Revelation was a dramatic prophecy, we read in verse 1, to show Christ’s servants, literally slaves, what must soon take place.  An angel brought it , and it must have been visual, because we read in verse 2 that John testified to all that he “saw”.  Although, the overall message of Revelation is clear, the detail is sometimes difficult to understand.  If you look at verse 1, it says “what must soon take place” and then, v3, “ the time is near”.  This can be confusing because here we are, 2000 years later, still waiting for the second coming of Jesus.  Some would say that time is insignificant in God’s plans and a day is like a thousand years; but in that case why tell John, a human being, that the time was near. Some look for parts of the prophecy to be fulfilled in the Roman empire; for example, by their ruthless emperors and the AD70 sacking of Jerusalem.  Others say the book should be interpreted spiritually, rather than a description of events.  Many try to unravel these issues but can anybody be absolutely certain about a book that is so symbolic.  Perhaps Revelation will become clearer as history unfolds, but even the interpretation of history can be dangerous for we have seen so many false prophecies like Hitler being the antichrist.  Lets move on and, like we do, let us look for God’s heart in his word.

MESSAGE THAT GOD IS WORKING HIS PLANS OUT
Revelation at its basic level is a short book sent to 7 churches in Asia, found in a country we now know as Turkey.  It is a message from Father, Son and Holy Spirit (v4,5) but notice the Holy Spirit is referred to as the seven spirits who are before his throne.  Why 7 spirits when we know there is one Holy Spirit? some see the seven as representing the wonderful fullness of the Holy Spirit on Jesus and around the throne.   In verses 5 to 7, we get a potted view of Jesus who was the firstborn from the dead, holds all authority and loves us; He freed us from our sins by His blood, made us to be a kingdom and one day He will come with the clouds and every eye will see Him, yes even those who have died.  In verse 8 the Lord God says, “ I am Alpha and Omega who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”.  I take this to mean that we have a God, the Alpha, “who was” around at the beginning of creation, one “who is” also the God of the present and, eventually, one who “is to come” the Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, when He will finish finish the job He came to do.   We can see from verse 9 that John experienced persecution and Revelation is a book which encourages Christians of every era that the difficulties of this life are not the end of the story, the end of the story is glorious.  John lived on the island of Patmos which many believe was a prison island with tough work for slaves and criminals in its infamous mines.

I AM ALIVE
John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day when he heard a “loud” voice behind him saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the 7 churches mentioned in v11.  John looked round, saw a wonderful vision of Jesus Himself and fell at His feet (v17).   We are introduced to the picture language of Revelation with Jesus in the middle of lampstands and stars.  Not real lampstands and stars, but symbols of deeper spiritual things.  In this case, the 7 golden lampstands represent the 7 churches and the stars, 7 angels associated with those churches.  The main message from Jesus being that He was very much alive (v18). What encourages me here is that, not only are there spiritual powers protecting the churches, angels, but also (v13) Jesus, Himself, is walking in the midst of the lampstands (the churches).  Out of his mouth came a two edged sword and, to understand passages like this, we look to other parts of the Bible; Hebrews 4v12 says that the word of God is like a two edged sword.

EPHESUS-lost their first love
In chapter 2 the first message is for the church in Ephesus.  Each message starts with something positive about each church and to Ephesus Jesus says, “I know your works” (v2). God is interested in who we are and church life is very important to Him.  So in Ephesus the Lord knew that they had worked hard, endured persecution (v3) and exposed the false teachers.  He also knew when there was something lacking in their church life.   At Ephesus, they had abandoned their first love (v4) and Christ’s desire is for churches full of people who are passionate for Him.   Ephesus had the opportunity to repent and change their ways; otherwise, the Lord would have to take drastic action and remove the lampstand (presumably abandon the church).  At the end of each message is a prophetic promise for those that conquer; in this church permission (v7) to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.  While Adam and Eve were cast out of a garden with access to the tree of eternal life we, as Christians, will one day be back in God’s paradise, eternal life in his presence.

SMYRNA-persecuted
Smyrna from verse 8 is the poor, persecuted church.  The Lord warns them that some are going to be thrown into prison and they may need to be faithful to death.  Notice it is the devil (v10), not people, who will throw them into prison so persecutors are agents for the devil himself. The promise is that, although harmed by their first death, they would not be harmed by the second death.  The message for any church since that time is that persecution does not mean that God has deserted you.  Notice the opening descriptions of Jesus change for each church according to its need and, in verse 8, we read that He is the one who was dead but came back to life.  So the faithful martyrs, even though they die, will also be resurrected.

