Bonus: The Where, Who and Why of Revelation - Glorious Hope | Studies in Revelation

Now you have a handout and I want you to go to the very back page

and the very bottom as we begin, because I want you, I want

to let you know what is available.

I'm a great believer in.

And I suppose from an early.

Well, I say an early age earlier than now, whenever I was

a late teenager, listening again to something I discovered was

even better for me than listening.

For the first time.

And so we put everything on the church website.

Everything.

Every service, even.

I even put up the Calhorn Good Friday service on our website.

The.

So it's all there.

Because if it's of benefit once, trust.

Me, it'll be of benefit twice.

And in fact, I had a lovely email on Monday from a lady I do

not know who went to the church website.

And at the bottom there's a little form to fill in, to contact.

And she said, thank you for the.

Series on the tabernacle.

Do you remember that?

I had to remember.

When on earth did we do that?

And she has been going through that herself over the past number

of weeks and said she has found it a deep blessing.

Now, how are we able to do that?

Quite frankly, because of the money you put on the plate on a Sunday.

Morning, pay us for that kind of thing.

So that someone who we know nothing about, she may be a regular

attendee at a church somewhere on this island, or she could be somewhere

across the seas.

All I know is she's an Anglo Saxon name, but she has benefited

from.

What we're able to do here.

And so that's why it goes up.

Trust me, I don't get paid any extra for every click, as some people

do.

But if you look there in the bottom, you can go to the website.

And we do put up just the sermons, not the whole service, just

the sermons.

And you can select by series, by.

Book and by speaker.

And so if you've never gone on your phone or a computer at home

or a tablet to the church website and seen what's there, I

would encourage you to go.

There's also a calendar that tells you even what's happening in

2028.

So if you need to plan anything, you never know, it might

be there.

But also these devices we have mainly our phones, I listen to these

things called podcasts.

I must listen to about 10 a week when I'm driving up and down

the road, wherever I'm going.

And even if I'm going up and down the length of Annalong, I'll

stick it on for four minutes and I'm listening to the likes Of

RC Sproul.

I'm listening to Alistair Begg.

So there's a Presbyterian and a Baptist for you.

I'm trying to be evenly balanced here.

As well as other things that I.

Can't confess to because you'd laugh at me and mock me.

But it's a good way if you're out on a shorewalk or in your car,

as I do, just plug in your phone or Bluetooth it to whatever

and listen maybe again to some of this stuff.

And so we have up specifically the Exodus series, we have specifically

the Roman series.

Do you remember that from a few years ago on Sunday evenings

and the Revelation.

I looked at the Revelation.

Do you know how many people have listened?

804.50Since September have listened on their devices to Revelation.

Do you know the number one country they've been listening to

or listening from?

America.

That fascinates me even more as we will get into next week to

discover why.

But even one person in Mongolia.

So it's there.

Let not the rest of the world show us how to use it.

But it's all there online and different.

Things to point you to get to that.

But another thing we're going to try differently is this.

If I was in the youth fellowship now they'd all be going

ooo.

But I'm not Gidges.

This is not just a screen to display.

This is a smart board that they use in the classrooms and schools

and I'm going to use it in these couple of evenings in midweek

acting taking me back into the classroom as a teacher.

Now I don't want any comments.

Oh it's a bit like election night in the BBC but it's.

So we're going to start with our introduction.

You have your hand out and we're going to turn over that.

The book of Revelation.

In fact the word Revelation, you have it there or you will have

it on the back of it.

But don't turn to that just now.

But the word revelation is a Greek word that basically means oops,

this is.

How bad you're going to see my handwriting is and why I should have

been a doctor in the first place.

But it is apocalyptic.

The Greek word apologos apocalyptic.

Now apocalyptic.

The movies have not helped us in understanding what apocalyptic

means.

Apocalyptic means desolation.

If you watch any American film that talks about an apocalypse it

means everything is wiped out except for maybe five people who

are left alive now.

My wife and my sister in law have been watching an apocalyptic

program and they're now into the second season of it.

And all of a sudden these people are alive.

And all of a sudden all of their motor cars which have survived

this apocalypse have fuel in them and can drive everywhere.

