Revelation 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what's written in it, for the time is near. John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before the throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he's coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him. Even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation, and the kingdom, and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one, like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, With a golden sash around his chest, his hairs of his head were white like wool, white wool like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun, shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, the living one. I died. Behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands are the seven churches. It's interesting, when we come to the final book in God's special revelation, when we come to the final book in the canon, and really the final book in God's covenantal revelation of himself, we come to what has been clearly one of the most misunderstood, a book that has been oftentimes approached more like a puzzle than a part of God's revelation of himself. And I think there's a couple reasons for that. The first is that it's a genre that we're not used to, apocalyptic literature. We have no category for it in our modern day, except maybe fantasy, but this is true. It's a genre that the first century, and John's readers in particular, would have been very familiar with. But unlike the other parts of the scripture, narrative, poetry, proverbial, even parabolic, we don't have the categories that we really need to have when we come to a book like this. It's a book that is loaded with symbolism. That's so clear. Almost nothing in this book is, and I'll explain this as we go, literal. It doesn't mean it's not real. It means it's not wooden literal. Almost everything in this book is symbolic. Everybody is going to really agree with that if you get down to the nuts and bolts. Even those that read it historically with sort of the newspaper open looking for fulfillments everywhere are still going to interpret symbols through the book. They're going to say, well, I think the locusts are this. They symbolize this. But they're going to try to find some historic meaning in the present day or in some nation throughout time at some period. What I think we have to understand is that the whole of the book is symbolic. How we interpret those symbols is everything, and the majority of those symbols come out of the pages of the Old Testament. Now when I say that, I don't mean the book of Daniel, and I don't mean Ezekiel. Not that nothing in this book comes from Daniel and Ezekiel, certainly some does, but one of the problems with this book is that it has only been interpreted in light of what I even think oftentimes are misinterpretations of Daniel and Ezekiel, other highly symbolic books. And so what we want to get when we come to the book of Revelation is that everything written from Genesis through the epistles is woven into the fabric of this book, all of the illusions, all of the imagery, all of the symbolism. And the more we're familiar with the Old Testament and the biblical theology of the Old Testament, the better we're going to do when we come to the book of Revelation. I would say this. You always want to ask yourself, what would the first century readers have thought? Not what would 21st century Americans have thought. Not what 20th century British theologians had thought. But what would a first century believer in Jesus have understood when they read the book of Revelation? That's one of the problems I think today in the interpretation of this is that Too many people read it sort of narcissistically. What must be about us? Because as time goes on we have to be getting closer. What does it say to us today in light of our current situation rather than what has it said to the church throughout all ages? So there are sort of these challenges we have when we come to the book of Revelation that Or not, they're not unsurmountable, but so often we've we've kind of adopted a sort of a a less than helpful approach to trying to interpret the symbols in the book. So, understanding that this book is highly symbolic, written in a genre that is entirely symbolic, understanding that even the numbers used in this book have theological significance, we see that in chapter one, Don't we where we're first told that John's running to seven churches. There are seven angels. There are seven lampstands There are seven spirits before the throne I just point out to you that there's a couple clues that these these numbers and are attached to symbols and that they they are to be interpreted as symbolically, because John actually gives us the interpretation of the seven stars and the seven lampstands in verse 20. He tells us the seven stars are the angels or messengers of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Now that would beg the question then, why seven and why stars and lampstands? So even if John tells us what they mean, we still have to ask why did the Holy Spirit choose to enumerate it by seven And why did the Holy Spirit use the symbols that he used? And I think it's interesting when we come to look at the greeting here in verses four and five, like so many of the greetings in the New Testament. Almost every epistle, you know, John wrote epistles and And though his letters are different than Paul's letters, the majority of the New Testament letters have something of a Trinitarian greeting or a Trinitarian benediction. At least several of the members of the Godhead in the greetings, the Father and the Son, Trinitarian benedictions often. Here we have a Trinitarian greeting. There in verse 4, grace to you and peace, much like Paul would write, from him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits, and from Jesus Christ. Now clearly that's a Trinitarian greeting. The Father, Spirit, and the Son. If that is a Trinitarian greeting, there are not seven Holy Spirits, there is one Holy Spirit, but he is enumerated as the seven spirits. The language of him who is