Revelation Part II

If you didn't get the Revelation notes, Gil will pass them out to you. We have extras, so just scatter them around. And if you need the whole stack of previous notes—we have copies of everything we covered before.

You guys, we have done every book in the New Testament, and now we're finally going to be done. We're going to do Revelation today. We started it last week, so we're going to kind of review what we did last week and then finish our time in Revelation.

Though we're not quite done, because what I want to do for the next two weeks—we should be back in the fellowship hall again—is just do free form Q and A on all 27 books. If you have the notes, great. I went through and made sure we had printed everything. There were some gaps, but this is every book in the New Testament. If you're missing anything or want the whole collector's edition, they're all right here.

If there's something we did in 2 Corinthians and you went back and read it and didn't agree with something I said, that's fine. Or if you missed Jude and you think that's the weirdest thing in the New Testament, then you're right, and we can recap some of the strangeness there. Whatever you want to do.

For the next two weeks, if you come in prepared with questions, great. If not, it'll just be a dead, boring session. So two weeks we're going to recap the whole New Testament and see where it comes up with Revelation here. Gil and Dan have Revelation right here—Gil, behind you—and we'll wrap it all up.

Understanding Revelation

Today, we're going to finish the book of Revelation. And by the way, there's only one of them. Do you know this? Probably the most common mistake in the Bible is to call this last book "Revelations." It's just one. It's a revelation about what God is doing in the world.

So there are a couple of rules. Let's review before we look at the particulars of Revelation. What are some of the rules if you're going to get it rightly? What are the three genres—what are the three writing styles that comprise Revelation?

Prophetic. Okay, I heard prophetic. Epistle. Apocalyptic. Okay, so it's those three things. Each one of them is going to bring certain rules.

Because it's an epistle, it's written to a particular group of people at a particular time. I just saw something—I don't know where it was—but somebody was asking the question: if Revelation raised the fact that one of these letters is to the Nicolaitans, and like nobody knows who that is, then if it's for them, what does it mean and how does it mean at the end times? What they were getting after was: if this book is only written for the final decade of Christianity, then it would have meant nothing to the previous two thousand years. And that's right. That criticism is an apt criticism.

It was written to a particular group of people at a particular time. And if we want to figure out what it means to us secondarily but genuinely, we have to first understand what it meant to them initially and primarily. That's the game. It's an occasional letter to a particular group of people.

Second, because it's prophetic, it does concern not only God telling us things that are rebukes or encouragements—the prophets do that—but they also foretell. There is value in prediction. It's not entirely devoid of prediction. It's just not only a prediction.

And then finally, because it's apocalyptic, this is where things get weird, because we don't know how to read apocalypse. What are the primary rules about reading apocalyptic literature?

Nothing is literal. It's not literal. We're so tempted to take it literally. It's not literal. But that does not mean it's meaningless. It's deeply meaningful.

And the answer key is the Old Testament. Every line in this thing—when you're reading through and you see some language, some words, some image—you should train yourself to say, "Okay, what are you talking about? What are you referring to? What are you alluding to? You're borrowing language." And when you grab the words from the Old Testament, you pull up the roots. The roots are the meaning. We're not just taking words from the Old Testament; we're taking meaning from the Old Testament and applying that into our present moment.

If you can remember those things, then you're going to filter out such a huge amount of nonsense that tends to get taught about the book of Revelation.

And you'll be in a better chance to figure out what it really means. Okay? Now, one more rule. Do you remember we hit one other rule about apocalyptic literature, or at least John's expression of it here—that also kind of defies our common assumptions?

Not linear chronology. We have a tendency to think that what happens in chapter one is followed by what happens in chapter two, which is followed by what happens in chapter three all the way to 22. And it's not the case. It's simply not the case. There is some progression in chronological order, but then he keeps resetting the clock, and resetting the clock, and resetting the clock.

