Revelation: A Message Of Hope (Introduction) Series

Revelation: A Message of Hope!

Introduction

As we begin to look at the Revelation we should note that its message is not one that is meant to frighten us. It is meant to encourage us. It is a book that some people completely avoid. It is a book that others immerse themselves in. Still, others abuse it and sensationalize it. We are going to take a look at it together and see what God's message was to the Christians in the first century and what its message is to us.

The author of the Revelation is John the son of Zebedee, the apostle. He also wrote the Gospel of John and the three Johannine epistles.

The Revelation is the only book of prophecy in the NT. After the last writing prophet, Malachi, and the closing of the OT canon the prophetic gift seems to have been forgotten. The NT opens with a flurry of prophetic activity. Zacharias the father of John the Baptist has a prophetic experience while attending to his duties in the temple. Mary the mother of Jesus and Elizabeth both experience the prophetic. There is a heightened working and moving of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist is filled with the Holy Spirit while in his mother's womb. The Lord Jesus is conceived of the Holy Spirit. John is considered a prophet as is the Lord. Peter's message on the day of Pentecost is that the last days have arrived and God is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. Sons and daughters will prophesy. The book of Acts mentions prophets like Silas, Niger, Paul, Agabus, and Philip's four daughters. Paul says that in the church there are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The church is a prophetic community. The crescendo to this prophetic moment in history is the book of Revelation. John, exiled to the isle of Patmos finds himself in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. They were already worshipping on Sundays! While in quarantine, he found himself in the Spirit. The book of Revelation is called a prophecy (1:3; 22:7, 10, 18, 19). It spoke directly to those who first heard it. It has spoken to those who have read it throughout the history of the church and it speaks to us today.

The Revelation is an apocalypse. When we hear the word apocalypse we think of things blowing up and the end of the world. The word apocalypse is the first word in the Greek text of Revelation. It means an unveiling. It means that things that have been hidden are now being revealed. There is a genre of literature that developed in Judaism during the intertestamental period. It interpreted the events of history through symbols and figures. The authors chose names of prominent OT figures and attached their names to these works, names like Enoch and Ezra. These works wrestled with three things: (1) a righteous remnant of God's people, (2) the problem of evil, and (3) the cessation of prophecy. They wrestled with the question of why the righteous suffer and why the kingdom of God had been delayed. These works were (1) always eschatological, (2) dualistic, and (3) evidenced a belief in a rigid determinism. They were characterized by pessimism.

The Revelation bears some similarities to other apocalyptic literature. However, it has some major differences as well. First of all, while the apocalyptical literature is pessimistic, the Revelation is marked by genuine optimism. It begins by letting its readers know that victory has already been won by the Lamb. God is in control of history! The starting point of history according to Revelation is the redemptive work of Christ. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world! The author of the Revelation is simply John. He is known enough that he does not need to choose some pseudonym of a famous OT figure. The Revelation is a prophecy. It is the crescendo of the restoration and fulfillment of the outpouring of the Spirit! There is a moral urgency in Revelation. The question is, "If all of this is true, what manner of person ought we to be in all manner of holy conduct?"

There are four basic approaches to interpreting the book of Revelation:

1. The preterist approach sees all of the events of Revelation as already fulfilled except for those events recorded in the final chapters. They usually find this fulfillment in either the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70 or the fall of Rome in A. D. 476.

2. A second interpretive approach is the historist view. Historists view the Revelation as a forecast of events leading up to their own historical time period.

3. The futurist, which most of you will be familiar with through popular "prophecy" teachers. Most futurists see all of Revelation as something to be fulfilled in the future, sometimes excluding everything before 4:1.