Good morning everyone. Am I on? Am I on? Oh yeah, I'm on. We come to the book of Revelation. We start that today. As we begin, I want to share with you one of Asop's fables. There was an old man who had several sons. And these sons were constantly bickering and arguing and falling out with one another. He had often exhorted them to live in harmony with one another, but to no avail.
One day he called them together and he had an idea. So the story goes, he gathered a bundle of sticks, a whole bunch of them, and he tied them together with ropes. And he asked each one of them to take this bundle of sticks tied together and to break it. Well, each brother tried and he could not. He simply could not break the bundle of sticks. And then the father took a knife and he cut the cords and then he handed them the sticks one by one individually and he said, "Now break these sticks."
And individually he was able to break them with relative ease. And the father said to the sons, "See, my sons, the power of unity. Bound together by brotherly love, you may defy almost every mortal danger, but divided, you will fall prey to your enemies." As we begin the study of Revelation, we are going to focus our attention this morning on the importance of unity. I believe that a lot of pastors churches stay away from preaching revelation for this exact reason that there is a concern about disunityity in preaching through esquetology the the study of the things of the end times and so they stay away from it.
I am convinced brothers and sisters that we can go through the book of revelation and we can remain unified. Now hear me. Unity is not the same as uniformity. What I mean by that is this. There are those in our church, and I'm going to explain this in a few minutes, that hold differing views on esquetology, on the end times. And when we get to the end of the study of Revelation, there will still be people who have differing views on how it all is going to shake out at the end.
We can have these differing views and yet still be one body with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who is over all and in all. And so that's the goal this morning is to prepare our hearts. It's an introductory sermon. Next week we're going to hit the ground running going through the first eight chapters of chapter 1. But this week I wanted to prepare us. I'm just going to if you in your outline, I gave you no blanks to fill.
I'm not there's nothing there's nothing mysterious about what we're doing this morning. We're going to look first of all at the importance of unity from and we're going to go to Ephesians 4. That's the first text we're going to be in. After spending some time there, we're going to look at three of the primary views on the end times. And the reason for doing that is so that having walked through through those things, we can look at them squarely and then still focus our attention on being one people, though we may hold differing views on these things.
I'll explain more of that as we go. And then at the very end, I'm going to spend just a few minutes doing some of the contextual work for the book of Revelation so that when we get to next Sunday, we hit the ground running and in those eight verses. So that's that's where our road map for this morning. But to start with, we're going to look at the the eagerness that's required in maintaining unity as a body of Christ from Ephesians 4. Here's the first six verses of that chapter.
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Here the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians has spent the first three chapters really giving the the the beauty of the gospel to the Ephesian believers. He's articulated the wonder of this gospel. It's glorious. If you read through the first three chapters of Ephesians, it's quite spectacular. And now Paul here starting at the very beginning of chapter 4 starts to transition then to now how do we live this gospel that we've just seen in these first three chapters.
How do we live it out in our daily living day by day, moment by moment? How does this gospel work its way out of my life? And so there's this transition here to practical living in the last three chapters. And he starts here by saying to them that I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Pastor Joe began with Colossians chapter 1 and we saw that same phrasing in Colossians 1, being walking worthy of that which you have been called to.
In Philippians 1 27 it says this only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So what does it mean to walk in a manner that's worthy? Well, walk is important. To walk is that daily one foot in front of the other way of living your life. It's not theory. Walking is now practical living it out. How do I actually live this gospel out?
It's not enough for me to just understand it intellectually. I need to at my heart level believe it such that it impacts every part of how I live. And so he says, I urge you to walk in a manner that is worthy of this calling. So what does that look like? Well, look at verse two. With all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love. That seems to be Paul's way of of helping them understand what it means to walk in a manner that is worthy.
Humility. Humility here, the Greek word here means to really have a loneliness of mind. That we understand our station as sinners under the hand of this holy God who has adopted us and loved us and that humbles us. And we are to walk humbly. We are to walk gently. Some translations may have the word meekness here or meekly. That's another way to translate this word. Meekness is power under control.
A common way at the time of the writing of scripture to understand meekness was to look at a horse with all the power that a horse has. But then you put the little bit in the mouth of the horse and you restrain and control that power. That's what this word here means. To be gentle, to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. Then we come to patience or some translations might use the word longsuffering that we're willing to suffer long in this world for the cause of Christ.