I pointed out one of the most obvious ways to see that it's not a straight chronology: What chapter is Jesus born in in Revelation? He's born in chapter 12. That's a pretty blinking light to say, "Hey, the timeline is being interrupted." You see he's born in chapter 12, and we use chapter 12 to say, "Listen, do you see how every line in this story is an allusion to the Old Testament?" He's using stuff from Joseph's dreams. The whole way through, he's talking about these dragons. There's all these different things happening, and they're all—you can draw a line from everything that happens there about his birth narrative back to the Old Testament. So we kind of use 12 as a microcosm to see all these rules coming to pass.

Seven Sections of Revelation

What I want to do today is offer for you some broad categories to make sense of it. And I can almost promise you, you're going to leave today dissatisfied. Because Revelation is just too weird. Everything I've ever seen—there was a summary of Revelation—when I'm all done, I'm still like, "Okay, but what? I still don't know." It's a strange thing.

But it does break up, generally speaking. You can see that it divides into seven sections, which is very John-like. He loves the number seven. He also loves the number 12. He loves the number four. There's an enormous amount of symbolic use of numbers in Revelation, but seven is by far his very favorite number. And so his book divides into seven sections.

The First Section: Letters to the Churches

And section one—what's the first section? This is probably the most obvious section. When you're reading through Revelation, sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard to see the divisions between the sections, but the first section is crystal clear. What is it? The letters to the churches. How many are they? Seven. Seven letters to the seven churches or the seven lampstands. And you're like, "What's a lampstand?" There's all this weirdness.

What do you know about those letters that he's written? Any awareness of what's going on in there?

There's a lot of rebuke, right? There's a lot of correction. Not all correction, but there is a lot of correction. They said they're real churches. Real churches. They're relevant to what they're actually doing. Yes.

Okay. So when we say that Revelation—my suggestion is the whole thing is an epistle. The whole thing is a letter. The whole thing is occasional. But it's particularly an epistle or a set of seven epistles, right here. You could say, you know, that Paul wrote—whatever it is—13 epistles? Romans, 1 Corinthians? Add them up. Whatever it is. You got all the Pauline epistles. Well, these are Jesus' epistles to the church, right? Seven letters to seven churches. They're actually pretty well organized. But it can be a little bit hard to catch it all.

So what do you know about those letters when you read through those? What are you looking for? What have you seen?

Each of the letters a lot of times are reduced. There's always a message of hope. Yes. The end of each letter—it's like they still have a chance to change their way. That's right. That's right.

These letters have a lot of correction, they've got a lot of hope, and they're organized like the outer frame matches each other, then the inner frame matches. They kind of work their way in toward the middle if you do it.

And as you go through it, what those letters will be helpful to you: when I'm suggesting that all of Revelation is a letter, and you're like, "Okay, but what's the point of this letter?" Because the whole thing is so baffling and bewildering and confusing and symbolic, and I don't speak this language. Well, the letters can kind of give you an entry point to the story. Because you can say, "What is he saying to them?" He's far more explicit. "What is he saying to the church in Ephesus? What is he saying to the church in Laodicea? What is he saying to his immediate contemporaries?" Because that is going to inform us and give us a little bit of indication about where he's going with the whole book.

And so in general, what is he saying in those letters? What's the nature of the rebuke? What's the nature of the commendation? Those letters will give you a clue to the whole thing. Any memories of these? And it's understandable if you're not super fluent in each of these letters.

One of the ideas you will see in these letters because it permeates the whole book: "Those who overcome will be victorious." Revelation is written to a group of people that are thinking about wussing out. The whole thing is like, you know what? It's costly to be a Christian. And you might not want to pay the cost. You heard about Jesus rising from the dead, and that was exciting. And you heard he would forgive your sins, and that sounds like a great deal. So I'm gonna follow him. But then you realize, oh wait a minute. He got crucified brutally. That's the only way to be crucified actually. But if we're gonna follow him, are you telling me that maybe terrible things will happen to us? Are you suggesting that the cost of being a Christian might be high?

And the book of Revelation says, yes, it is. It absolutely is high. However, it's worth what it costs, so stay in the game. And some of you are being sissies about this. Some of you have decided, "Oh, woah, woah, woah, I don't want to pay the price."

