Welcome! Today we begin a new series on the book of Revelation. At one time I believed we would never do a series on this book, because of the difficulty of understanding it, but as the leaders of the church met together and prayed together, the idea of going through this book began to grow and take root, and so, here we are.
I have to confess that one of the reasons I was previously resistant to doing a series on this book was one of fear. Would we look foolish? Would it create conflicts because of strongly held opinions? Would people just not be interested? And so the title today, “Do Not Be Afraid,” is as much for me as it is you. I believe we can trust God and the Holy Spirit to give us spirits of humility as we look inside this book, and we can also trust Him to reveal to us exactly what He wants to reveal to us, to help us understand exactly what He wants us to understand. We do not need to fear diving into this book.
This book was written by John, understood
to be the same author as the author of the Gospel of John as well as the
letters known as I John, II John, and III John. One reason we can be pretty
certain of this is that Justin Martyr, who lived from 100-165 AD, wrote that it
was this same John, and he personally knew Polycarp, who was one of John’s
closest personal disciples. Irenaeus also confirms the authorship in letters
written about the same time.
I want to keep my introduction to the book
brief, but I do want to bring out one point. In its 22 chapters, in its 404
verses, there are 348 allusions or indirect quotes from the Old Testament.
Twenty-four different Old Testament books are referred to in Revelation, most
predominantly Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and the Psalms. I think it is important
to reflect on this; there are almost as many allusions or indirect quotes as
there are verses in Revelation! This
book is oozing with the Old Testament; it is saturated with it.
John’s audience was the early church
primarily made up of Jewish believers. These were people who had heard the Old
Testament read weekly in the synagogues for basically their entire lives. They
knew the Old Testament extremely well.
What this says to me is that if we
want to get something meaningful out of Revelation, we need to be students of
the Old Testament as well. This is one reason this is one of our longer series;
we want to make sure that there is adequate time to look at Old Testament references
so that we understand what we are hearing with a framework similar to that of
the book’s original audience. That does not mean we cannot also bring our
modern ways of thinking, our modern understandings of life, into this book, but
we need to try to first view the book with “lenses” that are close to those of
the book’s original hearers.
In this
regard, I want to bring out a tension that we may experience as we read this
book, and compare what we feel to what the original hearers probably felt. C.S.
Lewis talks about this tension in a letter he wrote commenting on the Psalms.
In our previous series which we have just finished, we focused on a group of
Psalms ourselves, so I think this is a good time to reflect on this. C.S. Lewis
pointed out that the Psalms especially frequently bring out an attitude in
which the writer looks forward to seeing God mete out justice on his enemies.
The writers of Psalms were sometimes quite blunt in asking God to punish or
even curse those who persecuted those who sincerely followed after God.
Well, most
of us probably feel a little uncomfortable about that. After all, the New
Testament teaches us to love our enemies, but beyond this, we also learn that
we are all sinners, all deserving of
punishment apart from the redeeming work of Christ on the cross. Indeed, it is
only Christ’s work, and not ours, not at all, that saves us. And so, one sinner
calling on God to punish other sinners seems, well, hypocritical at best, and
inviting God’s punishment on us at worst. In fact there are some verses in the
gospels that seem to indicate this; we are told judge not lest you be judged
and that we will not be forgiven if we do not forgive.
What I
want to point out is that I don’t think the original audience of Revelation
thought like this. I’m not saying that they discounted the New Testament
verses; but I am saying that they did not see them in conflict with the Old
Testament. When we feel uncomfortable, I think we are experiencing tension
because of the worldview of our culture. Our culture thinks of tolerance as the
highest virtue and intolerance as the greatest vice. Our culture thinks that we
should not judge right and wrong at all, because it is all relative, and they
may not say the following out loud but they think it: If I don’t complain about
the messed up things other people do,
then no one can complain about the messed up things I do. What’s really messed up is thinking like this!
Let me
give you a practical example to show why this is messed up thinking. Suppose
someone is a parent, and some other person harms their child. At this point all
thoughts of relativism fly out the door, because this person who harmed their
child is evil and needs to be
stopped. This person needs to be prevented from hurting this child any more,
and he needs to be prevented from hurting anyone else. This isn’t about judging
someone, but about doing right in the world. Justice means putting an end to
this situation and preventing it from happening again. This kind of justice is
not even in conflict with forgiveness; we can forgive the person without
throwing out a plan to keep the child and others safe.
