 just waiting for the recording to start. Okay, the recording is on. Good morning everybody and welcome to BC 308, our course on Revelation and Daniel. We're going to pray and get started and looking forward to the class today. We are going to get into the book of Revelation today. So I'm really excited about that. I'm looking forward to it. Let's pray and maybe Thomas wouldn't you pray and we will get started. I'll pray, Pastor. Thank you and praise you for the wonderful day Lord. You are good and your goodness may follow all the day. Thank you Jesus for your kindness and mercy and as we sit and listen to your word, Father, to understand, help us to receive everything. Holy Spirit help us to understand. Thank you Jesus for this wonderful time. Let other students also quickly join and equip in the word of God. We thank you, we praise you. Amen. Thank you Thomas. Thank you. Okay, good morning everybody once again and welcome to the class. I think Aaron is having problems connecting. She's connected about three or four times and dropped off. But anyway, we're going to get started today. We are getting into the book of Revelation. I just wanted to before we move forward, does anybody have any questions, any doubts or anything you want to discuss on what we've covered in the book of Daniel before we get into the book of Revelation? Any questions so far? I mean any questions on Daniel? Okay, no questions but you know just feel free at any point to if anything comes up. Anything doesn't seem to be clear from Daniel. Feel free at any point to ask. So today we are moving forward into the book of Revelation and I'm just going to do an introduction today. We just get started and then we go. So of course our goal is to read you know verse by verse chapter by chapter and do our best to understand the book of Revelation. Just a little bit of background. Some of these things are already in the PDF notes but just by way of background we all know that the book of Revelation was the last book in the New Testament to be written written by John or John wrote down the Revelation he received. John one of the apostles of Jesus of the beloved also known as the beloved disciple and this was written around 8095. So almost close to the end of that first century. This was almost 60 years after the resurrection and the ascension of Christ and by this time Emperor Nero who had persecuted the Christians really killed them and was responsible for killing Peter and Paul and you know he had gone off the scene there was a new Emperor who his approach in persecuting the Christians or trying to you know control this Christian movement or Christianity his approach was not necessarily killing people but banishing them getting them out and so he felt one of the best things to do was to banish John who was the last remaining voice or apostle and so he banished him off to the island of Patmos which and we look at the map a little later which is a small island of the from away from Ephesians Ephesians was a seaport town so if you look at modern day map it will be in the country of Turkey on the west coast of Turkey you have Ephesians small port town and away from that into the ocean into the sea the agency was a small island called Patmos and so he just decided to send John away over there and John was elderly by this time well up in age and he was sent to be alone there so you know at least he does not much influence on the church and so on really interestingly while he is there I just some other some other details is if you just go back a little bit or just you know a few decades earlier during the time of the apostle Paul and we're talking now about 8050 8060 when Paul was busy doing his missionary journeys he had spent on his third missionary journey he had spent about three years maybe a little over three years at Ephesians and during that time he had raised the younger generation Timothy Titus and a lot of others the names are there in Acts 18 he had raised up any leaders and also from Ephesians we we could say that a lot of you know maybe I don't know in today's terms you may say satellite churches or branch churches or daughter churches you know many other churches were planted in and around that region so we're basically talking about the western side of modern-day Turkey with reference to those stands it used to be called Asia Minor in a smaller part of Asia but Paul had successfully trained up younger leaders and other churches were planted which were not far from Ephesians and so Ephesians in in one way was like the headquarters or the main the mother church you know taking an overseeing or responsible for these other plants that church plants that had come Paul himself didn't visit these other churches but in some way instrumental because he had trained leaders and the influence came from the church in Ephesians so this is we're going back in time to around 80, 50, 80, 60 and when the apostle Paul was in a ministry in those areas and after Paul had gone to Rome that was after his third missionary journey and he had you know he was sent to Rome he had spent two years in Rome and he was briefly released for some time when he came back to the island of Crete where he appointed Titus to oversee the work there so Titus was one of the people Paul had already discipled and then he appointed Timothy to be in charge of the church in Ephesians so Timothy you know we know Paul just discipled and trained him and he appointed Timothy to be in charge of the church in Ephesians and then he had to go back to Rome and on his way back to Rome he wrote his last two episodes first and second Timothy he