Dennis Tuuri

Holy Spirit would illumine that word to our understanding. Please turn in your scriptures to Revelation chapter 1 and we’ll read the first three verses. Please stand for the reading of God’s command word to us.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants, things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for the benediction and blessing placed upon those who read and hear and keep the words of this prophecy. Help us, Lord God, now we have assembled together in liturgical order before you, giving you command worship, Lord God, singing forth praises to you.

And we thank you, Lord God, you also call us to the throne room to receive a message from your word that we might take and transform our lives and the lives of our culture as well. And we pray, Father, that you would indeed through your Holy Spirit illumine this text for understanding. We have read it. We will seek to trumpet it forth. And we will hear it, Lord God. And those portions of this word and what is said that are germane to that word, we pray that you would indeed take down deep into who we are, that we might be transformed and become more like our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

For it’s in his name that we pray. Amen.

Of probably a dozen or so sermons going through the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. And as I said, the basic theme for the first half of those sermons will be that we are servants of Christ. And so the basic idea that I want us to take away, I think that God would have us take away from this text today is that we are God’s exalted servants. And that as God’s exalted servants, we are to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we exalt him by means of his word. And so to that end, we will begin today an exposition of the book of Revelation. Now, I have structured this not so much as an outline as a series of observations upon the text and then the points of application which I have just summarized and I would like us first to consider before we actually get into the first observation that there is a delight to the literary structure of this particular book. I was originally just going to preach on the seven letters to the seven churches which are so appropriate to every church of course but I thought well chapter 1 sort of introduces the epistle to the churches and plus I love chapter 1 so much because of the literary structure of it the obvious literary structure of it that I wanted to include it as well, and so that’s why I’ve chosen to do the first three chapters.

But I did want us to just briefly consider the fact that there are these sets of threes. There is this liturgical structure throughout this book. And it is an interesting thing to behold. We can’t get into a lot of that now, but by way of introduction, let me reread the verses I just read by using a three-fold repetition of three phrases. And this is a paraphrase of the book, not a translation. The book done by Reverend James B. Jordan actually upon whose work I’ve relied for the presentation of these sermons as well as a number of other commentators.

Now this is his particular delineation of a three-fold theme. One of the things that we see in the book of Revelation is an obvious structure of threes and then an obvious structure of sevens. And let me just read this to you. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his slaves or servants the things that shortly must take place. Okay. We have a series of three and then another three.

And he signified sending by his angel to his slave John who testified the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ whatever he saw. Blessed is he that reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and guard the things that are written in it for the time is near. So there’s a series of a repetition of three threes in the structure of this book. And if you look at that what correlates is the revelation of Jesus Christ is that which he that is Jesus signified sending by his angel to his slave John and blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy.

So the first three of these sets of three delineations of these verses all have to do with the written text of the book itself. Three-fold repetition in this three-fold parallelistic structure and then the second line of these three sets the way I have read it says this which God gave him to show to his slaves who testified the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ and guard the things that are written in it.

So the second lines all had to do with his servants. Those servants are those who testify the word of God in the testimony and who guard the things and keep the things that are written in the book. A description of the servants following this description of the written text. And then the last three lines, the things that must shortly take place which he saw, John saw for the time is near. Giving us the time frame of these particular texts.

That’s an example of the three-fold repetition. Now maybe you didn’t follow that, but if you open your scriptures up to Revelation chapter 1 and look at verse four. We’ll see a much more obvious set of threes given to us here. We’ll preach on this next week, but just by way of introduction to next week’s sermon, look at verse four. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come.

A three-fold description of him. He is, he was, he is to come. And from the seven spirits which are before the throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. So we have a three-fold repetition. This comes from the father, the son, and the holy ghost. The father is described as him that is, was, and is to come. The spirit is described as a seven-fold spirit.

And the lord Jesus Christ is described as the faithful witness, first begotten of the dead, the prince of the kings of the earth. And those parallelisms also line up. And then we have a doxology again written in three. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God. Now this is my sermon for next week in some but you’ll see that he is to come the father.

