My text today will be from the
book of the Revelation, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. And there we see written the
revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants
the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending
his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word
of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all he
saw. Blessed is the one who reads
aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear
and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. As introduction to this, let
me say that the last time that I stood before you, we talked
about who are the people of God? Who is the Israel of God? And
one thing leads to another, because when you start talking about
who the people of God are and how the promises of God apply,
of necessity the subject of prophecy comes into view. It's just a
natural discussion. You talk about God's people,
you talk about God's people in the past, you talk about God's
people now, and you talk about God's people in the future. So
prophecy is a very reasonable place to go when you're talking
about God's people. And these days prophecy is very
much so on people's minds and very much so in the discussions
that people have here and there at church and not at church because
of the events of the news. The Middle East is just in turmoil. Iran is threatening to build
a nuclear arsenal. The nation of Israel at any minute
could be bombed and blown off the face of the earth and the
question is what does all this mean and how does it fit together? And you can hear any number of
views about what it all means and why it means that and ten
dozen different people will stand before you quoting from Revelation
is saying, brothers and sisters, this is exactly what was foretold. This is exactly as it will happen. This is the last days. We've all heard that. I had the
TV on this morning and I heard that. Preacher on the TV this
very morning telling me, brothers and sisters, this is the last
days. We are looking at the end of the world. And I know it because
the book of Revelation says so. Well, it's a discussion we need
to have. What does the book of Revelation
mean and why does it mean that? How do we interpret the book
of the Revelation? And let me, as a disclaimer,
first and foremost, before you all now, I will be open and honest
about this. The things that I say today represent
Mike McNamara. They in no way represent any
official position of this church or your views or anybody's views
but mine. Please let me state that because
I'm not up here to tell you by the authority of God that this
is exactly as it is and this is what it means. I'm not a prophet. I am but a person trying to understand
the scripture and it's in that position that I speak to you
today. So please let's keep that in mind. Another thing I would
like to bring out, and we talk about it so often in this church,
and that is context. As we have our sermons, we often
talk about this is the context, both in history and within the
Scripture. This is what was going on at the time the Scripture
was written. It draws from this text and that
text. This is what it means. We set it in a time and a place.
And brothers and sisters, excuse me, explain to you today, that
even apocalyptic literature, like the book of Revelation,
has a context. And we need to remember that.
We need to bear that in mind always, that it does have a context. It was written to a real people,
at a real time, at a real place. We tend to, as we look at prophecy,
separate it from human history. We tend to pull it away from
the Apostle John on the island of Patmos and place it in a realm
of its own. And yet John was given a vision
at a real time, at a real place, and he was a real person. And
then he wrote the book of Revelation as we call it, but it was a letter
to seven churches. And they were seven real churches
in real places at a real time in history. We can't forget that. You and
I, as we read the book of Revelation today, are secondary readers. We are not primary readers. of
the Revelation does not say written to the church at Lilja Road. It does not say that. It was
written to seven churches in Asia Minor. Specific churches
in a real time and a real place. And we need to keep it there
to understand it in its time and its place. Then we can grasp
the principle, the truth, the core truth of the message And
we can bring that forward because truth is timeless. Situations
are momentary. Truth is timeless. Now, as we
talk about prophecy, there are two schools of thought on prophecy. One is to interpret prophecy
as symbol, to be interpreted and applied as symbol. And the
other, there are those who say, that it is to be interpreted
literally. That it sets out specific events
and that is the way it will be fulfilled. I will tell you I
have a problem with a literal interpretation of prophecy. Because
I cannot make the beasts in Revelation into anything that I know. I
can't. There's nothing that exists like
that in this world. So it is impossible in my mind
to take a literal interpretation of the book of Revelation. They
are symbols. Now the question then comes in,
how do we know what the symbols mean? And that is where we must
default to the apostle John. John, and let's place him in
his time and his place, John is an old man now. He is on the
island of Patmos, which is a little island somewhere near Greece. It was a penal colony. He was there because he was considered
to be a prisoner of the Empire of Rome. He was basically busting
rocks. Patmos, as I understand it, was
a rock quarry. John was there busting rocks. He was at hard labor. And there,
one day, on the Lord's Day, as he sat and prayed and meditated
on his Lord Jesus Christ, he was given a vision. And in that vision, he was given
a message. And that message became our book
of the Revelation. Let's understand that John knew
that there could be deceiving spirits. There could be deceiving
spirits. John is the same one that wrote
to us in the epistle of 1 John to test all spirits and to see
what is good and true and hold to those and then deny the rest. John would not accept even this
vision without testing it. That's important for us to understand
that John tested the spirits. And he told us in the very opening
of the book of Revelation how he tested the spirit. He tested
it by the Word of God, which you and I would know as the Old
Testament, and by the testimony of Jesus Christ. Now this was
easy for John to do because John walked the streets of Jerusalem
with Jesus Christ. He knew by his experience in
life and by his memory and by his heart the testimony of Jesus
Christ. You and I have the testimony
of Christ recorded for us in the four Gospels. So we have
the tools ourselves now to come to an understanding of the book
of Revelation in our hands. The Old Testament and the four
Gospels. There we find the tools that
John used to understand this vision. That's an important thing to
remember because context is critical. John did not read from the local
newspaper and see events unfolding and say, well, oh, here it is.