also wrote Titus which was sent to Titus was in the island of Crete overseeing the work there and he also wrote first and second Timothy which was of course written to Timothy just keeping him guidance on how to oversee the work at Ephesians and in that churches in the region and then Paul when he went back to Rome later in 8068 he was killed martyred so now we are moving forward in time so we're going down to 8095 by this time of course Paul is gone off the scene the younger generation whom Paul had trained are mostly off the scene so Timothy is no longer there Titus is no longer there and you know so you can imagine now it's almost 30 years later 30 years after Paul is gone the people whom he has trained many of them have also gone off the scene passed away they're not there there's you know other leaders of other people have come we don't have their name so the church in Ephesians is being led by somebody else and these other churches who are in that region are also being led by other people so John is now this is 8095 right so we've come forward in time John who's the last remaining apostle very elderly is in the island of Patmos at this time and in the island of Patmos he has this wonderful revelation given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ which he has recorded for us in the book of Revelation and the book of Revelation is like the consummation of the Bible it's like everything prior from Genesis on is like now being brought together you know okay this is what God is he's revealed to us that he's working towards or he's going to accomplish what's started in the garden of Eden is all going to climax it's all going to come together beautifully and in the last as as we see in the last few chapters of Revelation but getting there is going to be a difficult journey I mean there are things that are going to happen which are not going to be good but it's going to ultimately result in the beautiful picture that we see in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 now so the book of Revelation is very very you know it's wonderful because it's like this is the final you know if you're thinking in terms of some drama or you know something that's being played out this is the final act you know if you speak in those terms but also it's a book how we interpret the book of Revelation is also very important because it's like all our understanding of the Bible should come into play or should come in to come to bear upon how we understand and how we interpret the book of Revelation example we believe in a triune God Father God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit now that should come into play as we interpret at least you know when we see what's happening they got the father got the son got the Holy Spirit they're all at work and that should be consistent we see angels at work so our understanding of angels and what they do comes into our understanding of the book of Revelation we see God as omnipotent ruler who is sovereign who is bigger and greater than what happens on earth and that understanding of the sovereignty of God of the greatness of God comes into play here as we see things unfold in the book of Revelation even if things on the earth are quite bad you still believe he is God who is sovereign and that's proclaimed often in the book of Revelation alleluia our God reigns the kings of the earth and become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ you know it's a theme that comes out and ultimately we also believe in because God is sovereign he's going to ramp everything up the way he wants it done and that's what we've seen the last three chapters of the book of Revelation we also see God's dealings with the people of Israel so that starts off in the book of Genesis and it's continued through in the book of Revelation that in the book of Revelation God is there's a special hand of God upon the people of Israel right so we see that and so our understanding of that continues here in the book of Revelation so in many ways in our understanding of the book of Revelation we are actually bringing in everything prior that we have we know about God and about his work and who he is and how he's going to handle or how he handles things it all comes into play when we understand the book of Revelation so basically we do not try to interpret or we don't try to understand the book of Revelation in isolation it's not going to be possible we have to understand the book of Revelation and we have to interpret the book of Revelation in the light of all that we know about God and his who he is in all of the preceding books the prior books of the Bible right the other thing that we you know what I want to say is that we are aware that there are different ways that people handle the study of the book of Revelation and therefore there are different interpretations of the book of or presentations of the book of Revelation so examples some some just just to talk about a few they're just numerous which I don't know all of them that because there's just so many different variations and explaining explaining and presenting the book of Revelation but just as an example a the there are people who would take just as example this what we read in chapters two and three about the seven churches as representing seven church ages the very eminent scholars would even do that or bible teachers would do that they would say that these seven churches are actually representing seven church ages and then you know apply the most the last one the church in Laodice I think as applying to the current church age and so on so that's one way of