He’s coming in judgment. Jesus is the prince of the kings of the earth. That’ll be made manifest in the book. And he makes us kings and priests. You see the parallelism there? I won’t get any further in that. I won’t want to get into next week’s sermon too much. But I want you to see, just in the very opening lines of this text, this wonderful literary structure that repeats things for emphasis over and over and over because the book is trying to make something clear to us.

This is a clear book, not a confusing book. We’ll see the sevens as well as we go through today’s outline as well as throughout the book. There are a series of sevens. My class this morning at 9:30, I went through an overview of most of the book. We talked about the seven churches a little bit. We talked about the seven trumpets, the seven seals, the seven bowls, just the obvious sevens. The book is filled with a seven-fold structure as well.

Now, three should bring to mind the three days that our savior was in the grave. And then move to resurrection. And seven should bring to mind the very structure of the world in terms of the seven days of creation. The book is about resurrection, a new creation, a coming forth from the dead of the old covenant into the time of the new covenant, the new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the structure tells us that. It may also be profitable for the literary structure just to mention.

I won’t turn to the text now, but if you look this afternoon in your Sabbath day contemplations in Revelation 22, beginning at verse 6, you’ll see essentially the same truth that is pointed forth in these verses we’ve just read. The book has bookends. It’s got a prologue and an epilogue, okay, that structure or frame the book. So, these are some of the literary things that are interesting to see and to praise God for the way he’s written this revelation to make it very, very clear to us.

Okay. Now, by way of observations on the book, my first observation is that this book is a revealing of something and this specifically the subject of the revelation is the Lord Jesus Christ, the savior king and the people that are the audience of this revealing are Christ’s servants. But it is a revealing book, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, the Greek word here is the word that from which we get the word apocalypse.

And so this book is referred to as the apocalypse. And in our minds, apocalypse is generally sort of gloom and doom and judgment and thunderbolts etc. But apocalypse in its basic meaning simply means a revealing of something that was covered, an uncovering of something that was covered. So the book tells us right from the get-go that it is a revealing. It’s a speaking forth of something that was sealed.

You remember in the book of Daniel, the vision was sealed up a portion of it because the time wasn’t yet. So this is like Daniel 2. This is now what was sealed up is made manifest. This is important. It’s an important initial observation because it tells us that the book can be understood. This book that has been so confused to so many people for so long is intended to reveal things to us. It’s written explicitly to be a revelation.

It’s supposed to be clear. It means an uncovering or a revelation. It’s not meant to be mysterious. It is not meant to be enigmatic. It’s not meant to be difficult. It is meant to be a revealing of the subject of the book. Now, it is meant as our savior has told us in the gospels to those who are perishing, they’re not going to understand it. But to the saints of God, to the God’s servants, it’s supposed to be clear to us.

Now, all of life, all of human activity, all the created order, there’s a sense in which it all reveals God to us. And we talk about general revelation and special revelation. So general revelation—that’s what life and creation is about is a revealing of who God is and a resulting praise from his creation. His scriptures of course are a special revelation. And this book itself that says it is a revealing or a revelation is a very special unveiling of who Christ is.

It is really obvious in terms of its basic subject matter or it should be to us. You know we sing that song sometimes: “Shine thou upon us Lord to light a men today and through the written word thy very self-d display.” Well this written word does display God’s own person. It is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ that is both from him but it is also of him and the centrality of Jesus Christ it is revealed in a most potent and pointed way to us in this book that’s the point of this first very opening clause that it is a revelation there is a sense in which this is a revelation because of where John gets it.

John is going to be called to ascend up into heaven. And we have the Sursum Corda at the beginning of our worship service. The church has been doing that for 2,000 years saying that we might ascend to the throne room of God in our thoughts and in our minds to see things from a heavenly perspective. You ever take an airplane ride? You start off it’s raining here in Portland. You go up and it’s sunny out there.

Well, we get a heavenly perspective in worship in the worship of the church and John is drawn into the very throne room of God. And this is unique in the scriptures. You say, “Well, what about Ezekiel and Isaiah, those guys?” Well, Ezekiel said that he saw the firmament and could see through it into the throne room. And Isaiah could see a throne way up there high and lifted up. Okay? But they were still looking from this side of the firmament.

