Recall The Revelation Of Jesus

Let's take our Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 1. You follow, I read verses 9 through 20. 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 and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and 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 and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like 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 and the living one. I died, and 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. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you again for your goodness and your grace. we thank you that you have called us to yourself we thank you again for this book for father you have told us that those who read it are blessed we ask now that you would guide our thinking help us again to understand some fundamental truths and lord god we will give you praise in glory for all that you have accomplished through your word and by your spirit in our lives help us now we pray that we might serve you and honor you in all that we do in light of all that the Lord Jesus is doing and will do We pray this now in his name Amen Do you remember the best teachers that you had in high school They're the ones who took time to review the material before you had an exam.

Well, this morning I want to review what we've seen in the book of Revelation so far. Now, by doing this, I am by no means aspiring to the title of best teacher. Okay, let's get that straight. I'm not aspiring to that as all. However, we've been out of this book for a number of weeks, and I thought it would be profitable to review what we have seen thus far, get it fixed in our minds before we move on.

Having done that, we will move on to the rest of the book with very little interruption, the Lord willing, assuming that there won't be too much interruption with Reformation Sunday, Harvest Feast, and Christmastime. But other than that, I think those are the only interruptions. And we want to work through this book and understand it. So this morning I want you to recall this revelation of Jesus, having this firmly fixed in your minds, and then moving on in succeeding weeks to the rest of the book.

It begins again, if you remember, with these words. The revelation of Jesus Christ, or the apocalypse of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. Thus we have the title of the book, The Revelation. Recall with me then that this is the revelation of Jesus. It is a revelation or an apocalypse. The word translated revelation is the Greek word apocalypse.

And please note, it is revelation in the singular. Recall as well that the penalty for anyone saying revelations in this congregation is you will have your tongue cut out. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, not revelations. I was watching something on television one night and one character said, Charlie, have you ever read the book of Revelations? It just, there's something about a white horse in the book of Revelations.

And Charlie says, no, I've never read Revelations. Well, I know it's in Revelations. I just about couldn't handle that. It's Revelation. Now it an apocalypse And when we hear apocalypse we think of terrible awful things That term apocalypse has come to mean the end if you will It comes to mean all these incredible things. Well, the word apocalypse is the word for revelation.

It has the idea of uncovering or disclosing. It's as if you pull the covers back or take away the veil, and what was hidden behind it is now revealed and disclosed. That is the nature of this book. It is the unveiling, the disclosing, the revelation of a number of truths. It's as if I walk into my house and I look over there into the room in our house to the right where the couches are and I see a pile of blankets over there.

And I say, now who left that pile of blankets there? So I walk over to fold the blankets and I take them off and they're laying there underneath all those blankets. This is my grandson Ryan. That's what we're talking about. It's taking away, uncovering, so you see clearly. That's the idea in the word revelation.

So this book is the revelation or the unveiling or the full disclosure of Jesus. It's the full disclosure of Jesus. But this is a revelation that uses symbols in order to do that. Revelation is an example of what we call apocalyptic literature. All right? Apocalyptic literature.

An apocalyptic book discloses its message by impressing vivid, startling, almost bizarre pictures on your imagination. Now, there are a few other apocalyptic books in the Bible besides Revelation. In Daniel, Daniel is one. You find some wild beasts, like a lion with eagle wings, and then the wings are plucked, and he stands up like a man. All right? That's bizarre.

That's weird. Okay? Or the beast with iron teeth and ten horns, which grows another little horn with the eyes and mouth of a man. All right? You get those pictures in your mind. You say, that is really wild.

Ezekiel has his crazy beasts each with a fiery wheel within a wheel and with eyes all around the outside of that wheel so you get this fiery wheel turning a wheel in a wheel with eyes on the outside That weird You have Zechariah who has the two olive trees and the lampstand and a flying scroll. Those are examples of apocalyptic literature. They're very symbolic.

