I want on these Thursday evenings to commence a series of studies based upon this last book of the New Testament. Now the book of the Revelation is quite a big book and so we won't be engaging in a verse by verse exposition of it. Some of you may be pleased to hear. But what I want us to do is to look at the book section by section and to engage in a kind of survey and overview of the book of the Revelation. And I believe that a book of this nature lends itself more to that kind of analytical study. Because the great danger with the revelation is that we can so easily get bogged down with the details. With the bizarre and dramatic imagery and the symbolism of the book there is a real danger of missing the wood for the trees. And so I want us on these Thursday evenings to stand back as it were and to take a broad look at this magnificent book of the Bible and seek to consider its overall theme and message. But not only is the book of the Revelation a big book, we have to also say that it is a very difficult book and anyone would be a fool to suggest that he fully understands everything in this book. I certainly don't and I'm not coming to you with that attitude. I've studied the book over many years and I've had to change my position on it a number of times I think and the only thing at the end of the day which is infallible is the actual text of scripture itself. Godly saints down through the ages have differed in their interpretation and understanding of this great book. If you go down to the local Christian bookshop and look for a commentary on the Revelation you'll find dozens of them. and you'll find that probably they're all at variance with one another. Sometimes more heat has been generated than light down through the ages. But nevertheless it is a book of the Bible, it's a book that is part of the all scripture which is inspired of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness. that the man, the woman of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We'll come to sections and I'll honestly tell you I don't understand this section and we will pass over the details and pray for greater light to be given to us. Even the great John Calvin himself, one of the most magnificent Bible commentators when he wrote his series of commentaries on the Bible extending to 22 volumes he omitted the book of the Revelation and confessed that he didn't understand it. So you may be thinking, well if a man like Calvin couldn't get to grips with this book then what hope have we mere mortals on this Thursday evening in Belvedere? Well although it is a difficult book and many have taken different views of interpretation on it yet we need to understand that it's not a closed book It's not a sealed book. It's a book that is open and it is a book that is clearly revealed. It's interesting when we turn to the book of the prophet Daniel. We find that when Daniel delivered his prophecies in his day that he was baffled and perplexed by these things. He didn't understand them. And he questions the Lord and asks about the time of their fulfilment and what they're all about. And on two occasions in the book of Daniel God tells Daniel to close the book to seal up the words of the prophecy because they were not for his time. But that is not the case when we come to the book of the Revelation. In fact in that 22nd chapter that we read a little earlier and in verse 10 the angel says to him do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. And of course here was John writing down these things in the first century. And even then these words were not to be sealed up. They had a relevance and an application to the people of John's day. And the book of the Revelation is timeless because it speaks to the Christian church in every age and in every generation. This message is just as applicable to us in the 21st century as it was to the people back in the first. And indeed in the very first chapter of the book of the Revelation and in verse 3 we discover that every encouragement is given to us to read this book and to consider its message. It's the only book of the Bible where a specific promise is given to us by God upon all who read this prophecy. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. If there were no other reason to study this book on these Thursday evenings this would be reason enough because God has promised a blessing to us as we not only read the book in our own private times But as we come together on occasions like this and hear the words of the prophecy and seek by God's grace to hold these words in our hearts and to keep them and to put them into practice. So may God give us light and understanding, may we approach these studies in the spirit of meekness and in humble dependence upon the Lord. praying that God will give us light and understanding and blessing as we look into this last book of the Bible. I love that comment made by John Robinson who was the chaplain to the Pilgrim Fathers who set sail from Plymouth to the New World. He said, God has yet more light to break forth from his holy words. Revelation may have ceased but light is still being given. and how we need that light and how we need to pray that God will give us light. And may he be pleased to break forth fresh light as we engage in these studies together. Well I've prepared some notes and we've got some extra heavy notes this evening. Three pages. This doesn't mean that the study is going to be three times as long, I assure you, but there are some notes that I hope you'll take home and look at in your own time. Well the question that I want us to consider this evening before we actually get into the text of the book of the Revelation by way of introduction is the question of how should we approach this book? How can we actually get into its message? How can we grasp the structure of the book and the overall message and meaning of it? Well down through the centuries there have been three main schools of interpretation regarding this book. And first of all there are those who hold to the praetorist interpretation. The word comes from the Latin referring to the past. And these people believe that the vast majority of the prophecies of this book have been fulfilled. They would suggest that apart from chapters 20 to 22, the rest of it has been fulfilled. It's fulfilled prophecy. and it was fulfilled during those first three centuries of the history of the Christian era. They believe that the book was directly given to address the situation that prevailed