presenting it we will not do that I will explain how we are going to approach the book of Revelation I'm just saying that there are many differing ways in which very respected bible teachers bible scholars handle the book of Revelation you know so it's all there the new and very numerous numerous ways many variations there are also those who may say that the book of Revelation started being fulfilled way back in the times of the early church some may even say everything in the book of Revelation was already fulfilled in the time of the early church with the destruction you know it all happened right then and again there are just just so many different variations to how people present the book of Revelation now our approach our approach to studying the book of Revelation and I am not here and we don't want to confuse us with many things our approach is very simple first of all as we start reading it we will find that you know in Revelation chapter one Jesus told John I'm going to speak to you about things that are things that I have I want I want you to write down what you have seen things that are and things that are yet to come so we break the book of Revelation these three divisions given to John by the Lord Jesus things that you have seen that's Revelation chapter one what John already saw things that are that means the way things are were there during John's time which is chapters two and three so the the seven churches existed right then and there during John's time and we will locate them on the map shortly so that is chapters two and three meaning those were churches that existed during John's time and it was a message from the Lord Jesus to those seven churches what good is it for us then well there's a lot we can learn you know from how the Lord Jesus addresses these seven churches what he looks in these seven churches and the promise he gives to each of the seven churches to the overcomers is something valid for the entire church because all of those seven promises to the overcome our future that means they are to be given they're in the future tense and therefore they include us as well as overcomers so there's a lot to learn from chapters two and three even though he is addressing seven churches that existed right then during John's time and like we said they were the Paul the apostle had gone off the scene the leaders he had trained had gone off the scene so there were other leaders we don't know their names who were taking care of these churches and sadly things that you know started to decline and the Lord is addressing those problems in those seven churches even though they were you know at one point they had a very rich heritage they were under the leadership or at least under the influence of the apostle Paul through his ministry not directly but through his ministry to the people he trained and through the letters he wrote they were all under the influence of the leadership and the ministry apostle Paul and other apostles but at that point 1895 things had begun to decline in the spiritual condition of these churches and that is something for us to note and learn from and watch out for so those were things that are from chapter four it is all future things that are yet to come right so we will explain that so we break it down in a very traditional way so our approach is what we would refer to as a very traditional breaking down or a presentation of the study of the book of revelation very traditional what you have seen or are or is yet to come yet to come starts with chapter four chapter four onwards this future and even in the breakup of chapter four 222 and I will explain when we come into detail when we start chapter four is that again we take a very traditional approach which is that these things are given to us in a chronological order so that's very traditional approach some modern approaches you know mix and match they overlap three sections of the book of revelation all that we we don't play with that just take it as a simple chronological order things that are things that are yet to come in a chronological order we understand although that while the lord is speaking to john about things yet to come in a chron in a sequential order there will be things that he's talking about which he extends into time or sometimes he pulls from past from the past so you can imagine suppose you're narrating something to a friend just in you know just have a normal conversation suppose I'm talking to somebody and I'm telling them you know okay you know these are the things that have happened um then maybe I hit upon an incident and I take that incident and I take it to its conclusion and then I come back to that place in time and I continue on with the story or I narrate an incident and I say okay well I need to let you know some background in order to understand this incident so I go back in time tell tell what happened the past and come back and then I continue the story or what I'm saying so those things do happen and I will point that out but otherwise we just take chapter 4 to 22 in a very simple sequential manner the lord Jesus said these are the way these are things yet to come and he's giving them to john in a chronological sequential order and we are mindful that while he's unfolding that there would be a time or there would be certain things where he starts off and then he goes to the end and he comes back so just as an example and we will see it as we go through is in revelation 11 chapter 11 when he talks about the ministry of the two witnesses so these two witnesses are mentioned only in chapter 11 so he's just talking about them in chapter 