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BY GLENN PEASE
1. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Based on Rev. 1:1‑2
2. THE BLESSED LIFE Based on
Rev. 1:3
3. THE SEVEN CHURCHES Based on
Rev. 1:4
4. THE KING IS COMING Based on
Rev. 1:7
5. THE PRIORITY OF LOVE Based
on Rev. 2:1‑7
6. RETURN TO FIRST LOVE Based
on Rev. 2:1f
7. RICH IN POVERTY Based on
Rev. 2:8‑11
8. THE CAPITAL OF HELL Based on
Rev. 2:12‑17
9. THE ROAD OF REPENTANCE.
Based on Rev. 2:18‑29
10. GETTING IN Based on Rev.
3:20 and 21:23‑27
11. RELATIVELY IMPOSSIBLE Based
on Rev. 4:1‑11
12. PROGRESS IN HEAVEN Based on
Rev. 7:13‑17
13. THE ULTIMATE WEDDING Based
on Rev. 19:1‑9
14. A PAIN FREE PARADISE Based
on Rev. 21:1‑8
17. NO COWARDS IN HEAVEN Based on Rev. 21:7‑8
18. THE MOUNTAIN PERSPECTIVE
Based on Rev. 21:9‑14
19. THE PRESENCE OF GOD Based
on Rev. 21:3
1. THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Based on Rev. 1:1‑2
The Apostle
John is the patron saint of everybody, for he is the hero of young and old
alike. Jesus called him to be His
disciple when he was likely in his late teens.
He was the youngest of the 12, and is an example of the faith that
Christ had in young people. John also
lived the longest of the 12. He was
used of God for service right to the end, and so he is also an example of the
value of older people in discipleship.
God used him to write down the
last of the books of the Bible.
When the
government looks for a man to go into space they select a man of maturity, but
not a man of old age. When God sought
for a man to travel to heaven and see
mysteries beyond what any astronaut has ever seen in space, He choose a man
well past our retirement age. John was
a senior citizen, but it was no rocking chair for him. He had an assignment far bigger than anyone
ever had. He was to be the recorder and
reporter of the greatest revelation every given. God does not discriminate against the aged. God is an equal opportunity employer. He uses young and old alike. He has no retirement requirement, but will
go on using a person as long as they live.
Your
young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams is the word of
the prophet. Nobody is to be left out
in the task of fulfilling God's plan.
This last book of the Bible is an encouragement to all to plan to be
used of God at any age. We should
expect to do something great for the Kingdom even when we are old. Alexander Maclaren wrote his famous
Exposition of Holy Scripture after he was 80. DaVinci was 77 when he painted
the Last Supper. Tennyson was 81 when
he wrote Crossing the Bar. The world is
full of great works done by those who were old, and we are studying one of the
greatest of these works of the aged as we study Revelation. John was an old man, but still a capable
instrument in the hands of God.
The
first lesson we learn from this last book of the Bible is from the author. We learn that every year of our lives should
be a year of labor for the Lord, and a year of expectation that He will use us
for His purpose. The rest of life can
be the best of life is to be our motto at any age. Studies reveal that the reason people get tired and fatigued in
old age is not because of exhaustion but because of stagnation. Life demands labor and expression. If we settle down to do nothing, we stop the
springs of energy and lose our motivation.
If we keep on going and doing things, the waters of life's energy keep
flowing. John never stopped being
active. He was always available for
God's service and the result was, he was used to his dying day.
John is
not only a great example of love, but a great example of labor. He never did retire from Christian service,
and God used him to give the world this greatest of books‑The Revelation
of Jesus Christ. In these opening
verses he tells us of the source of the revelation; the subject of the
revelation, and the servants to whom the revelation is given. Let's consider first‑
I. THE
SOURCE OF THE REVELATION.
Notice
it is not from John as the title in the King James Version might imply. It is
not the revelation of St. John the divine.
That title was added by man.
John tells us it is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave
Him. In other words, the ultimate
source of this revelation is God the Father.
He gave it to His Son and His Son gave it to His angel, and the angel
gave it to John, and John gave it to us, the body of Christ. We see here a 5 rung ladder, as when an
owner gives a plan to his son, and the son takes it to the manager, and the
manager gives it to the foreman who lays it out for the workers. God may use many means to communicate with
man, but he always begins with His Son who is the Word. He is the first and the last, the alpha and
omega. Everything God does begins and
ends with Jesus.
