A Jet Tour Through Revelation

If the dominant influence in the church is indifference totally to God, no production, no life, it's a dead church, though there may be a few people who haven't quite died. Whatever the dominant influence, it gives character to the church. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. A pastor once shared a simple technique that had revolutionized his appreciation for God's Word. Before studying a book of the Bible, chunk by chunk, he read the entire book in one sitting.

It made an incredible difference in his understanding of and his love for Scripture. Well, we're going to more or less follow that study method today, and we think you too will be invigorated by our look at one of the Bible's most challenging books. So stay with us as John MacArthur takes us on a jet tour through Revelation.

And with a lesson now, here's John. Open your Bible to the book of Revelation. While you're turning to Revelation chapter 1 verse 1, let me just say that no book in Scripture reveals the glory of God and Christ in any more splendor than does this book, and yet no book has been more misunderstood and misinterpreted and neglected than this book. In chapter 22 of Revelation in verse 10, it says, Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. If there's one thing God wants in regard to this book, it is that we know what it teaches.

Seal it not. The book begins with a blessing. Chapter 1 verse 3, Blessed is he that readeth.

It ends with a blessing. Chapter 22 verse 7, Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book. It is the only book in the Bible that begins and ends with a promise of blessing to the one who reads. And we are told that we are to understand it because the time is at hand, and what that basically means in chapter 22 verse 10 is that what is said here is the next event on God's messianic timetable.

Now the key to the book is found in chapter 1 verse 1, and we're going to dive right in at that point and go from there. The revelation of Jesus Christ, that's what the book is about. It is the apocalypse, the apocalypsis, the unveiling, the revealing of Jesus Christ, the uncovering of the truth about Christ, heretofore not known. We're going to learn things about Jesus Christ in this book that we wouldn't know if it weren't for this book. And the revelation which God gave to Him to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass.

In other words, this is a glimpse of the future, the near future. And He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John. God wanted to reveal Jesus Christ in full glory.

That's a future reality. And so He sent the message about this with an angel who delivered it to John. Verse 2 says, John wrote it down.

He bore witness of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. So in verse 1, God sets out to reveal. In verse 2, John takes the responsibility to write down that revelation. And in verse 3 it says, blessed is the one who reads, you can underline that, who hears, underline that, who keeps the things written in it. And then this important statement, for the time is at hand.

And that's not related necessarily to time itself, but more to the sequence of events. This is the next on God's calendar of messianic events. It is then a revelation of Jesus Christ and it is Him revealed in full second coming glory which was previewed in His first coming on the Mount of Transfiguration when He showed them a glimpse of His second coming glory. Now that brings us into verse 4 and we get a little more formal introduction. John is writing this book particularly to be sent to the seven churches in Asia Minor.

That would be modern Turkey. There were seven churches. They're listed for us in chapters 2 and 3. They were actual congregations. They were the initial recipients of this letter and then it was passed on from them to all the other churches and down to us as well.

These churches were primarily founded as a result of Paul's ministry in Ephesus, Ephesus being the key church, and from there the Word of God spreading out and no doubt being responsible for the founding of these various churches in the area of Asia Minor. Then comes a greeting, grace be unto you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come. Now that's God, the eternal God who was, who is, and yet who is in the future to come. And then from the sevenfold Spirit before the throne, and it says seven spirits but so that you don't become confused, that is the sevenfold Holy Spirit.

If you were to read Isaiah 11 verse 2, you can write that down in the margin there and make it a cross reference you would find that there are seven unique ministries of the Holy Spirit listed there and He is therefore the sevenfold Spirit which speaks of the fullness of His ministry here called the seven spirits before the throne. So the book is sent with greetings from God the Father, greetings from the Holy Spirit, then verse 5 says, and from Jesus Christ. So it is a letter from the Trinity and that also sets it apart in a very marvelous and unique way, a letter from the Trinity, all being apart. And then since it is a revelation of Jesus Christ, it goes on to describe Jesus as the first begotten of the dead. It doesn't mean that He was the first one that ever rose from the dead. There were others that He Himself raised from the dead. It means that of all those ever to be raised from the dead, including the saints, He is the first and foremost and chief and greatest one. Of all who will ever rise, and may I add, all men who have ever lived will rise from the dead, some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation, but of all who have ever risen, He is the chief one. He is the Prince, it says, of the kings of the earth. And it says unto Him.

Now here's a dedication. The book is from the Trinity by an angel to John, written down, passed on to us to read, and then John reminds us it is first sent to the seven churches. It comes from the Trinity and is dedicated, verse 5, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.

The dedication is to Jesus Christ Himself, the one who has made us priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So the book right there is dedicated to the glory of the eternal Christ. And then it tells us in verse 7, Behold, He cometh, future tense, with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also who pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him, even so. Amen. You know what amen means? What does that mean?

