Revelation 1:1-12:17
First and Second Visions (Robert Fisher)
Pastor Albert N. Martin provides a broad overview of the book of Revelation, focusing on its structure of four visions and its immediate purpose for the persecuted first-century church. He expounds on Revelation 1-12, emphasizing that the book is not a prophetic riddle for future timelines but an ethical admonition for perseverance in tribulation, grounded in the sovereignty of Christ over all historical events. Martin highlights the terrifying yet comforting vision of Christ among the churches, the nature of persecution from human and demonic forces, and God's preservation of His church, culminating in the certainty of final judgment and eternal reward for overcomers.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 10 sections · 62 min
- Introduction and Review of Hermeneutical Guidelines 0:01
- Overview of Revelation's Four Visions 5:31
- The Book's Introduction: Purpose and Nature of Revelation 10:39
- First Vision: Christ and the Seven Churches (Revelation 1:9-3:22) 14:44
- Second Vision Introduction: The Lamb on the Throne (Revelation 4-5) 26:43
- Second Vision: The Seven Seals (Revelation 6-8:1) 32:03
- Second Vision: The Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8-11) 39:13
- Interlude: Angel, Little Book, and Two Witnesses (Revelation 10-11) 43:03
- Second Vision: Spiritual Forces Behind Persecution (Revelation 12) 49:55
- Q&A: Themes and the 144,000 57:38
Key Quotes
“It was not a riddle to them. It was an apocalyptic vision that was meant to meet a very specific need of theirs.”
“The first rule was that because the book is a series of visions composed of symbols, therefore we do not expect to find literal descriptions of historical events.”
“The thrust then is not on a series of events that are going to happen in the future. The thrust here is what you're to do in the midst of those events.”
“And the point is that no matter what happens, no matter what kind of tribulations are upon the Church, nothing happens but what is under the control of the sovereign King, the Lamb, who administers the decrees of God in the world.”
“And during all this time of affliction God is going to take his church and they'll be sealed. That is, they'll be kept through it all.”
“I think the point is the same here that John is trying to let these Christians know there's a time period this persecution is going to be upon you but it's a limited thing it will end just like that same time period referred to Antiochus Epiphanes it ended it was horrible but it was limited and it ended so for you your tribulation is going to be like that it will be horrible but it will end as nourished by God”
Applications
All listeners
- 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.
- Focus on what you are to do in the midst of future events, rather than just understanding the events themselves.
- Persevere through hard times, knowing that the final reward is given only to the overcomers.
- Read Revelation 4-5 to catch the glory and praise given to the Lamb, who has overcome and administers God's decrees.
- See everything that follows in Revelation in the light of Christ's sovereignty, knowing that no matter the tribulation, it is under His control.
- 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.
- Understand that your tribulation, though horrible, is a limited thing and will end, just as past persecutions did, and that God will nourish you through it.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 164 paragraphs, roughly 62 minutes.
Introduction and Review of Hermeneutical Guidelines
I'd like to say a word of thank you to several people who were, when Mike asked you to read the book of Revelation for these classes, almost, well, a great number of people came up to me and said they had read it and what they'd learned from it. And several more came up and apologized that they'd only read part of it, only read half of it or something. And I feel bad about that. I wasn't trying to bind anyone's content that they hadn't read the book of Revelation.
But I surely appreciate it, those of you that did. So I'd like to spend just a very brief moment in review of what we did last week before we push ahead. Remember, we tried to set something of a historical setting last week to show the great opposition that there was between the Roman government and the Christian church that began with the time of Nero in the 60s and continued on for the next couple of centuries until the ascension of Constantine in 313 AD. And we talked about a number of things and will not go over them.
We'll go over them this morning. But remember that there was often, at least on several occasions, there were systematic attempts by the Roman government to actually wipe out the Christian church. It was more than just that they were just persecuting the Christian church. On some occasions, they actually tried to wipe out the church altogether.
Remember that all through this period, there was an emphasis upon emperor worship. And it was enforced to varying degrees throughout the period. But especially during the reign of the emperor Domitian, who was the emperor of the Roman Empire, when the book was written, there was a great stress on worshipping the emperor. And those who would not do it were, of course, were killed or harassed.
Picture of horrible persecutions, the Colosseum, the martyrs, and the rest.
We tried then to, in the light of all that, to set up something of the purpose. John was writing about a tribulation that was soon to come upon these people. He was not writing about something that would happen hundreds of years in the future. He was not writing to give them some kind of a purpose.
He was not writing about a chronological dateline that they could keep in their memory somewhere. He was writing to them about a very practical need. There was a great tribulation that was about to come upon them. And he was writing to them in the light of that.
And I think it's really important to remember that. That he wasn't giving them some kind of a prophetical riddle that they could sit down in their spare time and muse on what the ten horns meant, and what this meant, and what that meant. It was not a riddle to them. It was an apocalyptic vision that was meant to meet a very specific need of theirs.
Namely that they were going to endure a great tribulation. Then after going through that, we tried to set up some hermeneutical guidelines, some rules to help us to understand the book. And they were basically four. And I would just like to just read them and trust that that will stimulate your memory to remember them, and then we'll go ahead.
The first rule was that because the book is a series of visions composed of symbols, therefore we do not expect to find literal descriptions of historical events. Because of the type of literature it is. It's visions, and besides that, it's visions of symbols. And therefore we do not expect to find literal descriptions of historical events.
The second rule is that it flows very closely out of the first one. And that is that we must distinguish between John's description of a symbol and that which it symbolized. He'll give us a very vivid picture of what he saw. And that's reliable.
