How many of you, if you were asked by your kids or by someone close to you to explain. The book of revelation would feel a little bit intimidated. Raise your hand if that would intimidate you. I've put my. I'll put my hand up. We're going to work our way through the book of Revelation, and we're going to talk about some real specifics here on the front end, just so that we can have, some context for the book of Revelation.

And then towards the end of our time tonight, we're going to talk about kind of some interpretive challenges and some interpretive commitments that we have as we work our way through the Book of Revelation. But even as I prayed, I just want to start with this commitment. Our God is a God who by his nature, he, he, he relates to his people by revealing things to them.

So God has revealed to us truth in his Scripture. It's not the nature of God to conceal things from us. So from the very beginning, I want us to to think about revelation with that commitment in mind, a lot of people approach revelation as if our God, the God of Christianity, is a God who delights himself in in hiding things from his people.

Right. And so a lot of people approach revelation with that attitude that it's our job somehow to sort of mystically or supernaturally or spiritually decode what God has hidden in His Word, what God is, is concealing from us. That that is not my commitment. That's not my belief. That's not my understanding. God has revealed to us things in revelation that he wants us to know things that he wants us to be certain of.

Our God is a God who reveals not a God who conceals. And so we I want to start with that sort of overarching framework. There is a tendency among some in modern times to to assign, hidden or a secret motivation behind every image that we see in revelation. And if that's what you're looking for, if you're hoping for, a prophecy watchers meeting where we're going to gather on Sunday night and I'm going to say, I see this is this is God really talking about Russia or this is God really talking about Jesus paying?

Or this is God talking about Kim Jong un or this has got to be Donald Trump or this is this is that listen, this is not me. That that's not that's not what I believe about revelation. I believe that God has revealed that which he wants us to know. So we're going to start at the very beginning, and I want us to understand some things in context about the book of revelation.

So the very first thing this is this is revelation 101. And probably you guys are well advanced beyond this in your understanding of revelation. The name of the book is revelation. It's not the book of revelations, it's the book of revelation. This is that which God has revealed about the consummation of all things. So the book of revelation, was written by who?

Who, who wrote down, recorded for us the book of revelation. John. Thank you. Margaret. Is that you, John? The specifically John the Apostle. He it, there's a lot of John's in Scripture. I will say normally I have water up here on my podium, but because we're in revelation, it's coffee. Okay? And I need it all, I need all I need it all the I need all the juice I can get for this.

So we sipping on my coffee. John the Apostle, a lot of, sort of old timey people. You don't hear this much, but, you hear this in a lot of, kind of, turn of the century, you know, literature from, 150 or so years ago, you would see, authors and scholars refer to John as John the Revelator.

Have you ever heard of that? Is John the Revelator to distinguish from John the Baptist, another John that we might encounter. This book was written, to us by, by John. How do we know that this book was given to us by by John? There's a number of New Testament books, particularly in Old Testament books as well, whose authorship is widely debated.

This is not one of those books. How do we know that this book was written by John? Revelation one one right. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. Okay, so the Book of Revelation is recorded by John.

And and John was given, a vision, into the things that would, according to revelation one one, soon take place. It's one of the interesting things about, our faith and specifically as we approach the book of revelation, every generation of Christians, beginning with that generation of Christians, which was alive in the first century in the establishment of the church, every generation of Christians has believed, or at the very least, hoped for or anticipated, the return of Christ in their lifetime.

These were the things that were revealed to John that must soon take place. So I want us to talk a little bit about John, and we're going to spend some time tonight just just talking, specifically, about John because it's, it's it's significant that this revelation was, was given to John. What do we know? Just from other places in Scripture?

What do we know about John the Apostle? John, the author of the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John, first, second, and third John, and the Book of Revelation? What do we know about John? Anyone?

He lived the longest. John is the only one of the apostles that died of natural causes at a ripe old age. What else? Ted, you were saying something.

That he was the only one. That was not. He was not martyred, right? Yeah. He he lived to be an old man. Yeah. What's do you even really want to say? Yeah, he was, a close companion of Jesus. Right? Jesus had the 12, but then he had this inner circle of three. Peter, James and John, who were brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee.

There's a kind of an obscure passage in Mark where, Jesus refers to James and John as both energies. Does anyone know what that translates to? Sons of Thunder? This week, as I was studying and spent a lot of time talking about just studying about John, kind of thinking about John, and trying to get my mind, I went down on this rabbit trail for a little bit about Sons of Thunder, and there's nothing out there besides speculation about what Jesus meant when he referred to, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, as the sons of thunder.