The Central Theme: The Cost of Following Christ

The big overarching theme of Revelation, you see it come through these letters, is this: the cost of being a Christian is high, but not anywhere near as high as the cost of not. Stay in the game. Follow him. Never abandon him. Walk with him.

It's a warning. You guys, trust me. There's gonna be all kinds of stuff coming down the pike. But you're gonna be really glad to be in him when he comes back. Because when he comes back, all will be well for those that are hidden in him. And it will be exceptionally, horribly, terribly bad to be apart from him, to be outside of him. You want to be hidden in Christ. That's really the theme of the book and that's what comes through in these letters.

When he says overcome, what he's saying is don't quit, stay in the game. Walk with him. Commune with him. Spend time with his people. Love him. Know his word. Be generous. Take the hit and continue to be kind. Do not revile. We do not need to be the executors of the judgment of God. God is perfectly capable of executing his own judgment. We will be his agents of mercy. We will suffer, we will suffer patiently, we will suffer in hope that when he comes all will be well.

The Recurring Phrase: "He Who Has Ears"

Does anybody know the recurring phrase that shows up in every letter?

He who has ears, let him hear.

He says that in every letter. And so think about that phrase. You're like, "Well, I have ears." Yeah. But you know, having ears and having ears are not the same thing. This is the theme of the letters. He's like, there's a million people walking around and they've heard what you have heard. But have they received it? Have they combined it with faith? Have they let it in? That's the unifying theme.

And so we should think, do I have ears? Do I believe what he said? Is my life consistent with what I claim to believe? Or is it just kinda passing through me?

Jesus' Self-Descriptions

All these little images that Jesus uses to describe himself—he says, "I am the..." and there are all kinds of things. He holds the seven stars in his hand. He has the sharp two-edged sword. Eyes of flame and fire. All kinds of things. All very unsettling and some of them are reassuring. Yes, that's right.

So as Jesus describes himself, you know, he's got eyes of fire, he holds these seven stars in his hands. Sometimes they're disturbing and intimidating, sometimes they're comforting. They are all, you might imagine, drawn out of the Old Testament. Very often he likes to pull from Daniel when he's bringing these self-descriptions.

So he is the reason that we overcome. He is, I mean, at every point, Jesus is the unmistakable center of each of those little seven letters and of the whole overarching thing. Cling to him, be hidden in him, walk with him. You want to be under his gracious reign when he comes again.

That's all the first section. If you as you go through the letters, you might—some people have suggested that those letters are giving us the history of the church, and I don't even know if this is true or not true.

I don't know if I'm assuming it's maybe not, but maybe it is. Whatever. We're living through the reign or the era of the Philadelphian church. Or now we're living in the Laodicean era of the church. That's more than I know. But you might read through them, and I wouldn't be shocked if you found in any of those letters things that you're like, yeah, that's actually fair about me. Or I hope that this would be true. I want to have the ears to hear. I want to be the overcomer. You can mine those. They're kind of the most straightforward, the least complex part of the book. Then it starts getting weird. There's weirdness there, but then it gets weirder and weirder as we go.

Now if you're making notes in your Bible, the way that I frame this out is each one of these seven sections—you might just put a line between like chapters three and four to say, okay, here's a new section break we're gonna walk through and see the things that you're gonna find. There's lots of different main motifs that he moves through here. I think one of my favorite things is in this second section in chapter four through seven. Here's what I pointed out here. This is the dominant image as you go through. You can watch for this.

Anybody else need a sheet? You good? You got them here?

As you guys go through, you look at this section—chapter four through seven—watch this. Okay, this is such a great moment in the book. It says this is where we see the throne of God. It's primarily that section about the throne of God. And it says:

Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed."