You know the firmament was created on the second day to distinguish between heaven and earth. And it protects us in a sense from the judgment of God to the earth till the earth is fully completed and its creation and its regeneration to Christ. It protects us till the second coming. But it also keeps us, you know, from seeing clearly into heaven. You can’t look up and see heaven because there’s a firmament that God has placed there to distinguish the two.

Well, in this book, it’s particularly revealing because John is taken up into the very throne room of God. God for the first time. And that’s because the Savior has ascended to that throne room after his death and resurrection and 40-day ministry. And so this book is a revealing being revealed from the perspective of the throne room itself. The veil in the temple has been rent in two. The veil was representative of this firmament that kept men out of heaven and out of from a full heavenly perspective.

Now I mentioned a couple weeks ago when we were preaching about God’s word, the threatenings and promisings and the exhortations in it. I mentioned the three items that were contained in the Holy of Holies. You remember what they were, right? There was the tablets that contained the law of God, the Ten Commandments. There was the pot of manna, and there was Aaron’s rod that blossomed, the rod of authority.

Well, in the book of Revelation, we see the completion leading up to AD 70 of the New Testament canon. See, now that man has been brought into heaven through the work of Christ, the canon comes to completion in the work of Christ. And then the 40 years that are described in the book of Revelation, the canon’s completed. The tablets that are contained there are now opened up. The ark of the covenant as it were is opened up.

The law comes forth. God’s word comes forth in its fullness of capacity. The canon is now complete. And now we don’t just have manna. And we don’t just eat bread in the presence of God being excluded from wine in the Old Testament. Now that we’re this side of the ascension of Christ to the throne room and the veil’s been rent and the tabernacle’s been open, and the holy of holies is opened up and we can go in.

Now we get both wine as well as bread. Now the fullness of the blessing of God to his people in terms of giving us life is given to us. And now the rod of Aaron that blossomed, the rod of authority and structure is given to the church. And we have these tremendous statements in the book of revelation that we now the church rules with the rod of iron, the fullness of blessing. This book is a revelation. It’s an opening up of all these things to us in the glory of God.

We’re supposed to understand it. It’s a revelation. It’s a revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus because he’d saved his people from their sins. Christ because he was the anointed king. The book is a prophetic book because it’s a revelation. It’s a priestly book because it reveals Jesus the high priest, the one who brings salvation for his people. And it’s a kingly book because it’s a revelation of Messiah as well.

Well, you say, “Dennis, supposed to be clear, but it doesn’t seem real clear to me. I read it recently and it wasn’t clear to me, Dennis. What’s the deal? Why is it not clear?” Well, let me suggest that there are several reasons why it’s complex to us. The one rather obviously is our sin. Our sin always clouds and obscures our vision of God. It always gets in the way. And we have our Adamic nature to deal with.

And so there’s sin as part of the reason why it’s not clear to us. We want intellectual fulfillment before we have volitional attainment. We want to know things incomplete, before we brought ourselves to obedience, a fullness of obedience. But God doesn’t work that way. He works that as you obey, you’re given more knowledge. And as you obey, you’re given more knowledge. It’s a step process. So partly it’s complex because of our own sin.

Partly it’s complex because an aspect of that sin is our lack of Bible knowledge. You know, we’ll talk about this in a little bit, but you know, if you don’t know what the Bible says, then you’re not going to understand the biblical imagery that’s given in the book of Revelation. And when you read in the book of Revelation that the mark of the beast is placed on the forehead and on the hand, you’re going to be and you don’t know your Old Testament, then you’re going to be prone to think like some of these people think that it’s some kind of credit card or barcode or something like that.

When in reality, of course, it’s a reference back to the law of God, which was supposed to be applied to the forehead. Remember, they wore the little phylacteries, the Jews did, having little portions of the law on their forehead and a little box on their hand. And that’s not the idea either. We’re not supposed to do that. The idea is that God’s law is supposed to govern what we think. And God’s law, his word, the Savior’s word, is supposed to govern what we put our hand to do.

