Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Book of Revelation - This Sunday at Redeemer - Rev. 1:4-8


Gary Wilson pointed me to Albrecht Durer's woodcuts on the Book of Revelation.

This coming Sunday morning, March 29, I will give the second of many messages at Redeemer on the biblical book of Revelation. We have begun to go verse-by-verse through this incredible text until - a year or more later? - we finish it.

This Sunday morning I will set the stage and preach from Rev. 1:4-8, which reads:
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come,and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b]
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c]
So shall it be! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

My preaching goals include:
  • rightly interpreting the biblical text.
  • understanding the meaning of the text as it was read by the early church.
  • discerning the relevance of Revelation for the times we now live in.

What is this book, The Apocalypse (The Uncovering), about? Ben Withrington writes: 

“A major point of this entire book is that heaven and earth are very close indeed; in fact they are juxtaposed in such a way that heaven is already active in and for earth and will descend to it at the end in the form of the New Jerusalem.” (Witherington, Revelation)

The commentaries I am using to preach Revelation are:

G.K. Beale, Revelation: A Shorter Commentary (only 562 pages)

Grant Osborne, Revelation

George Ladd, Revelation

Robert Mounce, Revelation

Craig Keener, Revelation: The NIV Application Commentary

Ben Witherington, Revelation


I also recommend two books on Revelation that can be read more devotionally:
If you come to Redeemer I recommend you begin reading and re-reading Revelation to become more familiar with it.

I am excited about taking a long, deep look at this incredible biblical book and what God is going to say to us and do in our church family!

(Note: these sermons will also be online, so you can listen to them and follow along if this is for you.)
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