Revelation 1:9

Revelation chapter 1 verse 9, I John, who also am your brother and companion, in tribulation, or in the tribulation, as the Greek indicates with the article, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. that God blessed to us is sacred and holy word. There’s a lot of enthusiasm today for studying the book of Revelation, which is misguided. It is zeal without knowledge. Many people think Revelation is about some future great tribulation period, a World War III, you would with some type of atomic weapons, massive destruction of the earth, that all this will take place before the Second Coming of Christ. Such a view, however, doesn’t take seriously the time of fulfillment clues that are provided by the book itself. We looked in the past at Revelation chapter 1, verses 1 to 3,000, and we see there two phrases that are important. The time is at hand. In other words, the fulfillment of these prophecies is near. It is soon. And these prophecies must shortly come to pass, we’ve been told. At this point, we have started to look at the internal evidence from the book itself. as to the contemporary nature of these prophecies. And we began by looking at chapter 1 and verse 9. Everything speaks of the contemporary nature here, except when we’re told in Revelation 20, for example, that there’s going to be a thousand years, then we can start thinking about something. has a longer term fulfillment. But John here is a companion in the tribulation here. And we mentioned Christ in Matthew 24 talking about the great tribulation. This is the tribulation that we’re speaking of. And we can see that from Revelation 210, which he sees that the churches themselves are undergoing tribulation. And in chapter 2, verses 20 to 23, he even uses the phrase, great tribulation. So he sees these things applied to the church. The church of Philadelphia, in chapter 3 and verse 10 of the book of Revelation, if you want to turn there a moment, it says, because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which will come upon all the world. to try them that dwell upon the earth or the land. And so we have a promise to the Church of Philadelphia that Christ would bolster their faith for what is coming and that they would not have to endure. Evidently he’s going to shelter them in some way and protect them. But you’ll notice here the idea is that it’s not something it’s 2,000 or 1,000 years off. but the church of Philadelphia here is going to be sheltered from this time. Then we looked at chapter 11, if you would, of the book of Revelation. And verses 1 and 2. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod, and the angel stood saying, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein. But the court, which is without the temple, leave out and measure it not. For it is given under the Gentiles of the Holy City, shall they tread underfoot for 42 months. Here we have the idea that the temple is still standing, which is an indication to us that John wrote prior to 70 AD. This is not a future rebuilt temple. For you’ll notice, and we saw this last week from Luke 21-24, John uses Christ’s own words about the destruction of the temple here and God visiting the earth with a judgment here and they would tread underfoot the nation. And so we see this same kind of language being used here. This is the temple that Jesus has spoken in. This is the temple that he told the disciples, not one stone would be left upon it. This is the temple of which John is speaking in this passage. And then we looked at John 18, if you’d turn there with me. And verses 16 to 20, and read these words. And saying, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarred. and decked with gold and precious stones and perils. For in one hour, so great riches has come to naught. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships and sailors, and as many as trade by sea stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying what city is like under this great city. And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness, for in one hour she has made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. What did I say? I’m sorry. Revelation chapter 18. verses 16 to 20. Well, John’s the writer. I guess I just sorry about that. Revelation 18, 16 to 20. Now, the New Testament Church, we’re told, in the book of Ephesian, is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, which indicates to us that when we have the word apostles and prophets in this text of scripture, we’re talking about. the early church. We’re not talking about a future and time church. Have not these extraordinary offices ceased, never to be resurrected again in the future, because of the canon of scripture now being complete. So these are some of the indications of a present reality with regard to the fulfillment of these passages of prophecy. Now, we’re going to continue with the internal evidence at this point, but you are free to ask questions if you have any. At this point, I want you to turn with me the book of Revelation, Chapter 7. I want to talk about the first fruits of the Jews. Revelation chapter 7. I want to read the first four verses. And after these things, I saw four angels, standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having this seal of the living god. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth or the land and the sea, saying, hurt not the land or the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. If you look at verses 5 through 8, he lists the tribes and there’s 12,000 that are listed from each of the tribes. Now, with that in mind, flip ahead to chapter 14 of the book of Revelation verses 1 to 4. And I looked and lo a lamb stood on Mount Zion and with him 140 and 4,000, having his father’s name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder. I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders. No man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth or from the land. These are they which were not defowed with women for their virgins. These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed. deemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and to the land. Now if we put these two passages together, you’ll notice that the 144,000 are made up of Christian converts out of all the tribes of Israel, according to chapter 7 and verse 4. The indication to us is that these are Jews. Before God unleashes is greater judgment, you’ll notice he seals in chapter 7 these believers so that they are preserved when his wrath is unleashed. He has the four winds being held back while he seals them. This is similar to what is found in Ezekiel chapter 9 where God marks his elect people before he destroys. Jerusalem. Now this is what we would call the elect remnant. As chapter 14 says, they are redeemed from the earth and if we see that it’s from, these are from the Jews, from the tribes of Israel, we could translate that better. The land. Meaning the land of Israel. Their virginity here is not physical, but spiritual in nature. They are pure and faithful to Christ in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation of people. But what I want to desire, what I desire to focus on this morning is what they are called here in verse 4. They are called the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. This indicates to us that they must be the members of the early church that made up the early church. For this is what first fruits would indicate to us. People who are the first ones to come to know Christ. In the Old Testament, the first fruits were the very fruits that came out first on the tree. They would be brought to the Lord. separated and given to the Lord. And so we have that kind of idea here. We have the Feast of the First fruits, remember. And the book of Leviticus it’s mentioned. Now, if you would, hold your place here, but look at the book of Romans 11, 13 to 16. Paul writes here, by speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles. I have magnifying mine office. If by any means I might provoke to emulation, to jealousy, them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, here we could put the word Gentiles, what shall be the receiving of them be, but life from the debt? Or notice, if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches. When we deal with Israel, we think about their roots. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. They were holy men that God had saved the first fruits of the nation, the roots of this nation. But of course, those who had turned away are branches that are branches that are broken off according to this chapter. But the first fruits, the early people of the nation, if you would, indicate to us they are the first fruits. Now if you look, chapter 16 of Romans, verse 5, it says, likewise, greet the church that is in their house, salute my well-beloved, my, excuse me, salute my well-beloved epa- eponetis, who is the first fruits of Akaya unto Christ. This is what we would call northern Greece. Akaya. But the first fruits means that one of the early converts of Paul in this area. We have the same thing mentioned in 1st Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 15 with regard to the house of Stephanus. I beseechecheched you, brethren, ye know that the house of Stephanus, that it is the first fruits of Akaya, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. Here’s another family that was early. Converting. First Corinthians 16, verse 15. Did I throw you off again? I’m sorry. That’s what I said. Yeah, I just didn’t have time to get down. Okay. We can go through scripture, but you’re getting the idea of how this term is used. Yes, Russell. Well, I thought to use that term. Well, that’s the kind of idea that we have here. These are the people that make up the early church. These are the people that, you know, the 4,000, the 5,000, they’re converted. These people that are converted early on and have come to know the Lord. This is the first fruits that we should mention. So the 144,000 that are mentioned in the Book of Revelation cannot be converts who escape some future end of the time age tribulation. Otherwise, they would be what? They would be the last fruits. Right? No, these are the first roots. So these are, this is, again, this is an indication we’re dealing with the early church. church here. The first fruits of the harvest of souls for the New Testament Church among the Jews. That’s the kind of idea, I think, that would stand out to us. Any questions on that before we move on? All right, if you would, let’s look at Revelation Chapter 13 in verse 1. And John writes here, and he said, and I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon the heads the name of blasphemy. And then look at chapter 17 of the book of Revelation where we have some identification information about the beast and verses 8 to 10 Revelation 17 versus 8 to 10. The beast that thou saw us was and is not, and shall ascend out of a bottomless pit and go into perdition and they that dwell on earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains. on which the wombest sitteth. And there are seven kings. Five are fallen. One is, and the other is not yet come. When he cometh, he must continue a short space. In identifying the beast, which has seven heads, we’re told here that this refers to seven hills, and seven kings. So we sort of have a double reference here. One with regard to geography, geographical, one historical with regard to persons in the identification. The key point that I want you to notice is this. John is told that the first five kings have fallen. Right? One is indicating to us that there is one presently reigning at the time that John writes and we find that one’s coming who will follow but only reign for a short period of time. What this means is that John is presently living under the sixth king associated with the beast. Now doesn’t this absolutely fix the time frame for? Doesn’t this indicate very clearly that the beast is present in John’s Day? No sense can be made out of verse 10 here if this phrase, and one is, is pushed a thousand or two thousand years in the future. How can you make sense out of this? The only way to make sense out of this is to see that John is saying, the sixth king is presently reigning. comparison between Daniel 2 and 7 will reveal that there are four kingdoms, world kingdoms, prior to the kingdom of Christ being set up. And if you study it carefully, you’ll notice that it’s pretty clearly, actually in the book of Daniel, if you study Daniel clearly, three of them are named for you. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the fourth one obviously is Rome. The second one, Seven Hills are the well-known Seven Hills of Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire. The seven heads here speak of the Julian line of the emperors of Rome. We have no king but Caesar. Five have fallen, he says, on this beast. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, all have passed away. before John has written. Nero Caesar is presently on the throne. He is the one that is. And then there’s one to come. He’s only going to rain for a short time. His name is Galba who will only rain six months. Now we can try to twist this passage and the clear indications of this text to put a future spin on it. But it seems the word of God is clear, isn’t it? I mean, I, I don’t. read this and it seems he’s saying this is a contemporary situation, you should be able to figure who this person is. It’s not rocket science. So here’s the contemporary evidence that’s found in the book. And these kinds of passages indicate as we go through the book, there’s still a contemporary aspect to it. Five Kings, Julius Caesar, Augustus is the second one. The third one is Tiberius, then Caligula, then Claudius. Now we’ve had Augustus remember mentioned in Luke. And Tiberius is mentioned, I believe, in Luke as well. And so as we go along in it, you can see some of these are mentioned, and it’s not that difficult to see where this is going. Now, I have purposely refrained. from doing much interpretation of the book at this point. I’m trying to lay the foundation for you to interpret the book. So if you have the right framework, then you can properly approach the book and interpret it. The key idea is the contemporary nature of the book. Much of the book must relate to the early church. John’s contemporaries. If you can grasp the time clothes that are provided, And you see that these things must shortly come to pass. The time is at hand. Whenever you come to a passage of scripture like this or any passage, the way that we try to understand it is we try to get things that we do know for certain and put little, I call it like put the tent pegs down right there. So you have something that you can be sure about. And then you start building from there inward and try to, you know, erect the rest of the tent. But you have to have something sure and solid first, a foundation. If this is sure and solid, and it seems to me that it is, then it gives us the right framework to start looking at the book. When God tells you in Revelation 20 about a time of a thousand years, he’s learning to something that’s going to be off in a distance. But when he tells you, these things are going to surely come to past, it must be something contemporary. Now, Futurism, I reject, because it’s like the race horse that wants to run fast, but it stumbles coming out of the gate and completely falls. It doesn’t take Revelation 1 to 3 at face value. It ignores the time close of the book, despite all its claims about a literal interpretation. Someone said a literal interpretation is redundant. If it’s literal, do you don’t need to interpret it? I don’t know. The history. or the historicist, that position I reject in trying to make the book the unfolding of the whole of church history. It ignores the temporary time close as we go along. In other words, they’ll start saying, well, yeah, it starts out in John’s Day, but as we go along, you know, we get to the Pope as the beast and the political aspect of the beast is the beast that comes out of the sea, and the religious aspect of the beast is that which comes out of the land and so forth, out of the earth, in chapter 13 of the book. Look at the book carefully. The book is not chronologically laid out. In other words, history is not continuing to progress as we go through the book. There’s some progression in the book, but it’s throughout the book, we still have this contemporary nature to it. It’s still about the early church. It’s not like we get to the time of Napoleon and the French Revolution and the Reformation and as we go along. Idealism, I reject because it’s, as I say, it has a generic approach. It doesn’t actually try to interpret the book. It just takes like basic principles from the book. There’s no specific application to John’s Day, despite all the details, despite all the contemporary facts like one is, the first fruits, and so forth, we seem to want to just give a bland interpretation. Now, this particular viewpoint is basically sound in its general application of the book to the life. It’ll take a general principle and say, this is what it teaches. Well, that’s fine with regard to the life. I want to know what did it actually mean for John’s Day. What is he saying to these churches? Why is he telling them these things? Yeah, we can make application to all of the churches, but we want to know these things. So this leads me with what I believe is the proper approach of this book is a partial preterism. I said that the word preterism means past, so it’s partially past. It’s the only interpretation which takes seriously. The emphatic, and I use the word impede. fatic, time clothes that are found throughout the book. I confess that I am a partial preterist, all-millanialist. Now, you may disagree with me about the book’s interpretation, and good men have differed down through history on the interpretation of the book. All I ask is for a fair hearing. All I ask is hear what I have to say, and what I have to say to you may be new. You may have never heard something like this. before. It’s the opposite of the most popular interpretation of the book that’s almost classically found throughout most of your churches today. Again, I’m only attempting this survey of the book because I’ve been asked to do so. I’m not arrogant enough to think that I have all the answers or have, you