Epaggelia

Angels have a big role in Revelation, v1 & 10:1. They still serve us, Heb. 1:14, Mat. 18:10.  John’s beatitude in v3 is for anyone who hears and obeys what the Revelation teaches to bless (Makarios) his readers who keep it. This promise is reminiscent of Psalm 1:1-3. Happiness is the purpose of God in giving this to us, not fear. God is the God of all comfort, 2Cor. 1:3-7. 

The phrase “7 Spirits” in v4 shouldn’t confuse us because Christ’s presence is for each of the seven churches. Seven often signifies perfection which is the kind of presence we need. He is omnipresent. Jesus is entitled Faithful Witness, Firstborn of the Dead, Ruler of earthly kings, The Alpha & Omega and The Almighty because his blood freed us and proved his love for us. He’s qualified to make us a Royal Priesthood (1^st Peter 2:9) and he will come again to show the entire global population his victoriously scarred body resurrected and ruling. This will make every knee to bow and tongue to confess Him as Lord, Romans 14:11, Php. 2:10 & Isaiah 45:22-25.  So we should confess him as Lord now before it is forever too late, Matthew 10:32. No one knows the day nor the hour…

1:9, In The Kingdom…On Patmos. Since Jesus is the Ruler of the kings of the Earth, we know that it doesn’t matter where we are or what circumstance we are in. He rules because of the power of his resurrection given to all subjects of His Kingdom, see Colossians 1:13, 1^st Peter 2:9.  Despite the pain John suffered he still believed Christ was ruling, this is possible for every Christian because we are all called to suffer, 1^st Peter 3:9-17. By enduring in this faith, we are winning the war of overcoming evil with good and bringing the deceptive kingdom of Satan in the world to a downfall. It is a real ‘wrestling’ match, see Ephesians 6:12.

v10, In The Spirit on The Lord’s Day. Jesus was raised from the dead on the 1^st day of the week (Mat. 28:1) and it became the day which superseded the 7^th day of the week (Sabbath) for worship amongst God’s faithful children. factually, during the mandatory Feast of Tabernacles, the 8th day was a holy day, Lev. 23:33-39. It was even carried over in their culture after they returned from captivity in Babylon, see Nehemiah 8:18 mentions an 8^th day (Neh. 8:18), and it seems prophetic that it became the Lord’s Day, Sunday. The Jewish Pentecost fell on a Sunday and became the ‘birthday’ of the Church, Acts 2. Leviticus 23:11-16 spells out how it would always fall on a Sunday, an ‘eighth’ day.  It is interesting to note that in the 1905 edition of Sgt. Burrell’s 1760 Diary of New England Shipping, the day is spelt with an “O”, not “u”.  The 2^nd century writings (Didache 14:1 and Ignatius’ letter to the Magnesians 9:1) both use the term “Lord’s Day” for the 1^st day of the week Christians worshiped on, as was instituted by the Apostles, Acts 20:7.   Are we always in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, or should we make preparations? See Jude v20, Eph. 6:18 and Php 3:3. Does the oil of the 10 virgins have any bearing on the spiritual welfare and attitude of the Christian on Sunday? (Mat.25:1-13)
v11, The Seven Churches. Each one of the cities lay on the same road and in the order they are written, in Asia Minor. Showing that God knows our exact location when living lives worthy of the gospel. Our position in Christ guarantees our position of safety no matter how dangerous being a Christian is. John would send them what he wrote from a trumpet sounding voice and several symbolic visions. The import of a trumpet sounding voice may lay in the fact that Moses spoke with God issuing the Law from Mt. Sinai with a shofar blowing louder and louder in Exodus 19:16-21. It was written while John was in the Spirit and it should be read as we are in The Spirit, 1^st Cor. 2:12-15. These messages in the Revelation held authority and could pierce their hearts as the peal of a trumpet.

The title means “to open up, take the lid off” – Gk, “Apokalupsis”, where we get our English word, Apocalyptic. Contrary to popular usage, it has nothing to do with catastrophic wars and the end of the world as we see the media purport. The title is singular, not plural. It has many visions, but only one message or theme: Christians win in Christ no matter how big, powerful, rich, popular, evil, destructive or smart our enemy is, Jesus Christ is our victorious King!