This
book is not what John the Apostle is teaching us, but what our Lord, the master
teacher, wants us to know, for it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We must approach this book with minds
focused on Him, and with the prayer in our hearts that He will teach us.
Hushed by the noise and the
strife of the schools,
Volume and pamphlet, sermon
and speech,
The lips of the wise and the
prattle of fools,
Let the Son of man teach.
Who has the key to the
future but He?
Who can unravel the knots of
the skein?
We have groaned and have
travailed and sought to be free.
We have travailed in vain.
Bewildered, dejected and
prone to despair,
To Him, as at first, do we
turn and beseech
Our ears are all open, give
heed to our prayer,
O Son of man, teach.
Author unknown
As
mysterious as is much of this book, the main concepts can be grasped by
everyone. Jesus is the door that
invites us in, and not a door that locks us out. A revelation means an
unveiling of what is hidden. In this
book Jesus opens up the door to the future and lets us see what His plan and
purpose is, and how He intends to wrap it all up. It tells us how He will reward His bride and judge those who
serve the cause of evil. It is a
revelation of how men will journey through history to either heaven or
hell. Genesis tells us how Satan began
his work on earth, and Revelation tells us how he will end in doom. Genesis tells us how sin brought man's fall,
and Revelation tells us the ultimate consequence of sin. Genesis tells us how everything got started,
and Revelation tells us how everything will end. It is a fitting climax to the Bible.
We need
to keep before us, that the source of this revelation is God, and it is a
revelation of Jesus Christ, and so our first objective is not to know the
future and satisfy our curiosity. Our
first objective is to know Christ. This
revelation is to primarily lead us back to the source and draw us near to Him
who gave it. Our prayer should be‑
Lord Jesus, make Thyself to
me
A living, bright reality;
More present to faith's
vision keen
Than any outward object
seen;
More dear, more intimately
nigh
Than even the sweetest
earthly tie.
Author
unknown
II. THE
SUBJECT OF THE REVELATION.
To show
to His servants what must soon take place.
The subject than, is the future.
We are dealing with prophecy and the prediction of what is to come. Henry Swete says, "Revelation is the
converse of concealment, the process of casting aside the veil that hides a
mystery." We could never know the
things in this book if God had not revealed them. Everyone likes to be in on a secret, and Jesus is letting His
people in on the secrets of the future.
Not all secrets are sweet however.
Some of them are bitter such as the revealing of God's wrath and the
terrible judgment ahead. Even the
negatives can be an encouragement, however, if we see them properly.
This
is illustrated by the two Rabbis who approached Jerusalem and saw a fox. Rabbi Joshua began to weep and Rabbi Eliezer
began to laugh. "Why do you
laugh?" asked Joshua. "Nay,
but why do you weep?" came the reply. "Because, I see the prophecy of
Lamentations fulfilled."
"Because of the Mount Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon
it." Eliezer said, "For that
same reason do I laugh, for when I see with my own eyes that God has fulfilled
His judgments to the letter, I have thereby a pledge that not one of His
promises will fail, for He is even more ready to show mercy than
judgment." Even the negative
fulfillment's remind us of the certainty of His promises.
Many
times I have used the saying that we don't know what the future holds, but we
know who holds the future. This is true
in terms of our own personal lives, but when it comes to events which affect
the whole world, we do know what the future holds, for that is what this
revelation is all about. John stresses
two things about these future events.
1. THEIR
NECESSITY.
He says
they must soon take place. This is not
a revelation of what ought to be, or of what God hopes will be. This is a sure thing , and it must come to
pass. This is not a series of predictions like you read in one of the papers by
a contemporary psychic. They make a lot
of educated guesses and a few wild ones for publicity, and once in a while they
get one right. The test of any prophecy
is, if it does not come to pass it is false, and the prophet is a false
prophet. Any careful study of the so
called prophets of our day show them to be false. If John's prophecy is truly from God, then it will not be 60%, or
even 99.9% correct, but completely 100% accurate. John says these things must come to pass‑it is a
necessity.
They
must soon come to pass. This word soon
is the basis for the first debate over the book. Since many Christians feel most of the book is yet to be
fulfilled in the future, they give the word soon a different meaning here than
its usual meaning. They say that since
from the Lord's point of view a thousand years is as a day, that means it has
only been a couple of days since this revelation was given. So that leaves several thousand years yet
for the fulfillment to come even in what would be only one week from God's
perspective. That is very soon to
Him. Others say the word means speedily,
for it is used this way in Luke 18:8 where it says, "He will vindicate
them speedily." They stress that
when the Lord begins to fulfill these prophecies they will come in rapid
succession and soon be fulfilled.