That's exactly what he saw. But it's the symbol. And we need to make the distinction between the symbol and the thing which it symbolized. Remember we talked about how the picture of the new heavens and the new earth, the vision has streets of gold and a sea of glass and so forth.
Now that's a true picture of the vision, of the symbol. But that heaven may not have streets of gold. The reality, it's a symbol. We have a description of the symbol.
And we need to distinguish that from the actual thing. And that goes all the way down the board. The description of the last judgment being a great battle in the valley of Armageddon. Well, that's an accurate description of the vision, of the symbol.
But the actual thing may not be that at all. So we have to distinguish between John's description of the symbol, his description of the symbol, and that which is symbolized. The third was that we need to see that John's visions view the present situation in the light of the consummation of the world. And we've tried to trace that through how that was typical of Old Testament prophecy.
It was typical of the various secular, apocryphal writings of John's times. But they wrote about a very present situation. But they wrote about it in terms of what would come at the end of the age. They wrote about the present judgments that we read in Isaiah.
We mentioned Joel in some of the different passages. They talked about things that are going to happen immediately in the writer's near future. But he wrote about them in terms of what would happen at the end of the age. And you have the very same thing here in the book of Revelation.
And of course the last thing was that we must interpret the unclear and symbolical passages of the Bible in light of the clear passages of the Bible. And that probably needs no explanation. That was just an introduction last week. And what we'd like to do this week is almost an impossible task.
Overview of Revelation's Four Visions
I would like for us to get a broad overview of the entire book. This morning, if we can. Now that means that we're not going to get into detailed exegesis of any passages. I'm not going to be able to satisfy your demand for a clear answer to the interpretation of every symbol.
But my purpose is not to do that. The purpose is to get an overview of the book this morning so that it would give you some framework in which to read the book and perhaps take some of the fear and apprehension out of reading the book. It's not...
There are things that are hard to understand in the book. But there's a lot more that's not hard to understand. And that's what we'd like to get to. And I'm not able to answer the things that are hard to understand.
But the things that are not so hard to understand, I think we can immensely profit from them. So bear with me if I can skim over something that is a peculiar question to you or that's one of your problems that you think about often. Because that's not the purpose. I'd like to, in the remaining of this time, get over the entire book of Revelation.
I've had my wife put this diagram on the board. I had her do it so you could all read it.
When you're reading any book, it's a good idea, of course, when you're initially reading a book in a serious way, trying to study the book, that you read the book and try to find if the book itself has any natural divisions. You find that often, that a book will be divided by subject matter or there'll be some change. The writer will make it evident that there's a division in the book here. Well, the book of Revelation is like that.
Now, this is not necessarily a division by content matter. This is a division of the book that the book itself makes. There are four visions in the book of Revelation. And at the beginning of each one of these visions, like the first vision, is from chapter 1, verse 9, and chapter 3, verse 22.
And at the beginning of that vision, it says that John is taken up in the Spirit, and he's on panels, and he sees this vision. And you have the next vision in chapter 4, verse 1, and there you find John is again in the Spirit, but now he's taken away from panels in the Spirit, and he's taken to heaven. And he sees another vision from the vantage point of heaven. And then you have another vision, the third one, beginning in chapter 17, verse 1, following to chapter 21, verse 8, where John is taken in the Spirit, and he's taken away from heaven now, and he's taken into the wilderness, where he sees another vision.
And then after that vision in the wilderness, in chapter 21, verse 9 and following, you read that John is again caught up in the Spirit, and he's taken from the wilderness, and this time he's set upon a high mountain. And there he sees the final vision. So I think it's helpful if we break it down into these four visions, which the book itself naturally breaks into. And just by way of overview now, before we actually get into the highlights of each vision, this first vision deals with the seven churches.
And it's probably, that's the part of the book that most people aren't familiar with. There John is trying to stir up these seven churches in the light of their sins and their dullness. He's trying to stir them up to be overcomers in light of the coming persecution. The second vision, the main theme is there you see a picture of a church being persecuted by every aspect of the world, by the governments, by the false religions, by the ungodly societies.
And then you also see, you see a picture of what's going on on earth, of how the church is being handled by the hands of wicked men. And then you see a picture of the spiritual forces that are behind these events that are going on in the earth. And then following that, you have the anticipation of the final judgment. Now you never have a very clear description of the final judgment in that vision.
When you get to the third vision, you have a much more detailed judgment, a detailed description then, of that final judgment. The anti-Christian society is judged, the anti-Christian governments are judged, false religions are judged, the devil himself is judged. All those things are in that third vision and that vision ends then with a glimpse of the eternal state and the bliss that awaits the faithful. Well, it's a glimpse of that.
And then you go into this fourth vision and you have a detailed description of the eternal state of the bride, the church of Christ, and there's more detail then given of that glorious state that awaits those who are faithful during the Great Tribulation. And then of course, at the beginning of the book, there's a brief introduction and at the end of the book, there's a conclusion or epilogue. Is that much clearer before we actually get into it? I said that very quickly and I'll be saying it again as we go on so it's perhaps not so important that you have it all in your heads at this point.
The Book's Introduction: Purpose and Nature of Revelation
Let's turn then to the first chapter of the book and we'll look at it as just a short edit at this introduction. There are some quite important things there and then we'll move into the first vision. The first few verses of chapter one of Revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his bondservants the things which must shortly take place.
And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant John who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things that are written for the time is near. We brought out last time about how John makes it clear that what he writes about is going to shortly take place. And again, this is not Ian's off somewhere.