11 but in that one chapter he says when the ministry starts and he goes to the end of the ministry so that means he says they will come in the middle of the tribulation and then he tells us what they will do till the end of the tribulation for 1260 days or 42 months and then he comes back in time to the middle of the tribulation and continues so that's one example where he's talking to us about the ministry of the witnesses but they're going to be around for three and a half years so he tells us in that one chapter everything they're going to do for three and a half years this is what they will do so that means he's about the two witnesses he goes into future for three and a half years then he comes back and then he continues on from that point so that's an example where you know although he's speaking in a sequential way he goes ahead comes back and then continues the sequence of events or an example of going back in time would be in Revelation 12 he's talking about the great dragon who's stated and then he goes back in time to give us a background well this was the old dragon who in times past took one third of the angels with him so he's going to be giving us a background okay who's this dragon satan well he's the one who in time past took one third of the heavenly angels with him and he was cast out of heaven at that time so okay telling us about something happening there but background information comes back here so like that you know so those things we should be aware of as we go into the book of Revelation but otherwise our approach is very simple what you see what you have seen the way things are the way things to come and it's in a sequential order or chronological order so therefore let me just share this simple chart it's in the PDF and I'm just sharing the PDF therefore in our study or in our look at the book of Revelation we're just going to break it down like this which is going sequential Revelation chapters 1 to 3 is part of the church age which basically there are things that happened back here in the beginning so somewhere in 80 95 somewhere here and we are here still in the church age and things to come so Revelation chapter 4 onwards till chapter 19 verse 15 cover these seven years of tribulation and then chapter 20 verse 10 verses are talking to us about one thousand year period the millennium then chapter 20 verse 11 to 15 deal with the end of the thousand years the millennium and then so after 21 and 22 deal with what happens after that then you haven't something you are right so we just it's just looking at it in a very sequential way and understanding the the major milestones that are being referenced in the book of Revelation so just to I'll come to that but I just want to show this map here yeah so let me this is what I was mentioning earlier this is modern day this whole area belongs to the country of Turkey that's modern day Turkey here was Ephesians on the seaport here and you see the other six churches Smyrna they're all for them Taira Sardis for the LPL this year they're all very close by in that same region and so Ephesians in some way was like a mother church to these churches at least you know about 30 years prior and then you have the island of Patmos where John the beloved was banished or put in sent in exile kept away so that he would not have influence on the churches or provide leadership he was exiled there but during that time he had to the Lord give him this revelation just just to look at the geography now just getting back to a few other things here about the book of Revelation is that so having said that you know the the whole the how are you going to approach it what I want to say is that there are other ways of presenting the book of Revelation with others take but this is the way we will take which is a very I would say very traditional approach people have been doing this in a very simple sequential approach of studying book of Revelation looking at it in a chronological manner for a long time and it's a pretty well established way to look at the book of Revelation a couple other maybe two more points before we start reading is and this is something you know we we mentioned in our second year class on the end times and also when we talk about hermeneutics or interpreting scripture our approach is wherever possible if we take things literally that means if if it said you know that a third of the vegetation was destroyed it's okay that's what that's what it means that's what it says one third of earth's vegetation or will be destroyed it's literal with wherever possible we take it literally and when the literal is actually or sorry what we read cannot be literally fulfilled then we say okay he's using figurative language or we would say he's using prophetic imagery that means he's speaking and using images and those things will then therefore not be taken literally but be interpreted to get the meaning of what is being said so I'll just repeat wherever possible as we read the book of Revelation we take it yeah this is literal this is what it says but where the literal I mean so but where the what is said cannot be or where the literal application understanding of it would not be consistent either the rest of scripture or would not be you know would be observed in a practical sense then we say okay that's figurative speech we need to interpret so just give the example the word seven is a word that you see throughout the book of Revelation from chapter one on there are seven the word seven is used many times many times so we have three sets of seven judgments you know the the seals the trumpets and then