Many
others resist trying to get around the plain meaning of the word. They prefer to take is as it stands and see
that John is saying to the Christians of his day‑these things will take
place in your lifetime. After all, the
other two great Apostles, Paul and Peter, said the same thing. Paul in Rom. 13:12 wrote, "The night is
far gone, the day is at hand."
Peter wrote in I Pet. 4:7, "The end of all things is at
hand." There is no way to escape
the fact that the Bible authors felt the end is near, and that Christ would
soon return.
We are
caught, therefore, in a dilemma. It is
clear that the word soon meant soon to John and the early Christians. Yet, we know that the end did not come, and
2,000 years later we have not come to the end.
What are we suppose to think?
The solution is really quite simple.
You merely recognize that both views are right, for it is a part of the
nature of Biblical prophecy. George
Eldon Ladd, the prophetic scholar wrote, "It is the nature of Biblical
prophecy to make it possible for every generation to live in expectancy of the
end." Each generation of
Christians can see the events of this book fulfilled in their lifetime. History goes in circles until one day the
final round will be made, and the literal end will come. No generation knows for sure that it is the
last, but each one could be.
As we
study this book we first of all must try to see what it meant to the Christians
of the first century. Then we must try
to see what it has meant to Christians through history. And finally how does it apply today, and
what does it mean for its final fulfillment at the end of history which could
possibly be in our lifetime. The reason
this revelation causes so much debate is because so many Christians want to
take it for themselves and leave all other generations of Christians out of
it. They want it to be for the first
century Christians, or for the Christians of the last day only. These exclusive theories are not wrong, for
both are right, but it is just that they are too narrow and limited.
As we
read through the book, we will be following those who see this as a revelation
to all God's people with meaning to every generation from the first to the
last. This means that soon means just
that in every generation. The events of
this book are always just around the corner for every generation. Jesus could have returned in any
century. If this was not the case, then
the waiting Christians who have lived in expectation for centuries have been
deceived. The Bible says they were
right to have been watching, for His coming is always near.
The third thing we want to look at is‑
III. THE
SERVANTS TO WHOM THE REVELATION IS GIVEN.
This
revelation was not given to idle curiosity seekers, but to those who are
servants of Christ. It is a servants manual and not just a guide to prophecy nuts
who love to get into speculation about
all the details of the future. It is primarily practical in its purpose. It is
to aid Christians in their service for Christ. It is to be a blessing to those
who keep what is written says John. If one does not serve Christ and live a
more practical life of benefit to others because of this book, he has missed
the purpose of it, and poverty of purpose is worse than poverty of purse. Only
those who serve can really see the future and be motivated by this revelation,
for they alone can see that their labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Barclay
rightly says, "No man can be anything greater than a servant of God."
This is the name first given to Christians in this book and it is the title
that John and all of the Apostles proudly wear. God lets his servants in on his
plea for the future, for if they are going to suffer for His Word and even give
their lives in His service, it is only right that they should share in knowing
the outcome of it all. The Christians who will get most out of this revelation
are those who are most anxious to serve Christ in the world, and keep the
things written in this book. Frank Laubach said something so simple yet so
profound: "It would be better for
us to throw away 99% of our learning and of our tangled philosophy and stick to
just one single thing for our daily life‑to keep asking God, who needs me
next, Father!"
Whatever
we learn from the study of this book will be worthless if it does not make us
better servants. If growing in knowledge does not lead to growth in service, we
will have missed the whole point of this book. On the other hand,, if we fail
to grasp some of the mysteries and are wrong on some of our interpretations,
but we are motivated to greater service, we will have accomplished the primary
purpose for which this revelation was given. So our prayer should be, Lord,
help us to see and then obey, as we launch into this study of the beginning of
the end.
2. THE
BLESSED LIFE Based on Rev. 1:3
The famous
medical missionary Dr. Grenfell of Labrador once came to John Hopkins Hospital
in America looking for a head nurse to go back to Labrador with him. He made this appeal: "If you want to
have the time of your life, come with me and run a hospital next summer for the
orphans of the Northland. There will
not be a cent of money in it for you, and you will have to pay your own
expenses. But I guarantee that you will
feel a love for life you have never before experienced. It's having the time of anyone's life to be
in the service of Christ." The
nurse who responded wrote this after she came back to America: "I never knew before that life was good
for anything but what one could get out of it.