PERGAMUM-false teachers
In v12 Jesus is introduced to Pergamum as Him who has the two edged sword; the sword was necessary because of the spiritual battle for good teaching and they were in living in a place where Satan’s throne was.  Here we see that the error of Pergamum was that some held false teachings, probably those warned against by Peter and Jude.  Very sad considering their previous faithfulness under persecution.  Judges would give you a white stone (v17) in court if you were pardoned, a black stone if you were condemned.  Conquerors in the public games were given white stones inscribed with their names if they were victorious and they were then entitled to be supported at public expense for the rest of their lives.

THYATIRA-tolerated sin
To the Thyatira church (v18) the Son of God had feet like burnished bronze and eyes like a flame of fire.  These both speak of his judgement of sin.  At Thyatira there was a lady called Jezebel, who they tolerated, but who needed to be dealt with because of her false teaching which encouraged fornication and eating food sacrificed to idols.  His eyes of fire search “minds and hearts” (v23) for it is important not to tolerate anyone who influences the church so badly.

SARDIS-devoid of the Spirit
As for Sardis (3v1), we read these are the words of Him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. It is in Sardis that we see people devoid of the power and unction of the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit we can, indeed, have a name for being alive when, in reality, we are spiritually dead. How can we have our name written in the book of life when we have no life (v5)?

PHILADELPHIA-weak but faithful
To Philadelphia (v7) Jesus introduced himself as having kingly authority with a key to open and shut doors. The church there had a door opening for them and they would be given authority for a certain situation.  Jesus knew that they had little of their own strength but nothing negative is said about this church and they would be given God’s protection and authority. All they had to do was hold to what they had already got and the future kingdom promises were theirs.

LAODICEA-materialistic
What a contrast we find in Laodicea (v14).  They thought they were rich, prosperous and needed nothing but the reality was (v16) they were lukewarm and about to be spit out of the Lord’s mouth.  The Lord disciplines those that He loves and they needed to go through a process of refining.  Jesus was knocking at their door, not to be ignored because of false complacency, and He wanted them to invite Him in and have fellowship with Him.  What is clear, for those who hold on and conquer, there would be a place on the throne of God; Jesus is there already and the one who conquers will also have a place there.

HEAVEN-WORSHIP ROUND THE THRONE
Then we get our first view into heaven itself, chapter 4, “to show you what must take place after this”.  Is this exactly what heaven will be like? I don’t think so, because how can you explain heaven to us earth bound dwellers? Perhaps what we see here is an essence of heaven which gives us a feel for what it will be like.  Everything was focused around the Father, seated on the throne of God (v2); the best way to describe Him was shining like beautiful jewels.  Wonderfully, the thrones of the 24 elders surround the throne.  12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles; surely a symbol of the true church, God’s people from before and after Christ.  There in front of the throne, like flaming torches, were the seven spirits of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit. Everything seemed to be around the throne with plenty of room for all, including four strange creatures which never stop worshipping the Lord God, the Almighty. They were full of eyes and the first was like a lion, symbolising the greatest earthly authority, the second an ox, which has massive strength, the third an eagle with its mastery of flight and, finally, the human face representing human qualities like wisdom.  Symbols of the greatest in creation offered worship to the one who was their creator and worthy to receive glory and honour and power (v11).  Once they started worshipping, the elders also fell down, worshipped, and cast their crowns before Him.

THE VICTORIOUS JESUS
After our introduction to the essence of heaven, something new is happening there and chapter 5 starts with a scroll, a scroll in the right hand of the glorious one seated on the throne.  The only problem was that no one was able to read it because it had seven seals on it.  You can see how our future depends completely on Jesus because He was the only one worthy to open the seals.  This is the introduction we have to Jesus in heaven where one of the elders describes Him as a victorious lion of the tribe of Judah (v5).  Then we see Him, not as a lion, but as a slaughtered lamb (v6), a lamb full of the Holy Spirit and able to take the scroll.  At his entry, heaven burst into a song of praise, singing about how all his saints (people) had been ransomed to be part of His kingdom and reign on earth.  The intensity of this worship increases with myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands of angels singing with full voice (v11).  They just wanted to say how great He was.  Isn’t it interesting that they all could surround the throne?  Jesus conquered through his sacrifice and He is essential to heaven and to His people.

