Revelation 22:1-5: Paradise Regained
Outline Garden Temple Kingdom Introduction ‘Protology is eschatology’ is an important truth that helps you grasp the unity and overall storyline of the bible. The study of first things makes no sense unless we study them in light of last things. God by the power of His Spirit and through the work of His Son is driving the story of the bible towards the realities of the New Creation. From the very beginning of the bible God is setting things up and preparing us for the greater future realities that are reserved for us in the future. By way...
Read More
Revelation 21:9-27: The New Jerusalem
Outline The city’s appearance The city’s life Introduction We are well familiar to the rags to riches story, but the story of the church is a story of riches to rags to riches. God’s people in Eden were perfect in the image of God, Adam and Eve would have been perfect in beauty. I do believe that our obsession with beauty in appearance is due to the loss we suffered when we fell into sin. With the fall humanity lost all its beauty and riches and we became slaves. But God came and redeemed us in Christ so as...
Read More
Revelation 21:1-4: The New Creation
Sorry, no audio available; the recording didn’t work. Outline God’s new creation God’s tabernacling God’s presence Introduction In our naturalistic worldview, the future ends in a big bang, crunch or freeze. Much more of the same will come and the end of human existence is inevitable in one way or another. This is very different to the view of the future that the Bible gives. We have a supernatural view of the future not a uniformitarian view. God will break in and interrupt time as we know, life as we know it, death as we know it, pain as...
Read More
Romans 11:1-36: Overview of Romans 11
Outline Overview of Romans Overview of chapter 11 Overview of views and goals Introduction As I have come to preach on Romans 11 I have come with two competing emotions. The first is fear. If you want to get Christians to be at each other’s throats get them to say disagreeing things about the nation of Israel. If you want to kick a hornet’s nest say, ‘I don’t think that Israel has a right to demand that the Palestinians leave the land.’ The second emotion I am feeling is excitement because this chapter has new wonders for us with...
Read More
Revelation 20:7-15: The end of all things
Outline Satan’s judgement Final judgement Introduction God’s vindication is a very important theme in Scripture, that God seeks to show His power, holiness and justice and all His perfections, and to demonstrate it in fulfilling His promises of judgement upon sin. We can think of that statement by Paul that in salvation God seeks to be just and the justifier. In other words, God cannot overlook sin and forgive it, He cannot credit us as righteous unless He first actually deals with our sins, and this He did in our substitute. Justice is served and the sinner saved, in...
Read More
Revelation 20:1-6: The Millennium
Outline Contextual considerations V1-3 V4-6 Introduction Babylon is defeated, the beast and the false prophet are defeated, the armies that arranged themselves against the church are defeated, but what about the devil the great enemy of the church? God answers this question and more in this section. He tells us about how the devil is bound, and more what the destiny of the saint is who dies under the devil’s rampaging. The devil is symbolised in the picture of a dragon and serpent, but the church is spoken of as martyrs. The book of revelation has revealed the satanic...
Read More
Revelation 19:11-21: The Rider on the White Horse
Outline The Rider The battle Introduction When you watch a battle scene on a movie these days there is immense emphasis on the sights and sounds, the blood and gore. The portion before us looks at the last battle when Satan’s forces are overcome by Christ, but notice where the emphasis lies. The emphasis is not upon the gory details, the final overthrow of the enemies is only briefly mentioned. Instead the detail is reserved to describe the Rider on the White Horse and how He fulfils the promises of God. The details of the final battle between the...
Read More
Revelation 17:7-18: Satan’s Divided House Cannot Stand: Part Two
Outline The mount of the prostitute The downfall of the prostitute Introduction It was Jesus who said that a house divided against itself cannot stand, Matt. 12:25, and then, ‘And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?’ Revelation chapter 17 which records the future fall of Babylon, the city of humanity who revolts against God and follows after Satan’s seductions. This city which is an instrument of Satan will itself be destroyed by Satan, v16, ‘And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute....
