back to indexWed Bible Study - Revelation Lesson 1
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All right, let me pray for us and then we'll start today. 00:00:11.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity for us to gather together and study your Word. 00:00:17.880 |
We pray, Father, that you'd continue to guide us, lead us, illuminate our thoughts, that 00:00:24.040 |
as we dig into this book, Lord God, that remains a mystery to so many of us. 00:00:31.080 |
We pray, Father, that you would help us to see the larger theme of your victory and your 00:00:35.860 |
promises, Lord God, that all of them are absolutely certain. 00:00:40.120 |
I pray that you would give us a greater sense of confidence, Lord, in our walk with you, 00:00:47.600 |
Even the things that we don't understand, I pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit 00:00:51.440 |
would clearly guide and lead us, Lord God, that we may be able to glean what you desire 00:00:59.280 |
We pray, Lord God, that the next few months as we commit our time to you in this letter, 00:01:06.640 |
Speak to us, Lord God, that we may grow and mature in you. 00:01:12.640 |
All right, so the theme of the letter, I put certainty of the victory in Christ. 00:01:20.320 |
So obviously we are going to go into the book of Revelation and go into the details of the 00:01:24.880 |
meanings behind the different prophecies and different visions, and we're going to try 00:01:31.480 |
But if you dive into it, then you missed a bigger picture. 00:01:34.640 |
The bigger picture of the book of Revelation, the theme is absolute certainty in the victory 00:01:41.040 |
So what we are studying in the book of Revelation is not, hopefully this is going to happen. 00:01:46.400 |
Every single part of what we're going to be studying has already been laid out, and so 00:01:53.960 |
So the larger theme behind the book of Revelation is to give us absolute certainty in victory 00:02:02.000 |
So we're going to be, that's the larger picture and that's the theme that we're going to be 00:02:06.760 |
So everything that we're studying, even if I don't mention it, just don't forget that 00:02:15.400 |
Just to give you the introduction, the word revelation, where we get the title of the 00:02:19.200 |
book, in Greek apokalipsis, where we get the word apokalipsis, and don't confuse that with 00:02:33.600 |
There's other writings that were written that's not part of the canon. 00:02:37.520 |
It's not apocrypha, but apocalyptic, meaning an uncovering or unveiling. 00:02:45.080 |
It's a book designed to uncover and unveil, not to conceal. 00:02:48.280 |
And so sometimes when we study the book of Revelation, because it's difficult and there's 00:02:52.600 |
a lot of things that we don't clearly understand, that you come and think, "Oh, God deliberately 00:02:59.760 |
He deliberately sealed it so that we wouldn't know." 00:03:02.080 |
That's not the point of the book of Revelation. 00:03:04.840 |
Just because we don't understand it doesn't mean that God deliberately hid it from us, 00:03:11.160 |
There's a reason why He puts it in this form, and hopefully as we're studying through it, 00:03:20.120 |
The author of the book, again, today is an introduction study, the author of the book 00:03:27.440 |
If you ever read the introduction of any commentary, they'll always tell you that there's always 00:03:33.720 |
But as far as the book of Revelation, his name is mentioned four separate times. 00:03:39.700 |
The early church fathers, there was absolutely no question about it. 00:03:42.480 |
Universally, they accepted that this was Apostle John, the one of the 12 disciples, the one 00:03:48.360 |
of the sons of thunder, his brother is James. 00:03:53.080 |
You may have heard of this, but according to the early church history, that Apostle 00:04:02.240 |
John was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel in Asia. 00:04:09.000 |
And some say that the Romans dropped him into a vat of boiling oil, and then expecting him 00:04:15.640 |
So they actually attempted to kill him, and then he ended up not dying and coming out. 00:04:21.640 |
And obviously, you can imagine the excruciating pain that he was in. 00:04:25.200 |
And the only reason why they didn't try it again is because of their superstition. 00:04:29.480 |
They thought that if you try to attempt to kill somebody and they don't die, it may be 00:04:33.080 |
because God has some special favor on that individual. 00:04:36.980 |
So they were afraid to attempt to kill him again, so they ended up banishing him at the 00:04:43.040 |
island of Patmos, which was considered a complete desert. 00:04:47.400 |
So while he was there, he has a vision from God, and he begins to write the revelation. 00:04:53.780 |
So whenever we talk about all the disciples being martyred except for one, if you really 00:04:58.840 |
consider what Apostle John had to go through, it might have been easier for him just to 00:05:04.440 |
You can imagine going into boiling oil, coming out and surviving that, and how miserable 00:05:09.140 |
So you can imagine the man who wrote the book of Revelation was physically in tremendous 00:05:14.900 |
pain, physically in tremendous pain, and he sees this vision of Christ. 00:05:19.580 |
So in my mind, a man who is suffering like the way he's suffering, obviously he sees 00:05:24.940 |
the vision, but can you imagine what this does for John? 00:05:30.620 |
My guess is it would be a source of tremendous encouragement to John that he probably wanted 00:05:38.400 |
He probably wanted to finish his life, and then when he sees this vision, he sees what's 00:05:43.380 |
He doesn't know exactly when, but God, through what he sees, probably was a source of tremendous 00:05:50.020 |
So I can see that obviously everything written in the book of Revelation, it was meant for 00:05:53.620 |
all of us, but specifically for John, I can imagine it would be a source of tremendous 00:06:03.740 |
Date of his writing, again, you'll see that some people will argue that this was written 00:06:08.300 |