They use symbols. Now here's the thing we have to remember. Those symbols are used not to hide the truth, but to disclose, to unveil, to reveal the truth. The symbols are used to tell you a truth that you need to know. So in this book, of course, are lots of symbols in the form of many different things. There's these four living beasts we're going to encounter in chapter 4.

All right, there's the pregnant woman with the moon at her feet who's attacked by the dragon in chapter 12. There are the 144,000 witnesses. There is the woman, Babylon, riding on a beast. There is the beast and the false prophet. All these are symbols, but they are symbols intended to disclose or reveal the truth, not hide the truth, but to bring the truth out in a way that's understandable.

For example, it's like this. When the conservative candidate for Congress, Alex Jones, says on the stump as he's running for office, our government is a giant octopus with its tentacles reaching into every corner of your life. What does he mean by that? When you thought of the government, you thought of a bunch of men in Washington, D.C. who are passing laws.

But now you have in your head this bizarre image of a giant octopus crawling over the top of the Capitol Dome with his tentacles reaching all the way to the roof, right? Well, what's Alex Jones trying to do? He's trying to make a point. He's trying to make something clear to you. He's not trying to hide something from you. He's using that symbol to make clear to you that those men in Washington are making laws that take away your freedom and extend the government's control over every activity in your life.

That's what he means by using that wild idea of an octopus with its tentacles reaching everywhere. And so the bizarre images in Revelation reveal... Disclose, unveil the true character of the events and the individuals and the forces and the trends that we face as Christians. Now that means then, if you recall with me, that means then that you do not interpret this book literally.

You interpret it symbolically. So, the next day, your son, who's in eighth grade, comes back from the eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C., and you look at him and you say, hey, did you happen to see an octopus while you were there? If that's what you ask, you've missed the point. If you actually think there's an octopus, then you have missed the point entirely, because you've thought of it literally.

You can't do that with this book. If you interpret the symbols of Revelation literally, you will miss the point of the book. Now, you know, if you're taking notes right now, underline that, star it, do whatever's necessary. This is absolutely essential in understanding this book. Now, I grew up in a tradition that understood this book literally, okay? And, for example, the one that pops into my mind, the one I have in my notes, actually, is found in Revelation 11.

In Revelation 11. Okay? Revelation 11, verse 4. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed.

Now he's talking about these two witnesses, Elijah and Moses. Okay, that's what he's talking about here. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying. They have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. There's Elijah, remember, stopped the rain and Moses brought the plagues and struck the water and made blood and so forth.

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom in Egypt where their Lord was crucified For three and a half days some of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here.

And they went up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. Now, you know what I was taught, even in college? This is Moses and Elijah, come back to earth. and they actually kill people with flames from their mouths.

And they're going to be killed. And they're going to lay in the streets of Jerusalem. You say, well, how are the whole world going to see them? Well, we have television now. And they're going to train their cameras on them. And we're going to see them all through the whole world.

And everyone's going to see them resurrected. That's to miss the point of the whole book. If you do that, you miss it. That's not what he's talking about. You cannot interpret this book literally. It's not intended that way.

It's as if you were to say, oh, son, did you see an octopus in Washington? Now we laugh at that, okay, because we know it's supposed to be a symbol of another truth. So you've got to understand that if we're going to understand this book, we have to interpret it symbolically. We have to understand it with the understanding of the people who lived back then, who knew what the symbol stood for.

And we have to look at it with particularly the Old Testament in mind because many of these symbols are drawn from the Old Testament. And they are intended for us to be understood in light of what they were saying in the Old Testament. Alright? So, again, this is a book of symbols that must be interpreted symbolically. This is, notice, the revelation of Jesus.

And the revelation of Jesus can mean two things. Okay? When we say well let just say this This is a revelation of Jesus It can mean it a revelation from Jesus or it can mean it a revelation about Jesus In fact, it's both. It is a revelation from Jesus, and it is a revelation about Him. It is the revelation about Jesus. Look at verse 1 again.

