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2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES

Wednesday in the Word

Second Baptist Church

October 25, 2023

Revelations 1:1-6

  1. Introduction: If there is one book of our bible that has suffered from misinterpretation, it is the book of Revelations. And much of the misinterpretation has come in the last 200 years from western scholars trying to connect current events to things mentioned in the book of Revelations. To really understand this book, one needs to understand the years leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 7O AD, and the fall of the Roman empire in the 4th and 5" century. These two major events are the primary context of the book of Revelations. The person who might have read these words during the 1st century would have easily connected the dots to ancient events and leaders. The problem we face is, that too many folks, who have taught these scriptures and written books and movies about end times, have suffered from poor scholarship, and understanding of the historical events that were the context of this book. Much of what we must do is demystify some bad theology that has seeped out of western European seminaries and into the modem churches. Church leaders have come up with all sorts of theological positions such as dispensationalism, and pretribulation, post tribulation, two returns of Christ (rapture and post rapture), and rebuilding of the temple in Israel all in an effort to understand the book of Revelations. Western world powers have created foreign policy based on bad interpretations of the book of revelations and poor understanding of church history. Our goal is to see it like a person who was in the 1st century.

  2. Verse l. The ancient Greek word translated Revelation is apokalupsis (apocalypse). The word simply means "a revealing, an unveiling." What does the Book of Revelation reveal? It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. This book is Jesus’ Revelation in the sense that it belongs to Him, He is the one doing the revealing. It is also Jesus’ Revelation in the sense that He is the object revealed; Jesus is the person revealed by the book. We are given the most important truth about the Book of Revelation. This book does show us the Antichrist, it does show us God's judgment, it does show us calamity on the earth, it does show us Mystery Babylon in vivid detail. But most of all, it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ to us. If we catch everything else, but miss Jesus in the book, we have missed the Book of Revelation. God gave this Revelation of Jesus Christ.

    1. He gave it to show His servants. God gave this revelation that it might be shown, not hidden

    2. This book speaks of “Things which must shortly take place.” This describes when the events of this book will take place - they will happen shortly, and they must happen shortly. This means that the Book of Revelation is a book of predictive prophecy. It speaks of things that would and will happen in the future - at least future from the time of its writing. Some things have already happened in our past, but in their future. This book describes things that must shortly take place in the history of the ancient reader. The time is near (Revelation 1:3) for the fulfillment of these things, but the time was not present at the time of writing. Shortly is the ancient Greek phrase en tachei, which means "'quickly or suddenly coming to pass,’ indicating rapidity of execution after the beginning takes place. The idea is not always that the event may occur soon, but that when it does, it will be sudden." (Walvoord)

    3. He made it known or show (literally signified) by His angel to His servant John: This describes how the message is delivered in the Book of Revelation. It is a book of signs: the angel sign-ified this message to John. It is a book that communicates in SIGNS. The signs are also necessary because there is tremendous power in symbolic language. It is one thing to call someone or something "evil" or “bad." But it is far more vivid to describe the image of a woman drunk with the blood of the saints (Revelation 17:6). The Book of Revelation is very much rooted in the Old Testament. It contains more than 500 allusions to the Old Testament, and 278 of the 404 verses in Revelation (that is almost 70%) make some reference to the Old Testament. By His angel to His servant John: This tells us who wrote the Book of Revelation. It was His servant John, and the best evidence points to this being the Apostle John, the same writer of the Gospel of John. By His angel: Many of the signs and visions of the Book of Revelation came to John through the supervision of an angel (Revelation 5:2, 7:2, 10:8 to 11:1, 17:7 are some examples).

  3. Verse 2. Who bore witness (testified) to the word of God: In this prologue, we see that John knew this book was Holy Scripture, the word of God. We often wonder if the apostles knew they were writing Holy Scripture. At least in this case, John knew.

  4. Verse 3. The Book of Revelation offers a particular and unique blessing to those who read and keep the message of this book. It was especially good news to those who first heard it. The words for those first hearers was confirmation that the oppressive roman empire would come to an end. This is the first of seven beatitudes of Revelation (Revelation 1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, and 22:14). The words “he is Blessed who reads and those who hear” show that this book was intended to be read publicly, just as other accepted Scriptures.