earlier, maybe 60, 65 AD during Nero's persecution, and then some will say even later on, right? 00:06:16.020 |
But again, most scholars today believe that it was written anywhere between 90 to 102 00:06:27.740 |
The significance behind that is that it helps us to identify the historical background behind 00:06:33.420 |
some of the prophecies mentioned in this letter. 00:06:37.380 |
Part of the reason why some people will date it 65 AD is because that's about the time 00:06:43.660 |
So they're kind of going back and looking at some of the prophecies that he's saying 00:06:47.340 |
and saying, "Well, this looks a lot like the intense persecution that Nero started, 00:06:51.940 |
so therefore this must have been written during that period," and that's why they date it 00:06:56.260 |
But outside of preemptively setting a date behind the prophecies, most early church fathers 00:07:04.180 |
also believe that this was written around that time. 00:07:06.740 |
Again, there was intense persecution also at 95 by a name of Dionysus. 00:07:12.780 |
He was the emperor at that time in 95, and it wasn't like there wasn't persecution, but 00:07:20.320 |
And so why the dating of it is important for this particular thing is while we're studying 00:07:26.600 |
it, we're going to see some historical background and what it may be relating to what was going 00:07:33.240 |
So again, we're looking at 95 AD as the writing of this letter. 00:07:42.600 |
We are told that the second coming of Jesus would be like a thief coming at night. 00:07:48.200 |
Jesus talks about it, Paul talks about it in several of his letters, that it's going 00:07:55.740 |
So when you hear the imagery of thief coming at night, is that a welcome scene? 00:08:02.000 |
Obviously not, meaning that it's going to be unwelcome, it's going to be sudden, and 00:08:05.720 |
it's going to be negative, and that's how the world is going to receive the coming of 00:08:10.720 |
But then we're warned as Christians or exhorted that we would not be caught off guard to stay 00:08:18.240 |
So the book of Revelation is a book that helps us to watch carefully. 00:08:41.640 |
It says, "For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a 00:08:51.720 |
While the people are saying there is peace and security, then suddenly, sudden destruction 00:09:01.800 |
As labor pains comes upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape, but you are not 00:09:07.680 |
to be in darkness so that the day does not surprise you. 00:09:12.400 |
So if you look at some of the things that we are exhorted in First Thessalonians 5, 00:09:16.320 |
2-5, the day of the Lord, oftentimes could be referring to the whole end period from 00:09:22.640 |
the time of Christ until his second coming, but specifically here, if you understand the 00:09:27.760 |
context of First Thessalonians, he's talking about the revelation of the man of lawlessness 00:09:35.080 |
So this is, he's talking about a period that the book of Revelation is most likely 00:09:39.180 |
talking about, that it's going to come like a thief in the night, it's going to be very 00:09:42.780 |
sudden and negative to the world, and it's going to come during a time when people are 00:09:49.920 |
That people are not, are just enjoying their life, peace and safety, and when that comes, 00:09:54.360 |
it's going to come suddenly, and he says, "But you, to not to be in darkness." 00:10:01.080 |
Remember when Jesus rebuked the Jews, he said, "How are you able to tell the seasons, when 00:10:08.240 |
it's going to rain and when it's not going to rain, you know when the harvest is coming 00:10:11.480 |
and not coming, but how do you not know the time of the Son of Man coming?" 00:10:15.280 |
In other words, it was prophesied in the Old Testament, and they were completely oblivious, 00:10:20.840 |
So what Paul is saying, or what God is saying in First Thessalonians, that that would not 00:10:29.000 |
So in the first coming, the Jews completely missed it because they weren't paying attention, 00:10:34.000 |
You're looking for, you're looking to the scriptures, thinking that you have life in 00:10:37.560 |
them, but all the scripture really points to me, was preparing for me to come, and then 00:10:42.480 |
when I came, you completely missed it because you didn't pay attention. 00:10:45.600 |
So what Paul is saying, do not be like that, right? 00:10:49.220 |
Do not be in darkness, and don't be caught up with the rest of the world looking for 00:10:52.780 |
peace and safety, and all of a sudden when Jesus comes, like, "Oh my gosh, he's coming," 00:10:58.560 |
So part of why we need to study the book of Revelation is that Revelation is a letter 00:11:04.920 |
that's given to us so that we wouldn't be caught off guard, right? 00:11:10.560 |
We may study it, and at the end you say, "Well, I don't know a clear picture. 00:11:17.200 |
Like, some people study the book of Revelation to look for, "Well, Jesus is going to come 00:11:21.640 |
in the year 2025, February 18th," and they do all these weird calculations, right? 00:11:29.720 |
In fact, actually, it's very dangerous that we do that, but it's equally dangerous not 00:11:37.280 |
It's equally dangerous so when we see the signs of the end times coming, and you're 00:11:44.880 |
And you're just kind of like, "We're going to make business, we're going to make money, 00:11:47.320 |
we're only thinking about the next 10 years or the 20 years and not really eagerly waiting. 00:11:52.480 |
What are some of the signs that he gave us that we ought to be looking for?" 00:11:56.160 |
So the study of the book of Revelation is important for that reason. 00:12:07.720 |
The next verse in Revelation 16, 15, "Behold, I am coming like a thief, but blessed is the 00:12:14.920 |
"Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on," meaning he's ready for 00:12:31.600 |
"That they may not go about naked and be exposed." 00:12:34.960 |
In other words, he's warning, saying that we should be ready. 00:12:40.560 |
