All right, let's turn to the book of Revelation. And we will read the first three verses of chapter one. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants, the things which must shortly take place. And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant, John. who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. Back in, uh, before I came to Calcedon in the very early seventies, the late sixties, right, right now, 1970, I decided in my pastorate in Virginia that I was going to teach a course on the book of revelation at, uh, uh, in Southwest Virginia. And so I'm teaching it. I get into it a ways and I realize I cannot continue to teach this book without manipulating the text. Now, back in those days, I was a premillennialist. I was a rapturous back in those days. And I just assumed that the book of Revelation was about to rapture and the Antichrist and everything like that. But the more I got into the book of Revelation, the more I realized that wasn't the subject. In fact, the Antichrist, the word Antichrist never occurs in the book of Revelation. So now I was confused. So I stopped teaching it and started studying the Bible some more. And in the meanwhile, I changed churches and went to Bristol, Tennessee. And I thought I'd come to understand the book of revelation a little better because now I was an amillennialist. And, uh, so I started teaching the book of revelation. I got a little farther into it, but then I had to quit because I realized if I continue to teach from this perspective, I got to manipulate the text because the book of revelation doesn't teach what I thought it said. So I stopped teaching it. And then a few years later moved to Atlanta after having studied it more from a post-millennial perspective and started teaching it again and got through it all the way without manipulating the text. And there's two or three people who were there then in 1978 and 79. So after all these years, I decided to go back to the subject. Now, as you could imagine, there's all kinds of views on the book of revelation. And I think the reason there are several reasons for that. I think number one is that most people don't know how to read the book of revelation in the light of how the book of revelation says it's supposed to be read. And as a result, people impose their views on the book of Revelation, twist it and manipulate it and get it to say whatever they want it to say, totally unaware of the fact that the book of Revelation begins in the three verses that we talked about with principles for interpreting the book of Revelation. So I think there's other reasons, but that's basically one. So we're going to focus on these three, uh, versus this morning, uh, this evening. And, uh, by the way, when we said, you know, we're going to tell who the antichrist is and all that, if you have read how Lindsay's book entitled road to Holocaust, you will know who the antichrists are because in that book, he not only gives their names and their addresses. But he says, these are the men who, quote, in his words, are going to lead America and Israel to global disaster in the Battle of Armageddon, unquote. And if you turn to page 2526, you will see my name, And Greg Bonson's name and Gary DeMar's name and Rush Dooney's name and Gary North's name. And we're the guys that are going to lead America and Israel to global disaster in Armageddon. So, uh, that's my one claim to fame. And so there was a little fundamentalist church, uh, about six miles from Calcedon when we were in, uh, Dunwoody that just believed everything Hal Lindsey said. And so when this book came out, there was a young woman in that church who thought, I'd never thought I'd get to see one, somebody prophesied in the Bible as anti-Christian. And so she drove to Calcedon just to see one of the antichrists and Jennifer Clet Simon stayed for the next 25 or so years. So I wrote a book review. on the book Road to Holocaust, and entitled the book review, Thank You, Hal Lindsey. And my point was, if you hadn't identified me as one of the antichrists, we never would have gotten Jennifer Klett. I don't know if you ever read it or not. Okay, now let's look at some of these principles from the first three verses. Notice the first thing it says that is so important, the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's one of the most important principles of interpretation for the whole book. This is a divine revelation from God himself. It bears God's authority, it is infallible, and it does not contradict anything else anywhere in the Bible. It, like the Bible in its entirety and in all of its parts, is the word of God. That means that the concluding book of God's written revelation must be interpreted in the light of the books that precede it. Now, one of the problems that people get to is they start with the book of revelation first. And they don't start where the Bible starts. And that is Genesis. If you want to understand revelation correctly, you got to start in Genesis. and go through the Bible and then get to the book of Revelation because the symbols and the figures of speech and the images that are used in the book of Revelation are taken from somewhere previously in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. And that is a great help to remember. because there are some weird images in this book and the more you study the scriptures, the more you see they're explained