A VISION FROM GOD (1 OF 8)
Scripture: Revelation 1:1-20
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A Vision From God (1 of 8)
Series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Dave Gustavsen
Revelation 1:1-20
Today we begin a series on a book of the Bible that I have read countless times, but never preached: The Book of Revelation. I recently heard that Revelation is the book of the Bible that church members want their pastor to preach on the most, because they don’t understand it. AND, it’s the book that pastors want to preach the least, because they don’t understand it! There may be some truth to that-it is not a simple book to understand.
But I think the main reason I haven’t preached it is that I’ve seen it misused so often. I’ve seen people become obsessed with matching up the prophecies of Revelation with current events. Back in the 1980s, I remember people saying that Mikhail Gorbachev was the Antichrist-remember the birthmark on his head? People said that was the mark of the beast. A little later, they said the end times are here because Saddam Hussein was supposedly rebuilding Babylon. When the European Union was formed, people said those first ten nations were the 10-horns on the beast of Revelation chapter 17. (Now the European Union is up to 27 nations, so I’m not sure how that fits). Then they said Revelation predicted Y2K, and that was going to be the end of the world. I’ve seen expert after expert predict dates when Jesus would return, and when that date passed, they would come up with another one. So it seems like every time Revelation came up, people went down these rabbit trails that were really unhelpful, and I just didn’t want to wade into that.
But a few months ago, I decided it was time. And here’s the main reason: Revelation was written to a group of churches in the first century. Did you realize that? It contains a lot of prophecy, but it’s a letter addressed to a group of churches. And if I had to quickly summarize the message to these churches, here’s what I would say: The world is getting darker. Opposition to Christ and his churc ...
Series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ
Dave Gustavsen
Revelation 1:1-20
Today we begin a series on a book of the Bible that I have read countless times, but never preached: The Book of Revelation. I recently heard that Revelation is the book of the Bible that church members want their pastor to preach on the most, because they don’t understand it. AND, it’s the book that pastors want to preach the least, because they don’t understand it! There may be some truth to that-it is not a simple book to understand.
But I think the main reason I haven’t preached it is that I’ve seen it misused so often. I’ve seen people become obsessed with matching up the prophecies of Revelation with current events. Back in the 1980s, I remember people saying that Mikhail Gorbachev was the Antichrist-remember the birthmark on his head? People said that was the mark of the beast. A little later, they said the end times are here because Saddam Hussein was supposedly rebuilding Babylon. When the European Union was formed, people said those first ten nations were the 10-horns on the beast of Revelation chapter 17. (Now the European Union is up to 27 nations, so I’m not sure how that fits). Then they said Revelation predicted Y2K, and that was going to be the end of the world. I’ve seen expert after expert predict dates when Jesus would return, and when that date passed, they would come up with another one. So it seems like every time Revelation came up, people went down these rabbit trails that were really unhelpful, and I just didn’t want to wade into that.
But a few months ago, I decided it was time. And here’s the main reason: Revelation was written to a group of churches in the first century. Did you realize that? It contains a lot of prophecy, but it’s a letter addressed to a group of churches. And if I had to quickly summarize the message to these churches, here’s what I would say: The world is getting darker. Opposition to Christ and his churc ...
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