And I think in God's wisdom, he left it like that on purpose. 00:12:45.480 |
Just like in the Old Testament when all these prophecies, when we look in retrospect, it 00:12:52.320 |
There's all kinds of prophetic utterances that Jesus was going to come when we look 00:12:58.840 |
But then the Jews, because they weren't paying attention, they weren't looking to see and 00:13:04.920 |
Instead, they were so consumed with their daily well-being that they weren't paying 00:13:11.520 |
So the warning that, again, in Revelation 16, 15, that we do not get caught off guard, 00:13:18.360 |
And in his wisdom, he doesn't pinpoint a day. 00:13:21.720 |
Because if he pinpoints a day, I think our human response would be, if he's not going 00:13:26.200 |
to come for the next 30 years, that means we've got 30 years to do whatever we want. 00:13:43.200 |
But he left it like that on purpose so that every generation of Christian would live eagerly 00:13:51.560 |
But no matter how eagerly you wait, nobody waits more than 100 years. 00:13:56.080 |
Even if you're a Christian all your life, nobody waits more than 100 years. 00:13:58.960 |
But during that period that we wait, he wants us to live as if he can come in our lifetime. 00:14:06.520 |
And I think in God's wisdom, he did that on purpose. 00:14:13.680 |
This book was written to cause God's people to live lives eagerly watching and waiting 00:14:21.080 |
And so hopefully as we're studying through the book of Revelation, that that's what would 00:14:24.400 |
incite us as a church to have our paradigm of our future not to be short-sighted. 00:14:33.040 |
If I work hard and sacrifice that maybe next year I'm going to get this, or if I invest 00:14:38.200 |
properly, maybe our property value is going to go up in the next five years, that we would 00:14:42.160 |
not live short-sighted, that we would be able to live with eternity in mind. 00:14:50.520 |
Revelation provides a church with the clearest vision of the conclusion of the end, end times, 00:14:55.440 |
of the work that Jesus initiated on the cross and how it will affect the church and the 00:15:01.680 |
So all that we know about the New Testament is about the effects of Jesus' work. 00:15:07.280 |
The whole book of Revelation is about the end, the end conclusion of the church, of 00:15:18.680 |
Everything that we're doing, everything that God initiated, the theology of here, not yet, 00:15:24.080 |
is going to be concluded in the book of Revelation. 00:15:26.160 |
So Revelation is the clearest vision of what God intended, what Christ intended when he 00:15:31.560 |
was crucified on the cross and where he is taking us. 00:15:36.360 |
So it's kind of like seeing the end point of the journey that we're on, and that's the 00:15:44.200 |
Now what makes the study of the book of Revelation difficult, as you probably already know? 00:15:49.280 |
How many of you, I actually asked this in one of the discussion questions, how many 00:15:52.880 |
of you have actually studied systematically through the book of Revelation before? 00:16:02.920 |
Now when you studied it, did you study by yourself or was it taught in a Bible study? 00:16:07.480 |
Okay, well actually that wouldn't answer your question, right? 00:16:13.880 |
How many of you actually sat in a teaching or a Bible study where somebody else was teaching 00:16:22.880 |
How many of you studied under a dispensational teaching? 00:16:27.720 |
Okay, so some of you guys may not know what I'm talking about. 00:16:31.320 |
How many of you studied that under a covenant teaching? 00:16:43.920 |
But it was under a directive of somebody who believed in dispensationalism, right? 00:16:51.600 |
All right, the reason why I asked that is depending on your theological perspective, 00:16:57.320 |
how you interpret the book of Revelation is going to sound very, very different. 00:17:02.880 |
And I'm going to kind of give you a preview of our philosophy of approach to the book 00:17:08.320 |
of Revelation so that you guys have some idea. 00:17:10.600 |
Most of you are probably thinking, well, dispensationalism, covenant, like what's the difference and why 00:17:17.160 |
Okay, there's four main approaches to the interpretation of the book of Revelation. 00:17:22.720 |
The first one is called the Preterist, the contemporary historical approach. 00:17:31.160 |
Do you have that on your sheet or did I erase it? 00:17:37.200 |
All right, so Preterist is a contemporary historical approach. 00:17:39.600 |
This approach attempts to apply the book to the actual events of the first century historical 00:17:44.040 |
setting, meaning that the people who approach it this way basically look for every part 00:17:50.960 |
of the revelation here all the way from chapter 1 to chapter 22 that he's referring to something 00:17:57.320 |
that was happening that he's actually seeing. 00:18:03.840 |
It's just something that's happening in the past. 00:18:06.240 |
So all of this stuff is allegorically or symbolically represents something historical. 00:18:13.320 |
So they're going to be looking for, if they believe in that the Antichrist is Nero, they're 00:18:23.280 |
Maybe that's who the beast is and that's how they do the interpretation. 00:18:30.520 |
Their primary interpretation will look for current events at the time that John was writing 00:18:35.960 |
it and these are the people who will probably give the dating to 65 AD because there was 00:18:43.560 |
a lot of stuff going on at that time they think looks a little bit more similar. 00:18:51.360 |
The second view is called the historical view or historicist approach. 00:18:57.300 |
In comparison to the Preterist which placed a book entirely within the first century, 00:19:02.040 |
the historicist interpret as a forecast of the course of history. 00:19:05.240 |
In other words, they're also looking for historical pointers but they don't limit it to the first 00:19:11.440 |
century, they don't limit it to the time that John was writing it. 00:19:14.040 |