previously somewhere in the Bible particularly in the book of Ezekiel. Now, what that also means is that you interpret the book of Revelation like you interpret the Bible, and that is in studying teachings and symbols of the Bible, the less clear must be interpreted by the more clear teaching of the word of God. You don't start in trying to understand the future with Revelation 20. Revelation 20 is about, you know, the millennium and the binding of Satan and all those various things. And it is a difficult chapter. You don't start with the book of revelation to understand the future. You start elsewhere with the clearer teachings of the word of God about what, because you have to have the previous teachings of the word of God to understand the 20th chapter. I'll give you an example. It says that Satan is going to be, is bound, going to be bound for a thousand years in the 20th chapter. Uh, the word by bound comes from a Greek word that was used by Jesus when he said, my, my miracles prove that the kingdom of God is at hand. And I've come to break into the bad man's house to buy on the bad man that I might steal his goods. And in contact it, in context, it was Satan himself that was bound by Jesus 2000 years ago. And it's the very same word that's used in revelation 20. So the point is you don't start with the difficult passages and there are some difficult passages. You start with the clear passages of the word of God, and then work your way to the more difficult passages. Now, the second thing to notice is in verse three. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy. The second thing is that the book of Revelation is prophetic literature. Now you get most commentaries on the book of Revelation and they're going to tell you that it's a different kind of literature. You know what they're going to tell you? They're going to tell you it's apocalyptic literature. Anybody ever seen that word before? It comes from the word apocalypse, which means revelation, but it refers to a specific kind of literature in the first century, that the book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature, completely ignoring the fact that it says it's a prophecy. Now, it's not apocalyptic literature. No matter what scholar tells you, it's not apocalyptic literature. Jewish apocalyptic literature in the first century was condemned by early church councils. You know, the church councils like Nicaea and Constantinople and Chalcedon and all those various others. It was rejected by the Christian church. Now, what does apocalyptic literature teach? It teaches that there is a catastrophic breaking in of the end to destroy evil and destroy history. A catastrophic breaking in so that there is no relationship between what happens after that catastrophic termination of the universe and what happened before the termination of the universe. Apocalyptic literature had a pessimistic view that before the end, history would be hopelessly dominated by evil. That view did not originate with the Bible. That view originated in the first century with Jewish, non-Christian, apocalyptic literature. So now remember those things. Apocalyptic and, of course, doctrines like premillennialism and rapturism incorporate that old Jewish apocalypticism. What's the whole point of the rapture? Christ is going to come, snatch the Christians out of here, going to be seven years of tribulation, and there's no connection. between history and what happens after history after this great catastrophic breaking in of the end. And what is it you also find in rapturism? The world's getting progressively worse and worse and hopelessly lost and evil before the second coming of Christ. They didn't get that from the Bible. There's nothing in the Bible that says that about the end of the world. Now in the Old Testament, they're getting mixed up, in the Old Testament things got worse and worse until Jesus came. But that was the Old Testament. And those are the two traits of apocalyptic literature. There's a catastrophic breaking in of history that destroys everything prior to it and begins a whole new history. And secondly, there is a pessimistic view that the world gets worse and worse. Now, what does the Bible teach? The Bible teaches that there is an inseparable connection between the flow of history and the consummation of history. That history of men is honored by God, is significant, is controlled by God, and someday history will be glorified and eternalized at Christ's coming. In other words, Christ is not going to come to discard history. Christ is not going to come to burn up and annihilate and destroy a history so that everything prior to the second coming becomes irrelevant. There's nothing in the scriptures that teach that. That he's coming not to discard history, but to rescue it. The Bible teaches that this heaven and this earth will be glorified into the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation 21. That the new, the perfect new heavens and new earth in eternity after the second coming of Christ, it's not another universe. It is this universe, this heaven and this earth perfected at the second coming of Christ. How do the, how do we know that? Well, we know that for several reasons, but one is because of the word new. There are two Greek words for new. One word, new, means having never been in existence before. The other word for new means renewed, or rejuvenated, or