When he says the Lion of the tribe of Judah, what is that about? It is Jesus. Where is it from in the Old Testament? I've talked about this about 500 times. Where's the lion of Judah in the Old Testament? Do you remember, Laura Beth? Exactly. It's Jacob's prophecy over his sons. It's Genesis 49. Okay, whenever you see the Lion of Judah, we looked at that because it shows up in the Palm Sunday passage from Zechariah. It shows up in Zechariah, the Lion of Judah. Here he says, look, see the lion of the tribe of Judah. That means the king, the long-promised king, the root of David—he's triumphed. He's able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

Then I looked and I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

He hears a command to look and see a lion. But what his eyes actually see is a lamb. Jonathan Edwards, one of my favorite Bible teachers of all time, points out that he expects to see a lion—a roaring lion, a conquering lion, a dominating, powerful, kingly lion. And instead what he sees is not only not a lion, but a lamb, but a lamb who has been slain. And Edwards points out that he is still a lamb, even amidst the throne of his exaltation. If you have ever thought, yeah, Jesus was lamb-like on the cross to accomplish our redemption, but now that has been accomplished, now he puts back on his lion suit and just starts killing the wicked—he's like, the very nature of his reign is lamb-like.

Behold the lion of Judah, and I looked and saw a lamb. That's hopeful for people like us, right? He has all the power of a lion, but his orientation towards us, the way that he rules on his throne—name a king who sits on his throne like a slain sheep. He reigns like a lamb. That's important when you read Revelation because there's gonna be a lot of really terrifying stuff throughout this whole book. But don't lose sight of that. In that section, the dominant image of the throne where the lamb actually—it didn't even sit. He stands. The lamb stands on his throne, a slaying lamb at that. Okay, that's your first two sections.

How we doing? Questions so far?

The Third Section: Trumpets and Seals

Where's my Bible? I probably should have a Bible when we're teaching this. There it is. We good?

Alright. What's the third section? The thing you're looking for as you go through it: look at these trumpets, okay? Now, this is gonna be—he has lots of different things. We're gonna have a series of trumpets. People kind of lose their minds trying to make sense of each particular trumpet or each particular seal. What are they? There's trumpets, there's seals. What are the other things that come in sets of seven? The bowls. Pouring out the bowls, bowls, trumpets, seals. There's four horsemen. The lampstands are seven of those. Those represent the churches. That's right. Other things that are like these ominous things. Every time he breaks a seal, something dies. Right?

You know, he pours out a bowl and it's like hail everywhere. Or the trumpet blows and a bunch of people die. That's gonna happen over and over again. What's going on with that, do you think? What is the deal with all of these? They're almost like Russian dolls—sometimes like inside of one particular thing, there's seven more. What's he conveying here? Do you have a sense?

Here's what I think you can look for. And don't play the game like everybody likes to play, where that one's Saddam Hussein, remember that? Like this one here represents Bin Laden. Maybe, but maybe probably not, actually. Okay? What do they represent? Well actually they do represent Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden, and Babylon, and New York City. Okay. So lest we think that we are like the New Jerusalem, Washington DC would not figure favorably in the book of Revelation. Do you know this? We're not the good guys. Is that a problem with anybody? Okay. Alright.

The Pattern: Sin, Rebellion, and God's Response

So here's what you wanna see. The pattern that's gonna happen over and over again is that there will be sin and rebellion. Every time. Just constantly through the book. There's sin, there's rebellion, there are those who do not have ears to hear. Sin and rebellion, sin and rebellion, sin and rebellion. And when sin and rebellion take place, there's a couple of very predictable, very recurring phenomena that you're gonna get.

Look at it. Number one: overwhelming judgment from God and rescue for his faithful ones. So it'll say things like this:

The nations were angry and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and your saints, and those who reverence your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth.

Recurring throughout this whole vision is just a pouring out of judgment all the time. There will be sin, there will be rebellion, and there will be judgment over and over and over again. And in the midst of judgment, there's gonna be rescue for the chosen ones. A lot of time, that rescue comes after they die. Right? There's a scene where you've got these voices crying out, "How long, oh Lord, until you raise us from the dead? How long until you finally vindicate our faithfulness?" Right?