the bowls seven each you know so the word seven is used throughout now in general generally speaking the word seven in the bible represents perfection something that is perfect or you know it's like it's this there's nothing better than this you cannot improve on it seven represents perfection why do we say that because in the bible yeah and in god's creation you know there are seven days in a week a week is complete it's perfect seven days make a perfect week there are seven colors and the rainbow light has seven colors in a complete uh so we look at seven as a representation of perfection or it's a figure of perfection telling us that something's perfect but we don't just apply that to everything Yuri so when it says seven churches it means they were literally seven churches so we in that case we don't interpret seven as perfection we just say there were seven churches when it talks about seven when we talk about the seven seals the seven trumpets and the seven bowls there we don't interpret seven as perfection we simply mean there are literally seven seals that are going to be opened or seven trumpets seven trumpets seven a set of seven judgments or a set of seven bowls uh seven judgments bowl judgments that are coming but that's literal there's going to be seven actually seven so we don't interpret seven there as representing perfection we take seven there the number seven as literal literally there were seven churches there are going to be seven seal both judgments are going to be seven trumpet judgments are going to be seven bowl judgments but the word seven right in chapter one verse four when we read it talks about the seven spirits of god and then when you come into chapter three and four and five you see that there are seven lamps of fire representing the seven spirits there are seven horns representing the seven spirits and there are seven eyes representing the seven spirits oh can these be taken literal are there seven spirits or is there only one holy spirit well there's only one holy spirit before the before god the father god the son god the spirit there is one spirit we know that from previous text in scripture so in this particular case seven spirits have to be interpreted as representing the one holy spirit why because if you say there are seven holy spirits that would be tearing down everything else that's in the rest of the bible it's contradicting so you it's absurd it's not consistent with the rest of the teaching of scripture so now we have to say there's this is a figure of speech seven spirits does not mean seven separate spirits but it's a figure it's representing the holy spirit as the perfect spirit so here seven represents perfect so then there are seven lamps of fire representing the seven spirits holy spirit is represented by seven lamps of fire so our seven lamps of fire that you know is the holy spirit seven lamps is this holy spirit seven eyes is the holy spirit seven horns no all this has to be taken as a figure of speech and we will interpret that when we come there you know seven lamps of fire fire or light seven perfection perfect light light is everywhere representing the omnipresence seven horns horns in scripture always represent dominion power so seven horns perfect dominion perfect authority perfect power talks about the omnipotence of the spirit seven eyes eyes talking about knowledge knowing seven perfect perfect knowledge omniscience so we are interpreting these figures or images that we are seeing in relation to the holy spirit to talk about um his omniscience his omnipresence his omnipotence so in that case the number seven is not taken literally but it's taken figuratively so what we are saying is as we read through the book of revelation we're going to follow normal hermeneutic principle which is whatever is literal or can be understood literally keep it that way but the literal is observed or the literal is contrary to the rest of the teaching of scripture then you have to say it's figurative and you have to interpret the figurative figure of speech keeping in mind everything else in the bible what those images and figures mean in the rest of scripture to deduce the meaning of those figures of speech did i is it clear or did i confuse you or any questions on that was it clear did you need me to repeat anything everybody with me so far all right so i see your responses in the chat and everybody's fine okay so that's a general guidance you know our approach to studying the book of revelation now uh i'll just repeat what i said before we start reading it which is in case you find some other books or commentaries or especially more recent ones modern in the last 10 years where people present the book of revelation in a different way don't be surprised because there are you know like i already said people present the book of revelation or try to break it down or interpret it or study it in different ways but our approach as i said is a very simple approach take it the way jesus gave it to john what you have seen what is happening and what is going to happen break break it down into those just same three portions and take everything sequentially except where it is clearly understood that he's either explaining a particular point on the way through to its end or reflecting on a particular point with some background information other than that just take it sequentially the way jesus gave it and what i feel and again it's just my personal understanding is that it's if you do it like that it's just very very clear you know the book of revelation is very clear it's not very complicated if you just follow it the way