So we think there's some holes in that storyline because if it was

a true apocalypse, nothing would be left.

But actually, apocalypse doesn't mean devastation.

Apocalypse, which is the first word in Greek.

In the Greek text of Revelation, apocalyptic simply means

revealed or revealing.

The curtain is being pulled back.

We're being allowed to see.

And why do we use the image of a curtain?

Because what was the one curtain you couldn't pull back?

You couldn't pull back the curtain of the temple.

You couldn't pull back the curtain of the tabernacle.

You couldn't see the holy of holies, be it in that tent or in

that physical building.

And what God is revealing to us through Revelation by this pulling

back the curtain is to actually see what, what is not human,

but what is divine.

And the divine nature of God.

And so as we look at this in church, you all sit very well and

you don't say boo to a goose.

This is different.

This is midweek.

You know now how to talk around your tables.

I personally enjoy the book of Revelation and it is interesting.

More and more if you do look around, Revelation has been preached

in Presbyterian churches, in Baptist churches, and I've actually

had wonderful conversations with free Presbyterians and Baptists,

and we all agree on the same thing about Revelation.

It's been truly amazing to have those conversations.

And so this is to be a conversation.

Next week we're going to be looking at interpretation.

How do we interpret Revelation?

Or what are the different ways to interpret it?

But tonight, as you'll see at the top, we're thinking of the where,

the who and the why of Revelation.

But right at the very beginning, as we read the book of

Revelation, we must remember something about it.

It is a beautiful book.

And it's a beautiful book for the main reason it's about Jesus.

And if anything is about Jesus, surely then it is beautiful.

How could it not be?

Even we can look upon Calvary's cross and say it was a

beautiful moment because it was the salvation of our souls.

Yes, horror filled for humanity to look on and gruesome.

But yet for us, was it not a beautiful moment of what Christ did?

For not that we glory in it and the gruesomeness, but we recognize

the.

Beauty of Christ displayed on the cross.

And so as we look at Revelation, it is a book about Jesus.

Often we think, well, that's just the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke

and John.

But actually, revelation is as much of the beauty of Jesus than

any of.

The Gospels, because it shows us to.

It shows him to us in his glorified person, the glorified Christ

who will come back again.

And so what this tells us is not just the glory of Christ, but

it shows us the vindication of God.

You might say, well, why does God.

Have to be vindicated?

Well, it proves.

Revelation proves that everything that God has done in the

salvation of his people through covenant promise is true.

And so as the world will look on, as the world will see Christ

returning, they will then realize, be it too late, that indeed

God has been true to his word and done exactly.

What he has said.

So there's a beauty, but there's also a vindication, because

the judgments of God will be fair and will be just, because he

is a fair and a just God.

So that's how we will be looking.

But I want you to have a pair of glasses on.

This is my best attempt at drawing a pair of glasses.

You can tell that I grew up.

In the 1800s, can't you?

If they're looking like that, I want you to look and I want you

to understand Revelation.

Even though we're now at chapter 15,.

There's very few chapters left.

But as we consider Revelation and some of its themes and some of

its difficulties, the primacy of Revelation is Jesus.

It's not about what will happen when, nor is it understanding

who is what in this book.

Those are secondary, maybe even tertiary.

What it is about is about the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

And by the end of the Book of Revelation, he must be glorified,

for.

What he has done, is doing and will do.

So turn in your Bibles, please, to Revelation, chapter one,

and we're going to read the first nine verses.

I know we read this in September, but this is where we're

going to focus on, because this is what's going to help us tonight.

Revelation 1:1:9.

And this is what John says in.

Verse one, beginning in chapter one, in.

His prologue, 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, who

bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus

Christ, even to all that he saw.

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, 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.

From the seven spirits who are before his throne, 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 fed us.

Sorry, Freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom,

priest to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion forever

and ever.

Amen.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him

and even those who pierced him.

And all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

Even so.

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 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.

And the testimony of Jesus.

So we're going to be picking a few verses from there and taking

those out and seeing what we learn about this where, who and why.

So let's look at the where.

And you have the map, you have the text, and you also have the picture

there.

