Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Many people are fascinated, even obsessed with the future.

They faithfully read their horoscopes, seek out Tarot card readers, have their palms read, feed on futuristic science fiction material, or call one of the many “psychic hot lines” advertised on TV.

Some people delve more deeply into the occult, seeking out mediums (as did King Saul), futilely and sinfully attempting to obtain information about what is to come by “consult[ing] the dead on behalf of the living” (Isa.

8:19).

The dead cannot, of course, respond to such efforts at contact, but demons do, masquerading as the dead and propagating lies.

All such attempts to discern the future, however, are in vain.

There is only One who knows and declares the future: God (Isa.

44:7; 45:21; 46:9–10).

Only in Scripture can truth about the future be found.

The Old Testament prophets, particularly Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, provide glimpses of the future.

So did our Lord in His Olivet Discourse, along with Peter and Paul in their inspired writings.

But the book of Revelation provides the most detailed look into the future in all of Scripture.

The fitting capstone of God’s revelation to man in the Bible, the book of Revelation unveils the future history of the world, all the way to history’s climax in the return of Christ and the setting up of His glorious earthly and eternal kingdom.

[John F. MacArthur Jr., Revelation 1–11, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 13–14.]

This revelation of Jesus Christ needs to be personally considered by you, as well as shared with others.

Understand the eternal value of this unveiling of Christ, and then do your part to take its warnings and consolations to a world sitting on the brink of destruction.

Reproof - for the lackadaisical approach you have toward warning others of God's impending wrath

Rebuke - the distractions that take us from doing God's will to take His Word to those who would be doomed should they not hear

Exhortation - to rededicate ourselves to the message of hope that we can escape the coming wrath

Main Thought: Help the doomed escape the coming wrath of God on sin by revealing the hope of deliverance through Jesus.

Sub-intro:

The book of Revelation was probably written during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, about ad.

95.

The emperor had demanded that public worship be rendered to himself; he was to be worshiped as lord and god.

Christians refused to obey, and the second great wave of persecution against the church was launched.

The Christians were subjected to public ridicule, economic boycott, imprisonment, exile, and death.

The book of Revelation was God’s answer to that reign of terror.

Christians could see, in a dimension never before revealed, that God was still on the throne.

[John Phillips, Exploring Revelation: An Expository Commentary, The John Phillips Commentary Series (Kregel; WORDsearch Corp., 2009), Re 1:1–3.]

What is the evidence for the late date of the Apocalypse’s composition?

First, and considered by many weighty to the point of settling the matter, is Irenaeus’ reputed testimony—confirmed by Eusebius and Jerome—that it was written toward the end of Domitian’s reign...Second is the contention that the emperor worship alluded to in the Revelation was more widespread in Domitian’s than in Nero’s day....Third is the argument that the persecutions referred to in the Revelation accord better with Domitian’s than with Nero’s reign.

According to Martin Franzmann, for example, during Domitian’s reign ‘the emperor cult was propagated with great zeal in the province of Asia,’ which could account for John’s banishment to Patmos (1:9), Antipas’ martyrdom at Pergamum (2:13), and the souls of men who had been slain for their witness crying aloud for vindication (6:9, 10).4...The fourth argument is that the seven churches of Asia Minor are given descriptive appearances reflecting a period of development behind them not possible at the time of the Neronic persecution....The fifth late date argument is this: Paul founded the church at Ephesus around AD 52 and wrote to that church, if in fact Ephesians is his letter to that church,8 around AD 60–62.

From the fact that this letter makes no reference to specific problems or disputes but rather simply elaborates upon the spiritual wealth the Christian has in Christ and upon the walk which comports with that spiritual wealth, plus the fact that nowhere in it does he address any particular heresy troubling the church, we can infer that in AD 60–62 the Ephesian church was in good spiritual health.

But Christ’s letter to the church at Ephesus in the Revelation (2:1–7) rebukes it for having fallen away from its first love and calls upon it to repent.

If the Revelation was written around AD 65, as the early date advocate urges, then he has to believe that in a very short space of time the church at Ephesus fell dramatically from the height of spiritual health which Paul’s letter implies that it enjoyed to a point where the Savior had to rebuke the church for having left its first love—a serious charge indeed—and to call upon the church to ‘remember the height’ from which it had fallen and to repent.

Much easier is it to account for such a dramatic lapse if one postulates the late date for the Revelation.

[Robert L. Reymond, John, Beloved Disciple: A Survey of His Theology (Fearn, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 2001), 139–142.]

Body:

I.

The Purpose of the Revelation (Rev.

1:1).

In this book all the other books of the Bible end and meet: in it is the consummation of all previous prophecy.

[Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 550.]

