The Victorious Christ

INTRODUCTION

• Turning to the book of Revelation from the rest of the NT can be like moving from Australia to a foreign country with a language and culture we do not understand. It could be like watching Home and Away then flicking over to The Lord of the Rings. 
• Instead of gospels and epistles full of stories of Jesus’ teaching and instructions on how disciples and churches should live, you come to a book full of weird visions, angels, stars, lampstands, trumpets, earthquakes, strange creatures, souls under an altar, thrones, scrolls, dragons, beasts, a lion, a lamb, mysterious women, a 1,000 year period, 4 of this, 7 of that, the number 666, bottomless pits, coloured horses, cosmic battles, cities that appear out of heaven, lots of “new” things: a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new Eden in which a river comes from a throne with the tree of life by its side.  
• In order to understand the book of Revelation, we have to grasp 2 things: 

1. the particular circumstances of the churches at that time, and 
2. the many references to the Old Testament (there are 500+ OT references in the 404 verses in the Book of Revelation). John particularly refers to Genesis, Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah.

• Study bibles have helpful notes: read them and look up the OT references.

 Revelation 1:13 “Son of Man” – Daniel 7:1-14.
 Revelation 4:6-7 “The four living creatures” – Isaiah 6:2-3; Ezekiel 1:5-10.
 Revelation 17:9-11 “seven heads are seven mountains” – Jeremiah 51:24-25; Daniel 2:35, 44-45.
 Read Daniel 7 to understand Revelation 4, 5, & 13.

Note the underlined verses that mention the OT references which we need to look up to understand this part of Revelation.

Study bibles include different ways to interpret the book of Revelation and are full of information that help you understand the scriptures. Get one. Other tools to study the bible are commentaries, Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, handbooks of the Bible, NT Introductions and books like the NT in Antiquity.

EXERCISE IN THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING THE OT WHEN READING REVELATION: 
Read Daniel 7 and make note of how it forms the foundation for Revelation chapters 4, 5 & 13. Discuss what you noticed.

1. WHO WROTE THE REVELATION and TO WHOM?
• Most probably the apostle John, son of Zebedee, the beloved disciple while exiled for his faith on the Island of Patmos but it may have been a different John.
• Revelation was written to the 7 churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey): Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

EXERCISE: Look at one of the maps in the back of your Bible and see if you can find these 7 cities. 

2. WHY WAS THE REVELATION WRITTEN?
Jesus gave the Revelation to John to “reveal things that must soon take place” & to strengthen his churches to resist the wiles of the devil, whether in the form of:
a. False teaching (from those of the synagogue of Satan)
b. Persecution from the beast (Roman Empire) 
c. Complacency due to their affluence which the NT calls the deceitfulness of riches (the prostitute – the world)

The context of those challenging times is the conflict between the demands of a totalitarian secular power and allegiance to the Christian faith. A “totalitarian” government is a centralized government that does not tolerate opinions different to theirs and exercises dictatorial control over people to enforce compliance. The external power that threatened the church in the latter half of the first century was the Roman Empire which is personified or portrayed as The Beast in Revelation who demands universal worship of their emperor (the second Beast). Refusal to worship the emperor attracted the severest of punishments and persecutions and this is why The Beast kills so many believers in the end times.

3. WHAT IS THE REVELATION? 
The Book of Revelation is comprised of three different genres or different types of literature. It helps to understand the genre when deciding how it is to be interpreted.

Revelation is a Letter. Verses 4-5 of chapter 1 begin with all the formal aspects of an ancient letter. The fact that it is a letter means that John is addressing the real situation of these first century churches. So, even though Revelation has much to say to Christians of later generations, the book’s meaning must first be anchored in the historical context of John’s time, place and audience. The last verse of the last chapter also concludes like a letter: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

Revelation is a Prophecy: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy…” (Rev. 1:3). A prophecy is word from God spoken through a prophet to God’s people usually to warn or comfort them in a time of crisis: most often when they depart from the covenant. By calling this book a prophecy, John is saying that it stands in the tradition of the biblical prophets and is bringing their message to a climax. The entire story of God’s work in human history to redeem mankind after the fall, finds is fulfilment in the book of Revelation.

Revelation is Apocalyptic literature. Today in the Western World, we are probably least familiar with apocalyptic literature. We have to understand what it is to know how to read it and interpret it.

“Revelation” or “Apocalypse” in NT Greek is Apocalypsis meaning: “revelation, disclosure, unveiling, uncovering” – that is, the disclosure of unseen heavenly or future realities. Apocalypse doesn’t mean “end times” as is commonly thought but often refers to what will happen in the end times. The book of Revelation certainly does.

Jewish apocalyptic literature flourished in the centuries following the completion and compiling of the Hebrew Bible known as the Tanakh (our Old Testament): for 400 years between 200 BC and 200 AD. During these centuries, the Jews were persecuted by the ruling governments because they would not adapt to their religions: the Persians, Greeks and then the Romans. The apocalyptic writings then, were designed in large part to help the oppressed people of God find purpose in their sufferings and hope for their future during a long season where the genuine prophetic words from God were absent. 

Primary features of apocalyptic literature:
1. Dualism: two opposing but not equal personal forces - God and Satan
2. Cosmic dimension: played out in a spiritual battle in heaven and earth
3. Eschatological: eschaton (last things), end times, end of the world

Secondary features of apocalyptic literature describe the content of the writings and methods of communication in detail: 
1. Visions 
2. Pseudonymity (use of a different name)
3. A messiah
4. Angels and demons
5. Animal symbolism
6. Use of numbers 
7. Predicted woes or judgments
8. Astral or other-worldly influences

EXERCISE: How many of these secondary features can you identify in Revelation?

