Revelation Chapter 1 (I)

Welcome to the study of the Book of Revelation. This is probably the most challenging book of the Bible to study, and as such we want to approach our study carefully. Every book of Scripture we want to study carefully – there’s no book we don't want to study carefully, and we want to do it with systematic interpretation and careful observation – but when you get to the book of Revelation, the rigor requirements go up another level.

Yet, because people don't study it necessarily with that rigor in mind, the book tends to stir up tremendous controversy, and opinions abound on what it means, what it says, what in it is true and what is not true. And all the conflicting opinions and controversies that surround it is simply proof that the enemy does not want you to study this book. And you might have heard it from those who attempt to teach or study the book how all hell broke loose for them during the months and weeks leading up to the start of their study, and how unbelievable the level of attack is.  

And there's a reason why this book makes so many people nervous or creates so much dissension or makes life in the church seem uncomfortable. It's because the enemy knows that if you actually sat down and studied it, it would change your life and change your walk as a Christian, and open up things in your mind you've never given thought to.

And as we are going to see today, the Lord gave us this book so that we would understand it, and understand it well. Our God is not a God of confusion, the Bible says, and that means we should approach this book with the expectation that we can, and will understand it.

But at the same time, let's also acknowledge that the Lord expects us to approach this book with proper preparation and care and with due diligence. What do I mean by that?

Suppose you go to a bookstore, and you just pick out a novel off the shelf. You've never read it before. You pull it off the shelf, you open it up and you go to the last chapter in that novel and you start reading it. Now, how much of the action in that novel would you follow? Would you be able to understand if that's what you did? Wouldn't you be thoroughly confused by what you found in that final chapter? Moreover, wouldn't you expect to be confused if you choose to go with the book that way? Well, of course you would, which is why you never dream of doing that if you wanted to understand the book.

So how is it that you might open up a Bible and choose to go to the last book of the Bible first and expect to understand it? 

Because in effect, the Bible that we have is much like a novel, at least in this sense, in that it has 66 chapters, or books. But it has one author, and that author didn't just write them all, He actually laid him out in the order that we have. Every human act that led to the production of this book came about under divine providence, and not by chance. And as such, it’s saying something to us that He put this book at the end.

What it's saying among other things is, study the other 65 before you try this one. Because the characters, the setting, the events, the imagery, the plot lines, all of the details that make up the storyline of Revelation are a summation of everything that came before it. 

So as you study the book, proper preparation in this case means knowing a good deal about what's in the other 65 books of the Bible. And that just begs the question. How, given that it’s unlikely that most of us have done that background, are we going to get through this study if we aren’t all equally experts in the other 65 books?  Well, we’ll have to be content with a ton of cross-referencing that we will be doing in this study, alongside those that happens in the book itself. And we have to do this because there's too much in this book that's dependent on what came before it. That’s the first thing to understand before we start.

The second thing you need to understand is that there are rules of interpretation and we're going to follow them, because the rules are there to protect us against ourselves, against our own imagination or biases or blind spots. So there are ways you go looking at the book that are right and there are ways of looking at the texts that are wrong, and you don't want to do the wrong ones because you would end up in the wrong place. 

So we're going to follow basic rules of interpretation. And when we find that our rules of interpretation do not answer a question that we need to answer, we’re going to say we don't know, and we're going to move on. Because it's self-evident at that point that the Lord has chosen not to let us know, and that means we have something to come back to and that's just the way it works when you study the Bible. You don't get to know it all the first time you read it. That's not how the Lord works. But if you're not ready to do that, you might fill that gap of knowledge with your own thinking, because you just don't want to leave a gap open. 

Two problems with doing that. The first problem is you didn't learn anything, you just speculated. Secondly, when and if the Lord does one day decide to give you that answer that you were waiting for, when it comes, you’re not going to listen because you already got your answer, because you gave it to yourself in that earlier moment.

And that's how you end up with 50 people who have 50 different opinions of Revelation. Because they filled gaps with their own understanding from wherever. And then when the truth did show up, they weren't ready to change their mind. So we want to avoid that problem by simply following rules of interpretation and being willing to be without an answer sometimes, if necessary.

