And it goes back to that part of the country where a hibberly father sent his son off to college. And his son came home on break to see Pa. And Pa says, well, they're learning you there at their college. He said, well, I'm taking English. He said, what else are you learning? He said, well, we're taking algebra. Pa said, well, say something to me in algebra. Well, his son didn't want to embarrass his hillbilly pa, who's very proud. So he thought for a moment and he said,
Pi R square. And the hillbilly pa that jumped out of his chair said, Is that what they're teaching in that bar school? Everybody knows that pi are round and cornbread are square. Boy, we didn't fill it long enough. They haven't found the outline yet. Did you hear the one? No. We'll open up to Revelation chapter 1, and perhaps we'll come up with the outlines yet. And if so, if whoever finds them, pass them out, and there'll be a prize at the end of the service. Revelation chapter
1. We're going to look at verses 1 through 8. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants, things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ and to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which
are written in it. for the time is near. John, to the seven churches which 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 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him. And they also who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and... who is to come, the Almighty. This final book in the Bible brings us full circle from where the story begins in the book of Genesis. In Genesis, the book opens with God, and as the
Bible closes, God is its final subject. In Genesis, we have presented to us the first heaven and earth. In Revelation, we have the new heaven and the new earth. In Genesis, we find the story of paradise lost. In Revelation, we have paradise regained. Recall that in Genesis, we read about a tree, a tree of life and a river. Genesis, Revelation concludes talking about another tree of life and a river. In Genesis, we have banishment.
from the garden, whereas in Revelation we have invitation to come to the tree and to eat of its fruit. Genesis tells us of the first husband and wife. Revelation tells us about the lamb and his bride. In Genesis we have Satan victorious, but in Revelation we have Satan defeated. In Genesis, we have judgment promised, and in Revelation, judgment executed. In Genesis, we have the gates shut when God closed up the garden so that Adam
and Eve could not reenter it. But as we come to Revelation, we have a city where the gates are never closed. In Genesis, death enters human history, and in Revelation, death exits. In Genesis, we have exiles from an earthly garden. In Revelation, I presented the inheritors of a heavenly city. And so the story comes full circle as we come to the close of the Bible. There are two extremes to beware of as you approach the book of Revelation.
One of them is to avoid Revelation. Saying that it cannot be understood or that it's not practical to study. The other extreme is to abuse Revelation. To abuse it by fanciful interpretations and setting of dates and that sort of thing. These extremes of avoidance or abuse should be avoided. And instead, we are to study this book. And why? Well, because in the first place, it is the word of God. And all scripture is given for our benefit,
including the book of Revelation. That it is the word of God is witnessed to and attested by Jesus himself. He validates this book in verse 2. It also reveals the culmination of the work of our wonderful Savior. In Genesis, we have his work predicted. But as we come to the book of the Revelation, we have his wonderful work
culminated. And then, as the title for tonight's message suggests, one reason to study the book of the Revelation is because it promises blessing to its readers, its hearers, and its readers, in verse 3. Blessed is he who reads. And those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Now the outlines are being passed out. Thank you to whoever found it. You can claim your prize at the end of the service. And I'll not tell you yet what
it is, but it's wonderful. We have not surpassed anything yet on the outline. All of this has been introductory remarks, so don't worry about that. We'll come to the outline in just a moment. I want you to notice the three categories here because it gives us some insight into how the early church handled an epistle like this. And remember, this is an epistle in that it's addressed to some churches. This is much as Paul wrote letters to churches. The churches are named.
There are seven of them in Asia Minor. Now, he mentions, first of all, blessed are the leaders. And so we understand from this that the custom was in the early church for one person to stand up and to read from the scroll. Now, this was something like the Jewish custom in the synagogues. The early church continued that. Of course, not everybody had a copy. In fact, there were very
few copies. And so there was one who was assigned the responsibility of reading, and blessing is pronounced upon the one who would read what is contained in the book of the Revelation. And then those who hear. Obviously, that's everyone who's gathered. And those who heed, that is, those who put into practice the practical application of the truths that are found in this book. It's rather amusing when you hear people say, well, I don't like to read Revelation because it's
not practical. There are some wonderful practical applications in this book. And blessing is promised to those who not only hear it, but who heed what God has to say in this book. And so it's a key book for the Christian to study. And it promises blessing to those who do so. And tonight we're going to look at the prologue of the book, which means those introductory words, that first paragraph that sets the stage for the rest of the book. It's verses 1 through 8, and we've read that.
