capable of working through me to accomplish whatever He desires to do through our journey together.
I am truly humbled by the task that we have before us. So many men of God who are far more learned and eloquent than I have taken on this task before me and so the obvious question is “What do I have to offer that hasn’t already been offered?” There are tens of thousands of books and commentaries that have been written about the Book of Revelation over the years and who knows how many sermons preached on the book. Frankly, I don’t have the answer to that question – at least not yet. But what I am willing to do is to just be obedient to God’s leading and leave the results up to Him.
This morning I want to take a few minutes to set the stage for what is going to come in the months, and I presume, years to come, Lord willing. In many ways, this won’t be a typical message this morning. I’m not even going to use a lot of Scripture, which for those of you who have been here for any time at all, realize is totally contrary to what I try to do each week. But it is so important to make sure that we take the time to set the stage for how we’re going to approach our study, I am confident this will be time well spent.
Let me begin with a word of warning. I am pretty sure that some of you aren’t going to like this study, or that at a minimum you’re going to be disappointed. This will not be some sensationalistic teaching that will attempt to take each week’s headlines and try and make them fit the text. Unless something happens completely unexpected, I don’t anticipate I’ll be able to tell you who the Antichrist is, or reveal the identity of the woman with 12 stars on her head in Revelation 12 or be able to predict when Jesus is returning.
That’s because the Book of Revelation wasn’t written merely as a prediction of the future. And even where it does serve that purpose, we frankly don’t have enough information available to us at this point in time to completely understand everything that is written or to be dogmatic about the answers to many of our questions.
But perhaps that’s a good thing because it keeps us from getting so focused on the distant future that we fail to draw from the book of Revelation what is relevant for us today. Near the beginning of the book, John writes these instructive words:
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3 (ESV)
The blessing that John refers to here is a result of reading the words, and hearing them, but most importantly, from keeping them. In other words, the book, like all Scripture wasn’t just written for information, but rather its main purpose is application.
That is why, when it comes to my overall approach to the Book of Revelation, I’m greatly indebted to Eugene Peterson and his book Reversed Thunder. I’m grateful that his words have helped me to discover that, while the book certainly does contain predictions about the future, that is not the primary purpose of the book. When John penned those words, he was much more concerned about helping the people in the congregations he ministered in to live life in the midst of some very difficult circumstances. Let me share with you a couple brief excerpts from Peterson’s book that will help us start with the right perspective:
A common way to misunderstand prophecy, and especially the prophecy of the Revelation, is to suppose that it means prediction. But that is not the biblical use of the word. Prophets are not fortune tellers. The prophet is the person who declares, “thus says the Lord.”…The prophet says that God is speaking now, not yesterday; God is speaking now, not tomorrow. It is not a past word that can be analyzed and then walked away from. It is not a future word that can be fantasized into escapist diversion. [p. 20]
In my humble opinion, far too much of the teaching on Revelation over the years has focused on what Peterson describes as “a future word that can be fantasized into “escapist diversion.” We study the Revelation like it is some mystery to be encoded, not because we desire for it to change or lives or help us to live today, but merely for its entertainment value, as if it were the screenplay for a suspense filled thriller on the big screen. Peterson goes on to describe why the Revelation is so important for us today:
In the Revelation, we are immersed not in prediction, but in eschatology: an awareness that the future is breaking in upon us…This belief permeating the Revelation makes life good, for when we are expecting a resurrection appearance we can accept our whole present and find joy not only in its joy, but also in its sorrow, happiness not only in its happiness but also in its pain…This gives meaning to the journey and its distresses… [p. 21]
In other words, the fact that Revelation confirms the return of Jesus to judge the world and establish His eternal reign here on the earth ought to cause us to live in great anticipation. And it is that anticipation that allows us to live life to the full even in the midst of difficult circumstances. That is just as true for us today as it was for those who read John’s writing near the end of the first century, when it was written.
There is a sense in which there is really nothing new in the Book of Revelation. But what John does is to take what we already know from the rest of the Scriptures and put it into vivid pictures that help us gain a new perspective and appreciation for the 65 books that precede it.