See, that’s what it’s talking about. And those who are of the beast don’t have God’s word directing their thoughts and actions. They have the anti-word, the antichrist, Satan’s word directing their thoughts and actions, which is autonomy. The Adamic sin being our own god. But see, you’re not going to know that if you don’t know the Bible referred to forehead and hand. And if you don’t know that King Solomon went out and got a bunch of gold. In fact, he got 666 talents of gold.

I mean, a lot of gold. Then you’re not going to understand where the number 666 is used in the book of Revelation. You’re going to be again driven to think, well, it’s some kind of, you know, barcode number or some Mastercard number, I don’t know, or maybe the name of Henry Kissinger, whatever it is. But the scriptures want us to go back and think, yeah, 666, that was Solomon. He gathered all that gold.

He was the apostate king. He did just what kings aren’t supposed to do. He multiplied gold. He multiplied wives and he multiplied horses. But if you don’t know that kings aren’t supposed to multiply horses, gold, and wives, you’re not going to get it. So, a big reason why this book is complex is because we don’t know our scriptures. We just don’t know them. I wasn’t brought up knowing the scriptures. I went to Sunday school, you know, in church, but I didn’t learn much about Bible content.

See, the people that this was written to, they pretty much knew this stuff. They might have gotten it all wrong. The Pharisees misinterpreted his works righteousness. And the Sadducees were liberals, but they went to catechism class. They went to Old Testament class. Every week they had a lot of schooling. And during the week, their parents were real careful to teach them what the Bible said. So when Jesus said these things in the Revelation, they know what it meant.

They can make the connections. We can’t. Part of it is our lack of Bible understanding. And then third, I believe part of it is our lack of maturity as a people. Both terms of our ethical actions, but also just in terms of maturity of the church. Church is young. 2,000 years is not an old church. God’s going to be faithful to thousands of generations. A lot of time in human history to mature in our knowledge of these things and mature we will.

This book is supposed to be a revealing or a making clear and it is a revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is given to his servants. And this is really what I want you to come away with mostly today by way of application is that you’re a servant of Christ. I want you to understand that. But I want you to think about the fact that you’re an exalted servant.

Well, what are servants? Well, again, there the Greek term here, doulos, is a general term. This is revealed, made clear to his servants. But there are a series of pictures from the Old Testament, if we knew our Bibles well enough, that it would conjure up to us. In the Old Testament, in Leviticus 25 and Exodus 12, there were foreign servants, foreign slaves. They were captured by means of war or sold the way that you know the African slaves were sold in America. There were foreign slaves as well described in the cultures described in Leviticus and Exodus.

And those slaves were sold in the slave bazaar. But we were purchased by the godliest of all Israelites, the Lord Jesus Christ. We were redeemed by him. We were those foreign slaves from another country that were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Taken in war or taken in the slave trade. In Exodus 22, there were servants who were servants for slavery because they were criminals guilty of theft. And they were then sold into slavery to pay off their theft.

And we’re the ones who have stolen all the good things from God. Received his good gifts and not given him praise, which is the price that he demands of us. And so we’re servants because of our ingratitude and of our sacrilege. The word sacrilege means to steal what is not ours from God. And we’re those servants because we were wicked servants. who stole from God and God sold us into bondage. We’ve been redeemed now through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He’s released us from the slavery of criminals. He’s a gracious master portrayed for us in Exodus 22. In Deuteronomy 15, there were servants who were servants because they were debtors and they owed so much in debt that they could never pay it back and so they became slaves to the one they owed the money to. And we were the ones who have such a debt of sin that we owe to God for his sustaining us that we cannot pay it back.

But God and Jesus is the gracious master who forgives all of our debts as we forgive our debtors on the basis of Christ’s work on the cross. And so we become servants, debt servants who are now released from the great debt and brought into the master’s house. And we’re also servants described in Exodus 21:5 and 6. So at the end of our servitude, our debt being released and our criminal actions being paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our slavery being redeemed by the kind master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he says, “You can leave.” But we say, “We don’t want to leave. We want to stay in your house, Jesus. You’re so good to us. You’re so gracious. You’re so loving. We want to serve you the rest of our lives.” And he says, “Okay, come over here and put your ear next to the doorway, and I’m going to drill your ear, a little hole in your ear here. Got to cut open your ear, so to speak.” It’s a symbolic circumcision of the ear.

