The Book of Revelation | Introduction & Overview | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Vivid memories of a variety of experiences that you had in Christian meetings and events. Some of those memories are good, some bad, some you're probably still trying to figure out what category to place them in. Out of the hundreds of services that I sat through as a child, for some reason, I have this strong recollection sitting there in the main Sunday service distracted during the pastor's sermon. Hopefully, that's not a common experience for you. But I don't recollect my wandering mind necessarily, but what I did in my restlessness you see, we had pew bibles available every time you came to church.

And so in trying to occupy my mind with something sanctifying, I guess, I grabbed one of those pew bibles, and I began to comb through it, trying to find something interesting to read. And I realized that there's a much time in the service, so let me just go to the end of the book. And what I stumbled upon is one of the most enthralling portions in all of scripture, the book of Revelation. And it didn't take me very long to be smitten by what my eyes saw. Future catastrophes, unprecedented casualties like the world has never known, the description of beasts and other strange creatures, this tyrannical concept of the mark of the beast, the great white throne judgment, paranormal activity, and this description of the new heaven and the new earth among other things.

I can tell you with confidence that my brief exposure even as a child to this book had such an impact on me clearly even to this point of my life. And I don't think my experience with this book then is a unique one. What the book of Revelation has to convey has captivated millions throughout the ages. It attracts curious minds. It has stumped critical thinkers, and it still has the ability to fascinate even the casual reader, oftentimes to the point of dread.

And I I think it's safe to say that for Christians especially, this book is more intimidating than anything. Mainly because of its cryptic and enigmatic style. This rich symbolism and these mysterious references, believers really don't know what to do with it. Even in teaching settings, you have many people who go through the book maybe up to chapter three. Maybe entertain some content in chapter four and five, but nothing beyond that.

If anything beyond that, maybe a brief description read from chapter 21 about heaven. So throughout the ages, throughout the centuries due to frustration or fear, the book of Revelation has developed an unfortunate reputation. Here's my heart on the matter. I don't want this church to be content remaining intimidated or ignorant regarding its message. Because the book of Revelation is God's word.

And it's a book that tells us right at its introduction that if you humbly interact and apply it, you will be blessed. I want us to be blessed. So that is why beginning today, we are starting a series in the book of Revelation. And before we open this door and step into the first chapter, I wanna take the time to present an overview of this book. If you don't take notes, you're gonna be a note taker in this series, I think.

I wanna establish a proper foundation so that we can develop our understanding rightly. And so we're not going in any particular order today. We're all gonna climb and have a bird's eye view of the general landscape of this book. Next week, we will land, and then we will begin our verse by verse journey through this incredible book called the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Here's our aim today.

We are going to answer one question. You're gonna leave here with one main answer. There are different answers under this one main answer, but here is what we are going to explore. What is the book of Revelation? It's three things.

The book of Revelation is three things. And the first thing is that it is a letter. Open Revelation chapter one beginning in verse four. I say that because the apostle John, who is the author of this book, informs us almost immediately who his immediate audience was. And the way he begins is how many other letters open in the New Testament.

Revelation one verse four, John to the seven churches that are in Asia. Pause. Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. 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, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. People make the mistake in thinking that the only thing the seven churches that John addresses received were the short postcards that you find in chapter two and three.

In actuality, the entire book of Revelation was given to these seven churches. And for what purpose? You know what I admire about John? And by the way, this is John the apostle. He he doesn't need to explain who he is.

He expects these churches to know, oh, it's that John. The same John who wrote the gospel of John. The same John who wrote the first, second, and third epistles with his name on it. And I admire John's writing style because in his major pieces of literature, he gives his spirit inspired goal, the intent, the purpose of why he wrote what he wrote. So many of you know John chapter 20 verse 31 in his gospel account.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So John wrote the gospel of John according to his own words so that those those who would read it would believe and be saved. That's why many people advise curious spiritual seekers, truth seekers to read the book of John of all books because they know that this is the intent of its content. That you may believe and be saved. What about John's first letter, first John?