Now I know that the real fun lies in seeing how much one can put into
life for others."
She
learned that the blessed life is the life of the servant. This is one of the major truths of the
Bible, and one that John stresses in this book of Revelation. The first chapter and the last chapter have
the same emphasis: This is a revelation
to servants, and blessedness is found in the keeping of what is revealed. Listen to Rev. 22:6‑7 which shows you
how the last chapter sounds so much like the beginning of the first
chapter. "And the Lord, the God of
the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to sow His servants what must
soon take place. And behold I am coming
soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words
of the prophecy of this book."
From beginning to end this book is for servants, and the blessing is found
in doing.
In this
third verse of the first chapter John spells out most fully the actions that
lead to the blessed life. The three
things you can do with this book that leads to blessings are: You can read it; you can hear it, and you
can keep it. Readers, hearers, and
keepers, are the three kinds of servants who will reap the benefits of this
revelation. Before we look closer at
these three actions, we need to look at the implication of this verse as a
whole. This verse makes this the most
unique book in all the Bible. All
Scripture is profitable, therefore, there is a blessing connected with reading,
hearing, and obeying any part of it, but this is the only part of Scripture
where it is plainly stated.
This is
the first of seven beatitudes in the book, and is the most comprehensive. Every Christian in history has this blessing
as a potential for his life. There are
exceptions, like the thief on the cross, who never had a chance to even see the
book, and likely there are many others in history who also did not have a
chance to see it. But the fact remains,
Christians of every generation have had the chance to enter into this
blessing. This makes the interpretation
of this book, by necessity, a book that has to be a meaningful one to every
generation of Christians. If it is not,
this promised blessing is a farce and a mockery. If only the first Christians could understand it, then the
blessing is meaningless to all the Christians since. And if only the last generation of Christians can grasp it, then
this blessing has been meaningless to all the Christians through history.
There is
just no alternative to this conclusion:
If we are to take this blessing as a legitimate promise to all readers,
hearers, and keepers, then it must be a revelation that is relevant to all
Christians of all time. How can you
keep what has no meaning to you? How
can you be blessed by reading what makes no sense because it is not meant for
you, but for Christians of some other age?
There is only one way you can do justice to this third verse, and that
is to recognize that it makes this book a now book for all time. The very first Christians who received it
entered into the blessed life, and the very last who receive it will enter into
the blessed life. The blessed life is
not all out there in the future when the world is coming to an end. The whole point of a revelation of the
future is to bring the blessings of the future back into the present so we can
begin to enjoy them now. The best is
always yet to be, but the better is always near for those who know what that
best to be is.
Realized
Eschatology is what the scholars call it.
It simply means that the future can greatly influence the present in the
lives of those who live now with eternity's values in view. They begin now to experience in some measure
the blessings that God has prepared for those who love and serve Him. If a man gets a letter telling him that the
girl he loves is going to say yes when he proposes next week, that knowledge of
the future affects how he lives that week.
He is already enjoying the future.
This
verse says that the blessed life is now.
The overall theme of the book is the conflict of Christ and Satan, good
and evil, light and darkness. We don't
have to wait until the battle is over in enjoy the fruits of victory. Christ wants to live in us and gain
victories now over the forces of evil.
We might even become martyrs in the conflict, but this book makes clear
that if we do, it only leads us more quickly to be crowned, and to join the
battle in the spiritual realm even nearer to Christ. No matter how fierce the conflict, and no matter how rough the
persecution, Christians must recognize that the blessed life is now. Any interpretation of this book that robs
any Christian of any age of this opening blessing is missing the mark. We are dealing with a perpetual now book,
and the important thing about this revelation about the future is, how does it
affect our now? How does our knowledge
of God's plan and purpose for the future alter our present character and
conduct? The first thing we have to do
to allow the future to change the present is to enter into the three‑fold
blessing of this verse. The first
blessing is on‑
I. THE READER.
The
first thing we need to observe is that this blessing is designed to fit the
specific situation of the first century Christians. The reader is singular.
"Blessed is he who reads."
