Overview Revelation Ch 1 11 _ The bible Project

the book of the

revelation

of jesus the author of this book which is not called

revelation

s by the way is named at the beginning was written by john which could refer to the beloved disciple who wrote the gospel and the letters of john or it could be a different john a messianic jewish prophet who traveled and taught in the early church whoever john was makes it clear in the opening paragraph what kind of book he has written he calls it first of all revelation or apocalypse the greek word is apocalypse and it refers to a very type of literature familiar to readers of john from the hebrew scriptures and other popular jewish texts.

Revelation recounts the symbolic dreams and visions of a prophet that revealed God's heavenly perspective on history and current events so that the present could be seen in light of the end result of history and John says that this apocalypse is a prophecy. , meaning it is a word of god spoken through a prophet to god's people usually to warn or comfort them in a time of crisis by calling this book a prophecy. John's saying remains in tradition. of the biblical prophets and is bringing his message to a climax and this apocalyptic prophecy was sent to real people who john knew that the book opens and closes like a circular letter that was sent to seven churches in the ancient roman province of asia now seven are A significant number for John is a symbol of fullness based on the seven-day Sabbath cycle in the Old Testament and John has woven sevens into every part of this book.

Now, with this opening, John has given us clear guidance on how he wants us to understand. this book the jewish apocalypse is communicated through symbolic images and numbers, it is not a secret predictive code about the moment of the end of the world, but rather john constantly uses these symbols taken from the old testament and hopes that his readers will discover what the symbols mean looking up the text it alludes to and the fact that it is a letter means that john is actually addressing the situation of these first century churches and while this book has much to say to christians of later generations, the meaning of the The book must first be anchored in the historical context of John's time, place, and audience, which brings us to the first section of the book, Jesus' message to the seven churches.

John was exiled to the island of Patmos and had a vision. of the resurrected jesus exalted as king of the world and he was standing between seven burning lights and John told him that this is a symbol of the seven churches in Asia Minor that has been adapted from the book of the prophet Zechariah and Jesus begins to address the specific problems that every church faces. Some were apathetic because of wealth and opulence. others were morally compromised, their people still ate ritual foods and slept in pagan temples, but others among the churches remained faithful to Jesus and suffered harassment and even violent persecution and Jesus warns that things are going to get worse, a tribulation is coming. churches that will force them to choose between commitment or fidelity for john's day the murder of christians by the roman emperor nero was approved and the persecution of christians by the emperor domitian was probably underway, so the temptation was to deny jesus whether to avoid persecution or simply to join the spirit of the Roman times and jesus calls them to faithfulness so that they may conquer or literally conquer and jesus promises a reward for everyone in these churches who conquer each reward is taken directly from the vision end of the book about the wedding of heaven and earth, so this opening section sets up the main plot tension that will drive the plot of this book.

Will Jesus' people endure? He will inherit the new world that God has in store and why faithfulness to Jesus is described as conquering the rest of the world. The book is John's response after John has a vision of God's heavenly throne room and describes it with images drawn from many Old Testament prophets who surround God, they are creatures and elders who represent all of creation and the nations. human and are giving honor and loyalty to the a true creator god who is holy holy holy in the hand of god is a closed scroll with seven wax seals that symbolizes the message of the prophets of the old testament and the sealed scroll of the visions of Daniel This is all about how the kingdom of God will come fully here on earth as it is in heaven, but it turns out that no one can open the scroll until John finds out about someone who can.

He is the lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David, he can open it. These are classic testament descriptions of the messianic king who would bring about the kingdom of God through military conquest. Now that's what John hears, but then what he turns around and sees is not an aggressive lion king but a bloody sacrificed lamb that is alive standing there and ready to open the scroll now this symbol of Jesus as the slain lamb. It is vitally important to understand the book of John that the Old Testament promise of God's future victorious kingdom was inaugurated through the crucified messiah.

Jesus defeated his enemies by dying for them as the true Passover lamb so that they could be redeemed because of the death of the resurrected Jesus. on the cross it was not a defeat, it was his enthronement, it was the way he conquered evil and that is why this vision concludes with the lamb next to whom he sits on the throne and together they are worshiped as the only true creator and redeemer and begins the sacrificed lamb. opening the scroll is a symbol of his divine authority to guide the story to its conclusion, which brings us to the next section of the book, the three cycles of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls, with each cycle representing the kingdom of God and justice coming here.

