“The Revelation of Jesus Christ”

Transcript

GR 1500
09-21-08
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ”
Revelation 1:1-3
Gil Rugh

We begin a study of the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ together. We're not going to do much in the way of background material on the book of Revelation, but we'll work through the book and as we do that we'll deal with issues that we need to deal with, rather than looking at introductory kinds of issues. But I do want to clarify one thing as we begin, and that is the matter of interpreting biblical prophecy, and especially symbolic kind of literature like the apocalypse or the book of Revelation. We have many symbols in the book of Revelation, but we don't interpret them symbolically. We interpret them literally. The symbols used in biblical prophetic literature are there to clarify something, to make something known.

I want to start with you in Daniel 7, we're not going to look in detail at this chapter, but just use it as an example. Because why so many differences in understanding the book of Revelation? It comes down to your method of interpretation. We will follow a historical, grammatical procedure of interpretation. Some follow historical, grammatical, theological literary interpretation. So you naturally come to different conclusions. And Daniel 7 we have symbols used. We'll pick up with verse 3, four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion, had the wings of an eagle and so on. Verse 5, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. It was raised up on one side, three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth. Verse 6, after this I kept looking and another one, like a leopard had four wings on it of a bird, had four heads. Dominion was given to it. Verse 7, after this I kept looking in the night visions and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying, extremely strong, and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder. It was different from the other beasts and it had ten horns. And then while I was watching, verse 8, another little horn came up among them.

Now as we move through the book of Revelation some who interpret it symbolically will say, look, there are symbols there. That means things aren't to be taken literally, therefore, they don't take the numbers in the book of Revelation literally, for example. That becomes an issue. Are we going to believe in a thousand-year kingdom? I was reading one man this week who said, no, because they are symbols used. And that would mean the numbers should be interpreted symbolically, not literally as well.

However, we have help in Daniel 7, which is the most often referred to book in the book of Revelation. Look at Daniel 7:16, I approached one of those who were standing by. Here you have an angel, Daniel seeing this vision asked an angel who is present, “What's the meaning of all this?” So he made known to me the interpretation. These great beasts which are four are four kings who will arise from the earth. You'll note the four is literal four, four beasts representing four kings. You interpret it literally. So each beast represents a king or a kingdom. The culmination is the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom, the kingdom of Christ will supersede them all. We didn't go on to that in the chapter, verses 13-14, verse 9, really, started that, down through verse 14.

Then verse 19, he desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceeding dreadful—teeth of iron, claws of bronze. I mean that's highly symbolic. But look how it is interpreted. Verse 23, he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth. It will be different from the other kingdoms, it will devour the whole earth, tread it down, crush it. So you see the symbol is interpreted literally. This beast with iron teeth crushed and devoured. It represents a coming kingdom which will crush and devour. So a literal picture. And we won't go through the ten horns. Well, horns, that's symbolic. So the ten must be symbolic of something. No, it's ten kings or kingdoms. So you see what I mean by we interpret the symbols literally.

We do it all the time. We talk about Wall Street crashed. Well Wall Street didn't crash, I saw it on the news, the street is still there. Streets don't crash, cars crash, trains crash. Somebody might say, Wall Street was a train wreck. There isn't even a train on Wall Street. We all understand, there is a clear literal significance in that figure of speech. No one says, this is too complicated, we can't understand this. There are figures of speech that communicate clear literal facts. In fact, it helps clarify. When someone says I think Wall Street experienced a train wreck, we all know what they are saying—the disaster that has occurred there.

When we come to the scripture people sometimes lost themselves and say, it's a symbol, then we just float off here. No, it's going to be clearly brought out in the context and overall passage of scripture. So that's just the foundation we will be using as we move through the book of Revelation. And we'll use examples of other methods of interpretation when it is pertinent to perhaps clarifying the issues.

We have to go back to the book of Genesis to study the book of Revelation, and don't think we're going to do the whole Bible or it will be two months before we get to Revelation. We're going to get there tonight. But come to Genesis 1 because the Bible is the revelation of God and Genesis tells us the beginning of that creation, Revelation tells us the climax of creation. If you don't understand Revelation, you're left hanging. Just like you need to understand the book of Genesis to know how it began, what the Creator intended in His creation and what is wrong. So you need to know the book of Revelation to understand how God is going to bring it all to conclusion.

