In Daniel 12:4, the prophet is commanded by the angel-interpreter: “Close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.”
Directly contrasting that, John, the writer of Revelation, is commanded by an angel: “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of the book, because the time is near.”
The Revelation to John is revealed as an open book intended to be read by believers for the purpose of encouraging them to keep their faith strong in during a time of great suffering.
Let me start by sharing who God is talking to in this book. It is not us, today’s Christians. What we see in a study of the Bible is that God has primarily dealt with the Hebrew nation (Jews) all the way through the Old Testament and even in the New Testament up until Jesus died upon the Cross.
All this time, God kept trying to bring mankind back into loving fellowship with Him, but they kept ignoring Him and following their own sinful desires. Finally, He sent His Son to show us the way back to Him. And even though many Jews did receive Jesus as their Messiah, the nation itself did not. So, when Jesus died, God opened up His gift of salvation to everyone on earth, no matter who they were.
And He continues to offer that same gift of salvation today to anyone who will accept it through Jesus. There will come a day, however, when He closes that door. From that point on, God will again deal primarily with the Jewish nation.
We are in the “church age”. We are referred to as “the people in the parenthesis”. Let me clarify that. From the beginning of time until Saul dropped to his face on the road he was traveling on, God worked primarily with the Israelites. When Saul fell down and received Jesus, things changed. Now, Paul, as he would become known, was given a calling from Jesus to preach to the Gentiles since the Jewish nation had rejected Jesus.
And from that moment until the coming Rapture, God will be working primarily through the Gentiles. That would be us. From the Rapture until the end of the Tribulation, God will be working primarily through the Jews once again. Hence, we are the people in the middle; the people in the parenthesis; the church age.
The book of Revelation was written, not so that we could learn some interesting things, but to help those in the Tribulation period have something to hold on to so they could keep their faith strong in the face of great persecution. It was also written to help people of that time see who Jesus really is and what He means to them.
We can use this book today to understand that God has a definite plan, and a time table for that plan, and by using it, we can see what is coming, and that encourages us to grow our own faith and to prepare ourselves spiritually so that we will be ready to meet Christ when He comes.
Tonight, we will try and give you an overview of what we have learned so far in our study of the Great Revelation.
CHAPTER 1
There is some who question whether the John that wrote this book is the Apostle John. While some think that, most agree that it is the one and the same man. John was a pastor and a theologian, but he was also an artist. He had been given the ability to paint vivid pictures of Godly things, using nothing but words.
He is being held as a prisoner on the Greek island of Patmos, because he was being persecuted for preaching and teaching about Jesus Christ. While he was there, he received a vision.
In Revelation 1:10 John starts by saying,
‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day …..’
This does not refer to Sunday as the Lord’s Day. It is referring to the Day of the Lord that is yet to come. The End Times when the Lord will pour out His wrath on a sinful world. So, we know that John was in the spirit, or praying in the Holy Spirit, when the revelation came from the Angel.
In this revelation, he is given a glimpse of heaven. He is also given information to give to the seven churches of his time. Each of these churches were sliding away from the original teaching of Jesus, and because of that, sin had started seeping into the churches.
John wrote letters to these churches, telling them the information Jesus had given him. This information was to serve as warnings to bring them back into correct alignment with the Lord.
CHAPTER 2
Briefly, here is the plight of each church and the summation of the letters Jesus had John write.
THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS – had kept doctrinally pure, but had become focused on the letter of the law, so to speak, instead of the intent of the law. They had become very legalistic.
THE CHURCH OF SMYRNA – this was a relatively small church made up of poor folks, but they were right on the money when it came to their spiritual focus. In this letter, Jesus was telling them to be faithful, even though they were being severely persecuted, and He would give them the crown of life.
THE CHURCH OF PERGAMUM – this church had all but lost any true focus on Jesus, and had become worshipers of whatever they felt like for the moment. They were guilty of fornication, but had claimed that it was a way to worship the Lord, they also had a philosophy of “if it feels good, do it.” Jesus issued them a strong warning to correct themselves or suffer dire consequences.
THE CHURCH OF THYATIRA – had also wandered away from true teaching and had let sexual immorality and the disrespect of Godly sacrifices take them away from the Lord. Again, Jesus gives this church a very stern warning to straighten up or receive His curses.
CHAPTER 3
This chapter continues with letters written to the churches of John’s time.
THE CHURCH AT SARDIS – was filled with what I refer to as “the frozen chosen.” They went through all the motions of worship, but they did so with a spiritually dead heart. They talked the talk, but did not walk the walk. Jesus tells them that if they don’t repent, He would come against them.
THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA – had kept God’s word and was being persecuted for doing so. They truly loved their brothers in Christ and Jesus gave them a promise that He would make their enemies bow at their feet.
THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA – This was the only church out of all of them that Christ had nothing good to say about them. They had become absolutely complacent in their hearts and didn’t have any true feelings about anything. They just kind of went through their days spiritually and mentally numb. They had become lukewarm, and therefore were doing nothing good for Jesus.
But as stern as these letters to the churches are, we find two amazing themes in each letter. First, we find that God loves them enough to not only give them a warning of their sin, but He also gives them a way out so they don’t have to suffer His wrath. Secondly, we find the exact same kinds of sin creeping into our churches today!
And the warnings we read about in this book are for every one of us today! A warning that if we do not refocus on the Lord Jesus, we, too, will suffer His wrath – even though we think we are doing good now.
Today’s churches are very much like the church of Laodicea. We are complacent in our worship because we are focused on what we want. We only hear sermons that make us happy, but do not hear any sermons about our sin, or the consequences of our sin. And as Jesus promised to spew the lukewarm people at Laodicea out of His mouth, he promises to do the same thing with those people today who are not serious about Him.
CHAPTER 4
This chapter begins with John being told to “come up here” (meaning heaven). I previously told you that John was an artist who used words to paint wonderful pictures for God. Pay attention to the words he uses to describe what he saw in heaven.
(Read verses 3 through 8) HAVE PEOPLE READ THESE VERSES
After John shows us the beauty of heaven, he tells us what those elders in heaven are saying. They spend eternity, praising God 24 hours a day, non-stop.
In verse 1, we see John being told to “come up hither.” We believe that is also a reference to the coming Rapture when Jesus tells His faithful to “come up hither.” We get the word “Rapture” from the Greek word “Rapiemur”, which means “a quick snatching away from.”
Other Scripture references to this will be found in:
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 & 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 - (ASK FOR VOLUNTEERS TO READ THESE VERSES)
We also believe the Rapture will come before the Tribulation period begins.
CHAPTER 5
This chapter begins by telling us about a scroll that had 7 seals on it. The subject of this scroll is REDEMPTION.
It goes on to say that the only person who is worthy of opening these seals is Jesus Christ. John had established that fact years ago in John 1:29 when he said …
“The next day, John saw Jesus coming and said, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’
The rest of this chapter establishes that fact by showing how the elders in heaven all worshiped Him.
CHAPTER 6
The 1st seal was broken. John was told to LOOK UP, and when he did, he saw a man on a white horse. He had a bow and a crown. He rode out claiming he wants peace, but it will only be a temporary and false peace.
The 2nd seal is broken and it is the color of blood, or destruction. This is also reaffirmed by the fact the horse is red in color – again, the color of destruction and death.
The 3rd seal was broken and the horse is black, and the horseman had a scale in his hand that would be used for the buying and selling of things, including food. Prices will be so high at that time that people will starve to death and people will become slaves to the Antichrist just to be able to eat.
The 4th seal was broken and the horse that went out was pale green, or the color of sickness and death. His companion was Hades, and they were given permission to kill ¼ of every living thing on earth. They would kill by the sword, by hunger, and by sickness.
So the colors of the horses were:
White . . . . . . (false peace)
red . . . . . . . . (blood & destruction)
black . . . . . . (domination) and
pale green . . (sickness and death)
The 5th seal was broken and John saw the souls of all those who were martyred for their faith in God. They cried out to God, wanting to know when He would extend His judgment upon the earth. They were given a white robe to show their purity of faith and God told them rest a little while more.
The 6th seal was broken and many terrible things happened on earth. There was a very powerful earthquake, the sun lost its light and the moon turned a blood reddish color. The stars fell from the sky and the sky opened up and the mountains and islands moved from their places.
It was such a frightening time that the people ran to hide and begged to die, but there was no death to come.
John also saw where all the powerful and proud people of the world ran and hid because they were afraid. It would seem that all the power and pride they had seemed to be erased when they were confronted by God’s power.
(Many of our rich and powerful today will also eventually succumb to that same fear of God.)
I believe this earthquake will make the 9.0 quake in Japan look weak in comparison. But even so, the quake in Japan moved the earth’s axis by around 5 degrees and moved the coast of Japan more than 4 inches. Can you imagine how the quake described in the 6th seal will be?
End of Chapters 1-6. Next week, we shall cover chapters 7 through 14, and will explain the 144,000.
Let us pray for understanding and for wisdom to know what to do with that understanding.
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for more sermons on Revelation & the End Times, go to our website at -
http://www.bruceballministries.com/d_revelation_series.html
