Mike Wilson - Seven Real Things in the Book of Revelation

9:57PM Jul 3, 2024

Speakers:

Mike Wilson

Keywords:

revelation

jesus

church

god

chapter

book

people

saints

suffering

earth

beast

conflict

real

died

faithful

judgments

scene

called

realities

great

I want to thank you once again for the opportunity to be here this week. This is my fourth foray into the College View Lectures. It's been about 12 years since the last one, though, and I don't think yet any any of the previous three that the speakers were as different from one another in style and approach than this year. You have three completely different approaches to pulpit work, but the other two guys are doing an excellent job. And I'll say this, that my spiritual suitcase is going to be a lot heavier on the way home than it was when I arrived. I feel the same way Brother Todd did when he expressed Sunday, the Lord's day, that he gets more out of this than than he feels like he gives. And I know we're giving the best that we can. But we are outnumbered in so many different ways on the West Coast, and for me to come to the southeast and breathe in a little of this warm oxygen is a mixed blessing. I was sitting last night in front of a row of young ladies who were singing their hearts out to God, and I'd like to kind of put them in my suitcase, along with all the other treasures that I'm taking back with me. I appreciate your singing. I appreciate your spirit. Good compliments that we've received for the work that we've done. Brother Todd's fine singing, my colleagues in the pulpit, Kenny's encouragement. Appreciate all of you.

But the truth of the matter is, we're living in a crazy world, and I'd like to speak to the issue of Seven Pictures of Reality in the book of Revelation. The crazier the world gets, the more I am drawn to the book of Revelation, the apocalypse. It's a gateway or portal or prism through which we are able to undergo mind blowing experiences that John saw and heard and wrote down for us so that we can know that we can walk by faith and not by sight. And he opens the book, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show 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 that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." For Christians in Asia minor, toward the end of the first century AD, who were living in a time in which horrible, unspeakable persecution was about to be unleashed, to have the exalted privilege of having the curtain pulled back just a bit. Long enough to know that God is powerfully at work behind the scenes. And even though these things are soon to come to pass, and even though horrible, unspeakable atrocities are about to be unleashed, to know that God cares, to know that he's doing something behind the scenes, and to know ultimately, who is going to win this thing. Would have brought great comfort to them.

\But there are some mind blowing visions, a lot of images, symbols, figurative language. This is a picture book, after all. A bottomless pit. Locusts with tales like scorpions. 100 million horse mounted troops. On horses with fire breathing Lion's heads and serpent heads on their tails. A wine press yielding a 200 mile river of blood, six feet high all the way. 100 pound hailstones bombarding the enemies of Christ and the church. Not everything is literal. Not everything was intended to be read literally. I like to say that apocalyptic language breaks all the rules of space and time, and what we have here in the book of Revelation is a curious mixture of heavenly realities and earthly symbols. And I think the most difficult thing for me as an interpreter, as a preacher, teacher, is to differentiate the heavenly realities and the earthly symbols. I've even got approaches to various passages in the book of Revelation, including the millennial scene in Revelation 20. Where I have a heavenly reality interpretation and an earthly symbol interpretation. I lean toward the heavenly reality one, and I'm not even going to deal with that tonight. We might be able to sit down together before a coffee table one day and talk about some of those things, or you can have me back and I'll preach more lessons on Revelation. But in spite of all the symbols, there are some unmistakable realities here as well. And we're going to look at some of those realities.

Artists depictions don't do justice to this. I don't even think this is entirely correct. I view in my mind's eye at least seven independent lampstands, rather than one candelabria of seven lamps all interconnected this way, but you do have this powerful image in chapter one of a glorified Jesus and John falling down as a dead man. You have in the throne room scene of chapter four, an emerald rainbow with 24 elders around the throne, four living creatures who were saying, Holy, Holy, Holy. Is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. You have the lion of the tribe of Judah, who appears as a lamb slain, who is the only one in the entire universe capable of taking the book, the scroll with seven seals, and one by one, breaking the seals, and the contents of the book open up before John's eyes. You have four horsemen of the apocalypse. You have these frightening locusts. You have a woman clothed with the sun with the moon at her feet, and a seven headed red dragon who wants to attack the miracle child that she is about to give birth to. You have in chapter 17, what Hal Lindsey calls Scarlet o' Harlot, a woman of this world, very much so, sitting on a scarlet beast and you have seven hills on which he sits. That would not, that imagery would not have been lost on first century Christians who were very familiar with the imperial city of Rome on seven hills.