Verse 1 of chapter 1. 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. John says that everything that he saw, the entire book, is the testimony regarding Jesus, and he's given that to you. All right? Now, what have we seen so far? It reveals Jesus, verse 5, as the faithful witness.

Jesus is revealed as the faithful witness. Jesus persevered as a faithful witness to the Father in the face of persecution, even to His death. And by His faithful witness in suffering, even to death, only to be raised again and exalted to the right hand of the Father, this encourages you in your suffering. You can have confidence that Christ has suffered the same thing and that he has overcome, and thereby, as you suffer, and even if you die, you too will overcome.

All right? So it reveals Jesus as the faithful witness to encourage you in the midst of persecution. It reveals Jesus, verse 5 again, as the firstborn of the dead. Jesus not only suffered unto death, but he conquered death, and he occupies an exalted position. It reveals Jesus as the ruler of kings on earth. Jesus is the sovereign ruler over all the rulers of the earth, even the satanic forces behind them.

And this book is going to take us to the satanic forces behind those who persecute the church. And he's saying here that Jesus is sovereign over all of that. No matter how they come against his people those powers are still subject to the lordship of Jesus Nothing overtakes you except that which Jesus allows or brings into your life He is the ruler of kings on earth And note if you recall he the ruler now but it a mysterious rule.

You can't see it. And we are also called to rule with him. We too rule with him. It doesn't look like it, does it? But Revelation discloses the reality that we are rulers as well. How do we rule?

Like he did, by suffering to death. How did Jesus win the victory? He died. And over and over this book is going to show the victors are the ones who look like the losers. But when you draw back the curtains, it's the losers who end up looking like the winners. That's the reality.

All right? He's the ruler of kings on earth. Verse 6, it reveals Jesus as the loving and powerful redeemer of his people. By the death of Jesus, we have been constituted that kingdom. We now must exhibit to the nations the glorious, joyful rule of God. All right?

So in this book, we're going to see that in the midst of tribulation and in the midst of seduction, it is the church of God bought by the blood of Jesus who show forth to the nations the glorious and joyful rule of God. And by his death, Jesus has constituted us priests. We serve him. And so the powerful death of Jesus frees us from sin's grasp so that in this evil world, as his kingdom, we display the glory of God.

And as his priests, we offer to him those who come to Christ. Now we come to chapter 1, verses 12 through 16, where things start getting really a little bit weird on us, right? You see this figure of this person in this robe with a sash, with white hair and shiny feet and flaming eyes and so forth. Verses 12 through 16, it reveals Jesus as the promised end-time judge.

The last day judge, the end-time judge, who is predicted in Daniel chapter 7 and Daniel chapter 10. All right? So if you would go back and look at Daniel 7 and Daniel 10, you will see almost all of these characteristics there. Predicted. Jesus is the one who fulfills what Daniel saw as the Son of Man. This great figure who approaches God and who is given dominion.

Alright? And he judges over, he rules over all the nations. This is the promised end time judge from the book of Daniel. That's who Jesus is. And then finally, at the end of this chapter, we see Jesus revealed as the Lord of his congregations. the Lord of his churches. He walks among the congregations of his people to commend and to judge.

All right? He is the one who is the ruler of all the churches. Now, again, let me say this to you. When you're in this book, and especially at the end of chapter 1 and then chapter 2 and 3, you see that Jesus isn't just the Lord of the universal church. It talks about him being the Lord of every single congregation. as he walks among the congregations, those seven lampstands, which represent, verse 20, which represent his churches.

He's walking as a judge that's examining them to see if he's going to leave the candlestick or if he's going to take it. If he's going to let it serve him or because of his judgment, take its witness away from the world. So he walks among the congregations as their Lord. And finally, it reveals Jesus as our sovereign God. Verses 17 through 19. He is the first and the last.

Don't miss this. He is the first and the last. That's drawn directly from the Old Testament and is a term used of God himself. In Isaiah 44, verse 6, is just one of them. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God.

