Can Revelation be Simplified? (Unshakable - Week 1)

Greg begins by expressing gratitude for the hospitality he received and introduces the theme of the sermon, which is an overview of the book of Revelation. He emphasizes two initial principles for studying Revelation: approaching it with humility and keeping an open heart and mind, as interpretations can vary among Christians. Greg explains that Revelation, while unique and filled with strange imagery, shares common ground with other biblical texts in that it holds a message from God meant for a specific audience, in this case, early Christians facing persecution. He encourages the congregation to focus on the overarching message of Revelation, which is centered on Jesus Christ, urging them to turn their eyes to Him for hope and guidance amid their struggles.

Transcript

Well, good morning. It's great to be with you today. I want to thank you for the invitation to be here. My wife Tracy and I just had some really wonderful hospitality shown to us this week, and we're very grateful for that. I had the good pleasure of meeting Sean several years ago in a Johnson University classroom.

And I was impressed immediately with Sean's giftedness and his character. And I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but you have a wonderful lead minister here at Sherwood Oaks, and I'm blessed to call him a friend. And I was also blessed to cross paths with Quentin in recent years. I had the good fortune of serving at the Rockville Christian Church with his mother, Rana, and like her son, Ronna is also a very gifted musician and worship leader. Some families just get all the talent, don't they?

It's just not fair to the rest of us. So I'm excited that you're studying the book of Revelation over the next six weeks. And Shawn asked that I would provide like a foundation, a little bit of an overview of Revelation this morning. And as we begin, I just want to start with two initial principles for studying Revelation. This has to do with your attitude and your spirit.

And the first principle is simply be humble. Be humble. It's wise to study the Bible and certainly Revelation with humility, thoughtful and godly. Christians understand and interpret the book differently. And from my experience, even people that have taught me or I've learned from, they've approached it just a little bit differently.

And that's okay. There are no Revelation experts or problem free interpretations. Revelation defies easy interpretation. As we embark on the study of the Bible's most misunderstood book, it's important to remember that as Christians, we're not commanded to agree on all the details of Revelation, but we are commanded to love one another. The second principle is related.

Keep an open heart and mind. Keep an open heart and mind. It's my experience that people sometimes bring stuff to Revelation baggage, if you will. And this baggage can undermine our study of the book. For example, I know people who were afraid of the book and they avoid it at all costs.

We can't understand it anyway, so why bother? They think, and I know some people that are maybe a little too confident in their interpretation, believing Revelation to be a literal play by play description of the final events of human history. Consequently, we should read Revelation side by side with today's news headlines, anxiously watching for signs that the end of the age is arriving any day. And I would humbly suggest that neither extreme is helpful. This baggage can impair and cloud our ability to discover Revelation's timeless message for our lives today.

So keep an open mind and as much as possible, approach the book with a blank slate. And as we approach the book, we discover that Revelation is not like any other book in the Bible. Four horsemen bringing chaos to the earth, demon locusts from hell, a dragon persecuting a pregnant woman crowned with the stars, and a monster rising from from the sea. Revelation doesn't exactly make for a good vacation Bible school theme, if you know what I mean. And we'll just say it, Revelation is weird.

It's a weird book. I read Revelation. I think to myself, did John have pizza too late the night before or something? You know? And if you don't know how to interpret the book's unusual imagery, then Revelation can be scary.

So, yes, Revelation is not like any other book in the Bible. But there's another sense in which Revelation is like every other book of the Bible. And so what do I mean? Revelation contains a message from God in Christ given to a human author, who in turn shares it with an audience for a specific purpose. Revelation shares this in common with the other 65 books of the Bible.

And like the other 55 books, the key to making sense of Revelation is learning something about its author and its audience. And it's the first century, setting the life challenges they were facing. We need to learn something about its historical and cultural context. We need to learn something about its literary style, how it communicates. We need to learn something about how it's structured.