retooled. And the word for new heavens and new earth is not the first word. That means heaven and earth that were never in existence before. It is the second word, renewed. So the new heavens and the new earth that will be perfected in the second coming of Christ is this heaven and this earth renewed by the second coming of Christ. So there is no discarding of history. In the biblical view of history, there is an accomplished defeat of evil, In the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a progressive and continual destruction of evil as the kingdom of God advances over all the world. And then at the end of time, there's not going to be annihilation. There's going to be a consummation and perfecting and finishing of that triumph of God's people over evil. All of these are traits of prophecy, not apocalyptic literature. Prophecy keeps together the flow of history and the end of history. Prophecy speaks of an accomplished defeat of evil, a progressive defeat of evil, and a final and perfected defeat of evil. And also, biblical prophecy insists on ethical considerations. It insists on ethical considerations. Uh, in the old Testament, as well as here in this prophetic book in the new Testament, prophecy is for the purpose of causing people to behave in a certain way, to repent, to believe, to persevere, veer in faithfulness. However, to the difficult, difficult, the situation becomes apocalyptic literature had no ethical implication, satisfied curiosity. I have a chart somewhere in my office or, or paper somewhere. It's about six, eight feet long. And it's about this wide and it's a detailed chart of everything that's going to happen. Starting with the rapture and going through tribulation and the millennium and all that stuff looks like a blueprint for the sewer system in New York city. But the point is it has no ethical implications. You'll learn all this stuff. And then you say, so I'm not going to be here for there's a rapture. So, so, but you see prophecy has ethical. implications that's the difference between it and apocalyptic literature so the second principle of interpretation is that the book of revelation is not apocalyptic literature it is prophecy third principle how important this is the book of revelation says that it is highly figurative highly figurative look at verse one the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his bondservants the things which must shortly take place and he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bondservant John now I think the King James Version has a better word than communication and I just checked this out before I came into the church tonight King James says signified Well, now I want you to pronounce the word signified incorrectly so that you can get the point of the word. The word is signified, signified. The Greek word means to write invisible, to write and communicate in visible signs and images and figures of speech. So when he says he communicated to John, what he's saying is, is that this revelation that I'm giving you, John, is highly figurative. It is full of metaphor and similes and figures of speech of all kinds and symbolic images. It's highly figurative. Somebody referred to the book of Revelation as the God's great picture book at the end of the Bible. Somebody else wrote of it, it is a book of spiritual cartoons. Pictorial present presentations of divine truth as it applies to human history. He said, therefore, we must always ask two questions when interpreting the figures of this book, what's the picture and what does the picture mean? So when he says this is signified communicated, it means that this book is true, is written in symbols and signs and figures. Now what that means then. is the popular statement that revelation must be taken literally is an unbiblical principle of interpretation. When somebody says to interpret it correctly, you must literally interpret the book of Revelation, that's an unbiblical principle. Because the first verse says it's not to be taken literally. It is written in signs and symbols. And besides, I don't know anybody, including Hal Lindsey, who says he takes the Bible literally, that takes the Bible literally. I know of no one, including Hal Lindsey, that says the book of Revelation should be taken literally, that takes the book of Revelation literally. Let me give you some examples, one example. The Bible says that in the Trinity you have God the Father, the Son, the Lamb of God, and the seven spirits before the throne. I don't know anybody but Benny Hinn who thinks there's nine persons in the Trinity. The father and the son and the seven spirits before the throne. And yet that phrase seven spirits does refer to the Holy Spirit. So you see, you can't take that seven literally or you wind up a heretic. And besides that, it contradicts the very principle that we have here. Now, every word in the book of revelation is true. Every sentence is true. To say that we don't take the book of revelation literally is not to say that we don't take it truly. But when it comes to the scriptures and the proper understanding of the Bible, the various parts of the Bible must be understood in terms of their literary form. I mean, in the Bible, you've got historical narrative, you've got poetry, you've got parable, you've got prophecy, you've got all kinds of literary forms. And it all depends upon the literary genre as to how you interpret