So the where.

Where is all of this coming from?

Well, I hope we know by now that.

Let me change the color of things.

So that we can see what we're.

Talking about, that we know that we're on the island of Patmos.

Patmos is a great holiday destination now, but back then it

was a prison island where troublemakers such as John would

have gone.

And basically that's where they had to live out their lives.

Now, whenever you look at Patmos, we read that indeed John

tells us he was in Patmos, there in verse nine.

But why is he there?

He says that he was there on account of the word of God and his

witness of Jesus, his testimony.

So word of God is proclamation, and testimony is that

personal profession of faith of who Jesus Christ is.

So this is a mixture of the formal preaching as well as the simply

living out the things of Jesus.

This is why he's in trouble.

What do we call this in today's world?

And all.

All of the things that we hear from open doors, we call this persecution.

And we'll come to this again as to understand why persecution

is such a theme of this book, because this book is set in a context,

and we must remember that all the books of the Bible are set in

a context of their time.

But yet they speak for the generations, including revelation

now 2000 years on, has spoken to every generation since it was

first revealed to John.

So Scripture, all scripture has its place where it began, but

it also has a place in every ensuing generation so that they will

know the truths of God.

Now, that might cause issue for us whenever we come and we've

read it here that Jesus is coming soon.

Well, how soon is soon?

It turns out 2000 years isn't soon.

There's I know of an account where a Sunday school teacher, including

one of my own Sunday school teachers, Bible class teachers back

in Katie, they didn't give us much hope as teenagers that actually

we were going to be alive to be married or get driving licenses

or anything like this because Jesus was coming soon.

But every generation has said it.

So whenever we read these words that Jesus is coming soon,

the question is,.

How soon is soon?

Because what does Scripture already tell us?

A day in the sight of the.

Lord is as a thousand years.

Now, I'm not saying that Jesus couldn't come right now.

Of course he could.

But that doesn't mean that soon means that it is what we're

called to is.

And the Greek word here for soon.

Or is coming is actually quickly.

In other parts of the New Testament, it's interpreted.

It's only used eight times in the.

New Testament, it's interpreted as quickly or quicken.

And so what John is trying to tell us here, there is an urgency,

but it's not an urgency that we might think because often we think

it's an urgency to save the lost.

But Revelation was not written to the lost or for the lost.

Revelation, as we will discover at the.

End of this evening, was written for believers.

And so they had to know quickly that Jesus was coming so

that they could live for him as revealed in Revelation, in the

Tribulation.

And again, what does John say here?

He's a partner in the tribulation.

So he's experiencing tribulation, not at some point in

the future, but that is an imperative that is in the present

tense, whenever you look at the original language.

He is in tribulation.

I mean, wouldn't any of us describe being in prison and persecution

as being tribulation?

Of course we would.

And so John is saying that he is a partner in the tribulation.

So this is the where he is under persecution.

He is on the island of Patmos.

And what a vantage point he has from this island.

Because from here, the vision that's given to him is about all

of the churches that really, if he had a set of binoculars, he'd

be able to see some of them or a good Telescope.

And so these churches in what is modern day Turkey, the vision

is given to them.

And what is unique about them, well, there's really nothing unique

about them in and of themselves because they're all warned

about persecution.

They're all warned about, to use John's language, tribulation.

And they're all told to stand firm.

Now, of course, we know, because we've read it, that each

of these churches, the seven churches, are at different stages.

There's different things going on.

Some are neither hot nor cold, but look warm.

We know that some are commended because they haven't given

themselves over to the things of the world.

But each one is facing persecution and each one is warned

that to fall to the ways of the world, well, then that's really

trouble for them because.

It demonstrates that they love the world more than they love God

and that questions their salvation.

And so whenever we look at these, where John is and the proximity

in and of themselves, that they're normal churches, but they're

used as examples for us, for the church in all time, so that we

will be aware from this combined learning and this.

These.

Well, it's one letter, but combined with seven churches of who

we are to be as the church while we wait for the coming of Jesus.

And indeed we're still waiting for that day.

But the context of where the fact that John is on Patmos tells

us that the cultural context of the time was such that people

like him couldn't live freely.

