Sermon | Revelation 1:1-20 | Three Keys to Unlock Revelation
INTRODUCTION
Revelation is the most difficult book in the Bible to read and understand.
The Devil’s Dictionary defines Revelation as “a famous book in which St. John concealed all that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators who know nothing.”
Many scholars note the difficulty of interpreting Revelation:
Milton Terry “No portion of the Holy Scripture has been the subject of so much controversy and of so many varying interpretations.”
B.B. Warfield Revelation is “the most difficult book of the Bible: it has always been the most variously understood, the most arbitrarily interpreted, the most exegetically tortured.”
Francis J. Beckwith “No other book, whether in sacred or profane literature, has received in whole or in part so many different interpretations. Doubtless no other book has so perplexed biblical students throughout the Christian centuries down to our own times.”
One theologian complained that “Revelation commentaries are often like a black hole: they are so dense that no light can escape from them.”
The ironic thing is that the title of the boos is Revelation, which means to reveal, to uncover, to open up, to unveil – with purpose of understanding. So, the most mysterious, obscure book in the Bible is called “Revelation.” Many think it should instead be called “The Mystery of Jesus Christ.” Perhaps the book is not supposed to be as mysterious as we think.
Before we get into our study, I want to do a little revealing myself. I want to point you my main sources of study for this sermon series, and I encourage you to check these out for yourself if you want to go deeper.
- Kenneth Gentry. He has many helpful works on Revelation and the end times, especially
- The Book of Revelation Made Easy
- Navigating the Book of Revelation
- Milton S. Terry, The Apocalypse of John (written in 1898)
- Douglas F. Kelly, Revelation
- Larry E. Ball, Blessed is He Who Reads
- Douglas Wilson, When the Man Comes Around
- David Chilton, Days of Vengeance
BACKGROUND
1) Author:
Revelation 1:1-2 “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatever he saw.”
The source is Jesus Christ, who sent an angel to share the message with John, who then wrote it down for us.
“John” is the apostle John, who also wrote the Gospel of John, and the three epistles of John.
In 1:9 John tells us that he received the Revelation while he was on the island of Patmos. The text doesn’t tell us why he was on Patmos, but tradition tells us that the Roman emperor banished him to the island for preaching Christ.
2) Audience:
1:1 says it is written to Christ’s servants. Then 1:10 specifically says that the book was written to seven particular churches, all of them in Asia Minor (modern Turkey): Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
1:9 tells us that these churches were suffering from severe persecution.
1:1 tells us that the purpose of the book was to show these churches what would soon take place.
3) Date:
The date of Revelation is the subject of hot debate because it has great implications for the meaning of the book.
First, you need to understand an important historical event. In A.D. 70, the Jews rebelled against Rome, causing Rome to invade Israel and completely destroy Jerusalem and the temple. We have a detailed account of these events in the works of Josephus, a Jewish historian and eyewitness. It was an earth-shattering event; one of the most significant events in all of history. The Romans destroyed the Jewish religion – the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices. This was God’s judgment for crucifying Christ, and for persecuting His followers.
If Revelation was written before A.D. 70, then it is highly likely that most of the prophecies in Revelation are about that event. That would lead to a Preterist understanding of Revelation. “Preterism” (from the Latin word praeteritus) means “gone by,” or “past.” It means that when the prophecies were first penned, they were still future, but they were fulfilled before our time, so they are in the past.
If Revelation was written after A.D. 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem, then it is possible that the majority of the prophecies point to future events at the end of history which have yet to unfold. This is a Futurist understanding of Revelation.
I believe that Revelation was written before A.D. 70, which means that most of Revelation has already been fulfilled. Most of Revelation contains prophecies that were fulfilled in the events leading up to and including the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
If most of Revelation has already been fulfilled, does that make the book irrelevant to us? By no means. The Old Testament is full of prophecy, most of which has already been fulfilled. But those books are still highly relevant. They prove to us that God’s word can be trusted. They teach us about God’s character, and how God works, and they have important lessons for how to relate to God. Even if Revelation is mostly fulfilled, it is still highly relevant today.
THREE KEYS TO UNLOCK REVELATION
1) John states when his prophecies will be fulfilled.
John clearly states that he expects his prophecies to occur soon.
Revelation 1:1-2 “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, whatever he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near.”
John uses two terms that indicate when the prophecies will be fulfilled.
