Revelation (Part 1) Series

Revelation (Part 1)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/1/2017

Some of you may have been a little disappointed last Saturday (September 23) when the world didn’t come to an end. The conspiracy theorist, David Meade, a self-proclaimed "prophecy expert" and Catholic made global headlines last week, when he predicted the end of the world on September 23. Of course, when Saturday came and went relatively uneventfully, Meade modified his doomsday prediction, and is now saying the rapture is, in fact, coming in October.

Doomsday itself, he says, will begin on October 15, which will mark the beginning of the seven-year period of tribulation described in the Book of Revelation. He writes on his website, “That’s when the action starts. Hold on and watch—wait until the middle of October and I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed,” Some things to watch out for are the loss of electrical power across the world, leading to war, famine and other perilous events.

The truth is—David Meade is just another in a long line of prophecy pundits making false predictions about the Second Coming and the end of the world. Similar predictions have been made as far back as William Miller who concluded that Christ would return to earth on October 22, 1844.

Since that day, Bible prophecy fanatics have jumped on the bandwagon with their charts and codes and you-better-believe-it prophecies. But if there is one lesson William Miller, David Meade and others have taught us, it’s that you can rest assured these so-called “prophecy experts” will be proven 100% wrong, 100% of the time.

But why this fascination with the end times? Why do these prophecy pundits crawl out of the wood work every few years to declare the apocalypse is about to begin? And why does anybody believe them?

I submit that a lot of the sensationalism surrounding the Second Coming is due to a widespread lack of understanding of the book of Revelation. Even some of the most biblically literate believers steadfastly avoid Revelation.

Fred Craddock of Emory University compares reading the New Testament to walking down the street. The Gospels are the first books you encounter, and they are like warm, inviting, well-lit homes in a familiar neighborhood. Next comes Paul’s letters, still friendly territory. But as you move down the street through the Epistles, the shadows grow deeper—2 Peter, 1 John. The houses are smaller and neglected—2 John, 3 John, Jude. Then suddenly at the end of the street, shrouded in darkness, stands the frightening, haunted house of Revelation. Not many people want to go there.

I understand why many of us stay away from Revelation. The book is just flat hard to understand. It’s been said, if you read five different commentaries on Revelation, you’ll six different views. And unfortunately, many of the commentaries are like a black hole—they’re so dense that no light can escape. A funny little book titled The Devil’s Dictionary defines Revelation as “A famous book in which St. John concealed all that he knew…” Let’s face it: bizarre images of strange creatures, a beast with ten horns and claws of bronze, stars falling from the heavens, a great red dragon with seven heads, 666, blood, bowls of sulfur, people eating scrolls, bottomless pits, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, war, pestilence, famine and death—this isn’t normal water cooler conversation. This is strange stuff.

But the fact is—Revelation is a part of God’s Word. It was written for us to be a blessing, not a curse. In fact, 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). When we read Revelation our hearts are captured by a New Heaven and New Earth, a wedding banquet, a beautiful city and a whole new kind of life. I think it’s time we reclaim Revelation.

For the next seven weeks, I want to immerse ourselves in Revelation with all its prophecies and puzzles and discover what the Bible really says about the end times and why it matters. Before we can dive into the text though, we need to prepare ourselves. So today, I want to highlight three keys to unlocking the meaning of Revelation. The first key is the setting.

• THE SETTING

The first key, as you begin to read this book, is to understand the historical setting of Revelation’s original readers. John addressed this book, saying, “John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia” (Revelation 1:4 NLT).

John wrote to seven very real churches, not unlike like ours, that existed in the first century: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. In chapters 2-3, Jesus addresses each of those seven churches individually with compliments and criticisms specific to their unique situations.