Some of you know that I am a collector of ancient Bibles, and I've put together a book Inspiration to Ink about how we got the Bible. I've been collecting for the last five years. I have a lot of facsimiles and replicas, and I have a lot of originals that go years back. And the replicas, which I cannot afford originals of, from the Middle Ages, there are three types of books in the Middle Ages, Bible books in the Middle Ages, that have really impressed me. You have Psalters or ornate versions of the Psalms. You have gospel books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. And you have Apocalypse books. And I've got, I think, about three replicas of those. There's one page from one of those, this is commonplace in the Middle Ages. They understood that the book of Revelation was a picture book, and you have a lot of illustrations in these Apocalypse books from the Middle Ages. But again, aside from all of the symbolism, there are some realities, and I like to talk about seven realities, in keeping with the good number seven from the book of Revelation.

You have a real Jesus. In chapter one, verse 17, John says, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet, though dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not. I am the First and the Last, the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades." Feet like burnished bronze. Hair is white as wool and snow. Eyes like a flaming fire, a golden sash around his chest, seven stars in his hand, two edged sword coming out of his mouth, a voice like a loud trumpet. And those assuring words, Fear not. What you're about to experience is horrendous, but fear not. He appears many different ways in the book of Revelation, not only as the Sovereign Lord and head of the church, but as the Lion of Judah transformed into a lamb slain to ransom his people with blood at his side. In this sin cursed world, he appears as a baby, born into a world of conflict in chapter 12, and the devil was after him. No, make no mistake about that. But as he appears, you have angels appearing on Earth saying, Glory to God in the highest, peace among men. There would be no crown without a cross. But you have the question posed in chapter 13 and verse four, "who is like the beast, who can make war with him?" And you have a resounding answer in the book of Revelation, and particularly chapter 19, when you have the rider on a white horse with the words emblazoned at his side, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS and all of Heaven celebrating the victory that he wins. And then when this world is over, you have him sitting on a great white throne, ready to judge the living and the dead. The books are opened, and another book is open, which is the book of life. And then you have him in the very last chapter, saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, beginning and the end." "I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and morning star." If we believe, even for a moment, that Jesus is just a baby laid in a manger, who became a humble carpenter and an itinerant preacher, who died an unfortunate death, as a criminal on an instrument of cruel torture and nothing more than that, then we really are conjuring up the Jesus of myth. Jesus is so much more than that. Our Savior, our Messiah, King of kings, Lord of lords, Judge of all, the alpha, the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. And in our darkest hours, we need to remember that he has all authority in heaven and on earth.

You also have a real church. And I'm not even going to begin to read all of chapters two and three to you, but I do want to make this observation. Chapters two and three unpack Jesus report card on seven representative churches of Asia Minor. These are representative of those who would participate in the Tribulation and the victory. And yet, when you begin reading the actual state of affairs in each church, this is what you get. Ephesus is backsliding. They've lost their first love, and they're endangered of losing their identity. Smyrna is suffering and about to be cast into prison and to pay a great price for their faith. Pergamum is compromising, in danger of incorporating idolatry and sexual immorality and buying into teaching that would endorse such. Thyatira has a Jezebel and is polluted with sexual immorality. Sardis is dying. They have a name that lives, great reputation, and yet they're dead. Philadelphia is small. You have a little power, Jesus says, and Laodicea is lukewarm. Here you have the potential victors. It's a great conflict that is about to unfold, the people of God in a world populated largely by other people. The salt of the earth, the light of the world. And what do you see in chapters two and three? For the most part, what I see is a group of people who, or seven groups of people, seven independent churches who are imperfect, unworthy, even disappointing. Have you ever been tempted to walk away from a congregation because there are hypocrites in the church, or because there's sin? Or because brother or sister so and so is compromising a tenet faith? Or because there are problems in the church, or because saints are struggling? I want to tell you, in no uncertain terms, that Jesus has not given up on any of these churches. He challenges them. He toughens them up for coming conflict. He urges them to set their affairs in order. He says hard things like chapter three, verse 19, "those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So, be zealous and repent." You have tough talk and tough love, but he hasn't given up on them. Should we? If we're in less than ideal conditions, I'm not putting a premium on being less than what we ought to be. But I will say this, there's always going to be a gap between the way things ought to be and the way things are, and our job is to span that gap as best as we can. To press on toward the goal of the mark, the high calling of God in Christ, Jesus. But it has occurred to me that every church I've ever been a part of, every congregation, is a work in progress. And it has occurred to me, most frustratingly, that I am a work in progress. And what Jesus is doing here is he's taking imperfect saints and imperfect congregations, and he's building them up so that in the end, they can win. I think we can learn something from that.