This is what I mean by Revelation simplified. We simplify revelation. We make it understandable by studying it and approaching it like we would Romans or First Peter or any other book of the Bible. We could call this a common sense approach to Revelation in a common sense and wise place. To begin, our study of the Bible's most misunderstood book is the first chapter.

In fact, I would suggest that all the clues that we need to understand this weird and wonderful book are found in chapter one. And what I want to do, just as we get as we begin, I want to read the chapter two to you with you. It's a long chapter, but it'll give us foundation for today and for the rest of the series. The last book in the Bible, the first chapter, a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what soon must take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw.

That is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it. Because the time is near. John. To the seven churches in the province of Asia.

Grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Look, he is coming with the clouds.

And every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all peoples on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come.

The Almighty. I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God, the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's day I was in the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze, glowing in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.

In his right hand he held seven stars. And coming out of his mouth was a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun, shining in all its brilliance. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said, don't be afraid.

I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead. And now look. I am alive forever and ever.

And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write therefore, what you've seen, what is now, and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. Is this the Seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Now, there's a lot here and we don't have time to cover everything. And my hope is that what I want to try to do is give you a foundation for this series and for future study of Revelation for the rest of our time. What I'm gonna do is just provide give you five clues, five brief clues from chapter one that can show us how Revelation can be simplified. I'm just gonna touch on each. So here's the first clue.

Revelation begins with a promise of blessing. Revelation 1:3. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it. Revelation doesn't begin frightened as the one, or confused as the one, or anxious is the one. No, the Bible's strangest book begins with a promise of blessing for those who study and obey it.

And we might get discouraged and think to ourselves, why bother with revelation? It's too confusing, it's too controversial, it's too demanding to study. And I wanna caution you about that kind of attitude. Revelation is God's word. It's in the Bible for a reason.

God has given us this book to bless us, to invigorate our faith, to encourage our discipleship, and to strengthen our hope. Studying Revelation is worth the time and effort. So don't be intimidated, don't be disheartened. Instead, expect a blessing. The second clue for simplifying Revelation is.

Revelation is a letter again from verse four. John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you. What's that sound like? It sounds like a letter, doesn't it?

Revelation begins and ends as a letter. And what do we know about letter writing? It's kind of a lost art today. But a letter has an author and a recipient, or an audience and a purpose or an occasion for writing. Grasping these three components of this unusual letter, author, audience and purpose, is a big step in understanding how Revelation speaks to us today.

Verse 4 introduces us to the first century author and audience of Revelation. John to the seven churches in the province of Asia. Revelation tells us very little about John. It's possible this is the apostle John. I'm inclined to think so.

Though he's never described in this way, Revelation 1 simply describes him as a servant of Jesus. And verse nine informs us that John is a brother and companion with with the Christians. In these seven churches. We're told that John is exiled on the island of Patmos. Likely because of his preaching about Jesus.

This is what chapter one tells us about John. And then from the rest of the book, we can learn that John is a prophet and a visionary. But I think the one word that best describes John's relationship to these seven churches is the word pastor. John writes to these seven churches as their pastor and shepherd. Now, you have wonderful pastors here at Sherwood Oaks.

My wife and I have recently discovered the podcast and we've been listening to that each week as a part of our devotional time. Sean, Matt, Maggie and others share God's Word with you, love and support you. They encourage you, they challenge you when needed. That's what pastors are called to do. Now think about that.

John wrote Revelation for the practical pastoral purposes of discipleship and spiritual transformation. Yes, Revelation gives us glimpses of the future, but what the book tells us about the future is designed to form Christ within us. Now John's the pastor author of this prophetic letter. And chapter one also introduces us to the first century audience. In John 11, we're told that in verse 11, John is told to write down what he sees in the form of a letter and to send it to seven city churches that were a part of the Roman province of Asia Minor.

And on a modern map, today it'd be the western coast of Turkey. These congregations were in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. And it's kind of helpful to look at a map. This is a real place, real churches, real people. These were busy, growing cities in A.D.

