A Study Of The Book Of Revelation
Lesson No. 26: Seven Practical Points From The Book Of Revelation
Date: May19th, 2004, Wednesday Evening Adult
Bible Class
Speaker: John Phillis
Note: Much
of the information for this Study of Revelation was taken from the
book “Revelation Through First Century Glasses” by W. B. West. Other sources: “The Living Word, Study
of Revelation, Parts I & II” by Dr. Frank
Pack; “Revelation” by Jim McGuiggan; “Commentary
on Revelation” by Homer Hailey; “Commentary on
Revelation” by Burton Coffman; “The Book of Revelation
– Spiritual Sword Lectureship, October 18 – 22,
1998”; “Commentary on Revelation” by Howard
Winters; “Revelation for Christians Today” by Lonnie
Woodruff; “Unlocking Revelation” by J. Stafford
North.
Well, we are
finishing up our time that we have spent in the book of
Revelation. In our last Lesson, we came, if
you will, to the end of the journey that we have been on through
the book of Revelation. We saw that the last
verse of the last chapter, Revelation 22 and verse
21, said, “Amen,”—that’s
the end—“May it be so.” But we are not
quite done just yet. There are a few things that we want to
mention, no, not to add anything to what we have already studied,
but rather, I want for us to do a very general review of the book,
and I want us to be reminded of the practical lessons, the
practical points, that are contained for us as
Christians in this wonderful book, lessons that were applicable in
the 1st Century, lessons that continue to be applicable
for us today. We shall indicate some of these and urge you,
as well as myself, to add this list to our study and for our own
private contemplation.
Before we begin
that part, though, I want to read something to you from a
book. This book is called Portrait of God by Frank
Chesser, who is a brother in Christ and preaches the Gospel in
Montgomery, Alabama. This is an excellent book. I
thought it was worth reading this section to you, realizing that
this particular book that he writes is a portrait of God, as the
title suggests, but it looks at God throughout the Bible, Old
Testament throughout, New Testament throughout, and ends in
Revelation. I want to read a couple of
paragraphs from the 21st chapter of this book and the
chapter is entitled, Victory – Revelation 1 Through
22:
God spoke. Time commenced. And
the universe vaulted into existence. A garden of impeccable
beauty awaited the first human pair. Dust and a rib in His
hands, Divine gave birth to Adam and Eve. As balmy evening
breezes moved gently through Eden, the Creator and the created
walked and talked together in a state of perfect
innocence.
The embodiment of evil planted the
seed of doubt in the mind of Eve, and the conception of lust proved
the genesis of sin. Sin robbed the earth of perfection and
man of innocence, and postured God on a journey of
redemption. For the next four thousand years, God proclaimed
His sovereignty, Satan’s doom, sin’s cure and
man’s redemption.
Revelation
is God’s final sermon on His
ultimate, inevitable victory over Satan and sin, a victory enjoyed
by all men who appropriate and perpetuate the provisions of love
and grace in the obedience of faith, and are washed in the blood of
the Lamb. Revelation is God’s final
portrait of His majestic character, sin’s essence of
ugliness, revulsion and ruin, and the saintly principles of
redemption.
Well, I thought
that was very good, very well and colorfully stated, very
succinctly stated, and I wanted to share that with you as we begin
to do a little bit of a review and look at
seven practical points from the book of
Revelation.
1)
The FIRST POINT that we can see in Revelation is: The
Living Lord Is Walking Among His Church.
He is the
living Lord, as we see Him there in
Revelation, chapter 1. And, indeed, He is
walking in the midst of His churches. We see revealed there
that this is not something that He is doing in a casual way;
it’s not something that He is doing in an unknowing way, but
rather, He walks among His churches, knowing them,
knowing their weaknesses, knowing their
strengths, and calling them, as necessary, to
repent and to be courageous. Yes, this is the first inspired,
and inspiring, view that we have in the book of
Revelation.
Each one of the
seven churches in Asia addressed there in
Revelation was a separate entity. They were
small in numbers. They were not bound to some strong central
organization. They were seemingly quite weak, perhaps even
insignificant, when compared to the vast and powerful Roman
Empire. Here, weakness is confronted by massive
strength. Yes, they were weak. Yes, they were few in
number. But they had massive strength.
Yet, each congregation was united with the rest by
the bonds of a common faith and a common
devotion.
These churches,
these congregations, were separate—they were separate
entities—they were autonomous.
That’s the word we use today. The day of the
metropolitan bishops, the day of the ecumenical councils, had not
yet come. Centuries, as a matter of fact, would pass before
this ecclesiastical mechanism that is prevalent within so-called
Christendom today was contemplated or came to pass. Yet, even
though these congregations were separate from one another, they
were autonomous one from the other, they had
strength and they had power, and
that was expressed in the glorious vision that
John is given here.
The figure of a
living, of an exalted, Christ,
walking amidst His churches—that’s churches, plural
congregations, not churches, many
denominations—emphasizes that He is never seen apart from His
people. And He is encouraging, He is
strengthening them. Today, just as then, He
knows His people. He knows
our strengths. He knows our
weaknesses. He knows our problems. He
knows our battles. He knows
our frailties. He knows all about us.
He knows us as individuals. He
knows us as a congregation.
He was not far
from these churches that we read about here in
Revelation. He is not far from us
today. Rather, He is near. He lives
close to His people. There is something, I
believe, and I know you agree, that is extremely
reassuring about this great, about this
powerful, fundamental Truth that is so
dramatically pictured and revealed to us in the
beginning of Revelation, that the
living Lord is walking among His church.
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