Read More
Revelation 17:7-18: Satan’s Divided House Cannot Stand: Part One
Outline The mount of the prostitute The downfall of the prostitute Introduction It was Jesus who said that a house divided against itself cannot stand, Matt. 12:25, and then, ‘And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?’ Revelation chapter 17 which records the future fall of Babylon, the city of humanity who revolts against God and follows after Satan’s seductions. This city which is an instrument of Satan will itself be destroyed by Satan, v16, ‘And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute....
Read More
Revelation 16:12-21: The Seven Bowls: Part Two
Outline Armageddon The end Introduction The battle of Armageddon is a famous notion found in the portion we are considering today that has caught the imagination of many people. The typical picture that we have in our minds due to the popular dispensational teachers we have all heard is a picture of a confederation of nations united to wipe out Israel. In modern times countries like Iran with their nuclear program and their hate for Israel have been an apparent confirmation of this sort of notion. But I hope to show you that all our cinematic literalistic approach are...
Read More
Revelation 14:14-15:4: The Final Harvest
Outline The wheat The grapes Introduction In the secular mind, the mind that views the present state of things and extrapolates both backwards and forwards to try and see the past and the future, and then hypothesise on how things were and will, has a very different view of the end than the Bible. Those who do not believe in God and the story line of the bible foresee the universe winding down over millions and billions of years and all things grinding to a halt in a big freeze as all the stars lose their heat. The Bible...
Read More
Revelation 11:1-2: Measuring the Temple
Outline The temple The trials Introduction The temple of Jerusalem is a hot bed of speculation and division. This is due to the OT presenting the New Creation in a Jerusalemocentric and temple worship style idealism. The perfect future of God’s people was always a projected perfect present which was very Jewish with a distinct separation from Gentiles, it was geographically located in Israel and not encompassing the whole world, it was represented in terms of a perfect temple worship and priesthood and not in light of the finished work of Christ, and it had other cultic aspects such...
Read More
Revelation 10:1-11: Interlude
Outline Other interpretations Our interpretation Introduction In any good story, you don’t want to know the end before you have got to the end. The book of Revelation though is full of spoilers. Because of the terrible time that the Church has of it until Christ returns God constantly reminds us of the end. As we come to Revelation 10-11 we have what is called an interlude between the 6th and 7th trumpet. The main purpose of the interlude is to encourage the Church. We see in 10:7 the certainty and finality of the end, and in chapter 11...
Read More
Revelation 9: The 5th and 6th Trumpets
Outline Overview of the Historicist view Overview of the Preterist view Overview of the Futurist view Introduction One of Aesop’s fables speaks about the scorpion and the fox. The scorpion wants to get across the river but can’t swim, so the fox offers to swim him over if he doesn’t sting him. The scorpion stings the fox and they both drown. That story which illustrates well the irrational and self-destructive nature of our sins, and helps us prepare for the insanity portrayed in the chapter before us. We will see idolaters abused by the demons they worship which not...
Read More
Revelation 7: Interlude
Outline The 144 000 The Great Multitude Introduction ‘Who can stand?’ This is the question that the last chapter has ended with. We saw a picture of the four horsemen devastating the earth, we had intimations of the church being ravaged in martyrdom and the whole earth being judged by God in a terrifying and irresistible judgement. The question on everyone’s mind in the churches receiving this letter would be, what about the church? Chapter 7 is the answer to that question. This chapter is called an interlude by many. In the midst of the storm of judgements between...
Read More
Revelation 6: How to read the 7 seals
Outline Views based on history View based on the OT Introduction When I try and understand the book of Revelation and put myself in the shoes of those who would have originally heard the book read in the first century I try to think about what other information I would need in order to understand the book. As I have scanned the other views of how people interpret the book of revelation, each one has the book of Revelation in one hand, but they all hold something different in the other. The Preterist view which holds to the view...
Read More