Does he tell us what that's for? Yes. In first John five thirteen, he says, these things have been written to you who believe. For what purpose? For you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

So now John gives his first epistle to those who have already believed, so that they would be sure and secure in their salvation. The gospel John of John is for those to be saved. The first epistle of John is for the saved to be certain that they are saved. What about Revelation? Does John give us any clue what this book is about?

I believe so. It's in the words of Jesus in the twenty second chapter and the seventh verse. Jesus says, behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of this prophecy. The prophecy of this book.

So if the gospel of John was for readers to be saved, first John was for the saved to know that they're saved, I believe the book of Revelation was written for the people of God to be encouraged and prepared for the savior's return. If one of the reasons why you're not attracted to the book of Revelation is because you don't think it has practical relevance, I say this in kindness, you are mistaken. Greatly mistaken. There are things that we are to keep in this book. There are challenges.

There are comforts. There are principles. There are obvious pieces of wisdom. And I'm aware that many have made revelation about creating charts. I can guarantee you there's gonna there's not gonna be any giant charts behind me.

I'm not gonna be pointing at anything with a stick. And there are others who have the book of Revelation in one hand and the recent news paper in the other, and they're trying to show how recent events are fulfilling the most specific aspects of the book of Revelation. We're not gonna go there either. We are going to approach the book of Revelation in the way it was intended to be received that you would be conformed and that you would be greatly consecrated to the cause and person of Christ so that he can find you and I the way he desires. And John understood that that's the power of understanding the truths of the last days, the study of the end times.

I mean, we can go to so many places in Revelation, but let me take you to his first epistle. So turn with me to first John and look at chapter three beginning in verse two. First John three verse two. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. What is he describing?

The return of Christ. The consummation of the age, us being reunited with him face to face. Now look what he says in verse three, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. What hope is he speaking about here? The hope of his return.

And notice what he underlines here that the hope of his return, the understanding of our uniting with him at the end of all things, purifies us. Not then, now. Today it purifies you. I can guarantee you if we approach the book of Revelation rightly, every time we go through a part of it, we will be more pure than when we started. This is what John has in mind.

That's a consensus in the bible. That understanding the things of the last days will have present day glorious implications. And confirming that this is a letter also helps us know why it was written the way it was written. I'm speaking about revelation. Because some erroneously think that Revelation is just this giant puzzle that's reserved for brilliant minds to put together.

And so, it's kind of overwhelming. Right? It seems so mysterious, but I can guarantee you something, it becomes less mysterious when you realize that the symbols and the images and the visions are not new necessarily. They're actually repeated from other parts of the Bible. Parts of the bible that Christians tend to overlook.

In fact, some have done internal investigation on this and it's a general understanding that out of the 404 verses in the book of Revelation, there are at least 278 references connected to the old testament. Not quotations, but references. And if we go with that number, though it's disputed. Right? Then you can say that 68.8% of the book of Revelation is saturated with Old Testament references.

Almost 70% of the book of Revelation echoes from the Hebrew scriptures. Do you see why it's you can't ignore the old testament and just start in Revelation and expect to get some kind of understanding. And that doesn't even include the hundreds of illusions that are made, interwoven from beginning to end of this book. I I believe one of the main reasons people experience irritation with the book of Revelation is because they are unfamiliar with the Old Testament. And I believe much of the misinterpretation of the book of Revelation stems from the same neglect.

Here's what I'm trying to explain. One of the most important key interpretive things that you must do to understanding this book is to be familiar with the old testament. The modern day Christian may be very troubled in trying to make sense of this, but you know who would have had greater ease? The seven churches that John originally wrote to. Assuming that they were biblically informed.

So I could just imagine that as this book came into their possession, they would have said, oh, yes. That's in Daniel. Brother so and so, didn't we learn this from the writings of Zechariah? Isn't that almost a copy paste from the scrolls of Isaiah? Unfortunately, because again, so many rarely visit those neighborhoods in their Bibles, they are overcome by discouragement with the book of Revelation.

And you know what stirred me? What I learned about the early church, external evidence about Christians who were eager to understand the book of Revelation. And the one source that especially struck me was from one of the early church fathers, Irenaeus. Irenaeus was born in January. He was a disciple of a man named Polycarp.

