Class 1
Original URL Sunday, March 6, 2022
Transcript
we'll be talking about the revelationso uh let me just show a hands uh you know it seems like when you think about the book of the revelation
there tends to be two
two viewpoints two approaches to thoughts about the book
some people
uh i think love it love to dive into the details sort of like try and unwind things and figure out what's going on and just sort of you know love that stuff and other people look at the book of revelation and think well my bible ends in jude right you know it's it's like too complicated it's uh a bit of a con you know it it's it's hard to understand right and i don't know where you tend to fall in that spectrum whether it's you know one or the other or somewhere in between
but i think the book of revelation and it's it is revelation singular by the way not revelations uh i think the book of revelation is a terrific book of encouragement
and what i would like to do in the next uh in the next couple of weeks is explore the book
and in particular
my goal is for us to hear
and understand the book of revelation as it would have been understood
by the very first readers of the
book do you know what i mean by that right so i don't want us to look at the book of revelation and try and unwind things from a historical perspective with 21st century eyes there's a place and it's appropriate to do that but for this particular class
i want us to think about what those early brothers and sisters in the first century would have understood
when the book of revelation was first read aloud
to them
they wouldn't have been thinking about you know constantine they wouldn't have been thinking about you know the holy roman uh church things like that what would they have been thinking about when it comes to the message of the book of revelation and so that's the approach that we're going to take and i think through that approach we can draw out lessons as to how we might understand the book today but our focus primarily then is to try to hear and understand the book as it would have been understood by the churches in asia
when it was first read
so a couple of couple of things that i want to uh
throw out there as sort of introductory
when we look at the bible
the bible has many different forms of literature many different literary styles you might say
so one would be a narrative style a narrative style would be a story you know we read about joseph and genesis that would be a narrative we look at the teachings of jesus and the me the pro the miracles that jesus performed in the new testament those would be narratives
what's another literary style that we see in the bible
what do we see in the psalms
poetry yeah that's right that's poetry and so i guess my question when we look at literature and we look at poetry as bible students do we interpret
literature and poetry the same way
no we we look at literature and we look at poetry and we understand that they're different forms of writing and consequently they can be read and understood differently literature uh that is in a narrative form is literal is literal poetry is you know flowery figurative often times
now another type of uh literary style that we see in the bible is discourse this would be things like letters for example or speeches
where where a
letter writer or a speaker is trying to get a point across and trying to persuade our minds towards certain actions and thinking and activities that's that's a style of discourse
when we come to the book of of revelation
i think we see three different literary styles so again this is real big picture stuff right so the literary styles that we see we we see a letter
this was a letter that was written to the seven churches in asia minor
and it begins like a traditional letter and it ends like a traditional letter and so that's one style that we see within the book
we see prophecy in the book and when we talk about prophecy this is where we get a message from god typically something such as what we see in the old testament thus saith the lord right we know this is a prophetic message
but there was a different style of literature that was very common in the jewish world
and it was a style of literature that was referred to as apocalyptic
apocalyptic literature and what differentiates apocalyptic literature from
you know what we might normally think of as prophecy is this
a pop apocalyptic literature is one where the writer receives some sort of vision
uh and is brought to a place in heaven and speaks in very figurative language that might be very different from what we would normally see in a in a prophetic message
okay
the other thing that is interesting to know about this apocalyptic literature is as i say it was very common and it was common not only in the old testament the jewish scriptures
we see it in the revelation but we see it throughout many different styles of writing within that time period in that area of the world
enoch is a is a book it's not in the canon of scripture it's referred to as apocalyptic literature it was something that was normal in those days
when we think of the jewish scriptures and we think about apocalyptic literature there are two examples
that jump out at us right away and i'd like to go to the first one and that's in daniel chapter 7.
the next one that we're going to see in the old testament is in ezekiel
but in daniel and ezekiel there were two things in common and we see that same commonality in the book of revelation
and it has to do with the condition
of the people
to whom these words were written
so if you think about ezekiel
and you think about daniel what was it that was held in common by these people what was the audience like how do we understand the audience that ezekiel was writing to and that daniel was writing to
what was going on
in their lives
and it was this they were facing significant persecution
they were in captivity they had been pulled from their homes
and they traveled across a desert
seven 800 miles to a foreign land
and they were
lost
figuratively lost
but you know they walked outside their homes they didn't know where they were nothing was familiar and they were worried they thought we are the people of god we are god's chosen people and here we are in captivity
how do i make sense
of what's happened to me and to my family and to my nation because we always thought that we were god's chosen people
god chose you because he loved you we read in deuteronomy and here they are weeping by the rivers of babylon not knowing what in the world has happened to us has god abandoned us
so what's common in all apocalyptic literature is this sense of a superpower that has completely
overthrown the normality of life
and the words that are written in this style of literature
might be referred to as resistance literature in some ways it was written in a code language
so that the oppressors
should they get their hands on it wouldn't quite understand
what was being written they wouldn't understand that the beast
was talking about nero or about the roman emperor or about the babylonians who were oppressing the jewish nation at the time so it is very much written in the language of resistance literature and an example of that as i say is in daniel
and i'd like to look at daniel chapter 7.
so it's uh it begins in verse 1. it says in the first year of belshazzar king of babylon
daniel had a dream
and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed and he wrote down the substance of his dream
daniel said in my vision at night i looked and there before me were four winds of heaven churning up the great sea four grace great beasts each different from each other came up out of the sea so we see this very
challenging language in the sense like how do we make sense of all of this right but the point is
the people were struggling under oppression by the babylonians and this was a way
that these visions could help them understand from a heavenly perspective
what was happening on earth
from an earthly ex perspective they had no clue about what was going on
and they're now trying daniel now receives this vision and he's able to demonstrate to them what god's perspective is from their current everyday experiences
on earth
okay
questions
now i'm not going to go through
the through this uh this dan daniel chapter seven but it's an example of apocalyptic literature and what makes it particularly helpful for us
is not only do we read about the vision that daniel received about all of the different beasts and about all of these these things that were taking place but beginning in verse 15 of daniel chapter 7 daniel provides an interpretation of the dream in other words he cracks the code
if if um if the babylonians got a hold of this
and they read only verses 1 through 14
they wouldn't have any understanding about what was being written about here
but for the benefit of the jewish audience who were in captivity daniel through inspiration now explains the dream and explains what all these different symbols mean so for example in verse 17
daniel 7 verse 17 he says the four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth
right so i mean we know that i i think many of us from our sunday school lessons remember the story of you know these these visions and these dreams and the you know nebuchadnezzar's image and all of these things but i'm bringing it to you now as an example of apocalyptic literature this idea that they are getting a heavenly perspective of what's happening on earth
we see it also in the book of ezekiel so if you turn to ezekiel chapter 1
we see a similar thing ezekiel chapter 1
verse 1.
in the 30th year and the fourth month on the fifth day while i was among the exiles
by the kibar river anybody remember what happened at the kibar river during the exile
you might remember it was there that the jewish nation hung their harps hung their musical instruments and said we can no longer sing the songs of zion
because we are mourning we no longer believe we no longer feel like we are the chosen of god and they wept by the rivers in babylon
so what's common in both ezekiel and in daniel is this tremendous oppression that the people were facing and again the messages of apocalyptic literature are designed to give a heavenly perspective of what's going on on earth all right so that's sort of a broad picture of what the literary style is and now i want to fast forward to the book of revelation
and we come to the book of revelation and we might ask ourselves okay so what's happening now to
the first century hearer of this letter this letter now goes out by john it gets distributed among these seven churches in asia minor
it's read aloud and our purpose in these studies this week this month is to try to understand how these first century christians would have understood what was being spoken about okay
what do we know about these people well the first thing we know is that at this point in history
most if not all of the apostles
those who walked with jesus
had died
those people
those early believers had been told
that christ would be returning
and had lived in this eager expectation of the return of jesus from heaven where he would overthrow the roman empire
and where he would establish god's kingdom on earth
and all of a sudden
people are beginning to die
we read about that in thessalonians paul was paul in his letter to the thessalonians wrote to provide encouragement to the first century believers who were beginning to feel disillusioned by the promise of jesus return because loved ones who were baptized into christ who expected christ to return were dying
without having received the promise
and so thessalonians was written in a in large part to encourage these people and the same can be said about the brothers and sisters in asia minor
this point at this point in history some of them it appears we're becoming disillusioned
the other thing that we know is just like the the
the captives in babylon the brothers and sisters in asia minor were experiencing a tremendous amount of suffering
they were receiving persecution
at the hands
of the roman empire
so depending on when you think the the letter was written it's either during the time of nero which is uh like 60 a.d
or during the time of emperor domitian i think his name is in in around 90 a.d which is what i'm presuming at this point okay so this is later in life
90 a.d
emperor domitian is in in charge and one of the things that's happening in all of the roman empire
is they are requiring
that the inhabitants of the roman emperor empire
practice emperor worship
they are teaching that the emperor himself
is god
and in the past
jewish christians were sort of given a a pass they almost had like a get out of jail christians were almost had like a a get out of jail free card because they could gather in the jewish temple
and the jewish and the roman empire
had provisions that allowed the jews to worship separately from the rest of the roman empire
but what happened in ad70
in 1870 the jewish temple was completely destroyed
and no longer was there a place for the christians to gather free from persecution
so as an aside i want you to turn with me to acts chapter 2.