This is what the church in his time is just about to go through. Notice a couple of other things here. It said that this is a revelation of Jesus Christ and it's communicated. Jesus sends an angel to John and it's communicated to John.
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.
It's a signal to do something. Well, that's what you have here. You have signals. You don't have literal descriptions of what happens.
You have visions. You have signals of what are going to happen. And there's another thing that I think is important to notice here. John doesn't sit down off in his aisle of Patmos and dream up these visions, something that he thinks will be very helpful to the church in writing down.
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.
John doesn't sit down and decide and think through what he's going to write down. The vision is given to him and he writes down what he sees. It's almost like dictation. It's given to him and he writes down what he sees.
He doesn't do as Paul did to think it through and then write it through the medium of his personality. He writes down what he sees there. And there's one last thing from these three verses that I think is quite important. Verse 3.
It said, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things that are written. I'm afraid that far too often when we read the book of Revelation, and I'm sure this is a fault of my own, that you read it with that prophetic glint in your eye, trying to get everything squared away and to know just what's going to happen at the end. And when you're all done, you've filled your mind with a lot of prophecy and a lot of details, but you've never really seen the commands there that you are to obey. And what John says here, what is written here, is that you're to heed these things.
You're to obey these things. It's not given to set up your prophetic time chart. What is given here is for ethical admonition and you're to obey what's here. The thrust then is not on a series of events that are going to happen in the future.
The thrust here is what you're to do in the midst of those events. There's an ethical aspect of this book which you are to obey. All right, we'll have to move on. There's a great deal to be brought out of this introduction, but these at least are some of the things that we should see.
First Vision: Christ and the Seven Churches (Revelation 1:9-3:22)
Move then to chapter 1, verse 9, and you have the introduction of this first vision that deals with the seven churches. As you're going along, if you see your shop being cut loose on time, you take as many weeks as you need to give the overview. So don't you feel, I think I would speak for the others in terms of the letters received and the rest, and by favorable response, so you just go at any rate that is comfortable to you. All right?
We all agree? Amen. All right, there's your mandate. All right?
Good. Back to verse 1. Yeah, back to verse 1.
I really would like to get through it today because the purpose is to compress it into one time so that you have the whole book before your eyes. And you have some idea then of where the book goes as you read it. Pastor Martin said before he left, and so did Pastor Blaise, something about teaching on the book. So they'll come along later and they'll give you the full-blown account.
Let's do, move on, this first vision. It begins in chapter 1, verse 9 of chapter 1. And notice we will just remind you of what we said last time. Verse 9, I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and persecution and perseverance, which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testament of Jesus.
And here you have this again, that the tribulation that John talks about is not far away. He's in it himself. And he's on the island of Patmos because he's born witness to the testament of Christ. He's been persecuted.
That's why he's there. He's in the tribulation and he says he's their fellow partaker. They're in it too. And that's something that as we briefly look at what goes on during the time of the seven churches, it becomes very apparent that they are already in tribulation and that there is more that's going to come upon them.
And the only reason that I keep saying this is because too often we read this as if it's all at the end of the age and it's right there upon them. And it is spoken of in terminology that applies to the end of the age. But it's right there. They're right in the midst of that kind of tribulation.
You have then, before you get into the letters, to the messages, to the seven churches which are found in chapters 2 and 3, you have this vision of Christ, a picture of Christ. And it's really a terrifying picture of Christ. John sees this picture and he falls down as though dead. You see him there as having a sharp sword proceeding out of his mouth and in his eyes there's a flame of fire.
And he has these seven stars in his hand and the seven stars are the picture of the messengers to the seven churches, the pastors or the angels as they are called. And here's this picture of Christ with his flaming eyes and his sword of judgment coming out of his mouth. And he's holding these seven stars, these seven messengers to the seven churches in his hand. And you can just see a picture of warning, that Christ is warning these churches.
And when you actually read in the account to the seven churches, almost all of them, Christ warns them and condemns them for something. Now there's one church, the Church of Philadelphia, that's not judged or condemned. But he warns them and he holds them in his hand and he warns them. And on that side of the picture there's this picture of warning.
But then on the other side you see you see this, Christ is walking among these seven candlesticks. And the seven candlesticks, each candlestick refers to one of the seven churches. And while at one hand he's warning them with his hand, at the other extreme there's a picture that Christ is there among the churches. And if you can fit yourself into the framework of these seven churches, you remember what we talked about last time.
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.
The Roman government is now oppressing the church. Things are not so good. And the people might begin to think well perhaps he's never coming. Perhaps it's all a shame.
And the picture is here that Christ is yet among the churches. He still walks among the candlesticks even in the midst of the decline that there has been during their time. I would like to, before we actually move away from this vision, I would like for us to read just a couple of statements concerning these seven churches to give us something of a flavor of what's going on here. Look at the church of Smyrna in chapter 2 verse 9 and 10.
Let's begin with verse 8. This is a message to that specific church. That's a literal church in Asia. And the message that Christ gives is this.
And to the angel or to the messenger or the pastor of the church in Smyrna write the first and the last who was dead and has come to life says this. Now that's Jesus. Jesus is the first and the last. And he says this.
Jesus says I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich. And the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. And notice that they are already in tribulation.
They already know poverty. Perhaps it's something similar to the passage in Hebrews 10 where the Christians had their houses sacked and their goods robbed and so forth. They know poverty and they presently know tribulation but it also says that they are about to suffer. Do not fear what you are about to suffer.
Behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. This is a very typical message that is given to all of the churches. They are in hard times and harder times are about to come.