Once again, Peterson describes that aspect of the book much more eloquently than I:
I do not read the Revelation to get additional information about the life of faith in Christ. I have read it all before in law and prophet, in gospel and epistle. Everything in Revelation can be found in the previous sixty-five books of the Bible. The Revelation adds nothing of substance to what we already know. The truth of the gospel is already complete, revealed in Jesus Christ. There is nothing new to say on the subject. But there is a new way to say it. I read the Revelation not to get more information but to revive my imagination. [Introduction]
We’re all familiar with the adage that “A picture is worth as thousand words” and in the Book of Revelation, John gives us picture after picture. In a manner that no other book of Scripture can quite duplicate, Revelation draws us into the unfolding story and uses these pictures to awaken all of our senses to the wonders of God and His Word.
So how do we make sure that we don’t miss out on all of these wonders that the Book of Revelation has in store for us?
When I first sensed that God was leading me to preach through the Book of Revelation early this year, I was really excited about the opportunity to do so. And even up until just a few weeks ago, I was all prepared to jump in with both feet starting this morning. But about three weeks ago, I began to sense that I wasn’t going to be properly prepared to do that today. And I’ve learned over the years that there is usually a good reason for those kinds of feelings.
Today, I’m pretty confident that I now understand, at least pretty well, why I had those feelings. As Pastor Dana and I discussed those feelings and shared some ideas back and forth, we have developed what I am convinced is absolutely the right approach to our study for our church at this time.
Most studies/sermons on the Book of Revelation are structured around the teacher’s preferred approach to the book. What all these approaches have in common is that they are based on inductive study methods which often fail to keep in mind how the Book of Revelation fits into the overall theme of Scripture – the reconciliation of man and God through Jesus the Messiah. Many of these approaches also ignore or push into the background the related reconciliation between the two houses of Israel and Judah pictured by the two sticks of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37.
As a result, the teaching must be conformed to each teacher’s preferred approach to Revelation. Many of you may be familiar with some of these approaches, which generally fall into three main categories:
• Overall approach to the book – typically one of four major views:
o Preterist – events in the book were fulfilled in the 1st century
o Historical – spans the time from the end of the first century through the 2nd coming of Jesus
o Futurist – applies to the future events related to the second coming of Jesus
o Spiritual/idealist – does not refer to actual events, but only describes eternal spiritual truths and the battle between good and evil
• Millennium (Revelation 20):
o Pre-millennial: Millennium occurs after the “rapture”
o Post-millennial: Millennium occurs before “rapture” and final judgment
o Amillennial – Millennium is the Church Age – not a literal 1,000 year earthly reign.
• Timing of the “rapture” (a term which is never actually used in the Bible)
o Pre-tribulation
o Post-tribulation
o Mid-tribulation
o “Pre-wrath”
And then, as you might imagine, there are all kinds of combinations of the various approaches. And so when people use these labels to identify their position it becomes almost comical at times. One person might call himself a “pre-millennial, pre-tribulation rapture, historicist”. And another person might be an “amillennial, post-tribulation rapture idealist”.
It’s no wonder that G.K. Chesterton once remarked, “Though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.”
Because we don’t want to be grouped in with any of those commentators, Pastor Dana and I are both committed to using the same Bible study principles that we have taught to the body here, and our approach to the book of Revelation is no different. That means that we must begin with a plain reading of the text within the context of the entire Bible and the overarching theme of the reconciliation of man and God through Jesus the Messiah, that we diligently research the text in order to understand it in its proper context within the Scripture as a whole and the immediate context of the book itself, that we make appropriate application of the text in our lives, and finally, and most importantly that we allow the text to direct us to Jesus.
Based on the evidence in the Bible itself, we are also committed to the concept of progressive revelation. That is the idea that God continually reveals more of His character and of His purposes, plans and ways as Scripture progresses.
This is demonstrated most clearly in the person and ministry of Jesus. In the Old Testament, His person and ministry were only “hinted” at, principally by the prophets. But in the New Testament we have a much more developed description of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and its significance. This process is what Paul often describes as a “mystery.”
In a sense, the Book of Revelation really contains very little that is “new”. But it does contain a deeper revelation of many things which have already been revealed in the first 65 books of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. Once again, Eugene Peterson’s words are instructive:
The Revelation has 404 verses. In those 404 verses, there are 518 references to earlier scripture. If we are not familiar with the preceding writings, quite obviously we are not going to understand the Revelation. St. John has his favorite books of scripture: Ezekiel, Daniel, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Isaiah, Exodus…In these 518 references to earlier scripture there is not a single direct quotation. That means that though St. John is immersed in scripture and submits himself to it, he does not merely repeat it – it is recreated in him. He does not quote scripture in order to prove something; rather, he assimilates scripture so that he can become someone. [p. 23]
It is our prayer that all of us will do exactly what John did – that we’ll be so completely immersed in Scripture and that we will submit ourselves to it so that it is recreated in us, not so that we can prove something, but so that we can become the people that God wants us to be.