Polycarp, according to history, was a leader in the church of Smyrna. Is that name sound familiar? It should. It's in the book of Revelation. It's one of the churches that are addressed.

Polycarp was a bishop in that church. And here's the best part. Polycarp was personally tutored by John the Apostle. So Irenaeus, who was discipled by a disciple of John, in book five of his collection of writings called Against Heresies, says something that has helped many modern scholars today to make sense of the background of the book of Revelation. Let me quote it to you.

Quote, Irenaeus says here, quote, we will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist, for it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld apocalyptic vision. Pause. Here's what he's saying. Hey, let's not try to figure out who the Antichrist is because if John really wanted us to know, he would have told us. But it's the last part that is so intriguing.

He goes on to say, for that was seen What was seen? That apocalyptic vision. For that was seen no very long time since, but almost in our day towards the end of Domitian's reign. Domitian was a Roman emperor who reigned between '81 and ninety six AD. And what we see here from Irenaeus is that, the original compilation of the book of Revelation was made near the end of Domitian's reign.

So that's why most say that the book of Revelation was put together originally in '95 or ninety six a d. Now some dispute that. Some wanna actually advocate for an earlier date, during Nero's time. And so they say that people are misunderstanding Irenaeus' words here and, maybe Irenaeus didn't even understand the timeline of Domitian's reign. We're not here to figure that out.

All I want to remind you is that the book of Revelation was in the possession of the early church in the first century. I don't know about you, that fascinates me. It's amazing. And back then, they were discussing what's this about? Who is this about?

When is this gonna happen? They were having those conversations. Oh, I can say more about that, but I wanna move on. It also humors me that with a book that most consider to be very confusing, you have one of the clearest outlines of most books in the Bible. John actually provides us an outline of the book of Revelation.

It's in Revelation one verse 19. Let's look at it together. He was told by the Lord Jesus, write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. So the command of Jesus here highlights three parts in which John was to organize his account. We have here the past that you have seen, And the past refers to the incredibly detailed vision that he has of the glorified Christ in chapter one.

That you have seen. Chapter one, me. And then from the past now, we go to the present. Those that are. And the present deals with the condition of the churches that he was addressing namely in chapter two and in chapter three.

And finally, the last section. Those that are to take place after this, the future. And the future is spelled out for us from chapter four to chapter 22, which is a majority of this book, which is a great segue to the second purpose of Revelation. I told you that we were answering the question, what is the book of Revelation? Well, one, it's a letter.

Number two, it is a prophecy. It is a prophecy. Go to verse three of Revelation one. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near.

Highlight the last part, for the time is near. It's confirmed back in verse one. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to show his servants the things that must soon take place. The nature of this prophecy is predictive. That may seem obvious to most of us even who have a basic understanding of Revelation, but I'm here to tell you that there are other faithful Christians who view this book differently.

In fact, there are four common ways that people approach the book of Revelation. And though I can't get into detail with each of them, I just want to give you a general glance of how other brothers and sisters in Christ would interpret this book, so that you can just be aware and be equipped. And there might even be some people here who hold to one of these views, And some of these views are more popular than others. And I don't want you to get so caught up in trying to memorize the titles of these views. I want you to just at least have a general concept of them.

Here are the four common ways people approach the book of Revelation. The first approach is the the hysterist approach. And the hysterist aligns historical events with that which is described in Revelation. In essence, from the beginning of Revelation to the end of the book of Revelation, you have this general timeline of the development of the church. And so it's really about different stages of the church throughout history from its inception until the return of Jesus Christ.

And they try to look at this timeline and see where specific predictions were fulfilled in history. And so you have proponents again in the past who will look at things like the fall of the Roman Empire and say, oh, this is where Revelation predicted the fall. Or the invasion of Islam in certain regions. Oh, this is where Revelation spoke about that. And this view was especially popular during the reformation.

Why? Because you had so many of the believers there who viewed the beast system in the book of Revelation as the papacy, the Roman Catholic church. And so that was at its peak, I believe, this view, but predictably, it declined in its popularity over the decades. Why? Because there wasn't a general consensus among these people.