You see real suffering. We'd like to live in a pain free zone, a utopia world where suffering does not exist. to be insulated from pain or bad, things don't happen. But no one gets a free pass. And again in chapter one and verse nine, John says, I, John, your brother, partner in the tribulation the kingdom, the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos, on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, suffering is going to be very real in a fallen world. It may be unsettling when the world seems to be coming apart at the seams. There's a PBS Masterpiece Series on television called The World Set on Fire. Book of Revelation is a world set on fire. But as Jesus says in John 16:23, "in the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world." For Earth dwellers who are opponents of Jesus and His truth, his church, there will be seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls of wrath. I think one mistake that we make when we study the book of Revelation is we don't stand back and look at the main storyline in both chapters nine and 16. Chapter nine and 16, we're told in no uncertain terms that the purpose of these plagues is to induce repentance on the part of enemies of Christianity. For the faithful, on the other hand, there would be great tribulation. There would be no victory without conflict. There never is. If you want to coast on beds of ease into your heavenly home, think again. It won't happen. When we have to pay a price, when we have to experience adversity, victory is sweeter in the end. And so, it is here in the book of Revelation.

There is real hostility. Sometimes people suffer because of grand misfortune by natural disasters. Other times, people suffer because of the inhumanity, atrocity and pure evil of their fellow human beings. You have two witnesses for Christ, representative witnesses, that make their appearance on the scene in chapter 11. And they preach and teach the testimony of Jesus, and they perform various signs that are reminiscent of Moses and Elijah. And it's the old principle, you don't like the message, you kill the messengers, and so they're put to death. And when the world around them sees that they're dead, they go into the party mode. They even exchange gifts. These two preachers who are tormenting us are gone. Let have a celebration until they're called up and they're transported into heaven. It's a beautiful scene, but the idea of being put to death was very real possibility for the early Christians. When I preach a sermon at home and it's put on our YouTube channel and our web page, we often get only a few hits, maybe 15, 20, 30 hits. I can preach on demons and get 100 hits, something like that. I preached a lesson on the Martyrdom of Blandina. It was a slave girl. He died in AD 177 in Lyon, France, and got 3000 hits. I don't know what people are looking up and Googled if martyrdom of Blandina, I could preach on Jesus and get 30 and preach on Blandina and get 3000. But she was a slave girl who had uncanny faith and made her fellow Christians, according to a letter that had been written in Lyon for the inhabitants of Asia Minor, made her fellow Christians look like athletes who failed to train. She had what it took to endure this gracefully and under fire like a true champion. Some would be cast into prison and be beaten to the very limits. "Be faithful to the point of death. I will give you the crown of life," chapter two and verse 10. Still others would not be able to buy or sell. The enemy would unleash an avalanche of venom, hatred and intense suffering. If you're in a situation where you've got a target on your back, you think, Well, I must be doing something wrong. Why don't people like me? Truth of the matter is, if you stand up with conviction for what is right, sooner or later, you will have a target on your back. All, all who are faithful to Jesus Christ, at one point or another, will suffer persecution. We're promised that in no uncertain terms, in the Bible, second, Timothy, 3:12, among other places. The challenge for Christians in the first century and beyond, economic challenges, no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark of the beast. Can you imagine not being able to engage in the economy? How did they do that? Social standing consequences, the object of blasphemous words, loss of status, loss of personal safety, the beast would be allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them, loss of life. But it's going to be okay. If anyone is taken captive to captivity, he goes. If anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword, must he be slain. Here's a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. I'm going to tell you something. I don't like where this world is heading. And when I read Revelation 20, 7 through 10, Revelation 20, 7 through 10, this is an apocalyptic preview of what happens after the millennium. "When the 1000 years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog. To gather them for battle, their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil, who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented, day and night, forever and ever." One way of looking at that, one possible way of looking at that, and I tend to look at it exactly this way, is that the early church did not exist in a conflict free zone. But that the church was born in a world of conflict and had to be at war with the fourth Great Empire of Daniel two and Daniel seven, and the composite images of Daniel seven are reversed in Revelation 13 and put into to get together into one beast. There's going to be great conflict about what would be the unifying force for every language, every culture, every nation, every language, every background. And a war had to be fought, and there was a price to be paid in the early church. But one possible way of looking at Revelation 20, 7 through 10, is that after much of church history has elapsed, Satan will have one final hurrah with tools at his disposal to have at it once again.

Someone says the world's a mess. It's bound to get better. What if it doesn't? Someone else says Christians are starting to feel the heat. Conditions are bound to return to normal. What if they don't? What if they worsen? What if you're a faithful Christian, and that means you're squeezed out of the mainstream economy, or your social status or your personal safety is constantly in jeopardy. What if this really cost you? Will you capitulate to make a deal with the devil, to go along, to get along? Or will you hold fast what you have and no one will seize your crown. My crown is not for sale at any price. No, thank you. I'll be faithful to Jesus no matter what. Are you not going to be cowardly, cowardly and faithless when your moment of truth comes? Or else you'll be cast into that lake of fire. That you'll continue testifying at all costs, even to the point of death, that you'll not give in or receive the mark of the beast or anything comparable, no matter what, that you'll keep the commandments of God and your faith in Jesus. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints, because you're going to be one of the victors who conquers the beast in its image. It will be worth everything.