the lord jesus gave it to john there's no complication no jumping here and they're confusing people because what i found is when people break it up other ways it's very confusing and it almost seems arbitrary when they position things in certain ways like why are you doing it just stay with the sequence the way the lord gave it and it's just clear okay so let's begin with chapter one verse one and i just you know invite everybody to you know be a part of this so let's just read little by little revelation chapter one verse one two three so we could read the first three verses please this book is the record of the events that jesus christ revealed god gave him this revelation in order to show his sevens what must happen very soon christ meant these things known to his servant john by sending his angel to him and john has told all that he has seen this is his report concerning the message from god and the truth truth revealed by jesus christ happy is the one who reads this book and happy are those who listen to the word of this prophetic message and okay what is written in this book for the time is near when all these will happen so just um you know pointing out certain things so this is uh the revelation of jesus christ meaning this is what jesus the lord jesus revealed to the apostle john to john his disciple or his apostle so that john could then pass it on to the followers the servants of jesus christ so the intent was it's not only for you john it's actually a message that you are going to give to everybody else who believes in jesus so that's for you and for me secondly i'm looking at worst one so things which must shortly take place now of course when the lord is saying shortly then so we need to keep in mind that for him time is immaterial right his shortly or his quickly and our shortly and our quickly are very different so he's speaking from his perspective john i'm telling you things that will happen quite quickly a day is a thousand years a thousand years is like a day to god meaning from his perspective these things are immaterial time is immaterial sorry and even when we read the last chapter of revelation jesus says i'm coming quickly he repeats that i'm coming quickly my reward is with me or so god his quickly is very different from our quickly our quickly is measured within a lifetime you know not even a lifetime is sorry it's measured baby in minutes i was speaking from our earth time his quickly is is outside of time okay so let's not stumble upon the way the book of revelation begins and the way it ends it begins and ends but the lord says things that will happen quickly and some people stumble on it they get offended by it saying what do you mean quickly two thousand years have come and gone and nothing's you know where's jesus okay don't get offended don't stumble on it because look at it from the context to the one who speaks who is he he's god he's outside of time and his quickly is just doesn't matter he dwells in eternity and what are what is two thousand years in compared to eternity or infinity nothing okay it's a small dot compared to infinity so don't stumble or don't get offended by the quickly that we see in the opening and the closing of the book of revelation the other thing in verse one is that he sent this message to john by his angel by his angel now some things to point out first of all the meaning of the word angel the greek word is the word angelos which simply means messenger and that word angelos is used to represent anyone who's bearing a message from god it could refer to angelic beings it calls refer to human beings it's the same word angelos now it's like you know some other greek words for example the word spirit and the the greek is numa and that word spirit can be used to represent god it can be used to represent angels it can be used to represent fallen angels or evil spirits it can also be used to represent the human spirit but it's one greek word numa but it can actually represent four different things so then depending on the context we will say we have to say that numa here represents god or the holy spirit represents an evil spirit or represents an angelic or represents a human spirit so therefore the word angel in angelos translated angel but it could be used to refer to an angel as an angel of god it could refer to a fallen angel it could refer to a messenger a human messenger okay so then we have to understand it depending on the context so you'll find the word angel used throughout the book of revelation and depending on the context we have to interpret it as saying okay this refers to a human messenger or this refers to an angel or this refers to fallen angels evil spirits okay and i'll just make the statement i know it's already over time here i'll make the statement we go for break the john in the book of revelation does not always receive his message from the angel no there are times when he himself sees directly what's happening there's no angel speaking to him he is seeing everything these things there are times when he hears angel speaking and then there are times when he hears an elder speaking that means the elder is one of the 24 elders around the throne that elder is talking to john so there are three ways in the book of revelation john is receiving information one he is directly seeing it to an angel is talking or he has angels talking third hears an elder talking so we need to understand you know what is happening as we journey through okay so let's pause here we'll come back and pick this up i know it's up break time now so we'll be back in 10 minutes and we'll continue okay thank you