Revelation by Dennis E. Johnson

REVELATION
Dennis E. Johnson
L E A D E R ’ S E D I T I O N
REVELATION
L E A D E R ’ S E D I T I O N
Dennis E. Johnson
Revelation
by Dennis E. Johnson
© 2021 Core Christianity

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First Printing —March 2021

CONTENTS
05

INTRODUCTION
Why This Study?
08

LESSON 1
The Unveiling to John: A Bizarre Glimpse of Unimaginable Hope (1:1–9)
20

LESSON 2
The Son of Man in the Midst of his Churches (1:9–3:22)
32

LESSON 3
Worthy Is the Lamb (4:1–5:14)
42

LESSON 4
Seals Broken: Just Vengeance and Vindication Foreshadowed (6:1–8:5)
54

LESSON 5
Trumpets Sounded: Vengeance and Vindication Escalated (8:6–11:19)
66

LESSON 6
The Turning Point: Messiah and his Mother vs. the Dragon and its Beasts (12:1–13:18; 17:1–18)
78

LESSON 7
Conquerors, Angels, Harvests, and Plagues (14:1–16:21)
88

LESSON 8
Babylon the Prostitute: Affluent, Violent, Shattered (17:1–19:3)
98

LESSON 9
The Wrath of the Lamb on the Beasts, the Dragon, and Their Followers (19:4–20:15)
112

LESSON 10
All Things New (21:1–22:21)
126 RESOURCES
introduction
WHY
this
STUDY?
5
REVEL ATION
INTRODUCTION
To begin, we would like to thank you—the students, congregants, church leaders, elders, pastors, and churches—for
supporting and using this Revelation Bible study. We hope it enriches your Christian life, challenges your heart, and
builds up your faith to the glory of God.
W H Y R E V E L AT I O N ?
Revelation can be a difficult book. Some 1,900 years after its writing, its rich symbolism often leaves us scratching
our heads. Heated debates erupt over the meaning and fulfillment of the book’s dramatic visions, resulting in deep
divides even among committed Christians. And yet, Revelation is intended to bring comfort and hope to the believer,
promising rich blessings to the one who hears and heeds its words (Rev. 1:3). It calls believers to patient endurance,
infusing us with strength to endure the spiritual warfare we face every day.
Revelation is for the everyday Christian, and we commissioned this study in order to help bring clarity to this daunting
book. Dennis Johnson is both a scholar and a pastor, and we trust his insight will help lift your eyes to the Lamb who
was slain for our redemption, reorienting you to the wonderful hope we have in our conquering King.
ALL OF OUR STUDIES ARE DESIGNED WITH SEVERAL THINGS IN MIND:
1. To advance the gospel. The Pew Research Center reports a rapidly changing religious landscape in the U.S., with
the percentage of those identifying as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular” up nine percent in just the last 10
years.1 Almost 60 percent of our youth leave their churches as young adults, with many joining this growing number.
Despite this unsettling news, the core message of Christianity—the gospel—is still capable of renewing our lives
and the church.
Rather than worrying or acting out of fear and self-preservation, the best hope for Christians, the church, and the
people who feel pressure to abandon their faith is the historic Christian faith, the gospel announcement of what God
has done through Jesus Christ for the world.
2. To speak to honest questions. Many in our evangelical, Baptist, Reformed, Lutheran, and Anglican churches
have honest questions about faith and life that they may even be afraid to ask. We shaped this study to address the
concerns of long-time, committed Christians, new Christians, Christians with wavering faith, and skeptics alike.
3. To engage the drama of Scripture, teach the doctrine of historic Christianity, move us to doxology
(worship), and enable healthy discipleship. Our studies are written to show how doctrine naturally arises out
of the Bible’s narrative of Jesus Christ and his saving work. We designed the reflection and discussion questions
with a practical emphasis to help you engage the material in a prayerful way that should inspire worship and lead to
a fuller understanding of how to live as a disciple of Christ.
4. To be useful in a variety of settings. We wrote this study thinking of Sunday school classes, Bible study groups,
informal gatherings among friends, and individuals who want to learn more about the Christian faith. Each lesson
contains a series of short sections containing a reading and a set of reflection questions. The leader’s edition of this
study has group discussion questions so that Christians can come together to share insights, ask questions, pray
together, and be equipped to share what they’re learning with friends and family.
We recommend you work through one lesson per week. If meeting with a group, we suggest reading the lesson and
answering the questions on your own first.
1
https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/
6
introduction
NOTE TO LEADERS (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

Again, thank you for supporting and using this Bible study. Here are some tips for doing this study with a group:
• Encourage every group member to get their own copy of the Bible study. Each week, they should read
the lesson in advance and answer the reflection questions, so they’re prepared to meet and share
their thoughts with the group.
• Prepare in advance to lead the discussion. Your leader’s edition has additional sections (highlighted
with gray boxes) to help you lead your time together. It also contains page numbers for the study book
to help leaders cue the correct page.
• Though it’s common for discussion to stay at the intellectual level, the questions in this study are aimed
at being practical. It’s important to help people think about how the truth of God’s word intersects
with their daily lives. We encourage you to model and encourage personal reflection and application.
• Be patient with your discussion time. Leading group discussion is hard! It takes practice, and it can
take time for people to feel comfortable sharing. It can also be frustrating when people show up
unprepared, but your grace and patience will help people continue to show up.
• Invite people to participate by reading a passage of Scripture or a section of the study, or closing
in prayer at the end. Welcome their thoughts and reflections. Invite questions. The more people
participate in the study, the more they will enjoy their time, and the more they will learn.
• Keep in mind that you don’t have to follow the lesson exactly as it’s written. The written materials
are designed to aid you, not lock you into a certain mode. Feel free to change things to fit your context
and level of experience in teaching.
Ultimately, remember that it’s God who’s at work in his word, and he is faithful!
7
“BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO READS
A L O U D T H E W O R D S O F T H I S P R O P H E C Y,
AND BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HEAR,
A N D W H O K E E P W H AT I S W R I T T E N I N
I T, F O R T H E T I M E I S N E A R . ”
R E V E L A TION 1 : 3
Lesson 1
the
UNVEILING
to J O H N :
A BIZARRE
G L I M P S E of
UNIMAGINABLE
HOPE
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PRAY (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

O Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come, seated on the throne of the universe, we desperately need
the sevenfold blessing you’ve promised to those who hear and keep all you revealed to your servant John on
Patmos! We inhabit a world gone wrong in every way imaginable, broken and soiled by our human sin, infected
by injustice and abuse, rage and violence, disease and disaster and death. Through the prophetic visions you
granted to John, our brother and partner in tribulation, kingdom, and patient endurance in Jesus, open our eyes
to perceive the age-old spiritual conflict underlying this world’s visible woes. More importantly, unveil to us the
glorious triumph of Jesus, the Lamb who was slain to redeem us, and who now lives and reigns forever. In the
name of the One who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, Amen.
READ TOGETHER: REVELATION 1:1–9 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)
OPENING REFLECTION QUESTIONS (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

1. What situation in world news, church life, or your own experience makes it hard for you to believe, deep
down, that an almighty, all-wise, all-good God is “on the throne,” controlling everything that happens?
2. W
hat’s your “gut reaction” to the book of Revelation? Some gravitate to Revelation, expecting it to help
them anticipate the events and timing of the end of the world. Others avoid Revelation, since its imagery
is confusing and the book breeds controversies. What are your expectations when you open this last
book of the Bible?
3. F
rom your previous acquaintance with the book of Revelation, how would you explain the practical
usefulness of this book in Christians’ everyday lives?
READ REVELATION 1:1–9 (BIBLE STUDY P. 10)

W H Y S T U D Y R E V E L AT I O N ?
The book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible, both in the order it appears and probably in the date of its
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Lesson 1
composition. It’s the fitting finale to the whole story of redemption that began in Genesis, with creation, humanity’s
fall into sin, and the promise of a woman’s offspring who, through his own suffering, would defeat and destroy Satan
(Gen. 3:15). Revelation has appropriately been called, “the climax of prophecy,”1 because the themes of judgment
and salvation, proclaimed by God’s messengers throughout history, converge in the visions shown to John on the
island of Patmos where he is imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. As the tree of life was in the paradise of God in the
beginning, so the tree reappears in the New Jerusalem as the story reaches its end (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 21:3; 22:2). God’s
archenemy, who seduced Adam and Eve through a serpent (Gen. 3:1–13), reappears in Revelation as the dragon,
“that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). And Revelation portrays this evil enemy’s
two-phase defeat: first, the blood of the Lamb has already disbarred the accuser from pressing charges against those
who maintain the testimony of Jesus (12:10–11); and finally, the Lamb is still to come as King of kings and Lord of
lords, to destroy the serpent-dragon forever (19:11–21; 20:7–10).
But many Christians and non-Christians today find Revelation to be a daunting, difficult book. Unlike other New
Testament books, it’s filled with dramatic visions—mini-narratives—that are loaded with symbolism. Some symbols
are explained (1:20), but many are not. Even some of the explanations of symbols (for example, 17:7–18) are not clear
to us, reading at a distance of over 1900 years from when John received this message of hope. As a result, Revelation
seems to breed controversy. Debates over its meaning and fulfillment often generate more heat than light, more
conflict than comfort among followers of Jesus.
Moreover, although the story offers hope and ends well, the path that leads to the bliss of the New Jerusalem in a
new heavens and earth is strewn with violence and bloodshed, warfare and destruction, human hostility and divine
wrath. This forecast of “things that must soon take place” (1:1) is not for the faint of heart. It’s not the place to turn in
our Bibles for a cheerful mood-lifter when we find ourselves in a dark place. To compound the problem, Revelation,
like many of the Psalms and the Old Testament prophets, announces without embarrassment or apology that the true
and living God is a just judge who will hold every human being accountable for our thoughts, words, and actions. In
fact, the same Lamb who was slain to redeem people from sin, guilt, and eternal death is the Lamb whose righteous
wrath will so terrify his enemies that they’ll beg mountains to crush them, to hide them from his fiery justice (Rev.
5:9–10; 6:16–17).
Why, then, should we invest hard work to try to understand this difficult and discomforting document that stands
at the end of our Bibles? Three reasons:
First, its opening words—“the revelation of Jesus Christ”—promise a glimpse of the source of true joy, the
subject of our heart’s deepest longing. “Revelation” reflects the Greek word apokalypsis, a compound term that
paints a vivid picture: the taking “away” (apo) of a “veil” (kalymma), so that what (in this case, who) stands behind
the veil can be seen. Revelation “unveils” Jesus. It makes visible his glory as the Lord of all history and his grace as
the redeemer of his people, who cling to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation is “of” Jesus in two senses. First, it’s revealed by Jesus—a series of scenes of the age-old, behind-the-
scenes conflict between God and Satan that finds expression in the wars and woes that litter world history and our
daily experience. As Revelation 1:1–2 explains, God entrusted this “unveiling” to Jesus, so that he could “show his
servants the things that must soon take place.” He conveyed it through his angel to John, who in turn testified to “all
that he saw.” So, Jesus is the revealer. But Jesus is also the revealed, the one whose true identity is displayed through
this book: his divinity and humanity, his humiliating suffering, and sovereign command of everyone and everything.
When the Lamb receives the scroll—God’s agenda for establishing his kingdom fully and finally, vanquishing every
enemy—from the hand of the Enthroned One (Rev. 5), his opening of its seals (Rev. 6:1–17; 8:1) shows he’s not a mere
messenger. The Lamb not only unveils but also executes the Father’s agenda for global, in fact universal, history. In the
long run, what Revelation shows us about Jesus is even more important than what Jesus shows us about our history
and experience in Revelation! More crucial than a map of what the future holds is deeply knowing who holds the future!
1
Richard Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy: Studies on the Book of Revelation (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1993).
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NAMES AND TITLES OF JESUS

IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION
1. Jesus (1:1–2, 5, 9; 12:17; 14:12; 17:6; 19:10; 20:4; 22:16, 20–21)
2. Christ (Messiah) (1:1–2, 5; 11:15; 12:10; 20:4)
3. The faithful witness (1:5; 3:14)
4. Firstborn of the dead (1:5; see 22:16)
5. Ruler of the kings of the earth (1:5)
6. Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (1:5)
7. One like a son of man (1:13)
8. The first and the last, and the living one (1:17–18; 2:8)
9. The Son of God (2:18)
10. The Amen, the faithful and true witness (3:14)
11. The Lion of the tribe of Judah (5:5)
12. The Root of David (5:5)
13. The Lamb who had been slain (5:6, 9, 12–13; 6:1, 16; 7:9–10, 14, 17; 8:1; 12:11; 13:8; 14:1, 4; 17:14;
19:7, 9; 21:9, 14, 22–23, 27; 22:1, 3)
14. The woman’s male child (12:4–5, 13)
15. Faithful and True (19:11; see 1:5; 3:14)
16. The Word of God (19:13)
17. Lord of lords and King of kings (17:14; 19:16)
18. The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (22:13; see 1:17–18; 2:8)
19. The root and descendant of David (22:16)
20. The bright morning star (22:16; see 2:28)
Second, God promises to bless those who hear and heed Revelation. We’re familiar with Jesus’ beatitudes
in the Sermon on the Mount, his surprising announcement that the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, and the
persecuted are the truly happy people, blessed under the favor of God (Matt. 5:2–12). The same Jesus who spoke
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Lesson 1
those blessings on earth now speaks seven blessings on his faithful followers from heaven. The first of these (Rev. 1:3)
assures “the one who reads” and “those who hear and keep” the things written in this book of prophecy. This wording
implies the way the first generations of Christians received God’s word in Revelation and other New Testament
books: since they had a single hand-written copy, one would read aloud to the congregation, while everyone else
listened intently, eagerly taking in what they heard. That original scenario greatly helps us, who hold Bibles in our
hands and can read them for ourselves, especially in two ways. First, since God’s people could receive God’s blessing
by taking in and “keeping” the message of Revelation simply by hearing it read aloud, we can be confident that God
has given us this book not to confuse us or to hide his truth, but rather to “unveil” to us realities that will bring us his
blessing. Second, since Revelation was designed to be consumed by hearing, we can appreciate the effectiveness of
its pervasive use of visual symbolism. John’s descriptions of what he saw paint vivid, dramatic pictures on our own
imaginations, so we can recall the scenes and reflect on what they mean. The Lord Jesus’ promise of blessing to all
who hear and heed Revelation’s message makes our quest worthwhile.
SEVEN BLESSINGS IN REVELATION
1. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who
hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (1:3)
2. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit,
“that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (14:13)
3. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about
naked and be seen exposed! (16:15)
4. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. (19:9)
5. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! (20:6)
6. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. (22:7)
7. Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life
and that they may enter the city by the gates. (22:14)
Third, we are under attack. Revelation shows how much we need God’s blessing by bringing out of the shadows
vicious, violent, deceptive enemies who can easily destroy us if left to ourselves. Symbolic visions in the heart of
Revelation (chapters 12–18) show graphically how cunning and ruthless the church’s enemies—the dragon, the
beast, the false prophet, the whore—really are. The dragon, Satan, has been defeated decisively by the death and
resurrection of Christ (Rev. 12). In his desperation and frustration, Satan still wages war against Jesus’ people
through violent persecution (the beast), religious deception (the false prophet), and sensual seduction (the whore).
Unmasked through John’s visions, their horrific hostility is unmistakable. And Jesus’ letters to the churches (Rev.
2–3) show what these foes look like in everyday life: plausible heresies, social harassment, sexual sin masquerading
as Christian liberty, complacency in the illusion of affluent self-sufficiency, and so on.
John’s mention of the island called Patmos, the site of a Roman prison compound in the Aegean Sea (Rev 1:9),
signals the conflict in which Christ’s churches find themselves. He and his hearers are partners in tribulation (in
the present), kingdom (here now, but yet to come in its fullness), and patient endurance—the faith-fueled quality
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that leads to triumph over tribulation and coronation with the Lamb in his eternal kingdom. Revelation is worth
the effort because we need its illusion-piercing insight in order to survive the spiritual warfare in which we find
ourselves every day.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 13)

1. In your experience, why do some Christians gravitate to the book of Revelation? Why are others uncomfortable
with, or even reluctant to engage this book?
2. How does Revelation’s realistic message that Jesus’ followers are under attack bolster our courage, alert us
to error, and sustain our hope?
READ REVELATION 1:1–3; GENESIS 37:1–11; DANIEL 7:1–28 (BIBLE STUDY P. 13)
H O W C A N W E U N D E R S TA N D R E V E L AT I O N ?
As foreign as Revelation’s symbolic scenes may seem to us today, God had been unveiling his plans in vivid, visual
imagery long before John reached Patmos. Joseph’s and Daniel’s dreams and visions illustrate this (Gen. 37; Dan.
7–12). God also spoke in pictures to other Israelite prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, and even to pagan
rulers, though they needed God’s spokesmen to interpret their disturbing dreams (Gen. 41; Dan. 2). These biblical
precedents to John’s visionary experience and the genre of his book introduce three principles that will guide us
reliably as we seek to understand Revelation:
First, to get Revelation’s message, we need to grasp both the distinction and the connection between the
scenes that John sees and the realities they represent. At the start (1:1) John uses two verbs “show” and “make
known” (KJV “signify”) that prepare us to expect a message conveyed in visible form, through signs or symbols. The
first verb echoes Daniel’s explanation to King Nebuchadnezzar that the king’s dream is the way that God in heaven,
who “reveals” mysteries, has shown what must take place in the last days (Dan. 2:28, 45). The second verb anticipates
the identification of specific figures in John’s visions as “signs” (Rev. 12:1, 3; 15:1). The point of this “sign” language is
to draw a distinction between things John saw in his visions and the realities to which those images pointed. Driving
to an unfamiliar address, we do not confuse a metal street sign on a post with the road itself, but we know it points
to the strip of asphalt that leads to our destination. The images in John’s visions, both those labeled “signs” and the
many that are not, function in the same way, pointing us to the realities they represent. That means, as we meet
symbols in Revelation, we need to answer two questions. First, there is the straightforward (but not always easy to
answer) question, “To what reality is this symbol pointing?” Then, we try to answer the related question, “What is
this symbol saying about the reality to which it points? Why is this picture, and not some other, used to represent that
reality?” As we face this challenge of tracing the right connections between Revelation’s symbols and the realities
to which they point, the second principle helps us.
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Lesson 1
Second, the dreams of Joseph and Daniel are just two of many examples of Old Testament passages that
give us a key to unlock the symbolism we meet in Revelation. The imagery of sun, moon, and stars in Joseph’s
dream represented his parents and brothers, who constituted God’s covenant community at that point in history.
The meaning was obvious to Joseph’s jealous brothers and even to his doting father Jacob. The same imagery—sun,
moon, stars—reappears in Revelation 12:1, where John sees the covenant community portrayed as a mother who gives
birth to the Messiah. Daniel’s dream and vision showed four vicious beasts, followed by a son of man who receives
everlasting dominion from the Ancient of Days. Aspects of the beasts reappear in Revelation’s description of the
beast that wages war on God’s saints (13:1–9). Before that horrific scene, however, John sees Jesus, the church’s
champion, radiating glory as “one like a son of man” (1:12–18). Throughout the Old Testament, not only in visions
granted to prophets but also in history’s concrete events (Creation, Exodus, etc.), the Spirit of Christ was introducing
a symbolic “vocabulary” that he would employ in the visions to John, the “climax of prophecy.” It’s tempting to look
to 21st century current events for clues and cues to unlock Revelation’s mysteries. But the reliable keys that fit the
locks are those that God embedded in his ancient Scriptures, as accessible to Revelation’s first-century hearers as
they are to us today.
Third, the dreams associated with Joseph and Daniel show that, as God unveils his purposes by painting pictures, he
often provides a three-dimensional image through multiple visions that offer complementary perspectives on the
same events. Two dreams, not one, portrayed Joseph’s eventual exaltation and his family’s humble dependence on
him. Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, finally defeated and destroyed by the son of man (authorized by the Ancient
of Days), retells the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a towering image layered in four metals, precious gold to
common iron, head to heel, an idol that is shattered by a stone sent by the God of heaven (Dan. 2:31–45). Both dreams
symbolize four successive global empires (Chaldean, Medo-Persian, Greco-Syrian, Roman) and the inauguration of
God’s kingdom as the fourth kingdom of man dominates and subjugates the suffering people of God. This retelling
of the story in successive visions from varying viewpoints is called reduplication. You can think of reduplication as
being like several video-replays from different camera angles of the same game-winning score in a televised sport.
We’ll see it often in Revelation.
Two brief examples: First, John hears that the Lion of Judah is worthy to open the scroll in the hand of God (Rev. 5:5).
What he sees is a Lamb who is worthy to open the scroll because his shed blood has redeemed people from all nations
(Rev. 5:9). The Lion is the Lamb, and he conquered by being slain. And, of course, both “lion” and “lamb” are symbols,
not literal descriptions of what Jesus, the crucified and glorified Lord, looks like as he sits at God’s right hand in heaven.
Second, at the heart of John’s book (Rev. 12) are two scenes that show the turning point of the age-old conflict between
God and Satan from distinct perspectives. In the first, the dragon’s plot to destroy the promised Messiah is thwarted,
Messiah is enthroned in heaven, and Messiah’s mother (God’s people on earth) flees for protection (12:1–6). In the
second, the dragon is banished from heaven, his right to accuse “our brothers” is thwarted by the blood of the Lamb,
and Messiah’s mother, pursued by the frustrated dragon, flees for protection (12:7–17). Because reduplication is at
work, the order of John’s visions is not necessarily the order of the events they symbolize.

1. Think about the use of symbolism in Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”) or John 10 (“I am the good
shepherd”) or John 6 (“I am the bread of life”). Rightly interpreting Scripture’s symbols often takes more effort
than grasping a doctrinal proposition, but symbols can also give us a more “three-dimensional” message. How
does the Bible’s use of symbols enrich its revelation of God, his actions, and his attitudes toward his people?
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2. When we consider the original audience of Revelation, identified in Rev. 1:4, 11, why does it make better sense
to read John’s visions in the context of the Old Testament, rather than focusing on 20th- and 21st-century
political and military events?

T H E G O S P E L I N R E V E L AT I O N
Revelation is obviously about a vast and violent war in which there are winners and losers. Not surprisingly, the
term “conquer” appears 16 times in Revelation. Of these, the Lamb or his followers are the conquerors 12 times, and
the beast conquers the saints twice (killing them to silence their witness, 11:7; 13:7). (We’ll touch on the other two
appearances of “conquer” in Rev. 6:2 in Lesson 4.) Amid its graphic scenes of disasters and bloodshed, Revelation
leaves no doubt: the ultimate victory belongs to the Lamb and his people. In fact, the Lamb has already won the
victory in the decisive battle which is the turning point in the whole war that spans the ages, from Creation and Fall
to Consummation.
The dragon and its allies wage war with weapons of violent coercion and deception. The Lion who is the Lamb, on
the other hand, “has conquered” by yielding himself to suffer violence, to be slain in order to ransom people for God
through his blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Rev. 5:5, 9–10). This glorious good news is the theme
of the doxology that opens Revelation: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood…be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1:5–6). Jesus Christ is “the firstborn from the dead” (1:4). He’s the ever-living
one who died and came to life again, passing through death and Hades and seizing their keys (1:17). The paradoxical
power of this gospel—the triumph of the Lamb through laying down his own life for us—is the heart of Revelation’s
message of hope for all who cling to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (1:2). John’s visions dramatically
affirm the paradoxical truth proclaimed elsewhere in the New Testament: “The word of the cross is folly to those who
are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). Christ shared in our flesh and blood
“that through death he might destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who
through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14–15). John sees Satan, “the accuser of our brothers,”
expelled from heaven, since “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, for
they loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:7–11). In other words, when Christian martyrs keep testifying to
the truth of Jesus right up to their deaths, they have defeated Satan himself. Christ’s people win the war by losing
their lives, if need be, because the Lamb conquered by laying down his for us.
This paradox—triumph through voluntary loss, life through death—is stunningly good news, which we would never
come up with on our own. It changes hearts and lives, families and communities, around the globe and across the
ages. It gives grounds for hope amid the worst of circumstances. It draws the nations to the feet of King Jesus, the
triumphant Lion-Lamb, in awestruck adoration.
R E S P O N D I N G T O R E V E L AT I O N
Jesus hasn’t given us the book of Revelation to provide raw material for constructing a last–days’ timeline, nor
to arm us with ammunition for arguing with other Christians. We’re enmeshed in a greater conflict with eternal
consequences, threatened by venomous, vicious, aggressive, deceptive foes. In this battlefield crisis, we must respond
to what Christ reveals about himself, ourselves, and our enemies in ways that align with our Lord’s purposes. Let’s
begin with three responses introduced in Revelation 1:1—9:
16
Lesson 1
Hear and keep. The first of Revelation’s seven blessings combines reading and hearing with keeping “what is written
in” this prophecy (1:3). “Keeping” blends recollection with obedient action, extending over time. Followers of Jesus
“keep” the commandments of God (12:17; 14:12). But Revelation contains more than commands to be obeyed. Its
larger purpose is to open the eyes of our hearts to a wider panorama, a deeper perspective on reality itself. John’s
visions take us behind the scenes to glimpse unseen forces whose conflict is reflected in the events of history and
our daily experience. We are blessed as we “keep” what we hear also in the way that Mary kept, “treasured,” all that
the angels had told shepherds about her newborn son, “pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Remember, reflect,
let Revelation reconfigure your horizons, and reorder your affections.
Endure and stay pure. The enemy’s objective is to undermine our lifelong allegiance to Jesus through intimidation,
bullying us into cowardly renunciation; through deception, leading us into theological confusion; and through
seduction, luring us into pleasurable complacency. Over against these assaults, Jesus calls us to endure and to stay
pure. We’re partners with John in endurance under affliction (1:9). Persecuted churches like those in Smyrna and
Philadelphia hear Jesus’ encouragement to endure. Jesus redeemed us to consecrate us as priests, to serve God his
Father (1:5–6; 5:10). Purity is imperative for those privileged to stand and serve in the presence of the holy God (3:4;
7:13–17). Compromised churches like those in Sardis and Laodicea need Jesus’ rebuke and summons to stay pure.
All churches need to hear what the Spirit is saying to each church (2:7, 11, 17, etc.), to recognize Satan’s strategies
that target us in our time and place, and to resist every assault in the strength of the Lamb.
Worship. The ultimate key to our survival and triumph in this spiritual warfare isn’t a discerning recognition of our
aggressive opponent, as important as that is. More important is a clear, heart-absorbing gaze at the glory of Christ
our champion. Revelation’s sobering scenes of disaster on earth are punctuated by radiant portraits of heavenly
worship. God is the ruler, seated in glorious majesty, controlling everything everywhere in his creation, and receiving
ceaseless adoration from innumerable admirers surrounding his throne. Revelation opens not only with blessings
on God’s beleaguered people (1:3–5), but also with a doxology, an announcement of the glory of Christ: “To him who
loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood…be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1:5–6). This is
the first of many invitations to worship interspersed throughout the book. (Lesson 3 lists the songs of praise to God
and the Lamb throughout the book of Revelation.) As we work through John’s visions, we’ll pause and ponder how
these worship scenes and songs lift our hearts’ eyes from all-too-visible troubles that beset the church on all sides,
to focus our gaze on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12:1-3).