Now on earth as in heaven some people think that the three sets of seven divine judgments represent a literal linear sequence of events that happened in the past or could be happening now or are yet to happen in the future when Jesus returns, but notice how John has Weaved all the seven together so that the final seven bowls come out of the seventh trumpet and the seventh seal and the seven trumpets come out of the seventh seal. They are like nesting dolls. Each seventh contains the next seven. Also notice how each of the series of seven. culminates in the final judgment and have matching conclusions, so it is more likely that John is using each set of seven to represent the same period of time between Jesus' resurrection and future return from three different perspectives, so the lamb immolated begin to open the first four of the scroll.

The seals and John sees four horsemen is an image from the book of Zechariah chapter one and symbolizes times of war, conquest, famine and death, in other words, a tragically normal day in the history of humanity, then the fifth seal represents the Christian martyrs murdered before the heavenly throne of God and the cry of their innocent blood rises before God like smoke from the altar of incense and they are told to rest because there are still more Christians to die, we are not told why, but we are told He says that the sixth will not last forever.

The seal is God's definitive answer to their cry, he brings the great day of the Lord that was described in Isaiah and Joel and the people of the land cry out who is able to stand and then suddenly John stops the action with an intermission to answer that question John sees an angel with a signet ring who comes to put a mark of protection on the servants of God who are enduring all these difficulties and hears the number of those sealed one hundred and forty-four thousand is a census military like the one in the book of numbers chapter one there are twelve thousand from each of the 12 tribes of Israel now pay attention the number of this army is what John heard just like he heard about the conquering lion of Judah but in both cases What he then converted and saw was the amazing fulfillment of those military images in Jesus, the slain lamb, so when he sees this messianic army of the kingdom of God, it is made up of people from all nations fulfilling God's ancient promise to Abraham. , it is this multiethnic army of the lamb that can stand before god because they have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and are now called to conquer not by killing their enemies but by suffering and bearing witness like the lamb after this, the seventh and last seal is broken, but before the roll is opened.

The seven trumpets of warning emerge and fire is taken from the altar of incense, symbolizing the cry of the martyrs and thrown to the earth, completing the day of the Lord. Now with the seven trumpets, John goes back and tells the story again. time with images from the story of the exodus, so the first five trumpet blasts reproduce the plague sent on Egypt and then the sixth trumpet releases the four horsemen who came from the first four seals, but then John tells us that despite All these plagues the nations did not repent. just as Pharaoh did not do in the story of the exodus, so it seems that God's judgment alone will not bring the people to humble repentance before him, so John pauses the action again with another interlude, an angel brings the unsealed scroll that was opened by the lamb and like Ezekiel John is told to eat the scroll and then proclaim his message to the nations.

Finally, the scroll of the lamb is opened and now we will discover how the kingdom of God will come here on earth. The content of the scroll is explained in two symbolic visions. First, John sees the temple of God. and the martyrs next to the altar and are told to measure them and separate them, is an image of protection taken from Zechariah chapter 2, but then the outer courts and the city are excluded and are trampled by the nations. Now some think this is meant literally. to a destruction of jerusalem that occurred in the past or will occur in the future, but it is most likely that john followed the tradition of jesus and the apostles, who used the new temple as a symbol for god's new covenant people, in that case this is an image about how the followers of Jesus may suffer persecution from the nations, but this external defeat cannot take away their victory through the lamb.

This idea is expanded in the second viewing of the scroll. God appoints two witnesses as prophetic representatives to the nations and again some people think that this literally refers to two prophets who will appear one day in the future, but John calls them lampstands, which is one of his clear symbols for the churches. , so this vision is most likely about the prophetic role of Jesus' followers who will take up the mantle of Moses and Elijah. and they call the nations and idolatrous rulers to return to the only true god, but suddenly a horrible beast appears, let the reader remember chapter 7 of Daniel and the beast conquers the witnesses and kills them, but then god returns them to the life and vindicates them. the witnesses before their persecutors and the end result is that many among the nations finally repent and give glory to the creator god on the day of the lord now stop thinking about history until now the warning judgments of god through the seals and The trumpets did not generate repentance among the nations just as the plagues of the exodus only hardened Pharaoh's heart but the lamb conquered his enemies by loving them by dying for them and now the message of the lamb scroll reveals the mission of his army the kingdom of the god of the church will be revealed when the nations see the church imitating the loving sacrifice of the lamb not by killing its enemies but by dying for them it is the mercy of god shown through the followers of jesus that will bring the nations to repentance and this amazing statement is the message of the open scroll that john has placed in the exact center of the entire book after this the last trumpet sounds and the nations are shaken as the kingdom of God comes here on earth as it is in heaven , so now we know how the church will witness to the nations and inherit the new creation, but who was that terrible beast that made war on God's people and how the whole story that John will tell us in the second half of the book of the book will turn out.

Apocalypse