Therefore persevere because the reward is to the overcomers. Well, there is another thing that I would like to mention just in passing from that. Notice what the Jews are called in verse 9. I know your tribulation and your poverty and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.
Now, do not fear what you are about to see. Now, John's view of the Jews is not a very pleasant one. He calls them the synagogue of Satan. And the only reason that I am bringing this up is that this is found in other places in the book of Revelation.
But when you read in the next vision, in the second vision, you will find all kinds of descriptions that use the terminology of Judaism. Well, he is referring that to the church. He is not talking about the liberal nation of Israel because these he has already set aside as being a synagogue of Satan. They are not to be considered the people of God.
When we read about the 144,000 being the tribes of Israel and so forth, he is not talking about literal Israel because literal Israel is a synagogue of Satan. Those descriptions that he uses then will be in reference to the true church. I think it is instructive to also notice one more letter here before we move on and that is to the church in Pergamum in chapter 12 and Jesus says in chapter, I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry. Jesus says and to the angels of the church in Pergamum write the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this, I know where you dwell where Satan's throne is.
I would just like to comment on that before reading farther. The city of Pergamum was a capital of one of the Roman provinces in Asia and in that city were the temples of the emperor. The temple of Zeus was there. The temple of the Roman gods was there.
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.
Pergamum was a city that had such a temple in it. And when it talks about, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, I think that's what it's referring to. Now, this is perhaps speculation. I don't want to make a big point out of it.
But anyway, that was in Pergamum, and I think it's instructive in that that's what it's referring to. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith, even the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. And it seems to me, that that's some picture of where they were brought before this image, and some of them just would not worship it. And Antipas was killed for not worshiping it.
This is Pergamum, the city where Satan dwells, where they suffered much persecution. Well, that's what's happening right there. That's not future. Antipas has already been killed.
This is the tribulation that they're in.
One more, and then we'll leave this vision. And this is in the letter to the Church of Philadelphia in chapter 3. I'd only like to read one verse, Philadelphia, you remember, is the church that is not criticized. There's no sin pointed out for that church.
But notice what it says in verse 10. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth. Now, you remember that we tried to bring this up a little bit last time. I hope you remember that during the early days, during the early days of this persecution, it was mostly centered around the city of Rome.
Now, there were persecutions outside of the city throughout the empire, but mostly it was in the city of Rome. But during the days that John writes, during the time of Domitian and then Trajan, the Roman emperor Trajan, and after that, then the persecution becomes much, much more widespread. It goes out of Rome. It covers all of the world, of the Roman world.
And this is the reference here. It is...
It was confined to local areas. But now it's that tribulation which is about to come upon the whole world. There are people that make that tribulation refer to something at the end of the age. But notice it says it's about to come upon the whole world.
It's not far off. They're going to experience it. And Philadelphia is going to be kept. But this tribulation is going to go upon the whole world.
It's important to remember what I would consider to be the central theme of all this. All of it. Each one of the seven messages ends with this terminology. Something similar to the fact that there is blessing to the overcomers.
And the point being, and it's obvious, they're in tribulation and they're going to experience more. This is the church. We didn't go into very much of this, but there's a lot of spiritual decline in these churches. And this is the warning.
You're going to go through hard times. And it's only to the overcomers that this final reward will be given. And that, in a sense, that sums up the greatest purpose for John Wright in the book of Revelation in the first place. They're going to have a hard time with it.
But it's to the overcomers that the reward will be given. And I would, you know, if you get in, if you read the book I recommended, if you get into just what the church did go through and how they stood up under it, we can't help but think that there was some message like this behind them. They knew that no matter what happened, if they would overcome, they'd receive the crown of life. And they did.
They did.
Second Vision Introduction: The Lamb on the Throne (Revelation 4-5)
So, so much for that vision. We move into chapter 4, through the end of chapter 16, we have the second vision. And again, what we'll see pictured here is the way the church is treated at the hands of the entire world, the governments and false religions and other secular societies. But before you have that description, chapters 4 and 5 are kind of an introduction to this second vision.
And what you have, there is a picture of this heavenly scene. And I'd like to spend a little bit more time on this than we will on other things because this is of utmost importance. I think that the whole rest of the book needs, the whole rest of that second vision needs to be seen against the background of this heavenly scene, the introduction to that second vision. You have in chapter 4, you have a picture of God upon his throne, a very majestic picture.
God is upon his throne. And then at the end of chapter 4, you have, well, in the chapter, you have around the throne are the 24 elders. And I'll not speculate about who they are. And then around them, you have the living creatures.
And then outside of that, you have myriads and myriads of angels all around the throne of God. And in verses 8 and following in chapter 4, you have this description of the praise and the worship that these beings are continually giving to God. A majestic picture of God in his glory. All things worshiping him.
And then you have in chapter 5, you have God sitting on the throne and in his right hand is a book, a scroll. And the scroll is written on and the scroll is sealed. Now, we think of books like this book, but a scroll is a rolled piece of parchment. And on that piece of parchment, there are seven seals.
Well, you have this cry going out in heaven. Who is able to open this book? And I'll just, I'll go ahead a little bit. We'll find that that book, what's written on the book, are the decrees of God for human history.
The decrees of God in secular history as well as in redemptive history. And the point is that the one who can open this book is the one who is going to mediate those decrees to the world. He's the one that's going to execute God's will upon the world. We have this cry in heaven.
Who can open the book? And no one can open the book. And then you have that one angel comes and introduces that the Lamb is able to open the book. He's able to open the book.
Why? Because of his work on the cross. It says he has overcome. So he is able to open the book.