- Verse 1: “what must soon take place.”
- Soon (Gk. En tachei)
- Verse 3: “the time is near.”
- Near (Gk. Engus)
- Ken Gentry “If you are not sure about one of the terms, then you have another! These terms are mutually supportive: that something is ‘shortly’ to come to pass means that it is ‘near.’ And only one verse separates them. They clearly demand that the events of Revelation are impending when John writes. Think of it: How else could John have declared that the events were near? He uses two of the most common, familiar, clear words expressing temporal proximity.” The Book of Revelation Made Easy, p. 19.
Not only does John use these two words at the very beginning of the book, but he uses them again at the very end of the book.
Revelation 22:6 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
Revelation 22:10 Then he said to me, “Don’t seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.”
Now if you believe that Revelation is book of end-times prophecies, then you have some tough questions to answer. Biblical critics and atheists will say, “Your Bible is wrong. It can’t be trusted.” “How is it wrong?” “The opening verse of Revelation say that the events were to happen soon; the time is near; yet you admit that they still haven’t been fulfilled. If soon means soon, and if near means near, then obviously your Bible got it wrong.”
But soon does mean soon. And near does mean near. That’s how we know that John is not writing about events that would occur 2,000-3,000 years later. He is writing about events that are going to unfold in the lifetime of his original audience.
As we are trying to interpret Revelation, we should look for its fulfillment shortly after the book was written.
2) John tells us how his prophecies should be interpreted.
In the opening verses of Revelation, John tells us that the book is to be interpreted symbolically and figuratively, not literally.
Revelation 1:1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John”
“He made it known” can be translated “signified.”
Robert Mounce “The revelation is said to be signified to John. The Greek verb carries the ide of figurative representation. Strictly speaking it means to make known by some sort of sign. Thus it is admirably suited to the symbolic character of the book. This should warn the reader not to expect a literal presentation of future history, but a symbolic portraying of that which must yet come to pass.”
Then in John’s first vision he makes it very clear that his prophecies are symbols.
John 1:12-16 “12 Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me. When I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was one like the Son of Man, dressed in a robe and with a golden sash wrapped around his chest. 14 The hair of his head was white as wool—white as snow—and his eyes like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like fine bronze as it is fired in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of cascading waters. 16 He had seven stars in his right hand; a sharp double-edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was shining like the sun at full strength.”
John sees a vision of Jesus, who is Jesus is standing among seven golden lampstands, and he has seven stars in his hand. If we were going to take Revelation literally, then those would just be literal candlesticks, and literal stars. But if you read a little further, Jesus explains that the vision is not meant to be taken literally.
Revelation 1:20 “The mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
The truth is that nobody takes Revelation literally. Imagine if we took Revelation literally:
- Rev 4:6 describes angels covered in eyes in front and back.
- Rev 5:6 describes a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes.
- Rev 6:1-8 – the world witnesses a global assault inflicted by four horseman, literally riding upon on horses.
- Rev 7:14 describes men washing robes in blood to make them white.
- Rev 9:7 describes locusts that look like horses, with gold crown, and men’s faces.
- Rev 9:17 describes horses with heads like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.
- Rev 12:3-4 describes a multi-headed dragon pulling down one third of the trillions of stars in the Universe, throwing them upon the earth.
- Rev 12:14-15 describes a woman with wings standing on the moon.
- Rev 12:14-15 describes a serpent vomiting out a river of water.
- Rev 13:2 describes a beast that looks like a compound of a leopard, a bear, and a lion.
- Rev 21:16 describes a city so big that it will extend from the earth’s surface upwards of 1500 miles, about 1200 miles higher than the space shuttle orbits.
Obviously we can’t interpret Revelation with a strictly literalistic approach. And nobody does, regardless of your interpretation of Revelation. It’s impossible.
3) John explains the theme of his book.
To interpret any work correctly, it is essential to do so on the basis of the author’s theme, especially if the author clearly states his theme. John states his theme early in the first chapter.
Revelation 1:7 “Look, 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.”
Most people assume that this verse is referring to the Second Coming of Christ in the end times. But it is referring to His coming in judgment on Jerusalem, which was fulfilled a few years after this was written, in A.D. 70.
Not every “coming” of Christ refers to His second coming.
- The spiritual comings of Christ when He comes to each individual believer in the Holy Spirit’s ministry (Jn 14:18); when He comes close to believers as they worship together (Mt 18:20); His coming to believers spiritually when they die to take them to heaven (Jn 14:3).