Genesis 1 you have an overview of the creation of all things, including humanity. So in verse 26 God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the other creation. So verse 27, God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. He said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over it. That's God's intention for His creation.

Chapter 2 goes back and looks in detail at the creation of man as male and how God that brought that about, and then female and how God brought that about. So you have the creation of man and woman unfolded there. And they are in a perfect garden, the Garden of Eden, enjoying communion with God.

Just jump to chapter 3 verse 8, they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This evidently was the practice of God, He came to fellowship with them. Think of it, they are in the perfect garden, the Garden of Eden and God Himself would come, walk with them, commune with them in the evening of the day. Chapter 3, man rebels against God and comes under the curse of sin. And something notable happens here. He is cast out of the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. Verse 22, then the Lord God said, behold the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now he might stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Catastrophe, because if he took of the tree of life to live forever he would be forever confirmed in his lost condition, unredeemable, if you will. Therefore, God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden, he stationed a cherubim. and the flaming sword which turned in every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life. So now man is excluded from the beautiful garden and from the intimacy of fellowship that God had created him for with Himself, and prevented from entering the garden, prevented from having access to the tree of life.

There is grace even in this setting. Verse 21 told us the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Replaced the work of their hands as they had made garments of leaves and so on to cover themselves, God provides garments of skin, which would have required the slaying of an animal to provide the skin, which is a preview of the necessity of the sacrifice as the payment for sin.

The rest of scripture is an unfolding of man's sin and the accomplishing of God's plan of redemption. We get to chapter 12, He'll call the nation, Israel, to be a people for Himself. Do that by first calling Abram and then his descendants which He will form into a nation, which will be the nation that belongs to Him out of all the nations of the earth. And included in that Abrahamic Covenant is the provision of a redeemer, not only for the descendants of Abram, who becomes Abraham, but also for all peoples.

When we get to Acts 2 in the New Testament, the church comes into existence and that becomes the bride of Christ. To make redemption possible, God had to send His own Son to this sin cursed earth. He had to die because it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin.

Come to Romans 8. God's plan of redemption, we're not taking the time to look through that, could have read the opening chapters of Romans. His plan of redemption includes the restoration of the creation to the glory that God planned for it when He created it in Genesis 1-2. So you read in Romans 8:17, Paul writes, if we're children we're heirs also, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him so that we also may be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And all creation is anticipating this time when we, the children of God, will enter into the glory He has prepared for us and the curse will be lifted from creation. Why? Verse 20, the creation was subjected to futility and it will be set free from its slavery to corruption when God brings about the culmination of redemption. So we are eagerly awaiting that time as is all creation.

We come to the book of Revelation, we come to that climactic time. Come to Revelation 22, the last chapter. Look how the chapter begins here. Then he showed me a river of the water of life. Note, water of life. Clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the Tree of Life. The last time we saw the Tree of Life was in the Garden of Eden with the cherubim guarding access, with the flaming sword facing all directions, preventing any access. Now here we are and you have the water of life and the Tree of Life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And as you are aware, we are in the new heavens and the new earth here, in eternity. We'll have more to say about this when we get here, if the Lord tarries. The leaves of the tree were for the healing, or the health, of the nations. There will no longer be any curse. You see what has happened. By the time you get to the last chapter of Revelation, the glorious redemption of God has overcome the curse of sin and Genesis 3 left man closed out of the garden. Now Revelation 22 concludes with man having free access to eat of the tree of life. What a glorious climax.

So you see, you can read how it began and what happened, and then you come to Revelation and you read how it ends. God's purposes aren't thwarted. And man now will enjoy the glory of God's presence, even as Adam and Eve could walk with Him in the garden in the cool of the evening before the fall. Now we're told, verse 3, there will be no longer any curse, His bondservants will serve Him, verse 4, and they will see His face. Here we are, eating of the tree of life, enjoying the personal presence of God. God's redemption has overcome the effects of man's sin.

The book of Revelation brings to conclusion all previous revelation. It is the last. Written about 95 A.D. The rest of scripture has been penned, this is the last of God's revelation, and it is the culmination, it brings it all together. The first eight verses in chapter 1 will form an introduction to the book. Verses 6-21 of chapter 22 will form the conclusion. And we'll start out, do the introduction, and when we get to the end of the book we'll find out that there is repeat of what was in the introduction, with expansion. They are very similar in content. And you're going to see an emphasis here. This is a book to be obeyed, and you can't obey what you don't understand. This is not a book that God gave to hide information, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And as such, it is intended to be understood and obeyed. And we'll see that in a moment.