So what are the guidelines we want to follow in interpreting Revelation and for any Bible study? We’re going to be using 2 rules used by those who do bible hermeneutics. Hermeneutics being a proper, methodical way of interpreting Scripture.

The first is the golden rule. The golden rule of interpretation says: when the plain sense of the text makes common sense, seek no other sense. You don't want to go searching for mysterious meanings, deeper subtext, something more exciting than just what it says. Because when you do that, you start speculating.

No, we're going to be constrained by the text, and say, “This is what it does say, and therefore what the author did mean, and we're going to leave it at that”. And we're going to interpret the text using every word at its ordinary usual meaning unless the text tells us to do something else with it and unless the context tells us that there's some other way in which we need to be seeing what is said on the page.

And when you do that, use the plain sense of the text and just let it go, it will say things that will blow your mind. And because it does, you might be tempted to say, “Well, that can't be true”. Be careful with that. There were things that the Bible said could happen thousands of years ago, that people said, “Ah, that can never happen.” And yet today, technology has actually made it possible.

Which just goes to show the folly of trying to interpret the Bible through a lens of our world. We are supposed to interpret our world through a lens of Scripture, and so we're going to let it say what it says.

Second rule is with regard to symbols, and that's important because of the way this book is structured. Here, symbols are always going to be interpreted by the Scripture itself. What does the dragon mean, or what does the beast mean, or what does the angel, the star, that lamp stand mean?

Well, they will mean exactly what the text says they mean. We don't have to guess. And that's the beauty of it. If the symbol has significance, if we're supposed to know what its meaning is, that meaning is in the Bible already somewhere. There's no symbol in the Bible of any importance that's not defined somewhere in the Bible.

And there's a little bit of a rule or structure on how this works. The first place you’ll find the meaning of some symbol is, half the time, if not more often, in the immediate context where the symbol appears. You only have to read one more verse to get your answer. 

Other times it's not there though, and that’s when you go backward - not forward - to look for the meaning. You go backward in Scripture within the same book, until you find the answer. And then on rare occasions it's not in the same book, it is somewhere else in the Bible. But here again, only backward.

Now, why is it always in the reverse and never forward? Because the Lord knows how you read. He knows you read from front to back. So when He puts a symbol in the Bible, He's defined it at that moment or earlier so that you're not confused. He is not a God of confusion. He wants you to understand what He wrote.

With that, let's dive into the first chapter.

Revelation Chapter 1 verse 1: 

Rev.1:1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by HIs angel to His bond servant John, 

Rev.1:2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 

Rev.1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.” 

We're taking a chunk as we go, and this is the first chunk for this instalment. The book of Revelation is actually a letter, and like the other letters in the New Testament it has this unique chain of custody that opens it up. It begins at verse one, as the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the Greek word for “Revelation” there, is the word we get “apocalypse” from, which just means to be revealed. But that's where we get the term apocalyptic literature, and Revelation is a book of apocalyptic literature.

This revelation passes through this remarkable chain of custody, starting with God, the Father, giving this revelation to Him, meaning Jesus. And then the book goes from Father to Son to the bond- servants so that the bond servants might know something. “Bond-servants” is a New Testament word for the followers of Jesus, and it literally means a slave. And that's why the Scripture talks about us being slaves of Christ. 

So this is a Revelation of Christ coming from the Father, coming to us. Notice there are a few steps more between us and Jesus in this chain of custody. It went from Father to Jesus, then to His angel (Angels play a primary role in this letter, you’ll see as we go through it all and you're going to see them featuring prominently as messengers. In fact, the word angel literally means messenger in Scripture). Finally, the Angel or Angels as we'll see, will communicate this detail to John. John is the Apostle John here, as church history tells us, and so does the text in a minute.

This text does not mention which John it is. It just says to John. And that's more to conclude that it's the Apostle John. Because there was really only one John in the early church that was familiar to everybody. So if you're not going to identify yourself any more specifically than saying “I'm John”, well, then it's understood to be John the Apostle. 

