10-21-2018 An Introduction to The Introduction Revelation

Revelation Series  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  53:00
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Introduction:
I’ve been prompted by the Holy Spirit that it is high time to start back up an exegetical series “verse-by-verse” through a particular book. Some of you know already which book that I will be preaching on for a while. Due to this particular book’s unique aspects, I felt that it be necessary to start topically this morning before transitioning to the typical exegetical style. Why? because it is the Book of Revelation.
Simply choosing the Book of Revelation to preach through is no small task. Many questions flooded my mind as they might be now filling your mind. but before we get any further I want to first discuss for a brief moment the question why is this the case? why is it that the Book of Revelation causes within us so many questions and so much discussion? In fact, it is a big challenge to decide what to talk about and what not to talk about. If we were to discuss everything in detail that is contained in the 22 chapters of Revelation, it may easily be years before we moved on to another book. but why? why is it that this is such a special book? why is it not as easy to spend years on expounding upon the rich wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs? or spend years on meditating and praying through the Psalms? After all, isn’t the Book of Revelation just as much the word of God as the Psalms, Proverbs, the Gospels, or even the book of Numbers?
Who here can quote 2 Tim 3:16?
2 Timothy 3:16 ESV
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
ALL scripture! yet there are certain books of the Bible that we somehow treat differently. I think most of us here are familiar with the fact that this book was written by the Apostle John. This is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John, the Epistle of 1st John, 2nd John, and even 3rd John. Yet, none of those other books seem to necessitate the introduction that the Book of Revelation seems to require.

“If We Believe the Living Word”

A few years ago, in a railroad train a lawyer, seeing I had a Bible in my hand, asked, "Surely you don't believe that Deuteronomy belongs to the canon of Scripture?" I answered by asking the question, "Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?" He said, "Yes, certainly, I believe the resurrection of the God-Man to be the most authenticated fact in all history. But that has nothing to do," he said, "with my question of the inspiration of the Book of Deuteronomy." "Oh, yes, it has," was my reply. "Was Christ, as proved by the resurrection, divine and God's Son and perfect in life and teaching?" "Yes." "Then you must take your question to the final court of appeal. Christ expounded unto his disciples the Scriptures, beginning at Moses and all the prophets concerning Himself, and called it Scripture, and endorsed it as God's Word. Deuteronomy was in it."—Sunday School Times.
I just don’t want any of us to get the idea that somehow the book of Revelation is better than other books of the Bible.
Transition:
The need to “rightly divide the word of truth” or in other words, to properly handle the Book of Revelation is paramount thanks to some abuses we have seen in the last few centuries to this book. I want to take this morning to look at some reasons why Revelation needs delicate care in proper study.
Part of the reason we have to be delicate comes from all the fighting Christians have done among themselves over proper interpretation. But these same Christian might never argue different ways to interpret 3 John. BUT 1, 2, or, 3 John don’t record any “visions” of John’s either.

