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The Book of the Revelation: Major Themes of Revelation's Six Sections

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The Book of the Revelation: Major Themes of Revelation's Six Sections The Book of the Revelation Major Themes of Revelation’s Six Sections David Gooding A Myrtlefield House Transcript www.myrtlefieldhouse.com David Gooding has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. Copyright © The Myrtlefield Trust, 2018 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the English Revised Version (1885), the King James Version, or are Dr Gooding’s own translations or paraphrases. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. This text has been edited from a transcript of eight talks given by David Gooding at Carryduff Gospel Hall, Carryduff, Belfast (N. Ireland) in 1999. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce this document in its entirety, or in unaltered excerpts, for personal and church use only as long as you do not charge a fee. You must not reproduce it on any Internet site. Permission must be obtained if you wish to reproduce it in any other context, translate it, or publish it in any format. Published by The Myrtlefield Trust PO Box 2216 Belfast, N Ireland BT1 9YR w: www.myrtlefieldhouse.com e: [email protected] Myrtlefield catalogue no: rev.002/jf Contents 1 Introduction: The Six Sections of the Revelation 4 2 Christ Amidst the Golden Lampstands 19 3 Christ’s Appraisal of His Churches 31 4 A Door Opened in Heaven 47 5 The Seventh Seal Opened 62 6 The Temple of God in Heaven Opened 75 7 The Temple of Tabernacle of Testimony in Heaven Opened 92 8 Heaven Opened 106 Appendix: Outline Notes and Charts The Structure of the Book of the Revelation 121 Section One 122 Old Testament Allusions and Features of the Seven Churches 123 Section Two 124 Section Three 125 Section Four 126 Section Five 127 Section Six 128 About the Author 129 1 Introduction: The Six Sections of the Revelation Revelation 1–21 You have by now a piece of paper, I hope. Don’t take it too seriously. Its first idea is to help me, as we survey the contents of this book. It will save a lot of time if I know you have something in your hand to show you what exactly I’m talking about. It might even serve the further point of saving you the difficulty of taking notes that you may care to incorporate in your own further personal studies of this book.1 So, let’s turn to our book of the Revelation and begin to read in it: 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. 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. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’ (1:1–8 ESV) And if that is how the book begins, let’s now turn to see how it ends, and read from chapter 22, beginning at verse 16: I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who 1 See the Appendix to this transcript, in which are given the collated notes provided for this series of talks. Revelation P a g e | 5 testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. (22:16–21 ESV) So, tonight we begin a few studies in the book of the Revelation. Quite obviously from the timetable we’ve set ourselves, we shall not be proposing to expound every detail of this magnificent and highly detailed book. We must content ourselves with a bird’s eye view, and with gathering, if we can, what are the major themes of this book, and how they are interrelated. Approaching Revelation Now it’s no secret that some believers find the book of the Revelation a very daunting book. Well, there are some good verses in it that we sing in some of our hymns, but the middle bits seem extraordinarily off-putting and difficult—so full of quaint figures, symbols, mystical numbers and suchlike things. Our first job is to get over those fears, for this is in fact a book dictated to the Apostle John, through an angel, by our Lord Jesus Christ himself; and not only dictated for John’s benefit and the benefit of the early churches but, I am persuaded, dictated for our benefit too, for every single one of us present. And it stands to reason that the good shepherd, who gave his life for us, his sheep, and lives to pastor us and save us, has not written a book that he knew would be largely unintelligible to us. He must have thought that if we love him and give ourselves to him and to the study of his word, he, by his Spirit, will cause us to understand it in his good time. A book of songs and worship to unite us in a common purpose Difficult as it may seem, this is a wonderful book. It will set your heart a-singing if you take it seriously. There are more songs in this book than in any other book of the New Testament. What is more, from time to time, we shall hear deep-throated ‘Hallelujahs’ arising from individuals and from the masses of the redeemed. We might find it a little bit unusual when we don’t often hear ‘Hallelujahs’ ourselves, but then we’re very much more sedate. But anyway, there you will hear ‘Hallelujahs’ and I warrant that, as you hear them, your heart too will begin to move, and you will want to re-echo the ‘Hallelujahs’ that rise to God in the course of this book! Then of course it is a book calculated to draw our attention to the topic of worship. It is the book that speaks most about the matter of worship—more than any other book in the whole of the New Testament, at least if you take the word count. One of the original words for worship, proskyneo, occurs in Matthew many times, perhaps a dozen times or more, but it is the book of the Revelation that uses the word most. Twenty-five times at least in the course of this book you will come across the idea of worship. If we put those two simple observations together, my brothers, my sisters, then we can be assured of this: if we read this book aright, and if the Holy Spirit should interpret it to us and to our hearts, it will lead our hearts too, to worship—not the book, but him who gave it, and to prostrate ourselves before him in that worship, and to sing him our hearts affection in songs of deep adoration. Revelation P a g e | 6 Let’s take note of that, shall we? Because if at the end of these studies we don’t feel like that, then we can be sure of this: that we haven’t quite read the book correctly. And if perchance it should lead any of us to wish to argue strongly and get upset with our fellow believers, to the point where we have difficulty restraining from fisticuffs, well then we have misread it. We shall not all agree, particularly with the preacher (I don’t always agree with him either) but there will be room for discussion and the hard questions and other side sessions if you want them. But the main message of the book, and the intention of the Holy Spirit, shall be clear: it is to lead our hearts in devoted worship to the Lord Jesus, to sing his praise, and to seek his face, that he might direct us in the paths of holiness, and deepen our hope of his coming again.
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