This is quite an elaborate chain of custody to open the letter – and the reason for it is, perhaps, God wants to encourage us to trust the extraordinary things you're going to read in this document, that this is not some fanciful imagination. Just as it is today, the early church was infatuated with the second coming of Christ, but they were inundated with false teaching.

So there was a lot of speculation and error, and here in this letter, you have a definitive explanation of His return. And that’s the purpose of this letter – it gives details of the circumstances and the events that will lead up to Christ’s second coming.

To ensure that the church accepted this testimony while it was already rejecting a bunch of bad ones that were floating around in the church, Jesus gives us this chain of custody all the way to John and then to us so that we'd have some reason to trust its providence and authenticity. 

Notice verse 1 says Jesus will show this Revelation to His bond-servant. By “show”, what He means is the details of this letter are not spoken to John. They're not narrated to John. They're simply played in front of him like a movie. So John has the task of recording what he sees to us. That is, what is shown to him. He tells us at verse 3 that this letter is his testimony to what he saw.

That is a fascinating detail, and it really explains a lot of the trouble in people trying to interpret this letter, because what it is saying is that the information in this letter was not explained to John. It was simply played in front of him, and so John did not take it upon himself to try to interpret it for us.

And that's part of what makes this letter so challenging. It's not narrated, it's shown. So as a result of that methodology, a lot of what's in this letter is clouded in mystery.

Rather than explaining what will happen, the book is just asking us to work through it with the Lord, and there's probably a reason behind this. 

First, it obscures the meaning of the text to anyone beyond who it is intended for. So, who's it intended for?

In verse 1 we have “gave to him to show to his bond-servant”. This is not a written word for the world. Granted, in a general way, the Word of God is to be taken to the world as a witness, the information in this particular book was not written so that the world at large would understand things that have nothing to do with them.

Another way to say it is, the events of this book will come to pass upon the world whether the world knows about it or not.

Now, obviously, it can be instructive in the way the Lord may use it to bring a heart to know Him. But that's true for every verse in the whole Bible. That's not just unique to one part of the Bible. God doesn't need a specific kind of wording to bring someone to faith. The Word of God on its own way does that.

What we’re saying is that the information here is not for the world. That's why it's clouded in this form of description, of activity, of a showing rather than of a telling so that the world is not informed as the church will be. 

Which makes the study of Revelation a bit of a reward. It is a reward to the student, to the believer who sets their mind into studying it based on a knowledge of the rest of the Bible. You get to know what Revelation is talking about because you are a student of Scripture generally, and as such, it draws you in and rewards you for the effort. 

In verse 3, John says, those who read and those who hear the Words of the prophecy and heed the things written in it will be blessed by God. You may have heard this, but this is the only book in the Bible that has a specific promise of blessing to those who would study it.

Now, obviously, studying Scripture is a blessing in general, but there's something beyond that for those who have tried to study this book. And it would seem as though the Lord knew that there would be those in the body who would be hesitant and so He gave us added incentive. “Don't forget to study this book. There's a blessing for it.”

Notice He does add, though, to heed or to observe the book is part of how you obtain that blessing. So there's more than just reading the book involved here. There is a conscious appreciation of what it foretells, of looking forward to it, and anticipating it.

But notice also what John does not say. John does not say the blessing is for those who understand it. So to heed it in this context does not mean to understand it so well that you know everything that it's asking of you. What it means is that you would give it your attention, you would give your heart to it, to whatever level of understanding you might have. That's the distinction.

Our understanding of this book will vary, but the blessing is equally available - in your own walk as a Christian, you will find some substantial, some significant blessing in your life as a Christian that comes out of this study.

With that introduction, let’s continue. Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 4: 

Rev.1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,

Rev.1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood- 

Rev.1:6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to HIs God and Father - to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

Rev.1:7 BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen. 