it. I mean, when it comes to poetry, you don't take poetry literally, particularly Hebrew poetry, that is full of imagery. Hebrew poetry says that God shall cover us with his feathers. Now, I don't know anybody that believes that God literally has wings. And the point is, he's not saying that God has wings. That's a highly figurative statement to make a powerful point. And so it is in the book of Revelation. And most of the figures of speech and concepts in the book of Revelation are taken from earlier sections of the Bible. Lamp stands. Lambs, all those Old Testament concepts. The description of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 20. Go read the book of Ezekiel and you see most of it there. So when you come to read the book of Revelation, don't read it literally as you would read historical narrative, read it as if it's written in figures of speech. Powerful, powerful, vivid figures of speech. Next biblical principle. Verses one, two, and three. And that is the historical timeframe. When was the book of Revelation written? And what's the focus historically of the book of Revelation? Well, let's see, verse 1, 2, and 3. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants the things which must shortly take place. And he sent and communicated it by his angel to his bond servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God, to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near. Now there you have two statements that tell us about the historical timeframe of the book of revelation being in the first century. If you were to get a letter from me, like these seven churches in Asia Minor, as they got the Book of Revelation, and I were to say in this letter to you, and this church you should see in chapter two was written to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to the various other churches mentioned there in chapter two and three in Turkey, in Asia Minor, in the first century, and you got a letter from me that says, I'm gonna talk about things that will shortly take place, so listen very carefully because the time is near. What would you think I was saying? Would you think I was saying, now I want you to listen very carefully because I'm going to write about things that may surely take place about two or three thousand years from now. And the time is near at least 10,000 years. No. If I wrote those words, I'm going to write about things that must shortly take place because the time is near. You would assume that I'm talking about things that you or at least your generation is going to see. Or else words mean nothing. And so this book was written in the first century and it was written to a group of people in the first century. And it says to you people, you churches in Asia minor, I'm going to write about things that must shortly take place. So from the very beginning, we'll have to, we should ask the question, not the wrong question. What does this mean to me today? That's always the wrong question. When you go to study the scriptures. When you study the scriptures, the first question you ask is what did this mean to the person that wrote it and to the people that received it? And having started there, then you work forward to your own self. So the contents of the book of Revelation in some way relate and the prophecy of the book of Revelation relates to the people that lived in the first century AD. You see, I'm not making this up. I'm just showing you what it says. Things that will surely take place, the time is near. So that means we should ask the book of Revelation, if we're going to study it, questions like this. What did these figures of speech mean to the first century readers? When the churches in Asia Minor read these figures of speech, how did they understand them? How were these figures of speech fulfilled in their lifetime? before we start talking about how they are fulfilled in our lifetime now you and I as conservative Christians politically believe in the doctrine of original intent when it comes to the Constitution we only want judges on the federal bench who will interpret the Constitution according to the original intent of the writers of the Constitution and not judges that will make the constitution say anything they want it to say. Well, the doctrine of original intent does not only apply to the constitution. It applies to any historical document that the only way to honestly understand any document out of past history is to understand it according to the original intent of those that wrote it and of those that received it. And what's the original intent of John, the author of the book of revelation. I'm going to write you about things that shortly take place because the time is near. Now that view exclude certain other views. I have a commentary in my library about a famous guy. I'm not going to tell you it is because I don't want to you to not like him, but. He's got a commentary on the book of Revelation that's totally useless because it exclusively is concerned with the distant future. It has nothing to say about now. It's exclusively concerned with the distant future. Second, there is a idea that the book of Revelation does not deal with real historical facts, but with ideas and principles. And so you don't go to the book of Revelation, we're told, to study history. You go to study ideals and philosophy. Well, that's not what John says. John says, I'm going to tell you