acts chapter 2 gives us a a a brief accounting
of the very first believers after the resurrection of jesus jesus has ascended to heaven and the question is how did the first century believers practice christianity
where did they practice christianity
and acts chapter 2 gives us details about that so i want to look at the at acts chapter 2 we're going to go down to the 42nd verse and this is a passage that may be familiar to you it's it it talks about the four pillars of discipleship these are the things that the first century believers in the resurrected jesus did
they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching that's the first thing they did
to fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer okay
but let's keep reading
everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles all the believers were together and had everything in common selling their possessions and good they gave to anyone as he had need
every day and here's the point i want to emphasize as it relates to emperor worship and how the christians had a pass had this get out of jail free card were able to continue to worship god and the risen lord jesus without persecution they were able to do that because of what we read next in verse 46. acts 2 verse 46
every day they continued to meet together where
in the temple courts
which is fascinating to me right i mean these are believers in jesus they're no longer following the the law of moses and yet they're continuing to go to the temple to worship
and i believe that one of the reasons they did that was so that they could worship without the fear of persecution
but after ad70 when the romans came in and surrounded jerusalem and set fire to the temple and broke down those city walls
there was no temple in which the jews and the christians could meet together free from persecution
and now
jews could meet freely in local synagogues to worship yahweh their god
but where were the christians to meet
they began meeting in their homes
they began to meet in in the homes of one another throughout different cities
but because many of these christians were
roman citizens were gentiles
they no longer had the freedom to escape the rules that said emperor cult worship must be followed
and therefore there came the problem
this is why many of our early brothers and sisters were persecuted so badly first by nero
and later by emperor domitian
so our first decide was to go to acts chapter 2 where we read about the early christians
meeting together in the temple courts the next place that i'd like for us to go
is in romans chapter 10.
so this is paul's letter to the romans
and in the 10th verse there's a there's an expression that we read and i think we
you know we we read it and
i don't know that it has the same importance to me today as it might have had to the first century believer and it's about this expression jesus is lord so let's look at romans chapter 10 verse 9.
he's talking in in chapter 10 about his desire that all israelites would be saved
then he comes down and and he says in
um in verse 9
it's talking about salvation
and he says in verse 9 that if you confess with your mouth
jesus is lord
and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead
you will be saved
so what i want you to think about is what does it mean for a first century believer to say that jesus is lord
and it's it's really a question about allegiance brothers and sisters
it's about to whom
do i have demonstrate my allegiance is my allegiance to the roman emperor do i worship the roman emperor or is my allegiance to the risen christ
who will come and overthrow the roman empire
and this is the key
because in that first century our brothers and sisters were being persecuted because they would not acknowledge that domitian the emperor was their lord
their allegiance was instead to jesus
and for that reason they were struggling
so now let's come to revelation chapter one
i want to look at um verse 9 as a start
i john okay i john
your brother and companion
in the suffering
and kingdom
and patient endurance that are ours in jesus
was on the island of patmos
because of the word of god
so what do we see here so john is writing this letter to these seven churches in asia minor and he starts out by saying look i'm just like you i'm sharing in your suffering so there's this acknowledgement that the readers of this letter are in fact
uh
being tempted or not being tempted they are they are in fact struggling i just got a text from brian acts two the believers were essentially all jews wouldn't they still be following the law yes brian brian that's a uh that's a good point uh acts two they were all following the law yes but there were there seems to have been um this time of transition
where they began to step away from following the law and maybe we can talk about that later
okay so back to revelation we see this suffering there's this common suffering and this patient endurance and john is on the isle of patmos
so it's sort of like you know an old-fashioned alcatraz you know he was he was put in prison out there
and the reason he was put in prison and the reason he was suffering was because of the word of god
we come down to chapter 2 verse 10
and we see in chapter 2 verse 10 a similar idea of about persecution this is uh the letter to the church or the message to the church in smyrna and he says to these brothers and sisters do not be afraid of what you're about to suffer i tell you the devil will put some of you in prison so we talk about this code language who do you think the devil is here
putting them in prison the emperor right
he's talking about the roman authorities putting these believers in prison
and he says he's going to do that to test you and you'll suffer persecution for 10
days
whether 10 is a literal number or just a full you know a representative of a full period of time there's discussion about that but i wanted to come to these two passages to sort of show you that it was
it was written to people who were struggling
just as the apocalyptic literature in the jewish scriptures daniel and ezekiel was written to people who were struggling okay
questions comments
to say you know yeah you're suffering now uh think of what you did go back to deuteronomy where god said i'll bring the nations when you play the harlot and uh but i haven't forgot those promises right because they were like wow i thought we were yeah no i haven't forgot you'll be back this is what i'm going to tell you i think that's a i think that's such an excellent point butch this idea that ezekiel and daniel's
apocalyptic literature apocalyptic message was designed to encourage these people to hold fast is that what you're saying right encourage them to hold fast and guess what
when we come to the book of revelation we see the same thing
it's the same message it's one of encouragement chapter one verse three
but you you've got a king james there right
i should ask jim sullivan to read from his king james because it's better than my niv he tells me you gotta you gotta mess it you got a microphone uh read verse three
three blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is at hand
and the point is
this book which while we admit is hard to understand
this book comes with a blessing
both to that first century brother or that first century sister who heard the message as well as to us
and the blessing is
that we will be blessed if we hear it
and do it so it's not just about it's not about knowing what this is right i mean the message is important
but the message is designed to create
an effect
the effect is that we should do something with what we hear
and what was the problem that these first early brothers and sisters were experiencing
they'd been alive for a long time
jesus was raised from the dead
a long time ago maybe 60 years earlier
and now they're wondering is this real
is jesus really going to return
or
should i just throw it all away
and just get with the program
why go through all of this turmoil why go through all of this persecution and suffering why don't i just like get in line with everybody else
and acknowledge that the emperor is my lord and give up on my hope because life is hard right now
and so the message in revelation is that they should endure
that they should do it they should hear this message
so i've got a couple of notes i want to revelation is not about the end of the world
it's about the renewed world
where god and man will be united again
it's it's about encouraging these people that god has not given up on his original plan his original purpose to fill the earth with his glory
yes andy
could you grab the mic honey i can't hear you
butch was hogging it yeah is it similar to building your um your house on the foundation of rock that you understand and do it
you know so you're not just you're understanding
and you're acting on your faith
say it again i'm not sure i understand where you're going
when you were talking about
seeing and understanding the signs and doing it and acting and living a life is it similar to the parable of building your house and the foundation of rock that yeah perhaps any other wise man that yeah understands and yeah so with that with that parable both the wise man and the foolish man heard the message right but only the wise man acted on it yeah yeah okay yeah i think that's true and and i think the purpose here is not only for us to understand what the book of revelation is about but it's for us to
but it's for us to to take that message and have it have some meaningful impact in our life
so mark hold on i just want to read one thing as it relates to that okay
one author said calling revelation resistance literature is appropriate okay so these people are under oppression by a army by an empire by people who want them to sort of give in you know picture yourselves as uh you know the people of ukraine and you understand what's happening in their lives and in their neighborhoods and you can imagine that you know we just give into this man to putin and life will go back to normal right and this is a resistance literature this is telling these people don't give in
why and here's the i think here's the point um
it's to remind the church it's to remind the brothers and sisters both then and now
not to give in to the demands
or practices
of a system that has already been judged by god
right god has told us
that there are two ways in which we can go
we can follow godly thinking or we can follow serpent-like thinking we can follow godly ways
or we can serve the ways of flesh
we can serve babylon
the kingdom of god the kingdom of man which way are we going to who are we going to have our allegiance to and god has told us that the kingdom of man is destined to be judged
and so this resistance literature is to remind us of that fact and not to give in to this
and and recognize that the kingdom of man will eventually be destroyed despite your present day sufferings
despite your present day sufferings god will establish a kingdom
and the book of revelation as we know ends with this promise that there will be no more suffering there will be no more tears there will be this time where god and man walk together again when heaven and earth are brought together
and these are the hopes and the dreams
and more than that these are the this is the promised reality of those who hear the words
and his butch read out of the king james and do it right it's not about understanding what this sign means or what this symbol represents
it's about how it impacts our lives to remain faithful to our lord jesus christ
and not the emperor whether it was domitian or whoever is in power today right that's the message
mark i'm sorry go ahead oh no no you touched on some of the points i wanted to bring up if i'm not mistaken uh peter and james were already killed
before this revelation had come out so you imagine with all the persecution the extra stress of that knowing that that had happened and the boy if they if they can be killed you know why should i persevere so you're you're right on about this you know um i i find it very uplifting revelation uh and if you look at the 11th chapter there's a verse there that if you were to sum up and you summed it up beautifully the 15th verse of the 11th chapter could you read it yeah it says uh in the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our lord and of his christ and he shall reign forever and ever and that's you know if you want to put a message to the revelation i think that's it like you said i mean this was trying to build up the people you know throughout the bible we read of the be strong and courageous you know from joshua or all the way to the end of the book and that's what the message is be strong and courageous and as you said persevere right yeah right