1. Which of the weapons wielded by the dragon—beast (persecution), false prophet (deception), whore (sensual
pleasure)—poses the greatest temptation to you and to the church in your part of the world? Which weapons
threaten the church elsewhere? How can members of the global body of Christ support and encourage each
other to stand fast, each at their post on the battlefield?
2. Since absolute justice is coming, why is it essential that we hear and trust the gospel expressed in Revelation?
Why is it essential that Jesus’ witnesses not only hold fast their testimony—even to the death (12:11)—but
also hold forth their testimony to people who are currently under the judgment of God?
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REVEL ATION
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

1. Revelation shows that absolute justice is coming. No wrongdoer, whether small or great, will escape
(13:16; 19:18; 20:12).
• Why are people today, inside and outside the church, offended at the prospect that our personal
misdeeds will be judged?
• Why are people today, inside and outside the church, attracted by the prospect that society’s injustices
will finally be put right?
In our world of pandemic, injustice, and brokenness (in families, among races, etc.), how can we help
others welcome Revelation’s message, that when the King comes, justice will prevail and wrong will
be set right?
2. Are any of the three interpretive principles introduced in this lesson—the predominance of symbolism,
Old Testament roots, reduplication—new ideas to you? Are you eager to apply all three to our study of
Revelation together, or do you have reservations about any of them?
3. From this lesson’s introduction to the book of Revelation, how would you explain the practical usefulness
of this book in Christians’ everyday lives?
END IN PRAYER (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

Pray for the needs of the group, the good of the church, the salvation of people, and any other needs that may arise.
18
“ I A M C O M I N G S O O N . H O L D FA S T W H AT
Y O U H AV E , S O T H AT N O O N E M AY S E I Z E
YO U R C R OW N . T H E O N E W H O CO N Q U E R S ,
I WILL MAKE HIM A PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE
O F M Y G O D. N E V E R S H A L L H E G O O U T O F
I T, A N D I W I L L W R I T E O N H I M T H E N A M E
O F M Y G O D, A N D T H E N A M E O F T H E C I T Y
O F M Y G O D, T H E N E W J E R U SA L E M , W H I C H
COMES DOWN FROM MY GOD OUT OF
H E AV E N , A N D M Y O W N N E W N A M E . ”
R E V E L A TION 3 : 1 1 – 1 2
Lesson 2
THE SON
of M A N
in the
MIDST
of his
CHURCHES
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REVEL ATION

O Lord, God of the spirits of the prophets, who sent your angel to John to unveil your purposes to your servants,
give us your Spirit of revelation and wisdom, so that our hearts’ eyes may behold, through John’s vision, your
glory in the face of Jesus. Stun us by the blazing majesty of the Son of Man, which struck John down in awe and
fear. Then touch us, as Christ did John, speaking words of comfort and courage. Let us hear the voice of the Son
of Man, blasting like a trumpet and thundering like waterfalls, as he now speaks to us from the pages of the Bible.
By your sovereign grace, compel us to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, whether he speaks warning or
hope, rebuke or encouragement. Thank you that our King still stands among his embattled churches on earth.
We ask through him who died to purchase us for God and who lives forevermore. Amen.

1. What details of John’s vision here echo the features of Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7:9–14, which we read
in Lesson 1?
2. I n light of the explanation of the stars and lampstands in verse 20, what do the location of the “one like
a son of man” (v. 13) and his holding the stars in his hand (v. 16) reveal about his authority and ability to
speak to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3?

ONE LIKE THE SON OF MAN
Revelation 1:9–3:22 contains the first of four explicitly identified “sets of seven” in the book of Revelation. Each of
these sets is introduced by a vision that reveals realities in heaven, the dwelling of God that transcends our physical
universe. Here, John’s vision of “one like a son of man” sets the stage for seven letters, one to each of seven churches
in the Roman province of Asia (present-day western Turkey) (1:4, 11; 2:1–3:22). A vision in which John sees God on
his heavenly throne and the Lamb entrusted with the scroll (4:1–5:14) introduces the second set of seven, involving
the breaking of seven seals on a scroll (6:1–8:1). The third set of seven flows out of the second, for the breaking of the
seventh seal again reveals heaven, and seven angels prepared to sound seven trumpets, signaling impending disaster
(8:2–11:18). The fourth set of seven is introduced by “another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with
seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished” (15:1). The plagues are poured out from
seven bowls in comprehensive judgment against rebellious humanity (16:1–21).
22
Lesson 2
The first set of seven, “the Son of Man in the midst of his churches,” differs from the other three in three ways:
First, the heavenly setting is implied but not stated. It is implied by the echoes of Daniel’s vision, in which the
Ancient of Days sits enthroned and “one like a son of man” comes on the clouds to the Ancient of Days to receive
his everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7:9–14). In John’s vision, the heavenly locale is left unspoken to make a point: The
Son of Man, though glorified in heaven, is also present and active among his churches on earth. Because he’s with his
congregations, he can truly say to them, “I know your works, toil, endurance, discernment, tribulation, poverty, hostile
neighborhood, love, faith, service, compromise, hypocrisy, indifference, and complacency.”
Second, the seven letters concern “things that are” in the present for those first-century churches. John’s
general instruction is to write “the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this”
(1:19). After the letters, John will be summoned to heaven to see “what must take place after this” (4:1). The letters
concern things that “are,” current conditions in those ancient churches, whereas the visions that start in chapter
four focus primarily (though not exclusively—reduplication is in play) on events that lay ahead and would climax in
the return of Christ, the last battle, the last judgment, and the new heavens and earth.
Third, although there is symbolism in the letters, in form (genre) they are not visions of things unseen but
words of direct address from Jesus to each congregation. Ancient readers would recognize them as imperial
edicts, issued by a monarch to his subjects. The preamble, “the words of him” (ESV) or, more accurately, “thus says”
(CSB1), echoes the introduction to the Lord’s oracles through prophets (Amos 1:6, 9, 11) and a Persian emperor’s
edict (2 Chron 36:23). In these edicts, King Jesus speaks forthrightly to his people, sagely diagnosing their need and
sovereignly prescribing remedies: repentance, persistence, alertness, or dependent humility.
When John says that he “was in the Spirit,” he’s referring to the experience of a true prophet on whom the Spirit
of God comes to impart divine revelation through visionary experience (see 4:2; and compare 17:3; 21:10; 2 Chron.
15:1–8; Ezek. 3:12–14; 8:3). As happens repeatedly, the unveiling comes first in what he hears, then in what he sees
(see 5:5–6; 7:3–12; 17:1–8; 21:9–27).
Although the “one like a son of man” does not identify himself by name as Jesus, his triumphant announcement, “I
died, and behold I am alive forevermore” (1:18), makes his identity obvious. Because the features in the description are
symbolic, they do not portray how the ascended Christ now appears as he sits enthroned at God’s right hand. (When
we see our Savior face to face, for example, we should not expect to see a two-edged sword emerging from his mouth.)
Rather, the imagery translates truths about the church’s Lord into a visual vocabulary drawn from earlier Scripture.
The symbols paint a portrait of Jesus that is fully human and fully divine. His humanity is shown not only by his death
and resurrection to endless life, but also by his description as “one like a son of man.” These very words describe the
figure in Daniel’s vision who receives from the Ancient of Days “dominion, and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion” (Dan. 7:13–14). He represents
God’s suffering people, for in him “the saints of the Most High shall…possess the kingdom forever and ever” (7:16;
see verses 21–22, 26–27). The sword proceeding from his mouth identifies him as the Lord’s servant, sent to restore
Israel and enlighten the nations (Isa. 49:1–6). Jesus typically referred to himself throughout his ministry as “the Son
of Man.” In Old Testament texts, this title shows humanity’s paradoxical identity as God’s image bearers, combining
royal dignity with humbling vulnerability (Ps. 8:3–8; 80:17; 146:3; Job 25:6).
The one who addresses John is also God, the Lord of all and redeemer of his people. His voice is loud like a trumpet,
like the blast that accompanied God’s descent to Sinai to make a covenant with Israel (Rev. 1:10; Exod. 19:16, 19). It
resounds “like the roar of many waters,” in other words, “like the sound of the Almighty” (Rev. 1:15; Ezek. 1:24; see
43:2). His white hair, “like white wool, like snow,” is a reflection of the Ancient of Days who occupies the fiery throne
in heaven (Rev. 1:14; Dan. 7:9–10). The radiance of his features—eyes like a flame of fire, face “like the sun shining
in full strength”—again reflects the brightness of God’s glory that descended on Sinai (Deut. 4:11–12), appeared to
prophets (Isa. 6:1–4; Ezek. 1:26–28), and confronted Paul en route to Damascus (Acts 22:6, 11).
1
CSB. Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman, 2017).
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REVEL ATION
The description of the Son of Man, who is God and man, reveals why he’s qualified to address his churches with
heart-searching insight and supreme authority. Because he holds the seven stars and walks among the seven lamp-
stands (Rev. 1:12, 16, 20; 2:1), he can say to each of the seven churches, “I know,” and call them to repentance or
perseverance, according to the needs of each (2:1; 3:1). Because he died and returned to life (1:17), he can call his
suffering church to be faithful even to death (2:8). Because he has the sharp two-edged sword (1:9), he will discipline
severely those who mislead his people (2:12). His eyes, like flaming fire (1:14), search mind and heart (2:18, 23).
Because he holds the keys of death (1:18), he also holds the keys of God’s kingdom (3:7), opening it wide to all who
keep his word with endurance (3:10).
No wonder John is stunned senseless by the burning brightness of this divine king, as other prophets and apostles
had been (Isa. 6:5; Ezek. 1:28; Dan. 10:7–9; Acts 9:4)! Yet John, like his prophetic predecessors, doesn’t receive the
destruction he justly deserves and expects. Instead, the Son of Man lays his right hand on the prostrate prophet (as
John had seen him do for the lame and leper, the disabled and defiled), with words of comfort, “Fear not” (Rev. 1:17).
And this Son of Man gives John reasons to stop fearing. Having died and returned to life “forevermore,” Christ holds
the keys of death and Hades. For John and all who share affliction with him (1:9), who may be called even to lay down
their lives as witnesses of Jesus (2:13; 11:7–11), this is good news: The one who loves us and freed us from our sins by
his blood (1:5) has disarmed the devil, depriving him of his role as our accuser (Heb. 2:14–15; Rev. 12:10–11). Jesus’
resurrection has sown the seeds of the death of death, our last enemy (1 Cor. 15:25–26; Rev. 20:14); neither death nor
anything else can separate us from God’s love (Rom. 8:38–39).
Now face to face with his master who has conquered death, John again hears his commission, to write what he sees,
images that unveil things present and future, for the spiritual protection of the churches.

1. How does the symbolic imagery in John’s vision of the Son of Man reveal aspects of Christ that a straight-
forward description of Jesus’ risen and glorified human body wouldn’t?
2. What aspects of John’s vision of the Son of Man make you fear (as John did)?
3. What aspects of John’s vision encourage and reassure you?
24
Lesson 2
READ REVELATION 2:1–7, 12–28; 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12–20 (BIBLE STUDY P. 22)

L E T T E R S T O T H E C H U R C H E S : C O M M E N D AT I O N A N D C R I T I Q U E
The order of the edicts to the churches traces the route a courier would travel by land, after sailing from Patmos
Island to the mainland of Asia: from Ephesus northward along the coast through Smyrna to Pergamum, then inland
to Thyatira, and south through Sardis and Philadelphia to Laodicea. What archaeology and historical records tell us
about those ancient cities suggests that each church’s challenges, strengths, and weaknesses reflect the environment
of the surrounding community. (These connections between each church’s spiritual condition and its social context
are worth studying, but we cannot do so here. If you’re interested, read Colin Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches
of Asia in Their Local Setting—see “Resources,” following Lesson 10.)
These specific churches in seven first-century cities represent the challenges and conditions of all Christ’s churches
everywhere, in every age. The universal applicability of Jesus’ words in the edicts is shown in the repeated refrain
that closes each letter, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
In terms of spiritual health, the seven churches fall into three categories. Those located in Ephesus, Pergamum, and
Thyatira are a mixture of strengths that win their Lord’s commendation and flaws that warrant his critique. The
congregations of Smyrna and Philadelphia, though they’re poor, persecuted, and nearly powerless, need no correction,
but only the Savior’s encouragement to endure. Finally, the churches at Sardis and Laodicea receive blunt rebukes
from Christ, “the faithful and true witness” (3:14; see 1:5), with hardly a word of approval (though “a few” at Sardis
haven’t joined in the church’s decline, 3:4). For smug, self-sufficient Laodicea, Jesus’ spiritual diagnosis is dire and
his rebuke sharpest.
We begin with the three churches (Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira) that are mixtures of commendable strengths and
flaws needing rebuke.
The churches in Ephesus and Thyatira are negative images of each other. Where Ephesus is strong (in truth),
Thyatira is weak. Where Thyatira is strong (in love), Ephesus is weak. Jesus commends the Ephesian church for its
arduous toil, patient endurance (in persecution), and especially its intolerance of false teachers. This doctrinally
astute congregation has tested and exposed false prophets. They share Jesus’ revulsion over the heretical movement
called “the Nicolaitans” (who have deceived the Christians of Pergamum). Its elders have heeded Paul’s directive to
be vigilant shepherds, protecting God’s flock from deceptive, abusive leaders (Acts 20:28–31). But Jesus sees a major
flaw in the stalwart church at Ephesus: “You have left your first love.” Many understand Jesus to be speaking as an
aggrieved husband, accusing his people of turning their love away from him to rivals (Jer. 2:2–13). Probably, though,
Jesus refers to their loss of love for one another. Apparently the church of Ephesus, in its zeal to defend biblical
truth, lost sight of love. Paul had urged this congregation to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” by
“speaking the truth in love” and walking “in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us” (Eph. 4:3, 15; 5:2). In the
midst of external persecution and internal theological debate, however, Ephesus has lost sight of the second great
commandment and risks forfeiting its “lampstand,” the privilege to hold high the light of Christ in its community.
On the other hand, the church at Thyatira delights Christ with its love for others, expressed in acts of service that
exceed those they did at first (2:19). Their love proves genuine through selfless actions to meet others’ needs (1 John
3:16–18). But this church is flawed by theological naiveté and compromise. They are unable or unwilling to see through
and discipline a self-pronounced prophetess, who offers secret knowledge of “deep things,” apparently assuring
her followers they don’t have to bother with petty prohibitions against involvement with pagan idolatry and sexual
immorality. Jesus labels this woman “Jezebel,” since her blend of idolatry and sexuality was subverting the church,
just as King Ahab’s pagan queen lured Israel away from the Lord, to worship Baal (1 Kings 16–19).
In 1 Corinthians, Paul had addressed these lethal twin temptations—meat offered to idols and sexual license. Some
in Corinth justified their sexual immorality with the motto, “All things are lawful”—a distortion of the gospel promise
that we’re justified by faith, apart from our own law-keeping. Paul bluntly insisted that their bodies belonged to the
Lord who bought them, so they must maintain sexual purity, pleasing to their owner (1 Cor 6:12–20). Food offered to
idols was a more complex issue. In many Hellenistic cities, butcher shops attached to pagan temples were the main
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REVEL ATION
source of meat. Paul did not condemn eating meat at home that was previously purchased from a pagan temple. Even
in such domestic settings, though, concern for the consciences of others must trump a selfish appeal to the “All things
are lawful” motto (10:23–24). But the apostle was adamant that participating in that temple’s rites was unacceptable
for followers of Jesus (1 Cor. 10:14–30). To Thyatira, Jesus announces that he will intervene in judgment on this
“Jezebel” and her followers, while he encourages the rest of the church to hold fast to his words to the end.
The church at Pergamum suffered in hostile territory, “where Satan’s throne is” (Rev. 2:13)—possibly a reference
to the city’s pagan temples and altars devoted to Zeus, to Asklepios the Healer, and to “the divine Augustus and the
Goddess Roma,” patroness of the Empire. These Christians held fast to their faith, even when one of their number,
Antipas, was martyred for confessing Jesus. Yet among this suffering and stalwart congregation were some who,
under the influence of the Nicolaitans, succumbed to the tasty but toxic blend of idolatry and immorality, as some
in Thyatira had done.
Jesus’ commendation and critique to these “mixed” churches—Ephesus, Pergamum, and Thyatira—put “all the
churches” on notice that his fiery, heart-searching eyes examine every congregation (2:18, 23), seeking a healthy blend
of discernment with love, unwavering allegiance expressed in zealous purity. To what extent do our congregations
reflect the strengths that win Jesus’ approval, while avoiding the failings that provoke his displeasure?

1. “Speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) is a hard combination to maintain. Ephesus majored in “truth,” while
Thyatira excelled in “love.” But Jesus rebuked Ephesus for its loss of love, and Thyatira for its failure to sort
truth from error. To which pole do you naturally lean? Why does Jesus seek both in his people?
2. When Christians today, reacting against earlier generations’ legalism, embrace the Corinthian “All things
lawful” motto (like some in Pergamum and Thyatira), what damage is done to Christ’s church and reputation?
3. Jesus especially noted the Pergamum church’s spiritually hostile neighborhood, “where Satan dwells.” What
is the spiritual environment of your community? How can you safeguard yourself, your loved ones, and your
church from the toxic influences around you?
26
Lesson 2
READ REVELATION 2:8–11; 3:7–13 (BIBLE STUDY P. 24)

L E T T E R S T O T H E C H U R C H E S : B E FA I T H F U L U N T O D E AT H
The second and second-to-last churches, located in Smyrna and Philadelphia, receive nothing but praise and
encouragement from their suffering and sovereign King—no rebuke, no call to repentance, no warning of impending
discipline. Jesus calls both congregations to faithful endurance in the face of opposition: “Be faithful unto death, and
I will give you the crown of life” (2:10) and “Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown” (3:11).
Both churches face opposition from “those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan” (2:9;
3:9). Revelation shows us that visible appearances often contradict spiritual realities, so we suspect these oppo-
nents are physical descendants of Israel who have rejected their Messiah (Jesus) and thus forfeited their claim to
Israel’s covenantal identity. Such synagogues, capitalizing on their standing in Judaism (and recognition by Roman
authorities), slander those who follow Jesus. In fact, Jesus had predicted that his followers would be expelled from
synagogues (John 16:2–4); and that is what happened (Acts 13:44–45; 18:12–13). But congregations composed of Jews
and Gentiles, united by trust in Jesus, are now the true heirs of the promises and identity that the Lord had given to
his ancient people, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession,” set apart
by circumcision of the heart, “the holy city, new Jerusalem,” “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb” (1 Pet. 2:9–10; Rom
2:28–29; Phil. 3:2–3; Rev. 21:2, 9). Membership in God’s covenant people isn’t defined by genealogy, but by Jesus.
The gatekeepers of Judaism’s synagogues cannot lock out of God’s kingdom those who belong to “the true one, who
has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut” and who has set before his followers “an open door, which no
one is able to shut” (3:7–8).
Another feature shared by Smyrna and Philadelphia is a lack of visible resources. Jesus knows Smyrna’s “poverty,”
and that Philadelphia has “but little power” (2:9; 3:8). Yet these deficiencies are in appearance only (appearances
can be deceiving). In fact, the poor believers in Smyrna are actually rich, and before the powerless Christians of
Philadelphia, Jesus has placed an open door that no one can shut against them. This inversion of the world’s values
and perceptions pervades the New Testament. The poor in spirit and the persecuted are those to whom God’s
kingdom belongs (Matt. 5:2, 10). God has chosen the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of his kingdom (James 2:5).
Christ’s power is perfected in our weakness (2 Cor. 12: 9). The door that Jesus, holder of David’s key, has opened to
his weak and excluded followers is the entrance to God’s heavenly sanctuary, where they remain forever as pillars
in his presence (Rev. 3:7–8, 12).
SEVEN PROMISES TO THE ONE WHO CONQUERS

IN CHRIST’S LETTERS TO THE CHURCHES
1. Revelation 2:7: To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in
the paradise of God.
2. Revelation 2:11: The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.
3. Revelation 2:17: To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will
give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except
the one who receives it. Continued on pg. 28
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REVEL ATION
4. Revelation 2:26–28: The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him
I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, … even as I
myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star.
5. Revelation 3:5: The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will
never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and
before his angels.
6. Revelation 3:12: The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.
Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of
the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven,
and my own new name.
7. Revelation 3:21: The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I
also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

1. Is it a coincidence that two churches who were persecuted for their faith, poor and powerless, were the ones
who received only approval and encouragement—without a hint of rebuke—from the Lord Jesus? Why not?
2. How should Jesus’ promise of his Father’s welcome and crown of life strengthen us to endure rejection from
humans because of our faith?
READ REVELATION 3:1–6, 14–22 (BIBLE STUDY P. 26)

L E T T E R S T O T H E C H U R C H E S : A WA R N I N G T O C H U R C H E S AT R I S K
In Sardis and Laodicea are churches at risk, to whom Jesus speaks blunt chastisement and sharp warning. Both
appear (to themselves) better than they are, so Christ’s camouflage-piercing omniscience mercifully exposes their
true, desperately needy condition. While harassed and helpless congregations (Smyrna, Philadelphia) receive Christ’s
riches and encouragement, churches that have a hollow reputation for life and confidence in their self-sufficiency
deserve their Lord’s severe chastening.
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Lesson 2
In the past, the city of Sardis had been conquered by Persians because its guards fell asleep at their posts, complacently
assuming that its walls could not be breached. Likewise, the church in John’s day needed Jesus’ “wake up” call, lest
their Lord burst in on their spiritual slumber like a thief in the night. Both Jesus and his apostles used this sobering
simile to underscore the unexpected timing of Christ’s return, and therefore our need to be ever-vigilant and faithful
(Luke 12:35–40; 1 Thess. 5:2–4; 2 Pet. 3:10). What’s disconcerting about Jesus’ diagnosis of Sardis’s “sleeping sickness”
is the broad generality of its symptoms. Here there’s no mention of false prophets or prophetesses, nor of participation
in idols’ feasts or in sexual immorality. No external pressure or persecution demands courageous endurance. Instead,
we hear simply that their works are incomplete, and they have forgotten “what you received and heard”—the gospel of
God’s grace in Christ. Since a few “have not soiled their garments,” maybe most have slipped into moral compromise,
“coasting” on a reputation for spiritual vitality that no longer fits their reality. A subtle ebbing of spiritual energy in
Sardis makes this church a sobering object lesson to all churches and Christians.
Laodicea was a major center of trade and transportation, with robust banking and textile industries and a prestigious
medical school. The city’s affluence is mirrored in the church, which smugly boasts, “I am rich, I have prospered, I
need nothing.” In fact, Jesus, “the faithful and true witness,” sees through their veneer of self-sufficiency and unveils
their spiritual destitution: “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” The Laodicean Christians’ tepid indifference
is as nauseating to the Lord as the lukewarm waters that flowed by aqueduct from the hot springs near Hierapolis,
eight miles away. Yet the Lord loves the Laodicean Christians enough to reprove and discipline them, to summon
them to renewed zeal and devotion. If they hear and heed his rebuke, like faithful servants eager to welcome their
master at his first knock on the door, Jesus will still share his table with them (see Luke 12:35–37).
Christ’s stern but loving rebukes to Sardis and Laodicea put us all on notice that he expects our consistent, passionate
devotion—no coasting on a reputation based on past performance, no lukewarm indifference from hearts numbed by
affluence and illusions of self-sufficiency. Such seemingly comfortable Christians, like those assaulted by persecution,
are also under attack by the arch liar and arch murderer. In fact, the subtlety of Satan’s strategies against them may
put these congregations at even greater risk than others.
FIVE PASSAGES ABOUT THE CONQUERING

CHRIST AND HIS CONQUERING PEOPLE:
1. Revelation 5:5: …the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that
he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
2. Revelation 12:11: And [our brothers] have conquered [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
3. Revelation 15:2: I saw…those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number
of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.
4. Revelation 17:14: [Kings allied with the beast] will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb
will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings.
5. Revelation 21:7: The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he
will be my son.
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1. Comparing the beginning of your life as a follower of Christ with where you are today, would Jesus say to
you, “Your latter works exceed the first” (Rev. 2:19), or, “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are
dead” (3:1–2)? Since Christians’ “works” reflect our heart response to God’s grace in Christ, what does your
current conduct reveal about your devotion to Jesus?
2. Most Western Christians in America and Europe are surrounded by abundant resources (material posses-
sions, financial security, medical care, etc.). How can we, amid such plenty, cultivate a vivid awareness of
our desperate neediness for the deep healing and eternal provision that only Jesus can supply?

