A Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation

John MacArthur Scripture:

Book of Revelation

Well tonight we're in for, I trust, a great time. And in order to make the most of it, open your Bible to the book of Revelation. Tonight we have as our purpose a tour through this marvellous book.

While you're turning to Revelation chapter 1 verse 1, let me just say that no book in Scripture reveals the glory of God and Christ in any more splendour than does this book and yet no book has been more misunderstood and misinterpreted and neglected than this book. In chapter 22 of Revelation and verse 10 it says, "Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand." If there's one thing God wants in regard to this book, it is that we know what it teaches. Seal it not. The book begins with a blessing. Chapter 1 verse 3, "Blessed is he that readeth." It ends with a blessing, chapter 22 verse 7, "Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book." It is the only book in the Bible that begins and ends with a promise of blessing to the one who reads. And we are told that we are to understand it because the time is at hand, and what that basically means in chapter 22 verse 10 is that what is said here is the next event on God's Messianic timetable.

Now the key to the book is found in chapter 1 verse 1, and we're going to dive right in at that point and go from there. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, that's what the book is about. It is the apocalypse, the apokalupsis, the unveiling, the revealing of Jesus Christ, the uncovering of the truth about Christ heretofore not known. We're going to learn things about Jesus Christ in this book that we wouldn't know if it weren't for this book. And the revelation which God gave to him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. In other words, this is a glimpse of the future, the near future. And He sent and signified it by His angel unto his servant, John. God wanted to reveal Jesus Christ in full glory. That's a future reality.

And so He sent the message about this with an angel who delivered it to John. Verse 2 says John wrote it down. He bore witness of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. So in verse 1 God sets out to reveal. In verse 2 John takes the responsibility to write down that revelation and in verse 3 it says, "Blessed is the one who reads," can underline that, "who hears," underline that, "who keeps the things written in it." And then this important statement, "For the time is at hand." And that's not related necessarily to time itself but more to the sequence of events. This is the next on God's calendar of Messianic events.

It is then a revelation of Jesus Christ and it is Him revealed in full Second Coming glory which was previewed in His first coming on the Mount of Transfiguration when He showed them a glimpse of His Second Coming glory.

Now that brings us in to verse 4 and we get a little more formal introduction. John is writing this book particularly to be sent to the seven churches in Asia Minor. That would modern Turkey. There were seven churches. They're listed for us in chapters 2 and 3. They were actual congregations. They were the initial recipients of this letter and then it was passed on from them to all the other churches and down to us as well. These churches were primarily founded as a result of Paul's ministry in Ephesus, Ephesus being the key church. And from there the Word of God spreading out and no doubt being responsible for the founding of these various churches in the area of Asia Minor.

Then comes a greeting, "Grace be unto you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come." Now that's God, the eternal God who was, who is and yet who is in the future to come. And then from the seven-fold Spirit before the throne. And it says seven spirits but so that you don't become confused, that is the seven-fold Holy Spirit. If you were to read Isaiah 11 verse 2, you can write that down in the margin there, and make it a cross reference, you would find that there are seven unique ministries of the Holy Spirit listed there and He is therefore the seven-fold Spirit which speaks of the fullness of His ministry here called the seven spirits before the throne. So the book is sent with greetings from God the Father, greetings from the Holy Spirit. Then verse 5 says, "And from Jesus Christ." So it is a letter from the trinity. And that also sets it apart in a very marvelous and unique way, a letter from the trinity all being a part.

And then since it is a revelation of Jesus Christ, it goes on to describe Jesus as the first begotten of the dead. It doesn't mean that He was the first one that ever rose from the dead, there were others that He Himself raised from the dead. It means that of all those ever to be raised from the dead including the saints, He is the first and foremost and chief and greatest one of all who will ever rise. And may I add, all men who have ever lived will rise from the dead, some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation, but of all who have ever risen, He is the chief one. He is the prince, it says, of the kings of the earth. And it says unto Him...now here's a dedication...the book is from the trinity, by an angel, to John written down, passed on to us to read and then John reminds us it is first sent to the seven churches, it comes from the trinity and is dedicated, verse 5, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. The dedication is to Jesus Christ Himself, the one who has made us priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

So the book right there is dedicated to the glory of the eternal Christ. And then it tells us in verse 7, "Behold He cometh," future tense, "with clouds and every eye shall see Him and they also who pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him, even so, Amen." You know what amen means? What does that mean? "So let it be." And so we find right there that the book is introduced to us as from the trinity, dedicated to Jesus Christ who is coming and when He comes every eye will see Him and so let it be. And that's a kind of a glimpse of what the whole book is about, the coming of Jesus Christ. And then it says in verse 8 that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the one who is, who was, who is to come, the Almighty. That signifies, of course, God in His essence and Christ in His unique relationship to God within the trinity.

So we find then in verses 4 to 8 just some introductory information, the book is from the trinity to the seven churches to be spread from there by the agency of John. It is dedicated to Jesus Christ who is coming, who is the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lord who is and was, who is to come, the Almighty. In other words, this One who comes is none other than Almighty God.