So again, we come back to the word of persecution.

And the reason being is this man here.

And this is where you're going to see my spelling is not maybe correct

as I write it.

My terrible scrawly handwriting.

Emperor Domnician.

Now, he was the third in succession.

His father was killed, so his older brother became the emperor.

Then his older brother was killed and he then became emperor.

He actually was emperor for 14 years.

That was one of the longest in this period of emperors ruling for

14 years was quite long.

He ended up being killed by one of his courtiers.

So I don't think anyone should have aimed for the top job in that

sense.

But what Emperor Domitian did, he was very.

He hid in the shadows while his father and his brother were ruling

the empire.

But as soon as he took hold, he really.

Romanized was almost like nationalism, pagan, Roman.

That was the call.

Worship the Roman gods, be fully invested in Rome and Romanity

all over the known world, and then you're truly Roman and then

you're in the club.

Don't do it.

And you'll find out, because what he brought about in the Empire

was what we've called a few times Emperor worship.

This is the man who first really on large scale introduced

it.

He was forcing people to worship him, to call him God, to

call him Lord, to see him as the deity in the pantheon of gods.

And that's why John, because of his witness and his proclamation

of the Word and of Jesus Christ, is why he's on an island.

Because it didn't fit in with the Roman world, a Roman world that

was antagonistic towards Christians.

Now domination was really popular amongst the people.

He revalued the currency.

And so it was a moment where they were able to know wealth and

prosperity.

And of course, any nation that knows.

Wealth and prosperity, or in this case,.

An empire, well, everyone then gets on the bandwagon so they can

get the fruits of that.

But he was hated by the Senate, so the people loved him.

Popular populist vote, as it were.

Not that he was voted in, but populist love.

But he was hated by the leaders,.

He was hated by the Senate.

And what that did was that then drove him more in the populist

thinking of the empire.

And in 14 years, he completely changed the focus of the empire.

That led it on for the next 200 years.

This is about 90 AD.

Well, he died in 96 AD.

It led it to that road of.

Persecution of Christians up until Constantine became a Christian

and persecution ended.

So the where is right at the.

Heart of the Roman Empire.

And so all of the pressure and all of the things, things that were

going on were not just a vision, they were real.

They were felt reality of people's daily lives.

If they wanted to worship Christ and live for him, it was a

struggle.

So this first word in Revelation is the word, as we've

seen, apocalyptic.

And that leads us on then.

Well, if that's what where this is about, you know, this revealing

and we now know Rome well as it's revealed to us from where it

is.

The question is to who?

So who is it?

Who's involved in all of this?

Well, the first question to ask ourselves is who wrote it?

And we'll all say John.

The question is, which John?

Because there is John the Apostle, but there's also John the

Elder.

And if you read some books in Revelation, they're going to present

you with these two names.

But it actually turns out, if you do a little bit of deeper digging,

that this is the same person.

And it's just it has been misunderstood.

In a writing of Polycarp who was a disciple of John.

And it was misunderstood about 150 years later that it was this

man, John the Elder.

Now, some people will say, well, the Greek's different.

But you have to remember, when John wrote his Gospel, there was

a period of time that changed and language changes.

If you listen to any young person today, they say things differently

than you did in your infancy or even potentially.

I'm looking around the room as the youngest person here, even, as

I said, in my infancy.

And so we know language changes, changes.

But one of the strongest reasons why it is John the Apostle

and these two are the same people are because of what John writes

in his Gospel and what John writes in his Epistle.

So you cannot read Revelation without understanding how John writes

in the Gospel and in the Epistle.

So if you think of the gospel, first of all, why is the Gospel of

John different from the other three?

Matthew, Mark and Luke give you a timeline.

They tell you from the birth.

Well, except Mark, he jumps in into.

The actual ministry of Jesus.

But they give you a timeline of what happened when.

And so they take you on a story, a narrative of the life of

Jesus.

John is different.

John works in themes.

And so the themes of John, you have the I am sayings that Jesus

talks about himself.

I am the bread of life.

I am the living water.

I am the light of the world.

