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Sermon preached on Revelation 1:1-3 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/03/2024 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We begin a sermon series through the last book of the Bible. The book of Revelation has an important message for the church today. It brings us a mystery that God has unveiled to us. Not a mystery like some secret code to crack to know the date of the Christ’s return or things like that. Yet, it reveals a mystery about both the trials awaiting Christians and our ultimate victory at the return of Jesus. This is a book we need right now. As verse 3 tells us, there is blessing to whomever would read this prophecy, to whomever would hear it, and to whomever would keep it. This is a message God has given to us for our spiritual benefit.
Let us acknowledge that Revelation can be intimidating to approach. All the symbolism can be difficult to interpret. Yet, it is a book God has given for us to
benefit from, to all whom God has given ears to hear and understand it. I hope this sermon series will teach you how to approach this book, so that you can study and use it with confidence. Let us then come eager to listen, learn, and live out what God has for us in this book.
Today’s sermon will be introductory in nature. Let’s begin first by considering matters of authorship and purpose. Verse 1 begins by attributing this revelation to Jesus with the words, “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The context of verse 1 adds that God is the one who gave this revelation to Jesus, who then gives it to us. Verse 1 goes on to further explain how Jesus got this book to us by giving it to John through an angel. It is then John who wrote it down and gave it to the churches of Jesus Christ. That is how we have it still today.
Who is this John? The traditional answer is that it is John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve disciples, the same John who wrote the Gospel of John and the three epistles of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. Early church tradition affirmed this, such as the witness of Irenaeus. It wasn’t until later that some have suggested it may have been a different John. The argument is mainly around the fact that the writing style has some notable differences with John’s other writings. But that argument is not conclusive, since authors commonly used scribes in writing, and the use of different scribes would easily account for the differences. In contrast, there are also a number of literary similarities between Revelation and John’s other writings that would suggest the same human author behind the book. That, along with the early testimony of the church, favors maintaining the traditional view that this John was John the Apostle.
From when and where then did John record Revelation? The location is told us is verse 9, that he wrote from exile on the island of Patmos, which would have been located off the coast of Ephesus in Asia Minor. John ended his ministry in Ephesus, so it is not surprising to see that he found persecution at some point that led to a period of exile near there. As for the timing of the letter, early church tradition records that it was during the reign of Emperor Domitian who reigned from AD 81 to 96. Later, some have argued for an earlier date around the time of Emperor Nero in the mid or late 60s. Both options would situate the writing of book during some Christian persecution by the Roman government. While a case can be made for either date option, neither seems decisive enough to warrant rejecting the early church testimony that Revelation was recorded during the time of Domitian, and thus somewhere around 90 AD.
Why did Christ through John bring us this book? This prophecy foretells persecution and suffering in store for Christians and encourages them to persevere in the faith. It shows that God is in control and that Jesus is actively reigning in heaven even while it might outwardly appear otherwise on earth. We get a glimpse of what is going on in the heavenly and spiritual realm simultaneous to what is going on in the earthly and physical realm. The book assures Christians of a final victory in Christ. In the end, the enemies of Christ will be given a judgment of eternal damnation, even while Christians are ushered into a glorious new creation. In short, this book encourages us in the trial and tribulation that we’ll face before Christ’s second coming.
That’s a bit about the authorship and purpose of Revelation. Let’s turn now in our second point to consider the form and structure of this book. As for form, we can say three things. First, it is a prophecy. That’s how verse 3 describes it. It is a word of God given through John acting as a prophet. It speaks of things that will come to pass. Second, we can also note that the framing of the book is as an epistle, a letter. In verses 4-5, we see the customary opening of an epistle where the author and its recipients are listed, namely John to seven churches in Asia Minor. And third, and most relevantly, we can say that it is an apocalypse, which is to use a linguistic term to refer to the genre of the book. Books in the apocalyptic genre are full of dreams or visions that employ symbolic and often
other-worldly imagery to convey their message. This imagery functions like a visual metaphor that has to be interpreted for its real-world reference. Verses 1 and 3 both use the language of “showing” this revelation, clueing us in that this prophecy is being visually communicated. Likewise, verse 1 says that God made this known, which the Greek is literally about making it known through signs. That’s why the NKJV translates it that God ”signified” these things. So, these opening verses tell us we’ll be receiving apocalyptic imagery and thus to expect symbolism.