They couldn't agree. And so this is probably the least popular today. You're not gonna find much people who hold to this particular interpretation. But we have also, secondly, the predatorist approach. Preterist approach.

Preterism is from the Latin word, what is past. And so for the Preterist, as the name suggests, it is the belief that most of the book of Revelation has already been fulfilled. Which parts exactly? From chapter one to chapter 20, generally. To which you may ask, when did they believe those events were fulfilled?

Answer, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in seventy AD. And there are two main reasons why people espouse this interpretation. The first is what Jesus said shortly after he predicted the fall of Jerusalem in Mark 13. We studied the book of Mark. And hopefully, you remember that after Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple, he also followed it up with a description, a brief one of the tumultuous events that will follow, that will describe the end of the age, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, the growth of false teachers plaguing the earth, the abomination of desolation, Celestial signs.

Christ coming in great power and glory. Now, for most people, that seems to be something Jesus is describing about the future. The events that will immediately precede his return. And what's amazing is what Jesus explains in the gospels, the all event discourse. Right?

It's just the synopsis of what Revelation talks about. Revelation just expands on Jesus' predictions of the last days. But there's a particular verse in Jesus' teachings that preterists really hold on to that challenge the understanding that this is something yet to come. It's in Mark 13. Let me remind you and look here in verse 30.

Jesus said as he was concluding this teaching, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Here's the argument. How can the catalog of catastrophes that Christ describes be future if he said that they would happen within his generation? And because the destruction of the temple did take place within this time frame, predators would also reconsider how these other predictions should be interpreted. So here's what they will say.

The description of the cosmic chaos, the global meltdown, the universal alteration is just symbolic language illustrating what took place in Jerusalem in seventy AD. And they bring that kind of a lens into the book of Revelation. So when you come to Revelation and you read of events impacting the world, it's not really the world, it's Israel. When it talks about nations, it's not really talking about nations, it's talking about the nation of the Jews. When you see mentions of tribes, the tribes of the earth, it's not really the tribes of the earth, it's the tribes of Israel.

So for the preterists, all these prophecies center around what happened in seventy AD. And the apocalyptic language is just hyperbole to define the seriousness and the significance of the judgment that fell upon them then. And that bleeds into a lot including, this may shock you, for some preterists, what they find in Revelation nineteen eleven. You know this passage very well, but let me read it anyway. Revelation nineteen eleven.

Then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the almighty on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written king of kings and lord of lords. The Preterist, some, would come to this text and say, this happened in seventy AD In a phantom way, in an invisible way, Jesus came in vengeance and he poured out God's wrath upon those who rejected him. And so this is quite interesting because some might respond, wait a minute. So do preterists deny the physical bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ?

And how does preterism explain the transition from this age into the next age? And I wanna let you know that most preterists do believe in the bodily return of Jesus Christ, but in a different way than you might. And if we're not careful, this can easily become an elaborate explanation of these viewpoints, so I'm gonna be brief here. But here's how they would understand the return of Jesus. Since the pinnacle of God's judgment was known back in seventy AD, what we can expect as the church with the great commission is that the world is only gonna get better and better and better.

Not worse worse and worse, but more improved. And so for Preterist, they don't just believe that most people at one point will become Christians, but that even institutions and nations and laws will be conformed to the law of God and the gospel. And so it's really a complete takeover. And the millennium reign is something that we as the church build. And once we reach the golden age of the gospel and nations have been discipled, then Christ will physically return, will rule and reign forever and in a sense congratulate a successful church.

That is what preterism holds to and this is just again, one of two main reasons why they have this view. The second explanation is because how John speaks of his events himself. Let's go back to Revelation chapter one. Look at verse one again. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place, He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.

Look at verse three. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. Okay. That's the beginning of the book. Now you go to the end of the book.

Look at chapter 22 verse 10. John was told and he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near. If John said soon, then it must mean soon. Two thousand plus years does not sound like the time is near. And so the preterist would believe that these things John spoke of must have happened soon after he completed this letter.

Remember I told you how Irenaeus was a clue for people to believe that the book of revelation was written in what ninety five AD? Most preterists would challenge that. And they would say, no, no, no, it had to be in the sixties when Nero was reigning and persecuting. Why? Because if John wrote this after seventy AD, then how is this prediction about the fall of Jerusalem in seventy AD?