Note - John Phillips Outline:

Visions of God (Rev.

1).

Visions of Grace (Rev.

2-3).

Visions of Government (Rev.

4-20).

Visions of Glory (Rev.

21-22).

A. What Happened (v. 1a).

Jesus received an "unveiling" from the Father.

The term Apocalypse is applied to no Old Testament book.

Daniel is the nearest approach to it; but what Daniel was told to seal and shut up till the time of the end, John, now that the time is at hand (Rev 1:3), is directed to reveal.

[Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 550.]

The first time our Lord came into this world, He came in the veil of our flesh.

His deity was covered over with His manhood.

His Godhead was hidden by His humanity.

Just once in a while did His deity shine through, as on the Mount of Transfiguration, or as in His miraculous works.

But most of the time the glory, the majesty, the deity, the wonder and the marvel of the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, were veiled.

These attributes were covered over in flesh, in our humanity.

He was born in a stable.

He grew up in poverty.

He knew what it was to hunger and to thirst.

He was buffeted and beaten and bruised.

He was crucified and raised up as a felon before the scoffing gaze of the whole earth.

The last time that this world saw Jesus was when it saw Him hanging in shame, misery and anguish upon the cross.

He later appeared to a few of His believing disciples, but the last time that this unbelieving world ever saw Jesus was when it saw Him die as a malefactor, as a criminal, crucified on a Roman cross.

That was a part of the plan of God, a part of the immeasurable, illimitable grace and love of our Lord.

“By His stripes we are healed.”

But then is that all the world is ever to see of our Saviour—dying in shame on a cross?

No! It is also a part of the plan of God that some day this unbelieving, this blaspheming, this godless world shall see the Son of God in His full character, in glory, in majesty, in the full-orbed wonder and marvel of His Godhead.

Then all men shall look upon Him as He really is.

They shall see Him holding in His hands the title-deed to the Universe, holding in His hands the authority of all creation in the universe above us, in the universe around us, and in the universe beneath us; holding this world and its destiny in His pierced and loving hands.

(W.A. Criswell, Expository Sermons on Revelation [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969], 1:16–17)

Note - Revelation = apo ("to take away") + kalupto ("a covering"); it means to disclose divine truth.

REVELATION apokalupsis (ἀποκάλυψις, 602), “an uncovering” (akin to apokalupto; see above), “is used in the NT of (a) the drawing away by Christ of the veil of darkness covering the Gentiles, Luke 2:32; cf.

Isa.

25:7; (b) ‘the mystery,’ the purpose of God in this age, Rom.

16:25; Eph.

3:3; (c) the communication of the knowledge of God to the soul, Eph.

1:17; (d) an expression of the mind of God for the instruction of the church, 1 Cor.

14:6, 26, for the instruction of the Apostle Paul, 2 Cor.

12:1, 7; Gal.

1:12, and for his guidance, Gal.

2:2; (e) the Lord Jesus Christ, to the saints at His Parousia, 1 Cor.

1:7, rv (kjv, ‘coming’); 1 Pet.

1:7, rv (kjv, ‘appearing’), 13; 4:13; (f) the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes to dispense the judgments of God, 2 Thess.

1:7; cf.

Rom.

2:5; (g) the saints, to the creation, in association with Christ in His glorious reign, Rom.

8:19, rv, ‘revealing’ (kjv, ‘manifestation’); (h) the symbolic forecast of the final judgments of God, Rev. 1:1 (hence the Greek title of the book, transliterated ‘Apocalypse’ and translated ‘Revelation’).”*

See appearing, coming, lighten, B, Note, manifestation.¶

[* From Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, pp.

228, 229.

¶ Indicates that all the NT occurrences of the Greek word under consideration are mentioned under the heading or sub-heading.

[W.

E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 532.]

...the noun occurs in Rev 1:1 and is used very nearly as a book title (which it soon becomes—as well as the designation for a genre): “The revelation of Jesus Christ.”

This expression is intended to summarize the contents of the entire book which follows: the disclosure of history up to its goal in the holy Jerusalem, which descends from heaven, through Jesus Christ who thus exposes both God’s redemptive activity and the divine work of judgment.

(In 22:18 the content of the book is described as προφητεία; on the combination of concepts cf.

Amos 3:7.) [Horst Robert Balz and Gerhard Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1990–), 132.]

Note - of Jesus Christ [John MacArthur follows Hort here, whereas I agree with Robertson below].

Of Jesus Christ (Ἰησου Χριστου [Iēsou Christou]).

Hort takes it as objective genitive (revelation about Jesus Christ), but Swete rightly argues for the subjective genitive because of the next clause.

Gave him (ἐδωκεν αὐτοι [edōken autoi]).