Sermon Tone Analysis

Rev. 1:1-3

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.

Three principles to guide our understanding in our brief time in Revelation:

Revelation is given by Jesus Christ and centers on Jesus

V. 1 The revelation of Jesus sent to show God’s “servants,” i.e. , believers, what will take place “soon.”

The angel is sent by Jesus to declare what He is about to bring about soon.

V. 2 - The message John conveys in the book is the “word of God,” which means it is God’s message for the churches.

V. 3

The promised blessing for hearers & doers (In other words, Revelation is meant to be read, understood & applied)

There is a future aspect to this “prophecy,” but it is primarily a word spoken into the present situation of the seven churches; and its primary urgency is not about the final future event (recorded in chs.

20–22), but the near future for John and his readers.

Revelation cannot mean to us/you what it did not mean first, to the original audience.

V. 4 - To the churches in Asia

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

V. 9 - Written to suffering believers who are being actively persecuted and targeted because they follow Christ.

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.

This is a basic rule in all biblical interpretation of Scripture

Revelation is written to comfort and encourage the Seven Churches during their present tribulation

These churches when connected by road make a long, thin horseshoe-shaped semi-circle from Ephesus through Smyrna to Pergamum in the north—still on or close to the Aegean Sea—and then inland in a south-southeasterly direction down to Laodicea, which is about eighty miles east and slightly south of Ephesus.

Still, the number seven seems to have a symbolic import as well, for the message ultimately isn’t limited to the seven churches but applies to all churches throughout history.

Illustration of present suffering of God’s church

A threefold biblical and historical perspective on Revelation

Revelation is couched in 3 pairs of 7 judgments that God releases on the world.

Revelation 6-19 describes the events that occur between the first and second coming of Christ.

Most have been taught this is all future during a literal 7 yr tribulation period.

Revelation is not chronological but cyclical using recapitulation as a tool to lay forth what will soon take place.

It employs different vantage points to help us understand both God’s Sovereignty & God’s severity.

Ex: Football from the 50-yard line or sometimes from the Goodyear blimp

One more: We must not be ignorant about eschatology (from the time of Christ until now) but neither must we be arrogantly dogmatic either.

Illustration:

Imagine you have a mystery illness.

Something is wrong and you know the symptoms and some problems you’re having but you don’t know why.

You have gone to many doctors to no avail, but you hear that there is a world-renown specialist in the field and so you travel and allow him to do a series of tests.

Then you go home and one day, this doctor writes you a letter with his diagnosis.

How would you read it?

Quickly or carefully?

Would you lay it on the table and read it later or would stop everything and study the letter because your life depends on it!

In the same way, Christ has visited his church and has done, as it were, a checkup on his church.

The question is, will we heed his diagnosis and live or ignore it to our peril.

Jer.

30:17

17 For I will restore health to you,

and your wounds I will heal,

declares the Lord,

Main idea: John writes Revelation in order to reveal God’s sovereignty and Christ’s preeminence both now and in the future, so that weary believers might experience grace and peace in times of distress.

Four Truths Revelation Reveals Christ’s Preeminence

God’s Trinitarian nature - v.4-5a

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.

The Father on a throne v.4;8

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come,

We should note that this very same phrase is used of the Father in Revelation 1:8 and again in 4:8.

Since Jesus Christ appears at the end of the grace wish in 1:5, the Father is obviously in view here in 1:4.

In one sense, we should not be surprised that the Father is declared the “coming one,” for even though the Son comes physically, what is true of the Son is true also of the Father.

Isa 41:4 - God is the creator and sustainer of all things

I, the Lord, the first,

and with the last; I am he.

The Holy Spirit is before the Throne -v.4

from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

We need to recall that Revelation is apocalyptic, regularly using numbers with symbolic import.

Thus the number seven here designates perfection and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

The Son isThe Lord of Lords

5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

V.5 - Jesus Christ is the “faithful witness” (cf.

Rev. 3:14; Ps. 89:37; Isa.

55:4).

The word “witness” (martys) in the course of church history developed to mean one who testified to Jesus Christ by giving his or her life in death.

Rev. 19:9-10 - The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy

God’s Vice regents - v.5-6

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.

V.5b-6 - Jesus freed his people from sin for a purpose.

He not only freed us he had made us new for a purpose.

His people constitute a kingdom and are priests of God the Father.

When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in the garden to rule the world for him (Gen.

1:28; 2:15).

They were to be his vice-regents in the world, mediating his blessing as priests to the entire world.

The redeeming work of Christ and the centrality of Christ in God’s purposes do not diminish the glory of God the Father.

Quite the contrary.

These realities maximize God’s glory.

God is magnified, God is glorified, in his Son, Jesus Christ, especially in his saving work by which he redeems his people.

These seven suffering churches were God’s representative in a dark and troubled world and so are we.

Notice we have a declaration & a divine interruption

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.”

The Declaration & Divine interruption - v.7-8

V.7 - He is coming through his Son, Jesus Christ, to bring in the kingdom.

Believers then, now & in the future can be guaranteed of two things: Protection and vindication.

Protection doesn’t mean escape it means perseverance

Vindication means that God will make all things right; not one act of injustice will get by His Sovereign justice.

V.8 - God declares himself to be “the Alpha and the Omega,” referring to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.

He rules over every particle and speck of history, and has and always will be eternally God.

He is mighty God in every moment faced by those who belong to him.

There was never a time he was not supreme Lord over all, and there is no chance that history will spin out of his control.

The sovereignty of God assures believers that his kingdom has come and it will fully come and his will be done absolutely.

The Church’s Tribulation - V.9

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.

Partners in tribulation

Spiritual persecution - Emporer worship - Jewish betrayal - Physical poverty

Present tribulation due to emperor worship being enforced