Had to have happened before seventy AD. So that's why you have some who will challenge Irenaeus as a source for dating this book. That's all I'll say about Preterism for now. And then these viewpoints, we're gonna maybe touch on them as we go through this book. But let me add one more thing.

Everything that I just described to you I hope this doesn't confuse you. Everything that I just described about preterism is what partial preterists believe. You have a fringe of preterism called full preterist. What do they believe? Everything in Revelation has been fulfilled.

Everything. The eternal age, the return of Christ, our resurrection, heaven, everything. That's dangerous. That's false teaching in my books. But even partial preterists are like, no, no, no, no.

We're not those guys. Just to make you aware, they're out there. I've had somebody when I was walking in the faith early on challenge me as a full Preterist. I had a lot of questions. Let's go to the third approach.

Remember, there's four approaches to interpreting the book. Let's go to the third. We we dealt with the historical view. We dealt with the Preterist view. Now, which is probably the most familiar to us, the futurist approach.

The futurist approach. The futurist interpretation views revelation in the exact opposite way of the Preterist. If the Preterist believes that a majority of the book of Revelation has not has been fulfilled rather, the futurist says most of it has not yet been fulfilled. And these events are still to come, to be realized near the end of the world, at the end of the world, in a future period called the tribulation, which will immediately precede the second coming, the establishment of Jesus' earthly reign, and the eternal age. That's what the futurist holds to.

And this is the most important thing about those who are futurists. Don't you love labels futurist? Futurists argue that a consistently literal and plain interpretation of the book of Revelation is necessary in order to understand it. So a futurist will say, look, you have to honor the rules of grammar, and you gotta stay consistent with the historical framework and you have to consider the context in order to determine your conclusions. So futurist will try to take the book of Revelation as literally as possible, but they do not deny figurative or symbolic imagery.

What they are reluctant to do though is to stretch metaphors or spiritualize passages. Any other view apart from the futurist finds great liberty in allegorizing the book of Revelation. Making it sound or be something that doesn't seem to be the case and it's literal understanding. The futures though is like, no, no, no. We gotta honor this as plainly as possible, as clearly as possible.

And that's what they do. And that's why they arrive to the conclusions that they arrive to. And though again, I do not like labels. If there was one that I did favor, it's this one. And that's how we're gonna be approaching the book of Revelation, from a futurist approach.

Why? Because John was told to write about the future. And the events that he describes have not yet happened unless you analyze it allegorically, then it could really mean anything. But if you take it literally, if you take it plainly, then you have to be honest and say, yeah, there isn't any time in history where we see these kind of events taking place. There might be similarities, there might be some overlap, but as you're gonna discover the intensity and the universal impact is unprecedented.

Let me give you some examples. Go to Revelation eight verse eight. This is under the series of the trumpet judgments. We'll explore that. I don't know when, but we will.

In Revelation eight verse eight, notice what happens after one of these trumpets are blasted. The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. A future is to say, we're talking about a real thing, an object from the heavens that crashed into the water and it actually killed animals and it actually destroyed infrastructure. Anything beyond the futurist would allegorize this passage.

They would spiritualize it. Okay. Let's look at another example. Look at chapter nine. We're still under the trumpet judgments and look at verse 18 of Revelation nine.

By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed. That's a lot of people. By the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. So again, a futurist would say, a third of mankind means a third of mankind. Other approaches would say, no, this might actually mean it's just really a symbolic picture of how throughout history, God has judged nations and he's allowed for devastations and great loss and if anything, this also shows God's grace because it's only a third and not the complete picture.

Which brings me now to the final approach to the book of Revelation. The idealist approach. The idealist approach. The idealist approach differs from the first three in that it refuses to identify any particular historical events. It doesn't look for institutions.

It doesn't look for people with the visions of this book in mind. It doesn't do any of that. Revelation to the idealist is a symbolic representation. It's a poetic parable. It's a figurative drama that depicts the ongoing struggle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, between good and evil, between the church and everything that opposes the church and the gospel.