Then we have bearing with one another to hold up to endure to journey alongside my brother and sister though there might be trials and difficulties even amongst us but I'm going to endure with them as my bloodbought brothers and sisters. This is what it it seems to mean to Paul to live in a manner that is worthy of the calling. And and if you look at that, it seems to be that gospel living requires an awful lot of restraint. The bravado and overt self-confidence that we sometimes see in our world in the Christian world should be set aside where we say Lord Jesus by your spirit restrain me that I might live in these ways that I may be humble that I may be gentle and meek that I might be one who suffers long for the gospel that I would bear with my brother and my sister and not cast them aside. Side.
This is what it clearly means according to verse three. Then to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Eager here that word is a is a fascinating word. It means to make haste to make every effort. There's a sense here of urgent desperation. He does not say I urge you to try if you can to maintain unity. No, he says be eager, be urgently desperate to maintain unity.
Now notice he also says maintain. He does not say create. We do not create unity. God has done that in Jesus Christ. God creates unity. Has created unity through the finished work of his son Jesus on the cross. He's the one that by his blood has adopted us into his family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ under God our father and Christ our brother.
He's created a unity. But we are called then to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit. Notice that the unity of the spirit that is the spirit has brought about the unity. We're called to maintain it. To maintain it here means to make every effort to guard it, to keep it, to preserve it. It's going to require graceddriven spiritled diligence to maintain this unity. That we would bear with one another, that we would be patient with one another, that we be gentle with one another, that we would be humble with one another.
And friends, make no mistake, our unity as brothers and sisters in Christ matters deeply to our God. And Psalm 133, listen to this. I'm going to read the entire Psalm, three verses. Psalm 133 says this. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard on the beard of Aaron running down on the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forever more. It is in God's sight a beautiful thing when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity, even when studying the end times. Because according to Ephesians 4, there is one body. We will not get to heaven and have the premillennials over here and the postmillennials over here and the amillennials over here and you name it.
That's not how it's going to be. We're one body, one spirit, one Lord, one hope, one faith, one baptism. And so as we enter into a series where there can be disagreement, let's understand that these things while not unimportant, they are secondary or tertiary issues. And we can fix our attention on the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace even as we may disagree with one another because we do agree together on the first order issues.
What are those things? Go with me if you will to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to read to you from chapter pardon me from verse three down to verse 8. 1 Corinthians 15 starting at verse three. It's the Apostle Paul teaching the Philippian believers and he says this inspired by the spirit. For I delivered to you as of first importance. So I use the word first order, first importance.
These are the critical things on these things. We cannot disagree. I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures that he appeared to Cphus that is Peter then to the 12 then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. These are the matters of first importance, that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he rose bodily from the grave, that he was seen alive, and that one day he's coming again. First importance. And all of this according to scripture, the doctrine of scripture, these things matter. They're of first importance. And so, while we may disagree on some of the important things that are secondary and tertiary, we can do that recognizing that these things we hold as truths, and we will never let them go.
We're one as people under God, and that's important for us. And so some might say, well then why spend time getting into talking about those secondary and tertiary things? Let's just talk about the primary things. I don't think that unity is found there, brothers and sisters. I actually believe unity is found when we discuss the secondary and tertiary things. Let's just talk about the elephant in the room so that then we can go oh okay here are the differences and now we can we actually have freedom now to discuss them without killing each other and that actually unity can be strengthened as a result because whether we talk about them or not everyone has these different positions if we don't talk about them you're just going to murmur amongst each other and that causes disunityity.
So let's just talk about them so we can be unified. Let's do that. Let's look at these the three primary views. Now, I know there is a fourth view called predtoism. And I know that there are people in our church that hold that and that's totally fine. We're not going to discuss that as a primary view because I wouldn't hold it to be a primary view. It is a view, but I wouldn't hold it as a primary view. Though, when we get later to the end of the message, we're going to look at the date of the writing of the book of Revelation.
We have to discuss predism then. If you're not, if you're what is that, I'll explain it. But for now, we're going to look at these three primary views. And you have them listed for you there in your bulletin, in the little sheet there. And why are we going to look at them? Because in our church, there are godly, wonderful people. I'm looking out and I see all three of these views represented here by wonderful, godly people whom will I will be with in glory. And so will you. And we're going to be Do you think we're going to be unified in heaven?
Absolutely. Don't you think we should be able to be unified here too then? So I think though we may have these differing views, we can still be unified. So we're going to look at them. And you might think, well, I don't man, don't you think these things will drive people apart? We probably can't be friends if we hold differing views on this. I present to you RC Sproul and John MacArthur. You may not know these men. They held differing views actually on a number of things. One of thing one of the things was this issue.
They held differing views on esquetology on the end times. And yet they were the closest of friends, best buddies, golfing partners. They loved each other even as they disagreed on some of these things. I believe that that can be possible here. Now, I want to be clear. I again, clarity is important. As pastors, we hold and we'll explain what all these views mean. We hold to a premillennial understanding of the end times. And we want to be clear about that. That is how we're going to be preaching the book of Revelation.