And now we come to the outline that you have in your hands. It's the introduction that we want to look at first tonight, the first three verses, which introduce to us the book, and there are several statements I'd like to make that come out of these first three verses. that will help us get an introductory understanding of what this book is like. In the first place, it is a book of apocalypse. Now, you may know how
to spell that, or you may not. You can substitute the word revelation because it's the same idea. The Greek word, though, is apocalypse, and that's how John began writing. Apocalypse of Jesus Christ. The English word revelation. Apocalypse means to take... the veil away from something. It is to uncover, so as to expose what is hidden. It is a manifestation of what was formerly secret. And so God in this book is going to manifest some things that have been hidden up to this
period of time. It is an apocalypse, a book of revelation, of apocalypse. Now let me insert here that in the day that John wrote this, there was a genre of literature being written called apocalyptic literature. There were writers who would write books that were termed apocalyptic for a period of two or three hundred years. This was a very common genre of writing. And John, in some way, picks up some of those ideas, those ways of writing, would be a better way to say
it. And some have said that actually this book is nothing more than somebody writing a book like human authors in those days. Just another apocalyptic book that happens to be in the New Testament. But in fact... There are some significant differences between the apocalyptic literature of that day and this book of apocalypse. Among them, and I'll just mention one, this book claims
to be the word of God. You can search through all of the other apocalyptic books that remain to our day that were written at that time, and none of them make the claim that this book makes to be, in fact, the word of God. It is a book that is meant to be understood. Undoubtedly, the first century believers were more familiar with this style of writing than we are today and could have perhaps understood portions of it more clearly than we might, but we can grasp
what this book says. It is possible to understand at least the big picture here because this book is authored by the Holy Spirit. And he is sent to be our teacher. Would he offer a book that we could not understand and that he could not illumine to our hearts? Of course not. He is going to aid us and be our teacher. And that is our confidence as we begin to study. It is a book of apocalypse. Secondly, it is a book
belonging to Christ. It is said to be the revelation of Jesus Christ, gave him to show his servants. Isn't that interesting? So it is a book that belongs to Jesus Christ, and the content of it was given to him by God the Father. And notice that he, the Lord Jesus then, showed it to his servants through the work of an angel. It says at the end of verse 1, And he sent and signified
it by an angel to his servant John. And so the process of the book is this, that God the Father gave this content to his son Jesus Christ, who in turn committed it to an angel, who then gave it to John. And then from John it has come to us. But it is a book belonging to Christ. Thirdly, we can say, from what is said in this introduction, there's a book revealing Christ. That's tied together with this idea that belongs to him.