1. How does John’s opening vision of the glorious, once slain, ever-living Son of Man lay the foundation
for Christ’s sovereign and heart-searching edicts to his churches?
2. W
hen we see the splendor of the sovereign who speaks encouragement and rebuke in the edicts, how
does that vision disarm our defensiveness when he corrects us? How does it bolster our courage and
hope when faithfulness costs us?
3. As we hear Jesus, “who searches mind and heart,” address seven churches with various internal strengths
and weakness, in various situations of external challenge and opportunity, which words of approval
from the Lord would fit our own congregation today? How can we take proactive steps to preserve these
strengths by the grace of God?
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Lesson 2
4. As we read the command to us all to “hear what the Spirit says to [all] the churches,” which words of
correction, rebuke, and warning should we take to heart today? What would deep repentance from
our spiritual adultery and moral compromise look like, personally and congregationally? How should
we begin?

31
AND THEY SANG A NEW SONG,
S AY I N G , “ W O R T H Y A R E Y O U T O TA K E
T H E S C R O L L A N D TO O P E N I TS S E A L S ,
F O R YO U W E R E S L A I N , A N D BY YO U R
B LO O D YO U R A N S O M E D P E O P L E F O R
GOD FROM EVERY TRIBE AND LANGUAGE
A N D P E O P L E A N D N AT I O N , A N D
Y O U H AV E M A D E T H E M A K I N G D O M
A N D P R I E STS TO O U R G O D, A N D T H E Y
S H A L L R E I G N O N T H E E A R T H .”
R E V E L A TION 5 : 9 – 1 0
Lesson 3
WORTHY
is the
LAMB
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REVEL ATION

Oh Ancient of Days, seated on your luminous throne in heaven, we join cherubim, seraphim, elders, angels, and
every creature everywhere in joyful worship, for you are thoroughly holy and supremely worthy of our adoration.
The glimpse through heaven’s open door that you granted to John gives us perspective on the chaos and tumult
that traumatizes us, guilty and broken children of Adam, on this sin-stained earth. Our eyes cannot see your
majesty as your heavenly attendants do, but we can praise you as recipients of your ransoming grace (Rev. 5:9),
the salvation into which your holy angels long to look (1 Pet. 1:12). As we behold your splendor through John’s
eyes, calm our restless hearts with the assurance that Jesus has history in his strong hand. We ask through
Judah’s triumphant Lion, the Lamb once slain, Amen.

1. What qualities of God and of Christ are mentioned in the songs of praise in Revelation 4 and 5? What is
there about each of these attributes that makes God and Christ worthy of our adoration and devotion?
2. The scroll in God’s right hand is obviously important. How is its importance shown in the angel’s question
and its aftermath (5:2–4)? Can you anticipate what the opening of the scroll’s seals may reveal about
the message inside (see 6:1–8:1)?
READ REVELATION 4:1–11; ISAIAH 6:1–7 (BIBLE STUDY P. 30)

A D O O R S TA N D I N G O P E N I N H E AV E N
John’s vision of the one seated on the throne, the scroll in his right hand, and the Lamb who is worthy to open the
scroll extends over two chapters (Rev. 4–5). It introduces a sequence of seven scenes that unfold as the Lamb breaks
the seals on the scroll, one by one (Rev. 6:1–8:1). These visions symbolically portray “what must take place after” the
current conditions in the seven churches of Asia, which Jesus has addressed in his seven letter-edicts (Rev. 2–3).
Primarily, they show a series of distressing but limited disasters that will befall rebellious humanity, as history
continues to unfold between Christ’s first and second comings to earth.
As we learned in Lesson 2, this is the first of three sets of seven that are numbered explicitly and introduced by visions
of heaven, the dwelling place of God, which lies beyond the universe (see also 11:19, introducing the trumpets; 15:5,
introducing the bowls). The Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign cannot be perceived directly by our physical senses
34
Lesson 3
(1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16); but his purpose and power are the origin of all the events we see happening in world history and
our own experience. In order to understand the events around us, we must trace their origin back to the reign of God
from his exalted throne in heaven.
As John saw a “door standing open in heaven,” he heard a trumpet-like voice, the voice of the Son of Man that initiated
his first vision (compare to 1:10–11), now summoning him to ascend through the door into God’s heavenly courtroom.
His ascent is “in the Spirit” (compare to 1:10 again), which means that it’s through a prophetic vision imparted by
God’s Holy Spirit, like the experience of earlier prophets, on whom the Spirit “came” (Num. 24:2; 2 Chron. 15:1) or
who were carried by the Spirit (that is, in vision) to other locations (Ezek. 3:12; 11:1; 43:5; Rev. 17:3; 21:10). John sees,
first, a throne—a signal that its occupant has authority to rule—and then “one seated on the throne” (compare with the
order in Dan. 7:9). The splendor of this supreme ruler is compared to colorful semi-precious stones, jasper (amber
or green in color, probably translucent, Rev. 21:11) and carnelian (red). Surrounding this monarch is a rainbow of
radiant emerald green (see Ezek. 1:28). Although his identity as the Lord God Almighty (4:8) is evident from this
display of resplendent color, John refrains from giving specific visual details that might tempt artists to reproduce
what John saw (see Deut. 4:15–18). The lightning and thunder radiating from the throne echo the display of God’s
terrifying holiness when he descended on Sinai to deliver his law to Moses (Exod. 19:6). A sea of glass, pure as crystal,
forms the transparent pavement of this royal chamber, echoing earlier prophetic glimpses of God’s palace (Exod.
24:10; Ezek. 1:22, 26).
Surrounding God’s high throne are 24 thrones, on which sit 24 elders, his subordinate judges and advisors. This scene
reflects Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days, surrounded by his courtiers’ thrones, a court sitting in judgment (Dan.
7:9–10). Why 24 thrones? Clearly, 24 is a multiple of 12, a number that symbolizes the whole people of God, both
Israel’s tribes (Rev. 7:4–8; 21:12) and the apostles who form the foundation of the New Jerusalem (21:14). Since the
elders have a leading role as worshipers in God’s heavenly sanctuary (4:10–11; 5:8–10), their number may also reflect
the 24 orders of priests and singers in Israel’s earthly temple (1 Chron. 24:7–19; 25:6–31).
Four living creatures form the inner circle of worshipers surrounding the throne (in Greek, “in the midst of the throne
and encircling the throne”). Like the four living creatures that carried the Lord’s chariot-throne in Ezekiel’s vision
of “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” these living creatures resemble a lion, an ox, a man, and
an eagle (Ezek. 1:10, 28). The “living creatures” of Ezekiel’s vision are identified as cherubim (10:15–22), those fiery
guardians of God’s holy presence posted at the gateways of God’s sanctuaries: Eden, the tabernacle’s and temple’s
holiest place, and the ark of the covenant itself (Gen. 3:24; Exod. 26:31–33; 1 Kings 6:23–28; Exod. 25:18–22). Their
six wings and their song of praise (“Holy, holy, holy”) also reflect the seraphim who attended on “the Lord, high and
lifted up,” when Isaiah saw God’s overwhelming glory and heard his call to ministry (Isa. 6).
The majesty of the enthroned one is displayed more fully in the words that John hears, songs of praise, than through
the images that John sees. The living creatures extol their Creator and master for his infinite holiness (the threefold
“Holy, holy, holy”). He is utterly pure and infinitely distinct, unique, set apart from all he has made. He is “Almighty.”
As the humbled Nebuchadnezzar learned and confessed, “he does according to his will among the host of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Dan. 4:35). He
is eternal, transcendent over the whole history of his cosmos, “who was and is and is to come.” Only this ever-living
God can truly claim, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god (Isa. 44:6), and “I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13).
The elders proclaim their Lord and God worthy to receive glory, honor, and power for his purposeful, powerful creation
and his providential sustaining of all things. Amid the all-too-visible upheavals threatening John’s first-century
churches and our twenty-first century churches, we desperately need to behold, through John’s eyes, the serene
sovereign who holds the universe, human history, and our own stressful experience in his wise, strong, holy hands.
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1. For first and twenty-first century Christians who endure “tribulation” (Rev. 1:9) of various kinds (illness,
poverty, rejection, persecution), how do the perfections of our God, celebrated in the songs of Revelation 4,
lift our hearts and sustain our hopes?
2. What if God were to lack one of the perfections mentioned by the living creatures and elders? If he were
holy, but not almighty, would we have reason to trust and adore him? What if he were almighty—so every
creature fulfills his purposes—but not holy?
READ REVELATION 5:1–10; DANIEL 7:9–14 (BIBLE STUDY P. 31)

W H O I S W O R T H Y T O O P E N T H E S C R O L L?
John’s vision of God enthroned in glory and praised by cherubim and elders (Rev. 4) sets the scene for the drama
of the delivery of a sealed scroll to the only one worthy to open it, the Lion of Judah who is the slain but standing
(living) Lamb (Rev. 5). In the same way, Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days, seated on his fiery throne among his
court of justice (Dan. 7:9–12), introduced the arrival of “one like a son of man,” to receive from the Ancient of Days
“dominion and glory and a kingdom” (7:13–14).
The unique worthiness of the Lamb is dramatically impressed on John because it appears, momentarily, to John’s
deep sorrow, that no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth is worthy to open the seven-sealed scroll that John
sees in the right hand of God. The scroll is written within and on the back, like the scroll given to Ezekiel when he
was commissioned as prophet (Ezek. 2:10). This feature links these prophets’ visionary scrolls with each other;
and it sets them apart from standard ancient practice, in which copyists wrote on only one side of parchment or
papyrus. John is a true prophet of the Lord like Ezekiel, each given God’s word to consume and then proclaim (Ezek.
3:1–3; Rev. 10:8–11). It contains “what must take place after this” (4:1), which Christ promised to show John, for the
encouragement of his servants (4:1; 1:1–2). Sealed and secured in the scroll is God’s plan to defeat his enemies and
to retrieve his creation from defilement and destruction. The recipient of the scroll must have intrinsic authority
both to disclose God’s plan and to carry it out.
When no creature can be found with such supreme authority, John weeps. Will God’s purpose languish unrevealed
and unfulfilled? An elder comforts the distraught prophet with the assurance that the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
having “conquered,” is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll. The patriarch Jacob foresaw royalty to arise
from his son Judah, whom he compared to a lion (Gen. 49:8–10), a prophecy fulfilled in David and his dynasty, and
finally in Jesus the Messiah, the son of David (Matt. 1:1). So, this Lion is the royal offspring of Judah and David. Yet
his worthiness surpasses that of mere humans, and his triumph has taken a surprising form.
Although John hears the introduction of Judah’s Lion, what he sees is a Lamb standing “between the throne and the
four living creatures” and the elders—so near to God enthroned that his worthiness exceeds that of the most exalted
of God’s heavenly servants. In fact, the symbolism of the Lamb’s appearance shows that he is all-powerful (seven
36
Lesson 3
horns) and all-knowing (seven eyes). He is no less divine than the Enthroned One, whom we have heard praised for
his infinite might, eternal longevity, and sovereign purpose. Yet the Lamb is also a mortal, for he has been slain and
returned to life, to stand in heaven’s court.
By approaching God’s throne and taking the crucial scroll from God’s right hand, the Lamb demonstrates that he’s
the conquering Lion. Our surprise is intensified when the new song of the living creatures and elders interpret the
Lamb’s action. He is worthy to take and open the scroll, “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people
for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). The Lamb is Judah’s Lion; and the Lamb’s violent
death is the Lion’s victory, the achievement that qualifies him to take God’s master plan in hand, reveal it, and carry it
out. John will later see a countless choir of worshipers from all nationalities whose robes have been whitened in the
blood of the Lamb (7:9–13). Even later, John will hear that they have conquered their accuser, Satan, “by the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (12:11). Satan’s claim and control cannot be broken by sheer force.
Only the weakness of Christ’s cross, his sacrificial suffering of the curse and penalty we deserve, has the power to
conquer our enemy and ransom us for God (1 Cor. 1:18–25). John’s vision paints in graphic colors the glorious truth of
the gospel, that Christ’s cross constituted the climactic battle in the age-old conflict between the woman’s offspring
and the serpent, and there our champion achieved the victory, vanquishing the enemy by shedding his blood in our
place: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, [Christ] himself likewise partook of the same things,
that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who
through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Heb. 2:14–15).

1. How does John’s vision of the Lamb dramatize the introduction to the book as a whole (Rev. 1:1)? What does
this suggest about the contents of the sealed scroll?
2. In his vision of the one worthy to open the scroll, John first hears an announcement about the Lion of Judah,
then he sees a Lamb. The Lion has conquered, and the Lamb has been slain. What do these two images show
us about the person to whom they point? How does this vision enrich our understanding of what happened
at the cross of Christ?

W O R T H Y I S T H E L A M B W H O WA S S L A I N
Two more songs of praise follow, and the ensembles continue to expand. The adoration of God Almighty seated on
his throne began with four living creatures extolling his holiness and power and eternity (4:8). Then twenty-four
elders pronounced him worthy for his works of creation and providence (4:10–11). These groups together (four plus
24) sang the new song to the Lamb whose blood ransomed God’s people (5:8–10). Now angels—myriads of myriads
and thousands of thousands—proclaim the Lamb’s worthiness of sevenfold tribute (5:11–12). (Since myriad = 10,000,
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REVEL ATION
the angelic choir numbers hundreds of millions, and millions.) Finally, “every creature in heaven and on earth and
under the earth and in the sea” praises God enthroned and the Lamb (5:13).
Two features stand out in these peals of praise and adoration:
First, John’s vision of the serene rule of God and blissful adoration of his heavenly servants give us a
proper perspective on the apparently chaotic events on earth, already suffered by the embattled churches
addressed in Revelation 2 and 3, but with worse woes to come. John is the churches’ “partner in the tribulation”
(1:9); and believers facing tribulation, painful in the present or looming in the future, need to know that God’s cosmos,
including our war-torn planet, is firmly in his wise and invincible control. Maltbie Babcock’s classic hymn, “This Is
My Father’s World,” is exactly right: “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”
Second, John’s vision shows that God the Son, who became Judah’s Lion and the slain and risen Lamb,
administers his Father’s cosmic reign and executes the Father’s triumphant plan to redeem his people,
reclaim and renew his domain, and destroy his enemies. Jesus the Lamb holds the scroll and is worthy to open
it. He is worthy of worship, worship that only God the Creator has a right to receive. Later, John will be rebuked twice
by holy angels for falling at their feet in worship. The angels rebuff John’s devotion, “Do not do that…Worship God”
(19:10; 22:8–9). The Bible emphasizes repeatedly that God alone is to be worshiped (Deut. 6:13; Matt. 4:10). In fact,
sinful humanity’s great offense is worshiping and serving the creature instead of the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Yet here
John hears a multitude of holy, heavenly creatures ascribe to the Lamb praiseworthiness that belongs to God alone.
Centuries earlier, the Lord announced through the prophet Isaiah, “I am God, and there is no other…To me every
knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” (Isa. 45:22–23). The apostle Paul clarified the true fulfillment
of this declaration: “God has highly exalted [Christ]…so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven
and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”
(Phil. 2:9–11). The songs of Revelation 4 and 5 show that heaven’s host already celebrates the worthiness of the Lamb
along with God his Father. In the end, everyone everywhere will do the same. The worship of Jesus in the book of
Revelation is one of the New Testament’s most forceful witnesses to his deity.
SONGS OF PRAISE AND VICTORY IN REVELATION
1. “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom,
priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1:5–6)
2. “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (4:8)
3. “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created
all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (4:11)
4. “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your
blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the
earth.” (5:9–10)
5. “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!” (5:12) Continued on pg. 39
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Lesson 3
6. “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and
might forever and ever!” (5:13)
7. “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (7:10)
8. “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to
our God forever and ever! Amen.” (7:12)
9. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he
shall reign forever and ever.” (11:15)
10. “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your
great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time
for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and
those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the
earth.” (11:17–18)
11. “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his
Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses
them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the
Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and
sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time
is short!” (12:10–12)
12. “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship
him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (14:7)
13. “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your
ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you
alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been
revealed.” (15:3–4)
14. “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they
have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is
what they deserve!” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and
just are your judgments!” (16:5–7)
15. “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true
and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” (19:1–3)
16. “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.” (19:5)
17. “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and Continued on pg. 40
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REVEL ATION
exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made
herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.” (19:6–8)
18. “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be
his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear
from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying,
nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (21:3–4)

1. Songs celebrating God’s and the Lamb’s praiseworthiness and victory are interspersed throughout Revelation.
How do these songs protect believers from terror and despair over the evils and disasters that surround us?
How do these songs counteract our own tendency to inflate our self-importance?
2. Why were Jesus’ contemporaries so offended by his own and the apostles’ claim that he is God incarnate?
Why are our contemporaries offended by this claim? How does the New Testament’s witness to Jesus’ unique
identity as fully God and fully man differ from widespread ideas that all human beings are divine? Why is
the unique mystery revealed in the Bible—that “the Word was God…and became flesh” (John 1:1, 14)—at the
heart of the good news, our only hope?

1. Some people who reject the Bible’s testimony that God is both sovereign and good appeal to the catastro-
phes in the world as proof that, if a god exists, either his control or his character must be defective.
Otherwise, why would he allow people to abuse and kill other people? And why would he inflict even
more suffering through forces beyond our control, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, cancer, and pan-
demics? How do the visions of Revelation 4 and 5 show that human suffering should not undermine
our confidence in both God’s sovereignty and his goodness?
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Lesson 3
2. What eternal attributes of God are revealed in the vision of God enthroned (Revelation 4)? How will
trusting God more deeply, in light of each attribute, reorient and stabilize your mind and heart in
troubled times?
3. What actions of God in relation to the universe are revealed in the vision of God enthroned (Revelation
4)? How will trusting God, in light of these actions, reorient and stabilize your mind and heart in
troubled times?
4. What attributes and actions of Judah’s Lion, the slain and standing Lamb, are revealed in the vision of
Revelation 5? How will trusting Christ, in light of his costly redemptive victory, reorient and stabilize
your mind and heart in troubled times?
5. Compare or contrast the songs of Revelation 4 and 5 with the focus and tone of the Christian music
that you listen to, or that is sung in your church’s worship. How well does your worship repertoire sync
with the songs of heaven?

41
N O W I WAT C H E D W H E N T H E L A M B
OPENED ONE OF THE SEVEN SEALS,
AND I HEARD ONE OF THE FOUR LIVING
C R E AT U R E S S AY W I T H A V O I C E L I K E
T H U N D E R , “ CO M E ! ” A N D I LO O K E D,
A N D B E H O L D, A W H I T E H O R S E ! A N D I TS
R I D E R H A D A B O W, A N D A C R O W N WA S
G I V E N TO H I M , A N D H E C A M E O U T CO N -
Q U E R I N G , A N D TO CO N Q U E R .
R E V E L A TION 6 : 1 – 2
Lesson 4
SEALS
BROKEN:
Just
VENGEANCE
and
VINDICATION
Fo r e s h a d o w e d
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REVEL ATION

O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, you are the judge of all the earth, the protector of your people, and the righteous
avenger of wrongs. As we see injustice, violence, disease, and suffering, we’re inclined to join our voices with
the cries of your martyrs, “How long before you will judge and avenge your people’s blood on those who dwell
on the earth,” who destroy your good earth? Yet we also know that your longsuffering patience has a purpose,
that you’re gathering in all your beloved chosen ones from all the nations through all the ages, not wishing that
any should perish but that all whose names you have written may come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:8–9, 14–15). We
are thankful that you did not “rush to judgment” about us, but instead placed into our lives those who brought
us the good news of your grace in Jesus. We gladly join the acclamation of the countless international choir
that stands before your throne, crying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Inscribe that truth on our hearts, so we may wait patiently and witness faithfully to the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus. In the heart-cleansing blood of the Lamb, Amen.

1. In Revelation 5 we heard about the redemptive power of the Lamb’s blood. Now we see visions in which
the Lamb’s opening of seals brings devastating judgments on the earth, so that people beg mountains
to fall on them to protect them from the wrath of the Lamb. How can we reconcile these images of the
sacrificial Lamb and the wrathful Lamb in our understanding of Jesus Christ?
2. How does the authority of the fourth horsemen (Death and Hades) of the Apocalypse (Rev. 6:7–8) help
us to understand the symbolism of the second and third horsemen (on the red and black horses)?