But it got me kind of revved up, right? Jesus knew something. There's something significant about these two. They were, I believe, dynamic, energetic. Passionate. And, Yeah. So. So what else? What else do we know about about, about John. He was in this inner this inner circle. So John was one of the three that was there at the transfiguration of Jesus.

Right? Jesus goes up on a mountain and he takes with him Peter, James, and John. And before them he's transfigured as the fullness of the glory of God shone upon him. And he appeared there with, Moses and Elijah the Great, the greatest of the the fathers, and the rider of the law, and the greatest of the prophets, representing all of the Old Testament, the law and the history and the prophets.

And they were there. They were eyewitnesses. Right. So he was there. What else about, about John. That's significant. Yeah. Beth.

John is the only one of Jesus's disciples that's pictured having not abandoned him. At the cross. He's there at the foot of the cross with Mary and all of the Marys. All of the women who were there. Yeah. And and Jesus, in this moment, knowing that he is his life is about to to be gone.

He's about to to depart and understanding, obviously, the culture that women in the first century were fully dependent on a man. The women were unable to provide for themselves. And so if a woman didn't have a husband or a son to provide for her, it was a very desperate situation. And so among Jesus very final acts, he declares to his mother, Mary, behold, this is now your son, and to John, now this is your mother.

I mean that as someone who's, you know, participating significantly in caring for my own mother after the passing of my dad. This is this is significant, right? John is referred to as the the beloved disciple. What an honor. I mean, to be mentioned among the the disciples, those who knew and lived and walked with Jesus.

That's significant. But to be mentioned as the beloved disciple, this is this John has a unique perspective. It's also why when you study the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels. They typically kind of follow, generally a similar plan, and they kind of typically record the same stories in roughly the same order.

But John is not included in the synoptic Gospels. It's not that John, contradicts Matthew, Mark and Luke, but his perspective is very much different. He had a different relationship with the Lord than did, Matthew and, and, and, and Luke and certainly Mark who, who likely recorded his gospel based on the testimony of Peter. But that's another book.

So what else? What else do we know about John?

He was an exile. He was an exile to Patmos. Right. And we get that in revelation one nine. Revelation one nine says, I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

John, wrote this this book. He received this vision while he was, in exile, on the island of Patmos. This is, an island off the coast of, of Turkey, not far from from the coast of Greece, where John was, was banished as an exile. And here from revelation one nine, he says that he was was exiled on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

It was because of his teaching, because of, his is his knowledge and his understanding of the gospel, because he was proclaiming the truth according to, to to Christ, that which he had seen. Right. If you go back to first, John, that which he had seen and and experienced and heard, he was teaching, and so he was banished.

Does anyone know where he was banished from? Where was John prior to being banished in Ephesus? Very good. He was, and this is we get this more from from early church historical accounts. And so a number what we're gonna talk about tonight comes to us not from the pages of Scripture, but from a number of of early Christians, church fathers, people in the first couple of centuries that begin writing down the history of the church.

It's recorded for us, that John was, was exiled from Ephesus. He is recorded to have spent significant time in Ephesus during his life, which is, is is part of the reason why, as this the book of revelation opens with the letters to the seven churches. It's this region of Asia minor in what what what is modern day Turkey?

John had such significant knowledge and understanding of the, the, the region. An interesting story endures from church history, through the writings of one of the early church fathers, Tertullian, who, began writing in about 200 A.D., a story that had been passed down orally, though it's not recorded in Scripture. Tertullian writes that, the emperor of Rome, an emperor named Domitian, ordered John to be executed by being boiled in oil while he was still in the Roman province of Asia minor, still in Ephesus.

So a giant cauldron of oil was heated to the point of boiling, and John was lowered in. But according to the tradition that was passed down orally from generation to generation, as he was lowered into the pot of boiling oil, nothing happened to him. There's a there's a telling of this story. It's not inspired. Word of God. I don't take it as, a definitively inspired word.

It is a story that comes to us through the writing of, one of the early church fathers who said, it's kind of, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego kind of moment for John that John was ordered to be executed by being lowered into a vat of boiling oil. But as he was lowered into the valley, according to the tradition, nothing happened.

So, Domitian, then the emperor of Rome, ordered him instead to be exiled to the island of Patmos. This is the story that was passed down about how John came to be an exile on, the island of of Patmos. Interestingly enough, it's recorded by, another one of the Church fathers, Jerome, that John finished his days not in exile in Patmos, but back in Ephesus.

Eusebius is another one of the early church historians. He's considered the father of church history, probably the first real church historian. Eusebius writes that eventually the emperor Domitian died with John still a very old man in exile on on the island of Patmos, and the next emperor of Rome. Said John's to be released. He he can go back to his people in Ephesus.