It reveals him. It unveils him to us. For example, in chapters 2 and 3, we see him as the head of his church. And he walks among the golden lampstands, and he speaks to each of the congregations. a word of commendation and condemnation and instruction, and we'll study that. So he is revealed to us as the head of his church. In chapters 4 and 5, he is revealed as the Lamb who was slain, the Lamb of God who was slain and who is worthy to open the seals that lead to the events that
fall out then from this book of Revelation. In chapters 6 through 18, we see him as the instrument of God's wrath as he opens the seals, which lead then to the trumpets and to the bowls that are poured out upon the earth, bowls and judgments, bowls and trumpets and seals of God's wrath. In chapters 19 and 20, he is revealed as the judge of the nations, and he comes. to judge the earth and to establish his kingdom. And finally, in chapters 21 through 22, we see him revealed
as the eternal king. And so it is a book that reveals Jesus Christ in these offices that we've talked about and many others. Number four, we see that it is a book of symbols. Now, the new King James puts it this way. that he sent and signified it by his angel. I think the NASV puts it, he communicated it, but the signified really does bring the idea, because another way to pronounce the word that gets to what John really writes
is that he signified it. He signified it. That is, he communicates through signs and symbols the content of the book. And so it is an unusual book. It's distinct from all of the other literature of the New Testament. If you were going to compare it to other books in the Bible, you might think of Daniel, which uses a lot of symbolic language and signs. You might compare it to Ezekiel, both prophetic books as well. But here we have a New Testament prophetic book, in fact, the only prophetic
book in the New Testament. And it is signified to us. It involves signs and symbols. That doesn't mean that words aren't used. Obviously they are. But in the communication of its content, we will see many signs and symbols. And as we pointed out, these are mediated by an angel to John's senses. Now whether John, there on the Isle of Patmos, had a vision, and all of this unfolded to him, But whether, in fact, he left the realm of time and space and sought, took a trip into
the future, is not real clear. I rather think the latter happened, that when it says in chapter 4, when Jesus says, a voice from heaven says to John, come up here, that John is liberated from this realm that we know. and is taken up into the realm of the heavenlies, and from there he sees and personally witnesses, not just by vision, but he personally sees the events that he describes through signs and symbols in this book. It is a book, number five, with promises.
And we've seen the first one here. There are seven Beatitudes in this book. As you know, Beatitudes are blessings that are spoken. We're familiar with the Beatitudes of Matthew, for example. But here we have the first of seven Beatitudes in the book of the Revelation. We'll talk about them as we work our way through the book. And number six, and finally, it is a book of actual events. Now, some people, as they approach the book of Revelation, say, my, my, you missed a
point here. These are events that took place in the first century. And we ought not to expect that there's anything in this book that is going to be fulfilled in our day or in some future period. These are events that John understood that occurred right there in the first century. It's all history. And then there are others who approach the book and... and say that we should look at it allegorically, that it's kind of an ideal book. And so they read into the signs and
symbols all kinds of weird things. And then there are others who say, well, no, actually this book outlines history throughout this whole age. It seems to me that the very best way... of understanding the book is to let it speak for itself, to approach the book with the idea of letting it literally say what it says. And when we do that, we understand that when it talks about a sign, it's literally talking about a sign. When it describes Jesus as a lamb, we ought not to picture him as a sheep
up in heaven. That's symbolic. But John saw something literally, and he uses that symbol to communicate to us what he saw in heaven. So we approach the book literally, and when we do that, as we'll get to in a couple of weeks, what will happen is that we'll see that most of this book really does talk about actual events that are yet to come. Actual events that are yet to come upon the earth. And Jesus says regarding these that they must shortly take place in verse 1. Must
shortly take place. Not maybe, but they must. There's absolutely no doubt that what John saw is someday going to happen. And when he says shortly take place, he doesn't mean that from his day until they were fulfilled was a short period of time. But the word that he uses means that once these things begin to unfold, they will unfold quickly. It will happen just like
that. And so, as I understand the book of the Revelation, the way that we're going to approach it in these months together, it is that there are some things that, yes, refer to past churches, chapters 2 and 3, but most of the book is on hold. waiting for God's signal when these events will then begin to very quickly unfold in human history. Let us come to the salutation where I take quite so long on this. In verses 4 and
5, we have the greeting. It is from John. And, of course, there are liberal scholars who like to argue whether this was John or not. From the earliest traditions of the church, They simply accepted what the book said, one of John the Apostle's disciples said it was John who wrote
