Matt Nelson - August 1, 2021
Reimagining
The Book of Revelation Reimagining Books for further study: Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship & Witness by Michael Gorman The Theology of the Book of Revelation by Richard Bauckham The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation by Craig Keener See the Strange: The Gospel According to Revelation by Brett Davis & Richard Bauckham WHAT THE BOOK OF REVELATION IS NOT? A detailed account of the end of all things A message of doom and gloom A book primarily rooted in our current time or the near future WHAT IS THE BOOK OF REVELATION? It’s apocalyptic language that uses symbols & imagery that are bizarre and other-worldly at times It’s a pastoral-prophecy letter sent to the church It’s resistance literature It’s hopeful and empowering to a weary church Revelation 1:1-3 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. WHY REVELATION WAS WRITTEN? To a persecuted church, John receives a revelation of the ultimate future in order to encourage the church to live faithfully in the present. Revelation 1:4-8 4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” John’s description of Jesus in Revelation 1: Jesus is the faithful witness Jesus is the firstborn from the dead Jesus is the ruler of kings on earth Revelation 1:9-20 9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Will you, the church, remain faithful and steadfast amidst all of the challenges, heresies, false gospels, cultural trends, relational pressure, and persecution that will come your way? If you don’t have a picture of God’s future you will not remain faithful in the present The book of Revelation will paint such an incredible, awe-inspiring picture of God’s ultimate future that the church will willingly endure the hardship of the present.