F O U R PA R A L L E L V I S I O N S
The Lamb’s breaking of seals on the scroll is the first of Revelation’s three numbered (“first, second, third,” etc.) sets
of seven, along with the sounding of trumpets (Rev. 8–11) and the outpouring of bowls (Rev. 16). Each group of seven
opens with a set of four parallel visions:
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• SEALS: In response to the living creatures’ commands, “Come!” four horses of different colors (white, red,
black, green) appear with their riders.
• TRUMPETS: as angels blow trumpets, fire falls from heaven to wreak disease, defilement, death, and darkness
on earth, sea, rivers and springs, and sky.
• BOWLS: as angels pour out bowls on earth, sea, rivers and springs, and sky, divine wrath unleashes unmit-
igated disease, defilement, death, and darkness on rebellious humankind.
The seals- and trumpets-cycles are also linked by two features that set them apart from the later bowls cycle:
First, the judgments symbolized in the seals- and trumpets-cycles affect only a fraction of rebellious
humanity and its earthly environment:
• SEALS: The famine announced in the third seal inflates grain prices, but leaves oil and wine supplies
unaffected (6:6).
• SEALS: By sword (red horse), famine (black horse), and pestilence (pale horse), killing occurs “over a fourth
of the earth” (6:5).
• TRUMPETS: With the first four trumpets, fire brings destruction and darkness to one third of (1) earth and
its vegetation (8:7); (2) the sea, its creatures, and its ships (8:8–9); (3) fresh water sources (8:10–11); the
heavenly bodies that give light (8:12).
On the other hand, the bowls contain “seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished”
(15:1). When the bowls are poured out, therefore, on rebellious humanity and the cosmos infected with human sin,
the afflictions imposed by divine justice have no limitation (16:1–21).
Second, extended interlude visions are injected between the sixth and seventh seal (Rev. 7:1–17), and
between the sixth and seventh trumpet (10:1–11:13). These interlude visions offer comforting assurance
that God and the Lamb, as they bring judgment on the earth, make a clear distinction between the wicked and the
righteous. As we will see, between seals six and seven, John hears a “census,” tribe by tribe, of the servants of God
who are “sealed”—branded as God’s property and secured under his protection—before the winds of destruction
are unleashed (7:1–8). Then John sees a countless multitude from all nations, who worship God as they enjoy safety
under the Lamb’s shepherding care (7:9–17). In the trumpets-cycle, the first vision interjected between trumpets six
and seven dramatizes John’s reception of the open scroll in his prophetic commission (10:1–11). Then the second
signals that, though the holy city (the church) will suffer persecution for its bold witness to Jesus, its identity as the
temple of God cannot be destroyed, since it has been “measured” and secured from defilement and destruction by
God’s command and sovereign power (11:1–2). Jesus’ witnesses may be martyred, but their final vindication is sure
(11:3–13). The interlude visions also impede, for listeners hearing Revelation read aloud, the movement of the drama
in the seals- and trumpets-cycle, creating suspense and demanding their patience. By contrast, when John’s account
reaches the last plagues that consummate God’s wrath, the narrative pace drives relentlessly, without pause, from
first to final bowl.
These two links between the seals and the trumpets—limited judgments, and interludes that slow the pace—imply
that these early sets of seven, on the whole, portray restrained expressions of God’s justice throughout history, as his
patience allows time for repentance (see 9:20–21), deferring last judgment until his word and Spirit have gathered
all his people from all the nations (2 Pet. 3:7–15; Rev. 3:5).
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F O U R H O R S E M E N O F T H E A P O C A LY P S E
The horses with riders that emerge as the Lamb opens the scroll’s first four seals symbolize the instruments that the
Lamb employs throughout history to humble rebellious humanity by giving bitter foretastes of his just wrath—just
wrath that will be seen, full force, at the end of time. Human governments’ imperialist aggression is driven by an
idolatrous thirst for power and indifference to God’s honor and human suffering. Yet the Lamb who is just and kind
sovereignly controls the destructive forces symbolized in the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, who ride roughshod
over the earth, leaving bloodshed, want, and woe in their tracks. As daunting as these terrors are, they are still the
unwitting, unwilling servants of the Lamb, who holds the scroll and breaks its seals. They cannot make a move apart
from the command of God’s glorious servants, “Come!”
Of course, government has a God-ordained role, to maintain justice and protect the vulnerable; and for those purposes
rulers rightly “bear the sword” (Rom. 13:1–7). But Scripture and history demonstrate—and Revelation graphically
illustrates—that coercive power wielded by sinful rulers often veers into injustice, exploitation, and bloodshed.
When this happens, ordinary people suffer misery and death from warfare, starvation, and disease. John’s original
audience, living in the Roman Empire’s eastern provinces, were well aware of threats to the fabled pax Romana
(Roman peace) established under Caesar Augustus a century earlier, especially from the ruthless Parthians beyond
the Empire’s eastern boundaries.
The colors of the four horses—white, red, black, and “pale”—loosely echo the colors of horses drawing chariots in a
vision granted to the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 6:1–7). Zechariah’s horses and chariots were on patrol throughout
the earth, but the horses and riders in John’s vision are armed and on the attack. Some scholars have identified the
rider on the white horse here with Christ, who appears in a later vision as the captain of heaven’s armies, mounted
on a white horse and wielding a sword from his mouth (Rev. 19:11–21). But the white horse rider here is armed with
a bow (favorite weapon of the Parthian cavalry), not a sword. In the ancient world, white horses were generally the
mounts of conquerors in battle. It’s better to see this first rider in close connection with the three who follow him,
and to see the whole quartet as symbolizing the sufferings that political-military aggression and retaliation inflict
on the human race generation after generation, as Jesus foretold: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of
the birth pains” (Mark 13:8).
As ambitious rulers expand their domains, riding forth “conquering, and to conquer” new territories (white horse),
the predictable result is combat and bloodshed (red horse). Peace disappears, and people slay each other with the
sword. Another result of war is famine and starvation (black horse). A prolonged siege, cutting off supplies of food,
could bring an ancient city to its knees, despite its stalwart walls (see 2 Kings 6:24–30). The exorbitant cost of
wheat and barley announced when the black horse and its rider emerge—ten or more times the average price—is
beyond the budget of ordinary people. This steep inflation may result from the disruption of trade routes across the
Mediterranean Sea. Roman Asia Minor depended on grains imported from Egypt, but olive trees and grapevines
grew domestically. So “do not harm the oil and wine” signifies a wartime scenario that cuts off foreign grain imports
but leaves domestic crops unaffected.
The fourth horse is “pale” or “ashen”—gray green, like a cadaver. It carries two riders, Death and Hades (the grave).
These riders were given authority (by God, the source of all true authority) over a fourth of the earth, to kill through
sword (red horse), famine (black horse), pestilence (plague/pandemic) and wild beasts, symptoms of social order
disintegrating into chaos. Through Ezekiel God had announced that, in the Exile, he was imposing the covenant
curse on evil Jerusalem by sending the same brutal quartet—sword, famine, wild beasts, pestilence—to “cut off man
and beast” (Ezek. 14:12–21). Yet, in his mercy, he would leave to Judah a remnant of survivors (vv. 22–23). Likewise,
though churches in John’s day and ours witness the atrocities of war, the visions of the seals assure us that the most
brutal aggressors are nevertheless under the control of the Lamb who holds the scroll. His patience still restrains
the devastating effects of human injustice.
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1. Is it hard for you to believe that the atrocities of war, the horrors of famine and disease, and the destruction
and death wreaked by hurricanes and wildfires are all under the control of Christ’s sovereign reign and that
Christ is still “Faithful and True” (Rev. 19:11), despite the world’s injustices and disasters? Do you find this
reality reassuring or troubling? Why? Is there any other explanation of the world’s evils that makes better
sense and offers more comfort?
2. Later sets of seven in Revelation will imply that the troubles that befall both believers and unbelievers in this
fallen world are mild previews of the end of history, when God’s wrath against human sin will be displayed
full force, without restraint. How, then, should we respond to the world’s present pain and heartbreak, in
light of the coming judgment?

W H O C A N S TA N D ?
The breaking of the fifth seal introduces the reason that the Lamb is inflicting war, disease, and death on the earth,
even before the last judgment. The scene shifts from earth to heaven, where John sees the souls of martyrs under
the altar. The unjust shedding of their innocent blood, as they bore witness to God’s word, explains why the Lamb
has unleashed destructive forces on the nations that populate the earth.
Israel’s earthly temple had two altars. One was in the courtyard for animal sacrifices, and at its base the blood of those
victims was poured out (Exod. 29:10–12). The other was inside the Holy Place. On it incense, symbolizing prayer, was
offered (Ps. 141:2; Luke 1:8–10). In Revelation, the heavenly altar serves both purposes: from it the prayers of God’s
suffering people ascend before God as incense (Rev. 8:3–4), and it witnesses the shedding of the martyrs’ blood (16:6–7).
In a later vision John will again see “the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and the word
of God,” already victorious and reigning with Christ in heaven (20:4). Here, however, the focus is on their longing for
vindication through God’s just punishment of their oppressors. Their question, “How long?”, echoes the laments of
Old Testament Psalmists (Pss. 13:1; 74:10; 79:5; 89:46). It also reminds us that the timing of Christ’s return and the
last judgment, when God will right all wrongs, is not ours to know (Mark 13:32; Acts 1:6–7). Moreover, it implies that
the relief for which God’s suffering saints look and long may not come quickly—hence the summons to endurance
(Rev. 1:9; 13:10; 14:12).
As the martyrs await justice, they’re comforted by the gift of white robes, signaling their purity and victory—for they
have conquered their accuser, Satan, through the blood of the Lamb to which they faithfully testified, even though it
brought their death (12:11). They can rest, for their own warfare is over (see Rev. 14:13); however, the battle still rages
on earth, as the mention of future martyrdoms implies. The timespan remaining until Christ’s return is measured by
God in terms of the completion of the number of the martyrs, whom he has chosen for this painful and glorious destiny.
Elsewhere, the New Testament attributes the apparent “slowness” of Jesus’ coming to God’s patient ingathering of all
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his elect through the gospel of grace (2 Pet. 3:9; Matt. 24:14). The Lord’s patience entails a high cost to his suffering,
witnessing church: Integrally linked to the salvation of all the elect is the violent death of all the martyrs.
The sixth seal presents a preview of the end of human history, when God will no longer restrain his just wrath toward
the wicked who defy him and murder his faithful witnesses. Thus, the rebels beg mountains to fall on them and hide
them from God the judge and the Lamb “for the great day of their wrath has come” (6:16–17). This preview follows
the fifth seal as God’s response to the martyrs’ lament, “How long?”—not by providing a date but by demonstrating
that their sovereign Lord will, indeed, avenge their blood. The devastations here—a great earthquake underfoot,
sending mountains and islands flying; the sky overhead vanishing, its lights darkened (sun and moon) and dislodged
(stars)—anticipate Revelation’s later portraits of the dissolution of the first heaven and earth (16:18–20), especially
20:11: from God’s “presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.” The destruction of sun, moon,
and stars marks the end of their time-distinguishing function in the old universe (Gen. 1:14–19). God’s word promises
the arrival of a new heavens and earth, free of sin and curse, full of righteousness and joy (Isa. 65:17; 66:22). The
present heavens and earth, infected by human sin and its toxic byproducts, must undergo a cosmic “shaking” and
incineration of every imperfection (Heb. 12:26–29; 1:10–12; 2 Pet. 3:10–13). John is going to see “a new heaven and
a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Rev. 21:1).
All of rebellious humanity, from the most powerful king to the poorest slave (see 19:18), recoil in terror from the full
force unleashing of God’s just wrath. They try to hide in caves (see Isa. 2:12–12) and beg mountains, “Fall on us and
hide us.” But mountains of rock can no more hide the wicked from God’s holy presence than the trees of Eden could
hide sinful, shame-filled Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:8). Their desperate question, “Who can stand?” echoes that raised by
the Old Testament prophet Malachi’s prediction that the Lord of hosts will suddenly come to his temple (Mal. 3:1–2).
The interlude visions that follow immediately (Rev. 7) answer the rebels’ expression of despair: God has a chosen
people, sealed and shielded from his wrath, safeguarded from the final blaze by the name of their divine owner and
protector. They will stand secure in the final day of the Lord.

1. In our lifetimes, the church in North America and Western Europe has been spared the violent persecution
that Christians elsewhere in the world and in other ages suffer as an everyday fact of life. As you read through
Revelation and Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels, do you get the impression that Christians’ suffering for the
sake of Christ is a rare exception to the ordinary, or is it the norm?
2. We can be grateful that God’s common grace influence on our society has spared us imprisonment, beating,
and execution. But how does our almost costless Christian experience diminish our grasp of God’s faithful
kindness and supreme worth? Are there ways to cultivate a larger, truer perception of God without going
through suffering, especially persecution, for our faith?
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S E A L E D S E R VA N T S O F G O D
Between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals is a twofold vision that answers the question of rebellious humanity,
cringing from the Lamb’s wrath, “Who can stand?” John had seen stars flung from the sky, like figs shaken from tree
branches by high winds (6:13). Now, John sees four angels restraining those winds of destruction until God’s seal
is applied to his faithful servants’ foreheads. What the seal symbolizes has already been interpreted for us in Jesus’
letter to the church at Philadelphia: “To the one who conquers…I will write on him the name of my God, and the
name of the city of my God…and my own new name” (3:12). When John again sees the 144,000, they have the Lamb’s
name “and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (14:1). This seal “brands” them as God’s property, under his
protective care. Consistent with Revelation’s symbolic genre, it is not a physical tattoo on foreheads (nor is the mark
of the beast a physical emblem, Rev. 13:16–18); but a sign that God controls his people’s thoughts, affections, choices,
and actions. Paul says that the Holy Spirit is God’s seal of ownership on believers, securing our eternal safety until
the day of redemption (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30).
This interlude vision, like the introduction of the one worthy to open the scroll in Revelation 5, has two phases: First,
John hears a description of those who receive the seal of God: 144,000 “sons of Israel,” representing 12 tribes (7:1–8).
Then John sees a multitude that could not be counted, drawn from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages (7:9–17).
Are these distinct groups, or are they complementary perspectives on the same people of God? In Revelation 5,
what John heard (“the Lion of the tribe of Judah”) and what he saw (“a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain”)
clearly pointed to the same individual, since the triumphant Lion alone was worthy to open the scroll…and the slain
Lamb alone was worthy to open scroll. The same dynamic is at work here: the specifically numbered Israelites are
the innumerable multitude composed of people from all races and nationalities.
The confusing composition and order of the 12 “Israelite” tribes support this conclusion. Regarding composition, this
list does not match any Old Testament record of Jacob’s 12 sons or of Israel’s 12 tribes. They’re not Jacob’s sons, for
Revelation’s list excludes Dan, and includes Manasseh alongside his father Joseph (compare Gen. 35:22–26). They’re
not the 12 tribes that inherited territories in the promised land for two reasons: First, Revelation’s list includes Levi
(who received the Lord himself as their inheritance instead of property, Deut. 10:9). Second, Revelation excludes
Ephraim, a prominent tribe descended from Joseph’s younger son, as well as Dan (compare Josh. 14–19). Moreover,
the order doesn’t fit any Old Testament list. It isn’t the birth order of Jacob’s sons, for Judah comes first, ahead of
older brothers Reuben, Simeon and Levi. And the tribes descended from concubines’ sons (Gad, Asher, Naphtali) are
“promoted” to precede older sons of Jacob’s first wife Leah. Why all this substitution and rearrangement? To send the
signal that this census of Israel’s 144,000 cannot be calculated woodenly, and to show us that, just as the triumph of
Judah’s Lion finds paradoxical fulfillment in the Lamb’s sacrificial death, so the covenant people protected by God
find paradoxical fulfillment in the countless international crowd whose robes are whitened by the Lamb’s blood and
who enjoy safety under the Lamb’s protection (7:14–17). Judah comes first as the royal tribe of David and especially
Jesus. Concubines’ sons are exalted as a hint that, through the Lamb’s redemptive sacrifice (5:9–10), God’s true Israel
includes Gentiles, formerly excluded as strangers but now welcomed as “fellow citizens with the saints and members
of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). These “sealed” servants of God will stand unafraid and unashamed when the
Lamb’s wrath consumes his enemies.

1. Since the fifth seal showed us the souls of martyrs slain for their loyalty to Jesus, the sealing of God’s servants
obviously doesn’t protect them from suffering in this life. But it does guarantee that we will never face God’s
wrath against our sin. How is the blood of the Lamb connected to the seal that verifies we’re God’s treasured
and protected property?
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2. For Gentile Christians, what should we learn (about God’s faithfulness and the grace he has shown us) from
the way that the New Testament characterizes us as the offspring of Abraham and Israel of God? (See, for
example, Gal. 3:27–4:7; 4:21–31; 6:16; Eph. 2:11–22; 1 Pet. 2:9–10.)

B E H O L D , A G R E AT M U LT I T U D E
Just as the Lion’s victory is the Lamb’s death to “ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people
and nation” (Rev. 5:9), so now the tabulated tribes of Israel make their appearance as an innumerable multitude
“from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (7:9). Before the throne and the Lamb they cry,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” This the first of three appearances of
the word “salvation” in Revelation (also in 12:10; 19:1); and it’s fitting that it comes from the lips of the global,
multiethnic church who have been purified by the blood of the Lamb. Angels long to look into the salvation that
we have received (1 Pet. 1:10–12), but the privilege to extol our Savior’s amazing grace is ours. It’s no wonder that
angels, elders, and living creatures respond to their praise with humble worship and another sevenfold ascription
of glory to God (Rev. 7:11–12).
Since this multitude have “come out of the great tribulation” to stand before God’s throne, this scene takes place
in heaven, where “they serve him day and night.” They’ve been liberated by death (including martyrdom) from this
world’s woes—hunger, thirst, scorching heat, the tears of sorrow. Their safety and serenity are painted in the hues
of Old Testament promises:
• “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Ezek. 37:27)
• “…they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on
them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.” (Isa. 49:10)
• “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside
still waters.” (Psalm 23:1–2)
• “…the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces.” (Isa. 25:8; see Rev. 21:4)
Not only will people purchased by the Lamb’s precious blood survive the final, full unleashing of the Lamb’s just wrath
at history’s conclusion, but also, even now, the worst that this wicked world can do to them—violent death—only frees
them “to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23). Again, John’s glimpse of heaven gives courage
and hope to all God’s servants: Our Creator is on the throne and the Lamb is in control of history; and now we see that
those who have died in Christ are celebrating his salvation with joy undiminished by earth’s threats and afflictions.
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1. Are you inclined to evaluate the effectiveness of the church in obeying Jesus’ great commission to “make
disciples of all nations” by means of demographic percentage comparisons between Christians and non-Chris-
tians? What impression do such statistics offer of the state of Christ’s kingdom enterprise across the
globe? How does John’s vision “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation,” correct the
pessimism that we may have about the church?
2. Although this vision of the countless multitude shows us the joys of deceased believers’ souls in heaven,
rescued forever from this world’s woes, what comfort can we draw today from the truth that the Lamb is
already our shepherd, even in the valley of the shadow of death?

THE SEVENTH SEAL
Compared to the cosmic cataclysm connected with the sixth seal, the opening of the seventh may seem anticlimactic:
“there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” The silence implies, of course, that the ceaseless praises of
God by his heavenly attendants are suspended (4:8–9). This silence is the calm before the storm, a hush of awe and
expectation before the Lord’s intrusion in judgment: “Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself
from his holy dwelling” (Zech. 2:13). “Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near” (Zeph. 1:7).
Two features of the scene of the seventh seal prepare us for the set of seven to follow:
First, John saw seven angels in God’s presence, to whom seven trumpets are given. The successive sounding
of these trumpets will structure the sevenfold cycle in which John will see the desolations wreaked by the forces
symbolized by the horsemen of the seals—conquest, warfare, famine, disease, death—throughout the spheres that
surround and sustain human life and community (earth, sea, fresh water, sky).
Second, an angel offers incense “with the prayers of the saints” from heaven’s golden altar, and then
takes fire from that altar and flings it to earth. Peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and earthquakes again
evoke recollections of the Lord’s descent on Mount Sinai to make a covenant with Israel (Exod. 19:16–20), as these
fearsome phenomena did around the throne of God in John’s earlier vision (Rev. 4:5). The 24 elders had held bowls
containing incense, “which are the prayers of the saints” (5:8). But now the offering of these prayers before God on
the altar precipitates the next cycle of judgments on the earth. As trumpets sound, the fire that the angel casts down
from heaven will appear as “hail and fire mixed with blood” (8:7), and “a great mountain, burning with fire” (8:8), and
“a great star, blazing like a torch” (8:10). We’ve heard the martyrs’ plea for vindication and vengeance (6:10). Now,
though John doesn’t record the contents of the suffering saints’ prayers, at the heavenly altar their pleas intersect with
fiery judgment. This intersection symbolizes the truth that the cries of the afflicted church militant on earth, along
with those of the church triumphant in heaven, are heard and heeded by our divine defender. He’ll right the wrongs
done to his saints in the end, and even now his fierce providence gives his foes bitter foretastes of the wrath to come.
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1. When is silence the fitting response to the presence of God?
2. In imprecatory psalms (Pss. 7; 35; 55; 58; 59; 69; 79; 109; 137; 139), God’s word taught his people to ask him
to inflict severe judgment on his and their enemies. May Christians pray such prayers today? How does
Jesus’ instruction in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:44) address this question? How might reminders
of our own backstory, such as Colossians 1:21–22, temper or transform our prayers concerning the human
enemies of God?

1. This study makes the case that the “horsemen of the Apocalypse” represent destructive forces driven
by human arrogance, avarice, and the quest for power. Daily news, however we receive it, shows how
widespread these evils are and how much damage they do to the weak and vulnerable. Do you have
trouble believing these forces are unwittingly serving the purposes of the Lamb—that they can emerge
and work their wickedness at the Lamb’s breaking of seals and the command of his living creatures?
On the other hand, when we do believe that the Lamb is in control, even of his worst enemies, how does
that confidence rein in our anxieties and fears?
2. The destruction inflicted by the horsemen is limited: grain prices skyrocket, but oil and wine are unaffected;
only one fourth of the earth suffer death from sword, famine, pestilence, and wild animals. How are God’s
common grace and longsuffering patience displayed in the fact that even severe devastations (hurricanes,
wildfires, nuclear warfare, pandemic, etc.) have their limits? How should we respond to God’s restraint?
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3. Is it right or wrong for Christians to ask God to “avenge” the wrongs that others have committed against
us? Or are there wrong and right motives for making this request? How can we sort out, in our minds
and hearts, the conflicting claims of justice and mercy on our deep desires?
4. What is the “seal” of God on his people? What does it say about us? From what does God protect his
sealed people, his property—and from what does his seal not necessarily protect us?
5. How should John’s view of the church as a great multitude, beyond numbering and including all nation-
alities, tribes, and languages, expand our apprehension of the people of God around the globe? How
should it influence our compassion for Christians whose culture, ethnicity, language, diet, dress, etc.,
differ from ours? How should it “globalize” our prayer lives? Our giving?

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“ Y E T E V E N N O W, ” D E C L A R E S T H E L O R D ,
“ R E T U R N T O M E W I T H A L L Y O U R H E A R T,
W I T H FA S T I N G , W I T H W E E P I N G , A N D W I T H
M O U R N I N G ; A N D R E N D YO U R H E A R TS A N D
N OT YO U R G A R M E N TS .” R E T U R N TO T H E
LO R D YO U R G O D, F O R H E I S G R AC I O U S
A N D M E R C I F U L , S LOW TO A N G E R , A N D
A B O U N D I N G I N S T E A D FA S T L O V E ; A N D H E
RELENTS OVER DISASTER. WHO KNOWS
W H E T H E R H E W I L L N OT T U R N A N D
R E L E N T, A N D L E AV E A B L E S S I N G B E H I N D
HIM, A GRAIN OFFERING AND A DRINK
O F F E R I N G F O R T H E LO R D YO U R G O D?
JOEL 2:12–14
Lesson 5
TRUMPETS
Sounded:
VENGEANCE
and
VINDICATION
Escalated
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O great King of heaven, your Son Jesus taught us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven.” We long for you to answer this plea. As sovereign Creator and Provider, you already control everything
in your entire universe. Every creature, microbe to mankind, pauper to king, complies with your sovereign
will and purpose. And we rejoice that your redemptive kingdom has invaded this sin-stained, rebellion-ruined
earth. Through the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and heavenly enthronement of Jesus the Messiah, the
kingdom of God is now conquering hearts throughout the earth through the gospel. But we also long for the day
when “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever
and ever” (Rev. 11:15). Your patient mercy presently restrains the fullness of your just wrath and, consequently,
the final display of your righteous reign throughout the earth. So, we thank you for the divine longsuffering that
leads sinners to repentance and rescue from the wrath to come. Yet we, the bride of the Lamb, also implore,
“Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Amen.
READ TOGETHER: JOEL 2:1–16; REVELATION 8:6–12 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

1. Joel 2 is a poetic portrait of invasion of an army of locusts, under the Lord’s command, as a judgment
on unfaithful Israel. What two functions are served by the trumpet blasts in this chapter (verses 1 and
15)? How does the second trumpet blast offer hope, despite the devastation that flows from the first?
2. In Revelation 8:2–5 the angel offers incense with the saints’ prayers on the altar in heaven as seven
angels stand ready to sound trumpets. Then the angel throws fire from the altar down to earth; and, as
trumpets sound, fiery objects fall on earth, sea, and rivers. What connection does this symbolic drama
make between the saints’ prayers and catastrophes taking place on earth? How does this enrich our
perception of the effectiveness of prayer?
READ JOEL 2:1–16; REVELATION 8:6–12 (BIBLE STUDY P. 48)

SOUNDING THE ALARM FOR COMPLACENT SINNERS
As seven trumpets sound, the sequence of judgments that John sees signifies disasters that God is inflicting on
rebellious humanity throughout history, from Christ’s incarnation in humility and mercy to his second coming in
glory and justice. As the first four trumpets sound, the damage on earth is pervasive, affecting every sphere of the
environment on which our lives depend: dry land, sea, fresh water sources (rivers and springs), and sky overhead.
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Yet the damage is also limited: one-third of each sphere suffers destruction or darkening. This limited devastation
shows that these visions symbolize the mysterious operations of God’s ordinary providence in this era, in which
God restrains his own wrath and the destruction wreaked by human evil, deferring his last judgment to give rebels
time to repent and turn to Christ for rescue from the wrath to come. The day will arrive when the present earth
and sky will fly away, shattered by God’s voice and dissolved by his fiery presence (Rev. 20:11; Heb. 12:26–27; 2 Pet.
3:10–12). In the period symbolized by the first four trumpets, however, that cosmic cataclysm is still future. The global
disasters that fill today’s news—wars and pandemics, hurricanes and tornados, droughts and famines, wildfires and
earthquakes—are previews of wrath to come, sounding the alarm to wake up complacent sinners to the sobering
reality that the day of reckoning is coming.
Trumpets in the Bible announce the coming of the divine King. The blast of a trumpet heralded the Lord’s descent to
meet with Moses on Sinai (Exod. 19:16, 19); and the second coming of Christ will likewise be announced by the last
trumpet (Matt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16). Trumpets summon the King’s subjects to assemble in his presence
(Num. 10:2–3; Jer. 51:27). In Revelation 8, the trumpets sound the alarm of coming danger, like the trumpet blast
that opens Joel’s vision of invasion by the locust army on “the day of the Lord.” Only those who hear and heed the
trumpets’ warnings, turning from their idolatry, violence, immorality, and theft, will be spared when God and the
Lamb unleash the full fury of their wrath. Sadly, despite horrific foretastes of that coming day of wrath, survivors do
not repent and seek refuge in the Sovereign whom they have defied (Rev. 9:20–21).
John has watched an angel taking fire from the heavenly altar on which incense with the saints’ prayers is offered
and throwing that fire to the earth (8:4–5). Now, as the first four trumpets sound, fiery objects (hail mixed with fire,
a great burning mountain, a great star) fall from heaven to earth. The heavenly origin of these weapons shows that
they are not merely meteors, missiles, bombs, atomic fallout, acid rain, or volcanic ash plunging through earth’s
atmosphere. Instead, the symbolism shows that God’s sovereign will stands behind the despoiling of earth’s resources
(vegetation, sea life, drinkable water).
These fiery devastations echo plagues that befell Egypt in Moses’ day: hail mixed with fire (Exod. 9:22–26); water
turned to blood, killing fish (Exod. 7:20–21); water rendered undrinkable (Exod. 7:24); and darkness (Exod. 10:21–23).
Those plagues on Egypt were inflicted by the Lord’s direct intervention. Yet the visions of the seals cycle showed
the Lamb is in control of the imperialistic ambition of human tyrants and the miseries that flow from that lust for
power: bloodshed in combat, famine, and disease. So now, as trumpets sound, combat between nations may be the
means used by the Lamb to inflict the burning of earth’s vegetation, the bloodying of the sea’s waters, the befouling
of water sources, and the darkening of the sky. In ancient warfare, enemies were subdued by cutting off supplies of
food and water, by bloody combat at sea, and by burning cities until their rising smoke obscured the sun (see Rev.
18:9, 18; 19:3). Whatever means the sovereign judge uses—whether human violence or natural disaster—he’s giving
them a bitter foretaste of utter destruction to come. Warning trumpets are sounding!