in the early church of the first century. It was delivered by John to the seven churches in Asia. These were real churches who were facing a real struggle and conflict during the time of the Roman Empire. And the book shows the final triumph of the Kingdom of God as the Roman Empire crumbles and is brought down to the ground. And so the book really is fulfilled, apart from the last few chapters, it refers to the past. But then the second school of interpretation is the exact opposite. Rather than regarding the prophecies as fulfilled, This is the futurist interpretation that regards the bulk of the book as unfulfilled prophecy. They believe that apart from chapters 1 to 3, which concern the church age, the rest of the book is unfulfilled, it's future to you and me tonight. They believe that in chapters 1 to 3 we have the gospel age, the church age. Then at the beginning of chapter 4 we have a picture of John being caught up into heaven. They tell us that's the rapture of the church. The church has been taken from the earth. And from chapter 4 through to chapter 19 is the period known as the Great Tribulation. Many believe that the church will not go through this period and so chapters 4 to chapters 19 you may as well cut out of your bible because they don't apply to us they tell us. They have no relevance. They only apply to a certain group of people who will be on this earth during that specific time in future history. Many believe that it's a period that will last three and a half, some seven years. And then chapters 20 to 22 have that picture of the millennium and the picture of paradise regained and the great white throne judgement. And so really the book is future, it's future to you and me tonight. But then there is a third school of interpretation known as the Historicist School of Interpretation and these people believe that the book not only addresses the past and the future but also the present. And they believe that what we have in this book is a history of the Kingdom of God, a history of the Christian Church from the first to the second coming of Christ. And that history is unfolded stage by stage and many believe in a chronological order. Now which of these is the correct one? Well let me be bold to say that they're all wrong. Because I believe that there is something to be said for all three of these schools of interpretation. And if we take one to the exclusion of the others, then I believe that we wrongly interpret this great book. There's something surely to be said for the traitorous interpretation, because this book addresses a very real historic situation. It was sent to seven real churches in Asia. It was sent to comfort these militant churches in their struggle against the forces of evil. It was meant to bring encouragement to them, to show them that the kingdom of God would not fizzle out at the end of the first century, but that Satan and his forces would finally be overthrown, that the land was victorious, and that the city of God remaineth. And what an encouragement this book must have been to those people. And I believe that we only correctly understand this book as we first of all ask ourselves what would this book have meant to the people of the first century going through that conflict and suffering in the first three centuries. But then there is much to be said for the futurist interpretation. Because we have to admit that the book not only deals with the past, it also deals with the future. And the book, after all, is not just a book of history, it is a book of prophecy. Chapter 1 verse 3, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy. Chapter 22, do not steal the words of the prophecy of this book. It's a prophetic book. And prophecy is not only foretelling, it's also foretelling, it's prediction. And there are many things that are yet to be fulfilled in this great book. But thirdly there is also something I believe to be said for the historicist viewpoint because this book not only deals with the past and the future, it also deals with the present. It's a timeless book, its message is relevant to us this evening. It's relevant to the church in every age and in every generation because here in this book we certainly have the whole history of the Gospel age from the first to the second coming of Christ. So let us beware of locking ourselves into one of these three positions to the exclusion of the others and let's rather view the book in the light of all these three positions and I believe that it will help us in our understanding of the book. But the question is how are we to actually approach the book this evening? How can we get into it? Is there an interpretive key that will unlock the structure and the mystery of this book for you and me today? And I believe that there is and I believe that it concerns the number 7. Now numbers are very important in the book of the Revelation and the number 7 is all important. It occurs no less than 42 times in this book. We read for example of 7 golden lampstands, 7 angels, 7 spirits before the throne, 7 stars, 7 churches, a 7 sealed book, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls and we could go on and on adding to that list. 42 references to the number 7. And of course numbers in a book like Revelation are not to be taken literally. They are symbols. They contain meaning. and they need to be interpreted spiritually. And the number seven is the number of completion, it's the number of perfection, it is the number of fullness. And I believe this book is divided up into seven sections. And I want to show you that this is not a structure that is being imposed upon the book, but it naturally arises out of the material. And what's more, these seven sections are parallel. And each of those seven sections covers the history of the Gospel age from the first to the second coming of Christ. We find this in the first section, then it's repeated again in the second and in the third and so on till we get to the end of the book. In other words, the history in the book of the Revelation is not chronological. If we seek to read this book and understand it in a chronological order of unfolding, then we'll go hopelessly astray. It's not chronological, it's not linear history, it's cyclical. There are these seven cycles and we have this repetition of the Gospel age again and again throughout the book. Let me illustrate this. First of all, we have the first section, chapters 1 to 3. And that's the vision of Christ in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. And