about things that are shortly going to take place. And then you have the view of most of the Puritans and of Matthew Henry and of that era in the 17th century that says that said that revelation presents us with a detailed outline of the whole course of church history from the first century to the present. And in the Puritan commentaries on the book of revelation, you can find the date for the fall of the Byzantine empire. You can find the prophesied date for the fall of Roman Catholicism for the fall of Islam, et cetera. I mean, it gets funny after a while, but that's not what the first three verses of revelation say. It's not about a chronology of history. It's about things that will shortly take place in the lifetime of the people that received this letter in the first century. Now, that means that we should learn something about the historical situation. Of those seven churches in Asia minor that received this epistle, this prophetic epistle in revelation two and three. So here's just three things. I mean, I can tell you a great deal about the historical context of these seven churches in the first century, but let me just tell you three things. Just remember these three, three things, because they're helpful in understanding the book of revelation. Number one, the first century was a time of vast and rapid expansion of Christianity. In one century, Christianity grew from Scotland to China. There were over a million Christians in the Roman empire by the end of the first century. So that that's the first thing to remember. The first century was a time of vast and rapid expansion of Christianity. Second, as Christianity expanded, it expanded in the midst of popular Caesar cults. That's the second thing. is there were Caesar cults all over the Roman empire that worshiped Caesar, the Caesars, and declared the Caesars to be gods. And then thirdly, as after 70 AD in the fall of Jerusalem, there were some 200 years, 10 distinct waves of severe, bloody, fierce, growing persecution of Christians by the Roman empire. There was slandering of the Christians by the apostate Judaism until 70 AD. And that ended that, but for the next 200 years, there was this persecution of Christians by the Roman empire. So now remember those three principles. All right. Now, when was the book of revelation written? We're on page eight. What's the date? If you look at many of the older commentaries that came out in the mid and early 20th century, they will all tell you that the book of revelation was written toward the very end of the first century in the nineties when John, the apostle was an old man. Well, in the new commentaries on the book of Revelation, you see that older view refuted, going back to an older, older view that the book of Revelation, along with the rest of the Bible, was completed before 70 AD. That the whole Bible was finished. before 470 A.D. and the best book on the subject is a pretty fat book called Before Jerusalem Fell by Kenneth Gentry. If you want to read a book just on dating and why the book of Revelation was not written in the late first century but before 470 A.D. read Ken Gentry's book Before Jerusalem Fell. Now let me give you some reasons from the book of Revelation why We should believe the book was written before 70 A.D. So this is not our imposing our view on it again. This is letting the book of Revelation tell us when it was written. So here are the reasons for believing that the book of Revelation was written just prior to A.D. 70. Number one, there are many prophetic allusions to the fall of Jerusalem in the first 11 chapters. In the first 11 chapters, there are several predictions and illusions to Old Testament prophecies about the fall of Jerusalem. And in the first 11 chapters, they're still prophesying the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. What does that tell you? It tells you that Jerusalem hadn't fallen yet. Second, look at chapter 11, verse one. This is a clincher as far as I'm concerned. One of the clinchers. Revelation 11, 1. And there was given me a measuring rod like a staff and someone said, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it. So there John is instructed to measure the temple. What does that tell you? That tell you the temple is still standing. That the temple had not yet been destroyed and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Now in chapter 17, verse 10, it identifies the time of the writing of the book of Revelation as during the reign of Nero, the seventh emperor of Rome. Revelation 17, 10. Verse 9, here is the mind which has wisdom, the seven heads or seven mountains on which the woman sits. Have you ever heard of the seven hills of Rome, by the way? And they are seven kings, five have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come, when he comes he must remain a while. So here you have an identification of Nero as the sixth, I mean, king. uh... emperor over he reigned in the early sixties and the middle sixties just before the fall of rome by the way the emperors before nero previous emperors were Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, Caligula Caesar, Claudius Caesar, and then Nero who reigned from 54 AD to 68. But now also you remember that the name of the person who ruled over these hills amounted to six, the numerical value was 666. Do you remember where that was, anybody? 