It’s the only letter written to 7 named congregations. So we need to keep our understanding in the context of the original readers. The historical background is important, if we are going to make any personal application for today. History remains a great teacher for the future. John gave them assurance that they could understand it as a fulfilled prophecy, see 1:1,3, 22:6, 10. The historical method of interpretation is defined by scripture, see Dan. 8:26, 12:4. So fulfillment of Revelation can be seen within five or six centuries. Some passages do have an obvious two-fold fulfillment, akin to the way Isaiah 7:14 & 9:6-7 can refer both to Jesus in Mt. 1:23 and also Cyrus in Isa 45:1 or Mahershalalhashbaz in Isa. 8:1-3. So we must maintain an open mind to discover the true meaning of the visions. When Daniel is told to seal his visions, while John is told to not seal them, we should expect fulfillment as “near” the 7 churches, not two millenia away from them.

Authorship & Outline

John the Apostle also known as the disciple whom Jesus ‘loved’, Jn.13:23, was banished to the isle of Patmos. While suffering this persecution, he received many visions and was told to write them down in a book, 1:9-10. The last we see of John in the New Testament is Acts 15:4 & Gal. 2:9 in Jerusalem, it is only secular history from Irenaeus and Justin that we learn about John going to Ephesus. Irenaeus claimed to be a student of Polycarp, who sat at the feet of John.  The timing of his writing was somewhere between 68-97 AD under the reigns of Nero through to Domitian.  Revelation can be outlined as simple as this:

1. Introduction & Vision of Christ, Chapter 1
2. Specific Visions for The Angel of the 7 Churches, Chapters 2-3
3. General Visions of Prophecy for the 7 Churches, Chapters 4-22
   1. Seven Seals, Trumpets & Bowls, Chapters 4-16
   2. Winners, Losers & Christ’s Coming, Chapters 17-22

Historical Background

The culture and political scenario of the first Christians is important, getting a meaningful understanding of Revelation is possible if we know how worldly people looked upon Christians in the 1^st century.  The first persecution we suffered was from Jews, when Stephen and James were killed, it sent shockwaves of fear and boldness throughout the new church. But Jews could not continue their persecution of us, because of 2 reasons: Firstly they had too big an enemy in Rome and were preoccupied with revolts and oppression, secondly we Christians had God’s miraculous power proving to the Jews that their persecution was fighting against God, which Gamaliel warned them of in Acts 5:39.  

In 66AD the Jews revolted against the Romans throughout most of Israel. The Emperor Nero sent his General Vespasian to Israel to quell the rebellion in Palestine. After almost 2 years of fighting in 68AD, Vespasian accomplished subduing most of Israel and prepared to overtake Jerusalem itself, when amazingly, Nero committed suicide, which motivated Vespasian to leave Israel and take the Throne in Rome, 69AD. He left his son Titus in charge of besieging and finishing off Jerusalem. Titus erected the Romans Eagle in the Temple on 10 August 70AD (a fulfillment of Dan. 9:27, 11:31 & 12:11, as well as Mat. 24:15). They destroyed and burnt the Temple to the ground, looting the gold and it’s best treasures.  There were still pockets of Jews trying to rebel but the main element gathered at Masada and held out till 73AD, after knowing all was lost to the Romans, they organized a mass suicide, so the revolt of 66AD lasted till 73AD. Now Titus was victorious, Christians were busy spreading the gospel of Christ. Many Romans ignorantly believed that Christianity was a revamped renewal of Judaism, trying to establish itself again, so they fell under immediate persecution. The trumped up charge of Christ being the ‘King of the Jews’ served as a prefaced purpose that would haunt Christians for decades, Mark 15:2. Christians were constantly confused by the Romans with Jews as a new breed to be stamped out. But after 117AD when Hadrian became Emperor, one of his decrees helped identify Christians as separate from Jews. The Jews revolted again in 132AD giving Hadrian a defeat in losing over 570,000 Roman soldiers, so Hadrian eventually burnt Jerusalem to the ground and built a shrine to Jupiter on the ruins of the Temple. Hadrian also banned circumcision, over time, this actually helped Romans identify who was a Christian and who was a Jew, in the humiliating gender identification Romans gave their enemies. God knew circumcision would be an issue and prepared for it to be abolished since the Apostolic letter of Acts 15. So Christians found themselves escaping persecution for a while until they came into Roman towns with marketplaces that demanded allegiance to Caesar upon entry.  This lull in persecution gave them an opportunity for escape, but in Asia Minor where the seven churches are located, they were targeted because they wouldn’t publicly acknowledge Caesar as King, but would only recognize Jesus as Lord Christ (Kurios Christi). This made Christians look like a threat to the authority and reign of Caesar and caused them to be persecuted again. However as the love of God and His Spirit was shown by the Christians, their own persecution became a great advertisement for Jesus and Christianity eventually grew and overturned the Empire, making Christ the King of kings.

