Revelation: The Inspired Outline and Why We Have It - Revelation 1: 19

1:31And after all, seven is so prominent in the book of Revelation. Why wouldn't there be seven divisions? And so there's a number of people who argue for seven divisions, except there's little agreement on the precise contents of each seven. They just know the seven is important. Others see two divisions. There's 22 chapters, and so 11 on one side and 11 on the other side. Sounds pretty good. Others see two divisions, maybe seven subsections, and on and on and on.

2:08There isn't a shortage of ideas and speculations on how the book of Revelation is outlined. But the question we have, especially if we want to read these words as they are intended to be read, believe the words, and obey the words, then we want to know which is the correct outline. Is there an outline? Who's the authority? Who gets to decide? And does it matter? Has God left us any direction or clarity on this matter? And the answer is yes. Yes, with an exclamation point. God has given us His outline. For the book of Revelation, we just read it. Let me read it to you again. Therefore, write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

3:15Verse 19 begins with the word, therefore. The command to write is logically connected to what has happened before, what has just been written before. You remember the initial command to write, look in verse 11. You remember, John is on the island of Patmos. In verse 10, he's in the spirit on the Lord's Day, and he hears behind him a loud voice like a trumpet, a trumpet blast penetrating him. He hears it, and he hears these words: Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. So, the command, the initial command to write happens in verse 11. And then in verse 12, John turns to see the voice, and he sees this glorified picture, this glorified image of the Son of Man, very graphically depicted in verses 12 through 16.

4:17And it is important to keep in mind this first vision. This is the first vision in the book of Revelation, and it's a vision of the sovereign of the universe. And it's important. That we never lose sight of this first figure, of this figure throughout. He begins Revelation, He ends the book of Revelation, and it's important for us to keep our eyes on him because no matter how bad things get, we must remember that God is in control of human history, and His people will experience safe passage through whatever comes upon planet Earth, just as those experienced safe passage who were upon the ark when God's judgment of the flood came.

5:10But the words, back at verse 3, were not given to terrify us. The words were given to bless us. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. There is a blessing. So John hears the command to write. He turns to see the voice, and then all of a sudden he sees this vision, and he falls down at his feet like a dead man. Look at verse 7. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.

5:58That was John's response. And then here's Jesus' command. First, Jesus placed his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Therefore, in light of what I've just said, in light of the fact that I am the first and the last, I am the living one, I was dead, I am alive through the ages of the ages, forevermore, I am alive, I have the keys of death and Hades, therefore, write.

6:33Therefore, write. There's something I want you to write. And you don't need to be afraid. Don't need to be afraid. Something I need you to write. So following the command and reasons not to be afraid, the command to write again takes place. The thoughts are logically connected. Therefore, write. But think about the situation and how this situation prepared John to write the contents of Revelation and to instruct us on the divisions that God inspired in the book of Revelation.

7:30What John saw in verse 12 and 6 through 16, he prostrates himself as a dead man. Scared stiff, we might say. Jesus, I mean, John is not going to push back at Jesus' command at this point. Jesus has to strengthen him because you're not going to get any writing out of a dead man. The command to write, which is initially given, then John turns around to see, falls down like a dead man. Jesus affirms him, touches him, gives him reasons not to be afraid, and he says, okay, now write. He picks up the command to write.

8:21And at this point, I can assure you there is no pushback in John. He is at a point to be fearfully, dutifully, fearfully dutiful to carry out the command to write. He's not going to want to add anything. He's not going to try to insert his thoughts. He wants to be very careful and very dutiful to carry out the commission to write exactly what Jesus wants to be written. I think you and I would be in the same place. We'd seen the same. Thing.

9:04So in verse 19, Jesus further elaborated on the command to write. And Jesus commanded John to write about a past condition, a present condition, and a future condition. So think about John at that very moment when he sees Christ. He prostrates himself before Christ. And then the command to write is given. At that point, Jesus tells him, I want you to write about something that you have seen. I want you to write about things that are.

9:49And I want you to write about things that are in the future. What Jesus wants to do is get text on a page. Text on a page for the churches to read, for the churches to understand, and for the churches to obey and be blessed in the process. That's Jesus' objective. Remember, just look back at Revelation 1.1. Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place. And he says, And communicated it by his angel to his bondservant John.

10:35If you were to turn to the very end of Revelation, we read the words earlier in Revelation 22. Verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. He wants them sent to the churches. And he says, The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let the one who hears say, Come, and let the one who is thirsty come, and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. Then he goes on to just give us how important these words are. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book.