And John came to be known then by the early church fathers and historians as, the not not only the beloved apostle, but the, the apostle of love. If you if you read particularly John's epistles, the idea of the church and our love for one another, it's a central theme. Let me read this from First John chapter four.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. And anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, that we might live through him.

00:18:08:23 - 00:18:30:11
Unknown
The end. This is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

00:18:30:11 - 00:19:18:17
Unknown
It's actually recorded, for us by, one of the early church fathers, another man named Jerome. You may remember Jerome from our study of church history we did last year. Jerome is, the man who, for 30 years, sequestered himself in the cave in Bethlehem, where it was believed that Jesus was born. The the among all of the sites that you can visit now in the Holy Land, there's there's a significant amount of, of, discrepancy about where certain things happened.

00:19:18:19 - 00:19:49:15
Unknown
You know, the Catholics claim that this is the place where Jesus was resurrected and the some other Protestant groups claim it was here, and some Greek Orthodox people claim it was here. One of those places that's not really contested is the the cave in which Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Very, very, very early on, Christians were attesting that this is the place.

00:19:49:15 - 00:20:25:02
Unknown
So Jerome, at one point, one of our early church fathers, decided to sort of sequester himself in the cave, with all of the resources that were available to him in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek, and compile one Bible in one language called the Latin Vulgate. Right. Well, Jerome records for us also a story that was passed down from generation to generation.

00:20:25:04 - 00:20:56:15
Unknown
That, at the end of John's lifetime, after he was released from the island of Patmos and went back to Ephesus. That is a very, very, very old man, part of the the sort of normal worship gathering of the church in Ephesus was that a group of deacons would carry John in on a mat. He was unable to walk, and barely able to speak, and he would.

00:20:56:17 - 00:21:35:11
Unknown
They would carry him to the front of the place where they were gathering, and John would simply say, my little children love one another. And then they would go sit down, and then Timothy would preach, I can I've had the occasion of, on a number of times having, men that I respect immensely. In the congregation as I was preaching, I remember one time when I was young, the president of my seminary, showed up to, to hear me preach, not that long ago, Michael State and showed up a pastor that I respect immensely.

00:21:35:11 - 00:21:48:08
Unknown
And it's a little intimidating to have other men that you respect greatly. Listen to your preaching. I can't imagine what Timothy was thinking. You got John.

00:21:48:10 - 00:22:12:15
Unknown
In the congregation. But this is what's recorded for us. About about John. Any other significant details that, that I've overlooked about the life of John, that, that might be important for us as we try to set set context for John as the author of of this book.

00:22:12:16 - 00:22:18:16
Unknown
We missed anything. Yeah. Beth.

00:22:18:18 - 00:22:24:11
Unknown
Do I I wonder what.

00:22:24:13 - 00:22:48:10
Unknown
You know, that's a good question that I do not know the answer to. I don't know what was the question? What were the prisoners doing there on the island of Patmos? My suspicion, based on what I do know. And, you know, you can do what you want to about this story that comes to us about the failed attempt to to boil John in a pot of, of oil.

00:22:48:10 - 00:23:13:11
Unknown
But my suspicion is it was just a place for prisoners to go and rot where they can't influence anyone else. Right. But that's a good question, Beth. I don't know the the answer to that question. Any any other thoughts about the person of John before we sort of move on a little bit early time when he and Peter can be very competitive.

00:23:13:13 - 00:23:39:10
Unknown
You well, there's you get some of that in the, in the, in John's gospel. And and you get, you know, of course you get in the book of acts certain, certainly disagreement between Paul and Peter, very sharp disagreement between Paul and Peter. You get, another time, a very sharp disagreement between Paul and and Mark where Paul said, John, Mark, I don't I don't want anything to do with him.

00:23:39:12 - 00:24:24:21
Unknown
But yeah, you do. I would say it's more explicit, the tension that existed, between between Peter and Paul, there is, kind of some, some, some hinting, there's this funny, illustration around the resurrection of of of Jesus. Where in in John's gospel, John and Peter are sort of pictured is sprinting to the tomb, having, received word from Mary Magdalene that Jesus had risen and they're sprinting to the tomb and, and, and and John in his gospel doesn't mention himself by name, but he simply says the other the other disciple got there first.

00:24:24:23 - 00:24:53:03
Unknown
Right. So it's why consequently, I mean, we don't have any idea what any of these guys looked like, but for that very reason, if you ever see a depiction of of Peter or or John, Peter is always pictured as being a little pudgy or and John is pictured as being more slender for the simple reason that in the Gospel of John it says that as they were running to the tomb, John got there first.