anybody else
so when we think about the book of revelation
it's about encouraging those first century believers to endure to the end despite the turmoil and trials they were facing
sometimes when we see or hear about the apocalypse
we think about the end of the world
right i mean that's what that's what uh
that's what sort of the modern word has evolved to the apocalypse the end of the world
in the book of revelation doesn't talk about that
it talks about the renewal of the world
it talks about the restoration of all things it talks about how god
and man will be united you know it's it's about this perfection brian just sent a text appreciate that brian he says uh our motto just what i said our modern sense of the word apocalypse distorts this apocalypse equals end of the world but the greek apocalypses in verse 2 means making fully known
revealing
disclosure
so that's what that word apocalypse means it's a revealing
so we're going to end in a couple of minutes and as we think about this idea about the purpose of the revelation the purpose of the revealing i want to go to two or three other new testament passages that show us the hope that these first century believers had and how that hope is beginning to be realized through this apocalyptic message of john through our risen lord jesus in the book of revelation so we're going to look at uh we'll look at three passages the first is romans back in romans we're going to look at chapter 8
and again the reason we're coming to these three passages is to pick up on brian's comment about the meaning of apocalypse the greek word means a a revealing and uncovering it it gives this idea of bringing something to light
what did the first century believers have to have brought to light the fact that god was still in control the fact that god hadn't given up on them the fact that jesus will in fact return
what's the revelation what needs to be revealed romans chapter 8
we're going to look at verse
19
this is the this is the verse that just follows that that well loved passage that says i reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us
and you know this is to the this is paul's writing to the romans who are suffering now imagine yourself you know exiled on the isle of patmos or or you know facing persecution under this wicked emperor and the next passage in verse 19 acts uh romans 8 verse 19 says the creation waits in eager expectation
for the sons of god
to be revealed
and we come to revelation that's the same word it's this revealing it's this uncovering it's bringing to light god's plan and god's message the next one we'll come to is in first peter
i i really uh enjoy uh peter and as as mark says at this point in history peter has likely already been uh executed for his beliefs so this again gives us an idea as to the challenges that these brothers and sisters went through so in first peter chapter 1 verse 7
we read this it says these have come so he's talking about trials right how you're going to have to suffer all kinds of trials in verse six verse seven says these have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine
and may result in praise glory and honor when
jesus christ is
revealed
this is that same word this is that that bringing to light there was this expectation that there would be a revelation
and when we come to the book of revelation this really brothers and sisters is what it's about
so if you come to if your background is one where you see the book of revelation and you think oh this is too hard to understand this is something that is confusing to me i want to avoid it
know that you're not alone
but know this think about the words of peter we were in peter just a moment ago i want you to go to 2nd peter
and [Music]
did i write it down ii peter chapter 3
verse 16.
peter now is writing about our good friend the apostle paul who's written so many letters and so much in our new testament canon right so much of paul's writings this is what this is how peter critiqued paul's message
he says in verse 16 speaking about paul he says paul writes the same way in all his letters speaking in them of these matters his letters contain some things that are hard to understand
right so peter's talking about paul writing in ways about things that are hard to understand
and if peter thought that way about paul's writings
i think it's okay for us to feel that way about the book of revelation okay and our goal this next couple of weeks is to try to understand the message from the perspective
of those first century believers
and we're going to see next week god willing the structure of revelation it's going to be broken down into four parts
each one of these parts is described with a code phrase
in the spirit john is going to say i was in the spirit and we're going to see really four different distinct phases of the book
the first one is where we see christ being revealed in heaven as risen and alive
this is an act in revelation chapter one and then christ is going to give a personal message
to these seven ecclesias in asia minor the second part of the book is where we see a vision from heaven explaining what's happening on the earth the people on the earth didn't understand what was happening so the purpose of this apocalypse was to give them a heavenly perspective of their earthly reality we don't understand it god is going to give them the view from heaven so that they can have a better big picture understanding of his eternal purpose
the third section of the book is where we see
john being brought in spirit to see the destruction of babylon which in the grand scheme of things brings us right back to genesis where we saw for the first time men
creating a kingdom for themselves at babel
so we are now seeing the destruction of the kingdom of men
and finally in the last section of the book we're going to see how god will dwell with man again and how there will be no more tears or crying or suffering or pain
but all god will be all in all and this is the hope of the revelation and its purpose is to encourage us to keep the faith and not to give up
Class 2
Original URL Sunday, March 13, 2022
Transcript
so um we're going to be talking about the book of revelation and we started to get into this last week and really what i what i'm trying to do in these classes is present the book of revelation from the perspectiveof those very
first generation christadelphians you know those that the first generation of believers and this was a very challenging time for our early brothers and sisters because there was a a transition that was happening between the the first generation of believers and the second generation of believers and the transition was this
people were dying
and this was unexpected
most of the early brothers and sisters had this view
that they would be alive
when jesus the risen jesus returned from heaven and so when they began to die
it created a crisis
in their minds in the minds of those who were saying wait a minute what's happening here and so those are some of the things that were that were problematic to them
additionally there was great persecution
among that first group of believers
think about what happened in their lives i mean we've just come through a period of trauma for so many of us having experienced a pandemic for the first time but imagine what it was like
not for the people of ukraine
and you know you cannot only imagine how horrifying it is for these individuals our brothers and sisters there the the just the general population there how horrifying it is for them but similarly
the men and women who were receiving this message from john
experienced
very similar turmoil in their lives
the roman empire invaded their land
and they burned their homes
and they destroyed the temple of yahweh this is something that these people witnessed and experienced
and more than that it's my view that at this point in history around 90
a.d when this book is being written there's a new emperor on the scene not nero who burned their family members and their friends at the stake who fed the their christian brothers and sisters to the lions
now there's a new emperor who's sort of doing the same thing supposedly there's this emperor domitian who comes in and he too they say is persecuting the christians and this persecution was in the form of economic persecution if you don't bow down and worship the emperor as a deity as a god then you will be excluded from having any economic position within our community you can't buy and sell you can't trade these were the problems
that our first century brothers and sisters were experiencing and much of this book of revelation was originally written to address issues and problems that they themselves were experiencing okay so that's the premise behind these classes
this is not to say that the view that our community takes towards revelation is is i mean i'm not saying anything about modern views on revelation and how the the symbols relate to modern error okay what we're trying to do is just understand from the perspective of the first century reader how they would have understood these messages okay any questions about that
turn with me to first thessalonians chapter 4.
this is kind of an interesting passage because this gives us a sense of what the brothers and sisters were
struggling with as it related to their brothers and sisters their family members dying before the return of jesus so in first thessalonians we and in second thessalonians we see this message that's repeated over and over and over again and it's a message of the return of jesus that it's going to happen but look at the fourth chapter first thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13.
and here paul who's writing this letter is appealing to them and he says brothers
we don't want you to be ignorant about those
who [Music] fall asleep
this is the point people were dying
and there was this worry that the promises that god had made weren't going to come true he says we don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep
or to the or to grieve
like the rest of men who have no hope you know just as an aside i was talking to lindy uh in the other room linda and we were talking about our brother arthur who recently died
and she said you know it's i'm comforted knowing that he is at rest and that his next waking moment will be that time when christ raises him from the dead and she says it's weird i don't feel as though i'm mourning
because i take comfort in the fact that he's no longer in pain or no longer stress suffering and this is what paul is writing here to the thessalonians he says we don't grieve like the rest of men who have no hope we believe that jesus died and rose again and so we believe that god will bring jesus bring with jesus those who have fallen asleep in him according to the lord's own word we tell you that we who are still alive who are left till the coming of the lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep and so this again is just i'm bringing this passage to you just to emphasize the fact that this was a time of turmoil in the minds of so many of those early believers and at the same time as i said our early brothers and sisters were facing this terrible persecution because the roman empire at this point in time was beginning to enforce
among both gentiles and jews
this idea that they had to worship the emperor as a god
now put yourself in the position of a jew a jewish christian one who believes that jesus was the messiah who grew up knowing that there was only one god the shema this was the thing that they learned from the their childhood hero israel the lord our god
is one
think about the promises or or the commandments that were given on mount sinai you thou shalt have no other gods before me
and all of a sudden the roman empire comes in and says domitian this new emperor you must worship him as a god.
