Revelation
Bible Study of Revelations
Date: 97-01-19 18:30:27 (updated 12/26/02)
From: SERVFATHER
Good Morning everyone. We are going to start the book of Revelations, there are a few things to explain about the book before we begin. First of all and most important is what does the word Revelation mean:
It means to uncover something or to reveal something. The book of Revelation is
to be revealed or uncovered, not kept in secret. The name itself tells you that
God wants you to understand the book of Revelation.
So if anyone tells you " no one can understand the book of Revelation, or you don't need the book of
Revelation," than mark that person, because they are not speaking with The Holy Spirit.
Second, there are a lot of things going on in the book, and one of those things is John being taken to each of these places to see what will happen.
He is taken by an angel. The question we need to ask is How? Well to understand what is written, God provides a second witness or more.
So that he can explain in an easy way to understand what he is trying to tell us. That is what Peter is saying in 2 Peter 1:20
"No prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation." It means that you just can't take one verse and say this is what it says you must have a second witness that says the same thing.
Then you know that you have interpreted it correctly. What does it mean to be taken by the Spirit somewhere?
If you read Revelation 1:10 it says " I was in the spirit on the Lords Day " In Greek it is a little different It says "I came to be in the Spirit on the Lords Day" In Revelation 4:2 it says "And immediately I was in the Spirit."
John is showed many things during that time. Then in Revelations 17:3 it says " So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness" .
Then in Revelation 21:10 it says " And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain".
Is it written anywhere else, about being carried away by the Spirit in the word? Yes it is. God provides us with other examples so we could understand what it met to be carried away in the spirit.
In Luke 4:1 it says "And Jesus being full of the Spirit returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."
John was also taken to the wilderness. In Acts 8:39 Philip is taken by the spirit. it says "But when they came up out of the water, The Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away".
It is also written in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 3:12 it says " Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing." Same thing happened to John he also heard a voice behind him sounded like a trumpet.
There are many places written about the spirit taking people places for a reason. Do a side study later on look up all the times people were taken by the spirit in the bible. You will learn
a lot from it.
Going back to Revelations you will see, John was taken by an angel to see what would happen in the future. He traveled past where we are in time and went to be shown what would happen in the later end. That is an awesome thought if you really think about what it is saying.
Another question to ask is Why would God do this? Because as it is written he wanted us to know what would happen. That way there would be no surprises for God's servants. God will tell you that himself in Revelation 1:1.
If you don't see where John went and when it was, you will never understand the book of Revelations.
REVELATIONS 1:1
The revealing of Jesus Christ, The first thing to see here is that Jesus was the one revealing the truth, which God gave unto him, who gave the information to Jesus? God did.
Why did God give this information to Jesus? To show Jesus's servants things which must shortly come to pass; it does not say servant, it says servants, so if you are a servant of Jesus Christ, this is written to you.
Who is a servant of Jesus Christ? Romans 1:1 Paul was a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Jude 1:1 The servant of Jesus Christ. Revelation 1:1 John is a servant of Jesus.
All these people were servants of Jesus Christ, but at the time of this writing they were mostly dead if not all dead. The only one that was alive was John. This is written to us who are the servants of Jesus Christ.
This verse Revelation 1:1 also says it is written to show them things which must come to pass shortly. To us it has been two thousand years but to God it has only been two days as it is written in 2 Peter 3:8 "But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day" So to God it has only been a couple of Days.
Then the next part of the verse says
" and he sent and signified it unto his servant John:"
In the Greek this verse says
" and he made it known by sending through his angel to his servant John."
It was so important for his servants to know that he let them know by sending An angel to his servant John personally, instead of using just the Spirit or a vision.
If you think about it, only certain parts of the bible are revealed by an angel. So the bottom line is this: If anyone says that you don't need to understand the book of Revelations, Then they are not speaking with the Holy Spirit.
In His Service