There is no way to escape what's happening here. Deity of Jesus is being proclaimed, is being revealed. Now, he's essentially saying the same thing that God has said in chapter 1, verse 8. I am the Alpha and the Omega. Right The beginning and the end The beginning and the end the first and the last Same thing And by the way what you going to find in this book is those two terms are used interchangeably between God and Jesus.

So it's clear from the book of Revelation that draws back the veil and says, this one that you call your Savior, that you call your Lord, is also your God. And through his resurrection, Jesus holds the keys to death and Hades. All right? He reigns over the realm that once held him, for he conquered it by his resurrection. So he is sovereign over who is released and who is retained in that realm.

Now that's a revelation about Jesus, but it's also a revelation from Jesus. Verse 1 again. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. So it's a revelation about Jesus, and it is a revelation from Jesus. It comes from God to Jesus to his angel to John to us. All right?

And it's Jesus who tells us the things that must soon take place. This book is about the latter days. Now hear me out. This book is about the latter days. That is to say, this book is about that period between Jesus' ascension and His return. It's not just about way at the end, right before Jesus comes.

It's not the case. This book is about the latter days. That is, what must take place in the days between Jesus' ascension and His return. The whole book covers that area. In this book, Jesus discloses what he began to do in the past, what he continues to do now in the present, and what he will finally accomplish in the future. I mean, in this book, Jesus discloses the past.

It talks about his death and his resurrection. In the very next chapter, or no, I'm sorry, in chapter 5, we're going to see a lamb that looks like it's been slain on the throne. All right? So it has references to the past. The pregnant woman in chapter 12 who gives birth to a male son who is persecuted by the dragon is a picture of what happens from the birth of Jesus all the way through the church age.

It's not just about way out there in the future. And I don't want to take your time now to tell you all the things we learned about that woman when I was going to school. but that is a symbol of the Messianic community giving birth to the Messiah and then that community continuing through the church age. That's what's pictured in chapter 12 about the past.

It's about the present, the 144,000 witnesses, the plagues, the two witnesses. All those are present realities. The future, there's plenty there about the future as well. For example, in Revelation 19, we find that he returns on a white horse, which I believe is a symbol. I don't think we're going to actually see Jesus coming out of heaven riding a horse, but it's a symbol.

It's symbolic of something. So it does talk about the future as well. So it talks about the past, the present, and the future. This book is about the past. It's about the present. It's about the future.

So recall that this is a revelation of Jesus. Secondly, recall that this is the revelation of Jesus to his churches. All right? It's a revelation of Jesus to the churches in the form of a letter. In the form of a letter. Turn back to chapter 1 again.

Verse 4. What you find in verse 4 and 5 looks like a regular salutation to a letter, right? 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 his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

All right? There is the salutation of a letter. Now when you come to verse 10, here's what we read. 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 and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

This whole book and I think this is key to understanding Revelation before we move on This whole book is a letter to seven congregations in Western Asia Minor We have made the mistake of saying that Revelation begins with seven letters and then moves on. No. It is one letter to seven churches. This one letter, which comprises the entire book, was to be sent, it was a circular letter, to be sent first this church, then this church, then this church, this church, this church, this church, this church.

The idea was, back in those days, is these circular letters would be sent. Revelation, let's say, would go to, what's the first one mentioned? Ephesus first. Ephesus, you know what they would do? They would take that, they would read it to the congregation. Imagine that, listening to the whole book of Revelation in one sitting and understanding it.

They would take that one letter, read it to the congregation, and then copy it. Then they'd send that original to the next congregation. It would be read to that congregation. They would make a copy. It would go to the next congregation. So you see, this is a circular letter.

It's not seven letters. the whole book is one letter written to those churches. All 22 chapters were intended for each of those churches. So we have to be careful not to misread this book. And this is how it's often been misread. It's been misread this way. That chapters 2 and 3, chapters 1, 2, and 3, are addressed to us now, and from chapter 4 on, it's talking about the future.

But that can't be. If this is one letter to all the seven churches, than they were intended to understand the entire book in the framework of what they were facing then. All right? So it can't be understood as the first three chapters, that's for us today, and the last four to 22, that's all about the future, beyond those seven congregations. Not at all.