the book. There's all kinds of internal evidence to say that John wrote the book, and so we accept simply what it says, that the John who wrote it was the Apostle John, the one of the Apostles, the only one of the Apostles, as far as we know, who was not martyred, but who died as an old man. Now, he greets the readers with these common words, grace and peace, a wonderful bicultural expression, because grace is a Gentile concept,
whereas peace is Jewish. And so he addresses the bicultural readers using words that would be equally meaningful to them, grace and peace. He says that grace and peace come from... The Holy Trinity. Now, he doesn't use the word Trinity. The word Trinity is not used in doctrine until a couple hundred years after this. But the concept of the triunity of God is very clear in these verses. He says, grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is to come. Question,
who is he talking about? The answer is he's talking about God the Father. And that will become more clear as we go through the book and see the numerous times when this very same phrase is used. Him who is, who was, and who is to come is God the Father. It speaks of the eternity of God. No beginning, no ending. God always is eternally existent. But then he mentions the seven spirits. who are before his throne. It's a strange expression,
the seven spirits. And we immediately think of the Holy Spirit, but what does it mean, the seven spirits? Well, some understand this to mean the sevenfold spirit, talking about the fullness, the completeness, because the number seven symbolically represents completeness. That is talking about the fullness, the completeness of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And that may well be the
best way to understand it. But I like the thought of Dr. Alan Johnson who writes that this name represents the activity of the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit to the seven churches. Now the word, or the number seven is going to appear
over and over again. in the book of revelation i didn't write down all the different times that it's used but there are seven seals there are seven trumpets there are seven bowls of wrath there are seven final signs there are seven churches here we have the sevenfold spirit of god and so seven is a significant number in this book and it It represents the fullness of something. And here we have the fullness of the Holy Spirit's
ministry in the churches. And when we get over to the letters, perhaps we'll have time to talk a little more about that. But let me mention now the third person of the Trinity that's mentioned, verse 5. He says, and from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He mentions now a threefold. a description of Jesus Christ. Notice what he says. He names him first the faithful witness. Here, John is pointing back to Christ's earthly ministry, his life on earth as the faithful revealer of God's
revelation. And we see him here in his role as the prophet. The one who would bring the word of God. He delivers God's word in his earthly life. The second name is the firstborn from the dead. Here we have a description of his present work as the risen lamb of God. The one who is supreme in authority over all. the dead, the firstborn from the dead. And it refers to his work as priest. And so we have his work as prophet
in the name faithful witness. And we have his work as priest in the name the firstborn from the dead. He ever lives as the firstborn from the dead to intercede on our behalf before the throne of God. And then we have the third name, the ruler. over the kings of the earth. And here we have his role as what? As king. Prophet, priest, and king. The one who is the ruler over all of the other rulers or the kings of the earth. It is his future place when he will come and establish
his kingdom. So we have him represented to us as prophet, priest, and king in this three -fold description. And so as John gives us the salutation and the greeting in the book, he says, grace to you and peace from each member of the Godhead, the Father who was, who is, who is to come, and the Holy Spirit who in his completeness and in his fullness ministers to the seven churches and by extension to all of the churches in this age, and from Jesus Christ, the prophet, the
priest, and the king. Now in the last part of verse 5 and through verse 6, we have the dedication of the book. John pauses for a moment as he talks about Jesus Christ, and he dedicates this book to Jesus Christ. He says, That is to Jesus Christ. And again we have a three -fold description. Before it was a three -fold description of his person, prophet, priest, and king. And here we have a three -fold description of his work and his relationship to believers. It says, to him
who loved us. I think that it's better in the present tense. That seems to be the better reading. I would differ with the New King James translators here, to him who loves us. To him who loves us. Despite our unloveliness and our unfaithfulness, he loves us. And as you read about the early church, as described in these churches in chapters 2 and 3, you're going to see that there are some pretty disappointing things among God's people.
But he loves us anyway. You're going to see that there's some unfaithfulness among God's people. But he loves us anyway. We're going to learn that the church is undergoing persecution. And we may be tempted in the midst of persecution to wonder, does he really love us? John says, to him who loves us. He loves us through our distresses. He loves us through our persecutions.