11:35And Jesus is very adamant that his words not be distorted, twisted, added to, taken away, fiddled with. I love the fiddle, right? I think we all do, right? Can really add a lot. I'm impressed with just how many sounds a fiddle can produce. How long can hold, how creative it can be. And I think God loves the fiddle too. He just doesn't like his words fiddled with. You can twist, tort, distort, add, bend, and I think that's what God, what Christ is saying here. Don't fiddle with the words.

12:23And John takes it to heart. It's a very sobering, extremely sobering statement that the Lord Himself takes. If you mess with the words, I take your name, you cannot come to the tree of life. I mean, it's an incredible warning. So then, with all of this, the moment that John received the command to write and the aftermath, or even the final thoughts of not adding to or subtracting, John is very mindful that Christ wants text on a page and he wants Christ's words on that page.

13:18So, how did Jesus organize his thoughts? That becomes the question. Well, he tells us, back at verse 9, therefore, write the things which you have seen and the things which are. And the things which will take place after these things. Revelation is prophetic on three levels. Prophetic on three levels. First, it gives us prophetic insight into the one who gave us the prophecy, Jesus Himself, chapter 1. Second, it gives us a prophetic insight into the condition of the churches during John's time. It gives us a prophetic snapshot into the issues they were facing and how Christ wanted them to deal with them and respond.

14:08That's chapters 2 and 3. Third, the book of Revelation gives us prophetic insight into future events that will bring about the full awareness that Jesus is the Christ. A full awareness to the whole world. Future events that culminate in the full awareness by all in the world to know that Jesus is the Christ. So, prophetic on three levels. Chapter one, insight into the one who gave us the prophecy. Chapters two and three, prophetic insight into the condition of the church during John's time. Third, prophetic insight to the future events, chapters 4 through 22, which bring about, as Jesus said, that all may honor. The Son, even as they honor the Father. That at the name, as Paul would say, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth to the glory of God the Father.

15:14Very straightforward. Jesus commanded John to write the book with three distinct divisions in mind to ensure that the churches would know how to read it, know how to understand it, and know how to obey it, and know how then to be blessed as a result. So, this morning, I want us to follow in that same vein of thought. I want you to see how Jesus directed the book of Revelation to be written so that you will know how to read it.

15:51Obey it and be blessed by having done so. So, Jesus is going to look at the inspired outline, and then I want to look at why we have it. First, inspired outline. I think you've got an old version up there. Sorry, I didn't update it, but it's there now. Should be. But look back at first the things John had already seen. Look back, verse 19a. Write the things which you have seen. Things which you have seen. Now, I am, are we good on that?

16:44Yeah, that's it. Thank you. Jesus commanded John to write about the things he had already seen. So the things you have seen, circle. The things which you have seen, underline, circle, highlight, put your thumb, whatever you do to make it stand out, and then write off to the side, chapter one. Or you can put the little at simple if you want, about chapter one, right? Chapter one. The basic contents of chapter one. John sees him as the Son of Man. Verse 13. John sees him among seven lampstands. Verse 12, you see that vision. There's seven features of Jesus depicted in verses 14 through 16. Three descriptions of Jesus. I'm the first and the last, the living one, dead, behold, alive forevermore, and have the keys of death and Hades.

17:56And in verse 19, it's very clear: this one, this individual, won't. Wants Revelation to be written. The one thing you should take away from this vision for sure is that Jesus is competent to communicate Revelation's contents. He is competent. His knowledge, already seen, His knowledge, His wisdom, His power, His authority, His eyes, His concern, His ability to communicate certainly qualify Him to communicate to His servant John. So any problem with understanding the contents of Revelation is in the reader, not the revealer.

18:43He wrote, Jesus commissioned it to be written to the churches so that they would understand it. And He knew His servant John. He knew the things He wanted to communicate. He was a master communicator, and He knew how to do it. And that's what He did. And so, if you just look at chapter one, you've got the first eight verses, you've got an introduction, break it down however you want. You've got the vision one, the first vision, the glorified Christ, verses nine through sixteen, and then in verses seventeen through nineteen, you have the commission to write things that he had seen, things that are, things that will be.

19:30So that was the first. Jesus commanded John to write about the things he had already seen. What did he already see? A vision of the glorified Christ. And it's important that we keep our eyes on him throughout the whole of Revelation. He is the first and last. And he's given it to us for us to understand. Second, Jesus commanded John to write about the things which were taking place, things that were taking place at that moment. So look at verse 19b, where it says, write, then skip over, the things which are, the things which are. Underline, circle, highlight, whatever you do.