00:24:53:03 - 00:25:17:20
Unknown
Right. Just some interesting, interesting side note. So, the book of the book of Revelation, written by John as he was in exile on the island of Patmos. We we believe it's recorded by church history historians that that he was eventually released and lived out the last of his days back in the church, in Ephesus.

00:25:17:22 - 00:26:18:06
Unknown
Here's another important question. When, do you have any speculation or any knowledge from study about when, the book of Revelation was, was written? What is 60s there? There is a great deal of debate about when the book of revelation, was written. There's a number of scholars that say revelation was likely written in 68 or 69 A.D. the majority of, the majority opinion among scholars is that, revelation was probably written much later, like 95, 96 A.D. interestingly enough, the church father, Irenaeus records in his book Against Heresies that John wrote the book toward the end of Domitian's reign, which would, lend towards the latter

00:26:18:06 - 00:26:52:21
Unknown
date. So I would ask this question, why does it matter? Yeah, it's hugely significant. And and in many cases, when the the day the dating of a book is sort of debated in many cases it's like it really doesn't matter. It matters a great deal if, if revelation was written in 68 or 69 A.D., that means that it was written before the destruction of the temple, which we know was in the year 70 A.D., in the year 70 A.D., the temple.

00:26:52:22 - 00:27:26:10
Unknown
And we're going to we're going to reference that a number of times in the book of revelation, the year 70 A.D., the temple was destroyed. The Roman, troops invaded, Jerusalem. They completely destroyed the temple, along with all of its all of its records. If you travel to Jerusalem today, you can still see stones laying on top of themselves in a pile of rubble that date back to 70 A.D..

00:27:26:12 - 00:28:08:22
Unknown
When the temple was destroyed, this was, without a doubt, the most significant event, in, in, in, in in this era for, the people of Israel. And so if, if you, if you, if you pick an earlier dating to revelation, then there's a temptation with certain things that we see revealed in revelation to say we see this is prophetically speaking of the destruction of the temple, which was a year or two later, if you believe the the latter day, which I personally believe in, is the majority position, it communicates something.

00:28:09:00 - 00:28:32:01
Unknown
Something very different. So, you know, we can we can discuss that more as we get in, but know that there is some debate, about, the nature or the timing of that. It also, depends, you know, there's a great deal of speculation about who was the emperor during the time that revelation was, was written.

00:28:32:03 - 00:28:51:20
Unknown
And the latter date would, would, lend itself to, to sometime during the reign of Nero and or, the emperor Domitian. A couple of other questions, a couple of things I want to I want us to think about before we get into kind of some of the interpretive challenges. Who was the book written to?

00:28:51:20 - 00:29:23:20
Unknown
These are all these are all important questions that we should ask ourselves at the front end of any study, of any book of the Bible. Who who was the book of revelation written? Two of the seven churches in Asia. So does that mean for us that because we're not one of the seven churches of Asia, there's no practical application for us from the book of revelation, it's written to the seven churches of Asia minor.

00:29:23:20 - 00:29:50:10
Unknown
But, the seven churches of Asia minor are meant to be a an encapsulation of of all churches for all time, which, which sort of lends us to are the next kind of kind of that kind of segues us to what we want to talk about, about how we interpret, the Bible and how we specifically interpret revelation.

00:29:50:11 - 00:30:26:19
Unknown
So we're going to take a poll, raise your hand if you generally, if you generally affirm, a literal interpretation of the Bible, raise your hand if that's how you are. I'm raising my hand. I generally, defer to, a literal interpretation of the Bible. Like, you know, I think that when the Bible says, don't murder, you shouldn't murder, right?

00:30:26:21 - 00:30:49:01
Unknown
I believe that if the Bible says you ought not to do something, then Christians and really, all people ought not to do that thing. Bible says you ought to do something. You ought to do that thing. I don't believe that our culture dictates the meaning of the text. I believe that in a general sense, the Bible is, timeless truth.

00:30:49:03 - 00:31:12:06
Unknown
And I will say there's an entire field of study, that that you that you have to you have to engage in, in, in seminary that deals with how to interpret the Bible. So you would know what that field of study is called. Anyone hermeneutics? There's an entire field of study called hermeneutics that says this is how you study the Bible.

00:31:12:06 - 00:31:32:15
Unknown
These are these are, ways that you take the Bible. And I will say, my default hermeneutic is this I have I'm a very I'm a very simple guy. And I will say, if someone asked me what is your sort of general hermeneutic meaning? What's the what's the lens through which you approach the Bible? I will say this.