In fact, most of their interpretation is looking forward and they're looking for certain historical 00:19:20.000 |
things that will take place, have taken place and will take place. 00:19:23.440 |
So these people will interpret saying that the Pope may have been the Antichrist. 00:19:32.280 |
Now who would think that the Pope was the Antichrist in history? 00:19:42.680 |
The reformers because they were battling at that time their biggest enemy was the Catholic 00:19:48.240 |
And so during the period of the Reformation a lot of the reformers, John Calvin and Martin 00:19:53.760 |
Luther, all of these guys, they kind of adhere to this interpretation because they interpreted 00:20:00.560 |
the evil kingdom as the Catholic Church and the Pope as the Antichrist, right? 00:20:05.880 |
He's a religious figure and so if you go to a Presbyterian, and this is, those of you 00:20:10.480 |
who study the book of Revelation under the covenant theological bent, this is the primary 00:20:16.880 |
approach that you probably saw or heard, right? 00:20:20.960 |
They'll interpret the Reformation as a, again, as certain things that are mentioned in the 00:20:29.440 |
Revelation chapter 20 and so they're the historicists. 00:20:35.000 |
And this is, again, primarily if you go to a Presbyterian church that this is the view 00:20:44.440 |
The futurist approach regards everything from Revelation 4-1. 00:21:01.480 |
There's specific churches that he's mentioning, but starting from chapter 4 and on, it is 00:21:08.920 |
And when you say end times, we're not talking about years removed from them. 00:21:12.920 |
We're talking about the very end, the second coming of Christ, the tribulation, the rapture, 00:21:17.840 |
the Armageddon, the white throne, judgment seat of Christ, the millennium, all of that, 00:21:23.120 |
that all of this is referring to that period of time. 00:21:28.100 |
The group that holds to this view, this teaching, are the dispensationalists. 00:21:32.780 |
So if you've ever gone and sat through teaching, in fact, a lot of times when there's heavy 00:21:38.540 |
emphasis on the teaching of the end times, it's usually coming from this camp. 00:21:44.840 |
And this is the camp that's looking for the dates and looking for specific pointers and, 00:21:49.220 |
you know, Russia is the Antichrist or Kim Jong-un is the Antichrist or, you know, and 00:21:54.820 |
I've heard people say Reagan was the Antichrist when he was Reagan. 00:21:58.400 |
I mean, he was the president of the United States. 00:22:01.360 |
But these guys are always looking for certain things that they think are going to trigger 00:22:07.140 |
And this is the traditional dispensational view. 00:22:10.660 |
Now within each one of these views, there are variations, but this is just kind of a 00:22:16.880 |
So even dispensationalists, they have progressive dispensationalists that whose, their view 00:22:25.100 |
So you can see if you think that all of Revelation is written for, written about a historical 00:22:30.860 |
thing in the first century, you can see how that's going to affect the way you interpret 00:22:36.700 |
If you're studying the book of Revelation just to look for, you know, the seven churches 00:22:41.460 |
represent the seven different eras of church history before he comes, whether it's a thousand 00:22:46.820 |
years, two thousand years, three thousand years, you're always going to be looking at 00:22:49.920 |
history and saying, "Oh, maybe Hitler was the Antichrist." 00:22:54.200 |
You know, "Oh, this must be referring to Hitler," or "This must be referring to Mussolini," 00:22:59.760 |
You see how that would affect the way you interpret, right, the book of Revelation? 00:23:05.360 |
And if you think everything's on the end time, you're going to be looking for triggers. 00:23:08.160 |
There's going to be, you know, wars and rumors of war, so you're always looking for what's, 00:23:16.640 |
So, how many of you have, I'm guessing you didn't, left behind the movie? 00:23:23.880 |
Maybe some of you guys were kids and your youth pastor made you watch it, right? 00:23:28.440 |
That was the whole thing about, you know, the tribulation and the church going through 00:23:32.160 |
the tribulation, and again, that would fall under this category, the futurist view. 00:23:38.680 |
The idealist view, they just discard all of it. 00:23:44.160 |
Their approach is that the Revelation is not to be taken literally, not to be taken in 00:23:52.160 |
Everything is interpreted ideologically or allegorically, meaning it has nothing to do 00:24:00.480 |
These are just Christian principles that are taught. 00:24:03.960 |
Jesus reigns, well, how does the book of Revelation teach he reigns? 00:24:10.880 |
He has thunder in his mouth, and all of this symbolizes the attributes of God. 00:24:15.040 |
So it has nothing to do with his coming, it's just revelation of God's attributes, right? 00:24:21.200 |
And the different seals and all of these things are pointers of biblical principles that we 00:24:25.620 |
are to glean from, and so they allegorize pretty much everything, right? 00:24:30.840 |
They don't look for any historical connection to the book of Revelation. 00:24:35.360 |
These are called, these people are called idealists. 00:24:38.660 |
As I said, these are four very broad pointers, like this is typically, if you are any one 00:24:45.080 |
of these, you're going to have a certain bent toward the book of Revelation, right? 00:24:54.480 |
And those of you who've been at our church for a while, like what is, I'm talking about 00:25:00.760 |
I don't think any one of these completely represents us, but what would be our bent? 00:25:13.440 |
We probably lean more toward the futurist, but I was taught at a dispensational school. 00:25:21.040 |
I actually took a class on the book of Revelation with a heavy dispensational view. 00:25:28.120 |
I was taught the pre-trib, pre-millennial, pre-rapture, you know, I was taught the very 00:25:36.360 |
traditional view of the dispensational view of the end times. 00:25:40.440 |