20:22And write out to the side chapters 2 to 3. Chapters 2 and 3, the things that are, the things which are taking place at that very moment that Jesus comes to John and has just encouraged him, don't be afraid. At that moment, there are things happening in the world. And so chapters 2 and 3 give us a prophetic insight into the state of the church at the end of the first century and the issues they were facing and how Jesus wanted them to respond.

21:02And by the way, they have implications for us today. Those were historic churches. Jesus wrote to them as historic churches facing historic issues, and he had historic expectations of them, and those implications are for us today. They don't have to be some kind of prophetic framework to understand the church age. No, they're historic churches. And he writes to them as historic churches facing historic issues. And he's exhorting them in those historic issues to what he wants them to be, what he wants them to turn away from, what he wants them to embrace. And that has implications for all the churches, including us today.

21:52And so these chapters two and chapter three tell us about the things that are. And it's revealed in the form of seven letters to seven churches. Brilliant. You want to know what Jesus has to say to the church at the end of the first century? It's brilliant how it's written. Seven letters. We can understand that, right? Jesus himself, the great shepherd, writing an epistle, a little brief epistle to each of these churches. He tells them who he is.

22:31Tells them he knows what they're facing. He knows what they're tempted to do. And he exhorts them to do what's right. Brilliant. That's not hard to understand, is it? What a brilliant way to communicate to the churches and to us today to give us a framework to understand what he expects of us because we face some of the same issues that they face. It's brilliant and it's simple. So in chapter 1, we get a vision of who this authoritative Son of Man is. And in chapters 2 and 3, we get a picture, a vision, an understanding, these letters of what is happening in the churches.

23:28And so, chapters 2, you can look there. There's a letter to Ephesus in verses 1 through 7, 8 verses total. There's a letter to Smyrna, verses 8 through 11, 4 verses total. There's a letter to Pergamum, verses 12 through 17, 6 verses total. There is a letter to Thyotira, verses 18 through 29, 11 verses. And then you come into chapter 3, and you come to the fifth church that he writes to. Verses 1 through 6, there's 7 verses.

24:05And then you come to the sixth church, Philadelphia, verses 7 through 13, 7 verses. Then you come to the church of Laodicea, the seventh church, verses 14 through 22, nine verses. It's important to realize that the church must come to believe in Jesus Christ as the disciples did. We come as the church, we come having received the apostolic testimony to who Jesus is, we receive knowledge of him by faith, by faith. But we must come to understand Jesus who he really is. You remember the disciples, this was an incredible journey for them. They get on a boat, and then all of a sudden, who is this man that can command the wind and the waves such that the wind and the waves obey him? They came to know that he was Lord over the elements. They came to know that he could create matter out of nothing.

25:13He could take little loaves and fish and bless, create far more matter out of those than there ever was before. Lord over the elements, Lord over matter. They had to come to the land of the Gerrasines, where they then learned first half, he is Lord over the armies of the devil. Legion. The spirits obey him. They had to come and learn that he is Lord over life and death itself, including his own, that he is the resurrection, he is the life, he is God's man.

26:00He is God. They had to come to that. The church, we also must come to understand Christ as such. That's what he's doing. That's what the Spirit of God is doing us, doing in us, bringing us to a full knowledge of who he is, and one day we will stand before him and see him as he is. But now, the church, we come to know him by faith. He has authority over life, death, the elements, the spirit realm, the cosmos, etc.

26:43Peter came to find out in Matthew 16, 16, you are the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the living God. John 20, 28, Thomas came to find out, my Lord and my God. All of us and the church must come to know the same things about him. Well, the churches, not just individuals in the church, but the churches, demonstrate their faith in him by heeding what he says in his letters. You want to know who the true churches are? They are the ones who are heeding the things that are written to these churches.

27:31They're looking forward to his promises. Look at some of these promises. They're incredible. To the church of Ephesus, chapter 2: he who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. To Smyrna, the exhortation: do not fear what you're about to suffer. Verse 11, he who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.

28:08Verse 17, as he's speaking to the church of Pergamum, to him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on it, which no one knows but he who receives it. To Thyratira, he says this: Hold fast to I come. Verse 25. And he says, who overcomes, and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. As the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, I have also received authority from my father, and I will give him the morning star. Listen, what he says to Sardis, the promise there. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Listen, what he says to Philadelphia: he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name. This is what he says to Laodicea. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. You get the picture? The churches are to be overcomers. They are to be hearing what Jesus says. They are to be heeding what he says. And they are exhorted and motivated and prompted at the great reward.