and was and is to come is used of the Father everywhere. It's used of Jesus elsewhere, but he's distinguished from Jesus here. So you have to ask the question, who are the seven spirits before the throne? If it's the Holy Spirit, we have to ask why seven. Seven is the number of perfection, completion, wholeness. Remember, the book of Revelation is the ending of of the Bible. Genesis is the beginning of the Bible. At the beginning, Adam is made on the sixth day, the seventh day is the Sabbath day, he is to enter into God's Sabbath rest, he fails, he loses everything, and the rest of the Bible is a story of how Jesus brings us into the Sabbath rest, Hebrews 4. A rest remains for the people of God, the eternal rest. Christ has secured it by his death. And so why seven? Seven's a number of completion, wholeness, fullness, perfection. And so when he writes there of the seven churches, clearly he's not only saying this is for seven churches, but it's for all the churches. Now there happen to be seven historical churches. But clearly there's symbolism there, and clearly we are to benefit from the message written to those churches. It is God's perfect revelation of Jesus Christ to all of His church, to perfect His church, sent out by the perfect Holy Spirit, who gives the perfect word about Jesus Christ for His church. Now, I want to say this too, at the outset. It is a revelation. I want to recommend several things I gave you tonight. The best, the book I would tell you read, absolutely read it, take your time, is William Hendrickson's More Than Conquerors. I think it changed the way I read the Bible, not just the Book of Revelation. I read it on the way home, driving home today from the mountains, read a good bit of it. Again, I thought, this is magnificent. It's an unbelievable book. And he makes the Book of Revelation so simple. And one of the things Hendrickson says, and others say this, is the problem with the approach a lot of people have to the book of Revelation is they look at it like a puzzle and they look at it something that I have to somehow try to unlock like it's locked but the word itself of the book is that it's a revelation that it's something being revealed and preeminently Jesus Christ is being revealed it's not about current events Though certainly it has relevance to every age. It's not about a specific individual, though perhaps the beast is a specific, perhaps he's a specific individual. I don't know. I don't think anybody knows for sure. It could be a political power. It could be a group. It could be a group that's already been here or that's continuing through the ages. We'll talk about that. But the book of Revelation is about Jesus Christ. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. So whatever interpretation we adopt, Jesus better be at the center of that. That's the big principle. Whatever interpretation we adopt, Iraq, Syria, and America should not be at the center. Israel should not be at the center. Jesus should be at the center. That is something I will dogmatically fight with you over. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ about him. Now, what is it about? Well, I think very simply you have that culmination of the promise of Genesis 3.15. God says, going back to our very first lesson, I will put enmity between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent. Promise of the Redeemer, gonna crush the head of the serpent. Book of Revelation, if you could think of the Bible as Genesis 3.15, and then this exponential until Revelation is the full unveiling of Christ's victory over the kingdom of Satan in the world. throughout human history. It's the spotlight of Jesus's victory over the evil one in his kingdom. Everyone in Christ's kingdom, everyone in Satan's kingdom. And you see the two kingdoms. You see the two kingdoms clashing in the book of Revelation. I'm gonna argue tonight. You see it especially through the first and second coming Through that whole period repeatedly you see that And so not thinking of it chronologically this then this then this then this throughout all history, but thinking through that whole period, the clashing of those two kingdoms, and then the consummation at the end of the age, when Jesus brings in the new heavens and the new earth, and weds his bride, the church, there when she comes down out of heaven from God prepared for her husband. And so, very simply, if you had to break the book of Revelation down, And maybe you've heard this story, there was a janitor, and he was reading the book of Revelation. Who knows if this is even true, but lots of guys mention it. And the pastor said, you know what you're reading there? And the janitor said, oh yes, yes sir, yes I do. And the pastor said, what? What's it about? And he said, Jesus wins. Jesus wins. That's what the book of Revelation is about. Jesus wins. Jesus has won. Jesus is winning. Jesus will win. Jesus has won. He will win because he has won. He's already washed us with his blood. And even though things may look like he's not winning throughout the periods of persecution throughout this present age that we're in, He has won, and the victory is secured. And this book is given to the church to give them comfort in the midst of persecution. The author of this book was being persecuted. The author of this book was on an island as a prisoner for being a witness to Jesus Christ. And notice what John says to them. And this is big for me, as what I told you early, that I am an inaugurated millennialist, in the sense that, I think this book is running, and we'll talk about this in a second, from the first to the second coming of Christ, repeatedly, seven cycles, we'll talk about that. An idealist approach, some people call it. But that, notice John says in verse nine, I, John, your brother and partner, in the tribulation, John says, and John is in the tribulation. John is suffering for Jesus. He says, I am your brother in the tribulation. He doesn't say, I will be your brother in the kingdom. He says, I'm your brother in the kingdom, in the tribulation, in the kingdom, and the patient endurance that are in Jesus. So John is going