Just a word of warning. This first instalment is really long. This will not be the case for every instalment.
Also, the portion right under the text is a bit academic for some people. The cross-references are there for those of you who want to take this as a challenge, and use these devotions/sermons as a stepping-off point to delve deep in the fertile soil of the Revelation.
For those with the drive and time for such study, may you find many treasures as you dig deeper.
THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST
INTRODUCTION
The book of Revelation is one of the most exciting and controversial books in the Bible. Marcion felt it was not a New Testament Book. Martin Luther felt it should not be included in the Canon of Scripture. Some charge that much of the image of Jesus in Revelation is antagonistic to a loving and forgiving God. Surely the picture of Jesus in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ makes many people uncomfortable. It is not the image of Jesus come to establish the New Covenant (New Testament). It is the image of Jesus come to finally and forever fulfill the requirements of the Old Covenant. Therefore, some of the criticisms are valid, in that the book of Revelation is not fundamentally about the New Covenant. But the critiques are wrong that somehow conclude, therefore, that the book is not a part of the inspired Word of God.
Before we get into the study, you should know some of my presuppositions and biases:
? Many call the Revelation a ‘closed book’. I believe that Revelation is an understandable book. The first word in the book-apocalypsis-(?p????????) means the ‘unveiling’. It is not the concealing, or closing, or sealing, or confusing. It is the Revelation.
? There are 4 main approaches to the book.
1. One is that the book was written for Christians the end of the first/beginning of the second Century.
2. The second is that its predictions have been fulfilled already by various events in history.
3. The third is that most of its predictions will be fulfilled in the future, and
4. the fourth is that it is intended as an analogy, describing the fight between good and evil, and that good wins in the end.
Some commentators focus on one approach to Revelation to the exclusion of others. I believe the Revelation has a message to the church of John’s day, and for all times. Jesus, John, Peter, Paul, and all New Testament writers seem to understand prophetic utterance as requiring a literal fulfillment, therefore I expect to see literal fulfillment of the prophecies of Revelation, many of which have been fulfilled, and many of which shall be fulfilled in the future. The symbolic nature of the Revelation, also, cannot be denied. That it presents an apocalyptic perspective of events, in which God is in control of human history and good triumphs in the end, is undeniable. Therefore, I believe all four approaches have some valuable contribution. I will approach the text from all four perspectives at various times in the study.
? Of the 400+ verses in Revelation, there are more than 400 direct and indirect quotations of the Old Testament Scriptures. This should give us a hint as to the nature of the book. All of the symbolic images in the Apocalypse are found in, and should be interpreted based on, the Old Testament. Some early church father said, “in the Old Testament concealed, in the New Testament revealed” (most attribute the statement to Augustine). In other words, the wars, cultic practices, and prophetic utterances of the Old Testament are sometimes incomprehensible, but can often be understood when viewed through the filter, or lens, of the New Testament Scriptures. In the book of Revelation this trend is reversed. In the book of Revelation concealed, in the Old Testament Scriptures revealed. In other words, the images, symbols, and events described in the Revelation have a direct correlation with some passage in the Old Testament, and when there is confusion about the Revelation, a quick look at the Old Testament Scriptures will probably clear it up a bit.
? I feel that Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture. Therefore, this study has very, very few quotations and such. Instead, a verse-by-verse approach is used, with cross-references for verses in the Bible referring to similar subjects, and notes for Greek words for which some explanation might be helpful. This will be followed by my attempts to apply the principles taught in each portion to our lives today. In that sense it is a kind of cross-reference guidebook, with a devotional thought or two thrown in. I hope this approach is helpful and not distracting. Concerning the more academic, cross-reference portion, I leave it to the reader to study for him or herself to see if my conclusions match with Scripture. With that, Let’s look at the first verse of the book.
CHAPTER 1
This first chapter is a kind of introduction. The first few verses are John’s greetings and introductory comments. Beginning at verse 10, John describes the vision he had, the Revelation of Jesus.
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants what things are to soon come to be, and placed it in signs, having sent it through his angel, to his servant John, who witnessed to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ the things he saw.
Blessed is the one reading and those hearing the words of the prophecy and who keep the things written, for the time is near.” Revelation 1:1-3
V. 1 Revelation is the word apocalypsis, or unveiling. The recipient of the message is John. servant doulos, is used twice in this verse, it means bondslave, or a willing servant. shortly quickly, not soon, necessarily. angel messenger.
v 2 John is acting as a witness (martureo) and recorder. This is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John and 1st, 2nd and 3rd John.
v 3 blessed (markarios) means happy, or “o how happy”. There is no blessing like this anywhere else in Scripture. It has a dual nature, blessings on those who hear (or read), and do (keep) the things that are written (Matthew 7:14-28). This is the first of seven beatitudes in the book of Revelation (14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7; 22:14). time is at hand means urgency (Mat. 4:17; 26:18; Mrk. 1:14-15; II Tim. 4:6; Rev. 22:10).
In Paul’s writings, he prayed and exhorted that we would know Jesus. Here, Jesus is revealed. So, for those who are interested in knowing Jesus, one of the best ways is to read the book of Revelation. My dad thinks everyone should study the Revelation first of all the books in the Bible, because there we meet Jesus, and see all of the narratives of the Old Testament Scriptures culminated, tied up in a package, and given to us. Almost every book of the Old Testament is quoted in the Revelation of Jesus, so if you study it carefully, you get a nice overview of the Old. Jesus is, obviously, the central figure of the New Testament, so . . . Well, maybe my dad is right.
If the time was at hand and Jesus was coming soon when this book was written, surely we are living in an age where the time is nearer than it was. Maybe partly for this reason, we need to read and think and pray with a sense of urgency as we study this book, and see the day of the culmination of human history approaching.
The blessings promised in this book are extraordinary. You are blessed for hearing and blessed for doing. Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount said “Therefore, whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, he’ll be like the man who built his house on a rock . . .” It might seems strange to say you need to keep the words of a book that is mostly predictions about future catastrophic events, but there is quite a lot in this book that teaches us about how to live here and now, so there are blessings in obeying those instructions and living by those principles-we’ll see this most prominently as we get into chapters 2 and 3.
Prayer for Today
Father, Let me hear Your voice. Teach me to listen.
Then, Lord, strengthen me to do all You tell me to do. Make me to be all you require me to be.
In the name of the One who has revealed Himself to us, and continues to reveal Himself to us in beautiful ways
Amen.