So sometimes the good guys get sawed in two, and we see that. But in the ultimate analysis in Revelation, there's wrath that is poured out on those who will not bend the knee. And there is a rescue for those who are faithful to him. But sometimes that rescue comes later than you like. Does that feel like maybe that accurately describes human history to you? Might even describe people that you know. Might even describe yourself.

But in the final analysis, and John is deeply interested in looking through it, there's gonna be sin, rebellion, there will be judgment. But in the final analysis, there will be a rescue and a restoration for people that are faithful. Stay in the game. It's worth it. He's worth it. Don't give up. The story ends very badly for those that will not walk with him. That doesn't always look like it's going well for those that are in him. Make sense?

Psalm One and the Rest of Scripture

Were you here when we looked at the Psalms and I suggested to you that Psalm one is giving us the picture of how all of life works? Do you know this? Psalm one, do you remember this? There's two kinds of people in the world according to Psalm one. The righteous and the wicked. And what happens to the righteous in Psalm one?

Like a tree planted by streams of water, right? His leaf doesn't wither, everything he does flourishes, it's great.

What happens to the wicked? They're like the chaff. The wind blows them away and they come to nothing. Okay? Psalm one is very clear. Good guys win, bad guys lose.

And then the rest of the Bible says, "Time out. What did you say?" Because I've been outside and that's not what it looks like. Right? Over and over the Bible is addressing this. If you look in the Psalms, go read Psalm 37, read Psalm 73. Psalm 37 and 73 are specifically and expressly meditations on Psalm one, in which their primary point is, "Nuh-uh. That's not true. I've been there. It's not how it works." But then they come around and be like, "Oh, I see. I see. I see."

Jeremiah is fascinating. We could maybe do this another time. But Jeremiah has this fantastic reflection on it where he explicitly says, "I did everything you said to do in Psalm one. And it's not working." Right? He says to God, "There's two things in Psalm one. Listen, two things you have to do in Psalm one. Do you remember what they are? What the requirements of the righteous are in Psalm one?" He says, "Don't sit in the seat of mockers."

What's the other one? Don't walk in the way of the wicked, and don't stand in the seat of mockers. And then what's the second thing you're supposed to do? Meditate on the law of the Lord. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be in you. It's all great.

Let me take you to Jeremiah. I wanna say chapter 15, but let me find this because I want you to hear the language. Bear with me here, because this is worth seeing. Yes, it is chapter 15. Never doubt yourself.

Jeremiah 15: Obedience and Suffering

You understand, O Lord. Remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. Your long-suffering, do not take me away. Think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelers. I never made merry with them. I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. — Jeremiah 15:15-17

Do you hear how he's saying, "I saw Him. I ate your word. I never spent time with the bad kids. Like, I did what you said to do. And I thought that I knew what would happen when I did that."

When your words came, I ate them. — Verse 16

I never sat in the company of revelers. — Verse 17

Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? — Verse 18

He's talking to Yahweh and he says, "You lied. You're a deceptive brook. You said if I would love your word, not hang out with the bad kids, then I would be like a flourishing tree. And instead it's this. What's the deal with that?"

The Central Question of Scripture

That question is still what's being explored constantly. Everybody's like, "Psalm 1, I read it, I don't know about that." Read Psalm 37, read Psalm 73, read Jeremiah 15. It's gonna resolve in probably about chapter 16 or 17—that resolves for Jeremiah. He comes back around on it. But it's still going on in the book of Revelation. The bad guys are doing stuff, God pours out judgment, He does rescue His people, but it often takes a very long time—longer than we'd like.

And the book of Revelation is saying, "Yeah, I know, I know, I know. Stay in the game anyway. Because you haven't seen the very end." And by the way, what Psalm 37 is gonna do, what Psalm 73 is gonna do, is say, "Wait till the story is over. Don't prejudge the outcome. Stay in the game all the way." If you try to do the math on this before we get to the final scene, you're gonna despair.

Watch that as you walk through the whole section—you'll really see it there in sections 8 to 11. Similarly, if you go to chapters 12 through 14, look at this: you have these very divergent fates for the rebellious and for the faithful.