I also want to draw your attention to one particular sentence here:
If we are not familiar with the preceding writings, quite obviously we are not going to understand the Revelation.
In my opinion, Peterson has very clearly identified the most common problem among those who comment and preach on the Book of Revelation. They fail to become familiar with those 518 references to earlier Scripture that provide the necessary framework to understand the Revelation properly. And I’m convinced that some of my reservations several weeks ago were directly related to our desire not to make that mistake as we examine the book together.
So after careful consideration of what I have shared with you this morning and after much prayer, let me share with you the approach that Pastor Dana and I intend to use as we journey together through the Book of Revelation.
1. Our starting point will always be the Bible itself and the plain reading of the text, considered in the context of the overarching theme of the Bible – the reconciliation of man and God through Jesus the Messiah.
2. We will not approach the text with any pre-conceived ideas concerning the structure of the book or any of the various approaches or positions held by any specific commentator. We will allow the text itself to determine the direction of our study as we examine it carefully in its proper context of the Bible as a whole and the Book of Revelation itself. It is our firm conviction that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself.
3. Because the Book of Revelation builds upon other Scriptures, particularly many Old Testament passages, it is absolutely essential that we have a proper understanding of relevant passages as a foundation to build upon.
Therefore we are going to begin our study of Revelation by spending some time examining the Old Testament passages, particularly from the prophets, that have a significant bearing on the Book of Revelation. Pastor Dana and I have identified those passages and we’ll take whatever time we need to examine them adequately before we get into the Revelation text itself.
Let me take just a moment to share with you how we identified these texts. We used the Scripture itself as our main tool. Using a computer search engine we identified all the Scriptures from the Old Testament that contained the phrase “Day of the Lord”, which is the most commonly used phrase to describe the end times in the Old Testament. We also identified verses that contained related words and phrases like “that day” or “last days”.
We wanted to make sure that we used the Bible itself as our primary source for identifying appropriate passages. We looked at every single one of those 170 verses that we identified in order to determine which ones were relevant to our study. And then, just to make sure that we hadn’t missed any significant passages, we consulted some outside reference sources. We then sorted the verses by book, chapter and verse in order to identify the larger sections from the Old Testament prophets that deal with the end times.
Beginning next week, we’ll start examining those passages. And since we want to adhere to the concept of progressive revelation, we’re going to attempt, the very best that we can, to examine these Scriptures in the order they were written, beginning with the very earliest writings. You will notice that all of you have a handout in your bulletin that contains two charts – one of the kings and prophets of Judah and one of the kings and prophets of Israel.
After the reign of King Solomon ended in 931 BC, the commonwealth of Israel was split into two separate kingdoms – the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Throughout the existence of these two kingdoms, God sent prophets to each of the kingdoms in order to proclaim His word. Some of those prophets, like Elijah and Elisha in Israel and Azariah in Judah were what are referred to as “non-writing” prophets or “speaking” prophets since they have no writings which became part of the Bible. Others, like Isaiah in Judah and Amos in Israel are called “writing prophets” since their written prophecies have become part of Scripture.
The writing prophets have been further divided into the “major” prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Daniel and Ezekiel and the other 12 prophets who are designated as “minor” prophets. Those designations do not in any way designate the significance of their writings, but merely to the length of the writing.
For most of the prophets, it is relatively simple to determine the time of their ministry because it is set forth in the book itself. However, the dating of a few of the books, particularly Obadiah and Joel are much more difficult to ascertain and there is some disagreement among scholars regarding the dating of their works. In that case, I have used the dates proposed by the majority of conservative scholars. We can also use the order of the books in the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible as a guide for the dating of those books. In the event where the dating of the prophets is not certain, we have given more weight to the Tanakh in determining the order in which we will look at these passages.
Next week, we’ll begin with the Book of Joel, so I’d encourage all of you to read through the Book of Joel this week.
I can honestly say that I am now more excited about the journey before us that I have ever been about digging into God’s Word to discover its great treasures. And I pray that God will create in you that same excitement and anticipation for our journey together.
