Revelation 01:01-03 Introduction
Revelation 2019 Winter Bible Study • Sermon • Submitted
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· 15 viewsPresent the background and overall purposes of the book of the Revelation.
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Introduction
Introduction
When I was younger and so much smarter than I am now, I wanted to set the book of Revelation to music. I had become familiar with Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and many of his cantatas, Haydn’s The Creation, and works by other classical composers. I wanted to compose told one of my music professors, Mr. Ludlow, about my grand idea. He asked me, “Why?” He asked a good question for which I had no immediate answer other than the text was so dramatic that you can almost hear a musical score behind it. And chapters 4 and 5 have songs already. Plus Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus (perhaps the highlight of his oratorio) comes from the book of the Revelation. Another fine reason I thought of later was that a musical setting would expose the book itself to the secular music world.
Introduction
Introduction
When I was younger and so much smarter than I am now, I wanted to set the book of Revelation to music. I had become familiar with Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and many of his cantatas, Haydn’s The Creation, and works by other classical composers. I wanted to compose told one of my music professors, Mr. Ludlow, about my grand idea. He asked me, “Why?” He asked a good question for which I had no immediate answer other than the text was so dramatic that you can almost hear a musical score behind it. And chapters 4 and 5 have songs already. Plus Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus (perhaps the highlight of his oratorio) comes from the book of the Revelation. Another fine reason I thought of later was that a musical setting would expose the book itself to the secular music world.
I had written some music themes, heavily influenced by Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, but sadly for me and a great relief to the world, I have lost them. I share my personal experience with you for two reasons. First, the book of the Revelation is dramatic beyond words. What’s more dramatic than the end of the world, the end of life as we know it? The text invites the most dramatic accompaniment!
Second, the imagery is both exotic and captivating. One commentator wrote about this book:
What happened to me was that my feelings and my understanding were so startled by the sights and sounds of John’s vision at Patmos that I found it difficult to relate to the book. But if the Book of Revelation is a hard book to understand, it is also a hard book to put down.”[1]
What is the book of about? As the first verse explains, God the Father reveals to the Son events leading up to and through the end of this age. After the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples wondered if this was the end of the age. Jesus told them that time was according to the Father’s purposes: When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. The book of the Revelation is the Father’s revelation to the Son about the end of the age and beginning of the new. The Son, in turn, has given it to us through His disciple, John.
We have a revelation of the end, but the confusion in interpretation causes some to wonder if we know anything about the end at all. Ambrose Bierce in The Devil’s Dictionary said that regarding the Apocalypse, “St. John concealed all that he knew and all the revealing is done by the commentators who know nothing.”
Walter A. Elwell makes this observation about the use of the apocryphal genre in Revelation:
While the symbolic and visionary mode of presentation creates ambiguity and frustration for many, it actually lends to the description of unseen realities a poignancy and clarity unattainable by any other method. Such language can trigger a variety of ideas, associations, existential involvement, and mystical responses that the straight prose found in most of the NT cannot achieve.[2]
Woodrow Kroll says, “Think of Revelation more as a picture than a puzzle. If you expect to figure out the book completely, you will probably be disappointed. If you expect to meet the glorified Christ in His Revelation, you will be deeply satisfied.” The book is a revelation to Christ of Christ and for Christ and His followers.
Warren Wiersbe wrote this testimonial experience with this book:
Early in my ministry, I gave a message on prophecy that sought to explain everything. I have since filed away that outline and will probably never look at it (except when I need to be humbled). A pastor friend who suffered through my message said to me after the service, “Brother, you must be on the planning committee for the return of Christ!” I got his point, but he made it even more pertinent when he said quietly, “I’ve moved from the planning committee to the welcoming committee.”[3]
Committing ourselves to the welcoming committee of the book of the Revelation will bless us more than fitting today’s events into verses.
When was this book written? Although we won’t get into the different millennial views of chapters 4-22, how one interprets the timing itself of this book affects one’s millennial view. If you believe the events described in Revelation occurred during or shortly after its writing with the destruction of the Temple, you are a preterist. Preterists make a strong case for their view.
If you believe the events described in Revelation are future events that mark the end of this age, you are a futurist. Most likely, you would have a premillennial view.
The postmillennial view holds that the destruction of the Temple marked the conclusion of the Old Testament and the Church began at Pentecost. God’s enemies will eventually be overthrown as the Gospel conquers the world in this age and Christ will personally come and defeat the last enemy. From the early generations of the Reformation the postmillennial view was the common view. Jonathan Edwards was a postmillennialist.
The amillennial view holds that the thousand-year reign is going on in heaven right now symbolically until Christ comes back. In other words the millennial reign is in heaven, not on earth. When is death conquered? .
No man knows the day or the hour of Christ’s return (). Some have predicted a date but all predictions proved spectacularly wrong. Dayton Garman writes about Harold Camping’s famous misses:
HAROLD CAMPING (1921–2013) was the president of Family Radio. He tried to identify specific dates for the return of Christ and destruction of the world—twice: September 6, 1994, and May 21, 2011. After his prophecy failed to materialize, Camping issued a statement repenting of setting dates for Christ’s return.[4]
Read this First! (1:1-3)
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
(1:1-3)
(1:1-3)
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
3Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
The book of the Revelation contains seven verses of blessing or beatitudes: 1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, 22:14. Most of the book could be taught in groups of seven: the seven churches, the seven seals, the seven bowls, the seven trumpets, seven Spirits, seven lamps.
We can find purposes in the seven blessings in the book:
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Another purpose is to comfort those who have lost loved ones, especially from persecution:
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
A third purpose is to promote faithful diligence. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
A fourth purpose is to offer hope of eternal blessings in Christ.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
In addition to diligence, the book promotes obedience. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Taken together, these seven blessings offer promises of victory and reward to the faithful in Christ.
[1] Earl F. Palmer and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, 1, 2 & 3 John / Revelation, vol. 35, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982), 89.
[2] Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1847.
[3] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 421.
[4] Dayton Hartman, Jesus Wins: The Good News of the End Times (Advance Preview) (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 3.
What is the purpose of the book?
What is the purpose of the book?
We can find purposes in the seven blessings in the book:
Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
, , , , , , .
Another purpose is to comfort those who have lost loved ones, especially from persecution:
Rev. , , , , , .
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
A third purpose is to promote faithful diligence.
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev. , , , , .
A fourth purpose is to offer hope of eternal blessings in Christ:
Rev. , , , .
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
, , , .
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
In addition to diligence, the book promotes obedience.
Rev. , .
, , .
Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Rev. 22:14.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
.