know, all the interpretation of the book down to where I can tell you every little detail of what it all means. I need more enlightenment from God, and I would appreciate your prayers in regard to this. I’m doing this because somebody asked me to do it, and it is a way to aid us all. I’m trying to approach the book in such a way that you will see that there’s a foundation to approach the book. I may not get every detail, right? But you’ll say, you know what, this seems like the right approach to the book. And you may differ with me on this or that or the other. As we go along, maybe you would look at it a little bit differently than I do. If we’re in the same time frame, if we’re saying, well, this is still contemporary with John, we’re still in the ballpark. We’re still building on the foundation. Now, man, our tie has run out and I didn’t even get to where I wanted to go this morning. All right. Well, we’ll stop here at this point. Next week, I want to look at the theme of the book, Chapter 1, verse 7. Yes, Keith. We’ll talk about that a little bit more later, but I’ll get, but go ahead. What do you want to ask? Here we go on the interpretation. If we look at the land, and we look at the land, there are four corners. There’s east, the north, southwest, okay? Before any wind blows on the land of Israel, God’s holding it back, and then he’s going to unleash. The whole land’s going to be devastating. he’s going to seal his elect people among the Jews, the 144,000. A small amount, a remnant according to the election of grace. Now, when we interpret the sea, sometimes the sea does represent Gentile nations. But I’m going to take that more literally. and I’m going to take the trees more literally. Okay? So that when we deal with this, we’re going to be talking about the stripping of the trees of the land. We’re going to talk about the blood on the various waters and so forth of the nation of Israel and so forth. So that we’ll start looking at, I’ll give you some quotations from Josephus, about what he said, as an icon. witness. Somebody was there involved in. He was actually a general who fought against Vespasian to start with and was captured and became a go-between between the Romans and the Jews. And he wrote like a firsthand account for us, which I believe in God’s providence was there to help us and provide some of the historical background for us. It’s recorded carefully, a detailed account of what happened. during this war. So we’ll be looking at all these things. But when you have what we’ll see is a scorched earth policy by the Romans, you’re going to see devastation of the land like they never saw before. But we’ll be talking about that. Yes, the beast that comes out of the sea seems to be coming out of the Gentile world. The beast that comes out of the land seems to have direct reference to the earth a direct reference to the land of Israel. A direct reference to the land of Israel. I agree with you. But we have to look at the context that sometimes it may be actually referring to the sea, and it’s actually referring to the trees and so forth. Instead of, some interpreters get carried away with the trees, being people, and so forth, then in the scripture, sometimes trees are representative of people. I’m looking at this, and I’m trying to take a basic, straightforward interpret it. If I can interpret it without going into some, you know, off the wall, idea, you know, maybe some strange view, so it’s so crazy, if I can take it in a more straightforward fashion, I’ll take it in a straightforward fashion. And if it requires, the context seems to require something more, something spiritual or something that’s different than that, if it’s a symbolic of something else, then I have to try to understand it in that way. I’m going to do the best I can, Keith, and I can’t guarantee that when I’m, I’m going to teach is going to be perfectly, you know, sound in every little aspect. I’m going to do the best I can to interpret the book. But that’s my approach to the book. I keep it straightforward as much as possible when it requires that we have to have a, if the text sort of requires something different, then we go that direction. So that’s how I’m doing it. That’s how I’m approaching it. If you think I’m wrong on any of that, I’ll be happy to weigh that. Yes. How does a historic system? They try to make kings into kingdoms. And they mention kingdoms so that they can change the situation. But this is not, when he uses the word king there, it’s not a symbol. It’s already an interpretation. So he’s talking about a king or seven hills, very specifically, in my opinion. I think he’s straightforward with it. and to me that makes more sense. What nation lasted six months? Maybe there is one. It lasts a short time. I don’t know, you know. But to me, you study the book of Daniel, in my opinion, is if you study the book of Daniel carefully, especially Daniel 8, in particular, where we have some more information about who’s being talked about. When you look about the horn on the unicorn there, when it breaks off. It’s Alexander the Great, because he’s part of Greece, see? And so there are four horns that come up, which are there four generals that end up taking over his kingdom. So those horns all are connected with that particular nation. It’s not like different nations. It’s the same nation we’re talking about. So any horns and things should be connected with the nation. If the nation is Rome, if the fourth kingdom is Rome, then all the horns connect. with it has to do with the nation itself and not other nations. That’s how I would understand it. It does seem to help. I’m taking a more common sense approach to the book. I’m trying to not to strain our interpretation of the book. I’m looking at it. Can this be interpreted just as it’s stated? Does it have something that applies to this circumstance that he’s revealing to us that can be interpreted straightforwardly without? any type of spiritual indication of something different. And if it makes sense that way, then I’ll take it that way. That’s how I’m going to approach the book. Anything else? You’ll forgive me for being slow.