Revelation 14: Rest and Reward

We looked at chapter 14 last week because I think it's grossly misunderstood and it embodies all of these elements.

There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image or for anyone who receives the mark of his name. This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." Yes, says the Spirit, "for they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." — Revelation 14:11-13

They're dead, right? But you're better off dying in Him than dying apart from Him. He's contrasting: there's no rest day and night for these, there is rest for these. He's painting this picture that in the final analysis—and maybe after what you thought was the end of the story—it's gonna be far, far better to be among those that are hidden in Him than those that live in luxury or privilege.

The Mark of the Beast

Now, that passage raises up the receiving the mark of his name. Do you guys know what that's about? What's the deal with this mark on your hand and forehead? People kind of lose their minds about that—microchips, AI, and whatever else. But do you guys know what that's about? What that's an imitation of?

Judy is saying that she heard there's some kind of Roman tradition where they would wear something—some economic tag or symbol. Now that might be true, I've never heard that. But there's absolutely a Hebrew antecedent to this idea. Do you know what this was?

I believe it's the law that would be written and it would be worn on their basically at their temple so that they would remember the law and it would be on their heart because it's in their mind. That's right. The Jews, if you've ever been to a Jewish home and they've got like next to the door—you ever seen this little thing where they put the law there? Right? And we're supposed to take it here. Where is it? I'm trying to find it really quickly. I didn't look it up. It might be Deuteronomy six. Am I wrong? Is that right?

So Deuteronomy six says, listen to this. Here is the Shema.

Deuteronomy 6:4 — "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. And here it is, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."

And what John is simply doing here is saying that the people of God, we take his word and we put it on our heads, we put it on our hands, we put it on our doors. We are his, we are in him. And Satan is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, erase those and put my mark there instead. Right? Instead we'll do this. We get all like microchippy and weird about it. All he's saying is just as the people of God have said, my everything I do with my hands, everything I believe with my mind, right, my very life, what I actually am, is submitted to you. My thoughts are filtered through your word. My actions are filtered through your word. I will be thoroughly shaped and determined by you. Satan is like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do that about me instead. And John's like, yeah, bad idea. Don't do it. Don't identify with him. Don't think his thoughts. Don't do his deeds. We wanna be Deuteronomy six people, not those people. That's all that he's saying there.

The Real Risk

Will somebody ever put a microchip in your hand without it you can't buy anything at a store? I don't know. Maybe. But that's not really, frankly, your greatest risk. Right? You are far more likely to just think stupid things and to do stupid things than you are to get a microchip under your skin. Right? If you never got the microchip and you think you're good, I think you might want to think again. Because we're shaped by far subtler forces all the time.

All right, how you doing? So far so good?

The Seven Bowls and Plagues

All right, more bowls, more plagues. Take a look at this, chapter 15 to 16, this section. This would be very obvious when I'm telling you that this book is all drawn from the Old Testament. It'd be really hard to read this section and not be like, okay, I got this one. Okay? Just listen to it.

Out of the temple came the seven angels with seven plagues. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God who lives forever. The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image.

If you go through that section, it'll be very obvious. What part of the Old Testament are we talking about? The exodus from Egypt. He's just picking all of his language from the exodus of Egypt. So let's just play the game. If he's picking this, he goes back to the exodus from Egypt and says here are the plagues. What does that mean? When we grab the words from the plagues in the exodus, what's the meaning that comes with it? What did the plagues mean then? Because that's what they will mean in the future too.

What do they mean? A chance to repent. Okay. Is it a chance for the Pharaoh and the Egyptians to repent? Absolutely. Now, they won't. So we might not be shocked by that. What else does it mean? It means that the time is up, so if you are going to repent, it's okay. Great. So when these plagues begin, the clock starts ticking. Right? Pretty soon, pretty soon, Moses and all of his people are gonna leave. And so for Pharaoh who reigns in power, this judgment that is coming, it is an opportunity to repent, and if they refuse it, the judgment's gonna grow more severe. And in the final analysis, you're going to lose, Pharaoh. Right? You're gonna lose, right?