And so, we just want you to understand that. But we want to do that with great humility and with an open hand willing to discuss with each one. But we don't want to do any kind of bait and switch here. This is where we land as pastors. In fact, we're part of the Associated Gospel Churches of Canada. The AGC as a denomination is premillennial. And in fact, we cannot be pastors in an agency church if we're not premillennial. So, we are that it just I want just want to lay my cards on the table. That's where we are. But we want to do that with great humility.
Could we be wrong? Yep. Could you in your position be wrong? Yep. And you might say, well, why is it that there is a little bit of ambiguity when it comes to some of the particulars of the end times? I have a theory on that. This this is I, not the Lord, as Paul would say. But I'm convinced part of that is to keep us ready for his imminent return. If we just if everything was buttoned down and we all agreed on this on the dates and the times and specifics, you know, we'd procrastinate.
We would put things off. We wouldn't be urgent with the gospel. But because of there's a little bit of ambiguity, we don't maybe know all the specifics. His return is imminent. All we must focus on is be ready. Jesus could come at any time. Are you in Christ? Is your loved one in Christ? Are you urgent to share the gospel? Let us be that people to keep let's keep from slothfulness. Be on our toes and ready for his return. So with that preamble in mind, let's look at these three primary views.
The first one listed in your bulletin there is amillennialism. Now I'm going to do my very best to do again hear me. These are broad strokes. Okay? I recognize in each one of these views, there are nuanced differences within each view and there are going to be particulars that I'm not going to cover here because there's no possible way to do that with the time allotted here. So, if you come up to me later and you say, "Hey, you missed all these things." Yeah, I did.
I c I couldn't get into all of it. Or, I held a slightly nuanced different view of that. Okay. Yep. I hear you. But we're I'm just giving a broad strokes overview of each of the views. I'm going to try my best to do that with faithfulness because again we I can't stress it enough. I look around this church and I see godly people in each one of these perspectives and I want to try to do justice to the where you land on these things. So with all millennialism, I'm going to give a prominent advocate for each one of the positions.
There's many advocates for each of these positions. So, I'm just going to give one prominent well-known advocate for each of these positions. A prominent advocate for amillennialism was a man named RC Sproul. I mentioned him earlier. Amillennialists contend that the thousand years that we read about in Revelation 20. Revelation 20 is a significant chapter. We're going to get there eventually in the springtime. But it a lot of these views have Revelation 20 as kind of a hinge point on how you view Revelation 20.
All millennials would would say that the thousand years in revelation 20 is symbolic rather than literal. Their contention would be that there is no future literal actual thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. Hence the term ah or a millennial. There is no literal thousand-year reign. Rather this the all millennials will hold to the fact that we currently are in the millennium now that this is the millennium that we are in.
So in that view there is no rapture. There's no rapture. So those who hold amal a millennialism typically not always but typically hold to the fact there is no actual rapture that's coming that's going to usher in a great tribulation specifically as we as others would hold. The belief is that Satan when it says that Satan is bound they would hold that Satan is bound in that he cannot keep the Gentiles from coming to faith in Christ.
And so the gospel in this view will advance through yeah through trial yet through immense suffering hence or or tribulation to use the revelation language. And so there'll be much suffering between the first coming of Christ and then the second coming of Christ. Let me take you to Revelation 12 to give you a verse that will be used for that. Verse 11 of Revelation 12 says this. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
For they loved not their lives even unto death. Much suffering as the gospel advances. There are two battles as we come to the end of Revelation. Revelation 19 17- 21 and Revelation 20 9 and 10. And al millennialists will typically view those as the same battle that they're not differing battles but the same battle as we come to the end of the church age or the millennial age that we are in. Regarding the Jews and the church, amillennialism sees the Old Testament covenant blessings as being fulfilled in the church rather than in national Israel.
U they would say that this is because they believe that Jesus is the only one through whom any blessings come and because the church is the organization which is most faithful to him. Broadstrokes overview. Let me put up a chart. Again, far from exhaustive, but a basic chart to show a millennialism. Just leave it up for a little bit here. And so you have here in this the millennium is this present age as you can see there in the chart.
And so you can see, I don't know, you can see the fine print. I can send you this later, if you want. And you have the second coming of Christ there. And there's a lot of minutia listed there. But that's a basic overview of what's referred to as a millennialism. Again, u it's very very just basic for this morning, but I trust that gives us a sense of the overview of it. Then we come to postmillennialism. Postmillennialism, a prominent advocate for this position is a man named Doug Wilson.