it's like time out how can we do that
but more than that as they're looking at these roman emperors who they are to deify who are they who they are supposed to pay homage to they also recognize it it's these men
who are who had destroyed the temple it's these men who had created such turmoil in the lives of the jewish nation and the lives of their family and friends how could they
give these people homage
and so they didn't and because of that they were oppressed and they were persecuted last week we looked at romans chapter 10 and we saw that passage that speaks about saying that jesus is lord and i don't know that we necessarily understand the importance of what that meant
to those early brothers and sisters when we say jesus is lord it's saying our allegiance is to jesus
our allegiance is not to emperor domitian it was all about allegiance it was to who it was who they would put their trust in
so many of these uh many of these uh brothers and sisters were struggling with all sorts of things and we get a sense of that in a couple of passages in revelation so revelation chapter 1 verse 9 gives us an idea of uh the consequences of pushing back against this emperor worship and here john says uh revelation 1 verse 9 i john your brother in companion in the suffering
and kingdom and patient endurance that ours in jesus was on the island of patmos and i mentioned that this island of patmos i mean i i sort of view it as sort of this modern-day alcatraz you know that john is is thrown there and and he's that's where he's in imprisoned almost
and so there is this theme throughout revelation about the struggle that they will be experiencing
so when we come to the book we talk about this book and and as you can see on the screen here
the book of revelation comprises three different types of literature
the first type of literature that we see is one that we're very common with and it's just a letter the book of revelation is a letter
it's it's really not much different than the letters that were written to the corinthian ecclesias or to the the ecclesias in rome
it begins like like all of paul's letters and it ends like paul's letters and we see that with this prologue so i don't know if you can read that but revelation chapter 1
verses 4 through 7 really give us this idea that it truly is a circular letter that was to be read to the brothers and sisters in these different house churches and it begins this way john
to the seven churches in the province of asia grace and peace to you from he from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits before his throne and from jesus christ who is the faithful witness the first born from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth so this is in the form of a letter isn't it just like you know i paul write this letter here we see i john
write this letter and when we come to the very end of revelation chapter 22
we see a very familiar sign off just like so many of the letters that paul or any of the other new testament writers concluded theirs with so i'll have you take a look at romans chapter 22
verse 21 and it simply says the grace of the lord jesus be with you or be with god's people amen and that's the same sort of sign off that so many of paul's letters romans chapter i think 16 concludes that way
the grace of the jesus christ be with you it's it's the form of a letter so the first type of literature that we see here is this this idea that it is in fact just that a letter uh the second thing that we see in terms of literature is that this is a book of prophecy and we're certainly familiar with the prophets of the jewish scriptures we see so often the jewish writers the jewish prophets proclaiming
the word of the lord
thus saith the lord this is not their words these are the words that god has given them to share with the people and when you think about prophecy brothers and sisters i'll just ask well when i think about prophecy i think sometimes it's common for us to think that prophecy is about foretelling the future
and in some cases it is
but more than that the primary objective of prophecy was to affect a change
in the life of the hearer it wasn't just to say this is what's going to happen in the future it was to say this is what's going to happen in the future therefore you must make changes in your life we see that in amos we see that in so many of the old testament prophets
and the same thing is true here in revelation so look at uh chapter 1
and now we're going to look at the first three verses we looked at verse 4 which showed how the letter begins but there's this introduction or there's this prologue in the first three verses and it says the revelation of jesus christ which god gave him to show his servants what must soon take place so this is an idea of prophecy foretelling the future right it's telling them what soon must take place
he made it known by sending john
by sending his angel to his servant john who testifies to everything he saw that is the word of god and the testimony of jesus christ here's the second point about prophecy
it's designed not just to tell the future but to affect change in the life of the hearer and this is what's happening here in the third verse
blessed is the one who reads the words
of this prophecy
and blessed are those who hear it
and take it to heart or who keep it who do it and that's the message here so we see one it's a letter two it's a prophecy foretelling what soon must take place so that they can endure so that they can stick stay the course they were to stand fast
stand fast in the face of this roman persecution and not give in to the power and the influence of the roman beast
the third type of literature that we see here in the book of revelation is what's known as apocalyptic literature and we spoke about this last week it's a common type of reading both in the old testament and in the new apocalypse is a greek word and it simply means
uncovering it's designed to make things clear from god's perspective it's designed to help us understand a heavenly perspective
on earthly circumstances
and wouldn't that be nice to know right when we're struggling like when we see things that are really challenging in our lives like why is this happening to me imagine what the people in the ukraine are saying right now why is this happening and to be able to sort of have
a prophetic vision where god now brings you to heaven so that you can see things from hurt his perspective
this is what apocalyptic literature is designed to do and we usually see apocalyptic literature written to people who are facing great oppression and in the jewish scriptures in the old testament we see it most clearly in places like daniel and ezekiel and isaiah where the readers of this literature were undergoing
huge trials
babylonian captivity
right why is this happening let me give you god's perspective and the perspective is that in the end this is in general in apocalyptic literature in the end
good will overcome evil the kingdom of god will overcome the kingdom of men and this to me is one of the big messages big picture views of whether it's ezekiel or daniel or the apocalyptic literature that we see here in revelation
when we come to the book of revelation itself
so much of the language that we see the symbols that we read about the visions are drawn
from old testament passages like ezekiel and like daniel
and this gives us an idea as to why
many scholars will look at the revelation and say that it was written to protect the hearers
from
from the roman empire and what i mean by that and i and i think i quoted a passage um
i quoted a book that talked about the language of revelation being
this language of um
what was the word um
resistance
right it's like because they're speaking so negatively about the oppressors they have to do it in a code form so that the hearer can understand what's being said but the actual oppressors wouldn't it would go over their heads and by looking at old testament passages that speak about like the the apocalyptic visions of daniel these hearers would have been familiar with that and they would have heard this and said oh okay i think i get what it's saying so in a modern day example right if i if i show you a picture of an elephant and a donkey
do you know what it's referring to
corruption
an elephant and a donkey what's it referring to political parties in the united states
if i show you a picture of a a man with a top hat uncle sam do we know what that is yeah it's referring to the united states and there are political symbols that have been used throughout history and i think that what we're seeing in the book of revelation are just those same things when we see a beast the readers the original readers of this passage would have recognized this beast to be rome
why do they use the word babylon i mean doesn't that seem bizarre and i think the reason is because babylon was code for rome it was the language of the resistance they could say babylon and they knew that it referenced wrong we see an example of that in peter i think it's first peter 5
where he says that he's in babylon
first peter chapter 5 verse 15.
this is the final greetings he's concluding his letter he says with the help of silas in verse 12 whom i regard as a faithful brother i have written to you briefly encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of god stand fast in it then he says she who is in babylon chosen together with you send you her greetings
and so does my son mark well wait a minute is peter writing about somebody in babylon babylon had long been destroyed at this point in time he's not what's he talking about he's talking about the city of rome and so when we come to the book of revelation we see so much discussion about the about the city of babylon it's really that language of resistance saying hey i'm saying babylon but you know we're talking about the roman empire the roman empire who might come across this writing won't know that we're talking about them does that make sense
any questions
yeah please
secret codes and stuff like that yeah that was very common too in the first century uh that the early christians had their own secret way of communicating with other christians like just for instance the fish right right that's yeah and the you know like the anchor and um you know different words that had meanings just in a little circle and so i think that fits perfectly with what you're saying that revelation is full of those symbols that only the the group would know and be able to apply it to the surroundings of their world like no one would know like what is a fish a roman who was a pagan be like i don't know it's a fish right that had a very so so why would they why would they use that symbol of the fish do you think yeah so it it goes back to what you're saying with the persecution like they're trying to make it in the roman pagan world that was it was everywhere and so they needed to communicate they were they were being persecuted they needed to know who was a friend who was a foe and a lot of these symbols they would put on their homes in certain areas or in their workplaces as well like bakers they found a bakery that had a fish and other um early uh christian symbols they're they're telling people secretly that hey we're a christian here it's a safe place to come if you want place to come safe place yeah and they're saying you know that's why they went underground to do all you know the um in the catacombs and stuff like that and you know a lot of the art that came out of there that we we talked about really helpful yeah i don't and it all fits together like you said i think it does yeah i think it's a stay mentality you have to put yourself into their position they were overwhelmed every day by persecution and just by the culture of rome right overwhelmed by it right the beast yeah so he so here's a more modern day example of that so in the second world war
uh there were christadelphian brothers and sisters who lived in germany
and there were some young men who were conscripted
to fight
in hitler's nazi army
and they refused to do so
and they one of these brothers a 19 year old
young man
was killed by a firing squad for his belief albert mertz was his name
and his ecclesia
stayed faithful despite that persecution
and they had to be very careful
about identifying themselves
as christians or as christadelphians in particular
and as a result they stopped meeting together in their homes
but would instead
on a sunday often go out to public restaurants
where they would share
a loaf of bread
and a bottle of wine
among a meal
and it was in this way
that this faithful ecclesia
could continue to meet to honor the memory of jesus
and do so
safely
and so what i get from that is is that is an example of the very thing that rich is talking about you know with the the symbol of the fish and as a reason why john here describes this evil empire
using language that would be understood by the readers of the jewish scriptures
the old testament readers of of daniel and ezekiel and isaiah
but not understood by the roman oppressors okay
thanks for that rich
okay so what i want to do now is uh i'm going to show a another slide if you can throw that up
phil or jim that would be helpful
the book of revelation is broken down i think into four distinct sections
the first section is here and it's revelation chapter one and it begins in the ninth verse and the reason i'm saying it's broken down into four sections is because each section is marked
with a specific phrase
and that sort of uh you know picture yourself as an early christian who is um having this letter read to you while you're sitting in this congregation and you're hearing and you hear this repeated phrase as as it goes
and the phrase is
in the spirit
chapter 1 verse 9.