I am the good shepherd, I am the door.

So John focuses on who Jesus says he is.

It doesn't matter to John if it's in the right order.

What's important for John is communicating the themes of who Jesus

is and does not start to sound a wee bit like revelation.

Certain themes running through it.

Another thing about the Gospel of John is John focuses on this idea

of Lamb of God, or indeed, let's throw in the word Messiah as

well.

Yes, Matthew talks about Messiah from a Jewish perspective,

but John looks at these things beyond this world.

He looks at it beyond Calvary and beyond the empty tomb.

Because in his prologue, which gives us the summary of what he's

about to write, it's very much like the prologue of Revelation.

And so John was the perfect person to give this to because he

was already.

He had a mind that already thought in themes.

He had a mind that wasn't necessarily from A to B.

He might have taken us around E, F, and G before he got to B.

Because what was important was the understanding rather than the

literal day by day, week by week, month by month, activities

of the life of Jesus.

So in the Gospel, then we have these themes, but then what about

his letters?

Well, we know already that if you read John 3:16 and look up first

John 3:16 1 John 3:16

John 3:16, you're getting roughly the same thing.

Now, John didn't write in chapters and.

He didn't write in verses.

But isn't it amazing, though, that whenever it was put down that

what you Read in John 3:16 and 1st John 3:16 are similar?

John 3:16 John 3:16

And so John is already writing to churches who need to hear that

Christ loves them.

And it is really a letter of Love, you know, first John 4:7, 8.

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another for love.

Love is of God.

He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.

And what does he tell us?

He shows us the demonstration of God's love in Revelation, where

he hears the cries and prayers of the martyrs, but also where he

demonstrates his love in.

Preserving and keeping his people.

And just as we were thinking on Sunday night, there in Revelation

Revelation 14:15

14:15, where we're looking at that with punishment, yes, that's

one aspect.

But it can't all be about punishment.

There has to be good.

And so with God's goodness comes punishment,.

But also with punishment comes God's goodness.

That's how it works.

It is a balance.

It's a skill not to measure it away, but it's that balance of the

goodness of God to his people, but the punishment of those who reject

him in his fairness and his equity.

And so we see then in his letters this message of love, the

love of God, but also the love that John has for the churches.

So John is already a churchman.

He has a heart for the church.

So there's no mistake then why he is the one that's given this vision

to write to the church is because he has a genuine heart for

them.

Now, the next part of the who is a little bit of homework, or not

homework, but a little bit of work for you.

You have it there in the 1, 2, and 3.

The next question is, well, who is this given to?

Who are the main characters in the book of Revelation?

And so whenever you read Revelation, chapter one, verses one

and two, well, the first person you see is.

Is Jesus Christ.

So the first person that we understand that this book is about

is Jesus Christ.

We're told that this is his Revelation, this is his revealing,

this is his apocalyptic.

This is his showing us what is going to happen.

And so this shows to his servants the things that must soon

take place.

That's why whenever we read Revelation, remember, get your spectacles

on so that you can see.

I've just realized these are Very Postman Pat spectacles.

I had a Postman Pat teddy bear who had spectacles just like that.

But whenever we are looking at Revelation, we must look at it and

see the glory of Jesus.

Don't start looking for anything else.

Don't start looking for numbers, don't start looking for

dates, don't start looking for things, themes.

Look for Jesus.

And he is presented to us.

And he's presented to us in many ways, again echoing what we've

already known.

In Scripture about him.

And so Jesus Christ is the who of Revelation.

He is the lamb before the throne.

He is the one on the throne.

So here we have a perfect picture of who Jesus is.

But of course, as we know, John is key to this as well.

So who does this involve?

Well, John.

If it wasn't for John, and if he didn't already have a heart for

much of the content and indeed hadn't already been inspired by the

Holy Spirit to write on some of these things, well, then it would

have been completely different.

But of course, that's not how God works.

John was the one to whom God revealed it, because God had already

revealed such things to John.

Now John is living.

And this is a wee bit back to the where in the context in which

John is living, possibly even up to a century before John receives

the revelation.

But let's say for 50 years there was a huge movement.