I. Proper Interpretation

Interpretation, therefore, is a hot topic issue and, by necessity, must be decided before we can get too far. To get some preliminary things out of the way we understand that the Bible is a human book--it was written by humans to humans to be understood just like about every other book out there. However, unlike any other book, it is at the same time a divine book, written by God, the Spirit through men that does contain certain concepts that reach beyond our limited understanding; i.e. the Trinity. Yet despite our finite minds attempting to grasp the infinite, this divine book is written for us to still understand.
“The truth is, it doesn't matter what a verse means to me, to you, or to anyone else. All that matters is what the verse means!” ― John F. MacArthur Jr., Charismatic Chaos
Two groups in Human communication:
Sender - must accurately put into words his thoughts
Receiver - must accurately understand the thoughts and words
In scripture, the Sender is God working through human transmitters. Words are not altogether precise particularly in abstract concepts i.e. love.  The Sender and Receiver must work at both ends for effective communication.  You must use effort to understand the Bible;  Scripture is written at a different time to a different culture - so more effort is required.
3 Guidelines in understanding communication
To Understand a meaning of any scripture or really any author, one begins with the ordinary meaning of the language/words 
You must identify the type of language being used i.e. poetry, prose, figurative, literal, narrative
Ordinarily the interpreter is seeking a single meaning from what the Sender said
Identify the most natural, clear meaning - start with the historical, physical, cultural setting of the passage
Method to make sure the meaning of words - "Word Studies"
Surety of the flow of though through clarifying sentence structure.
Understand the meaning of the passage by relating it to its immediate context and even the context of the whole book
Identify the literary style of the passage 
A literal approach is the most serious way to interpret the Bible- if the Bible is to be authoritative it must be understandable 
We must begin with the assumption that it must be interpreted literally with the attention to figurative speech in a passage.
Genre interpretation- literal passages literally (i.e. “And then I saw..” He really did see it), then figurative passages figuratively (i.e "it was like a..." or “it was as a...”), poetic passages poetically (i.e. “the four corners of the Earth” or “the Earth is held up by four pillars”) There is language of appearance (i.e. “the sun is setting”) and idioms to a culture (i.e. “He kicked the bucket”)
Seek the single meaning of the passage unless the authors (or The Author) indicate that multiple meanings are implied.
One of the primary challenges of interpreting Revelation is determining what kind of literature it is. At first glance it appears to be a class of its own: apocalyptic (exotic visions and symbolism, and prophecy). However, the reference to the human author and audience, the standard greeting (1:4) and ending (22:21), and the mini-letters in chapters 2 and 3 indicate that we must also view Revelation as a standard letter. While this may seem more confusing, it actually simplifies things, for we can now view the book as a much longer literary cousin of the letter of Jude, which also contains extensive apocalyptic and prophetic material within an epistle framework. So we can interpret Revelation in much the same way as we would Jude.
There are four major viewpoints in interpreting Revelation.
1. The Idealist allegorical or spiritual approach. Here the whole book becomes symbolic. It becomes a spiritual struggle, a spiritual battle and there is nothing physical involved. This view says that near nothing this book past chapter 4 is literal, it is only an allegory describing our struggles throughout our lives. There are many problems to this approach, but probably the biggest problem is attempting to allegorize everything makes it trivial to most everybody and a practice in arbitrary interpretation—it can mean anything to anyone.
2. The preterist view. This approach considers all prophecy in revelation as completed already in history, rather than future. This view holds that all prophecy was fulfilled historically at that time (the past), so it has nothing to say to us about the future. This approach uses a little bit of literal interpretation but also relies heavily on allegory as well in order to fit all of the prophecies being fulfilled by the end of the 1st century. This group must say that the book of Revelation was written in Nero’s reign before the destruction of the temple in AD 70 rather than Domitian’s reign in Rome. Again, there are many problems to this approach, but probably the biggest is
3. The historical view. This approach uses Revelation as a chronicle of the major events throughout the history of the church age. Many of you might have heard that the Churches in chapters two and three represent different times throughout church history with struggles that are predominantly akin to the problems of the churches in those chapters, and the question becomes “which age are we in?” Although, you can still interpret those churches as different times during the church age AND NOT take a “historical approach” to interpretation, the whole book, according to the “historical approach,” with most the 22 chapters is built around the history of the church age.
4. The futuristic view. This view treats Revelation as having historical value for the people in John’s day but its emphasis is on future events. Starting with the fourth chapter, most of the events have yet to happen. It gives us a picture of what the future holds for the believer and the unbeliever. This is the most literal interpretation and the most accurate—no allegorizing necessary even with clear uses of metaphors and similes.
The golden rule of hermeneutics - "If the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense."
Last thing I want to say about interpretive challenges is that Revelation makes extensive use of the OT and other writings in Revelation and its use of symbolism and numbers. When we realize the references to the OT either speak of the ultimate fulfillment of pending prophecies or point back to a key for interpreting the passage found in the OT text, much of the mystery disappears. Similarly, most symbols and numbers are biblical commonplaces, meaning what they mean elsewhere in the Bible, and are not unique to Revelation. In other words, the best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible itself; or the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. The text interprets other images itself— an example of this is verse 20 of chapter 1
Revelation 1:20 ESV
20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
the angel plainly states what the symbol of the lampstands mean—but not in its entirety, for instance WHY is a lampstand used to picture a church? That answer might be from the temple and what the items inside Solomon’s temple represented.
Transition:
Another part of the reason Revelation is highly debated and necessitates an introduction comes from the very beginning of Revelation particularly verse three that none of John’s other writings contain:
Revelation 1:3 ESV
3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Special blessings! What blessing exactly?!? Is it different from the blessing we get from reading other books of the Bible and obeying them?