This is one letter to seven churches to be understood the entire 22 chapters by those churches in the day in which they lived. That is a key for us. This is a book that has relevance to those churches and all subsequent churches in the age of the church. It is meant to address the issues that all churches have always faced. Now, we have to understand it first in the way it was understood by those churches and make the proper application.

But it addresses the battle that the church has to fight since its inception. All right? This book has great relevance to what we face today. It is a revelation of Jesus to his churches because the congregations are in trouble and they must overcome. All right? If we're going to understand this book, we have to understand it's a revelation of Jesus to churches that are in trouble and who are called to overcome.

And the book is intended to tell them how to overcome. All right? So remember, we just got done with chapters 2 and 3. Remember that each of the seven churches describe problems that every church faces. Loving doctrinal precision without loving the proclamation of the gospel. Proving unfaithful in the midst of persecution.

Becoming too permissive and not drawing the line against compromise. Not developing discernment, but becoming too tolerant of aberrant doctrine. Becoming a busy church without a living ministry that grows out of the gospel. The danger of giving in to the pressures of persecution rather than persevering. Compromising with wealth and comfort rather than risking the hardship of ministering the gospel.

Those are all issues that churches face over which they have to gain the victory, over which they must overcome. Now, these churches, as we read this book, are all under attack. These churches and all churches are under attack. There's two forms of this attack. These two forms we see throughout the book. There's the attack of persecution leading to martyrdom.

All right? By this book, God encourages you in the face of oppression. And God intends to awaken you to the dimensions of the battle so that you will respond to persecution, to the attacks of persecution with faithful perseverance. But there's a second way of attack. The church is also under the attack of seduction leading to defilement By this book God warns and challenges those who are affluent and compromise with that affluent system of wealth and comfort.

God intends to awaken you to the strategies of the enemy so that you will respond to the seduction with purity, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb. Guess which one of those probably applies to us the most? you know what, can I tell you something, and I'm getting off track here, and I hope it doesn't get me in trouble, but I guess God is sovereign. If I get in trouble, he meant it to be.

As I read this book, and begun to understand it, I have come under great conviction that the Babylon of this book is the American dream. and our pursuit of wealth and comfort and affluence is abhorrent to God and the church of Jesus Christ has been seduced into this lethargic, comfortable, shall I say it, relation with a prostitute that is killing us. I've kind of given you a preview of where we're going, haven't I? The whore of Babylon is alive and well in this country.

And we have bought into the American dream that to pursue wealth is a great thing. To get the great retirement in the 401Ks is what we ought to live for. And this book of Revelation is going to slam us hard in those areas. So, I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. The point is, God's churches must overcome both persecution and seduction. Now, because the churches are in trouble and they have to overcome, they need heaven's perspective. they need heaven's perspective this is the heart of understanding this book all right this is what we have to understand as we go into this book this is a book that gives us heaven perspective all the symbols all the pictures all those bizarre images that we find here are intended to give us heaven perspective on what going on in this battle As Jesus reveals himself, he gives us the perspective of heaven on the battle.

He gets us below the surface. Not below the surface, he gets us beyond appearances so that we see reality. And what this book is saying is the supernatural is the real reality that we must become aware of. We have to pull the veil. Open the curtains. Get behind it all.

Get behind the appearances and see revealed to us what's really going on. That's heaven's perspective. John and every one of us who read him are taken up into heaven. Alright? And thus we gain God's perspective on what's going on and what's happening, and we may be surprised. From our perspective, we may appear weak, helpless, hunted, poor, defeated congregations of Jesus' faithful followers, but from heaven's perspective, we prove to be the overcomers.

We're not the losers, we're the winners. And we win, we're winners, when it looks like we're losers. Right? When you go through here, you see these martyrs. And they're the ones who are clothed in robes of white. They're the ones who enjoy the presence of Jesus.