Rev.1:8 “I am the Alpha and the omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. “

We start with John. He is the human author of this letter, but he acts as a sort of secretary here. He takes dictation from Christ via the Angels, as we're told, and he prepares it for us. And it says in Verse 4 that he's writing it to the seven churches that are in Asia.

Asia refers to Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey and that reference to the seven churches of Asia will make more sense to you in chapters 2 and 3.

But let's just begin with a simple observation on the number - it says here that there would be seven churches. 

Now numbers feature prominently in the book of Revelation, and in most cases the numbers have significance, that is, they have meaning on their own. It is important to understand their meaning. We’re not talking about some Bible code thing here, where you do weird stuff with it – no, what we are saying is we take its ordinary normal meaning and just understand what it says.  

So for some reason, God picked the number seven. And because He picked it, we ought to ask the question “Why?” And that's just careful observation. And if you look through the way the Bible uses the number seven consistently, if you look at how it's used in each of those circumstances that it shows up, you start to notice that it's being used in a consistent way by God to mean perfection or completion.

In the Bible, seven just means 100%, whenever God uses it in that way. So God wasn't just interested in seven churches. He’s speaking to the entire church. By saying “seven”, He was saying, here is a letter for 100% of the church. Not just 100% of that day, but 100% of the church throughout the history of time, as the church exists on earth to include us right now.

Notice the greeting John gives us now - those 7 Asian Churches still have specific significance, but we don't get to that until chapters 2 and 3 - John says it comes from all three members of the Godhead. Notice the Father - who is, was and is to come - referring to His eternal existence. Remember, no matter how bad things get in this book, no matter how bad things get on earth, the thing that gives you peace in the midst of that is knowing God is on His throne, He's always been there. He will always be there and you're His child, so there is nothing that can come against you. If He is for you, what can be against you?

Then secondly, he says, “the seven Spirits before the throne of God.” Now the seven Spirits refer to the Spirit of God. Applying what we have learned, seven here simply means 100%. So take out the word seven and put in 100%, and read it again: 100% of the Spirit before the throne of God. The Spirit, being Spirit, can be in multiple places at once. He can be everywhere at the same time. 

Could He also choose to be only at one place at a given time? That is to say, by His own desire, could He concentrate Himself in only one location? That's what it appears to say from the Spirit of God before the throne room in His entirety.

And then, finally, it's from Jesus, who is called the Faithful witness, the first born of the dead and the ruler of the kings of earth. If you look at those three descriptions, they refer to the three periods of His ministry. Beginning with prior to His advent, His incarnation, Jesus was the one who is witness to the existence of God through the creation and through the Word of God. Paul says that this way in Colossians 1: 16: 

Col.1:16 For by Christ, all things were created both in the heavens, on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Christ and for Christ. 

So He witnesses to the presence of God, the Father, by having created everything that we can see, which is our evidence of God, the Father.

And secondly, after He came to earth in His incarnation, the second term becomes applicable. He is the first born of the dead, which is a reference to His resurrection. Before Christ died and resurrected into glory, no one had ever done it. He was the first to do it. Paul says again in Colossians 1:18: 

Col.1:18 He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 

And then finally, after His second coming to earth, which we all await, Jesus will rule this earth as promised, in a day to come. And that's the third and final description of Jesus.

So the way that John has put this together is, the three moments of Jesus' ministry kind of lined out there for us. And this book is basically a book that tells us how you get from the second of those to the third of those. What set of events, what circumstances transpired to lead us from where He was first born of the dead, to the king of all nations on earth. That's what this book is about. 

While we await that, he says we are a kingdom of priests.  Now, a priest is an intercessor, someone who represents a person to a greater power. So Moses was the intercessor for Israel before God. Jesus is our intercessor before the throne for the believer, and we're called the kingdom of priests because we intercede as it were, for the unbelieving world. We are priests to them in the sense that we represent to the unbelieving world the Christ that we know in the hope that by our representation of Him to them, they might come to know Him as well. We are a kingdom of priests to the world, presuming we're taking that role seriously and we're going before them in that role. 

With that, John begins to relate his story to you in Revelation Chapter 1 (II).