Sunday School Notes: Revelation Recap (Chapters 1-11)

We’re getting ready to start a new semester of Sunday School at church, and this semester, we’ll be getting back to our study of Revelation. I’ve posted the notes for chapters 1-11, but for the sake of those who haven’t had the opportunity to read them, and need a quick summary, this past Sunday I reviewed where we’ve been and what we’ve seen.

I have observed two common approaches to the Book of Revelation:

1. Fear. It’s full of scary stuff about the end of the world, death and destruction. It presents a doomsday scenario people don’t want to think about.
2. Confusion. It’s full of beasts and giant locusts, numbers and symbols, and there are so many conflicting views on what it all means. Maybe we should just pick out the nice verses (e.g., Revelation 3:20), and leave the rest.

As Christians who believe that all 66 books of the Bible are the inspired Word of God, however, we have no choice but to recognize Revelation as part of that canon, and, therefore, as much God’s Word as Matthew, Romans, Genesis, or the Psalms. As such, we ought to study it as much as we would the rest of Scripture. And I’m convinced, the more we study it correctly, reading it as it was meant to be read, the more we will come to appreciate it for the divinely inspired work it is.

The key to studying Revelation correctly is found, I think, by asking the text two questions:

1. What did this mean to John and his audience? The Lord did not reveal these things to John, tell him to write them down, and then say, “Sorry, but no-one in the church will understand these things for another 2,000 years, so you may as well ignore them.” Revelation was intended to be meaningful to its first audience.
2. What does it mean to us? Because Revelation is God’s Word, it not only has meaning for John and his readers, but for the church throughout history. By using signs and symbols, the Lord has ensured these things will communicate to His people in every age. For example, John refers often to “Babylon.” The church in his day, knowing their Old Testament, understood this to refer to the evil, oppressive governing authorities, since Babylon was the empire that destroyed the First Temple and led the Jews into captivity. For the church in John’s day, Babylon would be code for Rome. But other churches in later times would see their own oppressive government as “Babylon.”

These questions form the basis for our approach to Revelation.

Revelation opens with John in exile on the island of Patmos. He’s there because of his faithful witness to the gospel. While “in the spirit” on the Lord’s Day, he sees a vision of Jesus. He’s “in the spirit” meaning that this was a spiritual, not physical, experience. That doesn’t make it any less real, but it helps us understand the strange nature of the vision. The description of Jesus is a mix of imagery from Daniel 7, which describes the “Ancient of Days” and the “Son of Man.” In Daniel’s vision, these two appear separately, with the Ancient of Days seated on a throne. He is clearly meant to represent God. In Revelation, these two characters merge in Jesus. He is both the Son of Man, and God. There is no ambiguity in Revelation about Jesus’ divine status. He is the conquering Lamb who holds the keys to Hades, and unleashes judgment upon the Earth. The meaning of “Hades” in the New Testament is often as a world for “Hell,” but sometimes it refers simply as the abode of the dead, as it did for the Greeks. Jesus holding the keys to Hades indicates that he controls entry into Hades. That’s not a role for a mere prophet.

Jesus then dictates letters to seven churches, all of them in the region known then as Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. The letters give us insight into the state of the church at that time (which, by the way, is either the mid-sixties, during the time of the Emperor Nero, or the mid-to-late 90s, during the reign of Domitian; which view is correct is up for debate–see the full study notes for details). These churches are suffering persecution from without as they face pressure to conform to the surrounding pagan culture, and participate in cultic worship of various deities. They also face financial pressure as economic benefits are only for those who conform to the world. There are various places in the world today where Christians face a similar kind of oppression. And we shouldn’t be so comfortable and arrogant to think such oppression would not spread, even to the US.

The churches also face trouble from within. In some churches, there’s a faction of people who want to join in with the world to avoid suffering, and cause trouble among the faithful. With some churches, the entire congregation has caved in to the social and economic pressure, and are going along with the pagan practices to avoid the penalties. Again, there are places in the world–even in the US and Europe–where churches have done this exact same thing in order to be considered socially acceptable, respectable, and “enlightened.”

For the church, both then and today, Revelation offers hope. Indeed, hope is the main theme of the book. The events John sees and describes paint a pretty bleak picture for Christians, and one that will only worsen and intensify over time until Jesus returns. The visions of seals and trumpets present to us persecution, devastation, and destruction leading up to the End Times. In the midst of this, at a poignant moment, when people are crying out, “Who can save us from the wrath of God and the Lamb?” John is permitted a peek behind the heavenly curtain. In chapter seven, he sees how people will be saved as he gazes upon multitude upon multitude of believers, sealed by the blood of Jesus, praising God. This is the future hope of the church. Whatever happens on earth, they have been sealed, and they will enjoy the Lord’s presence. Indeed, each of the seven letters closes with a promise to “those who overcome”–i.e., those who don’t cave in, and stay true to Christ, even unto death.

Through Revelation, Jesus is telling his church that, despite all the terrible things going on, and that will go on, the church will prevail because Christ is Lord of all. Christians may lose their lives, but their home is not here. We are not building a kingdom on Earth, but our inheritance is with the Lord in his Father’s house, where rooms have been prepared for us all.

Numbers play an important part in Revelation. When we see the same number crop up time and again, we know it has symbolic significance. So far we’ve encountered the following numbers:

• Four. This represents the whole of creation. The designation probably stems from the idea of the four points of the compass, the four “corners” of the Earth, etc. So the four creatures John sees are representative of all created life.
• Seven. The number of completeness or wholeness. It is often used for spiritual completeness, though it can simply represent fullness or totality in general.
• A Thousand. Simply, 1,000 is used to represent a large quantity. The Psalms tell us that God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t own the cattle on the 1,001st hill. It means he owns the cattle on all the many hills there are.
• Twelve. There were twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve disciples. So the number twelve represents God’s people. We see this number doubled (24) and also multiplied by itself (144) to represent all of God’s people, both Old and New Covenant together.

In the visions the Lord shows John, there are many points of similarity with visions and prophecies in the Old Testament, particularly in Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Psalms. We can look at these allusions and references as fulfillments of things that the former prophets saw dimly. God revealed these things to them, and they had relevance in their day, but their future meaning was veiled because Christ had not yet come. In Christ, the Old Testament is fulfilled, and all these visions and prophecies find their ultimate meaning.

In chapter eleven, John sees a vision of the Temple being measured. “Measuring” is symbolic of God’s protection, so the picture is one of God guarding His people, while those outside the Temple suffer judgment. There are two “witnesses,” which represent the faithful church, who are dressed in sackcloth and minister for 1,260 days. That number crops up a few times in various forms (3.5 years, 42 months). This same quantity appears in Daniel 7:25 and 12:7, and also seems to correspond to times of persecution in Israel’s history. The number also crops up in chapter 12, so we’ll look at it again there.

These witnesses are then beaten to the point of death, but then, to the dismay of their persecutors, are raised back to life by the Lord, and ascend to be with Him. John is being shown here the vindication of the church, that though she may suffer greatly to the point of extinction, the Lord will raise up His people and they will be vindicated. At the end of chapter eleven, the Lord returns, which is a bit strange since we are only half-way through the book. But there’s more to understand, as we will see when we dive into chapter 12…