660 yeah chapter 13 It says in verse 18 here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast That is the great political beast the Roman Empire sits on these seven hills governed by this King for the number is that of a man and his number is 666 Now that's the numerical value of the beast, of the head of this beast. And that's a little, well, it shouldn't be that strange to us that numbers had numerical value, letters. Letters had numerical value in the first century, still do today. I mean, if you still write Roman numerals, you've got X and X means... 10, you've got V, and you've got a D, and you've got an M, and all of those various letters have various numerical values. Well, if you add up the numerical value of the letters in Nero's name, it amounts to 666. And by the way, in Greek, as well as in English, 666 has a hissing sound to it. 666. So in the background, There is the hissing of the serpent. But anyway, so these are some of the reasons why we identify the date of the writing of the Revelation to be before the fall of Jerusalem. He was said to measure the temple. There are prophetic allusions to Old Testament prophecies about the fall of Jerusalem. Revelation 17 identifies Nero and his proper order of the Caesars and the numerical value of Nero's name. is actually spelled out in the book of revelation. So the book of revelation was written during the reign of Nero Caesar and Nero Caesar died in 68 and the fall of Jerusalem took place in 70. There is no reference. How, by the way, in the entire book of revelation to the fall of Jerusalem, having taken place. I mean, if this book was written in 90, a D that would have been a significant thing that early in history. but it's never referred to as taking place. So remember now, and that's important as we come to some chapters on how to understand some chapters later on in the book of Revelation. The focus of the book of Revelation is the destruction of the two great enemies of the Christian church in the first century. You remember, that's how we got to where we got to start. What did this mean in the first century? Before we start asking, how do we apply this to our lifetime? of what did the figures of speech mean to them before we start applying it, how we are to relate them to our own lives. And the focus of the book of Revelation is twofold. It is aimed at explaining how Christ destroys or begins to destroy the two great enemies of the church in the first century. Now remember, it's about things that shortly take place. So whatever it's about, It's about things that took place or began to take place in the first century. Now what were the two great, and this is important too for understanding Revelation. Go home tonight or this week and read the book of Revelation like this and see if it doesn't help. The book of Revelation is about, is prophesying the destruction of apostate Judaism, represented in Jerusalem, and the destruction of anti-Christian tyrannical Rome. And the verse chapters 4 through 11, Picture the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, guaranteeing the fall of apostate Judaism. And chapters 12 through 19, picture the destruction of Rome, guaranteeing the destruction of a tyrannical anti-Christian state. Now, if we don't do this, then this book is meaningless to the first century writers. It had to mean something to them. Who were the two great enemies of the church in first century apostate Judaism represented by Jerusalem and anti-Christian Rome. And the book of revelation is about how Christ destroyed or begin destroying both of those enemies of the church in the first century. He destroyed apostate Judaism in 70 AD. And then over the next two or three centuries, Rome just continued to crumble and to fall, just like the book of Revelation predicts. So now go home and you see the introductory chapters in verses 1, 2, and 3. Then in chapters 4 through 11, you see the destruction of apostate Judaism and Jerusalem, 70 AD. You also see the images coming from Ezekiel 2. And in chapters 12 through 19, you have a picture of the destruction of Rome. Now, how do we apply that today? Because I want to impress you with the fact that this is not an outdated Uh, antique book simply because we rooted in history any more than the constitution is antique because we rooted in history. The point is what God did to apostate religion in the first century and to anti-terra anti-Christian tyrannical Rome. He will always do to those who persecute his people. apostate religions that persecute his people will suffer the same fate to one degree or another the fall of Jerusalem and anti-christian tyrannical states that oppress and persecute the people of God will suffer the judgment of the Lord Jesus Christ history is full of ruined oppressors and tyrants BC and AD nations and men So we read this book in the light of Revelation 13. In Revelation 13, for instance, there's two beasts. One beast come out of the sea, and one beast comes out of the land. The beast that comes from the sea, now what sea is he talking about? Mediterranean Sea. Where is he standing when he's, where are the people standing when they get this book? They're standing on the eastern part of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor. The beast that comes from the sea. What is the sea beyond their horizon? What's in the sea beyond their horizon? Rome, Italy. So that the beast from the sea represents the persecuting tyrannical anti-Christian Roman