So let it be. And so we find right there that the book is introduced to us as from the Trinity, dedicated to Jesus Christ, who is coming, and when He comes, every eye will see Him, and so let it be. And that's a kind of a glimpse of what the whole book is about, the coming of Jesus Christ. And then it says in verse 8 that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the one who is, who was, who is to come, the Almighty. That signifies, of course, God in His essence and Christ in His unique relationship to God within the Trinity. So we find that in verses 4 to 8, just some introductory information, the book is from the Trinity to the seven churches to be spread from there by the agency of John. It is dedicated to Jesus Christ, who is coming, who is the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lord who is and was, who is to come, the Almighty. In other words, this one who comes is none other than Almighty God. So the book then is about the second coming of Jesus Christ.

It's about His return and about the facts that are going to occur around that return. Now we've established then that the theme in the first eight verses of chapter 1 is Jesus Christ in His second coming. Now as we look at verse 9, He gets into the first of His visions, and it is a series of visions that God gives to John, I, John. And He says that a lot in the book, and it's almost as if He was in a state of shock. It's almost as if He's saying, can you believe this? I, John, saw this, me. You almost get the idea that there's a certain amount of incredulity in His own mind as to why God would ever allow Him such a privilege. I, John, who am just your brother and just your companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, me.

You know, nothing special, just ordinary me. I was in the isle called Patmos. He was exiled to Patmos for proclamation of the gospel of Christ. And I was there, He says, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's why I was there.

I was put there because I preached Christ and I preached God's Word. Now He says, I was in the Spirit, that is He was under the control of the Holy Spirit in a unique way, on the Lord's day. Now some people think that means on Sunday.

I kind of lean that way myself. Some people think it means in a prophetic sense I was in the Spirit looking at the day of the Lord and its fullness. I particularly lean toward the idea that it was on a Sunday, on the Lord's day as He was worshiping, He was in the Spirit.

I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. And the voice said, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches in Asia. So there's John's orders, write this stuff down. To Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.

Actual cities, they actually existed. They had churches, local congregations. And then as John turns in the first vision, he has a vision of Jesus Christ that I'm not going to go through in detail. But he sees Jesus Christ moving among seven golden lampstands, seven churches, seven lampstands. Each lampstand represents a church.

Seven is the number of fullness. So what you have here is a representation of all the churches. And Christ is moving among the churches, ministering to the churches. He holds, verse 16 says in His right hand, seven stars. Now it tells us down in verse 20 that the seven stars are the ministers of the seven churches. But it is the Lord then moving through His church, ministering, trimming the lamps, doing His work of purification and judgment, applying wisdom and so forth.

And He sees Christ in His glory ministering to the church. And that introduces us really to the outline of the book which comes in verse 19. Write the things which you have seen and what had He seen?

Just that first vision. With the things which are, and what are the things which are? The things which speak to the time in which John lives, the present tense kind of time, and that comes in chapters 2 and 3. And then the things which shall be hereafter which begin in chapter 4. So there you have an outline of the book. Chapter 1 is dealt with in the things that you have seen. Chapters 2 and 3 in the things which are.

And chapters 4 through 22 in the things which shall be hereafter. You're going to deal with the past vision. You're going to deal with present issues. You're going to deal with the future. Now it all begins then with Christ being revealed in the church age.

That's this age. Moving among the churches, ministering to the church. And in that ministry comes seven letters written to these individual churches. Then we begin in chapter 2 to see the letters written to the seven churches.

Now listen very carefully to what I say. These are seven real churches. They really existed. They existed in those cities that they're stated to exist in. And if you study the letters in detail, you find that each letter fits the historical, cultural, geographical context of the city to which it was written.

It's a literal city. But they are also representative churches because each one of them has a unique character all its own. And it represents churches of all times because each of them is a special kind of church. And in all the periods of the history of the church, there have always been these kinds of churches. And each of them gets a special message from the Lord. So this is His ministry as it were to the church age.

The first one is to Ephesus. What kind of church is Ephesus? It is the church that is orthodox in doctrine but cold.

It's left its first love. Verse 4, I have somewhat against you because you've left your first love. Verse 5, remember therefore from where you are fallen, repent and do the first works. Now this is the church that's orthodox. I mean they have the right doctrine. Verse 2, it says they couldn't bear evil people. They couldn't bear false apostles and teachers. And they endured faithful to the sound doctrine but they lost their love. They were cold and orthodox. Now that kind of church has existed in every age and does today.

Those who've got the right message, they're just cold and indifferent about it. The second church we meet is the Smyrna church, verses 8 to 11. This is the church that suffers persecution. And in verse 10 it says, none of those things, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison. You may be tried. You shall have tribulation ten days.