Here it is. He didn't do that. He remembered
back to the Scripture. And it's important for us to
understand that in the Scripture, all the symbols that John saw
in the Revelation were not new symbols. They're Old Testament symbols.
So when John saw these beasts, he didn't think, oh my gosh,
what is that? He remembered back to the book
of Daniel or to the book of Ezekiel or any other of the prophets
where those symbols were. And what he remembered then is
in most instances those symbols were explained within the text
of the scroll. He didn't have to develop any
wild ideas about what this may mean because within the pages
of what we call the Old Testament those symbols were pretty much
explained. That's knowledge that John knew he was a Jew. It's knowledge, unfortunately,
that we have lost. And I say lost, it's still findable. But we in our minds as Christians,
as New Testament believers, living in our day and our age, don't
look back to the Old Testament near enough to understand the
Gospel message. John saw this vision, and it
was weird, it was bizarre, but it was images that he had seen
before. It didn't take him by surprise. That's important for us to remember.
Now let's talk just a little bit about the interpretation
of the book of Revelation. We have different schools of
thought on how to interpret it today, and each one of them has
a path they take and a consequence for their path or where it leads. The most popular method of interpreting
prophecy today is what we would call the dispensational method
and that's where they assign dispensations, ages, times to
the events. And they look at the book of
Revelation primarily as a chronology. Goes this way, goes this way,
ticks on a cross, you can read it and it's like a map through
the end times. It's a chronology. Then those
who interpret the book as basically symbolic see that a little differently. It is not a chronology at all
under this viewpoint. It is seven different visions
of Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Not a chronology, but seven separate
visions each presenting a different aspect of Christ and His kingdom. And then it comes to a culmination,
a climax with the descending of the New Jerusalem. Again,
this is looking at the Book of Revelation as a symbolic message. Again, to be honest with you,
to put it up front so we know where I'm coming from, so that
you understand what I'm saying, I tend to view the Book of Revelation
as symbolic. I believe that the vision can
be interpreted using the Old Testament and the Gospels. that is not to discount the things
that Paul and the others had to say about the last days, because
they had knowledge given to them as well, but it is built upon
the base of the Old Testament and the Gospels. Let's look at
the background, the history, what was going on at the time
the book of Revelation was written. The Jews were enemies of the
Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was the most
powerful empire in the world. They dominated most of the known
world at that time. And they dominated with ruthlessness,
with murder, with all kinds of horrible corruption. The Jews
chafed under this. Jesus had come into the world
at that time, what the scripture calls the fullness of time, and
he presented himself as the Messiah. He, however, did not overthrow
the Roman government and free the Jewish people from their
bondage. Therefore, the Jews viewed Jesus
as a false messiah, a heretic, a blasphemer. And any who would
push his message would further the message of Jesus was also
a blasphemer. The Jews had very limited ability
under Roman law to prosecute blasphemers. They certainly did
not have the authority to exile or kill them. So they cooperated
with the Romans for the purpose of getting rid of these blasphemers. Jesus was presented to the Roman
government not as a blasphemer because the Romans didn't care
if he blasphemed some Jewish religion. That wasn't their issue
at all. He was presented to them as an
enemy to the state, as one who was an insurrectionist who would
claim to be king and overthrow the Roman government. The Jews were all too happy to
use this to get rid of Jesus. Later, this band of followers
of Jesus were out presenting a message of a risen Jesus, a
kingdom of Jesus. And the Romans still considered
this just religious hoo-ha. Because Jesus, after all, had
been killed. He's no threat. He's gone. Not
our issue, according to the Romans. The Jews saw it as a very big
issue and they were persecuting these people, as we know from
the book of Acts. They were persecuting the believers
of Jesus. the followers of Jesus, with
a vengeance. And when necessary, when they
had somebody who was definitely needed to be out of the way,
they would bring the Romans in to handle the problem. John was arrested under such
a circumstance. John was known to the Jews as
being one of the original followers of Jesus. And he's out there. He's preaching this message of
Jesus resurrected and a kingdom of God at hand. This is blasphemy to the Jews. We got rid of that fellow. And
we're going to get rid of his followers. That was their mindset. John was arrested and put on
the island of Patmos at hard labor. This is not something
the Jews could do. So again, they worked in conjunction
with the Romans to present John as an enemy to the state and
John was exiled. Let us understand the context. The Jews are the persecutors
of the church. And Jesus told us that would
be the case. He told them that would be the
case. The Jews were the persecutors
of the church. They were willing to work in
conjunction with Rome to handle their problem. Strange bedfellows,
wouldn't you think? They were using their enemy to
accomplish their goal. That is the context. That's important
for us to remember. That is the world at the time
that John was given the vision. We must understand that. Then
John wrote this vision to a real people in that time. And that message had real meaning
to those people. We have to understand that. It
meant something to them. And it was more than just some
high in the sky hope. We can never lose sight of that.