They actually have a chart and they go through, and then so if you go to a very heavy dispensational 00:25:45.000 |
church, they'll actually have a chart on the wall. 00:25:49.760 |
Like we have, I don't know what we have, we have whatever, we have our church vision, 00:25:55.000 |
We have a four-fold church vision hanging on the wall because it's important to us, 00:25:59.120 |
So if you go to a very traditional dispensational view, they'll actually have a chart of the 00:26:02.600 |
end times about when Jesus is going to come, when he's going to go up, what happens when 00:26:06.360 |
they go up, how long they're going to stay there when he comes down, what is the Armageddon, 00:26:13.840 |
After I came out, I was thoroughly confused, right? 00:26:18.240 |
One, because I didn't realize Jesus was going to come back that many times. 00:26:23.400 |
You know, I thought, my dad was a Presbyterian, I grew up in a, even though I didn't pay attention, 00:26:28.200 |
I wasn't a Christian, I never heard of this before, right? 00:26:31.880 |
I've never heard of tribulation and Armageddon, I've never heard of these things before. 00:26:37.020 |
So when I was taught this at school, it seemed so foreign. 00:26:44.960 |
So I came out and I wrestled, I studied through it, did the book of Revelation and doing quiet 00:26:50.360 |
time, taught certain passages, and I came out and say, you know, I thought that at least 00:26:58.200 |
at this point, like everything would be clear, and it's still not clear to me, right? 00:27:03.880 |
There are certain things, there was a point in my wrestling with all of this where I was 00:27:08.960 |
very interested in converting to covenant theology. 00:27:20.760 |
I almost went to that point until I realized I don't agree with the way they interpreted 00:27:27.920 |
The Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled literally, majority of it. 00:27:34.960 |
But they'll take a few examples of an allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament, they'll 00:27:40.040 |
apply to everything in the Old Testament, and I realize that that's not what I believed. 00:27:43.720 |
Now the reason why that's significant is because if you take the Old Testament to prophecies 00:27:49.000 |
being fulfilled literally, it doesn't make sense to not interpret all the other prophecies 00:27:55.440 |
the same way, because that's the pattern that we see. 00:27:59.040 |
Now that doesn't mean that therefore everything is going to happen exactly, that when the 00:28:04.160 |
end time comes that a white, literal white horse is going to be galloping around and 00:28:13.560 |
It doesn't mean that every single thing that we see in the book of Revelation should be 00:28:21.720 |
But the literal approach to understanding and interpreting Scripture seems to be the 00:28:28.080 |
most consistent way that I see that the Old Testament was fulfilled. 00:28:34.360 |
He said he was going to ride on a donkey, he rode on a donkey. 00:28:37.360 |
He said somebody was going to betray him, he was betrayed. 00:28:40.640 |
That he was going to be born in Bethlehem, he was born in Bethlehem. 00:28:44.840 |
He was going to be, he was going to suffer, and he suffered, right? 00:28:49.880 |
I mean so all of these prophecies in the Old Testament was literally fulfilled. 00:28:53.960 |
Why would the king, why would the Messiah suffer? 00:28:56.160 |
So because it didn't make sense to the Jews, they just dismissed it. 00:28:59.960 |
So when it actually happened, like what was going on? 00:29:04.000 |
So how many times does Jesus say in the course of his three years, "Have you not read? 00:29:13.120 |
And then he says to fulfill all prophecy, he would do something, right? 00:29:18.760 |
Whether it's the Lord's Supper, whether it's his crucifixion, even the details of how he 00:29:26.720 |
was going to go to the cross, who was going to hand him over, all of that is fulfilled 00:29:33.520 |
Now are there some certain things that were not completely literal? 00:29:43.120 |
So having said that, am I a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial? 00:29:50.560 |
I would say what I lean toward, and I'm thinking at the end of the study of the book of Revelation, 00:30:00.920 |
I'm not going to go in there looking for my view. 00:30:04.480 |
I'm going to go in there just like you guys, just study from passage to passage, and I'm 00:30:09.800 |
not so committed to any of the things that I have that I can't change. 00:30:14.960 |
If I see something that I can't interpret in any other way, I'm just going to present 00:30:20.080 |
it as I see it, and then you guys can judge for yourself. 00:30:23.200 |
But having said all that, do I have a predisposition? 00:30:31.080 |
That may mean something to some of you, and it may not mean anything to any of you, but 00:30:38.120 |
I believe in the traditional dispensational camp, post-trib is not a majority view. 00:30:45.600 |
There are a few people, a few very smart, good people. 00:30:52.440 |
But there's some, but they're not the majority. 00:30:57.200 |
But to me, it seems like the church is going to go through the tribulation. 00:31:02.720 |
The millennium seems very confusing, and I'm going to get to that in a minute. 00:31:07.040 |
It seems very confusing, but if we take his promises to the nation of Israel literally, 00:31:14.820 |
if we take the revelation in the book of Revelation literally as much as possible, then the millennium 00:31:28.540 |
Again, I'm not going to go into all of that today, but this is just kind of give you a 00:31:31.140 |
preview of how we're going to be approaching this book. 00:31:37.700 |
We'll be approaching the book of Revelation with a combination of bits and pieces from 00:31:42.400 |
all of the views above, meaning I think in the second part of this, it says it is consistent 00:31:51.020 |
with the interpretation and application of the properties of the prophecy of the Old 00:31:54.900 |
Testament to apply a tri-layered, tri-level method of interpretation. 00:32:02.060 |