The hearers, however, are plural, for it is they that hear. We have a clear picture of the public
service where one reads the Word and the congregation listens. The reading here
is not the private reading in your home, but the public reading in the church. In the early church where there was only one
copy of the book, no one had a copy to read at home in private. It would have been meaningless to offer a
blessing to those who read the book to themselves at home, for no one could do
that. The Living Bible; the RSV, and
other modern translations stress the public reading by translating:
"Blessed is he who reads aloud."
It is not a silent private reading that being referred to here.
The
implication of this is clear. This book
is meant for a group experience. It is
guide for the body in its decisions and strategies for doing the will of Christ
in history. It is not designed as a
devotional guide for personal devotions like the book of Psalms or
Proverbs. It is to be a public standard
for the guidance of the church as a whole.
In verse 4 John addresses the seven churches of Asia, and the second and
third chapters deal with Christ's view of the church. What this means then, on the practical level, is that the
principles of this book are to guide us as a body. This book is to be more important to us as a local congregation
of believers than our constitution.
Here we have a revelation of how our Lord, the Head of the church, feels
about what goes on in His church. He is
to determine what theology we teach; what actions we take, and what attitudes
we express toward our world.
In order
to guarantee that the Lord's view of the church might never be lost, He made it
a blessing for churches of all ages to have this book read and heard publicly
in the worship service. This does not
mean there is no value in reading the book in private. It is just that the blessing is designed to
keep this book as an open and public guide to the local church all through
history. The leader or reader may be a
pastor or a layman who keeps this guide before the body by reading it in
public, and he is blessed for doing so.
The other two categories of blessing are really one, for to be a hearer
and not a keeper of the Word is a curse rather than a blessing, and so we can
link them together and call them‑
II. HEARER‑KEEPERS.
The
obvious reason why it is a blessing to hear this book read is because you
thereby become informed on the mind of Christ.
You are then able to live in obedience to His will. The reverse truth is also obvious. It is a curse to be in the dark and not know
what your Lord's will is. To be in a
battle and not know what your commander's goals and objectives are is to be and
aid to the enemy, and a stumbling block to your fellow soldiers in the
faith. If we are ignorant as a local
church as to what Christ expects of us, we can burn up all of our energy doing
things that do not accomplish His purpose.
As we shall see, it is possible for a local church to be in just that
kind of situation. To avoid it we must
be hearers of this portion of the Word and doers.
The ear
gate was the primary means of receiving the Word of God in the early church,
and the preached Word is still the main means for most Christians to be exposed
to the truths which Christ wants the church to hear. This means that good listening habits are important for
Christians to develop. Boredom is not
always the fault of the speaker. Quite
often the listeners are lethargic. They
do not take the message seriously enough to overcome the distractions and the
tiredness that makes the mind drift and sink into a stupor where the message
does not penetrate.
This
verse is saying, it will be a blessing for those Christians who take this
revelation serious enough to fight all obstacles to good listening so that they
can hear what Christ has to say to the church.
Over and over we will see the phrase in chapter two and three: "He who has an ear, let him hear what
the spirit says to the churches." In other words, you can have an ear and
still not hear. It is the hearing that
leads to understanding and obedience.
The good listener is one who is always asking questions about what he
hears. How does this apply to me and my
church? What can we do to live up to
this ideal of Christ? You must be
looking for insights as you listen.
Those who do listen will hear what the inattentive will miss and lose
their blessing. Good listening enables
you to find gems of truth that the speaker is not even talking about. Good listening will enable you to see things
that the speaker doesn't see such as, implications that apply to you that the
speaker knows nothing about.
Our
understanding and interpretation of this revelation may be immature, but that
is part of the process of growing. We
must see on a lower level before we can see on a higher level. Our interpretation will become more clear as
we respond in obedience to the highest we can grasp at the time. Child like misunderstanding will be
corrected as we share what we see and hear.
Our own experience will be corrected by the wider experience of the
body. A little boy visiting the farm
walked through a flock of chickens, and suddenly the rooster flopped his wings
and let forth with a crow. The boy ran
to the house and gave this interpretation of his experience: He said the rooster spanked himself and then
cried. From his perspective that seemed
the most logical interpretation of the event.
It was not accurate, but as he listened to others explain he would grow
in his understanding.
The
point I am making is, the blessing of this book revolves around a group
experience. The important thing is not
what I learn, or what you learn, but rather, how does this revelation affect us
as a church? How will we respond to
what we learn about Christ's will for the local church? It is a body‑life experience. We must share how we feel about what is
revealed to us, for only as we do can we keep what is written.