i john your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that ours that are ours in christ jesus was on the island of patmos because of the word of god
and the testimony of jesus verse 10
on the lord's day i was
in the spirit and this section in the spirit is repeated here in revelation 1
the second section is in revelation 4
the third section is in revelation 17
and the last is in revelation 21. you don't need to know that for now but this is how i've divided the book into these four different sections so section one
is really john's view from the earth remember we're talking about apocalyptic literature giving us god's perspective on human issues
why are we going through all of this turmoil and trouble and persecution and oppression why are people dying without having re you know seen the risen lord return to overthrow the roman empire and establish god's kingdom why is this happening and the first vision that john gets in this spirit is a view from the earth this is an earthly view
john's vision depicts jesus the son of man walking
among the churches
so in the first section of the book the seven churches are exhorted to endure and this is the theme remember the promise of revelation those that listen to this prophecy and do it will be rewarded what are they to do
the prophecy said i'm going to tell you about the things that are shortly to come to pass what's about to happen what's about to happen i think is there's going to be an increase
in persecution
and the question that these early brothers and sisters had to decide is what am i going to do about it am i going to compromise and give into rome am i going to throw away my hope
or am i going to endure to the end am i going to stick it out and so so much of what we read in this first section of of the uh the revelation is one about remaining in remaining faithful about enduring it's really about overcoming and that's the word that just repeats over and over and over again you need brothers and sisters to overcome so let's start by just taking a look at uh chapter 1
verse 12.
so verse 10 says on the lord's day i was in the spirit i heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches to ephesus smyrna pergamon thyatira sardis philadelphia and laodicea
verse 12 i turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me and when i turned i saw seven golden lamp stands
and among the lampstands was someone like
a son of man
someone like a son of man now
put yourselves brothers and sisters into the shoes into the clothes of a first century believer a first generation believer who grew up reading and hearing from the synagogue the words of the prophets
this quote the son of man is lifted directly from daniel chapter 7.
jesus in his ministry referred to himself as the son of man
and so again this is code language that will allow those first generation of believers and second generation of believers to understand who it was that was giving this message it was jesus
questions about that
and so what's the message to these early brothers and sisters in these seven churches
the message was to overcome and on the screen here i've written down seven passages which relate to one one passage from each of the seven messages okay so let's just go through and i wanna just read these to you because it does emphasize the struggle that our early brothers and sisters were facing and the encouragement that this letter was designed to give them chapter two this is uh written to the the ecclesia or the church that was in the town of ephesus and verse 7 says
he who is an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches
to him who overcomes
i will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of god
and their mind would go where straight back to the creation account in genesis that they were familiar with but which the romans weren't
if you overcome i'll give you the right to eat from the tree of life you will live forever
if you overcome you will be rewarded this was the message of overcoming to ephesus in smyrna chapter 2 verse 9 we'll read an extended passage here because this gives us more details about the actual trials that our brothers and sisters were having to go through so chapter 2 verse 9 says
i know your afflictions
and your poverty remember their afflictions weren't simply being burned at the stake
it was also an economic thing they were unable to buy they were unable to sell they were able to unable to participate in the economy i know your afflictions and your poverty yet you're rich
i know the slander
of those who say they're jews and are not but are a synagogue of satan so what's the code language here
what's the synagogue of satan mean to the first generation of believers they're located where in smyrna and within smyrna smyrna there is a synagogue that has been built to the name and to the honor of the roman emperors
and jews are caving in
and he's drawing he's he's pointing to them saying don't be like those jews
jews who are not but they're a synagogue of satan don't be afraid of what you're about to suffer
i tell you the devil will put some of you in prison who is putting them in prison who's the devil here it's the romans
it's the roman authorities who had the who had the authority to throw our early believers our early brothers and sisters in jail
then he says be faithful even to the point of death and i will give you the crown of life
he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches he who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death again this emphasis on overcoming the persecution overcoming the trials
we see it in verse 17 this is to the church that was in pergamum he as an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to who him who overcomes i'll give him some of the hidden manna
just as god protected the israelites in the wilderness god can protect you from your economic turmoil
you will receive the hidden manna if you overcome
verse 26 to thyatira
to him who overcomes and does my will to the end i will give him authority over the nations he'll be a ruler right all of these things the emphasis over and over again is that they should overcome
last one we'll look at is chapter 3
verse 19
those who i love i rebuke and discipline so be earnest and repent here i am i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice opens the door i'll come into him he'll eat with him and he will be with me to him who overcomes i'll give the right to sit with me on my throne just as i overcame and sat down with my father on his throne okay
the prophetic message was designed to foretell what would soon take place you're going to suffer persecution but more than that it was designed to encourage them to take action to hear the words and not give up on god's purpose and to know that if they overcame they would be rewarded
revelation chapter 22
shows in more detail the fulfillment of that reward
and uh revelation chapter 22 gives us
more descriptions of how beautiful that reward will be verse 12
jesus says behold i'm coming soon my reward is with me and i'll give to everyone according to what he has done i'm the alpha and the omega the first and the last the beginning in the end blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city the new jerusalem
so that's the promise that's the encouragement that these people are being offered for
sticking with it
okay so what we've seen in that first section is is the uh section one where in the vision in this spirit john has a vision from the earth this is what you see and this is what you need to do
what we see next in the in this main section of the book of revelation
is um
a vision from heaven
so the first vision was the earthly view this next section of the book gives us a heavenly view in other words this largest section of the book john is brought in vision to god's
heavenly throne room and here john's perspective changes he's not seeing it from the standpoint of those who are suffering here and now he's seeing it through god's eyes
and he's seeing the grand scheme of god's plan and purpose
it's it's a widening of the of the timeline it's a widening of the view it's it's showing him that god is in control despite what you might see on earth
when you come to god's heavenly throne room you can see
all of god's plan so the vision
from um
from this uh from this section the vision provides two things
the first thing that we get is this promise of a reward for being faithful
god is saying to the people
that if you remain faithful
you will be a kingdom of priests
just as israel was this is that passage that we see in revelation 5 and 10.
you know brother bob eagles last week spoke about his dad right talked about all the things that that his dad had shared with him and one of the things that i remember from doug is what he used to call the woolworth verse
you guys remember that what is it gail
the five and ten woolworth five and ten he always had these little examples things that would make it easy to remember important passages the woolworth verses revelation 5 and 10
that we will be a kingdom we will be kings and priests we will be a kingdom of priests
okay and i think that that was a helpful thing for me and we see that here in revelation 5 verses 9 and 10.
