Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.

He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

Greeting to the Seven Churches

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

Even so.

Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Vision of the Son of Man

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

This week we begin our series through the Book of Revelation, not ‘Revelations’ (with an ‘s’) but Revelation.

Or what has also been historically referred to as John’s Apocalypse.

As we approached the end of Matthew’s Gospel earlier this year I contemplated what book I would teach out of next, and I had always assumed we would move immediately into the Book of Acts to pickup where Matthew left off, and to follow the beginnings of the early church.

And I still think that it would be a good book to tackle in the near future, however, as we walked through Matthew 24 and 25 last year, which was followed up by a four part series on eschatology, I realized that it might be a good opportunity to build upon that foundation while it was still somewhat fresh in our minds.

It’s also a subject that I’ve been studying, personally, for several years now, and given my own time constraints for studying, it seemed like a natural opportunity to tackle Revelation next.

I also read recently that that the Book of Revelation is the the number one book in the Bible that church members wish their pastors would preach through, while simultaneously the number one book of the Bible that pastors avoid preaching through.

I think reading that has both challenged me to do it, and has given me a desire to help others Christians understand and apply this book, that the Book of Revelation would become helpful to you.

My desire is that as we study this book that you’ll not only understand it, but that you’ll see its role and purpose, that this letter and vision was intended not merely to be a cryptic future telling prophecy, but that it was intended to bring both warning and comfort to the Christian church, and that it was intended to show how God was carrying redemptive history forward.

And the more you understand how Revelation does this, the more helpful it’ll be to your Christian life, and the more you will see Christ more clearly.

Now, this week, we’re going to begin by way of introducing the book.

I want you to have a good handle on what kind of book this is, it’s genre, style, and what to expect, then next week we’ll look at how the church has historically understood this book.

We’ll look at four categories, or views, of interpretation.

Interpretations that all fall within Christian orthodoxy, but have waxed and waned in their popularity at various times in church history.

Then in week three we’ll survey the book and I’ll argue for a particular view that we’ll use to walk through the rest of the book.

I will survey the major characters of the vision, who they are, and how they play into the book’s storyline.

From there we’ll walk through the book, chapter by chapter.

Eschatology

That being said, let’s begin with some introductory remarks related to the book and eschatology in general.

First, eschatology, is the study of last things, or end times, and certain areas of eschatology are secondary, if not tertiary doctrines.

While it’s essential that we agree upon the yet future second coming of Christ (which is an essential doctrine), whether you’re premillennial, amillennial, or postmillennial won’t determine your salvation.

Your salvation also does not hinge upon which of the four orthodox interpretations of the Apocalypse you take.

Therefore, Christians should not divide over these issues.

In fact, many of the major doctrinal confessions like the 1689 London Baptist Confession and the Westminster Confession deliberately any particular eschatological position, save the second coming of Christ.

So, no one should be planting local churches on the basis of their eschatological viewpoints.

Eschatology not unimportant

However, this isn’t to say that eschatology is altogether unimportant, or that eschatological positions don’t have a genuine bearing upon how we conduct our lives.

Eschatology is not unimportant.

Just because it’s not the most important, doesn’t mean that it’s unimportant.

In fact, the Bible is filled with eschatology, therefore it follows that the Spirit of God intends for us to study it.

The very fact that the Book of Revelation is in our Bibles means it was given to the Church for her building up, that it too is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.

We don’t ignore eschatology simply because it can be difficult to understand, or because we think it less important or divisive.

If the Spirit of God saw fit to give it to the Church, then we should, like all other portions of Scripture, receive it and seek to be nourished by it.

Eschatological expectation

For example, prior to Christ’s first advent, the people of God, for centuries, even thousands of years, looked forward to his coming, and over time God progressively revealed to them, through the Scriptures, prophecies that foreshadowed his arrival.

And they were expected to understand and anticipate the fulfillment of those prophecies.