1. Revelation’s seals cycle and trumpet cycle show that God directs the disasters that we witness on earth, whether
they arise from natural causes (hurricanes and tornadoes, earthquakes and pandemics) or human aggression
(wars, riots, criminal violence). How should this reality—God’s sovereign control over the world’s worst
miseries—influence our response to daily news filled with human chaos and cruelty, sorrow and suffering?
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2. God protected his people Israel from plagues that he inflicted on the Egyptians, their oppressors (Exod.
8:22; 9:4, 6, 26; 10:23; 11:7; 12:13). Why does God not spare Christ’s followers today from harm when storms,
floods, fires, disease, or violence befall the communities in which we live?
READ REVELATION 8:13–9:12 (BIBLE STUDY P. 49)

A THREEFOLD “WOE”
The fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets are grouped by an eagle’s cry, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth,
at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!” (8:13) This threefold “woe” signals the
intensification of destructive judgments. These judgments will be worse than those associated with the first four
trumpets, and their increasing severity will show that the era in which God restrains his wrath is nearing its end. The
eagle’s cry also announces that these woes will focus on “those who dwell on the earth”—that is, on rebellious human
beings, united in defiance of God (3:10; 6:10; 11:10; 13:8, 14; 14:6). The judgments associated with the first four trumpets
afflicted the environment that supports human life and community (land, sea, water, sky); but now the targets of the
escalating anguish are wicked human beings who do not bear the Lamb’s seal of ownership.
When the fifth trumpet sounds, another star falls from heaven. This judgment, like the others, originates from the
altar on which suffering saints’ prayers ascend before the throne of God. The star has a key to unlock the shaft of the
bottomless pit. This abyss is the prison in which Satan and his demons are held in custody, awaiting their condemnation
and eternal sentencing at the last judgment (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; see Luke 8:31–33). Later visions will show that Christ’s
sacrifice and exaltation have expelled Satan the accuser from heaven (Rev. 12:1–12) and have locked him in the abyss,
so he cannot continue to deceive the Gentile nations (20:1–3). Satan will be released briefly after his long captivity,
only to be condemned and utterly destroyed by God’s fiery wrath (see Lessons 6 and 9).
The scene introduced by the fifth trumpet foreshadows the last battle, when Satan will be released briefly to deceive
and gather the nations in defiance of God (20:7–10). In the billowing smoke that rises from the shaft, a cavalry of
“locusts” rides forth. But these are not vegetation-destroying insects, like the eighth plague on Egypt (Exod. 10:1–20)
and the infestation in Joel 2. These locusts symbolize an outbreak of demonic affliction on rebellious humanity.
Their power to harm is limited in two ways. First, they are forbidden from harming grass or tree. Second, they cannot
torment Christians who bear the seal of God (Rev. 7:3–14; see 3:12; 14:1–5; 22:3–4). The only targets of their torment
are people who rebel against God and the Lamb. Their sting is excruciating, but not lethal. In fact, since these are evil
spirits, the torments that they inflict seem to be not primarily physical, but spiritual, mental, and emotional (anxiety,
terror, and despair). Their victims suffer anguish so intense that they “long to die, but death will flee from them”
(9:5–6). Their king is the angel of the abyss, Satan, who fits his title “Destroyer,” in Hebrew/Aramaic and in Greek.
John’s vision shows the widespread escalation of demonic torture, striking fear and hopelessness into unbelieving
hearts as history approaches its conclusion at the return of Christ.
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1. How does the vision of the fifth trumpet dramatize the truth that Satan, despite his evil purposes, cunning,
and strength, is under God’s control and cannot harm anyone apart from our Creator’s will?
2. This vision exposes the lie of Satan’s claim to have our best interests at heart, which he used to tempt Eve
(Gen. 3:1–5). Have you witnessed ways in which people willingly offer themselves as slaves of Satan, only
to receive misery of heart and despair at the hands of that cruel master?

The sixth trumpet, which heralds the second “woe,” is the last warning blast, calling rebels to repent before the
seventh—the last—trumpet sounds, heralding the end of God’s patient forbearance at the return of Christ (compare
Rev. 11:15–18 with 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16). A voice from heaven’s incense altar commands that “angels” previously
restrained “at the great river Euphrates” now be released, so that a vast warrior horde surges across the world, wreaking
widespread slaughter. In biblical history, Assyria and Babylon had come from the Euphrates to conquer Israel and
Judah. In John’s day, Roman authorities feared invasion from the east by the daunting Parthian cavalry, across the
Euphrates. Appropriately, then, “Euphrates” stands for the source of terrifying bloodshed.
But John notes that it is “in my vision” that he sees this brutal cavalry slaying “a third of mankind” through the fiery
fumes (“fire, smoke, sulfur”) pouring out of their horses’ mouths. John’s vision is symbolic, so the deadly invasion
from the Euphrates is not merely human in origin. In fact, the sixth bowl will show that deceiving demons sent by
the dragon and its co-conspirators will deceive “the kings of the whole world,” forming an alliance of defiance against
God the Almighty (Rev. 16:12–16; see 19:17–21; 20:7–10). The devil is both a murderer and a liar (John 8:44). John’s
sixth-trumpet and sixth-bowl visions of death and destruction invading from “the Euphrates” portray the climax of
warfare, violence, and death as world rulers follow the deceit of the arch-murderer, Satan, to their own ruin.
The insane hardness of the corrupt human heart is displayed in the fact that “the rest of mankind, who were not
killed by these plagues, did not repent” of worshiping the demons who were torturing them. Nor did they repent of
worshiping idols that cannot see or hear or walk (Ps. 115:4–7). Despite repeated “trumpet blasts” warning of impending
justice, sinners still embrace Satan’s lie and, therefore, their own death.

1. What examples have you seen of people’s proneness to cling to self-destructive choices, even when the
negative consequences become more and more obvious? Why do we persist in sinful ways of living, rather
than repenting and casting ourselves on God’s mercy?
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2. The judgments introduced by the trumpet blasts seem ineffective to pierce hearts and produce repentance.
So, do the trumpet-judgments accomplish any purpose? What act of God is strong enough to pierce hard
hearts and produce deep repentance?

A N OT H E R E X T E N D E D I N T E R LU D E
As in the seals cycle, between the sixth and seventh trumpets comes an extended interlude. Like the interlude visions of
the sealed Israel and the international multitude of worshipers (Rev. 7), the interlude visions of Revelation 10:1–11:14
give encouraging glimpses of God’s protection of his own people, even as he attacks his and their enemies in his wrath.
The appearance of a mighty angel introduces the first interlude vision. The angel’s appearance reflects the radiance
of the Son of Man (face like the sun, 1:16) and God on his throne (rainbow, 4:3), and the angel carries an opened
scroll, the scroll that the Lamb has opened, seal by seal (5:7; 6:1–8:1).1 Some scholars, therefore, conclude that this
messenger (Greek “angel” means messenger) is actually Christ himself. But this is Christ’s messenger, sent to John;
and this vision shows the completion of the process that was profiled in Revelation 1:1–2.
JOHN’S COMMISSIONING AS PROPHET
Preview (Rev. 1:1–2) Visions (Rev. 5 & 10)
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God 5:7: The Lamb “took the scroll from the right
gave him…. hand from him who was seated on the throne.”
He made it known by sending his angel to his 10:1–10: the mighty angel “had a little scroll
servant John… open in his hand…I took the scroll from the hand
of the angel and ate it.”
Who bore witness to the word of God and the 10:11: “You must again prophesy about many
testimony of Jesus… peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
1
Revelation 10 calls the book in the angel’s hand a “little scroll” (verse 2, 9, 10) and a “scroll” (verse 8). Because of this variation,
some scholars think this “little scroll” differs from the “scroll” received and opened by the Lamb in Revelation 5–8. But Revelation
1:1–2 has previewed the transfer of the scroll from God to the Lamb (Rev. 5), and then from his angel to John (Rev. 10). The same
scroll appears in Revelation 5 and 10. By breaking the scroll’s seals, the Lamb has opened it; now his angel delivers this opened
scroll to John. The scroll is “little” in contrast to the enormous stature of the mighty angel.
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Before the angel entrusts the scroll to John, the angel swears a solemn oath in the name of the ever-living Creator.
The oath is this: the era of God’s patience, which has created a window in time for rebels to repent, is ending: “there
would be no more delay” (10:6). The seriousness of the oath and its universal extent are shown in the angel’s posture.
He stands on sea and on land and raises his right hand to heaven—engaging the three spheres of environment that
have suffered the Lord’s fury in the early trumpet visions. His raised hand invokes God as sovereign witness to the
truth of his declaration that when the seventh trumpet sounds “the mystery of God would be fulfilled.” As ancient
prophets summoned heaven and earth to witness Israel’s breach of covenant with the Lord by withholding rain and
crops (Deut. 31:28–32:3; 28:23–24; Isa. 1:2–3), so now the whole created order will attest the final and total imposition
of God’s just wrath on rebellious humanity.
Jesus counseled his followers not to be alarmed by reports of wars, famines, and earthquakes. Such miseries would
persist in every generation, but “the end is not yet” (Matt. 24:6–8). Now, however, when the seventh trumpet sounds,
the end will have arrived. The opportunity for repentance will have passed forever. This may be why John is forbidden
to write what the seven thunders spoke, since that record would have prolonged the suspense before the climax. Now
the only remaining cycle of seven will be the bowls that contain “seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the
wrath of God is finished” (Rev. 15:1; ch. 16).
Having announced the end of the era of God’s forbearance, the angel completes John’s commission as a true prophet.
Like Isaiah and Ezekiel, John has already been summoned to enter God’s royal court in heaven (Rev. 4:1). Now John is
given the scroll that the Lamb has opened, written on front and back, like the scroll presented to the prophet Ezekiel
(Rev. 5:1; Ezek. 2:9–10). Like Ezekiel, John must eat God’s message, and then speak it from his inmost being (see.
Ezek. 3:1–3). God’s word is sweet in his mouth—sweeter than honey, said the Psalmist (Ps. 119:103). But its sweetness
turns bitter in his belly. His message about “many peoples and nations and languages” will be both sweet and bitter:
It proclaims not only the sweet truth that the Lamb has redeemed people from all the nations (5:9; 7:9), but also the
bitter reality that all the nations will worship the beast and the dragon (11:9; 13:7; 17:15). Even for those who belong
to the Lamb and bear his seal of ownership, John’s message is both bitter and sweet: bitter with persecution, but
sweet with the promise of God’s presence and protection.

1. 2 Peter 3:3–13 acknowledges that some people doubt Jesus’ promise to return because, in their opinion,
he has delayed too long. What reason does Peter give for God’s extending his patience? How should Peter’s
words and the mighty angel’s solemn oath in Revelation 10 influence the way Jesus’ followers live day by
day, as we await his second coming?
2. Why does speaking God’s word, as John was called to do, involve delivering both sweet and bitter truth?
What preferences or pressures might tempt us to savor the sweet and suppress the bitter? What will result
if we refuse to speak God’s bitter words to those who need to hear them? (Note the analogy of the watchman
in Ezekiel 3:10–21, soon after the prophet obediently eats the scroll.)
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M E AS U R E D, Y E T V U L N E R A B L E ; I N V I N C I B L E , Y E T CO N Q U E R E D
The interlude continues, intensifying our suspense as we await the blast of the last trumpet. As in Revelation 7, two
visions are joined to interpret one another. In Revelation 7, we recall, the precisely numbered thousands of Israel’s
tribes and the innumerable multi-ethnic choir are complementary perspectives on the true people of God, protected
by his seal and purged by the Lamb’s blood. Now, John views God’s temple and holy city, paradoxically measured
(protected) and yet vulnerable to attack (Rev. 11:1–2); and then he sees God’s witnesses, paradoxically invincible as
they testify and yet conquered and killed by the beast, to the delight of rebellious humanity (11:3–14).
Two items of background, one biblical and one historical, help explain the brief vision in which John is directed to
measure the temple, its altar, and its worshipers but not its courtyard. First, Ezekiel 40–48 gives an extended vision
in which the prophet sees a new temple of God, transcending the sanctuary that the Babylonians had destroyed. A
“man whose appearance was like bronze” (40:3) measures the temple’s courts, sanctuary, and altar; and dimensions
are meticulously reported. Now John is directed to measure the temple of God and the altar and “those who worship
there.” The mention of these worshipers shows that the temple symbolizes the people of God, who are his new, true
temple, as other New Testament passages teach (1 Cor. 3:16–17; Eph 2:20–22; 1 Pet. 2:4–10).
In Revelation itself, the connection between the temple and God’s people already appeared in Christ’s promise to
make the conqueror “a pillar in the temple of my God” (Rev. 3:12). “Measuring” secures God’s protection, as we
see from the fact that the unmeasured outer courtyard is identified with the “holy city,” which will be trampled by
the nations. The historical background to this vision is the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman forces in AD 70, a
judgment on unbelieving Israel predicted by Jesus himself: “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles
[nations]” (Luke 21:20–24). In Revelation, however, “the holy city” is not the earthly city Jerusalem, the center of
Judaism, which already lay in ruins. Rather, “the holy city” in Revelation is the community indwelt by God and the
Lamb (Rev. 21:2–4)—the church that holds the testimony of Jesus and so suffers the hostility of Satan (20:7–10). The
vision’s point is that the church (God’s temple, the holy city) is paradoxically measured but unmeasured, protected
and yet exposed to attack. How can this be? The bittersweet message is that God will safeguard his own from spiritual
apostasy—no power can separate us from God’s love (Rom. 8:35–39)—but not from suffering and persecution (Acts
14:22; 2 Cor. 4:16–18).
The vision of the two witnesses presents the same sobering but comforting message. The two witnesses are portrayed
as olive trees and lampstands, in imagery drawn from Zechariah 4. In Zechariah, the two olive trees stand for two
anointed ones, Zerubbabel the king and Joshua the priest. In Revelation, these witnesses also have a prophetic role:
They testify on behalf of God’s truth against God’s enemies with their prophetic witness confirmed by signs previously
associated with Moses and Elijah (Rev. 11:5–7, 10; Exod. 7–9; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 1:10–12). We have heard those
redeemed by the Lamb described as kings and priests (5:10) and as witnesses who speak “the testimony of Jesus”
(2:13; 6:9). Might these two witnesses symbolize the whole church? Our hunch is confirmed when we read here that
the beast “made war on [the witnesses] and conquered them” (11:7), and later that the beast was allowed “to make war
on the saints and to conquer them” (13:7). The two witnesses are “the holy city,” viewed from the standpoint of the
church’s calling as kings and priests and, especially, as prophets charged to bear witness against rebellious humanity.
The 42 months of the holy city’s trampling by the nations coincides with the 1,260 days of the witnesses’ prophesying.
These timeframes are derived from the “time, times, and half a time” (1 + 2 + 1/2 = 3 1/2 years) in Daniel 7 (see Rev. 12:14).
There they represent the age dominated by the last “beastly” kingdom to oppress the saints of the Most High, before
the Son of Man establishes God’s unchallenged, universal reign (Dan. 7:14–27). These timespans represent the era that
extends from Christ’s ascension until the brief trauma that immediately precedes his second coming (Rev. 20:7–10).
These prophetic witnesses experience a surprising career arc. First, they are invincible until their task of testifying
is complete. Then, they are conquered, killed, and exposed to shame, their murders celebrated by the ungodly. Finally,
they are raised to life and exalted to heaven by the power of God. They follow the footsteps of their Lord, who could
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not be killed until his “hour” had come (John 7:30; 8:20; see Luke 4:29–30); then endured crucifixion amid the crowd’s
derision (12:8); and finally was raised from the dead and “went up to heaven in a cloud” (Rev. 11:12; see Acts 1:9). This
is the pattern that God has ordained for Christ’s people in this age: protection amid persecution, in anticipation of
our resurrection at Christ’s glorious return.

1. Can you find encouragement in the bittersweet message of the visions of the measured temple with its
unmeasured courtyard, and the two witnesses, namely that God will protect us from Satan’s assault on our
faith and preserve us for the sake of our witness; but that we must also expect to be persecuted for our faith?
Is there comfort in both the bitter and the sweet “tastes” of these truths?
2. How does Revelation’s juxtaposition of “the holy city” to “the great city in which their Lord was crucified”
redefine who actually belongs to the people of God? How is this redefinition of God’s people expressed in
Jesus’ assessment of “those who claim to be Jews” in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9? In Paul’s discussion of the
offspring and heirs of Abraham in Galatians 3:26–29; 4:21–31?

THE SEVENTH TRUMPET
The sounding of the seventh trumpet surprises us. The earthly “woes” introduced by the fifth and sixth trumpets
lead us to expect a scene of ultimate “woe”: the complete destruction of earth’s rebellious residents. Instead, we
hear voices in heaven, celebrating the completion of God’s re-conquest of his legitimate domain: “The kingdom of
the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” God has “taken
[his] great power and begun to reign.” The last judgment has arrived, and with it the vindication of God’s servants
and the destruction of the destroyers of the earth.
Before the last battle is joined, however, the opening of God’s temple in heaven signals the start of a new cycle of
visions at the heart of this book. This vision cycle (ch. 12–19) sets the often-confusing experience of first-century and
twenty-first-century Christians into the widest redemptive-historical context and the deepest theological context.
It shows us the conflict between the dragon/serpent and the woman’s offspring that started in Eden; reached its
turning point at the incarnation, death, and exaltation of God’s Son; and will arrive at its finale at Christ’s return.
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1. The New Testament teaches that Jesus inaugurated God’s redemptive kingdom on earth at his first coming.
In what sense did Christ bring God’s kingdom in his first coming? That is, what’s different, now that Christ
lived, died, rose, and ascended to God’s right hand?
2. Jesus also taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Revelation
11:11–15 shows that it’s when the last trumpet sounds that the kingdom of the world will become, fully and
forever, the kingdom of God and his Christ. What aspects of God’s kingdom still await fulfillment at Christ’s
second coming?

3. Although the language of insurance policies has sometimes categorized hurricanes, tornados, earth-
quakes, flooding, and wildfires as “acts of God,” many people today, their worldview constricted by
modernity’s utter faith in the natural sciences, attribute such disasters strictly to natural causes. How
does this constricted perception of reality blind people to God’s purposes in dealing with his creatures
and make them deaf to the role of “natural” (as well as manmade) catastrophes as God-given trumpet
blasts, warning of impending judgment?
4. In Luke 13:1–5, notice how Jesus turned two recent disasters (Pilate’s slaughter of Galileans, and
people crushed by the collapse of the tower of Siloam) into “trumpet” warnings. The Bible calls us to
a variety of responses to the tragedies that confront our communities, our countries, and the world.
What response does Jesus expect here? What other ways should we respond to the woes that beset the
human family on our sin-cursed planet?
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65
S H E G AV E B I R T H T O A M A L E C H I L D , O N E
W H O I S T O R U L E A L L T H E N AT I O N S W I T H
A R O D O F I R O N , B U T H E R C H I L D WA S
C AU G H T U P TO G O D A N D TO H I S T H R O N E ,
A N D T H E WO M A N F L E D I N TO T H E
WILDERNESS, WHERE SHE HAS A PLACE
P R E PA R E D B Y G O D , I N W H I C H S H E I S T O
B E N O U R I S H E D F O R 1 , 2 6 0 D AY S .
R E V E L A TION 1 2 : 5 – 6
Lesson 6
The
TURNING
POINT:
M E S S I A H and
his M O T H E R
vs. the
D R A G O N and
its B E A S T S
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O Lord, you are our defender and our protector, the shield of our help and the sword of our triumph (Deut. 33:29).
Arrayed against us are enemies more cunning than we are, hostile forces that can easily overpower us, for “we
do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers
over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). But we know
that “the battle is the Lord’s” (1 Sam. 17:47). And we thank you that you have won the decisive victory over our
ancient foe through the most surprising strategy: the weakness of Christ’s cross. By the sacrifice of your beloved
Son, you have satisfied your wrath against our sin and erased the Satan-Accuser’s charges against us, casting our
prosecutor out of your heavenly court forever. Because through his death Jesus destroyed the devil, who had the
power of death, and delivered us from slavery to the fear of death (Heb. 2:14–15), with consciences cleansed by
the blood of the Lamb, we worship you in awestruck wonder, shouting, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits
on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:10). Amen, and amen!
READ TOGETHER: GENESIS 37:5–11; REVELATION 12:1–6 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

1. Joseph’s dreams were not the product of his subconscious mind working overtime as he slept. The rest
of the story of Joseph in Genesis 37–50 shows that they were revelations given by God in the form of
symbolic previews of coming events. What was the common message of both dreams? Why did God give
Joseph two dreams with differing imagery instead of just one? Note that God later gives two dreams to
Pharaoh, which Joseph interprets with the explanation that “the dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has
revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do” (Gen. 41:25).
2. What imagery from Joseph’s dreams reappears in Revelation 12:1–6? What does this symbolism suggest
about the identity of the “woman” who gives birth in John’s vision?
READ GENESIS 37:5–11; REVELATION 12:1–6 (BIBLE STUDY P. 58)