Let's pick up and look at the first three verses, which form a preface to the book. The revelation of Jesus Christ. Keep that in mind. Sometimes we see it with an “s” on the end, it is a singular. There are a series of revelations, if you will, perhaps given in the book, but from God's perspective this is one cohesive revelation, singular. And it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We often refer to it as the revelation of John, but we understand what we are sometimes saying. But that's not what the book says it is. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, apocolupsis, the apocalypse. So that's why sometimes the book of Revelation is referred to as the Apocalypse. First word here, apocolupsis, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. Word that means to remove the cover from something. Apo, to take away, then the word to cover. So you take away the covering, you unveil something, you disclose it, you reveal what has previously been concealed. So here we are going to get an unveiling and a fuller revelation than we have had to this point. Now it is going to encompass much of the Old Testament, so without the book of Revelation, much of the Old Testament would still not be as clear.

Now part of the problem we have with interpreting the book of Revelation is it is one of the most unoriginal books in our Bible. One commentator estimated there are some 500 allusions or references to the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. There are 404 verses, 278 of those verses have allusions or references to the Old Testament. But there are not direct quotes from the Old Testament found in the book of Revelation. But it is saturated with the Old Testament. Part of our problem comes, often we are unfamiliar with the Old Testament, so when we get to a book that has hundreds of references and allusions to the Old Testament, we are sort of adrift. And we'll find ourselves looking back to clarify and see how clarity has been brought by the book of Revelation.

So we don't approach the book of Revelation and think this is really a difficult book, it's going to be hard to understand. It is intended to be an unveiling, a revealing of making known of something. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show to His bondservants the things which must soon take place. So it's going to be a revelation that has order, it will come from Jesus Christ, who got it from His Father. And Christ will pass it to an angel and an angel will pass it to John, and John will pass it on to the churches. That's the pattern given.

We talk about this being a revelation. Maybe I should take you back to Daniel 12. I want you to note what happens to Daniel and his prophecies. Verse 4, as you come to the conclusion of the revelations that have been given to Daniel the prophet, and the visions and so on. But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time. Note here, Daniel's book is concealed and sealed up. In other words, it will not be fully understood until a later time. Down in verse 9, he said, go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Now we've seen in the book of Revelation, the first verse, it is the revelation, the unveiling, the revealing of what has been concealed.

Come to Revelation 22 again. Verse 10, now we're at the end of the revelation, the prophecies given to John. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. So you see, this is a book to be understood, this is a book that brings clarity to all prior prophetic revelation, this is what will make clear what was revealed to Daniel that didn't have near the clarity at that time. And Daniel wrote it, but his understanding of it was limited. It was a sealed book, a concealed revelation. Now you come to Revelation, it is not sealed, it is unveiled or revealed.

Back in chapter 1, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and I take it in the context here it means it's a revelation which comes from Christ, that's the way the verse flows on. And what He got from His Father He passed on to an angel who passed it on to John who passed it on. Now it's true it also reveals additional truth concerning the person and work of Christ, but I think the reference here is to revelation which is coming from Jesus Christ. It's the revelation which God gave Him. So it comes from His Father. There is order within the godhead and there is only a limited amount we can understand here. God is comprised of three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But there is only one God. I take it there is an eternal order. We've talked about this in studies in passages like I Corinthians 11, again in I Corinthians 15 with the establishing of the kingdom, the culmination of the millennium there. That there is order in the godhead, and that order, I take it, is eternal. They are three persons, they have all the attributes of deity. But even there the Father, the Son, and I Corinthians 11 says God the Father is the head of Christ as Christ is the head of the man, the man the head of the woman. So here you have the Father giving this revelation to the Son, and it is time to make it known.

So He gave it to Jesus Christ to show to His bondservants. So now is the time for them to have more clarity on God's purposes and plans in bringing His work of redemption to conclusion. Bondservants, simply the word slaves. He gave to show to His slaves, those who have been bought with a price, and thus are no longer their own. They belong to Him by the purchase of redemption. He showed to them. This isn't from the world, don't expect the world to understand the book of Revelation, it wasn't intended for them. It was intended for those who belong to Him, who have experienced His redemption and not through the enlightening ministry of the Spirit as we study this revelation, it clarifies God's truth to us.