we are told that the lampstands represent the seven churches in Asia. Now there were more than seven churches in Asia in the New Testament. We read of a church at Troas. We read of a church at Hierapolis. There was a church at Colossae nearby. But only seven are mentioned and singled out in what we know today as modern Turkey. And of course the number seven, as we have said, is a number of perfection and fullness and completion. In other words, in this vision of the seven churches, we have comprehended the complete church of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the Gospel age. And you'll notice that at the end of each of these letters that our Lord addresses to these seven churches, they all end with a reference to the second coming of Christ. and to the last days. Each letter takes us through the gospel age, the church age, right up to the coming again of our Lord. And all this is brought out in chapters 1 to 3. But then the second section, chapters 4 to 7, again that history is repeated from a different perspective and standpoint. Chapter 4, John is caught up into heaven. And he now sees things on earth from a totally different perspective from the perspective of heaven and from the perspective of the throne. He has that vision of a throne in heaven. He sees the one seated upon that throne holding in his right hand a seven scrolled book. What is that book? It is the book of history. It is the book of God's decree and eternal plan. concerning the church, concerning his eternal purpose. And we read that there are tears in heaven because no one is found worthy to open the book, to loose the seals. In other words, no one was found worthy who could execute that plan and put it into practice. But there was one found, the lion of the tribe of Judah, Hathrovites, the lamb himself. He takes that book, he opens and he looses the seals and as those seals are loose one by one we have a graphic picture of the complete gospel edge leading up to the second coming and the final judgement. And at the end of that section we have a graphic vision of people crying out to the rocks to fall upon them, to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb and a wonderful picture of the saints in the glory of heaven. Then the third section, the seven trumpets, chapters 8 through to 11. Again, these trumpets blast one after the other and they reveal a whole series of general woes that are felt on the earth throughout the entire gospel age, leading up and culminating in the final judgement itself. Section 4, the persecuting dragon, chapters 12 to 14. There we have that vision that we refer to Sunday morning of the woman and the male child and the fiery red dragon and in that of course we have a whole picture of the gospel age and of the growth of the church and of the conflict between Christ and Satan and the church and it all leads up and culminates again in that final judgement. The fifth section, the seven bulls 15 and 16, again as these bowls are poured out, again we have general judgements upon the earth throughout the Gospel age, culminating in that final judgement. Section 6, the fall of Babylon, 17 to 19. What is Babylon in the book of the Revelation? It's a type of this world, a painted lady, a prostitute who seeks to seduce the people of God. Babylon shall fall and we have that wonderful picture in those chapters. And then the final section, 20-22, the great consummation. You remember in chapter 20 we have that wonderful picture of the gospel age, the binding of Satan, the spoiling of his goods, the triumph of the gospel, culminating in the wonderful ushering in of the eternal state, new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Seven parallel sections. And yet although that history is repeated seven times, there is progression and there is an intensification as we go from one section to the next. You see in the first section, chapters 1 to 3, the second coming of Christ and the final judgement are only intimated and hinted at. In the second section you'll find that they are mentioned with greater intensity and in the third section onward leading up to the seventh section you'll find that they are brought out in ascending scale of intensity culminating in that awful picture of the lake of fire and in that glorious picture of heaven itself. That wonderful vision of the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God as a bride adorned for her husband. A city paved with gold and walls encrusted with jewels. And so we can say that the seven sections contain progressive parallelism. There is this intensification of the message of judgement and of glory. And God willing we shall see that as we come to those sections in the coming weeks. Now having taken note of that key, I believe that there are a number of other things that will help us also to rightly understand and get into this book. And the first thing is that we need to note the historical background. We need to remember, as we've mentioned, that John is dealing here with a very real situation that occurred in the first century. This book was first and foremost addressed to meet the needs of the Christians in Asia Minor in those seven churches. And I believe that as we look through this book we need to ask ourselves what would this have meant to these Christians going through such suffering in their day. And first of all we notice many references to the background here. There was imprisonment, chapter 2 verse 10. Many of them were going to be cast into prison. It would be a time also of martyrdom, chapter 2 verse 13, chapter 6 verses 9 and 10. Many of them would have to lay down their lives for the cause of the gospel. And this was really brought home powerfully to us when we visited the ruins of Ephesus a couple of years ago. how wonderful it was to walk through those very streets that Paul walked through, and the Apostle John, and many of these early saints. And as we walked down this main street in Ephesus, we found that at the side of the road, right away along for about a quarter of a mile or so, the place was littered with altars and temples to the worship of these gods, these Roman deities. Emperor worship was rife during that period of the Roman Empire. And altars were set up for the worship of the divine Augustus and Trajan and Diocletian and Domitian and many of the others of these great Roman emperors. And it must have been a time of great persecution for these early Christians because if they did not offer incense