Ten days signifies a brief period of time. Be faithful unto death and I'll give you a crown of life. Nothing negative is set against this church.

Why? Because the church under persecution will always be a pure church. It's purged by the persecution. People who are just showing up for whatever reason, once persecution starts, get out.

Because if they don't have anything to die for, they're not going to stay around and get killed in the massacre. So this is the church under persecution and at all periods of the church's history there have been those churches and there are such churches today. The third letter is written to the church in the town of Pergamum, or Pergamos. And this is in chapter 2, verse 12 through 17. And this is the church married to the world. This is the worldly church. And he describes their worldliness down through verse 15.

And then in verse 16 he says, repent or else I'll come unto thee quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. This is the church Christ fights against, the church that is married to the world. And in all periods of the church's history, there are worldly churches where the people don't come out from the world, where they cater to the world, where they accommodate the world, where they go along with everything that's happening in society. Then the Lord has a message to a fourth kind of church, represented by the Thyatira assembly in chapter 2, verse 18 to 29. Thyatira is the church that tolerates sin. In this particular church, they tolerated a Jezebel-like woman who was seducing servants to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols. And so they're warned because they're a church that tolerates sin, a church that wouldn't discipline sin, a church that wouldn't purify its ranks. And there are always churches like that.

And then in chapter 3, we're introduced to the fifth church, Sardis. Easy to see what is wrong in this church. Verse 1 says, thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. This is the dead church, just dead. And it had a few things that were living, verse 2 says, but they were also ready to die. A dead church.

You've seen such, maybe you came from one. Nothing happening, no life, no growth, no productivity, no fruit, no joy. And then number 6, chapter 3, 7 to 13, the church at Philadelphia. This is the faithful church.

It says in verse 8 at the end, you have kept my word, have not denied my name. This is the church that had an open door and went through it. You might even see it as a missionary church. And so it is a faithful church and there are always those kind. And then the final of the seven comes in chapter 3, verse 14 to the end of the chapter. That whole section deals with Laodicea, the apostate church, the unsaved church, the church of liberalism today. So you see, each of these has a message. By the way, that church is characterized in verse 15, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.

I would thou art cold or hot. I wish you were either against me or for me, he says, but because you're neutral in the middle, I'll spew you out of my mouth. Rejected false church. Now let me summarize. First of all, in chapter 2, we have the cold orthodox church. Then we have the church suffering persecution and the church married to the world, the church tolerating sin, the dead church, the faithful church, and the apostate church. Now each of these, as I said, was a real church and each represents churches in all the periods of history. And so the message to these churches is to all churches throughout all of this period of time in which the church exists on the earth and in which Christ moves among the seven lampstands ministering to his church.

And listen, beloved, I believe these seven letters are to be applied to the church today. Whatever kind of church there is a message for that church, isn't there? You say, well how do we know what kind of church a church is?

I'll tell you how. A church will fall into these particular kinds of churches or these categories when the dominant influence in the church is in regard to one of these areas. Like if the dominant influence in the church is cold though orthodox, the church will reflect a cold orthodox viewpoint even though there might be some on fire members. If the dominant influence in the church is indifference totally to God, no production, no life, it's a dead church though there may be a few people who haven't quite died.

Whatever the dominant influence, it gives character to the church. If the church is marked by a dominant number of faithful people going through the open door and taking the Word of God, it'll be marked as a faithful Philadelphia type church. And so at the end of chapter 3 you have the end of the message to the churches. It began in chapter 1 as Christ was moving among the churches articulated in 2 and 3 and we come to the end of chapter 3 and we do not hear the word church again in the book of Revelation until the very end of chapter 22 when the writer simply says, go back and remember what I said to the church. The church does not appear again until the end of chapter 22. The church is not particularly in view from here on until the church of course is called by another name in the millennial kingdom and that is the bride. But the church ceases to be the issue at the end of chapter 3 and the last word in chapter 3 is churches and that is the message. And every one of the messages ended the same way. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. What does that mean? That means that the message to those churches goes beyond them to everybody who's got spiritual ears, right?

So they're for all time. Now we come to chapter 4 and we leave the church age. People always say, where does the rapture come in? It's in the white spaces between chapter 3 and 4. You have the church on earth in chapter 2 and 3 and all of a sudden we appear in heaven.

And I want you to see what happens. The theme of heaven is worship. We go from earth to heaven. And after this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice I heard as it were a trumpet talking with me which said, come up here and I will show thee the things which must be hereafter.

Now we move into phase 3. We've seen the things which thou hast seen. We've seen the things which are, chapters 2 and 3, now the things which shall be hereafter. You see the flow and the chronology and the outline is very, very carefully laid out.