John would be especially appreciative of the fact that he loves us through our banishments, our exiles, our times of loneliness, because John had been exiled away from other believers and placed on this lonely island in the Aegean Sea, the Isle of Patmos. That he loves us, says John, to him who loves us. Now, the second description of his relationship is that he washed us. He washed us from our sins in his own blood. Now, there are some manuscripts, again, that read
this verb differently. The NIV reads it, for example, who freed us. The point is, in either one of the verbs, that Jesus Christ has delivered us from our sins. He has cleansed us. He has washed us. He has freed us so that no longer are we in bondage to sin. We have been delivered from that slavery and exalted to serve Jesus Christ. And so he dedicates the book to Jesus Christ who loves us. and who freed us or who
washed us from our sins in his own blood. Let us never be ashamed of the blood of Christ or shrink from the beauty of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed for our sins. And then the third description of the relationship as he dedicates the book is that he has made us kings and priests. to his God and Father. Or he made us a kingdom of priests. Or he made us a kingdom, even priests, unto his God and Father. The point is here that we have been exalted to serve God. That is part
of God's plan for us. Not only that he has liberated us from sin, but he has made us to be a kingdom. of those who are set apart to serve God in the priesthood. Here we have a hint at the priesthood of all believers. We need not a priest to go on our behalf before God, but we are all made to be priests unto God. And in that role, we're made a kingdom. We are the royalty of God's new heaven and new earth. We are a kingdom. And we are set aside to do priestly service unto God
forever and forever. And he goes on to say, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You know, there is absolutely nothing that can diminish the glory of Jesus Christ. We may fret and worry and stew about the way that our Lord has spoken about in our world. and the demeaning of his saving work and his person by those who are unregenerate and in darkness, but they cannot
rob him of his glory. They can blaspheme him, and we'll answer for it, but they can never rob him of his glory, because his glory is secure forever and forever and forever. Eternally, we will be glorified as the Son of God, and by his grace, we will be glorified with him. to serve as a kingdom of priests unto God. And so John, after introducing the book, telling us a little bit about what it's like, then gives us a greeting, a salutation, and then he dedicates the book.
In verse 7, he talks about the theme of the book, the dissertation of it. He says, Behold, he is coming with clouds. Now, if you wanted to just say, what is the book of Revelation about, turn to verse 7 and you see where it's all heading. It is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, those events that precede and lead to his coming. But the dissertation or the theme of the book is found right there in verse 7. He is coming. Literally, the Greek says, come.
Come and see. Here we have a climactic invitation that implies that there has never been anything like this before. Come, come and see this. Behold, look at this glory. There's been nothing that human eyes have ever seen like this. Behold, he is coming. He says he's coming with clouds. This alludes to what Daniel saw and records in Daniel chapter 7, verse 13. It is the exact fulfillment of what the angel said on the day that our Lord
ascended back to heaven. The same Jesus who has taken up from you in heaven will so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. And Luke says, when they saw him go up, he disappeared into the clouds. And it is with clouds that our Lord... will come. There's a marvelous illusion here to the glory that will accompany his reappearance. Here is an incomparable glory. There has been nothing like this that the world has ever, ever seen. I'll tell you, the world can put on some
magnificent shows. You think back a few weeks to the opening of the Olympics in Spain. Or to the closing ceremonies. In a certain way, that was quite spectacular. It was also quite pagan. And I thought it was an interesting exposure of the direction that Western culture is taking into pagan concepts and ideas. But I'm telling you, it's spectacular. And even over the television, with a limitation of 19 inches, you could see
that this was something. to be there but there is nothing i mean it's just absolutely nothing you can't even compare what that was like to the majesty and the pomp that will accompany this day when he comes with the clouds and it says that every eye will see him and they also who pierced him now notice it says every eye will see him that is His coming will be visible
to the whole earth. Now, I've heard some people say, well, isn't it wonderful we have television today so that every eye will be able to see him? Well, I don't know if it's wonderful we have television or not. The more time goes on, the more I think it's not very wonderful. And besides that, I'm not sure everybody's going to have a television set when Jesus comes. Beyond that, do you think Jesus needs television cameras?
I do not know the exact manner of how every eye will see him, but the fact is that he will be visible to every person on earth when he comes. Now, does that mean that his coming, which is described as sudden and like lightning that appears in the sky, that once he appears, that his coming... will, in fact, take a period of hours or days.