through the tribulation. John is in the kingdom. John is patiently enduring. He is writing to others who are going through the tribulation. who are enduring persecution, severe persecution, probably in the days of Nero or just after one of the great, maybe the Diocletian persecution, one of the great eras of persecution in church history. And he is writing to a people who are suffering and he's saying, listen, do not give in to the world. Do not cave in. Hold fast. Keep your testimony. Don't love your life even until the death. Christ is one. Christ keeps the martyrs close to him. They're close to his heart. He is coming again. He's going to bring all the judgment and all the wrath that this world deserves for hating him and his church. Hold fast, endure in Jesus. That's the point of the book. If you're a first century reader, that's what you get. If you're a 12 year old child who's never been tainted by any interpretations, of the book of Revelation ever, that's what they would get. If you read through the book of Revelation and you had never heard anything taught about it ever, and you read it, that's what you should walk away with. The world is under the sway of the evil one. The world hates the church. The world is persecuting the church. Satan is bringing all of his enmity and hostility against the church. all of his persecuting power against the church. Christ is conquered. Christ is victorious. Christ is reigning. Christ who stands in the midst of the lampstands with a sword coming out of his mouth, his eyes like a flame of fire, his feet like burnished brass. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the ruler over the kings of the earth. He is conquered and he is conquering. and hold fast. It's pretty much the same message as the book of Hebrews. It's the same message throughout the New Testament. So in a very real sense, that's where we first want to approach this book and say, Revelation is part of the Bible, part of the same message to the same people about the same Jesus. Now, it's a very complicated book. I don't, I don't think there'd be anybody who would ever be able to say I understand all the symbols, and I get all the all the structure. I mean, I don't think there'd be anybody you could point to in church history that's done that. I do think, what I find very helpful as I look at kind of the structure of this book, I gave you a printout by B.B. Warfield called The Apocalypse. B.B. Warfield was the Lion of Princeton, one of the greatest theologians in church history, if you don't know who he is. I disagree with Warfield. He's post-millennial. He thought the world was going to be Christianized before Christ came back. I don't think the Bible teaches that. I understand why certain people think that. They see the parables of the kingdom being like a mountain that fills the earth and like mustard seed that grows into a tree that fills the earth. And so they read that in a sort of never stopping, always increasing Christianization. I personally think that's taking that a bit too far. I do think there's obviously a leavening influence. We're in America. It's hard to be pessimistic about the kingdom of God when we in 21st century America are sitting around on a Tuesday night talking about the deep things of God, and there are lots of believers all over the world in lots of countries. But I don't believe the world's going to be Christianized. Wuerffel did, but What I do agree with Warfield on and what some of the other authors I've printed off for you, they will all see this, and it's very interesting, I want to encourage you to do a study of this on your own, that Warfield will actually talk about there being seven sections in the book, and that the book itself is while it's a sequence of action shots, like an action film, this, then this, then this, then this, this ever-moving action, if you look, if you read through, actually, if you read the book of Revelation on your own, I did this years and years ago, just read through it several times, you'll notice that certain things resurface, and you'll say, wait a minute, I thought, why does this resurface? And I thought I read this back here, and I thought I read this back here. And it's much like John's first epistle. And what you soon realize is that you have a cyclical nature in the book of Revelation. And William Hendrickson, B.B. Warfield, Vern Poitras, Dennis Johnson, other guys that I've given you, G.K. Beale, he wrote a big thousand-page commentary, which is amazing. they will argue very, in my opinion, very persuasively that there's seven sections, seven parallel sections in the book of Revelation, and each one really runs from the first to the second coming, and that each one gets a little further into the consummate glory, so that what you have in the last, the seventh section, is the full view of consummate glory, the new heavens and the new earth, Very attractive to me again. I understand if You've never been taught that If you went and looked at and you're like, I don't see that but I would encourage you to study that because very helpful to me that I Think it helps you make sense of of the book in in in both its structure and its application. Because if indeed the book is structured from the first to the second coming, seven times over, telling you different aspects of what's going on throughout that period, the gospel age, we'll call that the gospel era. What you have is an ever present application of the book to the lives of saints wherever they are in the world in the here and now. And so an idealist approach is going to say the book always is, it's always applicable. in every age to the people of God waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus who says he's going to come like a thief in the night who says he's coming quickly who we know is promised to return and so the hope is always the coming of the Lord Jesus but everything going on in between is written for our comfort and consolation in this fallen world now the biblical theology or the redemptive history If you go to chapter 12, and I want to point this out tonight, again, there's no way, I'm sure all