And so immediately again he was in the Spirit which means that he was led by the Spirit to this vision. And as he was led to this vision he saw a throne set and the word set has the idea of permanence. It is not a passing throne, it is a forever throne. It is a permanent throne. It is the throne of God. We know that because the one who sat on the throne had a look like Jasper, that's another word for diamond.

Sardis, that's another word for ruby. And there was a rainbow around the throne in sight like an emerald, an emerald rainbow probably reflecting his faithfulness. And so there is God and His throne in heaven.

John's up there. And now he's going to find out what's going to happen. Now we're in heaven and heaven's going to begin to act on the earth.

What's going to happen? Well first of all, let's find out who's up there. In round about the throne were 24 thrones. And upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment and they had on their head crowns of gold. Now who is this?

Very important. Let me just tell you that I believe this is the church. I believe it represents the church of Jesus Christ.

I'll tell you why. The scene here is rewards. It is a time of rewards.

They bear crowns, crowns of gold. And I see this as the rapture church now complete, reigning with God around His throne in glory, having been rewarded. And I believe that when Jesus comes to take the church in the rapture, He says, behold I come and my reward is with me. And I think the first thing that happens when we're raptured is we go up there and we receive our rewards and I believe there they are with their crowns. It says they're on thrones. They have white robes and crowns and all three of those are promised to the church.

And I don't believe it can be Israel based on chapter 5 verse 9. They sang a new song, said thou art worthy to take the scroll and open its seals for thou wast slain and hast redeemed to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and is made unto us unto our God a kingdom of priests and we shall reign on the earth. And I think that's the redeemed people singing that song. And so I think it refers to redeemed people. Those who are saved, redeemed out of every kindred, tongue, people and nation, like, cannot refer to angels as I see it, cannot refer to saints of Israel, must refer to the church. You're listening to John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. John's lesson today on Grace to You, A Jet Tour Through Revelation, is part of his series that we call Foundations Volume 2. And you know, it occurs to me that the study of Bible prophecy comes and goes over the years.

It was a popular topic when I was first converted in the 1970s and it's coming back. One concern I have is that a lot of people look at end times prophecy as a puzzle to be solved merely out of curiosity. But I know, John, you would say that there are some serious practical ramifications to understanding what the Scriptures teach us about the future. Well, there's only one book in the Bible that promises a blessing on the one who reads it and understands it.

And that's not Proverbs. It's Revelation. That may sound strange given the character of Revelation, because for most people who just look at it and give it a cursory reading, it seems profound and some of it even obscure.

But the truth of the matter is, it is the only book in the Bible that begins by pronouncing a blessing on the one who understands it and ends doing exactly the same thing. So it is understandable. And in my mind, it is, when it comes to prophetic literature, the most clear, easily understood, chronological explanation of the coming events, even of all redemptive history. So its timeline is marvelous. It's clear. It's easy to follow.

I think it would help people to be able to see the whole thing in one big view. And that's why we've done this message, A Jet Tour Through Revelation. And to add to that, because you probably don't remember everything I've said, we have a free copy of a booklet by the same title, A Jet Tour Through Revelation.

You just have to ask us for it and we'll send it to you. This book will supplement what you've heard. It'll put it in your hands so you can go back over it again. And listen, understanding and benefiting from the book of Revelation is important. That's why it's come to you with blessing promised from God. There's no excuse for not knowing the end of God's redemptive plan. He's laid it out in Revelation. Some people think you can take any view of the end times or eschatology, and it's okay because it's too confusing.

It's not. And it's wrong to interpret it wrongly. This will give you the truth, the right interpretation right out of the book of Revelation. So if you want a free copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation, contact us by email, regular mail, whatever it is, and order a copy.

That's right, friend. To request your free copy, call, write, or send an email and let us know you'd like a copy of A Jet Tour Through Revelation. Contact us today. Our email address is letters at gty.org, and you can also mail your request to Grace To You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Or let us know you'd like a copy when you call us at 800-55-GRACE or when you visit our website, gty.org. Again, John's booklet titled A Jet Tour Through Revelation is free for the asking. Just let us know you want one when you call 800-55-GRACE or go online to gty.org. And while you're at gty.org, make sure you catch up on any articles you may have missed on the Grace To You blog. Our website also provides free access to daily devotionals, episodes of our TV broadcast, as well as more than 3600 of John's sermons, all of them free to download in MP3 or transcript format. Our web address again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace To You television Sundays on DirecTV channel 378, and then be back tomorrow for John's compelling look at Bible prophecy, helping you prepare for what's ahead. He'll continue his lesson, A Jet Tour Through Revelation, with another half hour of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.