One example is found in Luke 2:25, where we read,

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel,

or in Matthew 2:3-6 when Herod was troubled that wise men from the east were looking for one who was born, king of the Jews, and we read that,

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6  “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’

”

The advent of Christ was their eschatological expectation, just as the second coming is ours.

And ever since the first advent of Christ the church has regularly celebrated those prophetic, eschatological passages, and their fulfillment in Jesus.

Eschatology is not unimportant.

While on one hand we don’t want over emphasize the importance of certain doctrines, we don’t want to think that they’re unimportant either.

Doctrine matters

All doctrine has an inescapable impact upon how we live (no matter how small), what we we believe fundamentally impacts how we think and act.

We make decisions based upon what we believe.

For instance, if you believe that the world will only get worse leading up to the return of Christ, then you might find yourself retreating from the world, having less children, preparing for the worst, stock piling your resources.

Whereas, if you understand the kingdom of God as having an impact upon the world such that governments, increasingly, are brought into submission to God’s law prior to the return of Christ, that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of God, then you will likely find yourself investing more of your resources into it, and more actively engaging the world.

Or if you think that you’re going to be raptured out of this world before a great tribulation then you probably won’t prepare yourself for it, whereas if you believe that you will have to endure a great tribulation, then you’ll probably prepare yourself for suffering.

Now, my point here isn’t to argue for one doctrine or another, but simply that what we believe about tomorrow impacts how we live today, therefore eschatology is not unimportant.

Revelation and the OT

That being said, let’s talk about the Book of Revelation itself.

This first point I think goes without saying, but I want to flesh it out.

The Book of Revelation is hard to understand.

In fact, it is undoubtedly the hardest book in the NT to understand.

At one point we get the impression that John himself required an explanation of the vision.

We read in Revelation 17:6-7 that John saw a woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, and when he saw her it says that he marveled greatly.

“But the angel said to [him], “Why do you marvel?

I will tell you the mystery of the woman...”” This is also why we have four historical views of interpretation on the Book of Revelation.

It may be why John Calvin, who wrote a commentary on nearly every book in the NT didn’t for the Book of Revelation.

But there are specific reasons this book is hard to understand.

The primary reason being that Revelation is the most Hebraic book of the NT, far more than even the Book of Hebrews.

It’s Hebraic in two senses, first, while the book is written in Greek, it’s style and grammatical construction look almost Hebrew, as though written by a man who had Hebrew as his first language and Greek as his second.

Secondly, some estimate that there are more than 500 quotations and allusions to the OT in John’s Apocalypse.

That it draws heavily from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Ester, and especially Ezekiel and Daniel.

In fact, many have referred to the Book of Revelation as part two of Daniel, that John’s book essentially picks up where Daniel left off.

And the reason this presents a problem for many of us is that our familiarity with, and understanding of the OT is often inadequate and weak.

While much of the OT narratives are straight-forward enough, much of the OT context and symbolism escapes us, so when we read Revelation this problem becomes readily apparent.

If much of the themes and symbolism of the OT has already confused us, then Revelation is going to feel impossible.

We’re often accustomed to interpreting the NT with very little reference to the OT, which immediately makes books like Hebrews and Revelation difficult.

Picture book

We also need to realize that Revelation is primarily a picture book, filled with apocalyptic language, a highly symbolic language.

Even the title of the book reveals this without reading a single verse, John’s Apocalypse.

Our word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apokalupsis, which simply means an uncovering, unveiling, or revealing, hence the modern title, Revelation.

Symbolism is the rule

This is significant because this means that the book is not historical narrative, despite many modern commentators treating it as it were.

Overlooking the genre of the book and its literary style will get us into all sorts of trouble when we attempt to understand it.

In this book symbolism is the rule, and literalism is the exception.

When we read apocalyptic literature we should expect highly symbolic language, and assume a symbolic interpretation before attempting to interpret the text literally.

Maintaining a literal interpretation