30:00Listen, this world isn't the place for amassing gold, silver, houses, lands, prestige. That takes the ages of the ages. That's where real living happens. Oh, here we seek to exalt his name. This last week, I got an email from some friends in the Ukraine requesting prayer. As you've probably heard, Russia may soon invade Ukraine. I have some friends over there, some missionary friends, and they have informed us that they plan to remain in the country to help during what could be one of Ukraine's greatest times of need.

30:59And now I'm going to read to you some excerpts of the letter that came to me. When one of their students heard of their choice to stay, he responded by saying, It is important to hear that our classes will continue and that you will not leave with the USA diplomats. To me and my brethren, you are, in this case, an example of faith. That's what one of the missionaries said. Have made some contingency plans because it seems like the wise thing to do, like buying some non-perishable food, water, a propane stove, and packing a bomb shelter backpacks that are ready to go. But as Christians, we are not here to survive. We are here to love the Lord with all our hearts and joyously give everything we've got toward the fame of the Almighty.

32:03This is the disposition that Christ wants in his churches. Welcome to Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. All for the fame of the Almighty. That's what real living is about. So Jesus commanded John to write about the things he had already seen, the things which were taking place at that time. But third, third, Jesus commanded John to write about the things which were going to take place. Again, underline circle. Chapters, and then right out to the side, chapters 4 through 22. And chapters 4 through 22 give us a prophetic insight into the future. Events that must soon take place.

33:06And they're still future from our perspective today. You know how I know? The sun hadn't fallen out of the sky. Have you seen it fall out of the sky? No. The world doesn't know that Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Christ. They don't know. The book is about the future unveiling of Jesus Christ to the whole world. Chapters 4 through 22. It's that prophetic announcement of what is coming. And the transitions are very easy to see. Look at chapter 4 and verse 1.

33:51After the messages, after the letters that are sent to the churches or written for the churches, after these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven. After these things, in fact, after the letters, let me just read to you from verse 1. After these things, I looked and behold, a door standing opened in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. After these things. It's part of Jesus' description in verse. Verse 19, what's going to happen after these things? And if you will trace that phrase through the book, you see it's sequential from that point.

34:43Chapter 7, verse 9, after these things. Chapter 9, verse 12, after these things. Chapter 15, verse 5, after these things. Chapter 18, 1, after these things. Chapter 19, 1, after these things. Chapter 20, verse 3, after these things. So in chapters 4 through 22, you enter into the things which are going to take place. And he gives them to us. He communicates them to us as a scroll with seven seals. Seven seals. Speaking of an epic drama of worldwide future events, not some isolated place, but worldwide future events. It's brilliant. It's brilliantly simple. Aha, you want to tell me about future events? Seven seals.

35:42And that takes us through the book, through the large part of it. First, you have the first seven seals. Or you get the seven seals. They begin to be opened in chapter six. You see different horsemen coming out, white. Horse, and then the second, you see a dark horse, a red horse, and then you see the black horse, death. See several horses. But then you get to the seventh seal, and what happens? Seven trumpets come out. So the seventh seal, there's a growing intensity. You go from seven seals, and then you open the seventh seal in chapter eight and verse seven, and then seven trumpets emerge. And then those seven trumpets are blown. The seventh is blown in chapter 11, verse 15.

36:46And what happens when that seventh trumpet is blown? Seven angels with the bowls come out. The bowl judgments. First bowl is poured out in chapter 16, verse 1. The seventh in 16 and 17. And at that point, the world, as we know it, changes forever. The nations come to understand. There's a final conflict, and they come to understand. Let me just read part of chapter that. Those last bowls. See what happens to the world. Chapter 16, verse 2: First angel pours out his bowl on the earth. The second bowl in verse 3 on the sea, and it became like blood, like that of a dead man. And then the third angel pours out his bowl, the rivers, they become like blood. Verse 8, fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun.

37:57Fifth angel, verse 10, poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. Sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river. Seventh angel poured out his bowl on the air. The environment is radically changed. If you don't have air, you're on your knees. And that's what happens. These bold judgments, these judgments, these seals show us. And then after that, see the coming of Christ. But here's the point: all nations, Jew and Gentile, must come to know Jesus Christ.

38:44All humanity must learn what the disciples learned about Jesus Christ. The disciples had to go through a process of understanding that He is Lord of all. The churches have to go through the process of learning that He is. Lord of all. The good thing about the churches is they experience much of that by faith. But the world who suppresses him, they're going to come out and understand that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he is Lord over the elements, Lord over the humanity, Lord over everything, and they're going to learn that by sight because they refuse to repent. Revelation tells us about the events leading up to and afterwards the time when humanity as a collective whole will come to know Jesus as the Christ. His authority over the elements, his authority over matter, his authority over life, over death, the spirits, and every other realm, so that all will bow down and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of his Father.