THE CORE OF THE CONFLICT
We’ve reached the heart of the book of Revelation. This is not simply the midpoint of the book. It’s the vision sequence
that goes deepest, to the core of the conflicts and chaos that bring misery, mourning, violence, disease, pain, sorrow,
and death into this sin-cursed world. Behind all this world’s woes throughout human history is the power struggle
between God the Creator and Satan the usurper, the God who is truth and Satan the liar, the God who gives life and
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Satan the murderer. The warfare wages so long because God’s purpose is to conquer Satan while rescuing Satan’s
willing captives through the offspring of a woman who would arrive in the fullness of time to engage the ancient
serpent in mortal combat.
The sixth seal showed the end of history, when the first heaven and earth, stained by sin and suffering, will be shaken
and shattered (6:12–17). Likewise, the seventh trumpet announced the end of history (10:7), when God’s kingdom
will have fully arrived in the new earth, cleansed of all sin and suffering (11:15). A later vision will show John the
replacement of the first heaven and earth by a newly re-created cosmos (20:11; 21:1). As we saw in Lesson 1, these
repeated “video-replays” or reduplication in the cycles of visions amplify each other. Now again, having heard the last
trumpet, we view with our brother John a series of visions that take us back to the dawn of human history, setting the
church’s present suffering and struggle in the context of the age-old conflict between Christ, the woman’s offspring,
on the one hand, and “the great dragon, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan” (12:9), on the other.
Like Joseph’s twin dreams in Genesis 37, the two visions in Revelation 12 are complementary portraits of the same
decisive battle in the great spiritual war that has raged throughout human history. In the first vision, John sees two
“signs” in heaven: a woman in labor, about to give birth, and a great red dragon, ready to devour her son at his birth.
The dragon’s murderous intention is thwarted by God, as the woman’s “male child” ascends to God’s throne. The
woman, however, remains on earth. She flees into a wilderness, where God protects and feeds her. In the second
vision, Michael, the captain of God’s holy angelic army, defeats the dragon and its forces, throwing the dragon out of
heaven down to earth. Satan’s expulsion is explained by a loud voice in heaven: “The accuser of our brothers has been
thrown down…they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (12:10–11).
Again, Satan’s evil purposes are thwarted. But again, the woman who gave birth to the Lamb remains on earth, exposed
to the dragon’s assault but protected by God in the wilderness.
PARALLELS BETWEEN THE VISIONS
Revelation 12:1–6 Revelation 12:7–17
Protagonists: Woman, her Son, Dragon Protagonists: Michael, (Lamb), Dragon
Conflict: Dragon ready to destroy the Son Conflict: War in heaven
Dragon defeated: The Son caught up to heaven Dragon defeated: Expelled from heaven, cannot
accuse the brothers, who conquer by blood
of the Lamb
Aftermath (dragon thwarted): Woman flees to Aftermath (dragon thwarted): Dragon pursues
wilderness, where she is protected woman, who is protected in wilderness
The similarities in the “aftermath” of the battle (verses 6, 13–17) confirm that these visions offer complementary
perspectives on the same decisive battle in the history-long conflict between the offspring and the serpent.
The opening of God’s temple in heaven (11:19) introduces this vision, as the vision of God enthroned and the Lamb
(Rev. 4–5) set the scene for the seals cycle, and the heavenly scene of incense with prayers offered before God’s throne
opened the trumpets cycle (8:1–6). The “temple” is the heavenly Holy of Holies, the inner chamber filled with the
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radiant glory of God that resides between the cherubim that guard the ark of the covenant itself (Exod. 25:10–22).
Now, the display of God’s terrifying glory is intensified, as earthquake and hail are added to the lightning, rumblings,
and thunder that accompanied John’s first invitation to heaven “in the Spirit” (Rev. 4:5).
The woman is called “a great sign,” so she must be interpreted symbolically. Her clothing—sun, moon, 12 stars—con-
nects her with Joseph’s dream and identifies her as the covenant people descended from Israel. (We recall, of course,
that the twin visions of Revelation 7 taught us that God defines his people Israel not genetically but covenantally and
spiritually, including countless believers “from every nation.”) This identification of the woman with God’s people is
confirmed by the wording, “she gave birth to a male child,” which alludes to Isaiah’s prophecy that God will restore
Zion’s ability to bear children (Isa. 66:7–11; see 54:1–3). Her son is the anointed king, the royal descendant of David
who “is to rule the nations with a rod of iron,” as foreseen in Psalm 2:7–9.
The second vision of Revelation 12 invites us to see the woman in an even broader redemptive-historical perspective.
We learn that her opponent, the dragon, is also “that ancient serpent,” and that when the dragon cannot destroy her
messianic son, it wages “war on the rest of her offspring” (12:9, 17). These details take us back to the Garden of Eden,
where God cursed the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her
offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). These twin visions portray the decisive
battle in that age-old conflict between Satan and the woman’s offspring, which began with humanity’s fall into sin.
That battle was joined at the incarnation, life, sacrificial death, and glorious exaltation (resurrection and ascension)
of Jesus Christ. The dragon’s appearance, red like blood and with seven heads and diadems and ten horns, symbolizes
his murderous purpose and daunting cunning and power.
The dragon’s plot to destroy the woman’s son came to expression in various incidents that were visible in history.
Some threatened the Messiah’s physical life: Herod’s slaughter of Bethlehem’s boys (Matt. 2:16-18), mob violence
(Luke 4:28–30; John 8:59; 10:31–33), and finally the cross (1 Cor. 2:8). The devil also attacked the Savior spiritually
through temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11) and even in the mouth of a close disciple (Matt. 16:21–23). Satan
didn’t realize that, by using evil men to crucify Jesus, the devil was defeating himself—destroying his own power
over believers:
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that
through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who
through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Heb. 2:14–15)
The Messiah’s triumph over the dragon is so decisive that the drama in the first vision moves immediately from the
son’s birth to his ascension to the throne of God, not even mentioning his redemptive suffering, which has already
been announced and will be again in the second vision (1:7; 5:9; 7:14; 12:11).
The aftermath of the dragon’s failed attempt to destroy the woman’s son is sketched in the first vision (12:6), to be
elaborated in the second (12:13–17). The woman “fled into the wilderness,” we will see, because she was being pursued
by her enemy. She is nourished there, as Elijah was during Israel’s drought (1 Kings 17:2–6), for 1,260 days—the span
of time in which God’s faithful witnesses testify against the rebellious peoples of the world (11:3). Throughout this era
between the first and second comings of Christ, God will not allow Satan to eradicate the church and its testimony
to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

1. It’s understandable that the first-century churches of Asia Minor and twenty-first-century Christians are
vividly aware of the challenges to our faith in our own times and places. How can this preoccupation with
“the present” skew our perception of how the power struggle over the course of history is trending? Having
brought us to the trumpet that heralds the end of history, why does God now give John visions that “zoom
out” to provide a panoramic perspective on the whole scope of history, from the fall into sin to the glorious
return of Jesus, the woman’s offspring?
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2. Is “the wilderness” a geographical location of refuge on earth, or a symbol of the entire globe, wherever
Christians live? If it’s symbolic, what message should we derive from the fact that our current residence—
whether urban or rural, marginal or comfortable—is portrayed as “wilderness”? How should Israel’s wil-
derness pilgrimage under Moses’ leadership influence our mindset toward the communities in which we
live day by day?
READ REVELATION 12:7–17; ZECHARIAH 3:1–9 (BIBLE STUDY P. 60)

CO N Q U E R E D BY T H E B LO O D O F T H E L A M B
While the first vision shows that Satan was powerless to destroy the Messiah, the second shows that Satan has no
standing to accuse those who trust and serve the Messiah before God’s heavenly tribunal. The imagery is a clash of
armies in heaven, with Michael (a “great prince” in Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; an “archangel” in Jude 9) commanding the
angelic host loyal to God against the dragon and its rebellious hoard of fallen angels. The defeat of the dragon and
its expulsion from heaven now provides another perspective on the incarnation, death, and exaltation of Christ, in
imagery used by Jesus himself in his earthly ministry, as his disciples celebrated their victory over demons in the
authority of his name: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on
serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you” (Luke 10:18–19). A loud
voice in heaven explains the significance of Satan’s fall:
Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for
the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they
have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives
even unto death. (Rev. 12:10–11)
In the Old Testament, Satan had appeared before God to accuse Job, falsely, of serving God only for the blessings
God gave him (Job 1). Later, Satan accused the high priest Joshua as well, and Joshua’s soiled robes showed that the
charges were justified. Yet the Lord rebuked the accuser and purified the guilty defendant Joshua, making him a sign,
pointing forward in history to the arrival of the Branch and the cleansing of “the iniquity of this land in a single day”
(Zech. 3:1–9). That was the day when Jesus died on the cross, and “the blood of the Lamb” is the weapon that gives
Christians the decisive victory over Satan the accuser.
Jesus’ followers, “our brothers,” share in his victory over their accuser through their faithful testimony, even when
it costs them their lives. In the beautiful paradox of the gospel, just as the Lamb’s being slain was his victory as the
Lion (Rev. 5:5, 9), so also the martyrs’ being “conquered” and killed by the beast is actually their victory over Satan
himself (11:7; 12:11; 13:7).
The woman reappears in the aftermath of the second scene of the dragon’s defeat. Now we learn that the woman
“fled” because the dragon was pursuing her to destroy her. But, as the Lord did for Israel at the Exodus, so he carries
the woman on eagle’s wings to a place of safety and nourishment for “a time, and times, and half a time.” This strange
phrase describes a period of the saints’ suffering in Daniel 7:25. In Revelation, it’s equivalent to 42 months and
1,260 days—the era between the comings of Christ, in which the church testifies for her Lord while simultaneously
undergoing persecution, even to the point of martyrdom (Rev. 11:2–3; 12:6; 13:5). Now the dragon is called by its other
name, serpent, and it pours from its mouth a flood of lies to sweep the church from the earth. In Revelation, what
comes from the mouth pictures the power of words. A sharp sword proceeds from the mouth of the Son of Man, whose
name is the Word of God, symbolizing the incisive power of God’s word to judge hearts (1:16; 19:13–15; see Heb. 4:12;
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Eph. 6:17). Demons who look like frogs emerge from the mouths of the dragon and its beasts to deceive world rulers
with their lies (Rev. 16:13–14). So here the floodwaters that spew from the dragon’s mouth reflect Satan’s efforts to
destroy the church through false teaching. But his murderous plot is thwarted by the earth itself, which swallows
the flood of lies.
Although the ancient serpent can’t destroy the whole church through its storm-surge of falsehood, in its frustrated
rage the dragon has one more weapon in its arsenal: brute force and cruel persecution, wielded against “the rest of
the woman’s offspring,” that is, the individual members of Christ’s church. The dragon therefore stands on the sand
of the sea, in order to call forth from its dark waters the instrument of such brutal assault, a terrifying beast to which
the dragon will delegate power to “make war on the saints and to conquer them” through martyrdom (13:7).

1. First John 3:19–20 tells us, “By this we… reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns
us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” How does John’s vision showing that our
accuser, the Satan, has been expelled from heaven because the Lamb has shed his blood for us reassure us
when we’re tormented by guilt over our sins? In light of the gospel, how should we deal with our sense of
guilt when we’ve failed our God?
2. We tend to view the death of the martyrs and the ongoing persecution experienced by the church on earth
as proof of Satan’s power. In one sense that’s true. But this second vision in Revelation 12 presents both
martyrdom and Christians’ suffering as evidence of Satan’s defeat and impotence. How should this perspective
strengthen our hope and our resolve to hold fast to the testimony of Jesus amid a hostile world?
READ REVELATION 13:1–10; DANIEL 7:1–8 (BIBLE STUDY P. 62)

THE BEAST RISING OUT OF THE SEA
The beast that now rises from the sea (previously called “the bottomless pit or abyss,” 11:7) blends features of the four
beasts in Daniel’s vision of four successive world empires that would dominate the people of God and threaten their
very existence. In Daniel 7, the beasts resemble a lion (the Neo-Babylonian empire that took Judah into exile), a bear
(the Medo-Persian empire), a leopard (the Hellenistic empire launched by Alexander and maintained, in fragment
form, by his successors), and a fourth “terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong” beast with ten horns (Rome).
In Revelation, the four converge into one beast to show that, though Rome was the specific expression of the beast’s
arrogance toward God and violence toward his people that currently threatened the churches of Asia, in a larger sense
“the beast” (idolatrous human government) would wage war on Christ’s church for the whole interim between Jesus’
ascension and his second coming—here again, “forty-two months” (that is, 1,260 days or “a time, times, half a time”)
represents the timespan between the Son’s heavenly enthronement on the one hand, and a brief intensification of
assault on his church immediately before his glorious return to earth as victor and judge on the other (see 11:2–3;
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12:6, 14). The beast is a mirror image of the dragon that empowers it, having ten horns (great power) and seven heads
(cunning intelligence) (12:3).
Many Christians identify the beast with the antichrist, a specific individual of unprecedented evil, arrogance, and
power who will arise before Christ’s return to persecute the true church and demand worship for himself. In his
epistles, John speaks of an antichrist to come and “many antichrists” already at large in the days of the apostles,
spreading their lies (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7). Likewise, Paul predicts the future appearance of a “man of
lawlessness,” who will proclaim himself to be God and whom Jesus will destroy at his second coming. Like John,
Paul sees precursors of this self-exalting rebel in his own day, a “mystery of lawlessness…already at work,” though
presently being restrained (2 Thess. 2:3–12). In Revelation, however, the imagery drawn from Daniel 7 places the
focus of attention not on a specific individual but on governments and empires that claim for themselves worship
that rightly belongs only to God himself, and that wield their weapons to suppress and slaughter Christ’s followers.
It seems that a specific antichrist (a man of lawlessness) will head such a self-deifying regime at the climax of world
history, but in every generation the beast itself wages war against the saints with bloodthirsty brutality.
The beast is a counterfeit of the true and living God, and of his Christ. Having crossed the Red Sea on dry land, Israel
confessed, “Who is like you, O Lord, …majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exod. 15:11)
The beast’s worshipers apply this confession, blasphemously, to the beast. The Lamb was slain to redeem his people,
but he came to life again forevermore (Rev. 1:18; 5:6). The beast, too, “seemed to have a mortal wound,” which had been
healed (see below). The Lamb shed his blood to ransom for God people belonging to “every tribe and language and
people and nation” (5:9). The beast rules and is worshiped by “every tribe and people and language and nation”—all
who dwell on earth. But the beast’s claims to glory are a sham.
Although the beast wages war on the saints and can “conquer” them by killing them (compare 11:7 with 13:7),
ultimately Jesus’ followers have the victory over the dragon that stands behind the beast’s brutality (12:11). Their
names were written in the Lamb’s book of life before the foundation of the world, and their inclusion in that
heavenly registry secures their vindication at the last judgment (3:5; 20:12, 15; 21:15; see Phil. 4:3). Captivity and
death may await Jesus’ witnesses in the mysterious and irresistible purpose of God, but their eternal life is secured
by the Lamb who was slain for them. This assurance summons the saints to endure suffering, trusting in God’s sure
promises (13:10).

1. The apostles prepared first-century Christians to expect the eventual appearance of the antichrist, the
man of lawlessness; but they also alerted them to the present operation of “many antichrists” and “the
mystery of lawlessness” in their own day. The book of Revelation also calls the saints to endure present
opposition from the beast, and to expect intensified persecution before Christ’s return. How does the New
Testament’s balance safeguard us from date-setting hysteria (Mark 13:32; Acts 1:6), on the one hand, and
from heedless complacency (Luke 12:35–48; 2 Pet. 3:4), on the other?
2. What are some ways that Satan uses this world’s institutions to counterfeit and mimic the saving work of
God in Christ?
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3. Human government is “a servant of God” to uphold justice (Rom. 13:1–7) but can also usurp God’s place in its
demand for allegiance and promises of provision (Rev. 13). So how should Christians view their relationship
to the governments of the nations in which they live?

THE BEAST RISING OUT OF THE EARTH
The second beast that arises from the earth is another counterfeit of the true and living God. Its appearance resembles
the Lamb, but its speech betrays its actual allegiance to the dragon. This beast will later be called “the false prophet”
(16:13; 19:20), and its mission is to persuade and, when necessary, coerce earth’s inhabitants to worship the beast
from the sea and its idolatrous image. Just as the Lord authenticated his true spokesmen (for example Moses,
Elijah, the apostles) through miraculous signs, so this false prophet generates counterfeit miracles to reinforce its
blasphemous, idolatrous message.
Because the vision of the beasts in Daniel 7 taught us to view the first beast institutionally (kingdoms) instead of
individually—not merely a specific “man of lawlessness,” but God-defying regimes abusing their political and military
power—we should also interpret this second beast institutionally. It portrays such godless governments’ self-deifying
demands for their subjects’ unqualified allegiance and worship. In the ancient world, many nations claimed that their
kings were closely connected with the gods, descended from the gods, or en route to becoming gods. One example
is the massive golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar required his subjects to worship (Dan. 3). In John’s day, the
Roman Empire was being influenced by the “divine ruler” ideology that pervaded Mesopotamia, Egypt, and elsewhere.
First, emperors were believed to be “divinized” after death. So, for example, the city of Ephesus boasted a temple
for “the divine Julius [Caesar] and the Goddess Roma (divine patroness and personification of the empire’s glory);
and Pergamum, “where Satan’s throne is” (Rev. 2:13), had a temple devoted to “the divine Augustus and the Goddess
Roma.” By the end of the first century, when John was receiving the visions he recorded in Revelation, the Emperor
Domitian awarded himself the title “Our Lord and God.”
History shows that governments can lay claim to their subjects’ unreserved trust and devotion without idols,
incense, or the other aspects of worship. Regimes embracing atheistic communism not only deny the Creator but
also oppress people of faith who are conscience-bound to obey God rather than man. Elsewhere, sharia law imposes
Islamic domination over the population, oppressing or persecuting followers of the Son of God. Where secular
humanism molds a culture and its political-economic system, though the state may not resort to imprisoning or
martyring Christians, they will face pressure to keep their faith “private,” banned from the public square, or else to be
marginalized and excluded. This is the significance of the “mark,” the name of the beast, with which the false prophet
brands the beast’s worshipers. Like the seal of God’s and the Lamb’s name that sets apart the saints (7:3–8; 14:1–5;
see 3:12), the beast’s mark is not physical. Rather, both insignias symbolize a sovereign’s control over his subjects’
thoughts and actions (forehead and right hand). Unlike God’s seal, however, the beast’s mark provides no protection
from the coming wrath of the Lamb. Through the threat of the sword and the lie of civil religion, the dragon vents its
frustration and wages its war against the rest of the woman’s offspring, sparing nothing in its desperation to silence
the church’s testimony about Jesus (12:17).
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1. What forms of religious deception and societal and economic pressure do we see operating across the globe
today, assaulting Christians’ faith in and faithfulness to their Lord?
2. Which is the greater threat to “the endurance and faith of the saints” (13:10): the physical threat of impris-
onment and martyrdom (“captivity” and “sword”), or the seduction of false teaching and the appeal of social
acceptance? Why?
3. How can Jesus’ followers guard our own and each other’s hearts from the dragon’s attack through the “beast
rising out of the earth” (13:11)?

1. How do the twin visions of Revelation 12 dramatize the paradox of the gospel: that the weakness of
Christ’s cross is God’s power for salvation (1 Cor. 1:18–25)? What are the implications of this gospel
paradox for our own expectations about what we will experience in our walk with Christ in this sin-
stained world?
2. Our daily news feeds pour out a constant flow of reasons for dismay and despair: pandemics, injustice,
violence, wars, storms, floods, fires, devastation. The visions at the heart of Revelation (chapters
12–13) realistically portray these miseries and their diabolical source, yet those visions place them in
a perspective that offers hope. What is the basis of that hope?
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3. These central visions illustrate Martin Luther’s words:
“And though this world, with devils filled,

should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him.
His rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure.
One little word shall fell him”
What is that “little word,” and why does it spell the devil’s doom?

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T H E N I S AW A N O T H E R A N G E L F LY I N G
D I R E C T LY O V E R H E A D , W I T H A N E T E R N A L
G OS P E L TO P R O C L A I M TO T H OS E W H O
D W E L L O N E A R T H , T O E V E R Y N AT I O N A N D
TRIBE AND LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE. AND
H E SA I D W I T H A LO U D VO I C E , “ F E A R G O D
A N D G I V E H I M G L O R Y, B E C A U S E T H E H O U R
OF HIS JUDGMENT HAS COME, AND WOR-
S H I P H I M W H O M A D E H E AV E N A N D E A R T H ,
T H E S E A A N D T H E S P R I N G S O F WAT E R . ”
R E V E L A TION 1 4 : 6 – 7
Lesson 7
CONQUERORS,
ANGELS,
HARVESTS,
and
PLAGUES
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O Lord God the Almighty, King of the nations, we join the choir of conquerors standing beside the heavenly sea of
glass in praising the greatness of your deeds, the justice of your ways, the glory of your name, and the uniqueness
of your holiness. We hear your call to endure by keeping your commandments and trusting your Son. We hear
your promise of blessing for those who die in the Lord, holding fast to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
We also see, through the eyes of your servant John, the glory of your majesty and your supreme worthiness to be
worshiped by all your creatures everywhere, in heaven and earth and under the earth and in the sea. But through
John’s eyes we also glimpse the terrifying, murderous power of our ancient foe, the seducer and accuser, Satan.
We’re no match for the dragon’s cunning and strength, so our only hope lies in the fact that you have sealed us
with your name and the name of the Lamb who won the victory by his shed blood. We belong to you. We are the
treasured possession, the beloved bride whom you will never, ever relinquish to another. In your protection,
under your invincible wings, we take refuge when the earth shakes under our feet and the world around us goes
mad. We ask in humble but hopeful confidence, through the Lamb who is our shepherd. Amen.

1. What did we learn in Revelation 7 about the identity of the 144,000? What do we learn here about the
nature of the “seal” that has been applied to them? What does it mean to have the Lamb’s name and his
Father’s name written on your forehead?
2. How were these 144,000 “redeemed from the earth”? How does this text show that being “redeemed”
changes our character and desires?

THE HOUR OF GOD’S JUDGMENT HAS COME
One more cycle of seven remains for John to see in his visions: seven angels pouring out seven bowls full of plagues,
“which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished” (15:1). Toward the close of the trumpet-cycle an angel
had announced that there would be no more delay, but that at the blast of the seventh and last trumpet “the mystery
of God would be fulfilled” (10:7). Now the bowls cycle will dramatize the final trauma that will bring God’s plan for
history to its conclusion with the glorious return of Christ, the unrestrained display of God’s just wrath on the wicked,
and the complete rescue of those who follow the Lamb.
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The bowls cycle and the visions that introduce it, in contrast to most of the seals and trumpets, portray not limited
expressions of divine justice throughout the new covenant era (between Jesus’ ascension and his second coming),
but rather the escalation of divine wrath at the very end of human history (that is, of the first heaven and earth).
An angel announces, “The hour of [God’s] judgment has come” (14:7). Another gives a preview of the eternal
torment awaiting those who worship the beast (14:11; see 20:13–15). Others pronounce the crops of earth’s grain
and grapes fully ripe, ready for harvesting (14:15, 18). At the outpouring of the seventh and last bowl, a loud voice
from God’s heavenly throne pronounces, “It is done!” (16:17). Previous cycles had given glimpses of this finale:
The sixth seal vision had shown the day when the wrath of the Lamb and God on the throne would be poured out
on all classes of rebellious humanity (6:12–16). Likewise, the sixth trumpet introduced preparations for global
combat (9:13–18), when earth’s kings would be gathered for “the battle on the great day of God the Almighty”
when the sixth bowl is poured out (16:12–16). Now, the bowls cycle shows this final trauma in agonizingly slow
motion, from a variety of perspectives.
Introducing the bowls cycle itself (Rev. 15:5–16:21) is a collection of visions that encourages the embattled church
on earth. John sees complementary scenes of believers before God’s heavenly throne (14:1–5; 15:1–4). Between those
glimpses of heavenly joy are visions focusing on the impending judgments by which God will devastate rebellious
humankind, even as he “harvests” his own people for salvation (14:6–20).
The complementary visions of the saints in heaven show that they are conquerors who share the Lamb’s victory over
the dragon and its beasts through their faithful testimony, even when it leads to death (see 12:11). In both scenes, the
saints stand in heaven: on Mount Zion with the Lamb (14:1), or beside the sea of glass surrounding God’s throne (15:2).
In the first vision, they bear the name of the Lamb and his Father (14:1). In the second, they’ve conquered the beast and
repudiated its name (15:2). In both, they sing God’s praises, accompanying themselves with harps (14:2–3; 15:2–3).
The first scene of the triumphant saints identifies them as the 144,000 from Israel’s tribes, to whose foreheads God’s
protective seal was applied before angels unleashed the winds of God’s wrath on the earth (7:1–8). We’ve seen that
these “Israelites,” as John heard them numbered, tribe by tribe, are in fact a countless multitude “from every nation,
from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before God’s throne and the Lamb” in heaven and extolling their
excellencies (7:9–12). They’ve been “redeemed from the earth” (14:3), and we’ve heard the Lamb worshiped because
his blood “ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). (In Revelation 5:9
and 14:3–4, the ESV’s “ransomed” and “redeemed” represent the same Greek term.)
The seal applied to their foreheads is the name of the Lamb and his Father, a sign that they’re God’s property, under
his protection, as Jesus assured conquerors from all nationalities in his edict to Philadelphia (3:13). Their song can
be sung only by those “redeemed from the earth,” perhaps because only those who have personally received God’s
reconciliation can fully appreciate and extol his amazing grace. Unfallen angels long to “look into” the good news
preached to us (1 Pet. 1:12) and do praise the Creator as observers of his costly mercy toward fallen human beings
(Rev. 5:11–12). But “the redeemed of the Lord…whom he has redeemed from trouble” can sing about the wonders of
his steadfast love from our own experience (Ps. 107:1–3).
The Lamb and his army do not stand on an earthly “Mount Zion” in Jerusalem, the site of Herod’s temple and center
of ancient Judaism. That earthly Jerusalem had become the “great city in which their Lord was crucified” (11:8, 13;
compare Gal. 4:25, 29). Rather, they take their stand in the true “holy city,” Christ’s church, which suffers persecution
now (Rev. 11:2) but in the end will descend from heaven as a radiant, beautiful bride (21:2–4, 9–14). The second
vision will show that they stand beside the “sea of glass” in God’s heavenly courtroom, the transparent pavement
that extends before his glorious throne (4:6).
Later in Revelation, the church’s holiness will be pictured in the “fine linen, bright and pure” bestowed on the
bride for her wedding (19:7–8). Here, however, Jesus’ followers are an army engaged in holy war, so our purity is
symbolized by the sexual abstinence that was required of ancient Israel’s warriors, wholly devoted to God’s cause
(1 Sam 21:4–5; see Exod. 19:15; Deut. 23:9). The description that they are “virgins” who “have not defiled them-
selves with women” does not devalue marriage or sexual intimacy in marriage. Rather, it symbolizes “blameless”
character in every respect, demonstrated in the fact that, like the Lord’s suffering servant, “in their mouth no lie
was found” (14:5; Isa. 53:9).
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The second view of the conquering choristers (15:1–4) makes clear that the “Mount Zion” on which they stand is
heavenly, not earthly. They are “standing beside (or ‘on’) the sea of glass,” the crystalline pavement surrounding
the throne of God (4:6; see Exod. 24:9–11; Ezek. 1:22, 26). The glassy sea is “mixed with fire,” reflecting the “seven
torches of fire” that symbolize the Spirit of God in all his divine perfection and presence (4:5). Whereas the first
scene presented them as God’s sealed and protected people, the second shows that they’re conquerors of the beast,
its idolatrous image, and its mark. This description brings us back to the paradox of the gospel, the mystery at the
heart of Christ’s triumph over the forces of evil: He is Judah’s Lion who triumphed by becoming the Lamb slain,
ransoming from all earth’s peoples a people for God (5:5–10). As a result, when the beast “conquers” and kills the
Lamb’s witnesses, his saints (11:8; 13:8), their martyrdom is actually their victory over the dragon, “by the blood of
the Lamb and the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (12:11). Threatened with
violent death for refusing to worship the beast’s image (13:15), they stood fast in faith, like Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego (Dan. 3). As they “lost” their lives, they won the victory.
To the accompaniment of their harps, the conquerors sing God’s praise in a song that’s both old and new. It’s as old as
“Moses, the servant of the Lord,” for it celebrates the ultimate Exodus, which Israel’s deliverance from slavery through
the sea had foreshadowed (see Exod. 15:1–21). Yet their song is new (14:3) because it celebrates the Lamb’s triumph,
the redemptive fulfillment of that ancient rescue (15:3). Whereas earlier songs extolled God’s divine perfections (4:8),
his works of creation and providence (4:11), his saving grace through the Lamb (5:9–13; 7:10), and the consummation
of his kingdom (11:15–18), this song focuses specifically on God’s awesome, upright acts of judgment. Its wording is a
blend of Old Testament passages from Moses (“just and true are your ways,” Dt. 32:4); the prophet Jeremiah (“Who
will not fear you, O King of the nations?” Jer. 10:7); and the Psalms (“All nations will come,” Ps. 86:9; “Your righteous
acts have been revealed,” 98:2). The Lamb who died to redeem God’s people, gathered from all nations (Rev. 5, 7), is
also the royal warrior and judge whose justice will terrorize the wicked (6:16–17; 19:11–21). Like earlier celebrations
of God’s redemptive grace, therefore, here the conquerors’ praise of God’s justice is “the song of the Lamb.”