The scriptures, again, if we knew our Old Testament, talks about having our ears circumscribed, opened up to hear God’s word. We come with our ears all blocked and we don’t want to hear that word and God graciously opens it so that we can hear the word of the master that we love and we can be his household servants all of our lives. And that last image is important because we’re not the servant who goes out and works in the fields and never knows the master’s home.

We are exalted servants. God has brought us into his household. You know, Abraham was a servant of God, but Abraham is also called the friend of God. The kings in Israel would have a friend who would be their counselor. They were their servants, chamberlains or whatever, but they were made privy to the secrets of the court because they were friends. Abraham was revealed things to by God because he wasn’t just a slave or a servant who loved his master.

He was his friend. Jesus said, “I no longer will call you servants or slaves. I’m going to call you friends now and I’m going to reveal myself to you.” That’s what he said because in the gospels, we’re exalted servants. We’re those Psalm 8 people again. What is man that thou hast made so much of him, given him dominion over all the earth? An amazing fact. Men are amazing. Men are astonishing. The angels look at people, they think, what a wonder.

I told my wife last night, that’s why the angels are praising one of the reasons why God is being praised by his angels day and night. They look at mankind made in God’s image and given tremendous significance by God and they praise his name for our creation and then they praise his name for our redemption and being brought into the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. You’re amazing people. You have tremendous power.

Don’t let that reprobate that pagan Mike Tyson be the lasting image of what mankind is. But it is a picture of the fall of men. Did you hear about the fight last night? He bites the ear of his opponent. He spits out his mouthpiece twice. Twice to bite the ear of a Holyfield. What a picture of man become brute, man become animal. He can’t. He’s going to lose 15 million or something for forfeiting the fight.

But his anger was such that he could not control himself even if 15 million lay on this side and a bite of Holyfield’s ear lay on this side. Fallen man is just horrific in his fall. Does things animals would never do. Well, that’s the picture of fallen man. But we’re talking now about the exalted man. We’re talking about man now redeemed in the Lord Jesus Christ. The friend of Jesus. This is revealed to his servants.

It’s revealed to the preeminent servant-friend, John. John who leaned on our savior’s bosom at the last supper. God as close to him as you could be. You know, well, that’s who we are redeemed in Christ. We’re servants. We need to serve our master forever, but we want to serve him because we love him. And we’re not just servants. We’re brought into the household of God. And he says, “I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen, John.

For the next 40 years, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to tell you cuz I love you and you’re my friend. You’re not just my servant. You’re of the church of Jesus Christ. You’re servants of his, but you’re the bride of Christ. You’re beloved in him.” And he tells you, “You know what’s going to happen down there in Salem over the next 30, 40 years? What you know what’s going to happen when the gospel is preached in this culture.

Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to show you what’s going to happen. And he reveals it to us in this book. He tells us what we’re supposed to do to be successful in warfare. How at the center of warfare is prayer and the worship of God and a faithful testimony of who we are in Christ. And that drives people nuts. You faithfully testify. I was down in Salem lobbying to a legislator last month with my daughter.

My daughter’s with me in this representative’s room. And you know, I brought God into the conversation. I brought religion in the conversation about homeschooling. And soon as I mentioned God, he says, “Well, if that’s what this is about, then I’m not going to vote for I’m going to vote against this bill. This is about religion, I’m voting against it.” And I said, “You bet that’s what it’s about. But if you bear witness to the Lord Jesus and testimony, that’s going to create persecution.

And that persecution is going to bring down God’s judgments upon those who try to persecute his church.” And history progresses. And the church is established by faithful testimony of his servants, rejection of those by the reprobate and God judging the reprobate and taking them out of the way. That’s how history worked from AD 30–70 for 40 years to the total judgment of Jerusalem, the removal of it, the removal of Rome as a ruling authority in the world as well by his judgments on them.

You see, and that’s the way it’ll work in our day and age as well. We are loved by Jesus. We are exalted servants and he tells us what’s going to happen because we’re his friends.