You can go to the museums of the world and see these examples

somewhere in that 50 to 100 years prior, prior to John receiving

the revelation, the Roman Empire, the Roman culture, had adopted

the writing of fantasy.

Whenever something would happen or there was a big personality,

it would not be written plainly as history.

Well, there would be the historians doing that, but there'd

be the more artistic who would draw images that weren't exactly

a man, in case of an emperor, but perhaps an eagle or, or a bull,

or they would draw an image of an event that wasn't a direct drawing,

as if it was an English countryside landscape painting by

Turner.

It was an image to help the people not just understand something

had happened, but to depict how it happened in the most vivid

of terms.

And so what John sees in the revelation was already existing a

style of literature in the culture of the day.

And so John would have been aware of this and he would have known

how to receive what had been given to him.

You see, nothing's by mistake of God.

It's about Jesus Christ, and it is John who is the agent, but

it's also about us.

You see, the three people involved in Revelation the whole

is Jesus Christ.

It's John, but it's also believers.

We're the ones who receive it, we're the ones who get it.

This is for us.

There's a word we're going to come to and not quite sure where

it is yet.

Well, we'll come to it in the why, which will lead us onto.

But this is a blessing to us.

Revelation is supposed to be a blessing.

And so let's move into the why then of Revelation.

And so whenever you read it, we see in the first word, blessed

is the one who reads aloud.

It is to be a blessing to us.

We shouldn't be afraid of it.

We really shouldn't.

We may not understand it, but let me ask you, do you understand

Song of Solomon's or Song of Solomon?

Do you understand Song of Song?

Do you understand Job?

There's many books in the Bible.

Do you understand Isaiah, particularly in his last 10 chapters?

My goodness, you'd need a year in those 10 chapters alone.

There's lots of scripture we don't understand on first reading.

And revelation's like that.

But revelation is more, gives us more images that perhaps we feel

we must understand and should understand.

And therefore because we can't, then we say no, can't be bothered

with that.

But actually to read this is to be a blessing because these are

words of prophecy.

Now again, this word prophecy, prophecy has two meanings.

And this is where I get my spelling wrong.

Sometimes prophecy, prophecy is about future events.

Absolutely.

Is that not what the prophets foretold in the Old Testament of

what would come?

The Messiah?

Is that not even what God prophesied in Genesis 3?

That there would be one who would come and who would crush the

serpent?

What the boys and girls are learning as the serpent crusher or

the snake crusher.

And so prophecy is a future foretelling.

But if you go into the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament,

you will discover that their prophecy is about the present.

They are being prophetic about the natural course if things continue

the way they are.

And the only way you can do that is to understand what's happening.

So what does Isaiah and Jeremiah write?

Woe to you.

What does Jesus say as our prophet, priest and king, but in

the office of prophet, he says, woe to you, Tyre and Sidon.

This isn't a.

Whenever we read these things in the prophets and what Jesus says,

this is an assessment of what is currently happening.

And if people do not move from that point, then this will be the

consequence.

And isn't that what is beautiful about the book of Revelation,

it tells us that there is still time.

There is still time to know Christ.

And that's why often it is preached as an evangelistic book,

and rightly so.

But it is not first and foremost an evangelistic book.

It's not supposed to be a book of fear.

It's not supposed to make us go to our beds and car and think,

oh, is Jesus coming tonight?

It's actually supposed to bless us that those who know Christ

can go to bed and rest, secure that if he.

Comes tonight, as our eyelids close in sleep, so they will open

in a bright eternity as Christ comes.

That's why we are blessed when we read it.

It's a prophetic message that may be speaking about future events,

but it also talks about the present reality.

Is that not what the seven letters are about?

Talking about the present reality of those seven churches as

a model for the present situation of every church in human

history.

And so prophecy is given to us both, but not exclusively to future

events and to present as a assessment.

And look at the blessing, though the blessing is conditional,

blessed are those who hear and keep what's in it.

So this is conditional.

Now, why is it conditional?

It's conditional because we can say, well, okay, I'll just read

this aloud every day, and that's me sort of it.

And you know as well as I know you can read something, in fact,

you can read a lot of things and then forget exactly what you've

just read.