What does their loss mean? What did the Egyptian loss mean to the Hebrew people? Deliverance of the captives. Deliverance, release of the captives. Okay, so when you see plague language, saying, okay, what he's saying is, there's gonna be judgment, it's gonna be hard. It may be hard on us. It was hard on the Hebrews living in Egypt. But what we should be beginning to think of like, oh, okay, this looks really rough, but I know how this story ends. It's gonna end in rescue.

It's gonna end in deliverance because that's what the images convey. You with me, Kelly? Absolutely. Yes. It's an absolute flex. So if you know in Exodus, these weren't just randomly chosen plagues, but this is specifically that—Yahweh is stronger than Ra. Yahweh is stronger than maybe Baal, probably not that time. But Yahweh is stronger than each one of these things. And that's what's going on here. At the end of the day, is God stronger than the God of this age? He was giving them security to know that he is above all gods and he means what he says.

Absolutely. He is above all gods. He means what he says. He will be victorious. And he can bring on the frogs and he can bring on the boils and he can kill the firstborns. Right? Like that. He is powerful.

So when you read through the plagues, you're just trying to habituate yourself. Whatever line you get to when you're reading through Revelation, just stop and say, okay, what is he talking about? What's the Old Testament allusion? Slow down, go back, look it up. And I will tell you, for my money, the best single resource I have—and I have an enormously vast library of Bible study tools—the single best book that I have of all of them is Beale's book. Yeah. Beale and Carson. GK Beale and Don Carson's book. I think it's called Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old. I cannot imagine how you write a book like that. But it looks at basically every New Testament passage and says, what's the Old Testament inspiration for this New Testament passage? And it's fantastic if you're reading First Corinthians. It's fantastic if you're reading Romans. But it's indispensable when you're reading Revelation. So Beale, b-e-a-l-e, and Carson, c-a-r-s-o-n. New Commentary on the New Testament's Use of the Old Testament. It is an absolute magnum opus. Bob probably has it in paper on his shelf. I have it on my computer through my Bible software, which is called Accordance, which is way better than Bob's crummy paper library. Bob's library is far more beautiful than mine, but mine is so much easier to use because it's literally right here. Do you have yours with you right now, Bob? I do. Alright, okay.

That would be a fantastic book if you really wanna develop this habit. That would be so valuable. Okay. Let's keep going because I really wanna get to these 17 to 19.

The Great Babylon

Okay. The Great Babylon. Chapters 17 to 19 and 20 to 22—these are the climactic moments in the book. The first one, 17 to 19, is the final fall of Babylon. When you hear Babylon, think Rome. When you hear Rome, think Babel. When you hear Babel, think London, New York City, Washington DC. Don't limit yourself to like these bad Middle Eastern countries. There is this particular spirit that has flown through the economic and political centers of the world for all of time. And generally speaking, they're all evil. Because evil people are drawn to the places of power and money. Right? So when you see Babylon falling and you're thinking it's gonna happen on the other side of the planet, think again.

What's gonna happen throughout this section? If you just read through it, really chapter 18—just read through. Read through chapter 18. What did I quote here? If you read through chapter 18, you have this absolute dismantling of this city. The horror of Babylon, right, the great Rome and its wickedness. Just read through chapter 18 alone. That's maybe a really great bite to take. And you're gonna see the city is destroyed. It will be no longer a place of commerce. All of the flex that it had, it's all over.

And then, when it's all done, right, listen to this:

With a mighty voice he shouted, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She's become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird." — Revelation 18

That's how he begins chapter 18. And then the bookend of it is actually into chapter 19 and says:

And again they shouted, "Hallelujah. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever." — Revelation 19

You might recall last week we looked at chapter 14—that same image of smoke rising forever. Okay. Super bonus points. Does anybody remember? What's the Old Testament basis of the smoke rising forever? Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah, very good, in Genesis 19. And what's the bridge point from Genesis 19 to Revelation 14 to Revelation 19 that he's actually quoting? Isaiah 34, okay?