THERE WILL BE TROUBLE ON EARTH
Chapter 6 introduces the four mounted horses of the apocalypse which, as the seals are opened, are called by the living creatures to come. I am struck by the fact that the whole passage clearly mirrors what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24 verses 3 to 14.  Many will come saying I am the Messiah and they will lead many astray.  And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars, there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, but the end is not yet.  Jesus was telling them that these things would be allowed by God to happen in the gospel age but that his people should not, necessarily, assume them to mean that the end had finally come.  Here in Revelation, one seal is opened by the Lamb and we see the rider of a white horse (v2) wearing a crown, suggesting political power, then a bright red horse (v4), symbolising war, a third black horse (v5), famine and finally a fourth pale green horse (v8) which would bring death all over the earth.  At the opening of the fifth seal those who had died for the Lord were told that they would have to rest a little longer but the sixth seal assured them that one day the great day of wrath would eventually come (v17).  Compare this with  the Matthew 24 passage and see that they both finish with persecution and the day of judgement.  It is clear that one day all will be accountable to the Father and the Lamb.  People will try to hide in caves (v15) and call to the mountains to fall on them rather than see the face of Father God and the wrath of the Lamb.   I take this chapter as an encouragement to Christians who live through the, sometimes difficult, times of the Gospel age.  The Lord in his wisdom will allow powerful empires, natural disasters, wars and persecution to continue but that would not ,necessarily, mean that the end was near.  One day, though, the great day of wrath will come.

AFTER THE SECOND COMING
Chapter 7 shows us that, in all these terrible things that happen, 144,000 servants of God would be marked with a seal on their foreheads (v3,4).  It is wonderful that God, when necessary, will give us special protection.  Later In chapter 7 (v9) we also see for the first time the great multitude from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and worshiping the Father and the Lamb for their salvation.  These people had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb (v14).  This is our destiny, worshiping God and shepherded by the lamb who will take us to the springs of the water of life (v17) and wipe all our tears away.  It is wonderful to see once again that God’s throne is big enough to give access to such a vast number of people (v9).   It seems we can assume that the resurrection of God’s people, spoken of in Thessalonians had, by this time, already taken place.

THE 144000
So who are the 144,000?  As written, they are from the tribes of Israel and some think that a body of Jews will come to the Lord and be protected from the terrible things that were about to happen.  Later on in Revelation, the heavenly city is described as having length, width and height equal (a perfect cube). The dimensions were 12,000 stadia and so with 12 edges on every cube, the total number of edges would be 12×12000=144,000.   The heavenly city is all about the number 12, 12 tribes of Israel and 12 apostles, and remember there are also 24 elders in heaven. It could also be that the 144,000 are symbolic of the citizens in that great heavenly city, the kingdom of God, His people.

JUDGEMENTS ON THOSE WHO ARE LEFT
Whatever your interpretation of the 144,000, one thing is certain the wrath to come is absolutely terrible.  You certainly would not want to experience what happens after the seventh seal is broken and the 7 trumpet judgments are released.

THE TRUMPET JUDGEMENTS
People wonder why there was silence in heaven for half an hour (8v1).  Perhaps the heavenly crowd were struck dumb at the demonstration of God’s power or the prospect of the great wrath to come.  There is a nice picture here of how the prayers of the saints come before the throne and, when returned to earth, enable powerful things happen (3-5).  I would suggest that this refers to the prayers of the martyrs in chapter 6, those who looked forward to God’s vengeance.  Now, when each of the seven angels blew a trumpet a terrible judgment hit the earth, terrible but not to completely destroy it.  So when the first angel blew (8v7) a terrible mixture of hail, fire and blood were cast down onto the earth, with a third of the trees burnt up.  The second and third angels brought destruction to a third of the sea and waters (8-11).  The fourth angel affected the sun and constellations.   Then John looked and an eagle was seen flying through the sky crying with a loud voice “woe, woe, woe” (v13) because it expected worse to come, three terrible woes released by 3 more angels, yes, even worse than before.

DEMONIC ARMIES
At the fifth trumpet, the bottomless pit was opened (chapter 9) by the devil (fallen star) and locusts, with stings like a scorpion, came to trouble those without the seal of God on their foreheads.  These were horrific creatures, described in verses 7-10, and they had a leader, Apollyon, the “destroyer” and prince of demons.  Men would seek death and desire to die (v6).  The next woe would be an army of 200 million demonic horsemen destroying a third of the men alive (16-19).  Yet, even then, those left on earth refused to repent.

LAST CHANCE
The next chapter (10) describes an angel handing over to John a little book, another prophesy he was to make before all nations.  Firstly, while the temple was being desecrated (11v2) two witnesses would be sent by God to prophesy and perform signs and wonders for 3 and a half years. Some think these two men to be the only ones in the old testament who never died, Elijah and Enoch.  People will not like them or their message and Apollyon will kill them, but not destroy them because, like Jesus, they rise from the dead and ascend into heaven like He did.  It appears in 11v13 that some did repent and give glory to God.  Perhaps this was the last chance for people on earth.

