Running Through Revelation

Revelation chapter 1. We are literally going to run through the book of Revelation. That's why we've entitled tonight's sermon Running Through Revelation. Because that's what we're going to do. If you have not been with us, you probably will be lost before we're through. If you have been with us, this will be a tremendous review for you. And hopefully, if you haven't been with us, it will encourage you to get some of the tapes and study the book of Revelation for your. The Bible says in Revel 1, verse number 1: the revelation of Jesus Christ, the apocalypse, the unveiling, the uncovering, the disclosure.

Of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever the word apocalypse is used in reference to a person, it specifically deals with the fact of making that individual visible. In fact, the very first time the word apocalypse is used, it's used in Luke chapter 2, verses 28 to 32, to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was revealed as a light.

To the Gentile people. Probably the best way to study the book of Revelation is the way we're going to do it this evening. To give you a composite picture of the entire book, to get you motivated about what's happening and what it's all about. And hopefully, we'll be able to do that for you this evening. But the book is about seeing Jesus Christ for who He really is. For in the book of Revelation, he is disclosed like no other bo in the Bible. And for those of you who have lost sight of Jesus Christ, Then the book of Revelation is something you need to study because the book of Revelation will tell you clearly who Jesus Christ is and what He is about.

As we go through each chapter, we want to give you a title for each chapter so you kind of understand the flow of the book. We will begin in chapter one. And we were ent to chapter one, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Now all of the Bible is a revelation about Jesus Christ. But this book in particular is different in terms of outlining for you the plan and purposes of God and for his people as he brings the world to a climax. In chapter 1 is the greatest of all the chapters in the book of Revelation because chapter 1 details for us who Jesus Christ is in such a way that the rest of the book We'll pick up on the phrases in chapter 1 and expound upon them to give you a greater picture of who Jesus Christ is and how he operates in the world today.

In verses 1 to 8, we have the salutation. In verses 9 to 18 of chapter 1, you have the vision. And in verses 19 and 20, you have the implications of that vision for John and what he is supposed to. To do in light of what he has just seen and heard from the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of people read the book of Revelation and they feel it's a mystery, it's a puzzle, it's too difficult to understand. But understand this, that in Revelation chapter 1, it tells us that the book specifically was given to Christ the Son and given to his bonds.

The book of Revelation was not given to the unbelieving world. It was given to the believer that he might understand God's plan and purposes. And then they in turn would tell people about the great coming of Jesus Christ our Lord. In fact, the book of Revelation is not about puzzles and mysteries and confusion, it's about blessing. Revelation chapter 1, verse number 3, Blessed is he who comes. Excuse me, who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.

If you go back to the end of the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 22, you have a similar blessing. Because the book is bracketed with blessings. There are seven blessings in the book of Revelation, each of them dealing with the believer and what God promises to give those who read and hear the book. There's a blessing. But in chapter 1, we have the revelation of Jesus Christ. And John has a duty. His personal duty is to hear and to read. And to obey the word of God. And then he has a public duty to write these things down.

Because if you have seen the glorified risen Christ, if you have come in contact with who Jesus Christ is. You have a public responsibility, a public duty to tell people who he is and why he exists. So, in chapter one, you have the revelation of Jesus Christ. In chapters two and three, you have the examination of the churches. There are seven churches that are in the book of Revelation. And John is told to write these things down and give them to the churches that they might understand who Jesus Christ is.

They are seven literal churches that actually did exist. And at the same time, they are seven churches that help you understand the history of the church throughout the world. For your church, our church, every church falls into one of these categories. And the Bible tells us in each of the letters. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Why? Because God wants you to understand that the condition of your church is extremely important. And God, who stands among the seven lampstand, which are representative of the seven churches, stands in the middle of them, passing judgment upon those churches based on their condition.

And he admonishes them, accuses them of what's wrong in their assembly, and then admonishes them to do the right thing. And then tells everyone, He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. When you come to Revelation chapter 4, you have the adoration of our God. In chapter 1, you have the revelation of Christ. In chapter 2, you have the examination of the church. Also, in chapter three, and then in chapter four, you have the adoration of our God. John is transported into heaven.

John sees heaven's throne. He sees God in heaven. Chapter 4 is about God the Father. Chapter 5 is about Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. And so when John is transported up into heaven, he is able to see things as he has never seen them before. And what he understands is what true praise and what true worship is all about. He realizes that there are four living creatures in heaven. One with a face like a man, one like a face like an eagle, one with a face like a calf, and the other with a face as a lion.