That's humanity.

Maybe it's just old age, I don't know.

But there's an intentionality here.

And if you haven't guessed in the.

Seven and a half years I've been.

Here, intentionality is a big word of mine.

Intentional conditional means intent on hearing and keeping what

it says so that we may remain blessed.

Now, in a couple of weeks time, I'm going to give you a few

book suggestions and one of those books that I have loved.

And I was mortified whenever Pamela met her in person in Belfast

and said, oh, my husband loves all your books, as she shook hands

with her Nancy.

Nancy Guthrie wrote a book and she spoke in Belfast.

Was it last year?

The year before last year?

Well, Pamela embarrassed me even though I wasn't there.

So per Nancy Guthrie.

But Nancy wrote a book called Blessed.

Why?

Because isn't it the opening words of Revelation?

Blessed we are blessed.

We're not to be fearful, we're not to be frightened.

We are in Christ.

And therefore revelation is given to us.

As a book of blessing.

But it is conditional.

We must hear and we must keep.

In other words, we must hear and we must do so.

Revelation is given to us, as I say in that last paragraph, it's

given.

To us so that we may take it to heart.

That actually we may take it and read it and love it.

That actually we won't just finish at the end of the summer,

whenever we'll finish looking at it, but we'll go back to it and

read it afresh so that we will understand.

And these I hope, Sunday evenings, I hope, and it has been

my prayer, my intentional prayer, as well as these evenings,

that this is not divisive.

That's not the point in this.

The point of all of this is not to get over one perspective or

another.

Next week I will tell you what perspective I come from, and I am

not ashamed of that.

I am biblically convinced of it.

But if you don't agree with me and you're biblically convinced of

another interpretation, that's okay.

We're not going to fall out over it.

We're not going to fall out over it.

But what we must know is that it is to heart.

But the question is, are we looking.

In the right places?

Are we actually looking at what should be primary rather than

secondary and tertiary?

Are we looking to Jesus, the why, so that we can be blessed in.

Knowing Christ as the risen Savior, the.

One who is, as I say there, looking to Jesus as the one who.

Is the Lamb who was slain and who is coming back again?

Take it to heart that Christ is.

The One in revelation, he points us.

To what is our glorious future.

Yes, there's a warning.

Of course there's a warning.

But it must first and foremost point his people to that glorious

future.

So what we're going to do at our tables now, it's five to nine.

Don't worry, this isn't going to take long.

You'll notice there's no questions written there because there's

no real discussion this evening.

Because really, you've probably heard most of this before

and this is just to get us in next week we're going to be looking

at how to interpret.

And I want to say straight away, we're not going to be looking

at three categories that are premillennialist, amillennialist

or post millennialist.

We're going to look at four different words because there are

four ways to.

Understand and interpret revelation, none of which involve

the word millennium.

So at a if you don't have an idea what I'm talking about by millennium,

don't worry.

We'll come to that, too.

So that's where we're heading next week in terms of how to interpret

it.

But what I want you to do for a couple of minutes, and I.

Probably should have warned you about this,.

But I just want you to go around your tables and we'll come

to.

A time of prayer in just a moment as well.

But I want you to share anything you've thought about either

from tonight or if you have brought your notebook with you, if

there's.

There's something you've scribbled down at some point, share

it with your table.

And then I haven't got any blank paper, but someone can make

a note somewhere.

And if there's any questions, genuine questions that we have, we're

going to look at those.

Because again, the book of Revelation is not about you being

lost, but also it's not about me having all the.

Right answers either, by the way, because.

I don't know all the right answers.

That's why I'm not answering any questions tonight, that if any

questions do come,.

I will look at them and we'll see how to answer them.

Because sometimes it's not so much what.

The answer is, but it's how we go about answering the questions.

So take five minutes, have a chat around your tables, and then

we'll come.

Back and we'll finish off this section before we go into a time

of prayer.

Yeah, we're gonna have to go to prayer, however, just so that

we don't leave anyone feeling they're a wee bit short change this

evening.

Anything anybody wants to comment or even question at this

point.

That's a good question.

Find out next week.