empire. And the beast from the land represents the apostate Jewish church. And as we apply today, the beast from the sea involves all civil institutions that are built upon a principle of revolt against God and that are threats to God's people. And the beast of the land represent all forms of anti-Christianity that oppose the people of God. The point is that no matter how ferocious political institutions become in their oppression, and no matter how ferocious apostate religions like Islam, become in their persecution of the church, there are no threat to us. That just like Jesus destroyed apostate Judaism and anti-Christian Rome, so he will be our defender and our protector against any religion, against any state that seeks to wipe us off the face of the map. And you see how relevant and how powerful the book of Revelation becomes. The purpose of the book of Revelation is to encourage Christians under persecution. and to encourage us to persevere in the midst of the most severe opposition. Turn to chapter 13, verse 10. 9 and 10, if anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes. If anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints. Chapter 14, verse 12. Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. So the purpose of this book is to encourage Christians to persevere when they're under opposition or they live in evil cultures. In other words, the book of Revelation should be an encouragement to you and me who live in this evil culture. Chapter 1, verse 3 says that God will bless everybody that hears and believes the words of this prophecy. The book of Revelation also has its purpose to nourish hope in the future. It wanted to encourage these Christians. Can you imagine for 200 years, 10 waves, the normal way of life is if you're born into a Christian church or you join a Christian church, you're probably going to be burned at stake, fed to the lions. I mean, that was the norm. They needed hope for the future to get them past all that. And the book of Revelation is to nourish hope for the future. Now there's one last word in, uh, We'll come back to an outline next week. There's one other, two other words I didn't mention in verses one, two, and three that are essential to interpreting the book of revelation correctly. The revelation of Jesus Christ. This is an unveiling of Jesus Christ. It is not so much a book about history or philosophy as it is a book, a revelation, the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything in the whole book is about him. He is the basis of the perseverance and the hope and the victory of the church. Look at verse one, chapter 13, that the book of revelation is a revelation of his glorious perfections. Verse 17, it is a revelation of his all sufficiency. Verse 18, it's a revelation of the perfection of Christ's redemptive work. It's a revelation of the universal sovereignty and dominion of Christ. Let me give you a quick, and this is the last thing I'm gonna do, a quick one or two sentence description of each of the chapters of the book of Revelation. Chapter 1, the first three verses, an introduction to the main principles of interpretation and an introduction to the theme of the main character, who is the glorified Christ. Chapters 2 through 3, we see what Christ thinks of his church. Chapter 4, we read about the sovereign rule of God over creation, including all the enemies of his church. In chapter five, Christ, the governor of history and administrator of covenant blessings and curses is portrayed. Chapter six, Christ is the invincible conqueror and the instrument, it shows the instrument he uses to advance his conquest. Chapter 7 presents us with the security and the protection in Christ of God's entire and vast church. Chapter 8, we see the place of prayer in the plans of God and of Christ. Chapters 8 and 9, we see the call of God to battle and to victory. Chapter 10, we see that history and the control of history is in the hands of Christ. Chapter 11, we see how Christ uses witnessing in the plan of God. Chapter 12, we read about the triumph of Christ in Satan's stupid war. Chapter 13, we see how Christ defeats the beasts from Satan. Chapter 14, we see the exaltation of Christ with his church over all their enemies. Chapter 15, the victorious and jubilant song of Moses and of the Lamb. Chapter 16, the finality of God's judgment on the impenitent and those who refuse to believe in Jesus. Chapter 17, the rise and fall of all anti-Christian societies. Chapter 18, the suicide nature of all anti-Christian societies. Chapter 19, that we see the all-conquering Christ and his total victory. Chapter 20, the glorious reign of Christ over all the earth. Chapter 21, the progression and consummation of history at the second coming of Christ. And chapter 22, the glory of the city of God and the morning star who is Christ. This book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. You want to be encouraged to persevere in a difficult culture? Read and study the book of Revelation. You want to know more about Christ and love him and be more motivated to persevere when it's difficult? Read the book of Revelation. Study it according to the principles that it gives you to understand it. Let us pray. We thank you, our God, for this great and glorious book. Give us hungry minds, submissive wills, humble hearts as we seek to understand this book and to live by it for Christ's sake. Amen.