CONCLUSION: One virtue in Revelation is the symbolic language John used. For early Christians this was a blessing to have Jewish symbols, numbers and characters from the Old Testament give definition to what the different visions were saying in the Revelation. If their Roman persecutors were to read the letter, they wouldn’t have a clue in understanding much of the Revelation. But since the new churches had mature Jewish leadership, it was easily understood to bless and strengthen the Christians to be faithful. That is why it was written to give a blessing, 1:3. That is a promise from God today to give us strength, wisdom and the ability to remain faithful when undergoing any tribulation, trial or any form of persecution. It was not written to panic us, cause anxiety or stress people out, about the 2nd coming of Christ. It was written to bless us and prepare us for a glorious victory.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2nd Tim. 4:13) “When you come, bring with you the cloak I left in Troas with Carpas and the scrolls, especially the parchments.” We may deduce that if Timothy forgot Paul’s cloak, he would easily be forgiven, but the most important thing to remember was to bring literature! Paul had preached many sermons and performed many miracles, but he still wanted literature. He’s a man that had visited the third heaven and seen things unlawful to utter, but he still wanted literature, Paul was an inspired apostle of Christ, yet he still wanted literature. He had seen the Lord and listened to words uttered from a divine heart, but he still wanted literature. Never forget the apostle Paul, a man who had a bigger more exciting life as a Christian than most of us, and he still wanted literature! My conclusion: Never stop reading in your pursuit of truth, God will increase your appetite.

Resurrection is not a mystical vision or a phantom appearance by a ghost. Resurrection is the transforming of matter in this created order. He becomes something new, something unique. The Bible records at least eight appearances of the resurrected Jesus to different people at various times and locations over a 40-day period before He ascended into heaven. In each of these appearances, there is a victory. The price of unbelief brings upon us the rebuke of God, v14.

First, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene at the tomb (Mark 16:9). Mary was weeping at the tomb, thinking she had lost Jesus forever. Jesus appeared and brought victory over despair.

Second, Jesus appeared to other women as they were leaving the tomb (Matthew 28:9-10). They thought he was dead, but he appeared to them, and they worshiped Him there. Jesus brought victory over death.

Third, Jesus met up with two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32). These men were talking about all the week’s events surrounding Jesus. They didn’t understand what had happened. Jesus talked with them and stayed with them until they understood. Jesus brought victory over confusion & ignorance.

Fourth, Jesus appeared to 10 disciples who were hiding together (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25). These disciples were afraid of what might happen to them since Jesus had been killed. Jesus brought victory over fear.

Fifth, Jesus appeared to all 11 remaining disciples (Mark 16:14; John 20:26-31). Thomas, who had doubted Jesus’ resurrection, was with them this time. Jesus brought victory over prideful insistence.

Sixth, Jesus appeared to seven disciples, including Peter, who had denied Jesus three times (John 21). At this appearance, Jesus puts Peter back into ministry. Jesus brought victory over failure.

Seventh, Jesus appeared to the 11 disciples on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20). There Jesus told them He had been given all power and authority. He gave these disciples the great commission to make other disciples and sent them, now they are apostles! Jesus brought victory over any other power.