And he comes up to the throne and he takes the book. And you read in other passages that the Lamb comes up to the throne, especially here in chapter 3, verse 21. Jesus speaking to himself, he says, he who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. That's in chapter 3, verse 21.
Well, here's a picture of that. The Lamb comes up to the throne and he takes the book and he stays there. And you'll read throughout the rest of the book that often the throne will be spoken of not only as God's throne, but the throne of God and of the Lamb. Well, here's a picture of the ascension of Christ.
He's come up, he's sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And he's taken this book and he's going to break these seals. And that's representative of how he administers the decrees of God in Europe. And then after the Lamb has gone up to the throne and taken the book, you have these three choruses of praise.
First of all, the 24 elders and the beasts worship him. And then you have the living creatures and the angels. And the angels join the living creatures for a third chorus of praise. And then after that, you have the entire universe, all things that are in the earth and above the earth and under the earth.
And they're all praising the Lamb for this great ascension to the throne of God. And taking the book. Well, it's really thrilling to read this. And if we had more time, we would like to read that through.
And you just catch the feel of this praise that's written under the Lamb because he's overcome and he's sat down on the throne of God and he's able to open the seals of that book. He's able to administer the decrees of God in the world. I'd really encourage you to read that. Maybe even to read it in something like the International Version or something that makes it a very free and flowing translation.
But catch this. The glory that is here. All right, the point of all this is this is the introduction to this vision which depicts the horrible way the Church is going to treat the world. And the point is that no matter what happens, no matter what kind of tribulations are upon the Church, nothing happens but what is under the control of the sovereign King, the Lamb, who administers the decrees of God in the world.
And just to say that again, you've got to see if you were in that first century, if you were those who were suffering that great persecution, you'd want to see everything that follows in the light of this scene in heaven. Because it's the Lamb. It's the one who's overcome on their behalf, the King of kings, the ruler of rulers, their Lord. He's the one that controls all the outworkings of this history.
Second Vision: The Seven Seals (Revelation 6-8:1)
Let's move then to chapter 6.
And what you have, you have this introduction. And then beginning in chapter 6, you have these seals are broken. And when each, remember the scroll has seven seals on it. As the seals are broken, something happens each time.
And the first seal, you have a horseman who comes out and the second seal and the third seal and the fourth seal. You have these horsemen that come out, the red horse and the black horse and the action horse and so forth. I don't think the colors are necessarily important. But the first four seals are broken and these horses come out.
The first horse, he's a conqueror and he's to describe the terrors of military conquest and the horrors of war. The horrors that follow rule by military armies. The second horse, the second horseman is on a red horse. He says he's given power to take away peace.
The idea is there of much civil strife and chaos. The third horse comes along and you have a picture of economic despair and social hardships. And the fourth picture is the rider on an action horse and he brings death. Now, a lot could be said about these.
I would like to just summarize and say three things about those, those first four horsemen.
First of all, this is a picture of what men do to men. This is not a picture of the intervention of divine judgment. This is economic hardship that men bring upon themselves. This is the terrors that military rulers bring upon other men.
This is what men do to men. Another thing to notice is that this is not a description of the end. It talks about a third, you know, portions of the world are affected by this. When you get to descriptions of the end, it talks about every person, is affected.
This is not a description of that. This is a description of that which is going on during John's time and I think it's legitimate to say that this is a picture of all suffering that goes on during the gospel age. But anyway, the point of these first four horsemen is that it's what men bring upon men. Then you have the fifth seal is broken.
What do you see there in chapter 6, verse 9 and 11? You see a picture of the martyrs that have been killed during this time of great strife. Here are the martyrs laying there and they're crying out for vengeance upon their enemies. And God says to be patient that it's not time for that vengeance to come yet because it will come.
And then when the sixth seal is broken, you have a picture of that final judgment. Now you don't have a thorough description given, you don't have a detailed report, but you have a picture of that final judgment. Now catch the sequence. First of all, on the first four horsemen you've had a picture of what men do to men, the oppression that men bring upon men in this age.
The fifth seal is open and you see the martyrs that were killed during that time and they're crying out for vengeance. God says not yet, but the sixth seal, it's almost like an answer to their prayer, there's a picture given of the vengeance that will come of the last judgment. Those are the first six seals then. And now you have something that will become characteristic throughout the book.
After the first six seals there's an interlude. You expect, and you've had all that, you've had a picture of the judgment, you expect the second seal, the sixth seal will open there to be a great picture of that last day judgment but it doesn't come. There's an interlude here of between the sixth seal and between the seventh seal there's an interlude. And these interludes are some of the most precious parts of the book.
Look there, with me at chapter seven and keep in mind the picture here. We've had a picture of what men do to men and the coming judgment. And now you have this interlude and you have a picture in chapter seven, you have a picture of these 144,000 that are sealed by God. And the point being there is that there's this large multitude, 144,000 representing the true Israel, the true church of God.
And during all this time of affliction God is going to take his church and they'll be sealed. That is, they'll be kept through it all. All the things that men can bring upon men, all the terrors of the military rule of the Roman government, all of those terrors in the midst of it all, those 144,000 are the true church. The true church of God are sealed.
They're kept. Now it doesn't mean that they don't suffer. It does mean that their souls are not destroyed.
I have several reasons written down here for why the 12 tribes there refer to the church and not to Israel itself. But I think I'll save that. If anyone would care to go into that I'd be glad to talk with them.
All right, you have the six seals and you have the interlude, the sealing of the church of God in the midst of all this horror. And then you have another picture and that's in chapter seven. And that's in chapter seven. Chapter seven, verse nine through 17.
