Every follower of Jesus could face two threats to their faith: cultural seduction and religious persecution. In the next sermon series we’re going to take a 30,000 foot view of the book of Revelation and God’s antidote to standing strong against these temptations. When we “Behold the Lamb (Jesus),” we have the tools we need to stand strong to run the Christian race with endurance. With this series, I have two aims.
Firstly, we need a context to understand the book of Revelation. It was written by a real person to real people with real problems. Written in a genre foreign to 21st century readers, we need to settle ourselves in the world of the author for the benefits of this wonderful book to impact our lives. Revelation is a pastoral book that helps Christians in troubled times.
Secondly, we need to see the big themes of Revelation so when we read the book individually we can read it with confidence. Because of the imagery, it is easy to miss the forest for the trees. When we understand that there are more quotes and allusions to the Old Testament than there are verses in the book, we can think through the helpful clues of what God wants to do.
- Read, Hear and Obey (1:1-8)
- Seven Seals (5:1-8:5)
- Seven Trumpets (8:6-11:19)
- Seven Plagues (12:1-14:20)
- Triumph of God – His Victory (17:1-20:15)
- New Heaven and New Earth (21:1-22:5)