So there's this notion here—what it is, it's a mushroom cloud. You want to think of it like Kyle and I just watched Oppenheimer. The idea, you know, if you grew up in the 80s, you got used to seeing mushroom clouds as this symbol that like everything's—we're all dead, right?

So what a mushroom cloud was in the eighties was this column of smoke in Genesis 19 and Isaiah 34 and in Revelation 14 and now finally in Revelation 19 for the last time, the same image. And it basically says they're all dead. He's wiped them out. We win. They lose. God's victorious. That's what that image conveys consistently.

And so in 17 to 19, Babylon is put down. And then finally, the part that we really love is in chapter 20 to 22. We're out of time. John shows us the final consummation of God's good purposes as Jesus brings heaven to earth. And this is the great vision.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. — Revelation 21:1

P.S. Not literal. What does that mean? There's no longer any sea? John MacArthur will tell you that in the final world it's like Pangaea. It's just this giant land mass. God bless him, he's wrong. That's not what it means. Do you know what it means? What the sea is? Chaos and death. Yes. The sea is represented. The sea is where the monsters come from. Earlier in Revelation, it's actually drawing back to Daniel 7. The sea is where the beasts come from. When it says there's no longer any sea, the sea bed of wickedness and evil that's coming, it's like no more. It's finally at peace. There's no more monsters. The place where the serpents live is cast away. So there's no longer any sea.

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. — Revelation 21:2

Remember when I said he defies you to take it literally? It's Manhattan wrapped in lace.

I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now, finally, at long last, The dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. — Revelation 21:3

That's all language he's stealing from Isaiah. All of the ancient promises will finally be true and that we will be with him. We're gonna see not just Isaiah, Ezekiel, all the great—the story of the great temple, the river that flows from the temple that gets deeper as it goes. All of that is packed into those things.

If you read Revelation 20 to 22, you gotta go back and look at Ezekiel 40 to 47, because that's where he's mining to get that. And if you will do the work when you read Revelation, say, stop. I'm gonna take my sweet time getting through this. Go back, read the Old Testament pictures, find the language, pull the meaning—it's gonna make so much more of revelation make sense. It'll just take you a very long time because it's vastly complex. But if you choose to get Beale and Carson's book, it'll be a helpful aid.

What Revelation Is Really About

Here's the final final thing, and then we gotta let church come in here. Flip back to the other to the front of the document if you have it. What's it about? Let me just read this to you.

This is what the book's about—it's not meant to be an answer key to help you read the New York Times and highlight things and plug in and timeline the return of Christ. It's not how it works. John wrote Revelation to the churches in Asia, which were in various stages of succumbing to idolatry. And he wrote, number one, to encourage the faithful to remain faithful and not to follow their weakening brothers. And number two, to startle the compromising churches out of their stupor. He wanted them to see their grave danger, to repent and to reengage with the call on all believers to testify to the supremacy of Christ over all—over all alternatives.

And to accomplish this, John wove together an outrageously vast, complex, encouraged, and terrifying vision drawn from hundreds of Old Testament images. He wrote to warn the churches of the dreadful judgment that awaits all who refuse to live under Jesus' gracious reign. So that they would do two things. Number one, escape that judgment themselves. And number two, lay down their lives to help others escape it too. That's what the book's about.

And it's hard. But if you're willing to do the work, follow the rules, you're gonna see all kinds of really beautiful images that help us speak to our own hearts. I'm gonna suffer, I'm gonna take the hit, I'm gonna be faithful, because the end of this thing is great victory for those that do. And I'm gonna do all that I can to invite people to come with me, that they too might live under his gracious reign. That's what the book's about.

Alright? Next week, we'll be back in the fellowship hall and we'll have two weeks.

We can talk more about Revelation if you want or First Thessalonians or John or whatever you like. So come with some questions so it's not a really boring hour. Very good? Alright. Thank you.