- The metaphorical coming of Christ in judgment when He destroyed Jerusalem in the first century (Mt 24).
- The literal bodily, visible return of Christ – His second coming of Christ (Acts 1:9-11).
Just because it says Christ is coming doesn’t necessarily mean that it refers to the second coming.
He is coming “with the clouds.” This kind of language can refer to the second coming, but it can also refer symbolically to divine judgment other than the second coming.
Isaiah 19 contains a warning to Old Testament Egypt. God threatens to visit Egypt in judgment, and this is later fulfilled when the Assyrian army conquered Egypt in 671 B.C. Notice the language used by Isaiah.
Isaiah 19:1 “A pronouncement concerning Egypt: Look, the Lord rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. Egypt’s worthless idols will tremble before him, and Egypt will lose heart.”
God didn’t literally come to Egypt on the clouds. He came to them metaphorically in judgment, specifically exercising that judgment through the Assyrians.
In Matthew 26, when Jesus was on trial before the Jewish high priest, he uses similar language.
Matthew 26:64 “But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Jesus is not talking about His second coming, because He tells the high priest, “You will see.” He is telling the High Priest that in his lifetime he will see Christ coming in judgment. He was pointing to God’s destruction of Jerusalem just a few years after this in A.D. 70.
So Christ coming “with the clouds” doesn’t have to refer to the second coming; it can refer to a coming in judgment, and that is what is being communicated here.
“Every eye will see him, even those who pierced Him.”
This sounds like it is saying that the whole world will see this coming. But the word “every” doesn’t have be taken so literally.
The Bible often uses words like “all or every” in a limited sense. For example, in Joshua 22:12 it says that the whole generation went to war; but surely it’s not talking about infants, the aged, and the sick. Jeremiah 2:20 says that Israel sinned against God “on every hill” and “under every tree.” But surely it doesn’t literally mean every hill, any every single tree.
“Every eye will see him” doesn’t have to literally mean every single person in the whole world. It can simply mean that this will be a public, and not a private event. And of course the judgment against Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was a very public event.
Also, Jesus qualifies the statement, “every eye will see Him,” with “even those who pierced Him.” The Greek word “even” can be understood as an explicative, translated as “that is.” So, this verse can be translated, “Every eye will see him, that is those who pierced Him.”
Jesus is saying that the very people who pierced Him, who crucified Him, will witness His coming in judgment.
This coming in judgment was going to happen while His murderers were still alive.
“All the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.”
This sounds like the whole earth will experience this coming.
But if do just a little bit of digging, you will find that the Greek word translated “earth” can also be translated “land,” as in the Promised Land, or Israel. So, the verse can also be translated, “All the tribes of the land will mourn over Him.” When Christ comes in judgment, all the tribes of Israel will be deeply affected.
What is John’s stated theme of Revelation? John is telling his readers, Christians who were living in the first century and who were experiencing severe persecution at the hand of the Jews, that relief is on the way. That Jesus is coming soon to judge the Jews and to destroy the enemies of Christ. And this judgment is exactly what the bulk of Revelation’s prophecies are about. Revelation is not primarily a book about future judgments thousands of years down the road at the end of time; it is about Christ’s judgment against the first-century Jews who had rejected the Messiah and who were persecuting Christians. And this judgment was carried out just a few years after the book was written in A.D. 70.
Ken Gentry (Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond, Kindle, 245) “I am convinced that Revelation’s main point is to prophesy the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70.”
CONCLUSION
So, let’s review. There are three keys to understand Revelation; three keys to turn Revelation from a mystery into an unveiling.
- John states that his prophecies will be fulfilled soon.
- John indicates that the book is highly symbolic.
- John makes it known that theme of the book is God’s judgment upon Israel for rejecting Christ and persecuting Christians.
John is telling the seven churches in Asia who are under persecution. Sit tight, hang tough, stand firm, hold fast. Help is on the way. God sees your situation. He sees that you are suffering. He sees that you are being mistreated. And He has a plan. He is not going to sit by and do nothing. In just a short time, He will take vengeance on your enemies. Salvation is coming.
That same message applies to you and me. God sees your situation. He sees your suffering. He sees your hardship. Sit tight, hang tough, stand firm, hold fast. Help is on the way, either in this life or in the next.
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