then they would have been ostracised and persecuted. They would have lost their jobs They wouldn't have been able to have bought and sold in the marketplace. They would be mocked people and many of them would have even been picked on and had their lives snatched away from them. I think the most moving spectacle is when we came to the stadium just outside of the ruins of Ephesus. This was the place where the Christians were made sport of and many lost their lives to the lions. I'm sure that much of the dust of the of the ground, of the blood, and the sinews and the bones of these martyrs, whose lives were poured out, men and women of whom the world was not worthy. It was a time of great suffering and martyrdom. A time of banishment too. This was a common practice, particularly during the time of the reign of the Emperor Domitian, when many believe this book was written towards the end of the first century. It was during Domitian's reign that John was exiled and banished to that little isle called Patmos in the middle of the Aegean. And many others would have been banished there too. And ever since, countless thousands of people have been banished to these Greek islands. We call it today Package Holiday. But joking apart, it would have been no holiday for John and for his companions. this inhospitable little rocky island in the midst of nowhere cut off from the people cut off from the flock of God how anxious John must have been and it was a time too of the rise of false teaching many false teachers in the churches and we see this in chapter 2 particularly prophetesses and false prophets seeking to lead the people of God astray and so we need to understand all this if we are to grasp the overall theme and message of the book. Secondly, we also need to know the whole context of scripture because there are many people when they come to look at this book they seem to divorce it from the rest of scripture and to view it as if it's a new kind of literature as if it's something that has no reference to what has gone before But thank God the Bible is a unity. The Bible is one book. There is one author behind the human authors. And the book of the Revelation is clearly rooted in the teaching that we find in the rest of the book. And if you look through the New Testament you'll find many parallel passages referred to Revelation chapters 1, Many references in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and so on, look at these in your own time that you'll find many similarities between Revelation and these other New Testament writings. And particularly this is the case in the Old Testament. It has been estimated by Westcott and Hort that there are no less than 400 allusions in the book of the Revelation to the Old Testament. And many believe that that is an incomplete list. There are hundreds of illusions. And you cannot really understand the book of the Revelation without an understanding of the Old Testament. How tragic it is when Christians lay aside the Old Testament as if it's got no relevance to us as New Testament believers today. You cannot understand the New without the Old. And this is particularly true of the book of the Revelation. And these are just some of the many Old Testament references. Chapter 1, that description of the Son of Man. It's not something new. It's rooted in Daniel and Ezekiel. It's all Messianic prophecy. Chapter 2, you've got these allusions to the Tree of Life, the Paradise of God, Balaam and Balaam, Jezebel, the Rod of Iron. All these are Old Testament. And we have to understand the Old Testament. to interpret the new. And hopefully you'll look at some of these and check out these references and see how fully the book of the Revelation is rooted in the rest of the Bible and particularly the Old Testament. We need to interpret Scripture with Scripture. And then thirdly I believe if we are to rightly understand this book we need to focus our attention and our gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb Himself. He is the central focus of this book. Look at the very title, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not the revelation of Saint John as many people suggest. Verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him. And it's all about Christ from beginning to end. In a sense, that's true of the whole Bible. Jesus could say, the Scriptures testify of me. And wherever you turn to, in the Old Testament or in the New, it leads us face to face with Jesus Christ himself. But this is specifically the case in the last book of the Bible. We see him in every verse, in every statement. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not simply a revelation that Jesus gave to John, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ himself. And that word revelation here means literally an unveiling, an disclosure, an uncovering of something that was previously hidden. And therefore it is the unveiling of Jesus Christ in all his glory and triumph and his sovereign purposes for his church. And these are just some of the many titles that are ascribed to our blessed Lord in this wonderful book. Faithful Witness, Firstborn from the Dead, the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth. It's a book that is full of Christ. And finally, if we are to rightly understand the book, we need to keep in view the overall theme and purpose of the book. And I believe in the light of what we've said this evening, we can sum it up in the following statement. The purpose of the Book of Revelation is to comfort the militant church in its struggle against the forces of evil. It is full of help and comfort for persecuted and suffering Christians. To them is given the assurance that God sees their tears. Their prayers are influential in world affairs and their death precious in His sight. Their final victory is assured, their blood will be avenged, their Christ lives and reigns forever and ever. He governs the world in the interest of his church. He is coming to take his people to himself in the marriage supper of the Lamb and to live with them forever in a rejuvenated universe. What a tremendous book. God willing as we look through this book in the coming weeks we will see something of the church militant, the suffering church And yet we'll see behind the scenes, as it were, to that ultimate victory of the Lamb himself, the overthrow of all the enemies of the kingdom of God. And we'll see that glorious picture of the city of God remain. So may God bless these studies to his glory.