Well,
think for a moment about God. We are His
children! He loves each of us more than any person has ever loved anyone else.
The Book of Revelation is about God saying, “Enough! You will not hurt My
children any longer.” The events described in Revelation are intense and
sometimes terrifying, but they are, in the end, about God putting a stop to all
evil and protecting forever His children. To think like a first century Jewish
believer is to understand this and to welcome God’s setting things right, no
matter how terrible it looks as it is done. My point is that the New Testament
believers did not fear the descriptions in Revelation, they welcomed them. They
were happy that God was not going to leave things unfinished. They were willing
to undergo personally terrible things if only it meant that God was going to
set things right. And this should be our hearts as we spend the next five or so
months really digging into this book. If you’re not there yet, I pray you will
grow in this as this series progresses. Yes, we can be a little nervous, but we
should not be afraid, we should not be terrified of what is to come. And so,
let’s dig in!
The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave Him
to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known 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. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the
words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart
what is written in it, because the time is near. – Rev. 1:1-3
This is basically a
preface to the rest of the letter. As we will see, verse 4 begins with the “who
to” and “who from” parts of the letter.
There are four words or
phrases that stand out to me in this preface to the letter. The first of these
is "revelation." In Greek the word is apokalypsis. Because our English word
apocalypse obviously comes from this word, you may think you know what it means
– some kind of earth-ending terrible calamity. But that is not what it means.
It actually means “revelation,” as in “revealing,” “making known.” One verse
that uses it is Luke 2:32, when Simeon picks up the infant Jesus and prophecies
over Him. He calls Him “a light for revelation (or of revelation) to the
Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel
The book of Revelation
is a revealing, a making known. Because it is prophecy, and because we don’t
know yet exactly how all these prophecies will come about, and because much of
the language in Revelation is symbolic and even poetic, we can be guilty of
thinking of it as the book of Confusion, the book of Obfuscation, rather than
the book of Revelation. But it really is a Revealing! As we will see, it tells
us an enormous amount that we can understand.
It lays out the future for us, and this future is 100% certain.
If you will permit me
an analogy for how, despite our not knowing the details of how it will come to
pass, it can still be a tremendous revealing, let me talk a moment about my
eyes. I have astigmatism, and I am moderately near-sighted, and I am an old person,
so I cannot focus up close like I used to. I have not been comfortable with the
idea of bifocals, because I often work at the computer all day and don’t want
to strain my neck looking up so I can use the reading part of the glasses, so I
have two separate pairs of prescription glasses, one for reading and one for
driving or doing other things that don’t require close-up vision. Well, as my
family can tell you, it often happens that I am at home working on the computer
and then get into the car to go somewhere, but I forget to switch my glasses to
the driving ones. Early on when I did this, I confess that a few times, because
it was a short trip, because I was running late, and I guess because I was too
lazy to go back and get my glasses, I actually went ahead and drove wearing my
reading glasses.
Now let me explain. I
can see pretty well with my reading glasses at a distance, as they do correct
my astigmatism. But their near-sighted correction is all wrong. What this means
is that I can drive safely – I can
see the road, I can see pedestrians, I can see other cars – I can see where I
am going. But I can’t read the signs. I can see the signs, but I can’t read
them. The only way I would be able to read a sign is if I slowed to a near stop
right in front of the sign; even then, I might have to get out of the car to
get a closer look.
Well, to me, this is a
pretty good description of the book of Revelation. It is a revealing; by it we
can see where we are going. But we can’t yet read the signs. Now we can have
all kinds of guesses and ideas about the signs, and I admit it is sometimes
rather fun and interesting to think about such things, but we need to not let
this become our sole focus of the book, for two reasons. One, we won’t focus on
where we are going, which is extremely important, and two, I’m sorry, but we
can’t really read the signs yet. Theories and ideas (which may be right and may
be all wrong) will be as good as it gets, until the Day comes when these events
actually unfold and then, at last, we will be truly able to read the signs.
When it comes to the book of Revelation, we have distance glasses, not reading
glasses.