they sang a new song this is the view from heaven uh he sees the heavenly throne room he sees these all of these uh creatures that are praising the the uncreate god you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for god from every tribe and language people and nation you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our god so this was what they were praising the lamb for okay how's the king james read there jim sullivan you get it who can quote it even better
so the niv says a kingdom of uh
you will be made to be a kingdom and priests i think that king james has a kingdom of priests is that right
kings and priests and we shall reign where
on the earth so again this is the emphasis that christ will return don't give up on your faith yes people are dying but they will be raised we don't mourn like other men we they will be raised we will be a kingdom of priests on the earth that's the message that's the message of hope
but then what we see in the balance of the book the balance of this section of the book revelation 4 through revelation 17
are three
series
of divine judgments
three series of divine judgments each series is comprised of seven ever increasing punishments that god is going to levy against the oppressors
and these
are described as seals
trumpets
and bowls
so there are seven seals
there are seven trumpets
and there are seven bowls
the seals
and let me just jump in here so one of the things that makes it hard to follow the book of revelation
is that like a modern movie where they're always sort of like interrupting the the storyline
with like and here's a glimpse of what happened 20 years earlier right you've seen that in modern movies the same thing happens in the book of revelation so we're going through and the reader now knows that there are going to be seven seals and there's a description here's the first seal here's the second punishment here's the third punishment and all of a sudden there's like wait a minute where's the fourth one where's this fifth one where you know and there are these like parenthetical um
scenes that that provide further details or answer different questions so i'm not going to get into those details right now what i'm trying to do is really just show the big picture and the big picture in this section of passages from chapter 4 through chapter 17
are divine judgments seven seals seven trumpets seven bowls
later on god willing we'll get into some of these
side dialogues okay these parenthetical dialogues but for now we're going to focus on the seals trumpets and bowls
we'll end here the seals represent the judgments of god
and those who persecute the saints and as the and as we come here and start reading through the seals the first thing we see are the four horsemen of the apocalypse the four horsemen and for the original first generation believer they would have heard this red and their minds would have gone
wait a minute where have i heard that before
and it would have brought them straight back to zechariah or to joel or to isaiah where these very same themes are presented in the old testament so this again was something that they would have been familiar with but the roman oppressors wouldn't have been so the the idea here is these seals represent judgments of god on those who persecute the saints and oppose the truth the trumpets
are the next of the seven and trumpets think of a shofar right when was a shofar blown in ancient israel it was blown to announce important events it was blown to announce war
and so the trumpet sounded to announce these things and here they they um they represented this
series of seven plagues that would go out against those who oppressed the first generation believers and if you're a first generation believer who grew up reading the jewish scriptures what are your mind what does your mind go to when you read about these plagues
egypt right right back to egypt oh just as egypt was overthrown i can take hope that the roman empire will be overthrown god will judge the romans just as he judged the egyptians before and so we see that with the trumpets and the same with the bowls the bowls are god pouring out his judgment and the reader would have heard the you know the stories of
running out of time um
yeah we'll stop there
Class 3
Original URL Sunday, March 20, 2022
Transcript
so uh we're continuing our study in the book of revelation and what makes i think this seriesperhaps unique or different from the traditional way we look at revelation is we're trying to understand how this book would have been understood not by modern readers
not by readers who have the benefit of hindsight looking at history and and how the different nations have sort of you know continuously been represented through the book of revelation which is sort of the the normal routine of the normal study that we've had
uh instead what we're looking to do is understand the book of revelation from the standpoint of the first
generation
of believers how was it that the hearers of john's
john's revelation would have understood these things would they have understood you know about the french revolution no would they have understood what's happening in their time yes and so the whole purpose of our studies this these last couple of weeks is is just that it's to understand the book of revelation from the view of the first generation of believers and you'll remember that when we looked at their circumstances we saw that they were really struggling
and there were two things that they were struggling with one they were struggling with their faith
because these believers
fully understood and expected
that the risen jesus would return from heaven during their lifetime
they thought that christ would return and all of a sudden they're looking around their congregations and they're starting to see believers
die
fall asleep
and this is rocking their faith we get a sense of that when we look at the paul's letter to the thessalonians and he's and he says to them look you know we're not like those who die with no hope and he goes on in the book of re the letters to the revelations to really explain
that yes there is a day when christ will raise the dead so don't lose hope but this was one of the things that the first generation of believers were struggling with it was this this idea wait a minute the lord has not returned we're starting to die is this promise real and there was a temptation among the believers to give up on their faith
the second challenge that they had was really a challenge of living under the oppression of rome
roman oppression was a real thing to the jews who lived in jerusalem
but think now that this letter that we're reading in revelation as we said was a letter this letter that we're reading was written probably around the year 90 a.d
and what's happened in the intervening years the years since the gospels were written you know since jesus rather walked on the earth is that the romans have come into jerusalem and they have destroyed the temple of god and they have made life miserable for the jewish nation and they've made life miserable for that sect of the jewish nation that was following the lord jesus and so this was the second challenge that they faced do we continue to you know hold to this faith and fee and face ostracization uh face persecution face oppression and opposition or
do we give up on our faith and sort of go along with the romans
so these were the challenges that the book of revelation was designed to do john in chapter 1 says that this book of a prophecy was designed to do a specific thing and it was to bring a blessing to those who hear this word of prophecy and remember the expression and do it it wasn't just like something that they were to fill their heads with knowledge it was something that was to to create a change in their lives it was to impact the way they lived their lives
and so on the screen here in this masterful slide
which which phil in particular gave me grief for uh what we see is sort of the structure of the book and the structure was that in the very top we see that it was written as a letter uh there's a prologue in the top left that begins in revelation 1 you know that sounds like the like any normal letter and then there's an epilogue at the end of the of revelation which is just how paul would conclude his letters very normal letter sort of situation and then we said that the book was broken up into four parts and each of those parts is signify we know that a new part is starting when john says i was you remember the expression in the spirit
and that's sort of code word for us to say okay we've got to pay attention here there's something that's different happening and so there were four periods during this letter where john was quote unquote in the spirit the first one on the left is revelation chapter one and that's verses nine ver one verse nine two through the end of chapter three and this is sort of the view from earth this is where
john in his in his revelation is giving the seven churches to whom he wrote
um
a view that jesus is walking among them on earth
and that this is what they have to do and there are these seven messages that are presented then to each of the seven churches
in chapter um
in chapter 4 we see the second section of the book and this is the biggest section of the book and i hope brothers and sisters that we'll spend some time here today
and it's here in chapter four where we see not the earthly perspective with jesus walking among the churches on earth and sort of saying this is your current circumstance you know i want you to endure i want you not to give up on your faith this is what we talked about last week in that first section in in the second section jesus
john is seeing the view from heaven he's brought up to the heavenly throne room and now he's getting a heavenly perspective
on earthly problems
and i think this is really a key part of what we're going to be trying to understand
they're looking at the situation from their point of view and from their timeline you know if you think about it we look at things from from our timeline our our you know our expected lifetime and what seems to us like a long time is but a moment for god and so when we see this view from heaven it's as though the whole picture opens up and that god has a plan and that the plan will not fall apart
don't worry god has a plan we're going to talk more about that so i don't want to i don't want to recap too much but this was the idea behind the class last week it was to sort of paint the structure and the main thing i want you to take away where there were four sections of the book the main section there is chapter 4
through chapter 17. and it's in this main section where at one point god begins to deliver three series of divine judgments
there were there were three series of seven judgments there were seven seals
the seven scrolls that needed to be unsealed the wax seals had to be broken there were seven trumpets or shofars or you know horns that that blew and there were seven bowls what i want to do today in our class is focus on the first series of judgments
and we're going to be talking today about the seven scrolls the seven seals
that had to be broken and quote unquote unleashed upon the world okay
how's this for a slide
you're impressed butch yeah i this is a copy and paste job this is not me created by bibleinfo.com down on the bottom okay i don't know anything about the website but i thought the what i thought the uh the interpretation was pretty good so there are seven seals that we're going to look at this morning and we're going to try and understand
what these things would have meant
to the first generation of believers
there were four horses today you know we we hear the the expression the four horsemen of the apocalypse you've heard that
there's the white horse the red horse the black horse the pale horse those are the first four seals that needed to be opened after that there is this seal that's open and we see the souls of those who have died for their faith crying out seeking vengeance
on their enemies this is the fifth seal
the sixth seal is where the there's this enormous earthquake and the sun turns black and people are cowering in fear and caves
and they're asking the question who can stand who can survive this sort of thing
and then the seventh seal is one where there is an unexpected answer there's this unexpected event and that is as as you know each one of these seals is is broken and as the contents of the uh of the of the scroll are unveiled there's this expectation that seems to be growing from one seal to the next that god will provide the answer to all of their problems and they come to the seventh seal
and there's nothing there there's silence in heaven
and so we're going to look at these seven seals and try to understand
how the first generation second generation of believers would have understood these things
any questions
guys with me i know there's a lot here
okay so the four horsemen or the four horses of the apocalypse i wanted to put this picture on the slide because when i see the the image of the four horses
in my mind i see things like you know paul revere's ride where there is a soldier that's riding on a horse you know on bareback barreling through the woods you know crying out and yelling and
is that what you see or do you see anything different when you think about a rider on a horseback
that's what i have in my mind
but what would
the first century believers have seen
hey phil
are you able to share that that video that i sent you okay so from the perspective of a roman citizen there was something that they would have been well aware of during that point in history i wish rich was here our resident scholar right there was something that were known as roman triumphs you heard of that expression a roman triumph it was like a parade it was a way that they would honor the conquering heroes who came back from war having expanded the roman empire
and these roman triumphs these parades were designed in such a way that the citizens would gather and they would pay homage to these men and they would worship them as though they were deities
one of the things that we talked about in this period of time was this this growing sense of emperor worship
where the men and women of the of the region would literally worship the emperor as a god
and so these roman triumphs were known and understood by the hearers of the revelation to be
a parade
in which the conquering hero would return being pulled by
four horses
through the through the city streets and so what phil is going to show us right now is a clip from the movie ben hur okay and this clip is going to show us what a roman triumph might have looked like to those who lived in the region phil are you able to show that now
[Music]
there's the godly
emperor who is seeking to be worshipped [Music]
[Applause]
one two three four
white horses
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
so that's probably good for now phil
[Applause] [Music]
thanks very much
i hope that our youtube channel doesn't get blocked as a result of that right
for copyright infringement um so here's the thing i wanted to i wanted to show that to you because i think this is what the first century believer would have immediately thought of when there is this language of the jewish apocalyptic literature presented to them there are four horses what would they have thought of oh
this is code language that's talking about the roman empire
this is language that because what we see in the book of revelation is a very scathing critique of the romans
and as john writes this revelation to the people he has to get this message across in such a way that they would change their lives for the better
but also so that they would not be punished by those that john was writing about so negatively and that's why there was this this form of literature this apocalyptic literature was which was written it was the the language of resistance we said
so they would i think have recognized that the horsemen here was designed to get them thinking about the romans
the first of the four horsemen was the white horse
and we read about that in revelation chapter 6
verse 2.