This group contends that Christ will come after the thousand years. Within this position there are those who view the thousand years as a future time although that would be probably a a lesser a smaller group within that position. The the bulk of those that hold this position would hold that much like all millennials that the revelation 20,000year reign is a s a symbolic portrayal of the period of time that began at the ascension of Christ.
And so again that we would be in the millennium now. And they would hold that Jesus reigns during the millennium in heaven not on earth. That is to say that so they wouldn't read revelation 20 literally. He Jesus then exercises his authority and his reign through the spirit's work and through the preaching of the gospel and the advance of the church. And so Revelation 20:3, go there for a moment with me if you will. Actually, maybe I'll read 20:es 2 and 3.
This is for context. I'm going to explain why in a moment. Revelation 22 2 and 3. There it says this. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while.
And so those who are in postmillennial who hold a postmillennial position would say that because Satan cannot deceive the nations any longer, the church's mission will result in largecale conversion among the nations and among the people. So that they would say then in Habacook 2:14 that will get lived out then during the millennial reign. Habacook 2:14 says this, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
So as a result then they would hold that we will see political and legal systems conformed to the righteousness of God. Cultural pursuits of the arts will be redeemed etc etc etc. And it's then after all of that has happened that that Christ's return will be ushered in. That was that's what postmillennials will hold. And there's another chart here that's going to get popped up. So again there's differing views on when the millennium starts in postmillennialism but typically they would say at the ascension of Christ is when the millennium began and there's an tremendous expansion of Christianity in this period large numbers of ethnic Jews will come to faith in Christ and there'll be a a political turning to the Lord in many ways and then all of that will usher in the return of Christ.
There's a a chart again I can send you this later. So that's that's the again broad overview but a broadstrokes look at postmillennialism. Then we come to premillennialism. A prominent advocate for premillennialism was John MacArthur. This group holds that Christ will return bodily in power and in glory before the thousand-year reign begins. That is to say that they would read the premillennials will read Revelation 20 literally.
So what it says in Revelation 20, they would literally hold that to be how it's going to work itself out. During that period, Satan will be bound and prevented from deceiving the nations during that entire thousand-year period. Within premillennialism, there is a group called that would refer to themselves as dispensational premillennialists. And I just clarity here. That's me. So I'm about to describe where I land. I'm not saying you have to land there. This is where I land as I I believe this is where our pastors land here as well. Pre dispensational premillennialists would hold that the rapture of the church will preede his coming ushering in a time of great tribulation.
The time of great tribulation is meant primarily to draw Israel to see Christ as the Messiah. Thus fulfilling the Old Testament promises to Israel and passages like Romans 11. Let me take you to a couple verses in Romansap 11. Romans 11:25-29 says this, "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.
A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written, "The deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And so premillennials will view the bringing in of Israel to the to the knowledge of the gospel at that time through the tribulation period.
And then after the thousand years, Satan will be released. His army will be destroyed and cast into eternal destruction and the redeemed of the Lord will be ushered into the new heavens and the new earth. And again there is a graph to pop up and so you can see the period of time again these things I can send to you later if you would like and again this is where we as pastors land and it's from this perspective that we will be preaching the book of revelation because that is the position we hold and yet like I said earlier we want to do so humbly and very willing to discuss with any of you differences that you may have happy to do that if you have any contention or debate, Pastor Bryce and Pastor Joe are happy to hear from you.
Now, before we get into the book of Revelation in earnest next Sunday, when we get into the the specifics of the verses, we're going to look through the first eight verses, particularly next Sunday. I want to give some of the contextual details so that next weekend we can really truly hit the ground running and into the meat of the text. And so the the book of Revelation, we believe the author, of course, to be God, but the penman he used, if you will, was John the Apostle.
Now, I want to read to you a few of the verses from chapter one that that helps us understand who this is. I actually didn't put up Yeah, I should have verse one and two in there, too. I missed that in there. Let me take you to the first two verses of the entire book. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to 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.
And so there you have John as his servant who bore witness to the word of God. We know that John the Apostle talks about that in the in the epistle of first John. He said, "That which I saw, that which I heard, that which I touched with my hands." He bore witness to Jesus Christ during his time on earth. Verse four, John to the seven churches. Verse 9, I John your brother. And so this is John the Apostle. We believe it to be true. It's pretty commonly understood that.
Verse 9 tells us that he was banished to the island of Patmos. Patmos was a common place to send prisoners and those who threatened the ruling class by their beliefs. And that's probably why John was there because of his deeply held Christian convictions. He was banished there to that island. Who's the audience of the book of Revelation? Well, again, it's very clear from the text who the audience is. Verse four, John to the seven churches that are in Asia.