1. What encouragement can we draw from the portrayal of Christ’s church as those who have been redeemed
from the earth and sealed with the name of the Lamb and his Father on their foreheads? What responsibility
does this imagery place on us as Christians?
2. What encouragement can we draw from the portrayal of Christ’s church as those who have conquered the
beast—refusing to worship its image and to receive its mark? What responsibility does this imagery place
on us as Christians?
3. The conquerors’ song celebrates the justice and holiness of God, a precursor to judgment songs in the coming
visions (16:6–7; 18:1–3; 19:1–5). Do Christians today long for and delight in the coming justice of God and the
Lamb, as well as the amazing grace of God in the Lamb? Do we long for God’s righting of wrongs as fervently
as the Old Testament Psalmists and John’s first century congregations did? If not, why not? What did they
appreciate that we’ve missed?
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F E A R G O D A N D G I V E H I M G LO RY
The visions between the two scenes of God’s victors in heaven are structured by the appearance of seven messengers
from God. First, three angels announce the final hour of God’s judgment, the fall of Babylon the great, and the eternal
doom of those who worship the beast and receive its brand (14:6–13). Then, at the center of the seven messengers
of God, John sees one like a son of man, seated in glory but equipped with a sharp sickle to harvest his grain (14:14).
Then John sees three more angels. The first informs the son of man that the moment of harvest has arrived (14:15–16).
The second bears a sharp sickle for harvesting (14:17); and the third commands him to cut down grape clusters, to be
crushed in the winepress of God’s wrath—the bloody judgment of all who refuse to repent of their rebellion (14:18–20).
The announcements of the first three angels all concern the arrival of God’s final judgment, though their emphases
vary. The first angel heralds “an eternal gospel”—good news that has eternal, life-or-death ramifications (14:6–7).
It’s a final summons to repentance, “Fear God and give him glory…and worship him.” It’s addressed to “those who
dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.” In Revelation, “those who dwell on the earth”
are earth’s unbelieving and evil population, in contrast to those who follow Christ (3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 14).
Christ’s people still sojourn on earth; but we’re aliens, not permanent residents, since our citizenship is in heaven (1
Pet. 1:1–5; 2:11–12; Phil. 3:19–21; Col. 3:1–4; Heb. 11:13–16). So the angel summons sinners to fear, glorify, and worship
God, in view of God’s imminent judgment, offering yet one more last-minute summons to humble themselves and be
welcomed into the company of those ransomed by the Lamb “from every tribe and language and people and nation”
(5:9), who joyfully cry out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (7:9–10).
The second angel’s announcement (14:8) adds urgency to the first’s summons to repentance: “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon
the great.” This echo of Old Testament prophets (Isa. 21:9; see Jer. 51:8) foreshadows a vision sequence not yet shown
to John (Rev. 16:17–19:13). John has seen a “great city,” the crime scene in which Christ’s witnesses were murdered
(11:8). In that vision, the “great city” bore ancient names associated with perverse sexuality (Sodom) and brutal
oppression (Egypt). Now, the addition of “Babylon” introduces the themes of brutal conquest, exile, and captivity.
Later visions concerning “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” (17:5) will show that,
just as the sea-beast symbolizes the self-deifying state’s coercive abuse of political and military force, so Babylon the
prostitute represents the economic pressure of the marketplace and the seductive appeal of affluence. In John’s day,
political, military, and economic power was concentrated in Rome, the imperial capital. But Revelation’s imagery
alerts us to the pervasive threat these foes pose for the church in every generation, across the rise and fall of regimes.
The third angel’s announcement (14:9–11) looks beyond Babylon’s fall to the horrific, unending anguish awaiting
rebels who reject God’s final call to repentance, persisting in their suicidal allegiance to the beast. The idolater will
drink the wine of God’s wrath “full strength” and endure torment in the presence of the Lamb “forever and ever, and
they have no rest, day or night…” This dire prediction anticipates both the destruction of Babylon, when her allies
and supporters turn against her, burning the city with fire, so that “the smoke from her goes up forever and ever”
(19:3), and the endless agony of the dragon, its beasts, and its worshipers in the lake of fire and sulfur, in which they
“will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (20:10–15).
From the three angels’ declarations to the unbelieving world, two conclusions flow for the followers of the Lamb:
First, overhearing our sovereign’s verdict on his enemies fortifies “the endurance of the saints” (14:12).
Repeatedly we have heard the Lord’s summons to endure to the end, in the face of the world’s overt and subtler
hostility (1:9; 2:2–3, 19; 3:10; 13:10). As we hear God’s messengers announcing the approaching day in which he
comes in glory, power, and justice, in answer to the martyrs’ lament, “how long?” (6:10) and the suffering church’s
plea, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (22:20), our “drooping hands” and “weak knees” are strengthened to endure to the end
(Heb. 12:12; see Isa. 35:3–4).
Second, the sure and severe judgment announced by the angels comforts those who mourn. Unlike the
wicked, who will never experience rest (14:11), believers who have died “in the Lord” now “rest from their labors,”
for their faith-driven deeds follow them (14:13). This is the second of Revelation’s seven benedictions (see Lesson
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1), and it echoes the comforting counsel to the white-robed martyrs under the heavenly altar (6:9–11). To those who
are “faithful unto death” Jesus himself will give the crown of life (2:10). Our short-term destiny at death is rest from
the battle to keep faith in this sin-cursed world, and our long-term destiny at Christ’s return is to see his face as we
worship in overflowing joy (22:3–4).

1. How is the “eternal gospel” announced by the first angel—commanding them to fear, glorify and worship
God—related to the gospel that Paul sums up in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4? Is it “good news” to the peoples of
the world? If so, how?
2. Is the promise that God will judge his enemies in perfect justice “good news” to those who trust Jesus the
Lamb? If so, how? How can we cultivate in our hearts, our families, and our churches a longing for justice
that isn’t poisoned by a lust for revenge or self-righteous pride?
READ REVELATION 14:14–20; ISAIAH 63:1–6 (BIBLE STUDY P. 71)

THE TIME FOR HARVEST HAS COME
Now a twofold vision portrays the effect of Christ’s second coming as a time of harvesting and sorting for the world’s
population, which has been a mixture of believers and unbelievers throughout history. Jesus’ parable of the weeds
secretly sown among good seed illustrated God’s patient plan to allow this mixture of righteous and wicked people
to remain until “the end of the age,” when the Son of Man returns and his angels gather good grain into barns and
gather weeds for burning (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43). John’s visions likewise describe a twofold harvest, but here the
crops are grain and grapes. First, “one like a son of man” harvests ripened grain (14:14–16). Then, an angel gathers
clusters of ripe grapes to be crushed in “the great winepress of the wrath of God” (14:17–20). The vision of the two
harvests reinforces the urgency of the first three angels’ announcements of impending judgment.
The “one like a son of man” seated on a white cloud is Jesus. In John’s first vision, “one like a son of man” appeared in
fiery and terrifying splendor to instruct John to write what he would see for the seven churches (Rev. 1:9–20). Both
his title and his association with the cloud (see Rev. 1:7) show that he’s the royal figure in Daniel’s vision who comes
“with the clouds of heaven” to the Ancient of Days to be given a kingdom that is universal and eternal (Dan. 7:9–14).
Jesus ascended in the clouds to the Father to receive his kingdom and occupy his throne at God’s right hand (Acts
1:9; 2:33–34). And he will likewise return in the clouds as the judge of all (Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Acts 1:11). Between
the three announcement angels and the three harvest angels, the Son of Man sits enthroned on the cloud, poised to
swing a sharp sickle to reap the crop of “fully ripe” grain. (“Fully ripe” reflects “dried” in Greek, showing that the
crop is wheat, barley, or some other grain.) The destination of this grain, once harvested, is not mentioned (unlike
the grapes); but John the Baptist and Jesus himself had already promised that Jesus would gather the righteous into
his barns for safekeeping (Matt. 3:12; 13:20).
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“Another angel” (in addition to the three who brought the announcements) directs the Son of Man to swing his sickle,
“for the hour to reap has come.” We may find it surprising that the glorified Messiah would receive this directive
through a mere angel, until we recall that Jesus himself had said of the day or hour of his second coming, “no one
knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 14:32). With respect to his finite human
nature and his messianic mission, the Son was always dependent on the Father for direction (hence his constant
prayer). It seems that this angel delivers the Father’s message to the Son of Man: “Now is the time!”
A second harvest, now a gathering of ripe grapes, follows the grain harvest in the order of John’s vision (Rev. 14:17–20).
(In history, however, the harvest of the righteous and that of the wicked will be simultaneous at Christ’s second coming,
John 5:28–29; Acts 24:15.) “Another angel” (the fifth) emerges from the heavenly temple with a sickle, and another
(the sixth) proceeds from the altar itself to issue the order to harvest and gather clusters from the vine of the earth.
The grapes, which are thrown into the winepress of God’s wrath and trampled, symbolize those who have persisted
in their rebellion, despite God’s repeated warnings and calls to repentance. The flood of blood from God’s winepress
will flow deep and wide when he settles accounts with those who have shed the blood of his beloved saints (Rev.
16:4–6; 17:6). The imagery is drawn from Isaiah 63, where the Lord appears in garments splattered with the blood of
his enemies, since he has trodden them in the winepress of his righteous wrath. Later, the Word of God will appear
on a white horse as the captain of heaven’s armies, with his robe stained by blood from treading “the winepress of
the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (19:11–16).

1. What comfort for suffering believers is to be found in the assurance that the final harvest will certainly come,
when Christ the judge of all will sort out all the messiness that we witness every day: the wicked thriving
and the righteous suffering, injustice unpunished and integrity unrewarded, harmless victims caught in
crossfire while the violent walk away unscathed?
2. Revelation talks a lot about the wrath of God and of the Lamb, an uncomfortable topic to ponder. How can
we love a God who vents his wrath against his enemies? Why must we begin to grasp the truth of God’s wrath
in order to understand what God has done for us at Christ’s cross?

SEVEN BOWLS
After the second vision of Christ’s choir of conquerors, praising God’s just deeds in the song of Moses and the Lamb,
another opening of heaven (see 4:1; 8:1; 11:19; 19:11)—now called “the sanctuary of the tent of witness”—sets the scene
for the outpouring of the seven last plagues. The seven angels that bear the bowls full of plagues that express God’s
wrath are clothed like the angel sent to Daniel, robed in luminous linen and girded with golden sashes (Dan. 10:5).
The filling of the heavenly sanctuary with God’s glory and power, visible as a cloud of impenetrable smoke, makes
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it impossible for anyone to enter that holy place. When God’s cloud of glory filled the tabernacle in the wilderness,
Moses—with whom God had spoken “mouth to mouth” on Mount Sinai—could not enter that holy tent of meeting
for a time (Exod. 40:34–35). Likewise, when the divine glory flooded Solomon’s temple at its dedication, priests
couldn’t enter to perform their daily service to the Lord (1 Kings 8:10–11). Now John sees God’s heavenly sanctuary
so permeated with the smoke of his just wrath against evil that no creature in heaven or earth dares to approach him
until the last seven plagues are “finished” (15:8, echoing verse 1).
Once the outpouring of the seven bowls begins, the plagues fall relentlessly, without the interludes of comfort that
had interrupted the seals cycle and the trumpets cycle. As with the trumpets, the plagues poured out from the first
four bowls inflict devastation on the four spheres that constitute the environment of human life and community:
earth, sea, rivers and springs (sources of potable water), and the sun in the sky.
Yet there are differences between the trumpet-judgments and the bowl-judgments. When the first trumpet sounded,
hail and fire fell from heaven to consume (partially) plant life on earth. The plague from the first bowl afflicted human
beings—those who worshiped the beast—with painful sores, like the sixth plague on ancient Egypt (Exod. 9:8–12).
At the blast of the second trumpet, a burning mountain turned one third of the sea to blood, destroying a third of
the sea creatures and ships. The second plague now turns the whole sea to blood, slaying all its creatures. The third
plague transforms fresh waters not to poisonous wormwood but to blood. Both of these reflect the first plague on
Egypt, (Exod. 7:14–25). When fresh water sources are turned bloody, persecutors who shed the blood of saints and
prophets have nothing to drink but blood. God’s justice in imposing this retribution is extolled both by the angel of
the waters and by the altar, under which martyrs’ souls have pled for just vengeance (6:9–11).
The pouring of the fourth plague on the sun in the sky doesn’t shroud it in darkness (6:12) but rather intensifies its heat,
so that human beings suffer excruciating burns. Throughout history, God’s common grace had sustained a rhythm of
heat and coolness, summer and winter, sunlight and rainfall to benefit both the righteous and the wicked (Gen. 8:22;
Matt. 5:45). As the wicked of Noah’s generation were destroyed by water, so when the present era of common grace
reaches its end, the wicked will be struck down by the sun’s fiery fury (2 Pet. 3:5–7, 10). Even the expiration of God’s
longsuffering patience and the escalation of God’s wrath will not humble people hardened in self-destroying defiance:
instead of repenting at this eleventh hour, still they curse the name of God (a reaction to reappear at the fifth plague).
The fifth, sixth, and seventh bowls focus God’s wrath on the evil alliance that the dragon has enlisted to wage its war on
God, his Christ, and their faithful witnesses, the church. The fifth plague plunges the beast’s throne and kingdom into
palpable darkness (like the ninth plague on Egypt, Exod. 10:21–23), and the beast’s subjects into anguish (16:10–11).
The sixth bowl completes the preparations for conflict on “the great day of God the Almighty” (16:12–16). The drying
of the Euphrates River symbolizes God’s removal of the last restraint to global violence and bloodshed. From across
the Euphrates, ancient Israel and Judah had been conquered by the unspeakably cruel empires of Assyria and Babylon.
Still in John’s day, residents of Rome’s eastern provinces feared invasion by Parthian cavalry from the east. So the
Euphrates aptly represented the source of pitiless invaders. The dragon, beast, and false prophet spew deception to
gather the kings of the whole world in a conspiracy against the Lamb and his army. That last battle, which will usher
in the destruction of the human conspirators, of the beasts, and of the dragon itself, will appear in complementary
visions (19:11–21; 20:7–10).
The seventh bowl shows the earth itself traumatized and the great city Babylon shattered, and with it the cities of
the nations (16:17–21). The allure, brutality, and fall of Babylon will be explored in depth in the next vision cycle
(17:1–19:3). The unprecedented earthquake that sends islands and mountains flying, first glimpsed at the sixth seal
(6:12–17), will have cosmic dimensions: the first heaven and earth will flee from God’s presence, to be replaced by “a
new heaven and a new earth,” in which sorrow, death, and all “the former things” will have passed away (20:11; 21:1–4).
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1. What interpretive problems and points of confusion are resolved when we realize the seven bowls visions
present complementary perspectives on the climax of God’s wrath on evil at history’s end, not a timeline of
successive events?
2. Do the comments that people cursed God and refused to repent in response to the fourth and fifth plagues
(16:9, 11) imply that God’s patience will still hold open the door to repentance when his full wrath descends
on defiant humanity? Why or why not? If the moment for repentance will have passed by the time of the
“last plagues,” what point is John making when he notes their refusal to repent?

1. In John’s day, Rome’s military power (beast from the sea), the worship of Roman emperors (beast
from the land), and Rome’s economic dominance across the Mediterranean world (Babylon the great)
seemed an overpowering, irresistible trifecta of powers arrayed against scattered, small, insignificant
gatherings of Christians. What forms do the beasts and the prostitute take in our day? How do the bowls
judgments put those daunting powers into proper perspective for us?
2. Pharaoh repeatedly hardened his heart in reaction to God’s plagues on Egypt (Exod. 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19,
32; 9:7, 12, 34–35; 10:20, 27), and Revelation’s trumpets and bowls visions show people who defy God
and refuse to repent, despite the miseries he justly inflicts on them (Rev. 9:20–21; 16:9, 11). Why is it
that suffering bad consequences for our sin, by itself, cannot soften hard hearts and turn people toward
their Creator in repentance? What power is strong enough to turn rebels around and draw them to God?

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A F T E R T H I S I H E A R D W H AT
S E E M E D TO B E T H E LO U D VO I C E
O F A G R E AT M U LT I T U D E I N
H E AV E N , C R Y I N G O U T,
“HALLELUJAH!
S A LVAT I O N A N D G L O R Y A N D
P OW E R B E LO N G TO O U R G O D,
FOR HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND JUST;
FOR HE HAS JUDGED
T H E G R E AT P R O S T I T U T E
WHO CORRUPTED THE EARTH
W I T H H E R I M M O R A L I T Y,
A N D H A S AV E N G E D O N H E R T H E
B L O O D O F H I S S E R VA N T S . ”
R E V E L A TION 1 9 : 1 – 2
Lesson 8
BABYLON
the
PROSTITUTE:
Affluent,
V I O L E N T,
Shattered
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O Lamb of God, our heavenly bridegroom, your word makes clear how jealous you are for the devotion and
purity of your beloved wife, your church. In John’s vision of the prostitute Babylon, you show us an attractive
but appalling counterfeit of your bride, luxuriously dressed on the outside but murderously ugly on the inside.
We confess that our own hearts are all too familiar with the appeal of money and what it can buy, of physical
beauty and the admiration it attracts. Forgive us, O Lord, for the sin of covetousness, which is nothing but
idolatry, diverting our affections and devotion away from you, the source of living water, and toward your hollow
competitors, dry cisterns that never satisfy. Give us a “mind with wisdom” (Rev. 17:9), not merely to unravel the
symbols that you showed to your servant John but, more importantly, to see through our culture’s sham and to
pursue you, O Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of true wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:2–3). Amen.

1. In a previous vision, John saw Jesus’ witnesses murdered in “the great city that symbolically is called
Sodom and Egypt” (11:8). Now, he sees a woman who bears “a name of mystery, Babylon the great, mother
of prostitutes and earth’s abominations” (17:5). She’s “the great city that has dominion over the kings
of the earth” (17:18). What do these three names from Israel’s history—Sodom, Egypt, Babylon—tell us
about the types of sin that characterize “the great city”? What specific sins are pictured by the wine in
her golden cup, which makes her drunk?
2. John “marveled greatly” when he saw Babylon the great in this vision (17:6). Sinful rebels against God
“marvel” at the beast that conquers and kills God’s saints and on which the woman is seated (13:3; 17:8). Why
do the prostitute and the beast amaze not only their deceived followers but also Christ’s faithful prophet?
How do the angel’s gentle rebuke and explanation bring the world’s power and glitter into proper perspective?

FA L L E N , FA L L E N I S B A B Y L O N T H E G R E AT
John has heard an angel announce the fall of Babylon the great (14:8) and has seen the great city shattered at the
outpouring of the last bowl—the completion of God’s wrath (Rev. 16:19). Now one of the bowl angels invites John to
come and view the great prostitute Babylon: her sensuality and brutality (17:1–6), her symbiotic relationship with
the beast (17:7–14), and finally her ruin and humiliation—by the beast that once supported her (17:15–18). Babylon’s
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fall evokes a series of spoken commentaries: indictments by heavenly voices (18:1–8); laments from those who had
benefited from Babylon’s voracious appetites (18:9–20); and, again from heaven, final descriptions of Babylon’s doom
and celebrations of God’s justice (18:21–19:3).
The angel’s introductory, “Come, I will show you,” will be repeated in Revelation 21:9, when John sees the bride,
the wife of the Lamb—the church in all her pure and radiant beauty. Both women are adorned with gold, jewels, and
pearls (17:4; 21:11–21). Yet the great prostitute is the exact opposite of Christ’s bride. Babylon’s “fine linen,” purple
and scarlet attire (18:16) contrasts to the bride’s “fine linen, bright and pure” (19:8). The prostitute is bloodthirsty,
intoxicated by the death of the martyrs of Jesus (17:6). Yet kings are infatuated, and earth dwellers inebriated by her
seduction (17:2). Even John “greatly marveled” at the sight of her, as “the whole earth marveled” at the beast (17:6, 8;
13:3). Might the angel’s question, “Why do you marvel?” (17:7) imply a warning, lest John himself be taken in by the
prostitute’s alluring appearance, or intimidated by her brutality? Jesus gives visions that probe beneath the surface
to expose invisible realities—in this case, the horrific truth that an economic system driven by profit and pleasure
can thrive on deceit and cruel exploitation.
As the beast from the sea symbolizes self-deifying political/military regimes and the beast from the land symbolizes
religious institutions that serve the state, so the prostitute represents the corrupting forces of economic systems.
In John’s day, the “incarnations” of these perennial enemies and rivals of God were Rome’s far-flung governmental
reach (enforced by legions), the imperial cult that cultivated worship of Rome and deceased emperors, and the
network of commerce and transportation that fed the capital’s voracious appetites for goods, pleasures, and slaves
(see 18:11–17). The Roman Empire declined and fell, but the beasts and the prostitute take new forms in every
generation, including ours.
The angel’s explanation of the mystery of the prostitute and the beast that bears her focuses more on the beast than
its rider, and elaborates details of the beast’s portrait in Revelation 13. The comment, “This calls for a mind with
wisdom,” sends the signal that the symbolism here is difficult to grasp (17:9; see 13:18). The beast’s seven heads
symbolize seven kings and seven mountains. Many ancient authors describe Rome as “the city of seven hills,” so the
“great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth” (17:18) is the capital of the empire that ruled “peoples and
multitudes and nations and languages” (17:15).
Regarding the seven kings, scholars disagree on whether they align with the succession of Roman emperors from
Julius Caesar (or his successor Augustus) throughout the first century (AD). If they do, perhaps the eighth that
“belongs to the seven” signifies that Domitian’s intense persecution of Christians in the 90s would replay Nero’s
persecution in the 60s. On the other hand, the seven kings, five of whom have fallen while the sixth is ruling with a
seventh to follow, may symbolize more generally that, in God’s comprehensive plan for history (not our historical
timelines), the era of the dragon’s domination over the nations has drawn near to its end and “his time is short,” since
the offspring of the woman has come, conquered, and ascended to God’s right hand (12:5–12). This explanation fits
the comments that the seventh king “must remain only a little while” and that the kings symbolized by the beast’s
ten horns will rule only “for one hour,” before they’re conquered by the Lamb (17:10, 12–14).
The portrait of the prostitute Babylon’s economic luxury and political dominance, supported by the beast’s brutal
power, suddenly takes a surprising turn: The kings and the beast “will hate the prostitute,” assaulting her, stripping
her, devouring her, and burning her with fire (17:16–17). The evil conspiracy convened by the ancient dragon Satan
will self-destruct, former allies ruthlessly destroying each other, “for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his
purpose.” In poetic justice that could only be achieved by the sovereign over all, God’s foes must fulfill his words of
judgment on the prostitute, the beasts, and the dragon that orchestrated their futile rebellion against the Lord and
his Christ.
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1. Jesus’ letters to the churches in Revelation 2–3 contained foreshadowing of the prostitute Babylon in the
prophetess “Jezebel” in Thyatira, who seduced Christ’s servants to practice sexual immorality and idolatry
(2:20), and in the complacency of the Laodiceans, blinded to their spiritual impoverishment by their material
affluence (3:17). How can the appeal of an economically comfortable life attract Christians, to our spiritual
harm? How does the vision of Babylon the mother of prostitutes expose the ugliness of the invitation to
picture “the good life” in terms of our possessions?
2. Since some symbols in Revelation 17 are enigmatic, what message can we draw from the portrait of Babylon
and “her” beast in general, even if we are uncertain about some details?