Finally, comes the seventh trumpet and we read in chapter 11 verse 15 that the “kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever.  The seventh trumpet was the final decisive one, just as the seventh seal had opened the way for the final trumpet judgements. Seven is the number of completion, the day God rested from his creational work. Surely this was now the beginning of the end of time, the time for judgement and rewards (v18).

THE DESTRUCTION OF SATAN AND HIS KINGDOM
So far, Revelation has only really considered the terrible things that will happen on earth but not much mention has been made of Satan and his kingdom.  The next section of Revelation reminds us of the spiritual battle in heaven at the time of Jesus and Satan’s final manifestation in the Antichrist.   Happily it all ends in the destruction of Satan’s worldly kingdom and Christ’s final victory over Satan and all of his agents.

THE SPIRITUAL BATTLE IN HEAVEN
A number of verses here mention heaven 12v1, 12v3, 12v7 and 12v12
This is something that happened in the heavenlies.

Chapter 12 talks of a beautiful woman shining like the sun.  The description seems very similar to Joseph’s dream description of his family so I think she could well represent Israel, or more probably, God’s kingdom people.  The content of the chapter, though, seems to speak of the spiritual battle around the birth of Jesus (born in Israel), the manchild (v5) and a great red dragon, who we are told is Satan (v9), along with the original fallen angelic demons (v3,4).  Surely this must be Jesus who came to rule all nations (v5) and the woman who flees to the wilderness speaks, perhaps, of the Gospel age when God’s people would overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (v11). God’s people receive special nourishment and protection from God (v14).  The passage could speak of something that happens in the end times but if so, I have no revelation myself about it!

THE FINAL SPIRITUAL BATTLE ON EARTH
Chapter 13 has been a controversial chapter, over the years, and starts with a beast coming out of the sea and this beast was given great power and authority by the red dragon, Satan.  Notice that, like Satan (the red dragon), the beast has seven heads and ten horns    It was Satan’s beast who people were to follow and worship (v4), those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s book of life (v8).  It will be a beast blaspheming and warring against God’s people (v7) and God’s people would be called to patiently endure (v10).  Then another beast would rise up out of the earth, to do great miracles and set up an image to the antichrist and control trade, with a system of forehead 666 marks.  It appears that the antichrist could be human, look at verse 18, the number of the beast is the number of a man.  Are we talking here about the antichrist prophesied by Paul in the Thessalonians (2 Thess 2v8)? and his deceptive accomplice, a false prophet (see 19v20), maybe a religious leader.  The number of 666 is the number of the beast. But why 666?  The world was created in 6 days, 6 the number of the world, and 666 the number of the antichrist because he would become the head of the worldly system.

It is interesting in chapter 14 that the 144,000 are now in heaven and their love for the lamb is evident in that they follow Him wherever He goes. On earth we see an angel fly down preaching the gospel and warning people, even at this last moment, to worship the God who made heaven and earth (v6).  Two other angels announce that the great worldly system, typified by Babylon, was falling (v8) and warned people that they should not worship the beast and his image, lest they suffer God’s anger (v9, 10).  We finally see the Son of Man appearing on a white cloud with a sickle coming to reap the good harvest (v15) while the growing season for the wicked on God’s earth is ended as their terrible “grape” harvest is thrown by angels into God’s winepress of wrath.

Yet there are still more judgements to come, the seven last plagues, the completion of God’s judgements (15v1), judgements on those who worshipped the beast (16v2).  The beast and false prophet would then show their true Antichrist colours and gather kings and people to the great battle of Armageddon (16v16).

DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD SYSTEM
In chapter 17 we see the judgement of the great whore, a whore because it was she that led the kings astray from the Lord (v2).  She is pictured as a woman (called Babylon) sitting on a scarlet beast (full of blasphemous names) and the beast had seven heads and 10 horns.  Remember both Satan and the antichrist were also pictured as having seven heads and 10 horns.  Scarlet though seems to speak more of Satan, so I believe the woman Babylon speaks of Satan’s worldly kingdom.  She had an earthly beauty, dressed magnificently (v4), but had a cup of filth in her hands, dirty from killing many Christians (v6).  Satan’s kingdom can be outwardly attractive but its heart is set against God’s kingdom people. The seven heads we see in verse 9 refer to seven mountains on which the woman is seated, also seven kings.  Rome is well known for being built on 7 hills so some believe this prophecy could refer to Rome, the empire in power at the time of this letter.  Others apply it to kingdoms at the end of time.   I think, in a more general sense, Babylon or Rome may just symbolise Satan’s kingdom because we see in v18 that she rules over the kings of the earth.  It seems from verse v17 that the Antichrist is to take over the world system.  At the start of chapter 18 a magnificent angel announces the fall of Babylon (v2) who thought she was unbeatable (v7).  The merchants wept and mourned (v9) because the world commercial system was part of Babylon and everyone stopped trading.  The underlying truth is that it was the world system which had oppressed the prophets and the saints (v24).