And they have eyes all over their bodies, they have wings. Similar to what Ezekiel saw in his vision when he saw heaven. And these four living creatures kind of lead heaven's assembly through worship. And in chapter 5, you have the exaltation of the Lamb of God. The exaltation of the Lamb of God. It says that there is one sitting on the right hand of God. That's the Lamb. In the right hand of God the Father is a scroll. A scroll that's been rolled up. That plays a very significant part in the book of Revelation.

Because in Roman law, when they made a will and testament. They would write it out on a scroll, roll it up and seal it, roll it up and seal it again, roll it up and seal again, so that you were to make sure that no one was to break into it. What this is, is the fulfillment of Psalm chapter 2. For in Psalm chapter 2, God the Father said to God the Son, Today I have begotten thee, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. What that scroll signifies are the nations of the world and they are God the Sons.

And the Lamb who is worthy is the one who takes the scroll from the right hand of God the Father, and as he begins to break each of the seals of the scroll, you begin to understand Revelation chapter 6. Which is the tribulation upon the earth with the six seals that are broken. But you understand that it's the Lamb of God. John sees this Lamb who is standing strong and slain, having seven horns, horns representing strength. Seven representing the perfect number, the number of completion. For Jesus Christ Himself, the Lamb of God, has complete control, has complete power, and it can do anything that He desires.

He's called the name of God 28 times in the book of Revelation. The key word in the book of Revelation is the word loud or great or mega. 84 different times it's used. The word angel is used over 71 times in the book of Revelation because angels play a prominent part in the judgment of God upon the world. You still with me? Good. In Revelation chapter 5, you'll notice that there is a swell of praise as the lamb who was slain Stands and takes the scroll from the Father's hand.

And there's a swelling of praise because heaven now realizes. That Jesus Christ is going to take what is rightfully his. That means no more sin. That means no more Satan. That means no more curse. And so there is a swelling tide of praise in the book of Revelation, chapter 5, as the Lamb him is exalted. Worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals. For thou wast slain and didst purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and a priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying to him who sits on the throne. And to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshipped. It's all about the worship of the Lamb. It's all about He is the one who is worthy. When you come to Revelation chapter 6, you have what we call the tribulation on the earth. The tribulation on the earth. John now is going to come back to earth. He has seen heaven. He has seen what's going to happen in heaven. He is understanding more about what praise and worship was all about. He is understanding about the Lamb of God and his right.

Place in the plan of God as He takes back what is rightfully His. Now you come to Revelation chapter 6. You have the tribulation on the earth. Now listen to me very carefully because you need to understand this. The seven seals represent the divine judgment of God. There are seven seals, there are seven trumpets, and there are seven bulls in the book of Revelation. Listen very carefully. The seven seals take you from day one to the end of the tribulation. Okay? The seven seals span the entire seven-year period of the tribulation.

Out of that seventh seal comes seven trumpets that will be blown. And out of those seven trumpets that are blown, the seventh trumpet comes. Seven bowls or seven vials of judgment. And that is great journalism. Why? Because what the book of Revelation does is take you through the tribulation period in the breaking of those six seals to help you understand the overall perspective of judgment that's going to be poured out. And then, when you go back to Revelation chapter 7, 8, 9, and following, God fills in all the different specific details that help you understand what happens during that tribulational period.

So, when the first seal is broken, there's a rider on a white horse. That's false peace. That's the Antich. He comes with a bow, but he has no arrows. But he is afforded or awarded a place of prominence. Why? There's going to be chaos on the world. Why is there going to be chaos? Because the church of Jesus Christ is going to be raptured. It's going to be gone. People got to have answers. Somebody's going to have to give them answers. There's going to be a man, a man on a white horse. And that man is false peace.

That man is the Antich. And as predicted by Daniel chapter 9, verse number 27, he will sign a peace treaty with the nation of Israel. He will break that covenant with them in the middle of the seven-year period. Period, but at the very beginning, he signs a peace covenant with Israel, and this man is the man of peace. He comes riding the white horse. When the second seal is broken, the second seal is war.

That's a red horse. And the reason it's red is because it associates with the color of Satan, the dragon, in Revelation 12, verse number 3. And note it was granted the second horse, the red horse, to take peace from the earth and that men to slay one another.