Again, I don’t want to
spoil your fun guessing about the signs, and there will be times when we who
speak in this series say a word or two of our own ideas. But this will not be the focus of our study, of our
messages. We are looking at the big picture. It is a book of revelation, of revealing, and we want to
see and explore the implications of what we can
clearly see. A good question to ask as we go through this series, passage
by passage, is “What is this part revealing?” I truly believe we will all be
amazed at the end of this series how much in fact has been revealed.
Let’s discuss the
second thing that grabs me: the word "must;" it “must take place.” Another verse that uses the same Greek word is John 3:14
which says that “And as Moses lifted up the serpent, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Must means it is certain. It’s not like a horoscope or a fortune
cookie; it is absolutely certain. Recall that the penalty for being a false
prophet was death. John isn’t saying that he thinks this is what is going to
happen. It’s not based on his expert opinion. John has supernaturally received
this vision and prophecy from God, and he is relaying it to us. It is certain
to happen. As certain as the fact that the sun will rise tomorrow morning.
Actually it is more certain than that.
The third thing that
grabs me is the word "soon," also "the time is near." The word "soon" in Greek is tacheos, from which we get the word tachometer. How do we understand this? After all, it’s been 2000
years or so since this was written.
My understanding of
this is that it is in the same sense that Jesus gave in many of His parables. Soon means that it could happen at any
moment. You can’t say that 300 more years need to pass before these events get
set in motion. It could be tomorrow.
When I was a kid
growing up there was a lot of fear in the world about a nuclear holocaust.
There was a “Doomsday Clock” set up by scientists and political and other
experts, and the time they put on the clock was meant to indicate how close we
could be to World War III and nuclear annihilation. If I remember correctly,
their consensus led to them setting the clock at 11:57, only three minutes from
midnight (doomsday). This didn’t mean that they thought it would happen in the
next three minutes, or even soon; it meant that we were on the brink of it
happening.
We are on the brink of
Revelation happening. To use another analogy, you know what it is like when you
are at the DMV and you take a number and you see that a whole lot of numbers
need to be served before you can be served? Well, Revelation is exactly not like that. It’s like the TV screen
shows the number 665, and you have the very next number. (OK, I admit I was having a little
fun there.) The point is nothing has to happen before you are next.
We are to live
expectantly, as if it could happen at any time, because it could happen at any
time. Many verses in the New Testament say this. Just one example, in Luke
12:35-40:
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps
burning, like
servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that
when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It
will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.
Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the
table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those
servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the
night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the
owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not
have let his house be broken into. You also must be
ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
The final word I want
to highlight is “blessed.” We are blessed by reading it aloud. We are blessed
by hearing it. We are blessed by taking it to heart. And this, bottom line, is
why we are doing this series. We want
to be blessed! We want you to be
blessed! By the way, if you search through Revelation, you will find there are
seven “blessed are those who” verses in the book. Sevens appear all throughout
Revelation, as we will see. This is fitting, because seven is God’s number of
completion. Recall that God made everything over six days. As we know from
Genesis 2, God rested on the seventh day, having finished the work. But you may
have forgotten what it says in Genesis 2:3: "Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." I find this neat. There
are actually lots of hidden sevens in Revelation beyond the obvious ones.
But the point is that
it is a blessing to hear this book and it is a blessing to heed it. As we go
through Revelation, my prayer is that it would change us, make us ones who work for Him as the Day approaches, make
us ones who worship Him who is coming
soon, and make us ones who rest happily in Him as we wait for His coming. (Happy is another valid translation of
the word that means blessed.)
Well, let’s keep going.
By necessity we will spend less time on the rest of this chapter.
John, To the seven
churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you 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 firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the
kings of the earth. – Rev. 1:4-5a
“Grace and peace” comes not from John, but from God Himself. I find that
tremendously encouraging. This letter really isn’t from John, it’s from God.
And God sends His blessing.
I agree with many commentaries that this is actually describing the trinity.
Him who is, and was, and is to come is God the Father, Jesus is obviously there
mentioned by name, and I believe the seven spirits is really referring to the
Holy Spirit. Another verse that associates seven with the Spirit is in
Zechariah:
Then
the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened
from sleep. He
asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a
bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps.
Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the
bowl and the other on its left.” I asked the angel who talked with me, “What
are these, my lord?” He answered, “Do you not know what these are?” “No, my
lord,” I replied.
So he said to me,
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by
my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. “What are you, mighty mountain? Before
Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to
shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “The hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then
you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. Who dares despise the
day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the
earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of
Zerubbabel?” – Zech. 4:1-10
There are also other verses in Revelation that imply this is talking about
the Holy Spirit. Revelations 4 and 5 have similar symbolism to what we see here
in Zechariah. And Revelation 5:6 talks about the seven eyes which are the seven
spirits.
The names for Jesus are interesting: the faithful witness, the firstborn
from the dead, and the Ruler or King of kings. You see prophetically all three
of these titles in Psalm 89. In verse 27 of this psalm he is called the
firstborn and also the most exalted of kings (literally ruler of kings), and in
verse 37 his throne is compared to the moon and called a faithful witness.
“Faithful witness” also brings to mind John 18:37:
“You are a king, then!”
said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I
was born and came into the world is to testify [witness] to the truth. Everyone
on the side of truth listens to Me.
He was a faithful witness as He shared the truth of who He was and what the kingdom of God
John continues:
To Him
who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a
kingdom and priests to serve His God and Father—to Him be glory and power for
ever and ever! Amen. “Look, He is coming with the clouds,” and
“every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him”; and all peoples on earth
“will mourn because of Him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I am the
Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to
come, the Almighty.” – Rev. 1:5b-8
Three wonderful praises! The focus is totally on Jesus. We could
spend hours on these verses. He loves us. He loves us. Do you really believe
it? When I was a new believer I struggled with this. He loves you! You! Just as
you are.
Yes He knows about your sin. But He has freed you from it, and
this is proof of His love. It took His own life, His blood, to free you, and He
did not go unwillingly. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. He
gladly gave His life for you. This is love.
And in freeing us He has made us able to do what we were made to
do, to serve Him. This is what we are “for.” We are a kingdom and we are
priests to serve Him. We will find our eternal, unlimited joy in serving Him,
for there is no one more wonderful to serve. And He will lift us up, so that
while we are servants, we are also sons and daughters. We will be dearly loved
family. We won’t just be a number to Him, or a name, but He will cherish us
individually, spend time with us, complete us, fulfill us.
And His return is certain. Every eye will see Him. He is the
“coming one.” That is what John the Baptist asked of Jesus when in prison –
“Are you the coming one?” Yes, He is the coming one. And there are both Old and
New Testament passages that say everything that is here; I don’t have time to
go into these. But I want to point out John’s response: Amen! He says it twice.
He also says “So shall it be!” Amen is a Hebrew word that basically means
“Yes!” The Greek word for “So shall it be” is nai, which basically means “Yes!” John is shouting for joy at the
prospect of Jesus’ return. He is not afraid, or hoping it happens later on. He
is excited, overjoyed, eager, and this is how we should be as well.
And then the Alpha and Omega verse – why is it here? To me it
reminds me of Jesus’ baptism, when suddenly God spoke up and said “This is my
Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” It is as if God, anticipating that some
people might question whether John has simply been out in the sun too long,
steps in and says, “I back this up. I am the Alpha and Omega. I know everything
from A to Z. And I was there, and I am here, and will be there, and I have
knowledge of all of these times now. And
I am the Almighty; that is, I am all-mighty, the one with all (or infinite)
power!” It is to me as if God is saying, “This is My prophet. Listen to him!”
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 Ephesus ,
Smyrna , Pergamum ,
Thyatira, Sardis , Philadelphia
and Laodicea
I love how
John is so humble. Not “I, John, the Apostle,” or “I, John, one of Christ’s
inner three,” but simply “your brother and companion in suffering and in the
kingdom and in patient endurance, all in Jesus.” The tense is present tense. I
find this important – John is a present companion in the Kingdom, not a future
companion. Do you think of yourself as a present member of the kingdom of God
Patmos is
a remote rocky island in the Aegean Sea . It
was used by the Romans to banish people.
Probably John who was likely about 90
years old at this time, had to do some kind of labor on this island, like
breaking rocks. It is hard to imagine a 90-year old doing that.