of you have heard a lot about the book of Revelation, and so what I'd say is be kind to me as I try to teach you a theology of the book of Revelation in about 45 minutes, because this is not an easy feat. But what I'm trying to give you is kind of the structural interpretive principles as I understand them. Chapter 12 becomes a massively important chapter. What you have here is you have this symbolic imagery of a woman clothed with the sun, moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. Now clearly that's reminiscent of Joseph's dream back in the book of Genesis. And I think it's, the woman is the Old Covenant Church, it's Israel. The sun and the moon and the 12 stars, Joseph's dreams, they represented Jacob and his wife and the 12 tribes who formed the Old Covenant Church and its structure. And notice that she's pregnant, verse 2, and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And what I'll say here is that the most satisfying interpretation to me is that this is a picture of the Old Testament church waiting for the coming of the Redeemer, who's going to be born as an Israelite, who's going to be born of a woman. So you even have the language of Genesis 3.15 there, the woman gave birth to a child, and clearly of the dragon who is Satan. There should be no argument about that. Notice the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. Well, the whole history of Israel is Satan trying to destroy the old covenant church so that the Redeemer wouldn't come, right? God preserving Israel through Esther, God preserving Israel even in the Babylonian captivity, God preserving a remnant here and a remnant there, God not destroying all the tribe of Benjamin in the days of the judges, God always preserving the church so that the Redeemer can come. And behind the attacks on the church is Satan through the idolatry and the sexual immorality and the warfare that he is aiming against Israel in the Old Covenant so that the Redeemer doesn't come. And clearly we see that in the narrative of Jesus's birth because what happens? Just like Pharaoh trying to wipe out all the baby boys because Satan doesn't want the Redeemer to come, Herod wiping out all the baby boys because Satan doesn't want the Redeemer to come. Pharaoh oppressing his people. Herod oppressing God's people. Herod having all the firstborn sons killed because he doesn't want, Satan doesn't want the Redeemer to come. And God protecting, protecting Jesus, right? Taking him down into Egypt, out of Egypt. Sparing the Redeemer. I Think very clearly when says the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore a child He might devour it notice this she gave birth to a male child one who's to rule all the nations clearly Jesus Clearly Jesus with a rod of iron Psalm 2. There's the language of Psalm 2 but her child was caught up to God resurrection and ascension and to his throne Only one male child sits on the throne of God, Jesus. Clearly, Jesus. The woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God in which she is nourished for 1260 days. Now, what you have after this, notice verse 13. When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. Now, there I think the woman is the New Testament church. This is William Hendrickson, another idealist. And after Jesus is ascended and reigning and his kingdom is established in his ascension, who does Satan aim all his malicious Attacks against the church the church, which is the whole point of the book. So what you have in chapter 12 is Old testament redemptive history culminating in the center of redemption the birth life death resurrection ascension reign of jesus And then followed by the New Testament church being pursued by the same devil who hates the Lord Jesus and hates everything about his kingdom. And so all the persecutions against Christians in the world, even to this day, has all been satanic. It's all been the assaults of the devil. who rages and notice verse 15 the serpent now he's called the serpent allusion to genesis 3 15 poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood but the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured forth from his mouth then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring Who are they? Those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Now, this redemptive historical picture of the church in relationship to Jesus, Old and New Testament church here in Revelation 12, I think you also see it throughout the book of Revelation in the visions that John has of the elders, specifically, and the tribes. Now, let me explain this. You'll find, we talked about symbolism, theological meaning of numbers, number seven. You'll also find 10 in its multiples in the book, and then you'll find 12 in its multiples. Now, what's interesting, in the early chapters, in chapter four and five, John sees a vision into heaven, and he sees the 24 elders. The question you have to ask is, why 24? Why 24 elders? Why, well, that's just the way it is. Well, no, it's not just the way it is. It's, God wants you to say 12 apostles, 12 tribes, 12 apostles. They are the representatives of the Old and New Testament church. They are the leaders of God's people. They are, in that sense, symbolically representing the complete redeemed church, Old and New Testament. I think you also see it, turn to chapter 7, and this I know may be a big pill for you to swallow. I think the 144,000, again, 12 times 12,000 is 144,000. 12 times 12, 12 tribes, 12 apostles. Remember, Jesus reconstitutes Israel. We've talked about that. He picked 12 apostles to reconstitute Israel. 