And that's this picture of an innumerable host in the heavens receiving an eternal reward. Now again, so much could be said there, but get the feel. Here's this picture of great horror that men will bring upon men. And then there's, the church will be sealed during that time.
But then that's not all. Also there's a great reward that awaits an innumerable multitude that do overcome. And then, you find out that you finally have the seventh seal in chapter eight, verse one. And he broke the seventh seal and there's silence in heaven for about half an hour.
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.
I think if, you're probably aware of the fall of the several provinces in Vietnam to the communists. Well, if it happens there as the Chinese Christians were persecuted by the communists, as the Korean Christians were persecuted by the communists, if it happens in Vietnam, I think there you'll have a very valid picture of this same picture all over again. There are going to be the horrors of conquest. There are going to be the economic distresses.
It's going to be all there. There are going to be martyrs. And yet, through it all, the true church of God will be sealed. And there's a picture to them that there's a great reward that awaits in a new world of multitude.
Now, we want to read this as the book itself says that these are things which must shortly come to pass. But it's like the epistle to the Corinthians. You don't limit those instructions just to the Corinthian church. There's application to our time.
And it's the same situation here. Now, you would expect that when that seventh seal opens, you've just got your appetite wedded, you know, for the final judgment, the destruction of the enemies. And you'd expect that seventh seal to break and see the judgment. But the seal breaks and there's silence, awesome silence in heaven for the space of half an hour.
Second Vision: The Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8-11)
And you don't get the judgment. You're introduced then to seven trumpets. And the point is that this last seal, the seventh seal, what it is is all of these seven trumpets. Here's the first trumpet.
All the trumpets. And you're expecting judgment. But what do you get? You get another picture of the age.
Now, it's important to notice, and I didn't go into this, that this vision, this second vision here, is not a... You don't find a chronological time sequence there.
You find the gospel age is pictured. And then the gospel age is pictured again and then again. And you have different aspects brought out during each time. It's not a chronological sequence of time.
So in the seven seals, you have, you have this gospel age picture. And now you have this thing of the seven trumpets. And you're again going to have the gospel age picture. But now, when the first four trumpets are blown,
when the first four trumpets are blown, what you have there is a picture of what God does to man. Now, in the first four seals, remember, it was what man does to man and the havoc that's created by that. What you have in this, under the seven trumpets, is what God does to man. And it's interesting.
It's interesting to notice that the section of the seven trumpets is from chapter 8 to chapter 11. Chapter 8 begins with this picture of heaven and the prayers of the saints going up to God, carried by this angel. And the point is that all that's to follow is the result of these prayers that are brought to God. And it's very similar to what we've just read.
The martyrs prayed for vengeance. And you saw a picture of the vengeance. Well, here you have it again. These prayers are offered up to God and God answers those prayers in the seven trumpets.
The first four trumpets are sounded and you have pictures of what God does to the world. And the point is there that God affects every part of the world. You have the earth is affected, the seas are affected, the saltwater seas, the fresh waters, the waters on the land are affected, and the stars and the sun are affected. The point is that the whole of the physical universe is affected by God as a forerunner of judgment to man.
And you see natural calamities in the world today of earthquakes, floods, famine, and disasters. Well, that's just an expression of this. God uses all of the physical universe as judgments upon men. And again, it's not the final judgment.
It's a third of the world that's destroyed. It's a third of the men that are on the sea. It's a third. It's not the total judgment.
The idea is that God uses all these natural forces to judge the wicked, but it's a forerunner of judgment. It's not the final judgment. And you read in the scriptures about the wicked even today are the ones who are the ones who are the wicked even today are under the wrath of God. Now, they're not under that final judgment, but they're presently abiding under the wrath of God.
And these physical calamities are surely not always an expression of His wrath, but quite often are an expression of God using the physical forces of the universe to give a forerunner of judgment upon men. You have then the fifth trumpet is sounded and Satan is cast to the earth. And then you have, so you've had in these first four trumpets, you've had what God does to man. Now Satan is cast down and God uses even Satan and his demonic forces to torment the wicked men.
Now again, you have the same thing that you have with the seven seals. You had the first six seals and then you had an interlude and then you have the seventh seal. Well, here you have the first six trumpets and then you have another interlude before you get to the last seal. And then you have the last trumpet and again it is these interludes that are precious.
Interlude: Angel, Little Book, and Two Witnesses (Revelation 10-11)
Here is this picture of God really giving forerunners of judgment to the wicked. But then the picture, the picture of the church during that time, the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets is chapters 10, 1 through chapter 11, verse 14.
And I,
there are some things that are very hard to understand in these passages and I will admit my ignorance and recover my ignorance. And I will admit my ignorance. And I will tell you what I don't know and I will tell you what is maybe a little bit more plain. You have a picture in chapter 10, this is the interlude now between the sixth and seventh trumpet.
You have this picture of this giant angel standing there. He is holding a little book. And the one thing that we do know for sure is that this angel, the point of this angel there is to announce the certainty of final judgment upon the wicked. That is a great consolation to that persecuted church.
That much we know for sure. That much we know for sure. That much we know for sure. That much we know for sure.
That much we know for sure. That much we know for sure. That much we know for sure. That much we know for sure.
He is announcing the certainty of the coming final judgment. You have here in verse 5, and the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right arm to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever and created heaven and the things in it and the earth and the things in it and the sea and the things in it that there shall be no longer delay. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished as he preached to his servants the promise. And the point here is that this picture is to announce the final judgment will certainly come.
They are not living in a fool's dream. The judgment will certainly come. Then you have this part which I don't understand. He is holding this book and he tells John to eat the book and the book will taste sweet in his mouth but it will be bitter in his belly.