95 when John wrote Revelation. Many of these cities are still in existence today, but with just different names. Now, I believe that numbers in Revelation are symbols. The numbers in Revelation are not math problems to solve, they're symbols to discern. And most often, 7 is a symbol for completeness.

So by addressing his letter to seven churches, John is hinting that the message of Revelation is for all churches, past and present. But before we understand how Revelation speaks to our world and the world that is to come, we must first grasp how John's message spoke to these seven small faith communities that were existing on the margins of the Roman Empire at the end of the first century, an essential lesson for simplifying Revelation is this. Before we can understand the meaning of Revelation for our lives, we must first understand what Revelation meant to these seven churches under John's pastoral care. In other words, the meaning of Revelation cannot be divorced from its first century historical occasion and cultural setting. So why did John write This visionary letter to these seven churches.

What's the situation that he was addressing? What problems was he confronting? And in other words, what's the purpose of the letter? And this brings us to clue number three. Now, next week, you're going to dig deeper into the purpose of revelation.

Revelation chapters 2 and 3 provide more detail about what was taking place in these seven churches and the challenges they were facing. But for today, I want to focus on one key word from chapter one that sheds light on why John wrote Revelation. And the key word is suffering. Suffering. Revelation 1, 9.

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus. Clue number three is that Revelation is written to and for Christians who are suffering and struggling to endure in the faith. Have you ever suffered so much that you just felt like giving up? Have you ever felt like throwing in the towel? Have you questioned if following Jesus is really worth it?

Have you been tempted to blunt your faith so that you could kind of fit in the world around you and not be bothered? If so, then you have some insight into the difficult situation, the challenges that these early Christians were facing. These Christians in the seven churches lived in the Roman Empire at the end of the first century. What was life like for them? And the answer is, it wasn't easy.

This was a small religious minority who worshiped a crucified criminal as a God. From a Roman perspective, the Roman Empire was polytheistic. There were many gods to choose from, and citizens of the empire were free to worship whoever they wanted to as long as Caesar, as long as the emperor received their supreme devotion. The Roman emperor at the time of the writing of Revelation was Domitian. And we don't know a lot about Domitian, but one thing we do know is that he had an enormous ego.

In fact, the Roman historian Suetonius records that Domitian's favorite title was Lord and God. Good Roman citizens would support the emperor by participating in the cult that was devoted to them, devoted to him, the civic religion of the day. In fact, citizens of the empire, if they wanted to remain in good community standing, were expected to offer sacrifices to Caesar as a God on special occasions, such as his birthday or commemorating a military victory. Now, I could go on about the historical context that led to the writing of Revelation, but I imagine maybe you're beginning to kind of understand and get the point. These seven churches were in a tough spot.

They were struggling to know how to answer some very difficult questions, questions that sound very contemporary today. How much of the culture around them could they participate in without losing their Christian identity? Have you ever wrestled with that before? I know I have. Could they go through the motions of worshiping the emperor if it allowed them to fit into society and avoid persecution?

In short, can a true Christ follower confess Caesar as Lord and God? And to this final summary question, Revelation gives a very direct no. There is only one Lord and God. There is only one who deserves and demands our highest loyalty. And his name isn't Domitian or the name of our favorite celebrity or politician.

His name is Jesus. If we could summarize the historical setting of Revelation in one word, it would be conflict. Revelation portrays a conflict between two kingdoms with two competing values and loyalties. Revelation describes a conflict for the throne of the world and for the throne of our lives, a conflict between two kings that demand total allegiance. And ultimately, Revelation describes a deeper spiritual conflict between God and Christ and Satan and the forces of darkness.

The battles we fight each day in this world over decisions and commitments and priorities are the visible evidence of this cosmic battle being waged for our souls in worship in the invisible world. Revelation 12 through 15 describes this great, great spiritual conflict. But that's not our focus today. Our focus today isn't the battle between God and the lamb and the dragon and his two beasts. In a few weeks, Sean's going to be preaching on that.

He's got it all figured out. He's going to explain all of it to you. Save any questions you have for Sean, please.