12 tribes were the foundation of the old covenant church, 12 apostles. Actually, before we look at chapter 7, turn over to, and I'll prove this to you from the book, chapter 21. In case you're wondering, When John sees the new heavens and the new earth and the new Jerusalem, the glorified church in heaven, the new Jerusalem there in verse 9 and following, somebody read to us verse 9 through 14. Then one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as the stone of crystal clear jasper. It had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east, and three gates on the north, and three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the land. Okay, so here you have a picture of the glorified church, the New Jerusalem, in heaven, and what we're told is that the gates are the 12 tribes, and the foundation are the 12 apostles. So very clearly, the old covenant church, the new covenant church, 12 tribes, 12 apostles. I don't think that's fanciful in any respect. When we come to chapter 7, however, and we look at the the 144,000, lest we become Jehovah's Witnesses, we might want to consider that this is not a literal number, that there will literally be 144,000 sealed with some physical, visible barcode on their hand or forehead, but that this is a picture of the redeemed Church of Jesus Old and New Testament, the complete number, the full number, the perfect number, nobody's missing. That's why it's a full round number. 12 times 12,000, 12 times 12 is 144, 12 times 12,000 is 144,000. And I would further say this, just briefly, dealing with the biblical theology of this, if these were the literal tribes, What would we expect to see in verses 5 through 8? And what don't we see in verses 5 through 8? Chapter 7. 5 through 8, what would we expect to see if they were literal tribes, and literal, literal in the wooden sense, and what would we not expect to see? What's missing from this? Two or three things we want to point out. Dan is missing, and the half-tribe of Ephraim is missing. Dan was an original tribe, right? Who's included instead of Dan? Joseph. Joseph is included, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Right, and Levi, and who's at the head? And who should be at the head if it's a literal chronological? Reuben. Reuben was the first born. Judah was the fourth born. Dan is missing. Manasseh's included and Joseph is included. Now here's, in my opinion, the best explanation of that. In this book, throughout this book, Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the head of the church. In the Old Testament, whenever Israel went out to battle, Judah went first. There's a whole biblical theology of Judah going first because Jesus goes to battle against Satan, sin, and death at the cross in front of his people. Judah goes out first. Judah wins the victory. The kingdom is established by Judah. Judah is the tribe that represents our Lord Jesus. He is the line of the tribe of Judah. He stands at the head of his church. My guess at Dan is that God's people have been judged. Dan is judge, means judge. Some of the judges came from Dan. God's people have been judged in the death of Jesus. There is no judgment for the people of God, punitive judgment. Whatever, if we expected this to be a literal 12,000 of these literal tribes of ethnic Jews, it at least seems strange that they wouldn't be in the order in which they came in the Old Testament and that Dan wouldn't be included and that one of the half-tribes is and Joseph is. fodder for you, do with that whatever you want to do with that. I'm very comfortable with the multiples of 12 being the Old and New Testament Church. It makes a lot of sense to me. I think if you at least try to read the book of Revelation that way, at least attempt to read it and say, okay, is there any viability to this? I think what you'll start to see is that everywhere in this book that multiple of 12 is popping up, and it's not just in chapter 7. And so, you have to grapple with why, if we're told explicitly in 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 12 times 12 is 144, they actually do the multiple for us in chapter 21, if you turn back there. Notice, after what we read about the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles, in verse 15 and following, he gives us a picture of the city, and very fascinating. What is the city, who I'm going to argue is the church, the glorified church, who God indwells in glory? It's again another symbol, another picture from the Old Testament. What is the city shaped like? It's a square. What in the Old Testament was shaped like a square? the Holy of Holies, the most holy place where God dwelt was shaped like a square. And it's the most significant square in the Old Testament. And if you look at the, if you look here, notice that we're told this city is 12,000 stadia, again another multiple of 12. And notice its length and width and height are equal. The only other thing in the whole scripture that has length and width and height that are equal is the most holy place where God dwells. And notice in verse 17, he also measured its wall 144 cubits by human measurement. Now, what I'll just say is labor with that, labor with the idea that twelve and its multiples are all through this book, and then ask the question again. If it's not the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles, why is it everywhere? Why is it springing up everywhere? If we're told explicitly the twelve gates are the twelve tribes, and we're told explicitly the twelve foundation stones are the apostles, why would we not at least attempt to look at that? with regard to the church Old and New Testament in the world. Now, let me say this. There are other Old Testament allusions through this book in Redemptive History that help us. One of those allusions are the trumpets. In the book of Exodus, the trumpets were used when Israel was going out to war. This is a book of warfare between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world. The judgments in the book of Revelation mirror the plagues in many respects. There's a rich undergirding of the book of Revelation with the book of Exodus. There's lots of Exodus imagery. There's wilderness imagery. We read some of that already in chapter 12 about the church going out in the wilderness. Even in chapter 1 when he says that we were redeemed by his blood and he's made us kings and priests That's straight out of Exodus the Exodus imagery Israel was to be a kingdom of priests unto God We've been delivered from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of Christ. So you have the Exodus biblical theology in the book of Revelation You you have a prophet priest king and