But the real trick we need to understand is that there's not only real conflict, there's real deception that goes with that. Satan is called the deceiver of the whole world. And according to chapter 13, verses 13 through 17, the earth beast, also called the False Prophet in Revelation, performs great signs to deceive earth dwellers, those who dwell on the earth and to inaugurate compulsory image worship. Everyone would be tattooed or marked on the right hand or the forehead, again, so that no one could buy or sell unless he has the mark that is the name of the beast or the number of its name. It says all the world is under a spell, except those who can see through the lies. People are being played, and they don't even realize it. They're being manipulated with propaganda, psychological games, Satan's messaging. It's mass formation psychosis or mass delusional psychosis. I come from the Silicon Valley, and many of the folks in our congregation out there work for companies that know how to manipulate people. I hate to say it, but it's true. Well, there's never been a greater manipulator than Satan. Are you going to believe the lie or are you going to love the truth to be saved? Deception is real in revelation.

So is judgment. It's a terrifying judgment scene, as the books are open, another book is open, which is the book of life, and everyone makes an appearance before that Great White Throne. If anyone's name is not found written in the book of life, he's cast into the lake of fire, terrifying scene, but very real. Even the temporal judgments of God in time and human history are real and totally just. You have the souls of beheaded saints underneath in the fifth seal, chapter six. Crying out for justice, Lord, how long will it be before you avenge our blood? And they're told to wait a little while longer. And as these bombardments of heaven against the enemy play out in the book of Revelation, we read in chapter 16, verses four through seven, "the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the water say, just are you O holy one who is and who was. For you brought these judgments, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve. And I heard the altar saying, Yes, Lord God, the Almighty true and just are your judgments." When you have to pay a price, a heavy price, you want justice in the end. We may not get it on our time frame, but God is a just God, and there's some good in that, some real good. Torment will be eternal, forever and ever, which is why people need to repent before it's everlastingly too late. Do we understand what's at just, what's at stake here with the justice of God and the judgments of God? They're very real you know.

Finally, there's real glory. Chapter 22, one through five. "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever." I said yesterday morning that I, really, there's a big part of me that wants to get out of California in the worst sort of a way. I want to get to a better place, I really do, but I may die out there. But I know even if I came here, it wouldn't be quite the place I want to go to. I want to go to a place where there's no more sin. And I've had a lot of suffering in my life, and I want to go to a place where there's no more suffering. And when my friends have turned on me, Jesus has always been my best friend, and I want to be with him, and I want to thank him for what he's done for me, and I'm so profoundly unworthy of it. And we will stand before the Lord Jesus in resurrected bodies, in a restored creation untainted by sin. There won't be any hospitals there because no one gets sick. There won't be any graveyards there because no one dies. There won't be any crime watch efforts, because no one who is a criminal will be there. And we'll have crowns of gold on our heads, and we'll sing God's praises forevermore. And the little foretaste of heaven that I've been able to experience this week with you will be unending there with all the saints of all the ages. And think of the singing there, reverberating like thunder, singing, Hallelujah to our God and our Lord. Real joy forever and ever and it will never end.

But in the meantime, battleground Earth, a broken world, a fallen world, but not forever. This is a probationary period, a testing ground. It's temporary. But make no mistake, we have a real Jesus, real but imperfect church, real suffering, real hostility, real deception, real judgment, real glory. And the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to follow. "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to them the plagues described in the book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the prophecy of this, the book of this prophecy, God will take his share away in the tree of life and in the Holy City. In this book, he who testifies to these things says, surely, I'm coming soon. Amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen."

Today is June 25. Tomorrow is June 26. On June 26 AD, 363, the Emperor Julian lay dying of a spear wound in a failed military campaign against the Parthians just outside of what is modern Baghdad. Legend has it that he took some of his own blood as he lay dying and hurled it at the sun, which he had worshiped as a god, and in a cry of bitter defeat, he said, Galilean, you won. That's what the book of Revelation is about. You ready to get real? Which side of this conflict are you on? Have you cast your lot totally and completely with your conquering king? Have you given your life to his service? And are you ready for a genuine life with no regrets before you face God? If you need to repent, do it. You need to come back to the Lord, do it. You need to be baptized for the forgiveness of every sin you've ever committed, do it and be faithful no matter what. Let's stand and sing the song of encouragement.