Eighth, Jesus finally appeared confirming the completion of His mission and the promise of the Holy Spirit (Luke 22:44-51; Acts 1:3-8). Jesus had victory over the future.

Then Jesus’ followers watched Him ascend to heaven. He disappeared from sight into a cloud. Suddenly two men in white stood before the disciples and told them Jesus would return the same way He was taken up into heaven. The Bible teaches that Jesus will return to judge the earth in His everlasting kingdom, delivering us to the Father, 1st Corinthians 15:24-28.

16:20 , see Jn. 14:11, Both Jesus and his apostles had the same purpose in performing miracles, that is to confirm the message taught as authoritatively from God! Miracles were never isolated events of powerful mercy, Jesus and his apostles had a message connected to each of them! The good news was governed by divine power! Once the Word was established & once for all entrusted to the church, (Jude v3) it remains to this day by the same power of God. We therefore don’t need miracles today, we need faith in his powerful word, Mk. 12:24.

The sequence of events at the tomb are harmonious if we coincide the reading of each gospel:

Matthew: Mary Magdalene & The other Mary, meet an angel, and run to tell others 28:1-8.

  “But” Jesus later appears to them Mt. 28:9

Mark: Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James & Salome meet an angel and run to tell 

others, Mk. 16:1-8

Luke: “The Women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary mother of James, meet two men in

 dazzling apparel. They leave to tell the 11 disciples. Peter runs to the tomb, sees only 

strips of linen cloth in the empty tomb and goes home, Lk. 24:1-12.

John: Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw the stone rolled away, Then went and

 told Peter. Peter & other disciple run to the tomb and go back home but Mary

 Magdalene stays at the tomb and meets two angels, reminding her that Christ has

 risen, and then she sees Jesus who at first seems to be “a gardener”. Then Mary goes         to tell the disciples that she has seen the risen Lord. Jn. 20:1-18.

When Christ’s resurrection is discovered, the first work God’s angels invoke is to ___________ the message! This should be our emphasis & priority, Mk. 16:7, 10 & 15. The subject of the resurrection is spoken of at least 440 times in the Bible, and without it our faith is futile, 1st Corinthians 15:12-34. From the beginning of Christ’s ministry, he points disciples to the resurrection, John 2:19-22. At the end of the New Testament, The risen Lord Jesus says “Surely I come quickly”, Rev. 22:20.

The promise (Mk. 14:28) of meeting the disciples in Galilee is fulfilled in (Jn. 21:1). Why do you think Jesus wanted to confirm his resurrection in the north of Israel? Perhaps Jesus knew in advance that in order for his disciples to become apostles, that they would need his appearance to strengthen them during their bewildered doubt in such a phenomenal world-changing event. The resurrection of a person resurrected in and of themselves is beyond our understanding, experience and even expectations, so it could be that God wanted to strengthen them in the fact of his miraculous life, so they could share it with the world, who would find it just as phenomenal. He couldn’t leave them alone, and he won’t leave us alone, Heb. 13:5.

There are at least 10 appearances of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament.  A couple times he seems to change his appearance but in most of his appearances he seems to look exactly the same as before his death, except for the scars and then of course much later, Jesus appears in visions to Stephen, Saul who becomes Paul and John in the Revelation. When Mark ends his gospel, it seems abrupt to end it in verse 8, afterall, previously in 15 chapters, Mark has written that Jesus promised to rise and repeated the promise at least 3 different times! So why would he end his gospel without a sighting of the resurrected Jesus appearing? Most scholars attribute the short ending of Chapter 16 to the fact that only 8 manuscripts show the short ending, whereas the majority of manuscripts have the long ending to verse 20. There are several ideas among scholars as to why the long ending is not in some very reputable manuscripts, but suffice it to say that there is nothing uniquely strange in verses 9-20, every thought corresponds harmoniously with the rest of the New Testament so it shouldn’t disturb the authenticity of the gospel as a whole.