Let's return now to the third clue and the theme of suffering. Revelation reveals to us that the Christians in these seven cities were responding to this conflict in two primary ways. One way was to face the suffering, and the other way was to try to avoid it. Two churches, the congregations in Smyrna and Philadelphia, resisted cultural pressure, and they refused to give their highest loyalty to Caesar. They ruggedly followed Jesus, and they were persecuted as a result.

By contrast, the five other churches, the congregations in Ephesus and Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea, they were compromising with their surrounding culture to different degrees, involving themselves in various forms of idolatry. And they did this to fit in and to avoid suffering. And as a result, these five congregations were in danger of having their lampstand removed. In other words, they were in danger of losing their Christian identity, even their salvation. Here's an essential lesson for understanding how Revelation works.

The visions of Revelation address these two situations. The visions of Revelation address these two kinds of churches, these two kinds of Christians, Christians, past or present, who Are suffering for their faith, need comfort and hope, a reason to persevere and assurance that God is in control. So, for example, the visions of the dead in Christ worshiping around God's throne in chapter 7, or the new Jerusalem descending from heaven in Revelation 21 are designed to comfort and encourage God's weary people. And Christians, past or present, who are being seduced by culture and compromising their faith in order to avoid suffering and persecution, need to be challenged and warned and encouraged to repent and return to the pure worship of God again. For example, the judgment visions of the bowls of wrath in Revelation 16 or the Lake of Fire in Revelation 20 are designed to convict and to motivate repentance in the hearts of Christians who have become too at home in the world.

And this is key. This is important. Notice that both kinds of visions have the same goal. They have the same goal. Visions of judgment and visions of salvation in Revelation's symbolic world are designed to motivate faithfulness to God and the Lamb in the real world.

And so this naturally leads to clue number four. Revelation communicates its message of comfort and warning through symbols, through pictures. Now, as modern people, we can appreciate communicating with symbols in our text messages and posts and emojis or messages. We include symbols, we include emojis. And an emoji is simply a picture that communicates an idea or a mood or a feeling.

So, for example, my favorite emoji is the thinking person emoji. I love dad jokes. Does anybody else love dad jokes? So three of us do, apparently. Okay, yeah.

Three of us have a sophisticated sense of humor.

I love to include the thanking emoji when I send my wife and daughters kind of randomly dad jokes. You know, they really appreciate that. They really do. A couple of weeks ago, I sent this question with a favorite emoji. Did you hear about the two spiders that got engaged?

Then I waited a few moments and I sent another text and I said, they met on the web, you know, so I thought that was pretty good. The symbol enhanced the communication. Revelation uses images and pictures to enhance communication. Revelation is visual theology. According to chapter one, Revelation's message is shown in verse one and seen in verse 11 again in verse one.

The NIV says that Jesus made known to John his Revelation. The phrase made it known in the Greek is literally he signified it. Some of the older translations, such as the King James Version, have that very literal translation. Revelation's message was signified by Jesus. That is, it was communicated through signs, through pictures, and a sign is not the reality Itself, a sign points to a greater reality.

And the images of Revelation are signs pointing to deeper spiritual truth. And the reality behind the symbol is always greater, it's always more frightening, it's always more glorious than the symbol itself. Revelation can be simplified when we learn to speak its language, the language of symbol, of symbolism. A foundational principle for interpreting the Bible is let the Bible interpret the Bible. And in the case of Revelation, let Revelation interpret Revelation.

In other words, follow the clues that John provides. And John provides a big interpretive clue in verse 20 of chapter one. I'll read it again. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

How should we interpret Revelation? John tells us, he shows US in verse 20, stars signify angels. Lampstands symbolize churches. And what John does here in verse 20 of chapter 1, he does it throughout the entire book. He interprets the imagery, and he shows us that the images are signs which point beyond to greater spiritual truth and significance.

So why did John use symbols to communicate his message? And I think maybe for different reasons, but the most basic is this. Symbols express the inexpressible. They express the inexpressible. Revelation is an unveiling.