But I mean, there's some of these things.

Why?

It's the way God give it, and I'm not brave enough to argue with

him.

So if you want to get first.

In line, by all means.

But it's not the only place in the Bible we have literature like

this.

Yeah, Daniel's the same.

You could even verge in some of the poetry by the imagery they

give as well.

You know, let's forget about the message for a moment.

The message of Daniel and the message of Revelation are very similar,

but let's.

Focus on the imagery that we're presented with these things.

We just don't know what to do with it.

But again, going back to Song of Songs, that's quite similar.

It's quite graphic, you know, even some.

Of the prophets and what they write.

And how they turn a phrase of things.

And so again, I'm going to Be honest here.

English doesn't help us.

Now.

That's not to say only those who have studied Greek can understand

this.

I'm not suggesting that at all.

But English uses one word to describe one thing, whereas the Greek

would have had maybe five words to explain it.

And so it just, as you've seen tonight, apocalyptic.

We all know Hollywood have us an idea of a desolation, a plane

that's.

Just completely desolated, where nothing's ever going to grow

again.

That's not the original meaning of that word.

It's a revealing, it's a revealed, it's.

An understanding, it's been shown something of.

What is to come.

And so as language.

Language change hasn't helped us either.

Also, we're 2,000 years away from some of this might have been

known to.

The people of John's day.

God would not be so unkind to.

Give us a book we do not understand.

And actually, if you look at the.

First bit in your introduction, there's two ways of

reading Revelation, either as a puzzle book to be solved or a picture

book to be enjoyed and which camp you fall in.

So there's only two camps of how to read it, but then there's

four and how to interpret it.

So we'll come to think of that next week a little bit.

But God has given it to us.

We assume the early readers understood it.

We're 2,000 miles and 2,000 years after them in our modern age.

And it's just harder for us because we're not as close to the

original.

But maybe we'll come to think about that later on.

Anything else for tonight so that I can say?

That's a good question.

We'll discover that next time.

These will all just be ready for next week then.

Can I finish this section by reading verse 8 again?

I actually have read this on my pastoral visits.

May I even have read it to.

One or two of you here circumstances, because I.

Of all the verses, of all the.

Verses in Revelation, I've been struck by this one.

Of course, this verse in Revelation at.

The start gets changed as we go through revelation.

As Christ wins.

Christ the victor, but I am the.

Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God.

We know that to be the beginning and the end.

This is what God says.

Who is and who wants was and who is to come?

The Almighty.

That's where we take heart.

Even right at the very beginning.

Look into Christ as he has been with us in the past, so he is

with us in the present.

And he will be with us when he brings us home.

That's the blessing of Revelation.

Now, why does that change later on?

Because it simply becomes, you know, I am the.

You know I am the one who is and who was.

Because by the time you read this again in Revelation, he is the

one who has come.

So he doesn't need to say and who will come.

He is the one who was and who is.

And so he will remain faithful to.

Us, regardless of how many, how many of us agree and how many

of us disagree.

That's why we must look at the book of Revelation through the glasses,

through the lenses, searching for Jesus, because he is the one

who was and who is and who is to come.

So let me pray before then we'll come to pray together.

Our Father God.

We do thank you that as we've.

Spent this first evening together of the.

Where, the why, and the who and the why, we thank you for a.

Bit of deeper understanding of maybe helping.

Us then how to read it, knowing that there's images given

to us that,.

That were so much closer to the time of John that they'd have

been understood without second thought, but how much harder it is

for us.

And that's where we need your Holy Spirit to help us.

And Father, as we dig deeper into greater understanding of how

to interpret and how to think of the different styles, we pray

that you will help us.

Not that we'll be forced into a.

Corner of what to believe, but rather.

That we will be biblically convinced of.

What is your truth to us, and that we will know it as a book of

blessing and a book of joy rather than a book to be feared.

So Lord, continue to reveal yourself to us.

We pray that we'll continue to know you as we go through these days,

particularly as we worship you again at the weekend with morning

worship and then with the women together service in the evening.

We ask that it will be a day of great blessing as we look ever

onto Jesus and he may himself known to us more and more.

So we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.