Now, since Revelation is largely in this apocalyptic form, let me explain this further. The Bible contains various genres, some which contain more plain speech, others which container more figurative language like in the apocalyptic genre. Most of the Bible is not in the apocalyptic genre, but some of it is, such as portions in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. We actually see God describing what we refer to as the apocalyptic genre in Numbers 12:6, saying, “If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD.” There, God says the kind of revelation he gave to Moses was plain speech. In contrast, he refers to how at other times he may speak to a prophet through a dream or a vision that has a riddle-like character to it, which is what we get in apocalyptic genre. When you compare the two, God acknowledges that plain speech is easier to understand.
Let me make sure you understand my point. Most of Revelation is in the form of apocalyptic genre and that is going to be harder to understand than plain teaching like you might find elsewhere in the Bible. Something similar was how Jesus often spoke in parables but other times would explain things in plain speech to his disciples. The plain speech was easier to understand. But Jesus said he gave the parables so that those with ears to hear would hear and understand. Even though his parables fell on deaf ears among the lost, the Spirit of Christ would give understanding of his parables to his people. So, it is not surprising then to see Jesus seven times in Revelation say, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” So, yes, this book is harder to understand. But it is not impossible to understand. And for God’s people, we can trust that the Holy Spirit is going to help us understand it.
So then, the genre of Revelation affects how we interpret this book. We want to interpret the Bible literally, which means we have to account for its apocalyptic nature by accounting for the symbolism. When the genre of the passage is employing symbolism, that’s how to be literal to the text, by appreciating the symbolism. Otherwise, if you are trying to interpret symbolism literally, you aren’t actually
being literal to the text, and will end up with an incorrect interpretation.
As for the structure of the book, the bulk is a series of various visions. The book clearly employs some organizing structure through four sets of sevens, with various interludes. There are seven letters to the seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. Various efforts have been made to outline the book into seven main sections anchored around these four sets of sevens and the interludes. These can be helpful for organizing the book’s content. Other efforts have been made to see a chiastic arrangement of the material, and there can be merit there too. For example, the book’s outer material clearly parallels the imperfect churches in Asia Minor in the start of the book with the perfected church in the new creation at the end of the book. Also, the book’s central drama is in the center of the chiasm with the conflict between the woman, dragon, and the beast. Probably the best approach to the book’s structure is to let all this be observed in recognizing a glorious multi-faceted structuring as a masterpiece of art. I will try to point such out along the way in our series. For more information, I refer you to my Sunday School lesson this morning.
In our third point for today, lets turn now to consider the timing of this book. Verse 1 says that this book is revealing things that must soon take place. Verse 3 says that the time is near for what is prophesied in this book. A major question interpreters have wrestled with is the timing of the book. When do these prophecies get fulfilled? This is especially a fair question now that we are studying this prophecy almost two thousand years later. Have these prophecies already happened? Or do they foretell things that are currently happening? Or do they prophesy things that are yet to happen? It’s a question of past, present, or future in terms of their fulfillment. If you believe that most of these prophecies have already come to pass by now, you’d fall into the preterist camp. If you believe that most of these prophecies have not yet come to pass, that would put you in the futurist camp. If you think that you are somewhere in the middle, that some have already happened, some are presently happening right now, and some are still to happen, that would put you in the camp called the historicist camp.
So which is the correct option? Are these prophecies from our vantage point speaking about the past, present, or future? The answer is yes. I’m trying to be a bit clever here, so let me clarify. You see, all these timing views have one thing common. They all look at Revelation and treat it like a single chronological timeline. If you do that, then you have to figure out where you are at in the timeline. Preterists put themselves near the end of the timeline, Futurists put themselves near the beginning of the timeline, and historicists argue about where we are at along the timeline, simplistically speaking. But there is another view on the timing which is to deny that Revelation is giving a simplistic chronological timeline, but rather is a collection of various visions that gives us complementary and thus often overlapping perspectives of the time from when John received this until Christ’s return. When one vision retells in a different way something from a previous vision, that’s called recapitulation, and there’s a good bit of that going on in Revelation. This view also says that elements of these visions are not always tied to one specific historical event that fulfills them, but often are more timeless in their description to portray the sorts of things we’ll be experiencing as Christians from the time of this prophecy until Christ returns. This view is sometimes called progressive parallelism.