In 1959
Hans Kraus bought a 13th century copy of Revelation for $182,000. That was a world record, and doubtless Hans
will keep that copy after he reads it, but that is not the kind of keeping John
has in mind. Hans may be blessed to
have that 13th century copy of the book, but that is not the blessing John speaks
of here. Keeping means doing, or acts
of obedience because of what is written in this book. This means the goal of this book, like the goal of all Christian
education, is to change conduct so that it conforms to the will of Christ. This means the book has principles that are
universal for all Christians in every age.
A Mrs.
R. L. Bartlett received a postcard 42 years after it had been mailed from only
6 miles away. It said, "Will be
down Monday about 5:00 P.M. Do not stay
at home on my account. Hope your cold
is better." It was totally
irrelevant when she got it, and of less value than yesterday's paper. The point is, once a message no longer fits
the situation in which you live, it is a worthless message. The book of Revelation is not like the
paper. Some say it is as current as the
daily news. Not so! It is far more relevant than that. The daily news is only relevant for a few
hours, and then it is obsolete.
Revelation is relevant always to all believers in all churches, for the
principles of life it reveals can be kept by all who will choose to do so at
all times.
Satan
will be delighted if our goal is only to satisfy our curiosity about the
future. C. S. Lewis in Screwtape
Letters has Satan telling one of his demons how to succeed in deceiving a
Christian: "The great thing is to
prevent his doing anything. Let him do
anything but act. No amount of piety in
his imagination and affection will harm us if we can keep it out of his will‑the
more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and,
in the long run, the less he will be able to feel." If Satan can get us to feel excited about
his book so that we are content with just feeling good because we are learning
more, but keep us from changing our lives in response to what we learn, he will
have succeeded in robbing us of the promise blessing.
G. K.
Chesterton, the great Catholic author,
scolded the church of his day in poetry because of their failure to take
practical action to meet the needs of the community. He wrote,
The Christian Social Union
here
Was very much annoyed;
It seems there is some duty
Which we never should avoid,
And so they sing a lot of
hymns
To help the unemployed.
To keep
what is written in this book is to be practical. To remember the Sabbath and keep it holy was not just a motto to
the people of God in the Old Testament.
In order to keep it holy they had to do many things, or refrain from
many things. To keep the Sabbath was
primarily a matter of conduct. To keep
the things revealed in this book is likewise a matter of conduct. We are not true believers of what we hear
revealed until it affects our lives.
Paul Johnson put it: "A
belief is a faith not merely when it is accepted as true, but when it
determines what one shall live for and shapes the way of living."
Adoniram
Judson in 1812 sailed to Burma to carry the Gospel there. He suffered greatly as he was imprisoned for
two years. Starved and beaten, yet he
survived, but with his hands and feet marred by the chains. He went to the king of Burma and asked
permission to preach. The king
responded, "I am willing for a dozen preachers to go, but not you. Not with those hands. My people are not such fools as to take
notice of your preaching, but they will take notice of them." Judson way effective, and is now a famous
hero in the history of missions because he was a keeper of the things Christ
revealed to His church.
This
last book of the Bible starts with the same principle with which the book of
Genesis starts. It is a test of
obedience. Will Adam and Eve keep the
will of God by obedient conduct? They
did not! Now, each member, and each
church in the body of Christ has the same option. Will we, or will we not, keep God's Word by obedient
conduct. The promise for those who do
is an entrance into the Blessed Life.
3. THE SEVEN CHURCHES Based
on Rev. 1:4
A math teacher asked one of her less enthusiastic
students, "If I take 23 away from 30, what is the difference?" He responded, "That's what I say,
what's the difference?" In other
words, it made no difference to him.
Not everybody enjoys math and working with numbers, and you certainly do not need much knowledge in
this area to understand the Bible. John
was no great mathematician, but there is one number he used over and over
again, and that was the number 7. The
whole book of Revelation is built around the number 7. It is used 54 times in this book, and is the
key number that forms the structure of the book.
John was
not the first to use 7 this way, for 7 has been the number of perfection and
completion all through history. The
Greeks and Romans considered it a sacred number, but long before them the
Chinese divided their empire into 7 provinces.
In India the earth was divided into 7 divisions, and they had the 7
rivers of Hindustan, and 7 celestial mountains. The Babylonians made much of the number 7, and they referred to
all gods as the 7 gods, and their 7 story tower was symbolic of the whole
universe.