Secondly, this book reveals what would take place contemporaneously to John and to his audience. This book is not about faroff events. This book is not all not about general themes of history. This book does not describe in detail specific church ages as such.

It says what’s going to happen between 30 and 70 AD. How do you know that, Dennis? Because the book tells it to me over and over and over. The book tells it to me 14 times. The book tells it to me in a double seven-fold witness. Chapter 1:3, the time is near. Well, what we just read in chapter 1 here, the things must shortly take place. That’s verse one. So, that’s the first occurrence. Verse three says that the time is near.

Chapter 22:6 says, “These things must shortly take place. Verse 7 says, “I’m coming quickly.” Verse 10 of 22 says, “The time is near.” Verse 12 of 22 says, “I’m coming quickly.” Chapter verse 20 of 22 says, “Yea, I’m coming quickly.” Over and over and over and over. This is going to happen fast. It’s coming now. I’m coming quickly. And then in the seven letters to the seven churches, and two of them explicitly and all of them implicitly, Jesus says, “I’m coming to your church.

Get ready to do the thing cuz I’m coming.” 14 times. This book tells us that it’s going to happen quickly or soon. And I’ve given you other references on your outline where the word soon means soon. It means it’s going to happen right away. This book was about contemporaneous events to John and to his audience.

You know, there are two kinds of prophetic texts in the New Testament. There are these type in the book of Revelation that says it’s happening quick and then there are other parables in Matthew 24 for instance. where we have three parables that the master won’t come back for a long time. His return is delayed. The virgins fall asleep waiting because the king doesn’t come back with any signs. I mean be no evidence of when he’s returning. Those parables, those indicator of future events are talking about the second coming of our savior way off in the distant future. So far away that people are going to forget about it and people are going to stop being watchful and there going to be no sign of the second coming.

But then there are other prophetic events described as in revelation where there are all kinds of signs that are described and the events are going to happen quickly in the context of this generation. It tells us in the gospels a generation is 40 years and so this generation won’t pass away and 40 years the repeated biblical theme again if you know your old testament 40 years in the wilderness 40 years under Philistine oppression and then comes Samson to deliver 40 years and then comes the Lord Jesus Christ in coming of judgment upon Jerusalem in Rome to redeem his people.

Book of Revelation is about the last days between Pentecost AD 30 and Holocaust, total judgment of Jerusalem, removal of the old creation in Christ in AD 70. That’s what it’s about. Contemporaneous events. This view of prophetic interpretation that I am positing to you now that I believe is what the scriptures tell us is a view that is called a preterist interpretation. Preterist big word. Don’t let it bother you.

It just means past. It means that the prophecies, and by the way, the book tells us seven times that it is a prophecy. It’s not just some sort of thematic picture of what’s going to happen. A prophecy have a specific event that’s being prophesied and be fulfilled. Tells us that seven times. These prophecies happened in the past. Contemporaneous to John and his audience. That’s the preterist view. The view most of us are familiar with is the futurist view.

It’s going to happen way off some time in the distant future. And you know what? Everybody who holds this, you think it’s going to happen in their lifetime. Way off for John and his audience, but my lifetime cuz I’m important. I’m significant. This church is the church that’s going to see the end. I used to have dreams about the second coming of Christ in my lifetime and stars falling and fireworks was wonderful.

You know, it was so egocentric. It was so centered on me and my generation is the last generation. The futurist view says it’s going to have a long time off but you know it’s completely contradicted by the text which says it’s happening shortly. Another view is the historicist view. What that means is that it talks about the history of the church. It talks about the Roman Catholic Church. It talks about the Turks coming in 1780 whatever it was.

It talks about historic events supposedly and the structure of a church history. This was the popular view at the time of the Reformation that it was a description of the ages of the church leading up to the completely apostate Roman Catholic Church. And the pope then ruling in Rome was the antichrist. So you read that even in the Westminster standards the pope was the antichrist because they were taking a historicist view.

Almost nobody holds that view anymore except this group here the 7th day Adventist church continues to hold a historicist view that describes these ages of church history. The other common view is called the thematic generalist or idealist approach. If you’ve read R.G. Rushdoony’s commentary on Revelation, he takes a generalist thematic or idealist approach to prophecy.