And a great sword was given to him. When you come to the third seal, and that one's broken, the third seal is famine.

You will notice that that's a black horse, and black is representative of starvation and famine in the Old Testament.

When you come to the Fourth seal that's broken. There is a pale-colored horse, and that is death. And so the fourth seal helps us understand that by the time you get to this point. Much death is happening, so much so that a quarter of the world is killed by the time the fourth seal is broken. By the sword, by famine, by pestilence, by wild beasts. When you come to the fifth seal, you have the prayers of the martyred saints. And the prayers of the martyred saints play a prominent role in the book of Revelation.

Because if you go through the book of Revelation, you are always referring back to the altar that's in heaven. And those who are there having been slain, who are praying for God to accomplish His perfect will upon the earth. When you come to the sixth seal, it says this in verse 12. And I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth. made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, and the sky was split apart like a scroll.

when it's rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich and the strong, and every slave and freem, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains, and to the rocks, Fall on us. And hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? So when you come to the end of chapter 6, you are at the end of the book of Revelation.

All you need now is the details to be filled in for you as the seventh seal then is broken and the seven trumpets come out of that and the seven bowls come out of the Seventh trumpet. By the time John gets here, John is in need of a break. John has seen death, he has seen disease, he has seen famine, he has seen wild beasts. He has seen all kinds of disasters upon the earth. He has seen earthquakes. He has seen the sky split apart. He has seen it rolled up like a scroll. He has seen so many devastating things.

He needs a break. So God gives him a break. So, in chapter 7, you have what we call the cons for the Apostle Paul. What's the cons? The cons is this: that there's going to be a ceiling of 14,000 Jews. 12,000 from every tribe. And there's going to be a multitude of people that are going to be born again, that are going to be saved. And John's going to be able to see a multitude of Souls in heaven. He's going to be able to see what God does. In spite of all the bad things that have happened upon the earth, God has a perfect plan to bring about His perfect will, and that perfect plan is to save the souls.

Of many people during the time of the tribulation. It's going to happen because he's going to seal 1,000 Jews. Who become evangelists, and they will go all over the world and they will preach the gospel so much so that a great multitude of people will get. Saved. And so when you come from the cons for the apostle in Revelation 7, you come to Revelation chapter 8 and Revelation chapter 9. We call this. The continuation of God's wrath. For in chapter 8, you have these words in verse number 1. And when he broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour.

Why is there silence in heaven? The reason being is because everyone is awestruck as to what God is about to do. There is silence in heaven. And it says in verse number two, I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

And as they blow these trumpets, what happens is so amazing. That there's nothing but silence in heaven as they anticipate the judgment of God. When you come to Revelation chapter 10, you have what is called the manifestation. Of the ultimate mystery. But the mystery is this: guys like Amos and Ezekiel and Daniel and Joel and And Obadiah and Zachariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, they knew about the coming of the Messiah. They knew about the coming of the king, but they didn't have all the details. And so there was a lot of mystery surrounding the plan of God, and a lot of mystery surrounding what God was going to do.

And now John is told that that mystery is going to be. Seen, it's going to be completed. It says in verse number 7 that the mystery of God is finished as he preached to his servants the prophets. It's going to be over. Everybody's going to see exactly the plan and purposes of God. They're going to understand why God did what He did and why He took so long to do what He did. They're going to understand the long-suffering of God, the patience of God, the mercy of God, the wrath of God, the love of God, the justice of God.

They're all going to be understood by man because God is going to reveal Himself in full gl. When you come to Revelation chapter 11, you have two things. You have the execution of the two witnesses as well as the redemption of Israel. Revelation 12, you had the clarification of Satan's plans. In Revel 12, you had the history of the entire world from the beginning before time until the end after time. It 's an amazing scenario. But in Revelation 12, You have the ultimate world war. And it tells us in Revelation chapter 12 that Satan's desire is to inc persecute Israel.

The Messiah and God's people. So you had a clarification of Satan's plans in chapter 12. In chapter 13, you had the description of the Antichrist and the false prophet. The description of the Antichrist and the false prophet. So, what you have is an understanding of how this Antichrist rises to power, how he comes to be, and his cohort, the false prophet, which is the religious leader of the day. The Antichrist is the military and political leader. The false prophet is the religious leader. They make everybody take a sign.