Chapter 19 shows the great celebration in heaven at the fall of Babylon (v1). “Hallelujah” Satan’s kingdom, which had corrupted the earth (v2), had been judged but there is something else that was getting heavens inhabitants even more excited, a marriage.

THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB WAS COMING
At this point the worship in heaven seems to expand in intensity, with encouragement from the throne for everyone to join this crescendo of praise to their God (v5). In verse 6, the voice of this great multitude in heaven was so loud it was likened to the sound of many waters and the sound of mighty thunder peals. Something special was about to happen, the marriage of the Lamb to his beautiful bride, the people of God.

But there was one final difficulty to deal with first, evil had to be finally destroyed before the marriage could take place.  Heaven opened and there was a white horse (v11) with a rider, who is clearly Jesus.  Why Jesus? Well he is called Faithful and True and he judges in righteousness (v11), his robe is dipped in blood (v13) and his name is called the Word of God.  The armies of heaven follow Him out and they also have white horses.  From his mouth (v15) comes a sharp sword to rule and judge the nations.  On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed “King of kings and Lord of lords” (v16).

SPIRITUAL POWERS OF DARKNESS DESTROYED
Now takes place the great battle, that showdown between good and evil, and there is no doubt about the victor; there did not seem to be much of a fight as heavens armies had total victory (v19-21).  The beast and false prophet were captured and thrown into the lake of fire and all other enemies were destroyed.  Then an angel seized the dragon (the devil himself) and threw him into the bottomless pit for 1000 years (20v2).  This is the only reference to a Millennium but it conveniently fulfills Old Testament prophecies that relate to Jesus reigning on earth alongside a chosen few who had been martyred in the time of the Antichrist; they will reign in the 1000 years (v5).  Satan released from prison would again gather armies against the saints but nothing would come of it because, as much as he huffed and puffed, fire would come down from heaven and consume the armies (v9) and Satan himself thrown into the lake of fire.  This was a complete final end for there they will stay there forever and ever (v10).

THE EARTH DISAPPEARS AND EVERYONE IS JUDGED
At this stage, it is clear that the old earth has completely disappeared (v11-also 21v1) and the dead made alive to stand before the great white throne.   Books describing everybody’s lives were opened as they stood before the throne and another book was also opened, the book of life (v12).  We hope that our name is written in it, for if not, we will also go into that same lake of fire (v15).  Wonderfully, death is also finally destroyed (v14).

NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
Finally, we are introduced to the new heaven and new earth and, with death and evil destroyed, the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God (21v2).  This is the bride of Christ, His renewed people coming to live completely in the presence of and in perfect relationship with God Himself (v3).  Death and pain are gone (v4), Jesus is “making all things new “(v5) and declaring in v 6 “it is done”.  The bride is pictured like a city with great glory and with a radiance like jewels (v11); it had 12 gates (inscribed with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel-verse 12) and 12 foundations (with the 12 apostles names-verse 14).  Praise God that, through the old testament, we learnt how to come to God (the gates) but our foundation is in the new.  The sun and moon will no longer be required because of the glory of the Father and the Lamb and nothing unclean will be allowed into it the city (v27).

THE THRONE IS CENTRAL
The very life of the city flows from the throne itself (22v1).  I like it when it says (v3,4) “his servants will worship him” and “they will see his face.” They will reign-how long? “forever and ever” (v5).

HE IS COMING SOON
The promise for God’s people, coming to us in this broken world, is straight from Jesus (v7) “see, I am coming soon.”  The one who started it all, the “Alpha”  (v13), will one day finish it all, the “Omega”. There is a better day coming for those who “wash their robes” (v14).  The book of Revelation is a message for the churches (v16), in fact it is a message to all who feel their thirst, if you come to Jesus the water of life is a free gift (v17),

“Surely I am coming soon” (v20) is Christ’s message to us

“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (v20)-is that our response?