The people at the seven churches heard the message and their hearts
beat faster and their throats came forth with song and praise
to Jesus Christ because this message really meant something
to them in their time and in their place. John said, blessed
is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear.
That's a promise to those people. And again, I must tell you, we
are secondary partakers in the message. And that's not to discount
the blessing that it has for us today, but we are in a way
outsiders looking in to this prophecy and we are Christians. And we have the full promise
of Jesus Christ, our Savior. But we are secondary observers
to this revelation. And I don't know. I don't know
if you can understand what I'm saying in that. I hope you do. But all that to say that we have
to keep it in its time and its place to begin to understand
what the book really says. And the reason I say that again
is because you can turn on your TV and you can turn on your radio
or you can go to your Christian bookstore and you will have volume
after volume, show after show, broadcast after broadcast telling
you this is what the book of Revelation means and yet none
of them fit together. This has troubled me for years.
There is one truth. One truth. There's one truth.
Fifteen gazillion different interpretations and they don't fit together,
which means we have an interpretational problem. And again, I say that
most of the interpretational problems in the book of Revelation
stem from the fact that we do not use the Old Testament and
the Gospels to interpret it. More interpretation of the prophecies
are done using the newspaper or the evening news than they
are the Bible. And that's unfortunate because
I have never read anywhere that all newspapers are given by the
inspiration of God. I've never read that. But I have
read that all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. So
I think we have a better source. Now something I would like to
address, and this is probably where we'll end today because
time is fast approaching and this is a vast subject, but critical
to your understanding of what the book of Revelation means
is the time of the Revelation. What is the time frame? And I
think that's what we need to talk about today because the
dominant theory is that the Revelation is based on a time clock and
then with the ascension of Christ, time stops. only to pick up later
in the last days. And the last days, according
to the popular theory, began in 1948 when the nation of Israel
was established in the Middle East. Again, this is how who
are the people of God ties in with prophecy. We can't discuss
the nation of Israel without and understanding who the people
of God are without somehow coming into prophecy. And that's how
this came about. But I'd like us to consider some
things. John told us in this very passage
that we read today, the time is near. Words mean things. John wrote
to a real people at a real time The real place. And he said,
the time is near. Let us understand that these
people were persecuted. They were being driven from their
homes. They were being driven out of the marketplaces. Some
of them were being taken to prison. Some were being killed. These
people needed real hope. John says, this vision was given
to me and here is Jesus Christ. and the time is near. That means something. Again,
the popular theory is that there's this gap, this point where time
stopped prophetically and then suddenly started again in 1948.
Now, I'm not going to be able to give you all the answers and
all the implications of what I'm going to present to you mean,
but let's think about it. Scripture is written to real
people, at a real time, in a real place. Let us remember that Jesus
began preaching saying, the kingdom of God is at hand. At hand. Someone tells you, you
know, this is going to happen, the time is at hand. We understand
that to mean that it's going to take place pretty soon. And that is how His followers
took it as well. Jesus said in Mark chapter 1
verse 15 that time is fulfilled. The kingdom is at hand. 30 A.D. Jesus said, the time is
fulfilled. The kingdom is at hand. Now,
as Jesus stood with His disciples in front of the temple, they're
in Jerusalem now, close to the time of the crucifixion. And
they're marveling. They are like tourists. the apostles,
the disciples are. They're looking at the temple.