00:31:32:15 - 00:32:14:19
Unknown
My default hermeneutic is is this. It's the plain reading of the text, right? Do you want to know what I think about hermeneutics? In a general sense, I would say that I believe that we are to just like what the Bible plainly says. That's what we're to believe. Like when the Bible says Jesus was born of a virgin, I default to the plain reading of the text that Mary was, an unmarried young woman who had never engaged in sexual intimacy with a man like that's just to me, that's plainly what the text says.

00:32:14:21 - 00:32:50:15
Unknown
I will confess, though, that there are certain genres of Scripture that are not intended to be interpreted literally. Now, don't start a rumor that Ryan is, you know, Ryan's gone, woke, or Ryan has embraced some sort of, German, higher critical, you know, hermeneutic where we want to make the Bible say all things. And a lot of people have used this concept of allegory.

00:32:50:17 - 00:33:20:06
Unknown
And they they've sort of they they're their default hermeneutic is an allegorical hermeneutic. In other words, they're saying, well, the Bible's not really telling about actual events that actually happened. It's meant to convey some sort of allegory about, good and evil. Right. And they would say a lot of people, especially churches that tend to be more affirming of alternate lifestyles, things which we would say the Bible explicitly condemns.

00:33:20:06 - 00:33:54:09
Unknown
They're saying, no, the Bible that was in that culture, it's all allegorical. Now, the culture's changed, and so we view it through the lens of culture. Listen, I reject that wholeheartedly. But I will also say that the Bible is a lot of different kinds of literature. Okay. So I will say in narrative literature, I believe, like in a literal translation, a literal interpretation, I believe that what the Bible plainly says is what it plainly means.

00:33:54:11 - 00:34:14:00
Unknown
There's a lot of different kinds of literature. Can can we name or think of, the various types of literature that are contained within the Bible? I already gave you one narrative. That's the that's the biggest chunk a narrative is, is what what is what is narrative in the Bible? It's telling a story. This is what happened, right?

00:34:14:02 - 00:34:38:12
Unknown
This is what we get with, Genesis, Leviticus, Exodus numbers, Deuteronomy, you know, Chronicles and kings first, second Samuel. This is just this is the story of God's people. It's what we get in the Gospels. We get Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John giving us eyewitness accounts. This is what I saw. This is what happened. This is, a narrative of in the book of acts.

00:34:38:14 - 00:35:01:07
Unknown
It's a it's a narrative event. Luke is recording for Theophilus the things that happened around the formation and the establishment of the church after the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles at Pentecost. It's, it's a description, of what happened. But that's not the only type of literature that we encounter in the Bible. What are some other types of literature that we encounter in the Bible?

00:35:01:09 - 00:35:39:21
Unknown
Or I heard a lot, but I didn't hear anything in wisdom literature. Right. So we have in the Old Testament this this section that's known as wisdom literature, Psalms, Proverbs and Lamentations. Ecclesiastes. It is it is poetic in nature. It's it's written in a poetic form. The Book of Psalms, for example, is a number of psalmist's writing in the format to, to be sung by God's people.

00:35:39:23 - 00:36:07:11
Unknown
That's why one of the great recent developments in the church is a return to singing the Psalms. When you're singing the Psalms, you're singing the songs of Israel, you're singing the songs that Jesus and the his disciples were singing. Right? These were songs that were meant to be sung. Well, if if I said,

00:36:07:13 - 00:36:31:16
Unknown
Let's take an event like, our adults take a trip to Branson every other year. I said, if someone would write me a narrative account of what we experienced in Branson, it would look a certain way. Well, we left at this time after the potluck, and then we drove to Branson and we ate here, and we did this on the first night we did this.

00:36:31:18 - 00:36:49:06
Unknown
If I said, and maybe we should do this, somebody write us a song about the Branson trip. How would that differ?

00:36:49:07 - 00:37:24:15
Unknown
Let's detail here. Depends on you that you asked. Yeah. Perspective would matter, right? But so when we encounter the Psalms, when we encounter these, this wisdom literature, and it comes to us in a, in a particular style, very specifically known as Hebrew poetry, we understand there certain aspects and elements of, of, of Hebrew poetry, that make sense, like the passage that I read this morning when it says there there are six things that the Lord hates.

00:37:24:15 - 00:38:06:15
Unknown
Yeah, seven. Well, that's a very poetic Hebrew way of saying this is just a good, comprehensive list of the things that the Lord finds detestable. Right. And so, yeah, we have wisdom, literature. What else? What are some other genres that we have in Scripture from us? Prophecy. Right. So we, we have, a good amount of the Old Testament is prophetic in nature, meaning God revealed to the prophets things which were significant specifically for Israel or Judah or sometimes for other nations, like in the case of, of of Jonah.