Structure surfacing throughout the book of Revelation that God's people are said to be kings and priests unto God I'll just say this interesting. You ought to read if you get a chance GK Beale on the lampstands on the the oil being poured in I think it's chapter 14 and the imagery of Zachariah the priest and Zerubbabel the king and the two witnesses that that being imagery back to the king and the priest and that being applied to the church in the new testament that we were kings and priests chapter one verse four and five so there's all this there's all this metaphor and illusion and elusive illusions from the old testament surfacing in the book of revelation that the more we know the old testament we get how that relates to the work of christ the better we're going to get the book of revelation its spiritual import to us I will say this, there are difficult things in this book, depending on when this book is written, that's going to affect how we understand it. I have historically held that this book was written probably around 96 AD. I take a later writing. I have a lot of friends who believe that it was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, so 69. That would affect how you interpret it. I have friends that are convinced the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, which obviously Jesus has some reference to in Matthew 24, plays into the interpretation of the Book of Revelation. I'm not convinced that it does. Even if it does, it wouldn't affect a whole lot. That's a whole other thing you need to study. It's called preterism. And it is important that you know that. Even if you disagree, I disagree with a lot of preterist argument. Though I do think there is clearly when Jesus says not one stone is going to be left standing upon another he clearly is speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem when the temple was destroyed and never rebuilt. I don't even see how you could argue with that. You know Josephus talks about that. He talks about how Titus who came in and they sacrificed pigs on the altar which is the abomination of desolation and that when the soldiers went to take, they burned the temple and they went to take the stones apart to get the gold off of it. That's how not one stone was left standing upon another. And so there is some validity, perhaps, to an investigation of AD 70 and its impact on how we read the New Testament. I think too much emphasis is often placed on that in reform circles, where they want to say most of the Book of Revelation happened in AD 70. I do not buy that. That's not a common idealist approach. But it certainly affects things. It talks about the destruction of that great city, Jerusalem, which is Egypt, spiritually called Egypt. There may be some validity to that. It's hard to posit dating exactly with regard to early church. There is a theme in the book of Revelation that's very helpful. if you can get this, and I gave you a copy of Verne Poitras' article on this, counterfeiting in the book of Revelation. This has helped me enormously. You have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and you have his kingdom and his work in his church in the world. And then you have the devil, the beast, and the dragon, and his counterfeiting work in his people and in among the unbelieving world, and among a prostitute church. church of false teaching. You see false teaching so prevalent in this book too, don't you? And there's early seven letters to the seven churches. One of the chief things besides immorality is false teaching. False teaching is Satan's main tactic in the church, is to lead people astray, is to subdue their minds and hearts with lies, even very close counterfeits. Satan is a counterfeiter. I think the book of Revelation, I think you'll find Poythras' Stuff on this is tremendous. He has a book called Return of the King you can actually go online and find it for free Verne Poythress Return of the King has a whole section on counterfeiting in that article I gave you is really good and what you see is that the book of Revelation is showing you that Satan in his kingdom is always trying to counterfeit and the work of God. So, for instance, the work of God included the death and the resurrection of Jesus, while the beast is said to get a head wound and then to have something of a resurrection. So you have these kind of counterfeiting works. Now, you also, it's interesting at the end of the book, that you have a counterfeiting work of Satan in covenanting with the nations, in a sense. Remember, God's promise to Abraham was that his descendants would be as the sand of the seashore, as the stars of the sky in multitude. At the end of the book of Revelation, it says that when Satan goes to make war against the camp of the saints, which sounds pretty small, the camp, a little camp, camped out here. And he gathers the nations from the four corners of the earth, whose number is like the sand on the seashore. And so even the language is counterfeiting in a sense. The language is drawing off of and contrasting with the covenant promise to Abraham. And so you find all these sort of parallels in what Satan's doing. in counterfeiting the work of God through signs and wonders, through teaching. The church is called the bride of Christ. Satan's false church is called the prostitute or the harlot. I think that's pretty clear. I think that that's probably the most simple way. A lot of this is the most simple way to interpret this book. So look for that, look for the counterfeiting themes, and look for the biblical theology, the language of the Old Testament, and how even that's playing in what God's teaching us. I want to recommend a few things for you. The first is read William Hendrickson's More Than Conquers. I mean, if I could just, if I could ask, if I had to write a list of 25 books every Christian should read, that would be one of them. I am sure of that. It is so worth reading. It's pretty simple. It's not too difficult. But, I mean, it radically changed the way I understood the book of Revelation and it made things very, very simple. I would say read Verne Poitras' Return