It relates to the things which must soon take place, shortly take place. The book of Revelation by and large deals with future things. This expression, must take place, what God has established as a divine necessity. They are future things. This exact expression will be repeated two more times in the book of Revelation. Go to chapter 4 verse 1, after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and a first voice which I heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said, come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. The after these things would be the times of the church and the churches in chapters 2-3. So this begins the prophetic section of the book, chapter 4 verse 1. Now I will begin to unfold future things, things which must take place.

You come over to chapter 22 verse 6, and He said to me, these words are faithful and true, the words which have been revealed to him through this book. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show to His bondservants the things which must soon take place. So chapter 4 verse 1 will begin the things which must soon take place and that goes through chapter 22 verse 5, because the wrapup in verse 6 is He has shown you the things which must soon take place. So that will form the main body of the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Back in chapter 1, they must soon take place. I believe the previous translation said shortly take place. I think that's the idea—soon. Could be translated quickly, in fact we get the word tachometer from this word toxay. It measures the speed of something. But here I think in the context he's talking about which must soon take place. Down in verse 3 he'll say, the time is near. What he's stressing is the imminency of these events.

You can back up a few pages to 2 Peter 3:8, and talking about future things, the coming destruction, verse 7, of the present heavens and earth by fire. Verse 10, the day of the Lord coming and so on. Verse 8, let not this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. That's because some will be mocking, verse 3, saying, he's been talking about the Lord's coming for 2000 years. That's pie-in-the-sky, the dreams of deluded people. But He's coming soon. To the Lord, the God of heaven, 1000 years is nothing, like a day. Think about it, we have a hundred billion quadrillion years. What are we going to think about? The struggles of that life, I remember how hard those 60 years were. They are nothing, they don't even make a mark on eternity, what God has for us. So the fact we talk about the Lord coming soon, His coming is near. It is, it is imminent. He expects us to be living with expectation of His coming for us at any time. From His perspective it is soon, it is near. So that's the encouragement.

Back in Revelation 1, the things which must soon take place. And He sent, Christ sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant, John. And we won't take the time to go through passages where angels are used to bring revelation to prophets and so on. In the book of Daniel that happens a number of times. Part of what we read in Daniel 7, there the angel is the revealer to Daniel. There will be times in the book of Revelation where Christ speaks directly to John, but often through the book of Revelation it will be an angel that is the intermediary and is bringing the revelation from Christ to His bondservant, His slave, John.

This is for, remember verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to show to His bondservants, His slaves, plural. How is it going to get to His slaves? Well He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bondservant, John. So He's going to give this revelation He received from His Father to an angel. That angel will come and communicate it, we'll say something about that word in a moment, to John. And will John do? He'll pass it on to the other slaves, bondservants, down in verse 4. We won't get there until our next study, but John will write to the seven churches which are in Asia because the churches are comprised of the bondservants, the slaves of Jesus Christ, those who have come to a relationship with Him by being purchased, believing in Him.

He sent and communicated it. And my Bible has the marginal note and has or signified it. Some commentators spread that word out—sig-ni-fied it. It's a word that is used and it was used already by biblical times to refer to communicating in symbols. And that may be the significance here, he communicated it and the book of Revelation, much of what is communicated here is with symbols. We'll see dramatic presentations, so it is presented in symbolic forms to help us understand it. And remember those symbols are representing something literal and that will become clear even in the first chapter as we move further on in it.

So He sent and communicated it by His angel, the communication will take place most often through the symbols in the prophetic portion of the book. To His bondservant, John. This is John the Apostle. There is really no debate over that of any significance. The early church fathers support that, John is recognized as the last surviving apostle, having died sometime around the late 90s, 98 or so A.D. All the other apostles are gone. This book would have been written about 95 A.D. Some try to push it earlier because they want to interpret it differently, but there is agreement and earliest writings we can find on it which substantiate that its writing is around the mid-90s, 95 A.D.