So the book then is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It's about His return and about the fact...the facts that are going to occur around that return. Now we've established then that the theme in the first eight verses of chapter 1 is Jesus Christ in His Second Coming. Now as we look at verse 9 he gets in to the first of his visions, and it is a series of visions that God gives to John. "I, John," and he says that a lot in the book and it's almost as if he was in a state of shock, it's almost as if he's saying, "Can you believe this? I, John, saw this. Me!" You almost get the idea that there's a certain amount of incredulity in his own mind as to why God would ever allow him such a privilege. I, John, who am just your brother and just your companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ...me. You know, nothing special, just ordinary me. I was in the isle called Patmos, he was exiled to Patmos for proclamation of the gospel of Christ. "And I was there," he said, "for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." That's why I was there. I was put there because I preach Christ and I preach God's Word.

Now he says, "I was in the Spirit," that is he was under the control of the Holy Spirit in a unique way, "on the Lord's day." Now some people think that means on Sunday, I kind of lean that way myself. Some people think it means in a prophetic sense I was in the Spirit looking at the day of the Lord in its fullness. I particularly lean toward the idea that it was on a Sunday, on the Lord's day, as he was worshiping, he was in the Spirit. "I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. And the voice said, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest write in a book and send it to the seven churches in Asia."

So there's John's orders, write this stuff down. "To Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea." Actual cities, they actually exist, existed. They had churches, local congregations.

And then as John turns in the first vision, he has a vision of Jesus Christ. And I'm not going to go through it in detail. But he sees Jesus Christ moving among seven golden lampstands-- seven churches, seven lampstands. Each lampstand represents a church. Seven is the number of fullness. So what you have here is a representation of all the churches. And Christ is moving among the churches ministering to the churches.

"He holds...verse 16 says...in His right hand seven stars." Now it tells us down in verse 20 that the seven stars are the ministers of the seven churches. And the word minister some people have translated angels. They could be referring to special angels assigned to the churches, or they could be referring to the ministers in those churches. But it is the Lord then moving through His church, ministering, trimming the lamps, doing His work of purification and judgment, applying wisdom and so forth. And he sees Christ in His glory ministering to the church.

And that introduces us really to the outline of the book which comes in verse 19, "Write the things which you have seen," and what had he seen? Just that first vision. "With the things which are," and what are the things which are? The things which speak to the time in which John lives, the present tense kind of time, and that comes in chapters 2 and 3. "And then the things which shall be hereafter," which begin in chapter 4. So there you have an outline of the book. Chapter 1 is dealt with in the things that you have seen. Chapters 2 and 3, and the things which are. And chapters 4 through 22, in the things which shall be hereafter. You're going to deal with a past vision, you're going to deal with present issues, you're going to deal with the future.

Now it all begins then with Christ being revealed in the church age. That's this age, moving among the churches, ministering to the church. And in that ministry comes seven letters written to these individual churches. Now the vision, of course, is symbolic. Each one of those elements can symbolize some ministry that Christ has in the church age.

Then we begin in chapter 2 to see the letters written to the seven churches. Now listen very carefully to what I say. These are seven real churches. They really existed. They existed in those cities that they're stated to exist in. And if you study the letters in detail you find that each letter fits the historical cultural geographical context of the city to which it was written. It's a literal city. But they are also representative churches because each one of them has a unique character all its own and it represents churches of all times because each of them is a special kind of church. And in all the periods of the history of the church there have always been these kinds of churches. And each of them gets a special message from the Lord. So this is His ministry, as it were, to the church age.

The first one is to Ephesus. What kind of church is Ephesus? It is the church that is orthodox in doctrine, but cold. It's left its first love. Verse 4, "I have somewhat against you because you've left your first love." Verse 5, "Remember therefore from where you are fallen, repent and do the first works." Now this is the church that's orthodox. I mean, they have the right doctrine. Verse 2 it says they couldn't bear evil people, they couldn't bear false apostles and teachers. And they endured faithful to the sound doctrine but they lost their love. They were cold and orthodox. Now that kind of church has existed in every age and does today. Those who have got the right message they're just cold and indifferent about it.

The second church we meet is the Smyrna church, verses 8 to 11. This is the church that suffers persecution. And in verse 10 it says, "None of those things...fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, you may be tried. You shall have tribulation ten days..." ten days signifies a brief period of time..."be faithful unto death and I'll give you a crown of life." Nothing negative is said against this church. Why? Because a church under persecution will always be a pure church, it's purged by the persecution. People who are just showing up for whatever reason once persecution starts get out. Cause if they don't have anything to die for, they're not going to stay around and get killed in the massacre. So this is the church under persecution. And at all periods of the church's history there have been those churches and there are such churches today. We're going to hear about one in the service following tonight when we hear Georgi Vins tell us about the church in Soviet Union.

The third letter is written