39:54So that all would honor the Son even as they honor the Father, Jew and Gentile. And the tribulation depicted by these seven seals will take the collective whole of humanity to that point. That's a good thing. So that's the inspired outline. Things which had already seen, things which were taking place, things which were going to take place. I'm going to give you three quick reasons. Why, or for, or however many. Why we have it. Why do we have this inspired outline? Why did God give it to us? But why do we have it? Well, first of all, Jesus is a good communicator. Why do we have an outline? Because Jesus is the author. He's a good communicator, and he communicates in a manner that his or her words would readily be understood. Listen, the flow of thought, the organization of those thoughts were in the mind of the author before they could be in the mind of the reader. They are his thoughts.

41:13You know what any good author does? A good author either overtly tells his audience how he or she arranged the materials of the book or makes it explicit so it doesn't need to be stated. Well, Jesus has made it very clear, explicitly, but he has stated it so we will not miss it. Jesus clearly stated his outline for the contents of Revelation. Second, reasons why we have it. Jesus is a good communicator. Second, we are simple. We need something overtly simple, especially on a topic this important. importance and this complexity. It must be communicated simply enough for us to understand. And in his knowledge, he knew.

42:11He knows us, and he wants us to understand, so he knows how to communicate to us. And so I would expect, I'm not surprised at all, that Jesus up front tells John what he wants him to write and in the process tells us how he wants us to read the words that John has written. He expects his words to be read in the same vein that he expected them to be written. It's very important. Third, Jesus is a good communicator. We are simple, and there can be certainty in no other outline. There cannot be certainty in any other outline. You remember years ago I was involved in a lawsuit. I was surprised at just how many possibilities and scenarios that half a dozen attorneys can come up with as to what went wrong.

43:21I had a simple wall fail. It was a large wall failed. There was a big water. Waterline right behind the wall that was very large for fire suppression, and it had been leaking the whole time. Lots of water. You'd be surprised at just how many scenarios we could come up with as to why that wall failed and whose fault it was. See, because when you get a half-dozen attorneys in a room, a nice room that overlooks, I mean, one of these high-rise, big rooms that looks over the whole community, the whole area, and they have a bunch of catered meals in, and you get a bunch of these in the same room, just a half-dozen of them with all their pre-commitments, with all their so-called expert witnesses. Guess what? You have a recipe for endless speculation until the insurance money runs out. But then endless speculation. Same is true about interpreting Revelation. Get a bunch of theologians in a room with all their pre-commitments and expert witnesses, approach a subject far more complex than a fallen wall, and you have a recipe for lots of speculations. Some of them may make a lot of sense, but you can never know for certain.

45:00Which one to go with? God, there is no certainty in any other outline because Christ has given us an outline. Number four, reasons why we have an inspired outline is because there can be no certainty in any other outline. Sorry, I read that. Understanding is necessary to obey. If a threefold outline was intended, it could not have been more explicitly stated. You have to try to miss it, you have to get complicated to miss it. John was too frightened to write anything else. We should be too frightened to read anything else.

45:54I know our time is leaving, but I want to make a few statements here. Jesus commanded John to write about certain things, things which he had already seen, things which were taking place, things which were going to take place. And he wrote them so that we can enjoy this prophetic masterpiece. It was given so that we could understand and marvel at this prophetic masterpiece. I think of Revelation as a prophetic gemstone. Think about a gemstone. That's that last stone that's put on a beautiful masterpiece of all other kinds of gems.

46:49And then that final one. We have the prophetic word. Revelation is that kind of prophecy, like a final gem set in a ring that brings the whole jeweled masterpiece together. All the streams of all the little jewels of other prophetic works coming and impacting this last one. And we have an invitation to come, to walk through this. And I hope that you will come and keep coming as we continue and enjoy the journey of walking through this prophetic masterpiece that's given so that we could obey, so that we could be blessed.

47:42Come, as John came, like a dead man, let Jesus tell you what he wants you to know about the things gone by and the things yet to come. Come, receive the words of Revelation as John. Received them. Let the way John wrote them be the way that you read them. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come because we know we need insight for the future. We need insight into our current situations and what you expect of us. We know we need all that from you because we're not going to figure it out on ourselves by ourselves. So we thank you, Father, and I pray that you would indeed bless this journey through this wonderful prophetic masterpiece that you have given to encourage, to invite, to strengthen your churches so that we may be the church in this world as you desire us to be. In Jesus' name, amen.