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.
Others say that the book refers to the same book that Christ took out of the hand of God that the decrees of God are sweet for the church and yet at the same time they are bitter for the church. Well, I don't know what the book refers to but he did eat the book and it was bitter and it was sweet. You have then you have then a second picture the first picture is of this angel announcing the certainty of the coming judgment. The second picture is in chapter 11 and this in my opinion chapter 11 is the hardest chapter of the book to understand.
I will just very briefly give you my opinion of it and make it clear that it's my opinion it could be wrong. You have your picture John goes and there is a picture of a sanctuary of God and John is told to measure that sanctuary and everything outside of the sanctuary is to be cast off that's to be given to the Gentiles. Well, I think that you can I think that there is adequate proof that this sanctuary refers not to some Jewish temple or something like that but that it does actually refer to the people of God. And the measuring you have pictures of the prophet measuring in the book of Zechariah and the book of Ezekiel and so forth and when the prophet measures something the idea is that he goes and he sets it apart he sanctifies it he sets it apart for a special purpose. I think that the picture is here that in the midst of all this tribulation John is to go and he's to measure the true people of God there to be set apart there to be sanctified and all those that are outside of this temple then are the Gentiles the ungodly and they're to be left for destruction.
But then you get into something that is a little harder to understand in which you have two witnesses coming out of the sanctuary and these witnesses go out and they have power to proclaim the gospel they have power to bring down fire and to judge the wicked and so forth and they cannot be stopped and they can do this for 1260 days they can do it for 42 months and at the end of that time then the world overcomes them and they're trodden down and all the world rejoiced to see the witnesses defeated. But then they're only defeated for three and a half days and then they're raised up and they're raised up in the presence of all people and the world fears at the power of God. I'm not sure what that's about. It could very well be that the two witnesses are a picture of a militant church and in the midst of all this persecution the church will the gates of hell will not prevail against the church and those two witnesses can go out and they're buffeted but they will prevail. And then it does seem that the world does overpower the church but it's not what it appears to be. They're really not defeated. They're raised again and it's an awesome thing in the eyes of the wicked.
Well there are a lot of problems there. I'll just leave it but I think that's something in a sense but there could be other valid interpretations. You get down here to the end of chapter 11. Remember the angel the great angel in chapter 10 has said that in the days of the seventh trumpet that would be the end.
Well we've had the first six trumpets while we're expecting that seventh trumpet and to see this picture of the last judgment. Down in verse 14 of chapter 11 the second woe is past and the second woe behold the third woe is coming quickly and the seventh angel sounded and that's to be the final judgment according to this angel in chapter 10 and the seventh angel sounded and there arose loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever and the 24 elders and they who sit on the thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God saying we give thee thanks O Lord God the almighty who art and who was because thou hast taken thy great power and hast begun to reign and the nations were enraged and thy wrath came and the time came for the dead to be judged and the time to give their reward and thy bondservants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear thy name the small and the great and to destroy those who destroy the earth and there is not any detail given but there is a picture of that final judgment the wicked will be judged and they'll be destroyed but the reward for their evil will be given to them and the people the righteous will be judged and they will receive the reward of life it's kind of a disappointment you expected you expected some great vision of the end and here you have just this this brief description well what follows
Second Vision: Spiritual Forces Behind Persecution (Revelation 12)
before you you do get the description but it's a long ways from coming John wants to stop now he's told you enough the age is going to be characterized by men persecuting men the age is also going to be characterized by what God does as a forerunner of judgment to the end the church is going to be preserved during that time the judgment is going to be certain the final judgment is going to leave you hanging for a little while for that picture about the final judgment now what he does after he's given you the seven seals and the seven trumpets now in chapters 12 through 14 he sets up these spiritual forces that are behind all the persecutions that are going on in the world and perhaps this is one of the most important sections of the book chapters 12 through 14 because here are introduced just what I said those spiritual powers which are warring against each other in the spiritual places the kingdoms of darkness versus the kingdoms of light that which is behind all the turmoil that's going on in the physical world in chapter 12 what may be one of the most important chapters of the book in my opinion you have this picture of the woman clothed with the sun
I'd like to ask permission to finish this next week I would like to ask permission granted yeah the ambit was a good one I really wanted to get this all before you I didn't feel it was realistic Bob that's why alright well there is enough time to begin this I'd like you to consider chapter 12 in some in some detail at least you have this you have this picture of the woman straighten my notes here you have you have this picture of the woman of the woman who's clothed with the sun and the moon is under her feet and she has 12 stars in her head and she's about she's pregnant she's about to deliver a child and then you have this horrible beast this dragon who's standing before her just eager to devour that child when it's born and the symbolism is obvious the woman represents the church under the old dispensation and she's about to bring forth the man-child who is Christ and here's Satan all through the Old Testament history you can read over and over again how Satan's out trying to stop that godly line he's trying to stop the birth of Messiah he can't do it and here the woman's about to deliver the man-child and she delivers the man-child and Satan's unable to stop that
and unable to devour the man-child because God snatches the man-child and brings the man-child because Christ brings Christ up into heaven and the dragon is furious he's frustrated and he goes into heaven and there's a great war in heaven a war between the dragon Satan and his host and Michael the archangel and his host and what happens is that Satan is cast down he's thrown down to the earth and what does he do? boy, Satan just immediately runs after the woman but the woman the church before the time of Christ after the old dispensation the Jewish church now after the birth of Christ the woman is the church as we know it the church is taken off to the wilderness and the church is nourished by God in the wilderness for this period again of 1260 days of 42 months it's also called the time the times and half the times most people interpret that as three and a half years the point is that the woman is here comes Satan ready to just maul the church God takes the church out hides her in the wilderness Satan finds her in the wilderness and Satan is ready the big dragon is to go and pour out a river of water out of his mouth to drown the woman God opens up the earth and the water goes into the earth and the woman is preserved just a vivid picture of how God preserves the church during this great time of affliction but now notice the personages here this dragon this Satan is this great oppressor of the church and he is of course the main the main power of darkness that is behind all these events
that are going on on the earth there are a couple of things that need to be pointed out here I think notice that this is happening at the beginning of the age this is the time when the man child is born and that's obviously at the beginning of the gospel age and it's at that time it's the war in heaven that Satan is cast down it's also important to notice this time period and everybody has got to have some fun with this time period three and a half years and 42 months and 1260 days I think there's a very sane way to interpret this and I'd like to just present it to you the period of time I think is drawn from the book of Daniel of course where you have this persecution that's to take place for that same period of time and I think it's obvious with careful studying of the book of Daniel that that time of persecution refers to the time under the ruler Antiochus Epiphanes when Antiochus persecutes the godly Jewish people now this is back in about 168 B.C. but that thing prophesized in Daniel that three and a half years that 12 42 months and so forth refers to that specific time period where Antiochus was able to persecute the Jewish church of God
in that back in around 160 B.C. well if we had time to go into all the history of this it's quite interesting that was a limited period of persecution and God Antiochus persecutes the church and then he goes off on another campaign and Antiochus dies and the church is the Jewish church then in 168 B.C.
