First and Second Visions (Robert Fisher)

In this part of the sermon: Martin examines Revelation 1:1-3, emphasizing that the book is a revelation of Jesus Christ, communicated through signals and visions, not literal descriptions. He stresses that…

Martin uses baseball signals (umpire, base coach touching cap or chin) to illustrate how the angel 'communicated' or 'signaled' to John, conveying that Revelation presents visions and signals of events, not literal descriptions.

The word there for communicated maybe your marginal reference says signified or symbolized. And the idea is that the angel came and signaled to John what he was going to see. And you can picture all kinds of signals there if you're a Christian. If you play baseball, there are different umpires and different base coaches that give you a signal to run, either to run or not to run or to steal a base or not to steal, where they touch their cap or they rub their chin or something.

11:48 - 12:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Read the book of Revelation not with a 'prophetic glint' to square away future events, but to find and obey the commands for ethical admonition.

He contrasts Paul's inspired but personality-infused letter writing with John's experience in Revelation, which is more like dictation, where John simply records what he sees in vision, not what he thinks through.

This is a special kind of revelation. When Paul writes his letters, he writes surely under the inspiration of God, but he thinks through very carefully what he's going to say. And the Spirit of God infallibly guides him, guides his thinking processes so that he'll write down epistles that are clearly inspired by the Spirit, but they also reflect something of his individual personality. It's not the case here.

12:38 - 13:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section introduces the first vision, where John, a 'fellow partaker in the tribulation,' sees a terrifying yet comforting vision of Christ. Christ warns and condemns most of…

Martin describes the historical context of the first-century churches, which, after an initial flourishing, faced oppression and languishing as Christ had not yet returned, leading to doubts about His coming.

During the, from the 30s until the 60 ADs the gospel spread and the church flourished and the gospel was that Christ was that Christ had died for sinners and he would come back and the churches believed that. And here we are now toward the end of the century. Christ has not come back. There's been great languishing among the churches.

18:29 - 18:47 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section introduces the first vision, where John, a 'fellow partaker in the tribulation,' sees a terrifying yet comforting vision of Christ. Christ warns and condemns most of…

He explains that Pergamum, as a Roman provincial capital, housed temples for emperor worship, where subjects were forced to bow or be killed. This historical context illuminates Christ's statement, 'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is,' and the martyrdom of Antipas.

The temple of the church of Persia And you remember when we outlined some of the history, there were several occasions where the emperor was bound to make every subject in the kingdom come and worship the image of the emperor. And those who wouldn't worship were to be killed. Well, then every subject of the emperor, every individual in the empire, were brought to these city capitals, and they were forced to go into these temples and to bow and worship the image or else to be killed. Well, that's what's referred to here in Pergamum.

22:36 - 23:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that while Revelation speaks of events 'shortly to come to pass' for its original audience, its instructions and themes have application to our time, just like the Corinthian epistle.

Martin draws a parallel between the first-century persecution and the fall of Vietnamese provinces to communists, suggesting that the horrors, economic distresses, and martyrdoms experienced by Chinese and Korean Christians would be replayed, illustrating the timeless application of Revelation's themes.

Now before we go on with that, I'd just like to recap this a moment. This is, this section of the seven seals is written to a persecuted church who are persecuted by men. And it's a very obvious application of the Roman situation. But I don't think you want to limit it to that.

37:41 - 37:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets features a mighty angel announcing the certainty of final judgment. John is told to eat a little book, sweet in his mouth but…

He discusses two interpretations of John eating the little book: either it represents the gospel, sweet to receive but bringing tribulation, or it represents God's decrees, sweet for the church but bitter in their outworking.

And John does eat the book that is sweet in his mouth but is bitter in his belly and then he is told that he must go on and prophesy to many more nations. Now, some people say the book refers to the gospel and the point is that the gospel you eat the book you eat the gospel and it is sweet in your mouth but there are much tribulations that come with the gospel. You must enter into the kingdom through much tribulation and so forth and that is what is happening in John's day. And they say the book then is the gospel.

44:54 - 45:19 Read in full sermon