II. Proper Blessings

Everyone knows the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, but how many here knows of the Beatitudes in Revelation?
The book of Revelation includes seven beatitudes, or “blessings”. I have mentioned before when speaking about the Sermon on the Mount that the word “Blessed” can be translated as “Happy” well, the same is true here!
“‘Happy’ is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and ‘happy’ are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
The beatitudes in Rev.1:3 and the end of the book in 22:7 promise a blessing for faithfully appropriating the book (i.e., reading the prophecy aloud or obeying its message). Every other beatitude promises an eschatological blessing at the final consummation:
experiencing the presence of God (implied in 14:13)
Revelation 14:13 ESV
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”
being prepared for Christ’s return (16:15)
Revelation 16:15 ESV
15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)
receiving an invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb (19:9)
Revelation 19:9 ESV
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
sharing in the first resurrection and remaining untouched by the second death (20:6)
Revelation 20:6 ESV
6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
then the repeated blessing from chapter 1 verse three in chapter 22:
Revelation 22:7 ESV
7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
And finally, enjoying the privilege of eating from the tree of life and entering the eternal city (22:14).
Revelation 22:14 ESV
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
The beatitudes, much like the promises to the victors in Revelation 2–3, summarize the challenges and rewards of overcoming tribulations, trials, difficulties, adversities.
The promised blessings are for those who listen to and obey God’s Word—this is the cure to depression! be happy/blessed through meditating on YHWH’s Word and through obedience! Here we have another opportunity to emphasize the importance of knowing and living out God’s Word. Biblical illiteracy is a growing problem in the American Protestant church—mainly due to apathy. The ancient practice of listening to the Scriptures, rather than reading them silently to ourselves, may offer a helpful spiritual discipline for the church today. In addition, Revelation supports an added emphasis on the public reading of large sections of text. But listening by itself is not enough. The message must be taken to heart and lived out. Perhaps surprisingly, Revelation has much to say about discipleship. The blessing is not for those who engage in eschatological speculation but for those who “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4).
Revelation 14:4 ESV
4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb,
Transition:
The last part that I want to talk about of the reason Revelation is highly debated and necessitates an introduction is the specific prophecy contained within the book. This is really the crux to why there is so much bickering between denominations and fellow Christians.