The sign is called a 6 on the forehead or the back of the hand. And the reason it's on the forehead or the back of the hand is because it's those two places that are easily exposed in cold weather. Right? Forehead and the back of the hand. And therefore, that's a sign to mark of the beast, given to those who worship the Antichrist. But Revelation 14 comes. And here you have the visions of victory. Why do you need these? Because John needs to understand that, in spite of the turmoil with the Antichrist, In spite of the demons upon the earth, in spite of a third of the world being killed, in spite of a fourth of the world already having been killed, so half the world is already gone.

There is victory still. And God shows it to him in Revelation 14. Because in verse number 1, he sees the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him, 14,000. Those that were sealed at the beginning of the tribulation are at the end of the tribulation. It's not 141,000 or 139,000, it's 144,000 God protects all of His people. When you come to Revelation chapter 15, what do you have? You have the celebration in heaven. The celebration in heaven. Why? Why is there celebration in heaven? Because the wrath of God is finished.

It says that I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous. Seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. So, what happens in heaven? There is a great celebration. Why? Because God is going to finish what he began. God is going to finish it all, and finally, the king will rule.

And it says in verse number three, and they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God the Almighty, right and true are thy ways, thou king of the nations.

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou alone art holy, for all the nations will come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have been revealed. After these things, I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple. clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their breasts with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of wrath.

of God who lives for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. When you come to Revelation chapter 16, you have the devastation of the bold judgments. There are seven of them. They are poured out in rapid fire succession. In Revelation chapter 17 and in Revelation chapter 18, you have the extermination of Babylon. John is able to see what happens. Throughout the latter half of the tribulation, so he's able to come to grips with why these people are so into worship Antichrist.

And when you come to Revelation chapter 19, you have. What we call the coronation of the king. You had the four hallelujah. Verse number one, hallelujah.

Verse number three, hallelujah. Verse number four, hallelu 6. Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Hallelujah! For his redeeming mercy! Hallelujah! For his righteous victory! Hallelujah! For his removing iniquity, and hallelujah, for his reigning. Majesty. There's great hallelujahs in heaven. Why? Because the king is coming. The devastation has taken place. The king is going to come. Man has had the opportunity for seven years to repent. Some have, a lot have not. When you come to Revelation chapter 20, you have two things.

You have the resurrection of the godly as well as the damnation of the ungodly. In chapter 20, Jesus Christ has returned to earth. He sets up his reign. To do that, he binds Satan for a thousand years. And he sets up his millennial reign upon the earth. And it begins to reign, and you have the resurrection of tribulational saints, you have the resurrection of Old Testament saints, and they reign with Christ for a thousand years. At the end of that thousand years, Satan is released one last time. And those people that were born during the millennial reign of Christ, who did not give their life to Christ.

Who did not want to worship the true Messiah will join forces with Satan, and he will be destroyed one last time as fire comes down from heaven. Those people are destroyed. Satan himself then is cast into the lake of fire along with the false prophet and the beast. He burns with them for ever and ever. And in Revel twenty, verse number eleven, you have the damnation of the ungodly, for you had the great white Throne judgment. Heaven and earth have passed away. There's nothing left but the great white throne judgment and the second resurrection that is a resurrection of all those ungodly people.

When the books were open and all their deeds were manifested, it says these words, and death and Hades, verse number 14, were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life. He was thrown into the lake of fire. When you come to Revelation 21, you have the rec of the new heaven and the new earth. And you have coming down out of heaven the capital city called Jerusalem. And when you come to Revelation chapter 22, you have the final invitation given to man. The final invitation given to believers to make sure that they understand that they are to submit totally to the words of God. That they are to speak truthfully the words of God, and they are to serve tenaciously their God until He comes again.

And yet, the final invitation given to man in Revelation 2, verse number 17, and the spirit and the bride say, Come, and the one who hears Says, Come, and let the one who is thirsty come, and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. The great God of the universe offers an invitation. He says, Listen, this is what's going to happen. This is how it's going to take place. This is what I'm going to do. So, this is what you need to do. You need to come to me. If you're thirsty, if you're weary, if you're needy.

You need to come to me, and I will cause you to drink of the water of life without cost. You need to come to me because of the truthfulness of Scripture. You need to come to me because I am going to return. Behold, I am coming quickly. And John says, Amen. Lord, you come. We want you to come. And the Bible closes with these words: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with you all, and all God's people said, Amen.