Summarising apocalyptic literature: it is God’s unveiling of his promise to intervene in human history to bring trials, tribulations, & persecutions to an end and destroy all wickedness. It is God’s opening the curtains on the past, present and the future to reveal to believers a heavenly perspective on their earthly situation and to give them hope so that they can persevere in their faith without wavering or giving up. Revelation affords believers good reason to have hope because Jesus is victorious and we will rule and reign with him if we persevere under the trials we encounter.

Some OT prophecy foretold the message of Jesus the Messiah who would come at the end of the ages and establish his kingdom and deliver his people from bondage. The OT prophets spoke of Christ’s first and second coming. Revelation is the conclusion of the ages and the fulfilment of all the messianic prophecies spoken about Jesus.

EXERCISE: Do any messianic prophecies from the OT spring to mind that are now more meaningful to you in light of understanding the nature of the book of Revelation?

4. WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF THE REVELATION?
Let’s take a walk through the book of Revelation: if you haven’t read it or you are not clear about its message, this might help.
• Revelation begins as a letter that, after the opening prayer, turns to recount John’s vision of the exalted Christ. John then writes letters to the seven churches. He acknowledges their challenges and warns them against false teaching, persecution, and complacency as they face the prospect of being put to death for their faith (and refusing to worship the emperor) and commends them for all the things they are doing well. 
• He is then taken up to heaven to see visions of God’s heavenly court (throne-room), where the victorious Christ sits depicted as a Lamb on the throne ruling and reigning. John then witnesses three series of seven judgments thrust onto the world, symbolized by 7 seals that are opened, 7 trumpets that sound, and 7 bowls that are poured out. These 3 series of seven judgments quite possibly refer to the same seven things that will happen. The seventh seal contains the seven trumpets. The seventh trumpet contains the seven bowls. (The are like suitcases within suitcases or the Russian Matushka dolls that fit inside each other.)
• But before the seven seals have been finally poured out and the judgment of the seventh seal is completed, Revelation reveals the dragon, the beasts, the false prophet and the Lamb where the cosmic battle is unveiled for all to see. 
• The beasts are destroyed, and book ends with the final judgment of Babylon, which is symbolic of the world in every age and the coming of Christ in victory: for the first-century churches, Babylon was symbolic of the Roman Empire. 
• The 1,000 years follows & gives way to the final judgment and the establishment of the new heavens, new earth, new Jerusalem, and the new Eden where all the enemies of God are destroyed, His bride’s hope of the future is transformed into their new reality: a reality of eternal life & the joy of the Lord. 
• The cosmic battle between God and Satan plays out in heaven and earth and Jesus, the blood drenched, sacrificial Lamb wins. His people win. We win. Those faithful to the end, share his victory, enter eternal life & rule and reign with Him with the new heaven and new earth; thus, completing the new creation which Jesus inaugurated at his first coming, became real for believers at their new birth and consummated at this final part of end of the age by Jesus’ victory.

EXERCISE: look up 2 Corinthians 5:17 and discuss the new creation in Christ.

5. “A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND THE END OF THE WORLD”
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, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:4-6)

…and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:10).

• We are a kingdom, priests to God. Why priests, and what do priests do?
i. They represent the people to God.
ii. They represent God to the people.

“6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (Exodus 19:3-6)

• Israel was declared a kingdom of Priests before the Levitical priesthood was instituted. God said that the entire nation of Israel were priests, a kingdom of priests. 
• Here at Mount Sinai, God is calling the whole nation to represent the people around them to God through intercession and represent God to them by sharing with them the good news that God of all creation loves them and that He could be known: which is what Abraham and his descendants were called to do in Genesis 12:1-3: “through you all of the nations of the world will be blessed”. Unfortunately, Israel strayed into idolatry so often that they almost entirely neglected this priestly responsibility. And because they failed to represent God to the people (which is how they would be blessed), the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham came through Christ and the church.

Peter quoting Exodus 19:3-6, writes: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). The royal priesthood was later transferred from Israel to the church.

• What do priestly duties look like for Christians?
i. Representing God to people: Paul explains that the believer’s priestly duty is proclaiming the gospel of God (Romans 15:16). 
ii. Representing people to God through prayer: interceding for their salvation.

Our identity: we are daughters and sons who are priests: so we have priestly duties.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Rev. 12:11).

• Today, though some nations severely persecute Christians, our level of persecution here in Australia is the opposite of those addressed in Revelation as well as those upon whom the ends of the world will come. As a result, we have the opportunity and probably the responsibility to leverage the peace and prosperity we have to spread the gospel and pray for people without 1) persecution, 2) false teaching and we must strongly resist the 3) complacency that comes from affluence. These are three things that the churches in Asia to whom John wrote had to deal with: we do not. We are kingdom of priests so let’s gather as many lost souls as possible before Jesus returns and brings in the end of the world where we will reign victoriously with him.

Discussion Questions
1. What did you learn about the book of Revelation that you didn’t know before?
2. What stood out or impacted you from this study? What comes to mind?
3. How will you now deal with whatever trials and tribulations that you might endure?
4. How can the church and you personally change to be a more active priest unto God?