III. Proper Prophecy

a prophet in scripture can be any spokesman of God - but there is two different types of Prophets:
One who proclaims “prescriptive prophecy” and
One who proclaims “predictive prophecy”
We all are fairly familiar with prophecy in the predictive sense meaning that it predicts the future in certainty, but prescriptive prophecy is when a prophet of God doesn’t predict any certainty per-se, instead prescriptive prophecy is expounding on God’s Word to invoke a desired response i.e. Jeremiah’s prophecies were concerning Israel’s immediate future and were dependent on Israel’s response whether they would be fulfilled. Jonah prophesies to Nineveh by way of a warning and they repented. In short, a prescriptive prophecy is forthtelling God’s word whereas predictive prophecy is foretelling.
And it is predictive prophecy or foretelling that we find in Revelation—this sounds so basic yet some in their wrong ways of interpreting Revelation will mix this up in order to fit their particular theological grid
Most preachers and Bible teachers give small attention today to the study and exposition of predictive prophecy. Even the large bulk of space given in the Scriptures to prophetical writings would seem to suggest it not be. But it is still more embarrassing to consider that such neglect seems to ignore teachings to which the Spirit of God gives large prominence and emphasis.
Predictive Prophecy has at least two purposes:
Unfulfilled prophecy affects the conduct of believers -1 John 3:2-3
1 John 3:2–3 ESV
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Unfulfilled prophecy can help us maintain purity!
And Fulfilled prophecy builds faith and substantiates the messenger -John 13:19 
John 13:19 ESV
19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.
Jesus builds the disciples’ faith by foretelling Judas’ betrayal before it happened.
Notice how prophecy here uses literal language.
Literal Language directs us to take the passage in its most simple obvious meaning unless there are compelling reasons otherwise - same as other passages in other parts of the Bible.
Figurative Language
Some language is obviously figurative because it is absurd to take it literally; however, you still interpret the meaning literally 
The context of the prophecy may tell that the passage is figurative, so interpret the intended meaning
Every teaching is to be received universally unless the context limits the audience or a later passage indicates that it was not universal
Context - i.e. 1 Corinthians 7:7 "I wish all men were as I am (not married)"-  "FOR THE PRESENT DISTRESS"
1 Corinthians 7:7 ESV
7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
Historic events are NOT normative - they are just recorded unless indicated elsewhere
Cultural practices that bring about scriptural principles ARE generally normative as well i.e. eating meats sacrificed to idols
And No general principles will cause you to violate Specific commands --Specific Commands (thou shalt not…)and General Principles (Love Neighbors)
So YHWH requires a Response: FAITH + OBEDIENCE But how do we determine specific prophecies in Revelation? Well we ask a few questions?
To whom was it addressed?
Is it limited or universal?
What is the basic idea?
Is it declared to be the Will of God?
In balance to other scriptures on the principle?  

So What?

So with the division that we could have over this one book, we must stay diligent to keep a proper focus.
The focus of the book is the unveiling or revelation of Jesus Christ in His righteousness, glory, splendor, and majesty. The key verse in understanding Revelation is just the first five words the whole book Revelation 1:1. You may disagree with me on certain details and interpretations of those details—that is okay as long as our focus remains intact. The book begins and ends with Jesus in heaven being revealed by the Father to all mankind. YHWH’s mercy and grace have ended with Him bringing His wrath upon all creation for their rejection of His Son. All mankind will stand before YHWH and give an account for their lives. Those who rejected Jesus in this life will be forced to bow on their knees and confess He is Lord, and then will be thrown into Gehenna, the Lake of Fire because of their unbelief. All this to say: make sure you have a personal relationship with Jesus today!
Conclusion:
An ancient legend tells of a general whose army was afraid to fight. The soldiers were frightened. The enemy was too strong. Their fortress was too high and weapons too mighty.
The king, however, was not afraid. He knew his men would win. How could he convince them?
He had an idea. He told his soldiers that he possessed a magical coin. A prophetic coin. A coin which would foretell the outcome of the battle. On one side was an eagle and on the other a bear. He would toss the coin. If it landed eagle-side up, they would win. If it landed with the bear up, they would lose.
The army was silent as the coin flipped in the air. Soldiers circled as it fell to the ground. They held their breath as they looked and shouted when they saw the eagle. The army would win.
Bolstered by the assurance of victory, the men marched against the castle and won.
It was only after the victory that the king showed the men the coin. The two sides were identical.
Though the story is fictional, and the king was a bit deceptive, there is some truth that is reliable: assured victory empowers armies.
Much like our studies and discussion with spiritual warfare, battles are easier when victory is guaranteed
That may be one of the primary reasons YHWH gives us the Book of Revelation. In it, He reveals Jesus and assures victory. We, the soldiers, are privileged a glimpse into the final battlefield. All hell breaks loose as all heaven comes forth. The two collide in the an ultimate battle of good and evil. Left standing amidst the smoke and thunder is the Son of God. Jesus, born in a manger—now triumphant over Satan. Jesus is the center stage.
Satan is defeated. Christ is triumphant. And we, the soldiers, are assured of victory.
Let us march.
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