John was a great apostle. Think about what he wrote—the gospel of John, the three epistles of John, the book of Revelation. I mean, tremendous portions of our New Testament have been communicated to us through John. Now let me say something here. John is the human vehicle for the bringing to God's servants this revelation. He is not one of the authors. I say this because some try to change their method of interpretation by saying there is a dual authorship of scripture. I was reading an amillennialist who is arguing this, shared it with some of the men at our pastor's meeting this week. He was saying you have to understand the dual authorship of scripture, there is a human author and there is a divine author. Now what the human author meant, that would be what we would interpret historically grammatically, is often not what the divine author meant. He gives it a different meaning. That is not true. John wasn't one of the authors of this book, he is simply the vehicle to communicate it to other people. It is the very words of God to be interpreted literally. They use this to go back and reinterpret the Old Testament and say, those prophets, if you interpret them literally, historically, grammatically, it would mean one thing. But we reinterpret it by finding the divine interpretation. That's voodoo hermeneutics. I didn't read that anywhere, that's my own conclusion.

John is not the author, he is the penman. God uses his personality, uses John as He has prepared him as a vehicle so the very words that John writes are the words that God wants written. Remember Peter said that the prophets spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God. So there is not a dual authorship of scripture, there is one author who communicated through a variety of human instruments, choosing them as it fit His purpose. Here we have John the beloved apostle.

Verse 2, who testified to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all that he saw. John has been faithful as a prophet of God. He testified to the Word of God. You see it's not his words, he didn't write down what he thought, he didn't try to make sense of this. He simply wrote as the Spirit guided and directed him. He didn't make up these visions, he wrote down the visions that God gave him. These weren't symbols that John came up with, how am I going to describe this; well, I guess I'll do it this way. He wrote down what he saw, he testified to the Word of God, to the testimony of Jesus Christ, what God through Christ had given, to all that he saw. I'm just telling you what was given to me.

Jump back to Revelation 22. Remember the first eight verses have much repetition in the conclusion to the book that is found in chapter 22 verses 6 and following. Look at verse 7, behold I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. We have a prophecy here from Christ. Verse 9, the angel says, I'm a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. And down in verse 10, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book. This book is a prophecy, it is about future things. He has functioned as a prophet. What is the role of a prophet? Jeremiah, what did God say to Jeremiah? I put My words in your mouth, Jeremiah 1. I put My words in your mouth, now you go tell them. What did He do with Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2? Here is My word, now you take it in and you devour it. Now you go tell them what I told you. That's all it is. What is John here? He is the human instrument that God is using to communicate His Word to His servants to the churches and to the testimony that comes from Christ.

Back in Revelation 1:3, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. This is the only book in all the Bible that pronounces a blessing on those who read it, listen to it and put it into practice. Of all the books in the Bible, people say, I don't bother with Revelation, it's too confusing. For no other reason, verse 3, would be the reason to pour ourselves into an understanding of this book. Blessed is he who reads. Back in this time, obviously, writing materials were precious things. We take for granted having our own copy. You understand these people didn't have a copy. We're going to study the book of Revelation. How would you like to have been in John's day, sitting in one of the churches in Asia and the person who received the copy of the letter would stand before you and you're sitting there and he starts in verse 1 and reads you 22 chapters of Revelation. And you're supposed to go out and do it. I think I got lost somewhere with the locusts. Did you remember what he said there? You can't even have your own writing materials to be taking notes. I mean, now we run around with a ballpoint pen and a pad, writing it down. What they had to do is they had disciplined minds.

I was interested in reading on some of this, how people learned in those days and how they disciplined their memory. And even how the book of Revelation that helps put it together. The people can remember large blocks of things when they were read to them because that was how they disciplined their minds. How privileged we are. They were held accountable for knowing it and putting it into practice. What about us, who carry around copies of it everywhere we go. Probably have multiple copies around. We have copies of the New Testament that include the book of Revelation that we just stick in our pocket. It's the message of God the Father through God the Son to His churches that you better pay attention and put this into practice, how much more we who are so blessed will be held accountable.

So he who reads refers to the person like I would be here. You wouldn't have a copy so I would read you. We're at the church in Philadelphia, and we come together for our Sunday meeting and we have received a letter from John and here is what he has to say. And so we begin reading. That's the one who reads, so there is a blessing on that one reading it. So not so much you're reading your own personal copy, not taking away from that, but in this context he'd be talking about the one doing the public reading.