So the seven churches that we have listed for us in chapters two and three, that was the primary original audience. Of course, all mankind is the audience ultimately in terms of us reading the word of God. But the original audience matters because that's going to help frame how we view and understand this book and how we interpret it rightly as we go through. So that's the audience. And now that leads us then to the first bone of contention that we may have amongst us, the date of the writing of of Revelation.
And you might say, how is that a bone of contention? Well, there are two views on when Revelation was written. One view is that Revelation was written around AD68 in the time of Nero. And the other view is that revelation was written in AD96 or so near the end of the reign of Domian. Why do we have these two views? Well, those who hold to the earlier date AD68 during the time of Nero, the reason they hold to that view is because they would see the destruction of Jerusalem in AD.70 as a key moment.
This is where predism comes in. Predtoism that the word predtoism really means past preast predtoism. And they would hold that whether there are full predtoists and partial predtoists. Are we deep in the weeds yet? Full predtoists would say that with the destruction of Jerusalem and because revelation by their understanding was written in AD68, all of the prophecy given in Revelation has already happened.
The destruction of Jerusalem was was the fulfillment of the prophecy of revelation. So it's already done. Partial predtoism would see that a lot a a a primary amount of the of the prophecy in revelation has taken place in the destruction of Jerusalem but there is some things yet to come so that's why you have that that's where that view will come from however this is my oyand I would contend pretend that I struggle with that view.
The reason for that it has virtually no early church evidence to support this. Early church fathers such as Aranius, Clement of Alexandria, Origin, Ucius, Jerome, and many others all confirm a writing of revelation during the end of Domian's reign. In fact, Iranius, I mentioned this in our adult Sunday school, Iranius was discipled by Polycarp directly. Polycarp was discipled by who? John the Apostle. So John told Polycarp, Polycarp told Aranius what Ianius said without doubt Revelation was written near the end of Domian's reign in the mid to late 90s AD, which would be after the destruction of Jerusalem, which would then point to the fact that the events of Revelation here are yet to come, that they haven't yet been fulfilled.
Not only that, the seven churches that are listed here for us in chapters 2 and three seem to bear witness to a later writing. And why do I say that? Well, the New Testament letters written to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, to in first and second Timothy, written to Timothy in Ephesus. At that time, these churches were largely healthy. For the decline to set in that we read about with these churches in chapters two and three here revelation it would have taken some time 30 years between the mid60s and the mid9s is a sufficient amount of time for that kind of decline to set in and I mentioned Colossians because Leodysia which is one of the churches here was right beside Colasse like they were literally Turner Valley black diamond right near each other and in fact Leodysia is mentioned in the book of Colossians.
And so you have these largely healthy churches, but here in Revelation 2 and 3, there's a lot of lack of health going on here. It would seem that a period of time would be needed for that lack of health to appear. Not only that, the Apostle Paul nowhere in any of those letters mentions the nicolatans as a thorn in the side as those who are problem problematic. And he had no problem calling out problematic groups and people, but he never mentions them in any of the letters.
But by the time he gets to Revelation, the Niclatans are mentioned by name and John doesn't even feel the need to have to explain who they are because the people at that time would have understood who they are and the problems that they were causing. It seems that between the mid60s and the mid 90s, this group rose to prominence and was causing issues in the church. And I could go on, but all of that from my vantage point would lend itself to a later writing of Revelation in the mid to late 90s after the fall of Jerusalem.
Meaning that the what we have here in Revelation is yet to come, the things of the future, a prophecy for the days ahead. I'm happy to discuss that with you further. Brothers and sisters, next week we're going to hit the ground running. We're going to be in the first eight verses. Is we're going to do as much of a deep dive as we can in these verses. And I'd urge you to read it. Read the book of Revelation. Read at least read chapter one before you come next week. Come prepared, come humble.
All of us, let us come with a willingness to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And above all, brothers and sisters, let us come eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace for the glory of God and for the good of his bride. So, Father, I pray that you would continue to humble our hearts and unite us together. Though we may differ on some of the finer points, Lord, we do know and we all agree together that the redeemed of the Lord will be in the new heavens and the new earth forever and ever. What a day that will be.
There is one gospel upon which we stand. And may we never lose sight of that. May we with one voice as one people under God continue to live our lives in such a way that you are exalted and glorified amongst us. And so we pray these things in Jesus name. And we thank you also for the food that's been prepared for us. As we come to it later, Father, we pray that you'd make a good nourishment to us. And may our fellowship be pleasing in Jesus name. Amen.
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