That's the idealist approach. And so, it's not a timeline of anything. It doesn't deal with history past, it doesn't deal with the future to come. It's just really a collection of windows that we get to look through to give us encouragement to know that in the end, the church and Christ will be victorious. And in some of these windows, you're gonna get moral lessons and really the final window is how Christ will come back, rule and reign forever.

We will be successful. We will win. So they're not looking for anything. They're just seeing this as a book to bless the believers that were originally written to who were enduring persecution and we get to benefit from that as well, being the church. So it's all symbolic.

It's to communicate the victory of Christ in a more robust and enriching way. It's one thing to say, Satan will be defeated. Evil will cease. But when you include imagery like dragons and swords and the lake of fire and explosions and all these things, it just kinda hypes you up a little bit more. It does something to you more emotionally.

It excites you on a different level. That is how the idealist views the book of Revelation. So they'll teach through this and you know, I was interested actually. Knowing in advance that at some point we were gonna touch on this book, I thought, you know, I'm gonna listen to brothers in Christ who are idealists and how they teach through the book of Revelation. So I've been listening to series in the book of Revelation from those who believe this.

And I want to give you just an example of how they might look at some of the details. Right? Some will just overlook the details altogether. They'll just look at the whole, they'll kind of look at the main idea. This is about suffering in the world.

This is about God's call to repentance. This is a picture of God's wrath. But one of them actually went a little bit deeper and it really interested me. So if you go to Revelation, I want you to see what I heard in chapter six in verse five. This is when the seals were opened.

The scrolls were opened. The initial set of judgments. And look what we read here in the third seal, verse five. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. And I looked, and behold a black horse, and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.

And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine. So if you look at this from a literal standpoint, what do you have here? That there's gonna be a judgment released upon the earth that's gonna affect the global economy. And certain goods will be impacted while certain other goods will actually be intact. So again, you're seeing this as a plain depiction of something, prediction of something.

The idealist wouldn't see it that way. Again, nothing in Revelation has any connection to any point of history. And so what I heard was, no, no, this is describing a spirit that has been on the earth from the beginning, has been released, and what the spirit does, it convinces people to pursue things that they don't need, while neglecting the things that they do need. So what do you need? Wheat, barley, that's for your sustenance, that's for your survival.

Oil and wine, that's more luxury. And what the spirit does is convinces people, you need these things that don't really matter, while you are starving of the things that do matter, namely the truth, a relationship with Christ, the gospel. I I don't want to offend anybody, but that's a stretch. And it's like, where where is the limitation on this? You can make anything say anything then.

And that's why I think it can be dangerous. So you just heard briefly the four common approaches to interpreting the book of Revelation. And I wanna encourage everybody here. Let me say this at this point. You may hold to one of those views.

You may not hold to the futurist approach. And I get it, the futurist approach has not developed the greatest reputation either. It has its own weaknesses and I think one of the weaknesses of those who believe that all these things, most of these things are still to come is that it has inspired sensationalism. People wanna make everything seem like it's in the book of Revelation and they they missed the point, which I'm gonna get to as we close in a moment here. But for every person here, I wanna let you know that it's going to be by the grace of God my duty to try to make the book of Revelation as understandable and as clear as possible.

I'm not here to impress you with anything, with any lingo. I can't even pronounce some of these words. I myself can't. So I'm I don't impress myself. I just want people to leave here with a greater relief.

That book is amazing. Wow. Can I ask something of you? As we go through this book, I'm sure we're gonna talk about it in fellowship. I'm sure you're gonna take some of these points and relay it to others, maybe message others, call others, depends how much this means to you.

Can we journey through this in humility? Please. The church has disagreed on some of these details, some of the timing of these events since the beginning. And we wanna be a church that can say on these nonessential matters, we all agree Christ is coming back, he's gonna rule and reign, we're gonna be with him forever. We can have healthy, encouraging discussions about things that we can debate over, but we should still be able to come here, look at one another in the same pew, lift our hands and our hearts and sing to the same Jesus.