Those of you who are with us in the study of the book of Isaiah, remember I mentioned 00:32:06.380 |
this repeatedly over and over, that most of the prophecies in the Old Testament in the 00:32:12.260 |
minor prophets and the major prophets has three applications. 00:32:17.540 |
One is the historical thing that they were seeing. 00:32:19.580 |
So when we started the book of Isaiah, Isaiah was prophesying about the judgment coming, 00:32:25.540 |
that because of all their sins, the Babylonians are going to come and take them into captivity. 00:32:30.140 |
And so there was a physical, historical thing that they were seeing and God was using that 00:32:37.900 |
But just like a lot of the other prophecies, God uses that as an opportunity to prophesy 00:32:46.840 |
And so the second level of interpretation is how that's fulfilled. 00:32:50.400 |
So when these prophecies about the Israelites returning, right, the remnant of Israel is 00:32:55.380 |
going to return, when did that happen physically? 00:33:01.740 |
They went to Babylon, Babylonia for 70 years and then King Cyrus is raised up and a small, 00:33:07.740 |
very small remnant of the Israelites come back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. 00:33:13.580 |
So there's prophecies about them being taken out and then there's a fulfillment of them 00:33:18.340 |
returning with the remnants historically, right? 00:33:21.940 |
But there's a second level of restoration when, remember we just talked about that this 00:33:28.900 |
Those of you guys who are paying attention to Sunday's message, right, where Paul takes 00:33:35.420 |
the prophecies of the book of Isaiah and he says, remember God says that a remnant will 00:33:41.300 |
return and he's talking about the fulfillment in Christ. 00:33:45.580 |
That not everybody's going to receive the gospel, a remnant of Israelites are going 00:33:49.180 |
to receive the gospel and a small percentage of them are going to return to Christ. 00:33:52.860 |
So there's a second level of application that's fulfilled because of what Jesus has done on 00:34:00.060 |
And then the third and final application of the remnant and the kingdom of God being restored 00:34:09.020 |
When what he started is completed at the end, right, the real fulfillment of his kingdom 00:34:15.260 |
and all his people coming together is going to be fulfilled at the end. 00:34:19.500 |
So as we're studying through the book of Isaiah, we are always looking for the historical, 00:34:24.300 |
at least as much as we could if there was something clear. 00:34:27.660 |
We're looking for how does this fulfilled in Christ and his coming, death and resurrection, 00:34:31.740 |
establishment of the church and then ultimately what does this point to in the end times, 00:34:37.860 |
whether it's in the millennium or in the eternal kingdom of God, how is this fulfilled, right? 00:34:43.500 |
That's how we approach the prophecy in the Old Testament and that's how we're going to 00:34:49.820 |
We're going to be looking for historical things that he must be pointing to, like what is 00:34:54.780 |
John seeing and how would have John interpreted this and how would he have applied this in 00:35:03.820 |
And then the second application of that is the prophecies that he's talking about, how 00:35:11.440 |
Now John is on this side of the covenant, the new covenant, so how is that in the church 00:35:18.140 |
And then third and finally, how is it going to point to the future? 00:35:20.780 |
So our approach is going to be a combination of all of them, right? 00:35:26.040 |
Are there certain things that we should take as allegorical? 00:35:31.780 |
Yes, there are certain things that are going to look like it's meant to be taken allegorically. 00:35:40.540 |
And so when those things come, we're going to do our best to see, well, why did God put 00:35:46.180 |
So our interpretation is not going to be just one base. 00:35:49.420 |
We're not going to look for a pre-tribulation or post-tribulation view and then force it 00:35:56.140 |
If it doesn't fit, we're just going to admit, hey, this is one of those verses that's not 00:36:05.820 |
I know it's a little bit tricky, but I feel like it's necessary at least for some of you 00:36:10.500 |
guys who are coming in thinking, I want to jump in, I want to dig through the book of 00:36:16.340 |
All these things are kind of like boundaries to help you to see how we're approaching this, 00:36:24.100 |
Some helpful terms, eschatology, the term, it's not in the book of Revelation. 00:36:28.500 |
It just basically means the study of end times. 00:36:31.180 |
I've mentioned the term millennium a bunch of times already. 00:36:38.460 |
First time I heard this term was in seminary, right, when I was taking systematic theology 00:36:43.500 |
and said, "Millenniums, hmm, what does that word mean?" 00:36:48.300 |
So if you don't know it, hopefully you'll know it by the end of the study. 00:36:51.860 |
It's after the tribulation, again, this is a pre-trib view or post-trib view. 00:36:57.260 |
Jesus Christ will set up an earthly kingdom where he will rule for a thousand years. 00:37:02.740 |
And that is a specific interpretation of Revelation chapter 20 verses 3 and 4. 00:37:12.740 |
Amillennialism, it's the belief that there will be no literal thousand-year reign of 00:37:20.780 |
Thus, Revelation chapter 20 is taken symbolically, not literally, by the adherence of this view. 00:37:30.260 |
People in the back, are the letters big enough that you can see? 00:37:34.820 |
Okay, so amillennial, just like the word says, is they don't believe in a literal millennial. 00:37:40.380 |
So if you're an amillennial, what does Revelation chapter 20 mean? 00:37:49.660 |
The way they will interpret it is the millennial reign of Christ is through the church. 00:37:57.700 |
And the word thousand is just a symbolic word. 00:38:02.340 |
So amillennialists will simply say from the time of Christ until his second coming, we're 00:38:07.740 |