What does
he mean when he says he was in the Spirit? Likely it means he was in some kind
of trance or altered state of consciousness, that he was having a vision. It
doesn’t mean he was sleeping, having a dream. He was awake. Others had similar
experiences, Peter and Paul, for example. The Lord’s Day means Sunday, and the
voice (as we will see) was Jesus’ voice. John was instructed to write down the
vision he was given, and then to send it to the seven churches in Asia Minor (Turkey
I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to
me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like
a Son of Man, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with a golden
sash around His chest. The hair on His head was white
like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was
like the sound of rushing waters. In His right hand He
held seven stars, and coming out of His mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword.
His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. – Rev. 1:12-16
What an awesome,
terrifying image! The lampstands were the seven churches in these seven cities
(this is explained in verse 20). The man, the son of man, the terrifying,
awesome part of the vision, was Jesus. The robe with golden sash brings to mind
the attire of a priest or of a prophet; Christ is of course both, High Priest,
and foremost prophet. Then John goes on to describe Jesus Himself, and you see
a lot of the word “like.” It seems that words were failing John, because Jesus
was beyond description. The word used for white to describe his hair means a
glowing, even blinding, overwhelmingly bright white. His eyes were like blazing
fire – again fire is something that blinds your eyes if you stare at it. His
feet, too, were painfully bright. As for his voice, Ezekiel uses a very similar
image:
Then the man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel
Back to the Revelation
passage: Stars in one hand, and a sword from his mouth. It is very hard to
picture this. But it is not necessary for us to picture this. John was having a
vision, and the elements of this vision were symbolic. Verse 20 tells us, as I
have already said, that the lampstands represented the churches, and it also
tells us that the seven stars in Jesus’ hand were seven angels, or messengers
to these churches. We will see more about the sword in future messages, because
the image is used in later chapters of Revelation. But it unmistakably refers
to judgment. What we have here is Jesus,
standing amongst the churches, holding messengers in His hand, ready with
judgment through the sword in His mouth. This impending judgment is not for
just general people, but for these churches. And as we will see, Chapters 2 and
3 give specific warnings to each of these churches.
How did John respond to
this terrifying scene? Well, as you might expect:
When I saw Him, I
fell at His feet as though dead. Then He placed His right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the
First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever
and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you
have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The
mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven
golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven
churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. – Rev. 1:17-20
When John
previously had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain back before the
crucifixion, it says that John fell on his face and was afraid. This was worse,
much worse. It was a much more awesome and fearsome scene. I am struck by the
contrast between this scene and the scene of Christ at the crucifixion. Back
then, people mocked Him, spit at Him, struck Him. He was veiled then; they did
not see Him in glory, unveiled. I am certain that if Christ had lifted the
veil, even a little, they would never have crucified Him, but would have, like
John, fallen at His feet as though dead. It just reminds me freshly that Jesus
was totally in control at the crucifixion, that He chose second by second to
undergo the horrible things he went through because it was His Father’s will
and because He loved us.
John, who was one of Jesus’ inner three, who knew
Jesus better than almost anyone, fell at His feet as though dead and the sight
of Him with unveiled glory. And think of
Isaiah, the great prophet of God, who in a similar situation said, “Woe to me;
I am ruined, shattered, destroyed, undone.” Considering the experiences of
these great men, how do you think you and I will do? I am reminded of the Old
Testament warning, “No one can look on God and live.” We will be undone.
But look
at Jesus’ response to the fallen John. Touch. It’s His right hand, the one with
the stars. I’m not sure exactly how that worked; perhaps, neither is John. But
it doesn’t matter. Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid. I am…” Do you know where else
those words appear? When Jesus calmed the sea in the storm. That was another
frightening episode. The “I am” is a reference to Jesus as deity, as God. He is the I AM, the first and last, the
living one, once dead, but now alive forever, and with the keys. What does that
mean? The one with the keys is the one who can close and open the door. And
that is Jesus. No one comes to the Father except through Him.
I
encourage you this week to reflect on this passage, especially thinking about
this final scene with Jesus and John. Some think there is a tension in how the
church should present God, between His holiness and His love. I see no tension.
His holiness drives us to fall to our knees as though dead; His love puts His
hand on our shoulder and tells us, “Do not be afraid. I AM.”
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