Revelation: An Introduction (Revelation 1:1-4) Series

Several months ago, I was having a conversation with my dad about what we should study next. I was debating between several books, and not sure of what I should do next. He encouraged me to pick the study that I thought would be most useful to the church. He has also told me that he would avoid teaching on Revelation because it's controversial, and divisive. He's pretty certain that he has a good feel for how Revelation should be read, and how it should be applied to us. At the same time, he knows that his feel for the book runs at odds with the way the book is often read in evangelical circles. He has no interest in trying to persuade people to change their perspective on it. That's a huge, complicated, time-consuming task. He'd rather keep his mouth shut, and let the church focus on more important things than stir the pot.

So my dad has given me two pieces of advice-- (1) do what's most useful to the church, and (2) don't teach on Revelation. Amusingly, then, this whole study is evidence that I'm like a lot of kids-- I'm really good at half-listening to my parents.

I grew up in an evangelical free church that taught a typical, popular, evangelical approach to Revelation. Think along the lines of Tim Lahaye's Left Behind series, basically. I was introduced to a fancy time chart, that had the book of Revelation all laid out in perfect literal, chronological order. I was told that the church is raptured out before most of the events of Revelation. The book itself never talks about it. But the church is raptured out sometime before chapter 6 starts, and the book really has nothing to do with us. What, then, are we supposed to do with the book?

What ends up happening, is that we read Revelation with one eye, and a newspaper with our other, and try to see if Jesus is coming soon. We can hope that Russia is Gog and Magog, and that Putin will invade Jerusalem, and that millions of people will die, because this means Jesus is coming soon. But that's basically the only application this approach takes from Revelation, once we get past the seven letters to the seven churches. When we read Revelation this way, the book isn't very practical. It's not very relevant for our daily lives. And if you've listened to a sermon series on Revelation that assumes this perspective, you probably noticed that the sermons are really thin, when it comes to an application. How do you apply a book, that has nothing to do with you since you'll be raptured up to Jesus?

Some of you, I know, basically take this approach to Revelation. You listen to podcasts hosted by famous dispensationalist, premillenial, pre-tribulation speakers. You follow the blogs. You think the "Left Behind" series is basically correct. You maybe even use a Scofield Study Bible. And I think all of that isn't a very good use of time.

I think there's a better approach out there.

There is a huge divide between academic-level study of Revelation, and a popular level Christianity approach to it. I'm not going to say that there is a consensus on how Revelation should be read, among NT scholars with PhDs.

But there is a broad agreement, on much of it.

So one of the things I'd like to do with this series, is expose you to a higher level, academically rigorous approach to Revelation. If you were to take a class in seminary on Revelation, it would probably feel quite a bit like this study. And even if you end up disagreeing with me, which I'm perfectly okay with, it will be good to gain awareness of how NT scholars tend to read the book. But my guess, honestly, is that most of you will end this study in a very different place than you start it. And I'd just encourage you to be open-minded.

My own approach, that I've come to after basically finishing this whole study, is built on eight main foundations, or presuppositions. So what I'd to do today is just introduce you to these foundations. This will be a weird sermon. I'm not going to unpack any verses in great detail. I'm not going to give you an application. I'm just going to explain why I read Revelation like I do. So here they are (and this is in the outline):

(1) Revelation is addressed, first of all, to its first century readers.

The book of Revelation is addressed to seven churches living in the first century, under the Roman empire. These churches are told that God gave a revelation to Jesus, who gave it to his angel, who gave it to the churches.