In other words, there’s no specific events in Revelation that are being described. It just describes in general what’s going to happen. Those are the four views. None is dominant, but I believe the preterist one meets the requirements of the text itself, and that’s the way I believe it. However, while I say that it is preterist and had reference to specific events, there’s also much value to seeing it thematically.

Because as I said, it talks about how the gospel is built and the church is established as the new heavens and new earth. But it also talks about the way the church will grow in the future. So for instance, as I’ve talked about this a couple of weeks ago, the four first seals, the four riders of the apocalypse are called talks about the progression of the preaching of the gospel. The gospel will bring division.

The gospel will bring God’s providential judgments and the false church will fade away and the true church will be established. And then finally, the gospel brings that pale horse to the establishment fully of the church of God. Whenever the gospel revival occurs, that’s the way it works. It begins the purity of life of the church preaching a pure gospel and then it brings division and then it brings God’s judgments in history.

So it has application to all of life in every generation. But it’s specific first application is specific prophetical events described that are going to happen between AD 30 and AD 70. So this book is about contemp ous events.

Third, this book is revealed by way of signification, that is pictures in words. This book is signed. The text tells us that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants, things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it. by his angel. He’s signed it. That’s what the word means. This word is used three times in the Gospel of John written by of course the same author. For instance, in John 12, we read that if I be lifted up from the earth, the Savior says, “I will draw all men unto me.” This he said, signifying picturing by this verbal image he gave of being lifted up from the earth what death he should die.

Okay? So, he gave a picture in words of the death he should die. And then in John chapter 18, the Jews therefore said unto him, “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled that he spake signifying what death he should die.” He was going to die at the hands of the Romans being crucified. And this was pictured in these word pictures and the Jews not being able to put him to death.

So the Romans would have to put him to death and they would do it in a cursed way. And then finally in John chapter 21 and he said unto him, “Lord, this is Peter. I know that I love thee. You know that I love you. And then Jesus tells Peter this. He says, “Verily I say unto you, when thou were young, you girded yourself and you walked wherever you would. But when you shall be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall guide thee, or guard thee, rather, and carry thee whether thou wouldest not.” This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God.

So by a picture of Peter’s being bound and girded and being taken where he would not want to, be Jesus by that picture indicated the death the martyrdom of Peter that would be accomplished agabus and prophecies relative to Paul in the book of acts bind his hands Paul’s going to be bound when he goes to Jerusalem this is what to signify means it means to show forth in pictures or verbal pictures that is in words this book is signified now that’s real important we know that all the scriptures have certain things that must be taken literally and certain things that should be taken symboli cally but this book particularly says that the basic interpretation is particularly going to be by way of sign image picture symbol.

It’s going to be written in verbal pictures that John sees but he communicates to us not by way of a photograph or snapshot but by way of imagery. Okay, that’s important. Now it’s important because we have to know how to interpret that and this is why the book is complex to us because we’ve not read enough of the Old Testament to know what the pictures, symbols, images of the Old Testament are so that when we read revelation and understand the flow.

It’s not a code book. You can’t say trumpet. What does trumpet mean and one-for-one correlation to something else. What you have to know is what trumpets meant in the Old Testament, the various ways they were used. And all that meaning is brought forward then into these images that John has receives from Jesus by which he communicates this to us and we’ll do that in the next few weeks as we look at various truths from the scriptures.

I mentioned a few already here. Additionally there are images within the book itself that must be interpreted accordingly. There’s a buying and selling imagery that’s given. You know you can’t you have to have the mark of the beast. You can’t buy or sell and people think it’s commercial transaction. But if you read the seven letters to the churches, Jesus said you should buy from me linen clean garments, right? Righteousness. He’s talking about worship and the transaction that occurs in worship as we worship God and he cleanses our garments. So when we get down later to the book to reading about buying and selling, we want to interpret it the way the book has established that particular symbol in the letters to the churches. Okay? So this is a revelation that is signified or assigned to us and that’s important for interpreting it correctly.