00:38:06:15 - 00:38:31:19
Unknown
Right. With prophecy to the Ninevites. But God was was revealing things. And really, even within within the genre of prophecy, there's kind of two different, two different genres of, of of prophecy, there's foretelling, which is how we typically think about when we think about prophecy, like a prophecy saying, this is what God's going to do at some future time.

00:38:31:19 - 00:39:00:11
Unknown
And some of it, it falls into the category of fourth telling, right? It's just, the prophet is the mouthpiece of God. He's proclaiming truth, on God's behalf. So sometimes it's a it's a futuristic foretelling. This is what's going to happen in the future. Sometimes it's it's forth telling, like I'm just proclaiming the truth. In that sense, what I do on Sunday morning is prophetic in nature.

00:39:00:12 - 00:39:28:14
Unknown
Not that I'm telling the future, but that in in as much as what I'm saying is consistent with the revealed Word of God, I'm forth telling, right? So you have you have prophecy. You also, have, a whole genre of scripture known as apocalyptic literature, the book of revelation, sort of encompassed a well, there's a there's another one which is a big one known as an epistle, a letter.

00:39:28:14 - 00:39:54:21
Unknown
Right. So you have all these different genres of scripture, you have narrative, you have an epistle, you have, you have, the wisdom literature, you have prophetic literature. And within the genre of prophetic literature, you have apocalyptic literature. And revelation sort of falls into three categories. Doesn't fit squarely. It is it is, an epistle on the front end.

00:39:54:21 - 00:40:22:08
Unknown
Right. It's the letter of of Jesus, to the seven churches. But even that epistle is it's prophetic in nature. The rest of the book of Revelation is largely prophetic in nature, but it also falls in the category of apocalyptic literature. This was very common during the first century. It's very common different groups of people with different beliefs.

00:40:22:10 - 00:40:59:06
Unknown
In fact, really almost all of the pagan religions of the day had an explanation of how the gods were going to bring to consummation all that was going to happen. And so the book of revelation is given to us as, a form of this apocalyptic, prophetic literature. In fact, if you look at revelation one one, it says the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Greek, it literally says the, apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

00:40:59:06 - 00:41:38:05
Unknown
Right? This form of, of writing, and that word, apocalyptic just simply means to reveal that which has been hidden. That's what the book of Revelation is. The angel sent by God to John is giving John a vision that uncovers that which has previously been hidden. And so I want to tell you that I don't want to get a rumor started that I've, embraced some, some, some liberal allegorical understanding of Scripture.

00:41:38:05 - 00:42:06:00
Unknown
But at the same time, when you approach prophetic literature, you have to understand there is some allegory involved, there is some imagery involved. There is, a sense in which you can't just go literally through the book of revelation and interpret its meaning. I sent Brian earlier, a graphic, that he's going to pull up, I think illustrates this point.

00:42:06:00 - 00:42:30:09
Unknown
The book of Song of Songs or Song of Solomon? The the the author is describing, his, his beloved, his lover as the most beautiful woman that has ever been seen. And he's talking about her in all of her radiance and all of her beauty. I don't know if Brian's up there. Can you pull up that graphic, Brian?

00:42:30:11 - 00:42:56:00
Unknown
I didn't get to it. Oh, sorry. We don't have a graphic. Anyway, we'll show it to you later. It it takes an it takes a literal interpretation of of what's described as, the most beautiful woman, where she's described as having, a neck like an ivory tower, a strong tower and and hair like, like a flock of goats and eyes as doves.

00:42:56:00 - 00:43:22:02
Unknown
And it literally, it takes it takes the literal translation of the description of this woman in Song of Songs. And guess what? She's hideous, right? I mean, if you if you literally are looking at this description of this woman and you're like, yeah, her hair's like a flock of goats, and I don't think any of you, if any of the women in the room walked in on a Sunday morning, I said, oh, your hair.

00:43:22:04 - 00:43:53:15
Unknown
It's as lovely as a flit. Reminds me of a flock of goats. You would take that as an insult, right? But the author of Song of Songs thought this is as beautiful as anything I can imagine. So there's a sense in which, as we approach the book of revelation that we we have to understand,

00:43:53:16 - 00:44:25:03
Unknown
You can't. There are aspects of revelation that I think are intended to be literal. There are aspects of revelation that are somewhat allegorical. It's all prophetic in nature. And so the question is, how do you how do you know when where to take something from revelation literally, and when, where to take something from revelation figuratively or more allegorically or more as imagery.

00:44:25:03 - 00:44:32:00
Unknown
That's intended to represent something else. How do we know the difference?

00:44:32:02 - 00:44:37:01
Unknown
Any thoughts?