the people persecution is relieved and I think the point is the same here that John is trying to let these Christians know there's a time period this persecution is going to be upon you but it's a limited thing it will end just like that same time period referred to Antiochus Epiphanes it ended it was horrible but it was limited and it ended so for you your tribulation is going to be like that it will be horrible but it will end and during that time when Satan is pounding against the church that same church hidden in the wilderness it will end as nourished by God I think that perhaps it would be good to stop here there are a couple of minutes left if you have a question we can try to deal with it if not we go ahead and close it can't have been crystal clear can you investigate the four main things that you did last week that rose to the hill that you tried to find trying to find the person who was in the church over the four of you yeah I will I will this is not those themes that I picked out were really only some of the themes but I thought there were the major themes what is being asked is I said last time that John's purpose is to encourage and build up the church in the midst of this tribulation and I said that he did it by over and over and over again
Q&A: Themes and the 144,000
from various aspects emphasizing certain themes and some of those themes are these that Christ will triumph over his enemies that he will triumph over all of his enemies that God does preserve his own through the worst kind of tribulations that by by holding up the greatness of the final reward he encourages them to be overcomers to persevere he describes again and again the horror of the judgment that is to come upon the unfaithful thus driving them to faithfulness and then this one thing that occurs so often that throughout it all God is the supreme ruler that he is the supreme ruler that he is the supreme ruler that he is the supreme ruler that he is the supreme ruler that he you all the time read of these powers of darkness being given authority being allowed to do something it's given to them it's given to them it's given to them they just I mean they don't have the right in themselves to do what they want to do they have to be permitted it has to be given to them by God and God is the supreme ruler and of course a lot of that flows out of the introduction in chapters 4 and 5 this heaven division is there any more? yes 144,000 yes all right 144,000 are found in chapter 7 and of course
remember that in chapter 6 we have these five seals and the point is those seals represent what the first four seals represent what man does to man and the horrors that are in that and the tribulation and the age in that sense and then you have between in the midst of that that in that picture you have given another picture of the 144,000 being sealed now the idea of sealing is that in the midst of all of this tribulation those 144,000 are going to be kept they may suffer in a physical way with the tribulation some of them may be killed but they're sealed they'll be kept God knows who his own are they'll be they'll be preserved if it means being preserved through death they will be kept and enter heaven now some people want to make these 144,000 mean Jews and they interpret that in the midst of a very unusual framework and they say that that at the end times there'll be literally 144,000 Jewish people saved and that in the midst of this tribulation these Jewish people will be saved well there are several reasons why I think that is wrong first of all the 144,000 are also described later on in chapter 14 and when they're described there there's nothing spoken about them being Jewish they are described
as being pure and they're also described as being firstfruits unto God having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb well in James 1.18 you also have a description of those who are the firstfruits unto God and that's not referring to Jews that refers to all those who are brought forth by the word of God well there are other considerations another of them that I have written down here is that these 12 tribes that are written down here are not the 12 tribes that you have recorded in certain places as Numbers chapter 1 we're doing some fast research in the car up here I don't have all this in my head on this point but there are 12 names listed here but they're not the 12 tribes Levi is not considered as a tribe remember that the Nevitical priesthood was not a tribe but he's listed here as a tribe the tribe of Dan is not listed here if this were to be taken literally it wouldn't represent all Jews it would only represent some of them and that's why so that and the fact that during the Assyrian captivity the 10 northern tribes were they lost their distinctions and whenever you talk about Jews being saved in the New Testament it's not as a distinct body it's that they're joined in church and saved so all these things taken together it doesn't seem likely that there would be 144,000 Jews it's a picture of the church and they are preserved during this great time of tribulation let's close the meeting
thank you
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
The sermon provides a broad overview of the first two visions of Revelation, covering the introduction, messages to the seven churches, the heavenly throne room, the breaking of the seals, the sounding of the trumpets, and the spiritual warfare between the woman and the dragon.
Texts Expounded
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