And the temple was one of the most magnificent buildings in
the entire world. It was to be the house of God. And they're gawking at it. They're
wide-eyed. They're looking up and they're
saying, this is magnificent. This is magnificent. And Jesus said, I tell you, not
one stone here will be left on top of another. This temple will be completely
destroyed." Now they understood because they had been with Jesus
and He had talked about the Kingdom of God, and they knew from the
Old Testament that when the Messiah came and the New Kingdom came,
the old order of things would be gone. And they asked, what
will be the sign of the end of this age? They understood that
when the temple left, when the temple was destroyed, there was
a new age, a new kingdom to be established. And they ask Him, when will this happen? What will
be the signs of the end of the age? And this is all from Matthew
chapter 24, which everybody goes to as the very definition of
the end times. And Jesus says to them something
that is hard to explain. if you hold to the current thinking. He said all of these things,
and he was talking about the establishment of the kingdom,
the destruction of the temple, the end of the Jewish age. He
said all of these things will come to pass in this generation. In this generation. Now, if I
tell you is we're sitting here and something's going to happen.
And I tell you, it's going to happen in this generation. I'm looking
at you. I'm answering your question.
And I say it's going to happen within this generation. I think we will all understand
that I'm talking about within the next 30, 40 years. And His
disciples understood it that way too. They were shocked to
hear that, but that is exactly what they understood. Now you
see the same incident repeated again from Matthew in Mark and
Luke also in Mark chapter 13 and Luke chapter 21. Point is,
Jesus said all of this is going to happen within this generation. Jesus tells in response to questions
about the coming of the kingdom. He answers their direct question
about when is the kingdom coming. He says some of you standing
here today will not see death until this happens. Some of you standing here will
not see death until these things happen. Jesus preached an immediacy to the coming of the kingdom. And if words mean something and
Christ is to be believed, then we must come to grips with this.
We must think these things through and try to understand what they
mean for real. We see the same immediacy within
the message of Paul. Paul preached the immediacy of
the coming of the kingdom, the end of the age. In Romans chapter
13, he told the Roman believers to understand that the end is
closer now than when we first believed. Now, that's true of any of us
about anything. I mean, I'm closer now to my
death than I was 30 years ago. So that can be maybe, you know,
there's some leeway within that. But Paul follows it up by saying
the night is nearly over. The day is almost here. There's
an immediacy to his message. In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells
the believers to whom he wrote that for us the fulfillment of
the ages has come. Has come. It's upon them. Bear in mind that the Roman letter,
the Corinthian letter was written, both of them, in about 55 A.D. The letter written to the Thessalonians
Paul says, he addresses the end time issue because some believed
it had already happened. So evidently the signs of the
coming of Christ could have been fulfilled then. And he said no, it hasn't happened
yet, but it is coming soon. explained in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4 and then again in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 because there was still
confusion about the issue. In Hebrews chapter 1, the very
opening of the Hebrew letter identifies in these last days. In these last days. Paul admonishes
Timothy in chapter 4 of 1 Timothy that these are the conditions
in these last days. James, in chapter 5, tells us
that the end is near. The end is near. Again, that
was written in 42 A.D. Peter has much to say about it
himself. 1 Peter 1, we're told that The
end is ready to be revealed. Soon is the day that Christ visits
us. The end of all things is near. 1 John 2 tells us this is the last hour. This is the last hour. Then he
follows it up with a little more telling us that this is how we
know. Antichrist is coming. And in
fact, Antichrist is already here. Now it's important, let me take
a side step here to say that Antichrist is a touchy subject. Antichrist shows up in the epistle
of John. But it is not the Antichrist. It is Antichrist. And it is the
spirit of Antichrist. And it is, as John presents it,
any spirit that denies that Jesus Christ is Lord. And in our current
end times thinking, we have mixed the beast and the Antichrist
together. And that's not a biblical mix.
There is a beast presented in the book of Revelation, but he
is not called the Antichrist. And where John speaks of Antichrist,
he is not speaking of a man, but a spirit that denies that
Jesus Christ is Lord. To get that right, to sort that
out as John presents it, then we can look at some of the end
time prophecies with a more clear understanding of what's being
said. Now, I've run out of time. And I'm not going to drag this
out because I put us all to sleep. But these are things to think
about. Words mean things. Scripture has a context. And
in its time and its place, Jesus and the others spoke of events
that were soon to happen and indeed are now happening. In their time. In their time. and we are not honest with ourselves
and with others if we will not try to understand what these
things mean in their time and if in their time, then in our
time as well. And the explanation that there's
this time clock that suddenly stopped and now clicks again
is not a reasonable explanation. That is, Interpretational hocus
pocus. And it sidesteps the issue. And
it is incumbent upon us as Christians, as seekers of the real truth
in Jesus Christ, to try to understand what these things mean.