00:44:37:03 - 00:45:04:19
Unknown
The Holy Spirit illuminates. That's good. I believe that with the, the like the word like for as for me, that's like a simile. Yeah. The text itself sometimes will sort of authorize you. Oftentimes the text will indicate something that's meant to be taken, more allegorically or more as imagery of something. But but also, honestly, it's just hard work.

00:45:04:21 - 00:45:30:12
Unknown
And in this situation, I will tell you that context is king, which is why it's so important in any book of the Bible, but particularly in the book of revelation, to study the whole book. Right? And not just dive bomb into one verse and rip it from its context. So we're we're going to talk about, a number of things.

00:45:30:12 - 00:45:58:13
Unknown
And one of the difficult parts with, the book of Revelation is that you have to you have to kind of pick, an interpretive stance, as you approach the book, you have to you have to do a little bit of, of, examination, and, and understand that there's some, some interpretive challenges, really. Right, right off the bat.

00:45:58:13 - 00:46:20:13
Unknown
And, we're going to talk about, a number of those, in coming weeks. There's different, different ways of, of viewing, the book of Revelation. We don't have time to get into those, tonight. But I want to ask, the sort of last question is we're just setting the context, and, and, next week we will we will jump in to revelation one one.

00:46:20:13 - 00:46:50:22
Unknown
So if any of you are are disappointed that I have not yet told you exactly when Jesus is returning, I will tell you, it's it's true what Jesus said. Nobody knows. But the last question I want to ask is what is the purpose you think the purpose of the Book of Revelation is an interesting thing is, as a child, I remember being terrified of the book of Revelation.

00:46:50:22 - 00:47:30:16
Unknown
As a child, I remember, thinking that the return of Christ was something that I should be afraid of. Some for, for probably spiritual reasons, because it's a very young child, I wasn't saved, I wasn't saved till I was 12. Some for very selfish reasons. I remember thinking, but, you know, it's almost Christmas. You wouldn't want Jesus to come back before Christmas or it's almost my birthday or thinking, you know.

00:47:30:18 - 00:47:46:13
Unknown
Well, what I haven't. I'm not even 16 yet. I didn't even get to drive. I, I didn't get to go on a date. I want to I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want, you know, there's all these things that I want to do. I don't really want Jesus to come back. Have you ever had that thought?

00:47:46:15 - 00:48:12:04
Unknown
It's okay if you have, of this, I can assure you, if you're still having that thought, there's going to be nobody at any point in heaven who's looking back on. Man, I really missed out because I didn't get to experience X even. I've had someone recently. I said something about hoping for Christ's return and saying, why don't you want to walk your daughters down the aisle?

00:48:12:06 - 00:48:43:22
Unknown
Like not? Yes, I do, but not more than I want to be with Jesus. Right? So what is the purpose for this book? It's not. It shouldn't. It shouldn't cause believers to fear. What? What is the purpose for the book? Hope, right gives us great hope for the future. The future has been determined. And guess what? Jesus wins, right?

00:48:44:00 - 00:49:11:05
Unknown
The future has been determined. And. And Jesus wins. Grace wins. God wins. Goodness triumphs over evil. So it gives us hope, right? It gives us hope that, and this is one of the themes that we're going to touch on as we work through the book of revelation, all that was lost in the fall when Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, is going to be restored.

00:49:11:07 - 00:49:35:02
Unknown
Guess where we're going, guys? Back to the garden. We're going back to the garden. There's great hope in that. We tend to think about heaven only in terms of this spiritual floaty place where our souls go after our our brain and our heart and our lungs cease to function. And that's a real place, this sort of floaty spiritual place.

00:49:35:04 - 00:50:07:12
Unknown
But that place is temporary. Revelation paints for us a picture of a of a day when the dead in Christ will be resurrected and our resurrected glorified bodies will will join our our souls which were in that heavenly floaty place, and we will inhabit with skin and bones, the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, the new Eden for all time.

00:50:07:12 - 00:50:37:16
Unknown
We're going back to the garden. Everything will be for eternity as it was intended to be in the garden. That's good news, right? And this revelation gives us hope. What else? Why did God reveal this to John? I think about the moment of September 11th, 2001.

00:50:37:18 - 00:51:10:22
Unknown
The day that if you were alive and old enough to understand is sort of etched in your memory. That the bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and I think about this day to that point, if I'd have known on September 10th what was going to happen. And I had loved ones that worked in the World Trade Center or in the Pentagon, what would I have done?