It's not the ones who are the winners. It's the ones who look like the losers. They're the winners. You see, it gives you heaven's perspective. And we participate in the triumph of the lion who conquered as a lamb slain. Do you get it?

See, that's what I love about this book. It shows the Lion of Judah, right? This powerful, mighty Lion of Judah, but he got there by being a lamb that was slain. It doesn't make any sense. This is just the expansion of that whole idea. Jesus looked like a loser, didn't he?

He was hung up on a cross as a common criminal. Anybody walking by those three crosses that day would not have seen, oh, that one in the middle, he's different. They wouldn have said that They would have said look at those lousy criminals up there all three of them right To the world Jesus looked like a loser but him hanging on that cross in open shame as a common criminal, was the very chariot of his victory.

And this is what that book does. It takes us behind the appearances to the reality. All right? For example, we just looked at some. Look at chapter 2. Chapter 2, this is the church in Smyrna, verse 9.

I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. Now notice, you look poor to everyone else, but in God's eyes, what are you? You're rich. And guess what? These Jews, they're really not God's people at all.

They're actually the synagogue of Satan, no matter what they say. And what about you? You know what? There's trial coming down the road. I'm telling you now, some of you are going to be in prison and some of you are going to die. But notice what he says.

He who has near, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who what? Conquers. How does he conquer? By dying a martyr's death. Wait a minute.

The forces of evil just killed you. You're the loser, right? the book pulls back the curtain and says, no, the one who is faithful until death is the one who overcomes and will be wearing the crown. You see? Look at chapter 3, the last part of verse 1, where the paragraph break is. He's talking to Sardis. I know your works.

You have the reputation of being alive, but what? You are dead. Heaven's perspective. Everyone else says, man, what a vibrant ministry. From heaven's perspective, you're dead. You don't have a vibrant ministry.

Busyness does not mean successful ministry. Wow. So what are they supposed to do? Wake up. so you can overcome. You see? From our perspective, we may live in a wonderfully advanced society that can provide us with all the comforts we could possibly desire, but from heaven's perspective, we're being seduced by a whore named Babylon, who together with all her lovers will be destroyed when the conquering king comes.

Turn over to chapter 18. Please note that. chapter 18, verse 4. Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, note this, come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues, for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds.

Mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed. You see what Jesus is saying here? He's saying, get out of Babylon. If you don't, you will suffer the judgment of God. As she glorified herself and lived in luxury so give her a like measure of torment and mourning since in her heart she says I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.

For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her. Right? To everyone else, it looks like success, affluence, comfort. Man, that's the life. To God, she looks like a prostitute who's going to be destroyed. So the book creates a symbolic world that uncovers what is really happening.

And so affects and changes your perception of the world so that you will overcome. Now, because they overcome by this heavenly perspective, they will share in the triumph of the Lamb. Though our enemies are portrayed in great power, yet they are shown to be losers And though we are shown we are seen in our weakness yet with this perspective we overcome And Revelation's last word is not about the victory of darkness or the defeat of the apparently weak followers of Jesus.

Rather, it's about the glory of God in the triumph of the Lamb. Bottom line. The book is about the glory of God in the triumph of the Lamb. So, as we proceed through this glorious book, we've got to have these truths in mind. First, the revelation of Jesus uncovering for us the true nature of our Savior and the true nature of the reality of the battle that we are in.

And it is the revelation of Jesus, not for purposes of speculation, not to give us a vivid history of the end of the world, but for the purpose of encouraging and empowering the church of Jesus to overcome to the glory of God Indeed it is the revelation of the glory of God in the triumph of the Lamb Let pray for God help as we proceed then Father, help us now as we proceed through the understanding of this book to understand it for the blessings that you have promised. help us to proceed through it now so that we will see the nature of the battle in which we are engaged that we will get the reality and not just the appearances Lord God we pray that you would help us as we proceed through this book to see indeed your glory revealed in the triumph of the Lamb Father, we thank you for the revelation of Jesus given to us. Help us now to pursue it for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.