in the thousand-year reign of Christ and his kingdom is his church. 00:38:13.940 |
But within the amillennial view, there is a post-millennial. 00:38:23.180 |
So the post-millennial view, which is right here, should have separated these. 00:38:30.220 |
The post-millennial view believe that Jesus will gradually establish his kingdom on earth 00:38:35.140 |
through the gospel preaching of his body in the church. 00:38:37.180 |
So the difference between the amillennial and the post-millennial, the post-millennial 00:38:41.500 |
and amillennial pretty much hold the same view, except post-millennials believe that 00:38:47.500 |
because of the reign of Christ through his church, that everything is going to become 00:38:50.740 |
better and better, that more and more people are going to convert. 00:38:54.420 |
And as a result of more and more people converting, the earth is going to get better. 00:38:58.140 |
There's going to be peace on earth and Christianity is going to dominate the world. 00:39:02.760 |
And that's how the millennium is going to be established, right? 00:39:06.580 |
Now, post-millennial view, if you were not a futurist, if you're not a dispensationalist, 00:39:15.000 |
the term amillennialism didn't even exist until probably after World War I or II. 00:39:20.660 |
Or if it existed, it wasn't very popular, right? 00:39:24.660 |
So people who held to the historical view typically were post-millennialists. 00:39:35.700 |
Because they believe that this whole period of time between Christ and then the second 00:39:41.020 |
coming of, second coming, is during the period of Christ's reign. 00:39:46.200 |
And so they believed that as the gospel goes forth and more and more people are converted 00:39:51.480 |
to Christianity, that this is going to somehow make the world better. 00:39:55.680 |
And as the world gets better, Christ's second coming is going to, at the end, he's going 00:39:59.880 |
to come when it gets better and better and better. 00:40:01.960 |
Now why do you think that the amillennial view came in after World War I? 00:40:11.980 |
After they see the world just going nuts, right? 00:40:19.240 |
And this wasn't just one nation against a nation. 00:40:21.080 |
This was like half the world fighting against the other half the world. 00:40:25.920 |
And as a result of that, they start losing hope that maybe the world isn't going to get 00:40:31.480 |
They thought with the advancement of technology, the more and more missionaries going out. 00:40:36.160 |
So those of you guys who studied European history, you know that a lot of the Christianities 00:40:44.380 |
and the missionaries, they would typically sail along with the colonialists. 00:40:50.180 |
And they would a lot of times forcibly convert people. 00:40:55.480 |
So if you ever go to any country where they were colonized, there's usually some mission 00:41:01.280 |
organization or mission something there that the missionaries kind of got on the same boat 00:41:06.580 |
as these colonialists and came and evangelized. 00:41:11.140 |
But when they saw what they were doing, you know, because a lot of them were forcefully 00:41:15.720 |
converting people to Christianity, the emperors at one point got mad because of the Christians. 00:41:21.540 |
So they didn't distinguish between the Christians and the soldiers that was coming and the businessmen. 00:41:29.340 |
And so when they realized what they were doing, they kicked everybody out. 00:41:31.960 |
That happened in China, that happened in Japan, that happened in India. 00:41:35.460 |
Actually it's kind of happening in India now, right? 00:41:38.620 |
Because they had this mentality that Christ is going to return when the whole world converts 00:41:44.760 |
And that was the post-millennial view, right? 00:41:48.640 |
So obviously God, Jesus doesn't say to go forcefully convert people, but they kind of 00:41:53.800 |
And then when it looked like that Christianity wasn't going to be, it wasn't this utopia 00:41:59.360 |
that the world is headed toward, in fact it's going exactly the opposite, a lot of them 00:42:07.920 |
So post-millennial view today is very, very minor, small group of people believe in this 00:42:15.920 |
Most people who are not dispensationalists will adhere to the amillennial view, just 00:42:20.360 |
because the reality is the world is not getting better, okay? 00:42:32.400 |
Tribulation is a period of time lasting seven years. 00:42:37.320 |
And then we don't need to worry about the three and a half years and what happens in 00:42:42.960 |
We'll talk about that a little bit when we get there. 00:42:46.360 |
Then within the tribulation, there's pre-trip, mid-trip, post-trip. 00:42:50.760 |
And the reason why there's pre-trip, mid-trip, post-trip is when is exactly Jesus is going 00:42:57.320 |
So typical pre-tribulation view is that there's going to be seven years. 00:43:01.640 |
So all of these warnings about disaster, about the third of the world being wiped out, the 00:43:07.240 |
disease and natural disasters and wars, that all of this is taking place during the seven 00:43:16.780 |
And then the second half of the tribulation is intense where all the horrific things that 00:43:22.320 |
are described in the book of Revelation, they believe it's going to happen the second part 00:43:27.160 |
So pre-trip, people believe that the church is going to be saved from that. 00:43:35.880 |
And those of you guys who saw Left Behind, that's what that whole thing was about, that 00:43:39.920 |
the rapture takes place and church is preserved from that. 00:43:43.120 |
Pre-trip believes that the church is going to go through the non-intense, right? 00:43:48.280 |
They're going to go through it, but they're not going to go through all of it. 00:43:50.560 |
You're going to be preserved from the intense part, the second three and a half years. 00:43:56.400 |
Post-trip view, which is what I lean toward, is that the church is going to go through 00:44:01.240 |
It's going to experience the intense persecution and Christians dying, being martyred left 00:44:07.880 |