That's what we're doing here. So I don't want us to go downstairs and I don't wanna hear debates where people are throwing food at each other because so many people have worked hard for that food and that's not the goal of the book of Revelation being studied. If you're gonna have debate, let it be in humility, let it be in joy, let it be in love. We're still answering the question, what is the book of Revelation? It is a letter.

It is a prophecy. And lastly, it is a revelation. Let's go to Revelation one verse one again. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place, he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. If you didn't learn anything today, at least leave with this.

This is the book of Revelation, not revelations. There's no s at the end of Revelation. It's just the book of Revelation. One revelation. And it's the first words of John where the title is derived from.

And in the original Greek, the word is apocalypsis. Does that sound familiar? It's where we get the word apocalypse from. Now when you hear the word apocalypse, what comes to mind? Nuclear wars.

Right? The earth melting. Mountains plunging into the sea. People losing their lives. Catastrophe, horrors.

That's not what apocalypse means. Apocalypse simply means to uncover, to unveil, to reveal. The revelation, The revealing of Jesus Christ. It's to make something that was once unknown known. Something that was hidden now seen.

And the object of this revelation is Christ. It's as though John is saying, you're going to see something. You're going to see a side of Jesus of Nazareth that you didn't see in the gospels and that you couldn't picture in his apostle's letters. We're gonna remove something concerning Christ that you've never seen before. I will admit this.

When I was young, revelation intrigued me. Remember when I told you that I was looking at it in the pew? I was terrified, but I was curious at the same time. I mean, the pastor preaching must have thought this young child, he's a prodigy. He's reading the bible while I'm preaching, following me.

No. No. No. I was just trying to understand what I was looking at. Nothing related to the sermon, to my shame.

But I'll say this, even after that moment, being familiar with some of the truths of Revelation, I've always been intrigued early on because it said something about the future. And it seemed like these codes that if you prayed hard enough and read up on history enough, you can kinda crack some of them. But after I got saved, especially, especially after I got mature in the Lord and still maturing in the Lord, the thing that captivates me the most about the book of Revelation is Jesus, is Christ. That's what excites me about Revelation more than anything else. This book is about Jesus.

In Revelation one, he's the living one who has conquered death forever. In In Revelation two and three, he's the purifier of his church. In Revelation four and five, he's the theme of heaven's worship. In Revelation six to 18, he is the perfect righteous judge that patiently calls sinners to repent. In Revelation 19, he is the coming king who will vanquish and defeat Satan sin forever.

In Revelation 20, he is the promised seed of David who would declare to the universe that he kept his word by ruling and reigning on the earth. In Revelation twenty one and twenty two, he is the bridegroom who has come to rescue his church and to dwell with us forever. The book is about Jesus. And the issue is if you approach this text so focused on small details of the visions and try to match current news headlines with the book's predictions and you miss Christ in the process, you miss the purpose of the book. You did.

If you care about knowing more about Jesus, you will care about the book of Revelation. Depicts the current and coming glory of Jesus Christ and the descriptions of the awesome implications of it. The book of Revelation is a prophetic letter that depicts the current and coming glory of Jesus Christ and the awesome implications that come with it. Are you ready? Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you that you've allowed us as a church to come to this point in our growing knowledge of who you are. And we do pray, Lord, that our hearts would be humbled, that we would approach this with gratitude and love. That if the fruit of this study would be anything, yes, the knowledge of you, greater worship for you, But, Lord, would it also bring us closer together? Would it inspire Christ likeness? Lord, we do pray that you protect us as we study this truth, that you keep us from dangers, that, Lord, you would keep our hearts pure, you would keep our hearts hungry, and that, Lord, we would be able to end the study should you tarry, being more in love with Christ.

We ask, Lord, that for any disagreements, Christ like us will still be seen in our conversations. It would be felt in our dialogue. And, Lord, lastly, help us see your son, Jesus Christ, from chapter one to chapter 22. Help us, Lord, as we go through this, not get sidetracked, not get swept up by anything else. With whatever portion of this book we cover, we pray that Christ would be on our minds.

And so, Lord, we just, as a church, ask for you to be our guide. And, Lord, we sing to you now because we've tasted your goodness even in this brief overview of this glorious text. We thank you. We worship you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand and worship the Lord together, shall we?