And those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed it, keep the things which are in it. And those two phrases, who hear the word and heed the things. They are closely connected grammatically. It's like we would say, two sides of the same coin. That's what it does grammatically here, they are not separate and distinct. Because God's intention always in having us hear His Word is so that we will do it. It is never an option for the servants of the living God that when we hear His Word our response is to be obedient. So the blessing is for those who hear and heed the things which are written in this prophecy. So this just isn't something, well, future things, let's be more concerned about our life now. Life has enough to deal with, there are enough things. But you know, for God, He sees this as very practical, something to be put into practice in our daily lives.

That will be repeated, in fact go back to chapter 22 again. We just read this, but I want to read it with the emphasis there. Verse 7, behold, I am coming quickly. That is a promise, that is a blessing, that is a warning. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. You are to live in light of this truth. If you don't know it, if you don't understand it, how could you be held accountable to live in light of it. Lord, I couldn't make sense out of it. Well you should have. Do you think I unveiled it so you couldn't understand it? Look at verse 9, how the angel identifies it. John falls down to worship the angel who has been key in giving him this revelation. The angel says to him, do not do that, verse 9, I am a fellow slave of yours and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God. You know what characterizes those who are the servants of God? They heed the words of this book. The angel said, I'm one of those, too, who conduct myself in light of the truth that has been revealed here. That characterizes us—obedience. So as we study the book of Revelation, we shouldn't go into it thinking, it's about future things. I'll see how it goes because whether I understand it or not, you know. We forego the blessing of God by failing to understand it. And one of the things it does, he who has this hope fixed upon Him purifies himself even as He is pure, John wrote in his first epistle. This is something to be lived, to control our life.

The time is near. That's a warning. Jesus Christ may come at any time and he's going to be expecting us to be living out the truth he has just revealed. Let me summarize what we've gone over for you. I have six, I should have gotten seven since that's the prominent number in Revelation, but we'll take care of that at a future time. 1. This book is the capstone and climax of God's revelation to man. I don't think you can overestimate its importance. This ties it all together, gives clarity and understanding that is not possible without it. 2. God intends for us to understand this most important book. It is a revelation, an unveiling, a making known that which was concealed, as he told Daniel was true of his prophecy in his time. 3. It is a message to us who are His bondservants, members of the churches. Much of this has to do with the Jews, completing God's program for the Jews. If the pretrib rapture is correct, we won't even be here for chapters 6-19. I won't have to know about that. Dangerous thing to tell God what you need to know and what you don't need to know. God tells us what we need to know, and He told us here that we need to know this. And I expect until I come, you will be living in light of it. 4. The Apostle John was the writer but not the author of this book. He has given an accurate record of all that he saw. We have an accurate record of what God has revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ, through an angel, through His servant, John. We have an inspired record. 5. There is spiritual blessing for hearing and heeding the message of this book. 6. We are living on the brink of the fulfillment of all these things. The time is near. Now it was true when John wrote this, and it was true because Jesus Christ, the One giving this revelation from His Father said it was so. I didn't say the time is near, John didn't say the time was near. God the Father said through God the Son that the time is near, I'm coming soon, I'm coming shortly. Now that was true then, even in our limited view as time seems to us to stretch on. How much closer, as Paul wrote to the Romans, now is our salvation nearer, even than when we first believed. Every day brings us nearer. And you know what? We're almost 2000 years closer to the climax of these events than we were when Jesus Christ said through John, the time is near. It was near then, it's even nearer now.

So do we live every day in light of the coming of Christ? If He would come tonight would we say, I was expecting you. I mean just reveling in Revelation, as one person titled his writing. I've been expecting you, I knew the time was near. I didn't know if it would be today, but it's no surprise that it is because that's the way I was living. I don't know if it's today or tomorrow, but I know He'll be returning, I know He'll bring to climax what He has promised. The way to be ready is by believing in Him and living in obedience to His Word.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the great truths of the book that we are embarking on a study. We are amazed that You, the awesome God who created all things has chosen to unveil and reveal Your plan for the culmination of this creation, plans for destruction, for judgment, for doom, for hell, for unbelieving people. And plans for indescribable glory for those who have become Your servants, having been purchased by the blood of Christ. Lord, we come as Your servant, humbly, thanking You for Your grace, thanking You for Your Word, thanking You for our Savior, thanking You for the Holy Spirit who guides and directs us and will give us greater understanding as we make our way through this precious and important portion of Your Word. May we live in light of the truth that we know, even in the days of the week before us, living in light of the soon return of our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.