of the King. It's also very simple and helpful. I gave you a chapter out of Dennis Johnson's book, Victory of the Lamb, also very helpful. But again, you know, I just wanted to kind of introduce you guys to the Old Testament background of the book of Revelation, kind of some of the structure and themes, and really emphasize that at the end of the day, your understanding of the book of Revelation should bring maximum glory and focus to Jesus. and His victory for you, as for the Old Testament saints, as for whatever saints come after you, the victory of Jesus, the confidence we have of being in glory with Him. I will say this too as we close the The Bible has beautiful bookends. Opens with a garden. Closes with a garden. Opens with light without a sun. Closes with light without a sun. It says there was no sun or moon there, but the Lamb was its light. Opens with a wedding. Closes with a wedding. biblical theology of Genesis and Revelation, what we call protology and eschatology. Sinclair Ferguson's last sermon on his Revelation series, which I definitely recommend if you want to listen to a sermon series, Sinclair Ferguson on Revelation is amazing. And His last sermons on the close of the book of Revelation, he called it the begin ending. The begin ending. It was a very clever name because what you see is the beginning of glory, but everything is going back. The book is closing. You're seeing everything come together, you're seeing God consummate all things, undo what Adam did, do everything Adam failed to do, bring everything to a climactic glory and victory in the wedding of the Lamb. And really, that's the focus in biblical theology. I think we could actually close with that. The marriage of Jesus to the church is where everything's moving. It's not even about the new heavens and the new earth, even though that's where we'll be. That is what God's doing. The marriage of the lamb is where the book ends. The Bible ends with the marriage of Jesus. It's really a glorious thought, isn't it? That God wanted a bride for his son. I was thinking of an old hymn. It was written well before the Reformation, and the hymn writer talks about, as God took a bride from Adam's side, so he took the church from the pure side of Jesus. It's a bit allegorical, but I like that imagery. As God took a bride from Adam's pure side, so he took a bride for his son from his pure side. And that's where everything's moving in the scriptures. I will say this, too. The Bible opens with a wedding. The beginning of Jesus' ministry is at a wedding. His first miracle is at a wedding. The Bible closes with a wedding. So don't miss the big picture, I guess I'd like to say. Even if you don't agree with all these, the 12 times 12, even if you don't come away and say, Nick Batsik has convinced me to be a millennial. We haven't even talked about the millennium. Even if you walk away, don't miss the big picture and don't make the book of Revelation more complicated than it should be. That's something I think, if I could just emphasize, the Bible has some complicated things in it, but we often make it vastly more complicated than it has to be by missing the big picture and getting bogged down in the details. We want to know the details, but we got to get the big picture. The victory of the seed of the woman over the seed of the serpent, redeeming his people, bringing them to glory, making them his bride, winning them to himself for all eternity. That's the point of the Bible. That's the point of Genesis. It's the point of Revelation and everything in between. Questions or comments? Because I mean, I feel like I haven't done this justice running through this so fast. I know it was not as organized. Or pushback. Don't get a newspaper out. Yeah, so real quick. So when we come to the millennium, Revelation 20, Ah and Post Mill believe that Jesus comes back post the millennium. Premill believes he comes back before the millennium. That's the easiest way to break it down. So Premill, Jesus comes back before, and then there's this millennial period. Ah and Post believe he comes back post the millennium. So Ah Mill is really Post Mill. That's where I was getting confused. Ah Mill is really one in the same with Post Mill. I think historically what you have, you don't have dispensational premillennialism until like 1880ish with Darby. What you have, you do have historic, you have something of a historic premillennialism in church history. Some of the Puritans, most of the Puritans were postmillennial. But almost all of them were just an admixture. They didn't have a coherent, logical, structured eschatology with regard to, when we talk about, this is special eschatology. General eschatology is Jesus is coming back. Everybody's gonna rise from the dead, go to heaven or hell. Those who are in Christ are gonna go to glory forever. Those who aren't are gonna go to hell forever. There's a judgment day, general eschatology. Special eschatology is all the little refined, how's this going to happen, when's this going to happen, where's the man of sin fit into all this, all of those things. And what I'd say is that, so pre-mill, let's set that aside and just say Christ comes back, they believe, and then thousand year reign. And actually they kind of believe in a half coming and then he comes again. So it's really two and a half comings. I don't know how else to do that. But anyway, right? I mean, it's like two and a half comings. He comes, then a millennial kingdom, but he goes away, and then he comes back. So three comings. Post and Awe believe in two comings. Hebrews 9, 27 says, Christ came once to take away sin, and will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. So that is the big difference. I'm not trying to be snarky. Awe and Post believe in that eschatology is structured by first coming, second coming. First and second coming are related. He comes to deal with sin, and then he comes a second time for salvation. But they're connected, and then you'll have an already-not-yet structure in between. How much already, how much not yet, but it's all dependent on the person of Jesus in his first or second