i left my glasses in the car
all right so
revelation 6 i'm going to read
i'll read this section so that we can follow along
john says i watched
the lamb
opened the first of the seven seals
so let's just think now about the context of the book of revelation what has happened at this point in time in chapters four and five
john is brought to the heavenly throne room
and there in heaven he is seeing
a representation of god
and the language that's used in revelation chapter 4
is language that is drawn directly from ezekiel's apocalyptic literature again this is this is stuff that the hearers would have been familiar with
in revelation chapter 4 there's this view of the heavenly throne room and of these creatures and i just want to as an aside go here um let's look at uh
i got to turn a light on sandy do you have any glasses honey
i feel like such a rookie forgot my glasses thanks sandy's got some
i know wait a minute
you
all right um
so revelation chapter four okay the the brothers and sisters are struggling with their faith they're wondering what's going on people are dying has god given up on his plan
and
we see john being brought into the heavenly throne room and in chapter 4
we see that there's in this vision there is this verse 8 each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around
and there's this this idea that the god in the heavenly throne room is all seeing he sees everything there's nothing that goes unnoticed by him and this was i think designed to bring comfort to believers who thought god has forgotten about me he doesn't see the trouble that i'm in he doesn't see the persecution that i'm facing
and the revelation the vision in in chapter 4 was no no
god is
all seeing
further furthermore as we go through chapter five we see the introduction now to the one that can
really solve the problems
you know they're there and they're wondering who can open the seals no one can do it no one can do it and look what happens in uh verse 5.
verse 3 no one in heaven and earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it we see the travail that john is going through thinking you know look this is an unsolvable problem
verse 4 i wept
and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside
and then one of the elders said to me do not weep
see the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david has triumphed
he's able to open the seven open the scroll and at seven seals
so the first part in chapter four was i think to show the the readers or the hearers that god sees everything your problems are not being ignored by god he sees them chapter 5 tells us that there is an answer to these problems
and john hears and this is important brothers and sisters he hears an elder in heaven saying look the lion of the tribe of judah and when we think of a lion we think of what the king of the jungle we think of you know somebody who can forcefully
come back and destroy all of those who might be cr causing problems for us
does that make sense like the first century believers are looking for solutions to their problems their problems are that the romans are oppressing them and this elder says to john look the lion is here he can solve the problems
and john turns
he hears that there's a lion there he turns and what does he see
he sees a lamb
it's this shocking thing it's it's exactly the opposite i think of what he expected or what the first century believers expected they needed to be reminded
that the solution to their problems wasn't to overthrow the romans it wasn't to you know
create this political environment where they could cr where they could align themselves with others or that they could somehow destroy the roman empire it was they needed to learn the lesson of christian power
the christian power wasn't one that was powerful by force
it was to follow the example of jesus
and jesus died as a lamb and in that death there was great power
and that was the power that could save them
not from not necessarily from the the troubles in this life but could save them eternally
and so that was one of the things that they needed to learn in that first vision
god was all seeing and in control and two the risen jesus could care for them the risen jesus was a lamb who had the power to open the seals and for that reason they worshipped and they sang a new song chapter five you're worthy to take the scroll and open its seals goes on worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise these are the very things that those conquering heroes in rome were receiving
but instead this is the heavenly chorus that is giving honor to the slain lamb and this was to be a lesson to our first century believers that your strength is not in overthrowing or aligning yourselves with powerful forces to overthrow the romans your strength is in the slain lamb that's how you are to live questions comments about that
okay
the point i'm just going to read a couple of my notes the point is that while everything in their lives was in chaos
god was in control
chapter 4 verse 1 tells us that god could foretell the future after this i looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven and the voice i heard was speaking to me like a trumpet and said come up here and i will show you what must take place after this so while their life was in chaos god could tell what was going to happen next god was all seeing nothing escaped his sight that's what we looked at in verse six and then in revelation chapter five five john sees the re risen jesus ascended to heaven and surprisingly the lion turns out to be a slain lamb and this shows the readers that christian victory doesn't come about by power strength or fear in other words they were to learn the lesson to follow jesus
that then brothers and sisters brings us to the actual opening of the seals
chapter 6 the lamb begins to open the seven sealed scrolls and he reveals god's divine judgment and as each one of these seals is opened i think that what we are seeing is the consequences
of humans
mismanagement
of god's kingdom
from revelation from genesis chapter 1
man was given the responsibility to bear god's image and to be his representative and to go out and bring his glory to all of creation
god's plan from the beginning was that all the earth would be filled
with his glory
his glory
not the glory of man
but by the time the first believers in revelation were on the scene the glory wasn't god's
the glory was the roman emperors the glory was the kingdom of god in opposition to the kingdom of man king that the kingdom of man was glorified
and god was not
and this was the lesson that they had to learn so revelation chapter 6 verse 1 we see the opening of this first seal
and it's here that this rider wearing a crown was bent on conquering so a lot of the art that we see in the world that depicts these visions will show things like a metal crown as though it was like the king of england
but that's not what we're seeing here that's not what the first believers would have understood the crown in their mind would have looked more like what's worn at the at the end of the boston marathon it was a laurel wreath it was the very symbol of roman victory
and here is this emperor or this conquering hero returning through the streets on his way to rome where he's going to have this audience with the emperor as we saw in ben hur
he's coming through all of the towns all of the villages getting all of this praise
so what's the what's the vision romans revelation 6 i watched the lamb open the first of the seven seals and then i heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder come
i looked and there before me was a white horse
its rider held a bow and he was given a crown and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest
our this is what our first century believers would have gone to the roman triumph
then we keep reading
and in verse
4
we come upon the second rider who's riding on a red horse
then another horse came out a fiery red one its rider was given power to take peace
from the earth
and to make men slay each other
to him was given a great sword
i'm told that the the word there in the original for great sword is the same word that is that's used in greek literature to describe
the roman dagger
not great in the sense of length or size
but great in the sense of power
and if you're thinking about being a first century believer
think about what they would have experienced in their lifetime
think about what would have happened in their recent history as it relates to rome
you've got things like you know in their recent history the the story of julius caesar
and brutus
where brutus goes in and assassinates julius caesar with what
a roman dagger the very word that's described here in revelation chapter 6 verse 4.
think about what was happening in their recent history you've got nero who dies by suicide and in one year there are four different emperors one year
four different emperors take the scene there's uh galba otho vitellius vespian
galba was executed in the forum with a sword otto committed suicide with a sword vitellius was murdered
this guy was so corrupt that he would encourage his uh you know the people in the roman cities to name him as the benef as beneficiary in their wills
when i die
you o great emperor will receive my farm i want to pay homage to you i will write my children out of the will and everything will be yours
and so they do this as a way of honoring the emperor and how are they repaid by that the emperor goes out and kills them
as no sooner is the will drafted that says when i die you will receive my land he goes and kills them and takes their land and that didn't go over very well
and so what happens is this vitellius is murdered with the sword vespian the same thing so the point is when we come to this language of the rider on the red horse carrying a great sword it means something different to us today than likely it meant to the first generation of believers once again their mind would have gone to rome
then what happens is we come to the the third seal a black horse and the black horse is carrying
merchants scales you know if you go to the open market there at the farmer's market there are scales
and the scales will determine what you pay for this much wheat
and the point here
is that just as
let me just go back we've got the white horse which is the conqueror that goes out conquering
seems great right oh great he's a conquering hero but there are consequences to man's inhumanity towards man it's not like you can just conquer without consequence there are real issues that result from these things the red horse was designed to remind the people that conquering
included the carrying of a sword and this rider would take peace away from the land we don't have to look back like the like the ancients we can look at our recent history within the last month and see how putin goes in to a foreign country and takes away the peace
and the devastation that's happening in ukraine right now this is the sort of thing that our first century believers would have been well aware of
one of the consequences of carrying the dagger into your conquests
is that there were real economic consequences to it
supply chains are destroyed
all of a sudden the the wheat and the grain and the the food that the oils that they lived on can no longer easily be transported to the cities because the supply chains are broken
our first century believers would have seen that firsthand when they went to the market and
significant inflation
i mean we're starting to see that sort of thing today aren't we you go and you go to the grocery store and it costs you an arm and a leg
this was one of the consequences of war
and this is what's being described now by the revelation john's vision sees this this rider on a black horse carrying a pair of balances chapter 6 verse 5.