But when he first appears, until he arrives on the earth, can you imagine the terror in the hearts of human beings, unregenerate human beings, as they would look into the sky and see extraterrestrial beings coming to the earth? Every eye, it says, will see him. And there is a response that we'll see in Revelation that just makes you shudder.
cry for the rocks to fall upon them and hide them from his face but then he especially points out that those who pierced him will see him now that could well refer to the the jewish people obviously those exact people who pierced him are dead they will not see him at this time as he returns to the earth, because they will be resurrected later to stand before him in judgment. But it may well be that he's talking here about the Jewish nation, the descendants of those who
pierced him. We live in an interesting day, and I just kind of insert this, it doesn't really apply to Revelation, but a couple of years ago, as they were building a road in a part of Jerusalem, the southern part of the city of Jerusalem, called the Peace Forest, there was a cave -in. as they were excavating for this road, and they looked down into a tomb that they had accidentally uncovered. And so they called archaeologists, and they'd
been investigating, what is this tomb? And inside the tomb were several ossuaries, which are small casket -like stone containers. And one of them, it was obvious because of the tomb that this was a very important family. The tomb had never been disrupted. And as they found one of these ossuaries or caskets, it had the name on it,
Caiaphas. They can't say for sure that those are the bones of Caiaphas that are found inside their ossuary, but it's very likely that those are literally the bones of the man who was the high priest and condemned Jesus. 2 ,000 years ago. Well, the descendants of those people will see him. Those who pierced him will see him. And it says, all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. The word mourn here means
strong wailing. It denotes absolute horror and agony of soul, so much so as to literally cut oneself. To take a knife and to cut oneself because one is in such agony. Well, that's what we have to anticipate as we look into the book, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and those events that lead up to and bring that incomparable day when he will return to the earth. And then in verse 8 we have the authentication of the book. It's sort of a seal that says, yes, John is right.
but is going to be told as the imprimatur of Almighty God upon it. My Red Letter edition of the Bible puts these words in red, which I think, personal opinion, is incorrect. Because usually the red is signified through the words of Jesus, right? I think here it's really the word of God the Father. I believe it is God the Father who says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is, who was,
and who is to come, the Almighty. And so we have eternal God saying here, he who is unchangeable in all of his purposes, he who is over all, who has his hand in everything, the Almighty, that's what it means. He has everything under control. He says, this is it. What you are about to read is the way that is going to be, and I authenticate
this book. And so as we commence our study of this book of the Revelation, we are going to study the capstone of God's Revelation, the final word that he gives to humanity before the... The work of Revelation stops. It is a book that is meant to be studied and understood. Now, what should you expect to gain from a study in the book? What blessing? Well, first, I trust that God will give us all a better grasp of the loveliness of our Savior. This is a book that unveils Him
to us. It's a book that belongs to Him. And I trust that as we work our way through the book, we will see him in his glory. But a second blessing that we should have is that we will have increased insight into future things. Now, some of you have been through the book of the Revelation before, maybe even several times. But others of you are trying to piece together, well, when does this happen and how does that fall out? And we will put some of those things into perspective.
I'm sorry we won't answer all of your questions. because there will still be questions as we come to the end of the book. But hopefully you'll have some increased insight, and then I trust that all of us will have an enlarged faith in God's sovereign control of all of human history. I think that that is the underlying message of the book, that God's in charge. And as the old song said, He's got the whole world in his hands.
Everything. John is writing to people who are suffering under Domitian, one of the cruel dictators of the Roman Empire. They were going through a great deal. He wants them, as they read the book, to be reassured in their suffering that God's in control. While it may look pretty dark from where they're living, where they're standing, There is a bright, shining day up in the future when Jesus Christ is going to come and he's going to set things right. And he will rule and reign
forever and forever. And so pray with me, study with me, and let's ask God the Holy Spirit to be our teacher as we look together in this wonderful book. Would you stand with me, please, as we come to a close?