00:51:10:23 - 00:51:33:16
Unknown
Anything. Now, listen, here's the deal. If I if I this is all hypothetical. If I knew someone that worked in a, in a bank in the World Trade Center and somehow, mysteriously, it had been revealed to me supernaturally what was going to happen 24 hours later and I called him. I said, listen, do not go to work tomorrow.

00:51:33:18 - 00:51:59:12
Unknown
They might have said, you're crazy, but had I known on September 10th what was going to happen on September 11th, and I knew people who were going to be affected, I would have done everything in my power to warn them. That's part of what revelation does for us, right? It gives hope to those who are in Christ because Jesus wins.

00:51:59:13 - 00:52:26:00
Unknown
Revelation depicts, the battle of Armageddon. And I think in my mind as a child, and maybe you were like me, this sort of played out as like this epic Hollywood, battle when it's back and forth and it's uncertain who's going to win. And it's kind of touch and go, but, you know, Jesus is the hero of the story, and he's got one arrow left and he's bloodied from battle and he's barely got enough strength.

00:52:26:00 - 00:52:37:00
Unknown
And he releases this one arrow and he defeats Satan and it's barely wins. But that's not how revelation pictures this battle.

00:52:37:02 - 00:52:43:00
Unknown
Jesus has the conquering King.

00:52:43:02 - 00:53:07:22
Unknown
Rides out into the field of battle with his army and totally annihilates the enemy, right? So it's good news for us because we win. Jesus wins. Good triumphs over evil. We're going back to the garden. But it's also the opportunity, like she said, for us to say to a world, judgment is coming.

00:53:08:00 - 00:53:52:20
Unknown
Judgment is coming. We we have lost, a little bit of that, hellfire and damnation, preaching which calls people to repent because judgment is coming. Will you recover it in revelation? Right. You recover it in revelation. One of the things that, our children's literature goes through out through the Bible and, they have coloring pages that depict the various scenes and, and, I love the literature that we use generations of grace because it takes our kids through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

00:53:52:20 - 00:54:15:08
Unknown
It doesn't just teach a series of disjointed Bible stories, but there's a there's a teaching that our kids get from revelation on the the Lake of Fire. And then there's a coloring page, with people being consumed in the lake of fire, for the kids. And that just always struck me as funny, but it presents this sense of urgency.

00:54:15:08 - 00:54:47:07
Unknown
Right. So I hope that if you are in Christ, you're encouraged through this study. I hope it creates in us a sense of urgency, because we we know that the end has been determined from before the beginning. And we know that judgment is coming. We are going to commit ourselves. Because, as I prayed, God is a God who reveals not a God who conceals.

00:54:47:09 - 00:55:10:08
Unknown
We are going to commit ourselves to studying what the Book of Revelation reveals. Not all of the speculation that it doesn't reveal. Right. And so as I work through this, what I what I'm going to do, there's some points where you have to you have to kind of pick a team, you have to pick an interpretive team.

00:55:10:08 - 00:55:35:03
Unknown
And so when we get to those points, my hope is that I can represent, what I believe are the the plausible positions fairly. I'll also tell you unapologetically, what I believe and why I believe it, but my hope is not to convince you to come around to my eschatological position or my end times position, but that you will search the scriptures and, and know what?

00:55:35:03 - 00:56:04:21
Unknown
What's been revealed. So any questions or thoughts before we wrap up this evening? Next week we're going to jump in headlong into revelation one one. Any thoughts? Questions? All right. Look, pray for us. Father, we love you. We thank you for this time. And, God, I thank you for the opportunity that we have just to set the context for revelation and begin to talk about, some interpretive challenges that we might have through this book.

00:56:04:21 - 00:56:32:16
Unknown
We do pray, as Beth suggested, for the help of the Holy Spirit. God, we know that, the Holy Spirit illuminates the word. This this word was, given, to John by revelation from you and your Holy Spirit. Inspired him as he wrote down the things which were revealed to him. Your Holy Spirit carried him along as he recorded for us the things that were revealed to him in this vision.

00:56:32:16 - 00:56:52:10
Unknown
And so, God, we we know that we have that same Holy Spirit inside of us, the same spirit which inspired John to to record what he recorded is inside of us. And so we would ask for the help of the Holy Spirit, God, I just pray also that we would be diligent, in our careful examination of what you've revealed in your word.

00:56:52:10 - 00:57:11:23
Unknown
God, that we pray God that, through our study of revelation, the intent would not be on any level, that we would be puffed up with pride about what we believe we know. But, God, that we would be humbled by who you are and that that would compel us to worship you. Father, we love you. We trust you.

00:57:12:01 - 00:57:23:10
Unknown
We just pray that you would be glorified through this study, and that we all would be blessed. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Have a good night. Have a good week.