when the lamb opened the third seal i heard the third living creature say come and i looked and there before me was a black horse its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand and then i heard that the sound then i heard
what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a day's wages
and three quarts of barley for a day's wages and do not damage the oil in the wine there's this idea that inflation is running rampant
this was
um a consequence of the conquests and the wars that broke the supply chain and caused suffering when grain and oil couldn't come to the people
and that then brings us to the last of the four horses and it's this pale horse
i don't know if you can see it here but i like this picture it's not a white horse it's like that you know boy you look a little green today you know when you're when you're not feeling well when you got that stomach bug i think that's what's being referenced here a pale horse and here the rider represents death
death that's caused by sword
and famine and plague
and wild beasts
now remember brothers and sisters that as john delivers this apocalyptic message
it was designed so that the hearers could recognize what he was really talking about while protecting them from the people he was being critical of
the language that's used here in revelation 6 verse 8 was familiar to the jewish audience to whom he wrote
it was a direct reference to joel
the prophet joel
in the jewish scriptures
so i want to ask you to turn with me to joel chapter 2.
and it's here at the end of joel chapter 2 we read about this coming day of the lord
the day of the lord will come
in the case of joel it was referencing this judgment that was going to come upon the nation because of their sin and was going to be carried out by the babylonians
in revelation
we're hearing about the problems they're brought by the romans but there but the problem is one in the same it's the kingdom of men in opposition to the kingdom of god so joel chapter 2 ends
and it's describing
this coming day of the lord
verse 28
i will pour out my spirit on all people your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men will dream dreams your young men will see visions even on my servants both men and women i will pour out my spirit in those days
i will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth blood and fire and billows of smoke the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming day coming great and dreadful day of the lord
everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved
um
that's not the passage
i got ahead of myself
uh joel that that's that's the passage for the next seal sorry about that you guys um i wanted to take you instead to ezekiel
ezekiel 14.
this is the one okay so ezekiel 14 this is language that would have been familiar again what i'm trying to do is reference here the sword the famine the plague and the wild beasts all right these four things this language would have been familiar to the first generation of hearers
and it would have brought them to ezekiel 14 and we're going to look at the 21st verse
again speaking about the judgment against the people for their sin
the judgment that would be brought by the powers it be
ezekiel 14
verse 21
for this is how what the sovereign lord says how much worse will it be when i send against jerusalem my four dreadful judgments
sword
and famine and wild beasts and plague to kill its men and their animals
yet there will be some survivors sons and daughters will be brought out of it they will come to you and you will see their conduct and their actions and will be consoled regarding the disaster i've brought upon jerusalem every disaster i've brought upon it you will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions for you will know that i've done nothing in it without cause
declares the sovereign lord
so the language that the apost that john is using here
is a code
designed to get them thinking would have caught that it would have caused them to think back to the same issues that their earlier brothers and sisters would have faced against at the hands of the babylonians
ezekiel chapter 14 verse 21 references the sword famine plague and wild beasts
and what's the point
the point to those to whom john was writing
the point to them was these things were to create a change
in their behavior they weren't to give up on their faith they were to do as ezekiel says as some of those would be saved they those whose conduct and actions brought consolation brought comfort during the disaster remember in revelation he says those who hear the words of this prophecy and do it they needed to do something what they needed to do was keep the faith
this was the message that he was trying to get across
so the fourth seal was a reference then
in revelation
to uh to what was happening years earlier in babylon god was bringing judgment
the same four means of death that we saw in ezekiel would kill a quarter of the population according to john in revelation
chapter 6 verse 8.
question so far
so what we've just done is we've looked at the four horsemen of the apocalypse
the thing that we're to think about now as we see these four horsemen is the roman triumph parade where four horses are carrying the conquering hero and the lesson to the first century believers the first generation believers was that while that image might look powerful to you while it might look all great there are real terrible consequences that come come about by this conquest
there's death and there's you know there's problems with economics there's you know all of the things that we referenced here with these with these four things right the sword the the you know even the romans aren't protected but look at the problem within the roman empire it's not all it's all not all great it's not all white horses and parades
these swords are creating turmoil even within the roman empire itself
the the uh the third seal you know it brings uh economic problems the fourth seal it brings it brings uh death and destruction
and what we see here in this fourth seal is these four judgments of of sword of famine of plague of wild beasts you know invading marauders coming into the land um these four things were going to be were going to bring death to what does it say one quarter of the population verse 8 chapter 6.
so revelation 6 verse 8 i looked and there before me was a pale horse its rider was named death and hades was following close behind him they were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill
now when the next seal is open brothers and sisters we discover
that the believers
the the early christians who were devoting their lives to following jesus weren't exempt from this death
they too were carried up in the problems of the world this is a lesson that we experience in our own lives in our own lives we have to remember that being a follower of jesus doesn't necessarily protect us from the cares of this world
we suffer sickness we suffer mental you know illness we suffer financial collapse at times there are all sorts of problems that we face in life being a follower of jesus doesn't protect us from these things and the fifth seal shows us that it didn't protect them either
at least in their temporal lives
so let's look at what happens in verse nine chapter 6 verse 9 when he opened the fifth seal
i saw under the altar the souls
of those who had been slain because of the word of god
this was one of the big issues that they were facing
this is why when the seven messages to the churches were delivered earlier in the book they were told to overcome if you overcome you will be rewarded don't give up overcome you will be rewarded this was the message time and time again and here we're seeing
that those who were killed and slain and martyred for their belief
are crying out in a loud voice
they're crying out in vengeance
they want vengeance on their oppressors they want vengeance on their enemies verse 10 they called out in a loud voice how long sovereign lord holy and true until you judge
the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood
then each of them was given a white robe
and they were told to wait a little longer
until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were before them
until a number of their servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed
what
they want vengeance and the message was no death is going to continue
but brothers and sisters
this can be a message to us too how often do we pray
for the return of jesus we desire the return of our lord
today if not yesterday
but there is a benefit
to so many people
because jesus has not yet returned
and that benefit is that they a generation yet unborn can learn the gospel truth can devote their lives to jesus and can be saved from the temporary
temporal problems of life
it's what we see in in hebrews
these did not receive the promise do you remember that in hebrews 11
the end of hebrews 11 the faith chapter none of these receive the promise why
that only together with us would they be made perfect
and i think this was the lesson here in this fifth seal
they're crying out for vengeance how long until you avenge our blood and the message was hold on it's not over yet there are more who will come who need to die who need to be clothed with these white robes
and so you can imagine yourself as a hearer expecting with eager anticipation the opening of the last of the seven seals
you've got the fifth seal the sixth seal is this great earthquake this darkening of the sun we're running out of time
from the perspective of those early believers what would they have thought of when they read this in chapter 6
verse 12. i watched as he opened the sixth seal there was a great earthquake the sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair the whole moon turned blood red and the stars fell from scot from the sky to earth
what happened in 79 a.d
jerusalem has been destroyed by the romans in 79 a.d
mount vesuvius
erupted
and this volcano spewed ash up into the sky
it darkened the sun it caused the moon to turn red it caused
you know rocks and debris to fall from heaven the city of pompeii was completely covered this was in the recent history of these people
and they were fearful
this was a message a coded message to say yes
things like this have happened in the past and will continue to happen until that great and fearful day and look at how it ends chapter 6
they call to the uh
verse 15 chapter 6 verse 15. as the as you know mount vesuvius erupts or in this vision as the as the earthquake erupts the greatest earthquake of all time the sun and the moon and the stars they draw dark that brings you back to joel 2 that we read earlier what happens verse 15 the kings of the earth the princes the generals the rich the mighty every slave every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains they called to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come who can stand
and there's this question that's just thrown out who can stand in this great day of the lord's wrath
who can stand how about us those who have been slain that are crying for our blood to be avenged can we stand can our brothers and sisters stand and at this point you think that there's this anticipation that the seventh seal would be opened and everything will be made but
there's this surprise
like the seventh seal doesn't get opened chapter seven is an entire interlude and it's a pause in the action and it's to answer that question and we're going to conclude here this week brothers and sisters with this
the hearers expected the last seal to be opened revealing the answer to their problems
but what happens is john is given a vision of those who would be saved and just like that vision he saw in chapter 4 where he hears and says turn and you'll see the lamb and he turns and he doesn't see the lamb he sees he doesn't see the lion he sees the lamb here
there's this unexpected thing that happens
he says turn and you'll see a hundred and forty four thousand people marked as being saved
and he turns and he doesn't see the jewish nation
unexpectedly he sees a great unmeasurable multitude
and that's the reason for the delay