Fourth, this book is sent via the Trinity. Now the book is said to have been given to Jesus who sends it by means of his angel to John who then transmits it to us. And we have here a picture of the father giving the book to Jesus. Jesus giving it to an angel. There’ be a specific created angel. we see him throughout the book of revelation. This angel giving it to John who then communicates it to us.

But the angel really is a spirit creature and he should be seen in correlation to the Holy Spirit. The angels are listed in sevens repeatedly throughout the book. The Holy Spirit, as we just read from next week’s text, is described as the seven spirits before the throne of God. Sevenfold aspect, the fullness of the spirit. And there’s this correlation drawn between the angels mediating the work of the father and son to the church.

Now, we know that Jesus said he’s going to send the holy spirit to us and he would teach us things of Jesus. Jesus said that the holy spirit will come and he will tell you things of me. The son does what the father tells him to do. He reveals the father. The spirit comes to reveal the son revealing the father to mankind to us in other words to John and to the audience. And so there is a transmission belt here of the trinity but by way specifically of this created angel that we see in the book of revelation.

Now the word angel means messenger. Okay. And we will see as we get a few more weeks into this that sometimes The word angel or messenger means a person talked about in the epistles that way. Pastors are referred to as messengers of God, angelic messengers, not in the angel sense that we normally think of, but as messengers. Sometimes that’s what the word means in Revelation, but other times it clearly means spirit angels.

And there is a very important correlation to be made here. Turn in your scriptures to Galatians chapter 3. Okay. Galatians 3:19. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgression. Verse 19 till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now that’s new information. We didn’t read that when Moses got the law of God on the mountain.

We didn’t read there that it was through the mechanism of angels. But that’s what it says in Galatians 3:19. Now Paul’s point he continues to make in chapter 4. Now I say that the heir as long as he is called a child differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we have children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

For when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. So his whole point in Galatians is that mankind has been brought to maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ. And prior to Christ coming and affecting his work, we were under governors, tutors. And he relates that to the law and tells us that the law was mediated to man by means of angels.

It’s angels who guard the garden in the Old Testament. It’s angels who mediate the law to man. And the angels are described as ministering spirits in the context of the Old Testament. They rule the world. They govern the world. But in the context of the New Testament the angelic messengers are now replaced by human mediators because now we’re no longer a little lower than the angels for a while the book of Hebrews.

Yes. Now we’re brought above the angels in the context of this transference of authority from the old creation governed by angels and the new creation governed by the church. We now judge angels. That’s what the scriptures say. Why now? Because Christ has fulfilled his work. Everything’s changed now. The angel doesn’t spin the sword around. The church is empowered with flames of fire day of Pentecost upon their tongues of fire upon them.

And by means of his word, we exclude people for instance from the worship services of the church of the sacraments the way the angels excluded people in the Old Testament from the garden. You see, we’ve replaced the angels. So this passage dealing with the means by which this is transferred shows us that and Until a particular point in the book, angels are essentially mediating everything to John. An angel takes him around heaven and shows him everything.

Okay? But by the end of the book, the angels who sat in the thrones of God in the throne room of God at the beginning of the book are replaced now with the saints of God at the end of the book. And the whole idea of transference from angelic governance to human governance is one of the big themes of the book of Revelation. Spoke about it in our Sunday school class a little earlier. So this book is transmitted by means of the trinity to mankind.

But it comes by way of an angel, but the angel be replaced with the fullness of Christ’s work and the fullness of the judgment of the old creation, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. And mankind now, we no longer have angels take the word of God and mediate it to us. Who does now? The spirit. The third member of the trinity. The father gives it to the son. The spirit reveals the son, revealing the father to us.

And John was the recipient of that. And we now the servants of God are the new recipients of that service that God has called us to do by means of his word. Okay. So the book is sent via the trinity through an angel, a spirit messenger and now ultimately by the spirit to us in this chain of transmission.

John a faithful servant bears record of the word of God and the old the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. we read that uh who bore record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all the things that he saw. Okay, this phrase is used seven times in different variations. Another sevenfold determination here. But this phrase, the testimony, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. this refers to the old covenant revelation and the new covenant revelation. Until AD 70, there are those who are brought those who are