Revelation 1:1-3

September 15, 2019

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts at 18:20 in the audio file.

Or, Blessing Is at Hand

I made a couple personal commitments for teaching through Revelation, and it is already time to break one of them. But it’s important. It’s also pertinent. And hopefully it’s the last time.

Last Sunday I promised that I would not use the phrase, “If you just read the Bible….” Then I realized in a conversation after the service that I missed a key criticism that I want to get in before my self-imposed ban. Typically the ones who posture themselves as the best Bible readers are the more literal types, and they tend to see Revelation with Futurist colors. That in itself is fine, and like I said last week, this is the group that I identify with. The problem is that this group, my group, are really bad at reading other parts of the Bible literally, like the parts where God’s Word commands all His people to be joyful and thankful and hopeful in God. Those who take the high road in principles of interpretation are often not on the high road of application.

That also includes tone in how we talk about things. If you knew nothing about their eschatology but just listened and watched many “literal” Bible-readers, you would conclude that they thought being right was the most important thing, and also that calls for patience and gentleness didn’t apply to them (see 2 Timothy 2:23-24). They wouldn’t know sweetness of speech (Proverbs 16:21) if they fell into a 50 gallon drum of honey. I can’t say that every post-millennialist is optimistically winsome, nor all amillennialists. But my kind of people have been and are some of the least kind of pleasant or persuasive people. It doesn’t require changing eschatological positions, it requires reading and obeying all the verses.

We who think that evil is not quite finished still shouldn’t be anxious. We who think God is sovereign shouldn’t be bullies, or proud, or impatient. We who think Jesus will win shouldn’t be defensive. We who think that God’s Word always accomplishes God’s purpose (Isaiah 55:11) should let the Word do its work.

This is no less the case with the last book of the Bible because God gave us Revelation for good. As we look at the first three verses today we’ll see what this book is and what this book is good for. It will also give us the opportunity to consider a little more of the book’s background.

The Nature of the Apocalypse (verses 1-2)

Unlike many New Testament books, Revelation includes its own title: The revelation of Jesus Christ. There is a lot in this, actually.

The word translated revelation is the Greek word apokalupsis, from which we obviously get our English word “apocalypse.” When we hear APOCALYPSE, we think about THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT! When the hearers of the words of this prophecy heard  apokalupsis, they heard “unveiling.” Whatever else the book of Revelation is, it is a book of revelation. In other words, it is not a covering but an uncovering, and it is for the church.

Interestingly, when the Lord gave prophetic vision to Daniel, the Lord told Daniel to “shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end“ because it wasn’t time (Daniel 12:4). Now the words are opened up and disclosed (see also Revelation 22:10 – “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near”).

This is “the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.” There are two ways to take this phrase: either the apocalypse that is from Jesus Christ or the apocalypse that is about Jesus Christ; He does the revealing or He is the one being revealed. Both things are true. Revelation is most certainly a disclosing of things about Jesus, namely that He is alive, with snow white hair and eyes like fire, that He is Lord of the Churches, that He is Lord over all the earth, and that [...]