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(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you to week five,
day five of our look through the New Testament, a book a day. We're at the Book
of Revelation today. So you've made it through a survey of the entire New
Testament.

As you turn to the Book of Revelation, you realize pretty quickly that it's
different from any other book in the New Testament. And because of those
differences, I want to start by encouraging you to read the Book of Revelation
with two convictions. Conviction number one, God wants you to understand this
book.

He wouldn't give it to us if he didn't want us to understand it. And conviction
number two, God wants you to understand this book in order to give you hope. The
Book of Revelation is the book of hope.

Everything in it is written to give you hope, even in the most difficult of
circumstances, to help you to realize that there is nothing that can take the
hope that you've been given in Jesus Christ away from you. With that in mind,
just a brief introduction to this Book of Revelation. If you open to the first
book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, you're opening to the book of beginnings
and endings, of creation and then fall.

If you open to the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, you're
opening to the book of endings and then beginnings, of destruction and then
creation. The Bible starts with a creation and it ends with a new creation. The
Book of Revelation is a book not only about the future, it's a book about your
future.

Every one of us is mentioned in this book. At the end, we will all either be
standing at the sea of glass worshiping him or at the great white throne being
judged by him. And my conviction is that God wrote to help us to understand the
future, not to keep us from understanding.

And yet, we get a little dizzy when we start reading this book. Reading
Revelation is like being dropped into a different world. I mean, you're reading
through the New Testament and in the gospels, Jesus heals the blind and then in
the letters, Paul is encouraging the churches.

And in Revelation, you have a beast with seven heads and 10 horns rising out of
the sea. So we gotta orient ourselves a little bit. To orient ourselves to this
Book of Revelation, first you have to understand the background of the book.

It's a book that was recorded by John the Apostle, recorded because it was
written by God. It's a revelation, not a dream, it's a message from an angel.
The Book of Revelation tells us how this book was given.

Chapter one, verses one to three, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending
his angel to his servant, John, who testifies to everything he saw, that is the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the
words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what
is written in it because the time is near.

So these verses tell us God gave it to Jesus, only my father knows the times
Jesus said, well God gave it to Jesus, Jesus sent an angel and the angel
delivered the message to John and John's delivered it to us. And this book is a
book with a guaranteed blessing, blessed are those who read it. Now the Book of
Revelation, as you think about the background, it's a book that is prophetic in
message and apocalyptic in form.

It's prophetic, it looks to the future, what God's going to do, how God's at work
in this world, and it's apocalyptic, that's how it was written. It's a style, a
type of writing. The word apocalyptic, apocalypse is to unveil or to reveal.

The best picture I know today of the apocalyptic writing in that day is the
political cartoon. When you look at a political cartoon, you know what certain
things mean. You see a donkey and you know that it means, yeah, the Democratic
Party if you live in America.

Even if you don't, you probably know that. Well in that day, when they heard
about a beast, they knew what it meant. These were familiar things to them.

There are 300 symbols in the Book of Revelation. Symbolism, you have to be
careful that symbolism does not lead to bad interpretation. You have to be
careful as you read through the Book of Revelation that you apply the law of
common sense.

That's when the plain sense of scripture makes common sense seek no other sense.
When the plain sense of scripture makes common sense seek no other sense.
Sometimes people try to use the symbolism to fit with some pet theory that they
have and it doesn't even make sense with what's right there in the verse.

With the symbols, some are explained. In chapter 12 verse nine, the dragon is
Satan. It's explained.

Some are understood from the Old Testament. There's over 300 references to the
Old Testament in the Book of Revelation. You can't understand the Book of
Revelation without understanding the Old Testament.

And some are not explained but they're understood from the context. The purpose
of the Book of Revelation is not confusion but confidence. It shouldn't cause
you to wonder.

It should cause you to worship. So then why did God use all these symbols in
this book? Well, three reasons.

First, they hide the truth from enemies. This was a time of great persecution in
the church and God wanted to make sure that this book got out to the first
people that needed to read it. Now, on our end, we can just go buy it at a
bookstore.

We don't have this problem. But in the first century, if he hadn't used the
symbols, the book wouldn't have been allowed to get into the churches. God knew
what he was doing.

He needed the message to get out. A second reason for the symbols is not just
the first century but also now. They have a timeless nature.

A beast is scary to all generations. So these symbols help us to see things in
all generations. And finally, the symbols are used because they have emotional
power.

God wants us to feel, to sense with our hearts what's approaching with the end
of time. This is not some intellectual book about what might happen at the end
and how you need to figure out logically how it all fits into some plan, some
chart. This is an emotional book.

And we should be emotional about this 'cause this world will not last but heaven
will last forever. And there's emotion about both of those. So the Book of
Revelation is a book about final things.

The outline of the Book of Revelation is in Revelation chapter one, verse 19.
That verse says, "Write therefore what you have seen, "what is now, and what
will take place later. " That's it.

What you have seen, first part of the book, what is now, second part, and what
will take place later. The things that you have seen, that's in chapter one. The
things you have seen, that's Jesus.

That's Jesus. This book starts with Jesus and it ends with Jesus. That's where
the hope is in the Book of Revelation.

So as we read about Jesus in chapter one, verses 13 to 16, we get a different
picture there of Jesus than in any of the gospels. Listen to this picture.
"Among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, "dressed in a robe reaching
down to his feet "and with a golden sash around his chest.