coming. It depends on what brand. There's a huge spectrum. So just like in dispensational premillennialism, you'd have pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, and then all these like divisions in there. So with the broader categories of historic, pre, and post, you have a spectrum. So you have some postmillennialists that believe in a golden age. So the Puritans sort of believed there was going to be this golden age that might be 1,000 years, literally. Or it might just be some period of time, thousand being a multiple of ten, denoting a complete period, a whole period of Christ's reign and the Christianization of the world for this Golden Age. That was a very Puritan type. Jonathan Edwards would have believed something like that. Modern postmillennialism is a lot more like modern amillennialism. Now amillennialism is not fair because am means no and we do believe, we believe we're in the millennium and that the millennium is the gospel reign of Christ from his ascension to his return. Again, 1,000 being the number of completion, wholeness, just like 7, multiple of 10, 10, 100, 1,000. So understanding the book, theological significance of the numbers in the book. You know, we would believe it's denoting the reign of Christ in glory for his saints on earth during the period of tribulation between his first and second coming. That's amillennialism, inaugurated millennialism. Now, the reason we believe that is the binding of Satan issue. And I wrote something on feeding on Christ if you want to go, I don't know, a month ago on the binding of Satan, is Satan bound? Satan bound question mark and I kind of go through the theology of that in Matthew 12 Jesus is casting out demons He is destroying the kingdom Satan who ultimately defeats Satan at the cross and he says in Matthew 12 How can a strong man enter? The strong man's house, how can a man enter a strong man's house unless he first bind, the word in Greek is Deo, it's a form of the Greek word Deo, I bind. How can he first enter the strong man's house unless he first bind the strong man? Then he can plunder his goods. Well, what is Jesus doing in exercising demons and in healing those who are demon possessed and ultimately in exercising the devil out of the world with the cross? He is binding the strong man. Jesus makes that very clear. It's in the context of him casting out demons. They're like, you cast out demons by Satan. No, I'm binding Satan. So Jesus tells us explicitly he was binding the devil. Colossians 2 says he disarmed principalities and powers. He bound the devil. Now, the binding of the devil doesn't mean inactivity. There's a good little book by a guy named W.J. Greer, G-R-I-E-R. called the momentous event and Greer uses the illustration of Al Capone and he says when Al Capone was in prison he still ran the streets of Chicago from prison. So think of an all-millennial understanding of Satan being bound as Satan is limited in his effect but he's not inactive. Binding is not destroyed. It's restrained to an extent. He still walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The whole world, in one sense, is under the sway of the evil one. But in Revelation 20, where it talks about the binding of the Satan and the angel with the chain, I take the angel there to be Jesus, because he's the messenger of the Lord. He's not an angel. Angelos means messenger. He's the he's the Malik Yahweh in the Old Testament the angel of the Lord. He is God. He's not an angel. But I take that to be that take that to be a symbol of him binding the devil and that would be in his work in his first coming. That's a very common interpretation. Not Jehovah's Witness. I am not a Jehovah's Witness. Jesus is not an angel, but he is the angel of the Lord. He is the messenger of Yahweh. When you read the binding of Satan in Revelation 20, what does it say? He's bound. What does he say the consequence, the result is? That the nations should not be deceived any longer. So the binding of Satan equals nations not deceived anymore. Before Jesus came, the nations were in darkness of all idolatry. There was no gospel to the nations except in Nineveh, a little blip here, maybe a little gospel in Babylon with the Jews in exile and the promises and prophecies and word of God there. The nations were in darkness and when Christ came and what happens in his death and resurrection, the gospel goes to the nations. The nations are deceived no longer. So if you're wondering why I'm amillennial, that's a very quick, very quick, very abbreviated run through. He binds Satan in his first coming. He reigns now in heaven even though we suffer here. He's in glory. And that's another thing. Notice where he is in chapter 20. Christ is in glory. He's not on earth reigning for a thousand years. He's in glory. And Warfield makes a big deal about the Millennium in another article where he works through Revelation 20. Look, here's what I say to people. Is this tough stuff? I will say this. Premillennialism And all millennialism have this in common. Jesus can come at any time. An imminent return. We're not waiting for a Christianized world till Jesus can come again. Post-millennialism cannot say he can come at any time. There's got to be like this massive worldwide conversion before he comes in strict post-millennialism. So on one hand, I find myself more aligned with pre-millennialists because we should be eagerly expecting the coming of our Lord Jesus. He's coming like a thief in the night. So I appreciate that about pre-millennialism. He can come at any time. And the world's not getting better and better and better. But Post and I have this in common, that I think they do more justice to the whole of the biblical data, that there are two comings of Jesus and that's it, and then there's a consummation. And, you know, there's something about it that's simple and beautiful to me. that it doesn't get bogged down with trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of when this happens and this and this and did this happen before this and this and then this happened and it just says he came once he's coming again by faith be found in him