To clarify, this is not to say that there is no sense of chronology in the book. The book opens by addressing real churches in the first century in Asia Minor with real troubles they were facing. While there can be timeless applications we can draw from them, surely those were actual churches with actual issues there at that specific time at the start of the timeline that we are discussing. Likewise, the final vision in the book concludes with the ushing in of the new creation where God’s saved people will live with him forever, after the climactic final judgment that casts all the unsaved people into the lake of fire. That clearly sits at the end of the timeline we are discussing. There does seems to be at least some movement of chronology within this book. However, there is also clearly evidence of recapitulation in this book, with one larger example being the three parallel sections of the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, which all speak of divine judgment from differing perspectives. That’s why the view of progressive parallelism allows us to consider how both chronology and recapitulation. We can recognize the parallel, complementary, overlapping elements in the various visions, even while seeing Revelation simultaneously progress to the culmination of salvation in the new creation.
A simplistic example of this is to consider the interpretation of the dreams in Genesis during the Joseph arc. We can find some simplistic recapitulation in those dreams. In Genesis 37, the first two dreams Joseph had were both about the same truth, that eventually Joseph would rule over his family. Clearly there was recapitulation there. Yet, the visual symbols were very different in each, and there were different details gleaned by each, like the first emphasized his brothers bowing to him, but the second included his parents too. In the next set of two dreams in Genesis 40, Joseph interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer and baker when he was in Egyptian prison. Those dreams had a certain similarity to each other, clearly paralleling each other, but with a major twist at the end, because one foretold the restoration of the cupbearer and the other the demise of the baker. That use of recapitulation gave complementary yet contrasting truths. Lastly, you have Joseph interpreting Pharoah’s two dreams in Genesis 41. Actually, Pharoah referred to it as a single dream, but Joseph explained it was actually two dreams foretelling the one same thing. The first dream involved seven plumb cows followed by seven ugly cows. Then the second dream had seven good ears of grain followed by seven bad ears of grain. Joseph interpreted these as having recapitulation, that the second dream with the ears recapitulated the first dream of the cows. If Joseph hadn’t recognized that, his interpretation would have been drastically off. If he incorrectly interpreted it as a strict chronology, he would have thought there would be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine, that would then repeat itself. These dreams in Genesis are in the apocalyptic mold, rich with symbolism, and they show an expectation that it is not uncommon to find such recapitulation in apocalyptic revelation. Those examples in Genesis are a smaller scale of what is going on in a much larger and more complex way in Revelation. Indeed, as we go through Revelation, I will identify various places where there must be recapitulation going on.
So then, let’s tie this all together. Given the recapitulation going on through the various visions in Revelation, I won’t be treating the book as a simplistic linear chronology. I will let each vision speak for itself, and what we’ll find is that we are taken through the same chronology multiple times from different vantage points. As a simple example of this, the end of the seven trumpets vision in chapter 11 contains a very clear description of the second coming and the final judgment. But then chapter 12 starts a new vision of the woman and the dragon and the history clearly rewinds again to the birth of Jesus. So, when asking if these visions are largely fulfilled in the past, present, or future, we realize that it’s more complex than a simple answer. Each vision must be taken in itself to see what it is telling us about this time between Christ’s first and second comings. In fact, many of the visions appear to paint more general pictures of this time period rather than all just foretelling specific historical events to happen. That is why we can see general fulfillments in the past, present, and future, and why a preterist, futurist, or historicist approach could point to such. I’ll try to help us see this as we go through the book.
As I conclude our introduction today, I would like to remind you that you have already begun to be blessed in the reading and hearing of Revelation today, because verse 3 promises us this. Believe that! And you will continue to be blessed as you not only continue to hear this prophecy in our sermon series, but especially as you go out and seek to keep its message. The application today really is to a commitment to truly hear and heed what is in this book. Elsewhere Jesus said we need to be awake and alert before his return. This book will help us to do that with the information we need to do it well. Be encouraged then, that even while Jesus is away in heaven, he has sent you this message to unveil what to expect during this special season while we await his return.
Amen.
Copyright © 2024 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
