WARNING! If the Tribulation and Rapture is your main goal of studying this book, please do not proceed lest you be disappointed. Sorry, those are but minor themes, and you will not get what you are looking for.
Two things are required before we start on this often-misunderstood but utterly majestic book.
1. The Spirit of God to lead in all truth
2. A degree of humility as no one has all the answers
We will quickly go through the basics of Revelation, as these are stuff you can easily pick off the Net. They are:
Location where book was written - Patmos, a tiny island in Greece (map)
Date written - Approx AD95
Author - John the apostle
Purpose of Book - to encourage the saints undergoing persecution to have patient endurance to the end
Group Findings
Our group consists of Allan, Beatrice, Lai Peng and Jeremy. The exercise was to colour code the characters, locations and phrases that Jesus said. This inductive approach will help in our observation of the text.
CHAPTER 1:
Observations
1.Jesus personally appeared to the author, John. He commissioned John to write the letter (the book) to the seven churches in Asia - Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.
2. John did not recognise Jesus. He last saw Jesus being taken up to heaven approx 60 years before. From history, we can deduce that since then, he had been witnessing for his Lord and encountered persecution. The rest of the apostles were all dead, martyred. John is about 90 years old, and exiled in tiny island Patmos because of the testimony of Jesus. John knew the churches he was writing to, he was sharing in their persecution (1:9).
3. The Jesus who appeared to John was different and unrecognisable. John was terrified and fell as though dead. Jesus appeared in a long white robe with golden sash across chest - garment of a Roman judge.
4. Jesus said "I am the the Beginning and End" twice.
Food for thought: For John, now an old man in his 90s, who has suffered persecution and loss of his friends the other apostles, persecution is nothing new. He has seen Jesus taken up to heaven while in his 30s, then the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem when he was approx 70. Then it was persecution all the way. As long as one was either a Christian or a Jew, persecution was to be expected. Nearing the twilight of his tumultous earthly life, John meets Jesus again after 60 years, and Jesus' words to him were: "I am the First and the Last"
Would I be able to recognise Jesus when He returns? Is He truly the "First and Last" to me?
CHAPTERS 2 & 3
Observations
1. Jesus is in the midst of the churches. He knows their works, strengths and weaknesses. To each church He appears in a different character - suitable for the situation in that particular church, ie, to Pergamum which had compromising doctrine, He appears as the One with a sharp two-edged sword.
2. To each church Jesus had a charge against them, except Smyrna (Persecuted church) and Philadelphia (Missionary church).
3. All the churches had individual promises if they repent. The promises also correspond to the situation the particular church was in...ie, to the spiritually dead church of Sardis, Jesus promised that if they overcome, He will not blot out their name from the book of life (2:5)... etc
Food for thought: Jesus is intimate with the churches, even though they are far from perfect. Group decision agrees that the churches represent congregations of all ages in all time, ie, it is not probable that Jesus meant the first church (Ephesus) to represent the first century / age church, and so on. The pattern of description here is parallel and not progressive.
This concludes the first part of the study, which is quite straightforward and literal in its approach. Next we will go to chapters 4 - 8, with its apocalyptic, cyclical pattern.
Recommended Reading: Revelation:The Triumph of Christ by John Stott
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