Then they crucified him and divided his clothes, throwing dice for them, to decide what each would take. It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The king of the Jews.” And they crucified two outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross!” In the same way even the chief priests—together with the experts in the law—were mocking him among themselves: “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, that we may see and believe!” Those who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him.

What are the two titles the critics of Jesus used to mock him while on the cross?

1. King                           2. Christ

In your opinion, If you had to endure all the different insults (from soldiers, outlaws, onlookers, chief priests & scribes) Jesus had thrown at him, which one do you think was the worst?

I feel like it would be hearing “experts” in the law say “he saved other but he can’t save himself”

How many times is the word “crucified” used in this passage? 4, No one can honestly deny Jesus was not unfairly killed, but anyone can deny the reason. The crucified Jesus of Nazareth is a historical fact, the reason he died lead us to accept or reject him as Christ & King. We believe God our Father wanted this to happen to Jesus, his only beloved Son, and that Jesus did it because he loved both His Father and even sinners who mocked him. But do we believe that God still loves the mockers today this much?

A good source of information on Christ documented outside of the Bible is an article published by the magazine “Biblical Archeology”, to read it, go to:

Words of Power in Death, v33-41, Even in total darkness Christ wanted to praise our Father, proclaiming his commitment. As His Father’s heart was breaking, the Spirit of Christ was tearing the Temple’s curtain in two! Ex. 26:31 blue, purple, scarlet fine twined linen with cherubim skillfully weaved within, 2Chron. 3:14. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the sky becoming dark as Jesus hung on the cross. “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three, because the sun’s light failed,” according to Luke 23:44. The obvious problem for this to occur naturally is that this is Passover week and the phase of the moon does not lend itself to an eclipse of the sun. However, Christians have always maintained that our God is Almighty as the Creator, and Christ was there in this almighty event, John 1:1-14. So when Christ died physically as the spiritual light of the world, a miraculous event would happen. The darkness in Egypt during the plagues is recorded as a miracle too. But brushing biblical theology aside, we do have the secular evidence of the quotation from Thallus, Thallus wrote a history of the eastern Mediterranean world since the Trojan War. Thallus wrote his regional history in about AD 52. (Habermas, Gary. The Historical Jesus, pp. 196-7, College Press Publishing Company, 1996.) Thallus is specifically quoted by Julius Africanus, a renowned third century historian. J.Africanus states, ‘Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun—unreasonably as it seems to me.’ Apparently, Thallus attempted to ascribe a naturalistic explanation to the darkness during the crucifixion. J.Africanus rightly argues that a solar eclipse could not have occurred during the lunar cycle of the Passover.  He also questions the link between an eclipse, an earthquake, and the miraculous events recorded in the Gospels. Eclipses do not set off earthquakes and bodily resurrections. We also know that eclipses only last for several minutes, not three hours. For J.Africanus, naturalistic explanations for the darkness at the crucifixion were grossly insufficient, as he showed with science. There is powerful evidence for the historicity of the miraculous darkness at Christ’s crucifixion. It was a real historical event, Christ came to suffer the horrible and darkest death of crucifixion in order to die for the sins of the world. When Jesus uttered the powerful words of Psa. 22:1, and “it is finished”, his praise not only affected creation’s source of light, but he also tore the Temple Veil from top to bottom. These events are real acts of judgment, divine decisions are done and our world would never be the same!

The Victorious Burial, v42-47, There are at least 5, even 6 recorded witnesses to the exact location of the burial of the corpse of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, Pilate, The Centurion, Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of Joses and of course Nicodemus (Jn. 19:39) This is important because of the legalities of responsibility in finding the corpse which was claimed to have been risen from the dead. Both Roman and Jewish authorities are directly connected to facing up to the consequences of securing the corpse to tomb. The message of the resurrection happening at this site, was paramount to the force of the message during that generation. For all other generations, the exact site is of no consequence, because the message, once established as true, is, was and will forever be true. No one could disprove the resurrection then, nor can they disprove it now. Historical evidence and eye-witness testimony can not be re-written, therefore, this burial itself is a victory in the way it was done. Our baptism is an evidenced burial of our faith in the operation of God in giving us life from death, Romans 6:1-7.