"His head and his hair were white like wool, "as white as snow, and his eyes
were like blazing fire. "His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, "and
his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. "In his right hand he held seven
stars, "and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.

"His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. " Now, we're not going to
take time to go into the pictures, the meaning behind many of those pictures. I
just want you to be overwhelmed by the power of those pictures.

That's Jesus Christ. That's who we follow. And then he talks about in the second
section, the things which are.

Chapters two and three are about the seven churches. Ephesus, and Smyrna, and
Pergamum, and Thyatira, and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These
churches, some of them are commended, and some of them, by God's grace, are
sharply rebuked for the ways that they are living.

As you read through the letters to the seven churches, they are just as relevant
today as they were in the first century. We face all the same problems, we face
all the same blessings in the church today, the things which are. And then he
talks in the third section, chapters four to 22, about the things which shall
be.

Now, let's just walk through these chapters knowing that we're on this very
quick tour through this magnificent mountain range of truth. This is like flying
over the Rockies, let me just be honest. There may be as many questions raised
by what I say in the next few minutes as answers given.

But if you feel like I'd like to learn more about that, then this tour will have
been well worth it. This tour starts in chapter four with this invitation to
come up here, and the throne of God is described. So in this look to the future,
it starts and it ends at the throne of God.

God is in control. It looks like chaos to us at times. Through the next chapters
of Revelation, it's going to look like chaos, but God has a plan, and God's plan
will prevail.

It starts with the throne, it ends with the throne. And then as you walk through
these chapters, you have in chapter five through chapter eight, the story of the
final conflict, the seven seals, that there'll be this conflict on this earth,
this battle between good and evil right up to the end. And then in chapter
eight, verse six to 11, verse 19, you have the final destruction, that the
conflict will result in the destruction of this earth, one third being
destroyed.

After that, there's these historic visions of the temple being opened, the
dragon, Satan, and the woman, and this battle, the beast, the sea, the earth,
the lamb, and the witnesses, the visions of how God is at work, even in these
terrible days. And then God gets involved. Chapters 15 to 16, the final wrath,
the seven bowls of God's wrath being poured out on this earth.

And in chapter 17 to 20, the final judgment of this earth. Chapter 20, verses 11
to 12. "Then I saw a great white throne, "and who was seated on it.

"Earth and sky fled from his presence, "and there was no place for them. "And I
saw the dead, great and small, "standing before the throne, and books were
opened. "Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

"The dead were judged according to what they had done "as recorded in the books.
" As you look through all that's happening, this final conflict and destruction
and wrath and judgment, you think, why would God do that? Why wouldn't he just
end this earth and take some to heaven, and those who don't believe in him would
be condemned to hell?

Why wouldn't he just end things? You see in the book of Revelation that there'll
be this great sorting out at the end. The world's going to fall apart.

And that's going to cause some people to turn towards God, and it's going to cause
others to turn against God. What's going to be sure at the end is no one's going to be
sitting on the fence, because of the dramatic nature of what's going to happen as
this world falls apart. You're going to have to make a choice.

Am I going to follow God, or am I going to be angry at God that he's taking away from
me my world? It's his world, but some of us think it's ours. Sadly, many will
turn against God, even at the end, because they love the world and not God, but
not everyone.

Many will also turn to God. And as they turn to God, the promise of Revelation
21 and 22 is what we all look forward to. Final celebration, eternal
celebration.

Let me read for you Revelation 22, verses one to five. Then the angel showed me
the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of
God and of the lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each
side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding
its fruit every month.

And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will
there be any curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city, and
his servants will serve him.

They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be
no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun,
for the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.

That is the promise that we look forward to because of Jesus Christ. That tree
of life that we saw in the garden, at the beginning, in the book of Genesis,
that they were banished from, cursed from eating of, now they're eating of it.
The curse is gone.

So what should our response be to the book of Revelation? It shouldn't be
confusion. It shouldn't be to ignore the book.

It should be hope. And that hope grows out of the way that John encouraged us to
respond. Respond with worship.

It's about God's throne. It's about the fact that God is in control. It's about
the fact that nothing can happen in this world or to this world that changed the
fact that God is on his throne and God is in control.

And so John writes in Revelation 22, nine, "I, John, am the one who heard and
saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at
the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, 'Do
not do it.

I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and the prophets and all
of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. '" And so our father, we
pause to do that.

We worship you. We see what's happening in the daily of our lives. You see
what's happening in the eternity of your plan.

And so we can hope because no matter what happens, you're in control. No matter
what happens, your promise will prevail. No matter what happens, the grace and
forgiveness and life that you've given us in Jesus Christ, we are in that book
of life and we're going to enjoy your life for eternity.

And so we look forward right now to that promise. Help us to live today based on
the hope of that promise. Help us to love our family today.

Help us to deal with difficult situations today. Help us to walk through the
drudgery today. Help us to face a problem today.

Make a decision today based on the hope of that promise. We ask this in Jesus'
name, amen. Well, I'm glad you joined us for this survey through the New
Testament.

I hope you'll join us for the next book this next week as we continue to study
in Drive Time Devotions. Or you can go to drivetimedevotions. com or download
the app and through that study whatever book you want to study in the New
Testament and many of the Old Testament books as well.

I'm glad you love God's word and I'm grateful that God's word speaks to our
hearts and lives.