It begins this way, the revelation from Jesus Christ. The word revelation in the Greek is the word apocalypse. The apocalypse. That word literally means unveiling. Revelation is an unveiling.

And what does it unveil? Revelation pulls back the curtain, and it unveils ultimate reality, the spiritual world now and the future world that is to come. And words can only take us so far in understanding and describing heavenly and eternal reality. For example, we sense this in chapter one, as John catches this vision of the cosmic Jesus, and he struggles to put what he sees into words. And when words fall short, we need symbols.

We need art, if you will. Revelation is not like reading a textbook or a blog post or a newspaper. Rather, reading Revelation is kind of like a walk through an art gallery. Revelation's images, its symbols, are not like photographs. Rather, they are more like impressionistic paintings which are designed to move us, to stir the emotions, to cause us to reflect.

And if Revelation's visual paintings convict us and. And move us to action now, then we're reading Revelation correctly. And as you walk through Revelation's art gallery, I would encourage you to kind of step back and see the big picture. Don't get lost in all the details. Don't get lost in the weeds, which is really possible.

Some of the details are just there for effect. Instead of focusing on the individual brushstrokes, step back and see the full canvas. In other words, focus on what is most obvious, even timeless, about the symbol. So let's walk through the art gallery for just a moment. So, for example, in Revelation, the church is portrayed as a lampstand.

Chapters one through three, and later in chapter 11, the church is a lampstand. And lampstand conveys light and mission. God is represented by the throne in chapter four, communicating his sovereignty and authority. Jesus is symbolized as a slain lamb in chapter five, communicating sacrifice or victory through sacrifice. Satan is depicted as a dragon in chapter 12, saying something about the sinister, stealthy nature of evil.

Governments and religions that persecute and deceive the church are portrayed as sea and land monsters. In chapter 13, cultures which tempt and seduce God's people are represented as a drunken Harlot. In chapter 17, God's judgment against evildoers is dramatically portrayed as the lake of fire. Revelation 20. Let me just give you one more example.

Christian hope is envisioned as an eternal city and garden, the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation 21 and 22. Now, the revelation Art gallery brings all of these paintings together to form a visionary world, a symbolic world. And this is how Revelation works. We enter into the symbolic world and this experience changes the way we see the everyday world. We enter into the symbolic world and we see our life differently.

The journey through Revelation's symbolic universe affects us, causing us to see our lives and our trials and our struggles from the perspective of heaven and God's future. Let me close with this final thought, this final clue when reading and studying Revelation. Don't miss Jesus. Don't miss Jesus. Revelation 1 sets the tone for the entire book.

In Revelation 1, Jesus is the giver of revelation to John. Verse 1. He is the faithful witness and the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. In verse 5, a subtle allusion to Jesus, death and resurrection and glorification. Jesus is the Lamb who has freed us from our sins by his blood.

Verse 5. Jesus is the Son of man who will come in judgment on the clouds. Verse verse 7. He is the glorified Jesus, the glorified Lord who walks among the lampstands. Verses 13 and following and according to verse 18, Jesus is the living one, the one who was dead and now lives forever and ever, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, who holds the keys of death and Hades.

Revelation 1 sets the tone for the entire book. Revelation is not primarily about Armageddon or 666 or the millennium. Above all, Revelation is about Jesus Christ. If our study of the Bible's final book leads us to worship Jesus with all of our hearts and to follow him wherever he leads, then we have truly simplified Revelation. The words of the classic hymn, I think, convey Revelation's central message for our lives today.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Do you want to live an unshakable life? Revelation invites us to turn our eyes to Jesus. Let's pray together.

Father, in heaven, we do turn our eyes to you today and we look upon you as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I pray God that this study would convict us and would lead us to the throne, would lead us to trust in the one who died so that our sins could be removed. Father, I pray that through this series our hope would be expanded, our courage steeled, and that we would be emboldened to follow Jesus wherever he leads. I pray God, if there are those here today that are struggling, I pray that this study would just inspire them and encourage them and to remind them that you are still on the throne and it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.