And then at the end of that, Christ is going to come and he's going to establish his millennium, 00:44:13.760 |
But it's all going to happen with the persecution toward Christians intensifying more and more. 00:44:20.000 |
And again, whether you believe that the literal seven years or it's a figurative number, that's 00:44:24.960 |
what the tribulation is referring to typically. 00:44:28.680 |
And we'll go over that a little bit more when we get to it. 00:44:40.640 |
Those of you guys who've never studied through the book of Revelation or any prophetic writings, 00:44:46.160 |
I know some of you guys may have been interested, thinking like, "Oh, I'm so excited to study 00:44:50.000 |
book of Revelation so that I can know exactly when Jesus is going to come." 00:44:52.960 |
Or maybe talk about Kim Jong-un and how he fits into the prophecies of the book of Revelation. 00:45:02.360 |
Or where does America fit in to all these prophecies? 00:45:06.440 |
Maybe you came in with those kinds of curiosities. 00:45:08.720 |
And I can tell you already that I'm probably not going to go there. 00:45:13.560 |
In fact, I'm absolutely certain I'm not going to go there. 00:45:16.240 |
You know, because all of these things, the best that I can tell you is it could be. 00:45:23.720 |
But I believe that God left enough so that when it happens, you'll know. 00:45:30.740 |
If you've been studying through the book of Revelation carefully, when it happens, you'll 00:45:38.640 |
There was enough about Jesus that if you knew the prophecies about him, you could see, "Wow, 00:45:47.560 |
Apollos was teaching through the Old Testament and then he didn't even know that Jesus came. 00:45:52.440 |
And then Priscilla and Achilla heard him and say, "Hey, that sounds like he's talking about 00:45:58.240 |
And he actually pulls him aside, goes to the Old Testament and say, "This man was here." 00:46:05.040 |
And so that's how much, how clear it was that he was preaching about the Messiah from the 00:46:10.800 |
And so I believe that the Revelation was given for that purpose so that we would look at 00:46:15.520 |
it carefully, study it, and maybe even contemplate, "Could it be this? 00:46:24.320 |
But at least it's enough so that when it does happen, when the things of the prophecies 00:46:31.840 |
of the Revelation happens, that there's enough, there's enough glimpses of it, shadows of 00:46:35.880 |
it that you can clearly say, "It must be this." 00:46:40.560 |
And that's what he was telling us to live each day, eagerly waiting for that, that this 00:46:48.240 |
It may come maybe after your lifetime, but there clearly is an end to all of this. 00:46:54.640 |
All of this sanctification, struggling and striving, preaching the gospel, wrestling, 00:46:59.640 |
that our time on earth, whether we die physically or whether he comes, is limited. 00:47:07.280 |
And that's what this book of Revelation is really to point to, is to remind us that victory 00:47:15.560 |
And so hopefully that, as we're studying through this, that that's the message that you're 00:47:22.960 |
If you have questions, I encourage you to ask them and have honest conversations in 00:47:28.400 |
your small groups, and even with me, you can come and ask. 00:47:32.760 |
Doesn't mean it's right, but I can just give you my boot. 00:47:35.200 |
But I think the discussion of these things will be sanctifying for our church. 00:47:40.640 |
Even if it comes out and say, "I'm confused," I think that confusion is healthy. 00:47:46.040 |
And I think that ultimately that's our goal in this book of Revelation. 00:47:51.000 |
All right, some discussion questions that I have, which I can't read. 00:48:05.520 |
So today you guys don't have small groups, so if you guys can just make small groups 00:48:10.640 |
from your group for today, and then take some time to discuss these questions. 00:48:21.400 |
If not, just come up and take a picture or something. 00:48:24.280 |
So get into groups of maybe about four or five and take some time to discuss this. 00:48:28.240 |
And then afterwards, we'll have some snacks set up in the back. 00:48:32.320 |
And then starting from next week, we'll start your small groups. 00:48:38.560 |
If you haven't signed up, we need you to sign up. 00:48:43.520 |
>> It's going to be generally with your similar age groups. 00:49:02.480 |
But if you haven't signed up, please sign up so that at least we'll have your name and 00:49:06.840 |
So if you happen to be in a group and say, "Hey, we don't want to be split up. 00:49:10.760 |
There's six of us that wants to stay together," please email us ahead of time. 00:49:15.440 |
And you're going to have to do it together so that we'll be able to do that together. 00:49:19.560 |
All right, let me pray for us, and then I'll ask you guys to get in your small group. 00:49:26.560 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for just the privilege that we have to be able to gather 00:49:34.920 |
And there's a lot of things that are confusing about this book, a lot of things, Lord, that 00:49:42.640 |
even after we study, we may not clearly know. 00:49:45.960 |
But I pray that every single minute that we spend wrestling with the text and trying to 00:49:50.800 |
figure out the meaning and application of all of these things will be sanctifying to 00:49:56.640 |
Help us to think more deeply upon the coming of Christ and to eagerly wait for him to live 00:50:03.080 |
each day, knowing, Father God, that our days here are numbered, whether it is just physically 00:50:09.080 |
living our days out or at some point Christ returning, maybe even possibly in our life. 00:50:16.040 |
I pray, Father God, that whatever the case may be, help us to live each day to know that 00:50:21.160 |
this is not our home, that you will one day bring to completion what you started on the 00:50:27.860 |
And I pray, Father God, that our church may be sanctified, that we will grow and mature 00:50:33.760 |
and sober as we eagerly wait for your return.