The idea
of 7 being symbolic of perfection and completion is almost universal, and,
therefore, it is the easiest of all symbolic numbers to understand. It usually means all of the category being
dwelt with in the context. God has
built this right into creation.
7 days make a complete week.
7 colors make a complete rainbow.
7 whole tones make a complete scale with the 8th a
repetion of the first.
7 seas, 7 wonders of the world, 7 years and the body
is renewed.
7 days of rest.
7 day feast.
7th day for circumcision.
7 fold sprinkling of blood on the day of atonement.
7 branch candlestick.
7 times dipping of Naaman.
7 years labor for Rachel.
7 years of famine and 7 years of plenty.
7 last words from the cross.
7 baskets of fragments.
7 husbands of one wife.
7 demons cast out of Mary Magdalene.
7 deacons.
7 parables of Matt. 13.
7 woes on the Pharisees.
7 times 70 for forgiveness.
We could
go on and on for there are 600 references to the number 7 in the Bible. There is no point in trying to prove what is
obvious to everyone. 7 is a symbolic
number which stands for totality. It
gets this meaning because it is a combination of three and four. Three represents the trinity, or heaven, and
four represents the earth because of the four directions and four seasons. 7 is the combination of heaven and earth, or
the total reality.
This
means that when John in verse 4 addresses the 7 churches in Asia, he is
addressing the total church, or all churches for all time. These 7 actual churches of his day are
representative of all the local churches that will exist through all of
history. Just as the 7 spirits before
the throne represent the Holy Spirit in the fullness of all his functions. One of the popular systems of interpreting
the book of Revelation is the system that sees the whole book as 7 great
visions, each of which starts at the first coming of Christ and ends with the
second coming. Whether this theory is
correct or not I cannot say, but it definitely has some truth to it which we
will observe as we go through the book.
Another
popular method of interpretation based on the number 7 is that each of the 7
churches represents a period of history.
Again, there is some truth to this theory, but to press it only leads to
a lot of contradiction, for no two who follow this theory seem to be able to
agree on what period of history each church represents. It is wise just to recognize that in every
period of history the church falls into one of the 7 categories represented by
the 7 churches. In fact, the church
today world wide has local churches that fall into everyone of the 7
kinds. The idea that all churches of
any age fall into the same category is based on ignorance of church history. The church may be dead in one part of the
world, and in great revival in another part.
Some
people get so excited about numerology that they go to extremes. I have several books in my library devoted
to finding 7's in the Bible. This is an
old hobby and goes back into ancient Judaism.
They actually get down to the very letters of the Hebrew and Greek. For example, Gen. 1:1 has 7 Hebrew words
made up of 28 letters, or 4 times 7.
The first three words have 14 letters or 2 times 7, and the last 4 words
have 14 letters or 2 times 7, and on and on it goes with dozens of combination
of 7 right in the first verse of the Bible.
They go on through the whole Bible finding 7 absolutely everywhere. Some men have spent their whole life finding
the 7's in the Bible in every conceivable combination; all of which is much
adeu about nothing. J. B. Segal writes,
"Statistics of the Bible, like the
calculations of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, have a fatal attraction for cranks
and crackpots, and even for wise men in their less guarded moments."
We must beware of the danger of getting all
excited about numbers, for as John Davis points out in his Biblical Numerology,
the Bible no where tells us that it has any special hidden meaning in numbers. He feels that the number 7 is the only
significant symbolic number in Scripture, and it has a clear and obvious
meaning to all‑completeness. Even
here we need to remember that it can also mean completely evil and does not
always mean perfect in a good sense. In
13:1 the great beast has 7 heads, and so 7 can be complete for either good or
evil.
As we
focus our attention on the 7 churches of Asia who first received this book, we
need to remember that though they are representative of all churches, they were
also real churches. This book is
anchored in history. No interpretation
can be very convincing if it does not face up to the fact that is was
originally given to the 7 historic churches.
The fact that there were other well known churches in the same area,
such as Colosse, Galatia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Antioch, and Miletus, makes
it clear that 7 is used symbolically for all churches. We are not opening and reading other
people's mail, therefore, but just as Paul wrote his letters to 7 specific
churches which are guides to all the churches of history, so this revelation to
the 7 churches is for all the churches of history.
As we look at the greeting of John to the churches, it is a typical greeting of the New Testament Epistles. Grace and peace are the two things all of need perpetually. The fact that we even need God's grace is evidence that apart from God's favor we can never make our own lives meaningful and effective.