  5. Verse 4. We will break this verse up in to three sections. The first section is simply that this book serves as a letter to the seven churches, sent by J olm, but in reality, the testimony of Jesus Christ. John is the one who addresses the letter. //The second part of this verse has to do with who is the recipient of this letter. The letter is written to the seven churches in Asia. It would seem from this, the book was originally dedicated or addressed to the seven churches, and the whole book was doubtless sent to them, and committed to their keeping. The word “Asia” is used in quite different senses by different writers. In the New Testament it is not used in the large sense in which it is now, as applied to the whole continent, but in its largest signification it would include only Asia Minor which we would consider the areas of Turkey and the surrounding counties. It is also used, especially by Luke, as denoting the country that was called “Ionia,” or what embraced the provinces of Caria and Lydia. Of this region, Ephesus was the principal city, and it was in this region that the “seven churches” were situated. //The third part of this verse describes who really the author of this letter is. John is just the courier of this message, but God is the messenger and the message. The description of God is awesome. No expression could more strikingly denote eternity than this. He now exists; he has existed in the past; he will exist in the future. There is an obvious allusion here to the name Yahweh (YHWH), the name by which the true God is appropriately designated in the Scriptures. That name Yahweh means to be, to exist, seems to have been adopted because it denotes existence, or being, and as denoting simply one who exists; and has no reference to time, and would embrace all time: past, present and future. Such a word would not be inappropriately paraphrased by the phrase “who is, and who was, and who is to come,” or who is to be; and there can be no doubt that John referred to him here as being himself the eternal and uncreated existence. The "seven spirits of God" are mentioned in Revelation 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; and 5:6. Revelation 1:4 mentions that the seven spirits are before God's throne. Revelation 3:1 indicates that Jesus Christ "holds" the seven spirits of God. Revelation 4:5 links the seven spirits of God with seven burning lamps that are before God’s throne. Revelation 5:6 identifies the seven spirits with the "seven eyes" of the Lamb and states that they are "sent out into all the earth." The seven spirits of God are symbolic of the Holy Spirit. The Bible, and especially the book of Revelation, uses the number 7 to refer to perfection and completion. If that is the meaning of the “seven” in the "seven spirits," then it is not referring to seven different spirits of God, but rather the perfect and complete Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is also seen in seven aspects based on Isaiah 11:2, which says, “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.” This could possibly explain the seven spirits of God: (1) Spirit of the LORD, (2) Spirit of wisdom, (3) Spirit of understanding, (4) Spirit of counsel, (5) Spirit of power, (6) Spirit of knowledge, (7) Spirit of the fear of the Lord.

  6. Verse 5. John continues to speak on the author of the book, but moves from the eternal nature of the father and the completeness of the Spirit to the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the revelation of God and it is his testimony as the Word made flesh that must be obeyed. John describes him as the faithful witness. His testimony is He the faithful witness, but Jesus is the one who ushered in our eternal life. His conquering of death made him the one who could defeat any enemy since he created the enemy that conquered all other enemies. Every power on earth concerning man in the physical world eventually die, but Jesus conquers the enemy of all other enemies. His words carry weight and must be believed. He is King of Kings. The language here refers to that he had made atonement, and that it was by the atonement that we are cleansed. The doctrine that the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin, or purifies us, is one that is common in the Scriptures. Compare 1 John 1:7; Hebrews 9:14.

  7. One of the awesome things that came as part of our salvation was our new status. We as believers in Christ went from being outside of the family of God to being inside the family of God. We went from enemies of God to friends of God. We were servants of the enemy, but now we are servants of God. We have been elevated to the position of priests of God. When God saved us, he positioned us for service. In 1 Peter 2:9 the same idea is expressed by saying of Christians that they are “a royal priesthood.” The quotation in both places is from Exodus 19:6; “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests.” This idea is expressed here by saying that Christ had made us in fact kings and priests. The word “kings,” refers to the idea of reigning with Christ. The word “priests” refers to the fact that they are engaged in the holy service of God.

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