R E PA I D W I T H A D O U B L E P O R T I O N
A series of commentaries, spoken by heavenly and earthly voices, elaborate the utter devastation of Babylon’s fall,
and God’s perfect justice to repay this prostitute “in kind” for her insolence toward his glory and her violence toward
his people. First, an angel descends from heaven with great authority and radiant glory, repeating (see 14:8) and
elaborating the refrain, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!” (18:1–3). The doom that the prophet Isaiah pronounced
against ancient Babylon (Isa. 21:9) is to be imposed on the whole fabric of human community, commerce, and culture,
on all who exalt themselves in defiance of the Creator, going all the way back to Babel (Gen. 11:1–9). Once a bustling
metropolis, a voracious consumer of goods and human souls (18:11–13), filled with music, crafts, food, light, and
domestic life (18:22–23), Babylon will become a desolate and deserted ghost town, as Isaiah foretold about ancient
Babylon (Isa. 13:19–22).
Another voice from heaven, echoing earlier summonses from Isaiah (52:11) and Jeremiah (51:6, 9, 45), urges God’s
people to distance themselves from Babylon’s evils (Rev. 18:4–8). The prostitute has amassed her sins in a towering
compost pile of corruption, in full view of the God who judges justly. She has prided herself on her self-sufficiency—“I
sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see”—just as ancient Babylon did (Isa. 47:5–8). The smug
complacency of the church in Laodicea sounds chillingly similar: “I am rich, I have prospered, I need nothing” (Rev.
3:17). So, the heavenly call to withdraw from such arrogance speaks to each of us. God’s justice demands repayment
that is a duplicate of harm done: “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn,
wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exod. 21:23–25). The supreme judge himself will repay the wicked city a “double
portion”—that is, a duplicate, a mirror-image—of the violence she has committed against the faithful followers of
the Lamb and other victims.
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1. Christians are called to live as exiles in communities that do not share our faith (1 Pet. 1:1; 2:11–12), not to
withdraw into cloisters, avoiding contact with unbelievers. Like the ancient Jewish exiles, we are to “seek
the welfare of the city” in which we sojourn (Jer. 29:7). Yet here a voice from heaven demands, “Come out
of her, my people, lest you take part in [Babylon’s] sins, lest you share in her plagues.” How can we live
faithfully as exiles in our communities, workplaces, and engagement with neighbors, without succumbing
to the defilement of “Babylon”?
2. The heavenly voice asking God to “pay her back as she herself has paid back others” echoes the sentiment of
the angel of the waters, who praises God’s justice: “They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you
have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” (16:6) How does this holy joy in divine retribution
differ from our human thirst for revenge? How can we cultivate in ourselves (and our conversations with
others) a delight in God’s justice, while we distance ourselves from vindictiveness?

ALAS! ALAS!
While heavenly voices pronounce Babylon’s justly deserved freefall from a luxurious beauty admired by all to horrific
desolation repelled by all, on earth the voices of those who had prospered by depending on Babylon’s patronage are
raised in woeful lament for their lost power and profit.
The pattern we see here—first announcements of God’s judgment on rebellious cities and nations, then laments for
those objects of God’s wrath—previously appeared in the prophecy of Ezekiel.
PROPHECY AGAINST: LAMENT FOR:
Tyre (Ezek. 26) Tyre (Ezek. 27)
Prince of Tyre (Ezek. 28:1–10) Prince of Tyre (Ezek. 28:11–19)
Egypt (Ezek. 29) Egypt (Ezek. 30:1–19)
Egypt and Pharaoh (Ezek. 30:20–31:18) Pharaoh and Egypt (Ezek. 32)
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There’s a significant difference, though. In Ezekiel, the laments are dictated by the Lord to his prophet, but in Revelation
the laments arise spontaneously from Babylon’s corrupt and selfish sycophants.
Ezekiel’s extensive cataloguing of goods that the seafaring Phoenicians of Tyre imported from distant coastlands
(Ezek. 26:12–25) also has its counterpart in Revelation’s list of cargo that merchants can no longer sell to Babylon:
… cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all
kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense,
myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human
souls. (Rev. 18:12–13)
Both ancient Tyre (Ezek. 27:13) and the prostitute of Revelation not only share an appetite for delicacies and luxuries,
but also shamelessly engage in human trafficking, treating human beings as merchandise to be marketed. The ESV’s
“slaves” translates a Greek word that means “bodies”—underscoring the dehumanizing reduction of people to the
level of beasts, alongside cattle, sheep, and horses. To humanity’s shame, this heartless abuse of people created in
God’s image, as though they are just one more category of cargo, continues today.
Three groups raise laments with a double “Alas! Alas!” (or “Woe! Woe!”)—another echo of the ancient prophets (for
example, Amos 5:16; Isa. 10:5; Jer. 48:1, 46; Ezek. 24:6, 9). Kings, whose power as vassals (dependent subordinates)
had been sustained by the great city’s political muscle, bemoan the fall of Babylon, “you mighty city,” for “in a single
hour” her judgment has befallen her (18:9–11). Merchants, “who gained wealth from her” by marketing various
commodities that the great city consumed, mourn that “in a single hour” Babylon’s “wealth has been laid waste”
(18:15–17). Shipmasters and sailors, who “grew rich” by transporting the merchants’ wares to satisfy Babylon’s
unquenchable appetite, likewise lamented that “in a single hour she has been laid waste” (18:17–20). Throughout the
course of history, God’s providence imposes economic downturns through drought and famine, warfare, pandemic
disease, foolish human speculation, and other means. Sometimes the drops are sudden (as in 1929), and at other times
the decline is gradual. Every recession, depression, or crash foreshadows the final, abrupt collapse of commerce and
enterprise, as the lamenters’ threefold repetition of “in a single hour” shows.
In John’s day, “the great city” (18:10, 16, 18, 19) took the form of Rome in Italy, capital of the empire that encircled the
Mediterranean Sea and dominated other nations not only politically and militarily, but also economically. In today’s
global marketplace, no single city wields the economic dominance that Rome had throughout the Mediterranean
world of the first century. Yet the economic viability of the entire world is still dangerously contingent on the appetite
for goods and services of a handful of consumer nations. John’s vision of Babylon’s destruction, when the last bowl of
God’s wrath is poured, graphically shows the anguish awaiting all who measure their quality of life by the abundance
of their possessions, as Jesus said (Luke 12:15–21).

1. How do the laments of the kings, the merchants, and the transportation providers illustrate the truth of
Jesus’ statement, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21)? How is your own
heart handling the ups and downs of global and national economies, and uncertainties and vacillations in
your own income and investments?
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2. What might an economy based not on rampant consumerism, but on serving essential human needs look
like? How would it differ from the ways that money is made and used in our present economic system?

HALLELUJAH!
Even in their sorrow, the seafarers’ lament admitted the justice of Babylon’s punishment and invited heaven and
its residents—saints, apostles, and prophets—to rejoice in her demise (18:20). Now representatives of heaven
speak again. An angel casts a great millstone into the sea, dramatically illustrating the eradication of the features
of everyday life in human community in retribution for Babylon’s violence (18:21–24). A great multitude in heaven
praises God for his just judgment on Babylon, avenging the blood of his servants through the great city’s utter and
eternal incineration (19:1–3).
The mighty angel’s enacted parable of throwing the millstone into the sea has prophetic precedent in the Lord’s
direction to Jeremiah to tie a stone to a document cataloguing ancient Babylon’s impending disasters, and to cast
scroll and stone into the Euphrates River, announcing, “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the
disaster that I am bringing upon her” (Jer. 51:60–64). The silencing of musicians, of craftsmen at work, of mills
grinding grain, and of newlyweds in love echoes God’s verdict on his own people, Judah, earlier in Jeremiah: “I will
banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,
the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp” (25:10). “Babylon the great city” will be “thrown down with
violence” because “in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth”
(Rev. 18:21, 24). The prostitute who was drunk on the blood of Jesus’ martyrs (17:6) is forced to drain the bitter goblet
of God’s wrath, “a double portion…in the cup she mixed” (18:6).
The great multitude in heaven opens their shout of adoration with “Hallelujah,” a Hebrew word (transliterated into
Greek) that means “Praise the Lord.” “Hallelujah” opens many Psalms (for example, 106:1; 111:1; 113:1; 112:1; 117:1;
135:1; and the first lines of Psalms 146 through 150). In the New Testament, “Hallelujah” appears only four times, all
in Revelation 19. The fourth “Hallelujah” will celebrate the marriage of the Lamb to his beloved bride (19:6–8). But
first, the prostitute, the anti-bride who deceived the nations, traded in human flesh, and wantonly slaughtered saints,
must be utterly destroyed. The international choir of the redeemed, arrayed in robes whitened by the blood of the
Lamb, boldly confessed, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (7:10). Now again a
heavenly multitude confesses, “Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.” This time the reason is his truth
and justice in judging the great prostitute who shed his servants’ blood. Both the blood of the Lamb and the wrath of
the Lamb uphold God’s justice and display his salvation. With Babylon’s fall, at the blast of the last trumpet and the
outpouring of the last bowl in which God’s wrath is completed, at last the question of the martyrs under the heavenly
altar will be answered decisively: “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our
blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10).
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1. Have you read dystopian fiction, which imagines a future in which civilization as we know it has been
destroyed by some global catastrophe (nuclear war, pandemic, meteor strike, etc.)? How do such nightmarish
images compare to the devastation of everyday life portrayed in Revelation 18:21–24?
2. What daily pleasures of ordinary human community do you often take for granted? Does Revelation’s stark
forecast of a world without music, art, flour, light, and romance move you to thank God for these gifts of his
common grace?

1. John’s vision of the great prostitute portrays a symbiotic relationship between Babylon (materialism,
affluence, luxury) and the beast (militarism, violence). Discuss examples from your own experience or
from the media that highlight the link between commercialism, consumerism, and the dehumanizing
abuse of human beings.
2. What does the repetition of God’s judgment on unfaithful Judah (Jer. 25:10) and in his judgment on the
prostitute Babylon (Rev. 18:22–23) imply about how vulnerable God’s people are to the temptation to
define our lives in terms of our possessions and financial security, which can disappear in an instant
(Luke 12:15–21; Matt. 6:19–20)? How can we guard our hearts from this temptation?
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3. Revelation repeatedly promises that God will judge those who shed the blood of his beloved saints,
but he will also punish Babylon for “all who have been slain on earth” (18:24). Likewise, in 11:18 God is
praised for finally “destroying the destroyers of the earth.” How do these glimpses of God’s readiness
as judge to right all wrongs (not only those suffered by his people) challenge us to expand the circle of
our concern beyond ourselves, our families and friends, and our churches, to include other victims of
injustice in this broken world?
4. Christians often associate God’s salvation with his grace, through the blood of the Lamb, which brings
forgiveness and cleansing (Rev. 7:9–14; see 1:5–6; 5:9–10). But Revelation also connects God’s salvation
with his justice in punishing evil and avenging the blood of his servants (19:1–2). Why might we fail to
recognize or appreciate the “justice side” of God’s salvation? How can we cultivate a more full-orbed,
biblical understanding of the “salvation” that “belongs to our God”—a salvation that he will bestow on
his suffering saints?

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T H E N I H E A R D W H AT S E E M E D T O B E
T H E V O I C E O F A G R E AT M U LT I T U D E ,
L I K E T H E R O A R O F M A N Y WAT E R S
AND LIKE THE SOUND OF MIGHTY
P E A L S O F T H U N D E R , C R Y I N G O U T,
“ H A L L E LUJA H ! F O R T H E LO R D O U R G O D
THE ALMIGHTY REIGNS. LET US REJOICE
A N D E X U LT A N D G I V E H I M T H E G L O R Y,
FOR THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB
HAS COME, AND HIS BRIDE HAS MADE
H E R S E L F R E A D Y ; I T WA S G R A N T E D H E R
TO C LOT H E H E R S E L F W I T H F I N E L I N E N ,
BRIGHT AND PURE”—FOR THE FINE LINEN
IS THE RIGHTEOUS DEEDS OF THE SAINTS.
R E V E L A TION 1 9 : 6 – 8
Lesson 9
The W R A T H
of the L A M B
on the B E A S T S ,
the D R A G O N ,
and their
FOLLOWERS
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O Lord our God, the Almighty, as we approach the climax of your Revelation to John, our hearts sing with
hope. Here you show us, at last, the final defeat and utter destruction that you will wield on your and our
enemies: Satan the dragon, murderer, and deceiver; the beast that assaults your witnesses; and religious
charlatans that would delude us. We’re pained by the truth when we sing that the world sees your church “sore
oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.” Throughout the world your beloved bride suffers
“toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war.” But through John’s eyes we see heaven opened. You lift the eyes
of our hearts to behold our victorious bridegroom, riding to our rescue, followed by the armies of heaven. We
take heart from your assurance that, even when the camp of your saints, your beloved city, seems hopelessly
besieged by foes as countless as the sand of the sea, that darkest hour will bring the fiery demise of the forces
of evil and the joyful exultation of all who hold to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Fortify us by
your Spirit with courage, discernment, holiness, and hope. We ask this through the Lamb who shed his blood
to make us his bride, Amen.

1. Heaven’s songs of praise (“Hallelujah!”) move from the destruction of the prostitute (19:1–3) to the
wedding of the Lamb to his bride (19:4–10). How does the promise that our bridegroom has given us
“fine linen, bright and pure” for our wedding renew our motivation and hope to pursue holiness when
we stumble in our struggle against sin? (See 1 John 3:1–3)
2. The rider on the white horse has various names and titles: Faithful and True, the Word of God, King of
kings and Lord of lords, and even a name “that no one knows but himself.” How do the echoes of earlier
visions in his description (1:13–16; 3:14; 12:1–5; 17:14) show us who he is?

The fall of Babylon the prostitute (18:1–19:3) is only the first of Revelation’s several perspectives on the destruction
of all the enemies of God and his Christ. The beast that once supported, but then hated and devoured, Babylon must
face defeat and punishment at the hands of the Lamb in the last battle, for which the beast, the false prophet, and the
dragon have assembled an evil, international coalition (16:12–16). That battle of “the great day of God the Almighty”
(16:14) was previewed briefly in 17:14 and is now portrayed in 19:17–21. The final perspective on the Lamb’s victory
in this final battle will focus on ruin of the dragon/devil himself (20:7–10). Although the visions showing the defeat
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and destruction of the prostitute, of the beast and false prophet, and of the dragon come in sequence, the visions’
interconnections show they portray, from various “camera angles,” a single set of events that will bring the history of
the first, sin-stained heaven and earth to an abrupt end (20:11; 21:1).
The twenty-four elders and four living creatures affirm the verdict pronounced by the heavenly multitude on the great
prostitute, falling down in worship of God with the acclamation, “Amen! Hallelujah” (19:4). The last time we heard
this ensemble was when they sang a new song about the gracious, redemptive sacrifice of the Lamb (5:9–10). Now they
celebrate God’s justice, as a voice from God’s throne summons all his servants, small and great, to praise him (19:5).
Again, the heavenly multitude (see 19:1) cries, “Hallelujah,” as they announce the impending marriage of the Lamb to
his prepared and purified bride. As the prostitute’s fall was announced (14:8) before she appeared (17:1–18), so now
the bride is introduced, though her unveiling in radiant glory will follow the destruction of all evil in world history’s
last battle (21:2, 9–27; 22:1–5).
John must record the fourth of Revelation’s seven benedictions: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage
supper of the Lamb” (see 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 20:6; 22:7, 14; see Lesson 1). Apparently, the speaker is an angel. (The ESV
supplies “the angel,” which is unstated in Greek, to clarify the identity of the speaker.) In a later exchange, John
falls “at the feet of the angel” and is again rebuked for worshiping a mere creature (22:8–9). In both interactions,
angels refuse John’s prostration in worship, demanding, “Worship God,”—obviously God alone. Paul described
the heart of humanity’s wrath-warranting wickedness as worshiping and serving “the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Rom. 1:25). These holy angels refuse such idolatry, showing the infinite distance
that separates them from the Lamb, who rightly receives praise and worship from living creatures, elders, angels,
and all creatures everywhere (Rev. 5:9–13). “And the elders fell down and worshiped” (5:14). The worship of Jesus
reveals the deity of Jesus!
Jesus himself now appears as the royal champion of his people, ready for war—the final war—against all of his and
our enemies (19:11–16). He rides a white horse, its color symbolizing triumph. His names and descriptions are drawn
from earlier passages in Revelation.
• He is “Faithful and True,” the witness whose words can be relied upon (1:5; 3:14; see 1 Tim. 1:13).
• He is the “King of kings and Lord of lords,” whose sovereignty secures his victory over the beasts and their
followers (17:12–14; see Deut. 10:17; Dan. 2:47; 1 Tim 6:15).
• He is the Word of God, a name not found elsewhere in Revelation but highly significant in John’s Gospel:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14; see Heb. 1:2–4).
• He is uniquely qualified, by virtue of his divine nature, to reveal the Father (John 14:9–11).
He also has a name known only to himself, suggesting that, though his self-revelation is trustworthy, it is not
exhaustive. His infinite glory retains a mysterious aspect to all finite creatures. This champion is the Son of Man
who first appeared to John on Patmos, so “his eyes are like a flame of fire,” searching hearts (Rev. 1:14; 2:18), and a
sharp sword proceeds from his mouth, to judge the nations (1:16; see Heb. 4:12). He is the offspring of the woman
and the Lord’s anointed king, who will rule the nations with a rod of iron (12:5; see Gen. 3:15; Ps. 2:9). The “armies
of heaven” who follow Christ may be angels, since John has seen “Michael and his angels” wage war against the
dragon (Rev. 12:7–9; see 2 Thess. 1:6–7). But their attire—“fine linen, white and pure”—resembles the robes given
to the souls of the martyrs (6:11), to the redeemed in heaven (7:9, 13–14), and to the bride of the Lamb (19:8). As
the Lamb has conquered by suffering slaughter (5:5, 9), so his martyrs have conquered by holding their faith fast
to death (12:11). So “the armies of heaven” may be the saints who once suffered on earth and now constitute the
church victorious in heaven.
Although his followers are robed in pure white, his own robe is stained red with blood (19:13). This is not his own
blood, shed to redeem his people, as we heard earlier in Revelation (1:5; 5:9; 7:14). These bloodstains display the
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violent slaughter of God’s enemies, for Christ “will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty”
(19:15)—the winepress of ultimate justice from which blood flows “as high as a horse’s bridle” (14:18–20). This victor
is God himself, ready to wreak just wrath on his enemies and bringing rescue and relief to his trusting people. The
symbolism alludes to Isaiah 63:1–9:
…Why is your apparel red,

and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
“I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.
For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and my year of redemption had come…” (Isa. 63:2–4)
The martyrs’ long and patient wait for vindication is ended, for their champion has come at last to “avenge our blood
on those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 6:9–10). The last battle is about to be joined.

1. How does the refusal of strong angels to receive John’s worship emphasize the worthiness of Jesus the
Lamb? How should we respond to the Lamb’s supreme worthiness? What obstacles and distractions hinder
us from offering adoration of Christ and his enthroned Father through the Spirit? How can we cultivate
wholehearted devotion to the Triune God?
2. What does each name, title, and description of the rider on the white horse add to our knowledge of this
champion?
3. How do his names and descriptions move us to reverent fear and confident hope amid our present spiritual
struggles, as we are longing and “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God
and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)?
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READ REVELATION 19:17–21; EZEKIEL 38:14–39:6, 17–20 (BIBLE STUDY P. 88)

GOG AND MAGOG
The final combat between Christ and the beasts is described in imagery drawn heavily from the prophetic indictment
of “Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,” which the Lord announced through the prophet
Ezekiel (Ezek. 38–39). Old Testament scholars disagree about identifying the specific target of Ezekiel’s prophecy, a
foreign aggressor who would attack Israel’s vulnerable villages, only to be slaughtered by Israel’s holy and invincible
divine defender. As we have seen, earlier portraits of the beast (Rev. 13:1–4; 17:8–14; with Dan. 7:1–8) showed it to be
a blend of various oppressors of God’s people—Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Empires. (Sodom
and Egypt, too, are “bestial,” 11:8.) Since the beast is the composite of every expression of God-defying, self-deifying
political power throughout history, Ezekiel’s portrayal of Gog’s destruction under the wrath of the Lord provides vivid
and apt imagery for the vision in which John sees the utter defeat and condemnation of the beast, the false prophets,
and all the earth-dwellers whom they’ve deceived and lured into suicidal rebellion against the Lord and his Christ.
The echoes of Ezekiel 38–39 in our text are striking.
REVELATION 19–20 EZEKIEL 38–39
a) ...an angel…called to all the birds that fly a) Speak to the birds of every sort and to all
directly overhead, “Come, gather for the the beasts of the field, “Assemble and come,
great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, gather from all around to the…great sacrificial
the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall
the flesh of horses and their riders, and the eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the
flesh of all men, both free and slave, both blood of the princes of the earth…And you
small and great.” (19:17–18) shall be filled at my table with horses and
charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of
warriors,” declares the Lord God. (39:17–20)
b) And I saw the beast and the kings of the b) …say to Gog, “You will come…you and
earth with their armies gathered to make war many peoples with you, all of them riding on
against him who was sitting on the horse and horses, a great host, a mighty army. You will
against his army. (19:19) come up against my people Israel like a cloud
covering the land.” (38:14–15)
c) Satan…will come out to deceive the nations c) “Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of
that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog the land of Magog, the chief prince of
and Magog, to gather them for battle; their Meshech and Tubal.” (38:1–2)
number is like the sand of the sea. And they
marched up over the broad plain of the earth
and surrounded the camp of the saints and
the beloved city. (20:7–9) Continued on pg. 104
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d) But fire came down from heaven and d) I will send fire on Magog and on those
consumed them. (20:9) who dwell securely in the coastlands… (39:6)
e)…the lake of fire that burns with sulfur…The e) With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter
lake of fire and sulfur (19:10; 20:10) into judgment with him, and I will rain upon
him and his hordes and the many people who
are with him torrential rains and hailstones,
fire and sulfur. (38:22).
The echoes of the Gog and Magog imagery from Ezekiel 38–39, first in the vision of the beast’s and false prophet’s
defeat and punishment in the lake of fire (Rev. 19:17–21) and then again in the vision of the dragon’s defeat and
punishment in that same lake of fire (Rev. 20:7–10), show that these visions are another instance of Revelation’s
pairing of scenes to provide complimentary perspectives on the same event (for example, 7:1–8 with 7:9–17; 12:1–6
with 12:7–17). This connection is reinforced by the repetition of the theme of the “gathering” of kings and nations
“to make the1 war/battle” against Christ and his church, a theme that previously appeared in 16:13–14 and now
recurs in 19:19 and 20:8.
As in the vision of the heavenly woman, her son, and the dragon, the defeat of the forces of evil (12:1–6) is instan-
taneous: “And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet.” They are cast into the lake of fire, and their
followers—who, we have heard, include “all men, both free and slave, both small and great” (19:18)—are slain by the
sword from Christ’s mouth, and their bodies are consumed by carrion-eating birds. The covenant curse that the Lord
brought on unfaithful Israel—corpses left unburied, ripped apart by vultures—falls on everyone who has worshiped
the beast and rebelled against God (Deut. 28:26; Jer. 16:4; 34:20). After the “replay” of this last battle (20:7–10), God
will judge the human servants of the dragon and its beasts according to a record of their deeds and consign them, as
well, to the lake of fire (20:11–15). Only the faithful “armies of heaven” who follow the Word of God emerge from the
battle, alive and victorious.

1. Both in his earthly ministry (Mark 9:43–48) and in the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks of a “lake of fire”—
unquenchable and everlasting fire (Rev. 14:11)—that awaits people who persist in sin and unbelief. Does
this thought make you uncomfortable, perhaps even questioning the justice of God? If we grant, for the
sake of discussion, that God the judge of all would not impose undeserved punishments for wrongdoing,
how might the severity of the lake of fire impress on us the gravity of the offense of worshiping the creature
instead of the Creator?
1
Although the ESV lacks the definite article “the” in “for battle” (16:14), “to make war” (19:19) and “for battle” (20:8), in Greek
the definite article appears in all three verses (and “war” and “battle” translate the same Greek term). The gathering of world
rulers and warriors is not for “war” or “battle” in general, but for one specific conflict, “the battle on the great day of God the
Almighty” (16:14).
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2. How should this vision of the destiny of unbelievers impel Christ-followers toward bold evangelism and
global missions?

T H E B I N D I N G O F S ATA N
A new vision begins with the descent of an angel from heaven. He holds a key to the abyss and a great chain, and
his mission is to bind the dragon with the chain and lock it into the abyss “for a thousand years.” The symbolism is
unmistakable, since the dragon is identified as “that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan” (as it was in Rev.
12:9). The chain and the key that inhibit its activity are likewise symbolic. But what does this millennium-long (thou-
sand-years-long) captivity symbolize? When and how does it start, and what results does the dragon’s imprisonment
produce? Bible-believing Christians differ sharply over the answers to these questions, but careful attention to what
this text does (and does not) say, and also listening to other New Testament passages will help us grasp the message
of this challenging but encouraging vision.
The repetition of the dragon’s fourfold description, which had previously appeared in Revelation 12:9, suggests that
the thousand-years vision is connected to—maybe even a “replay” of—that earlier vision of its expulsion from heaven,
that is, its disqualification as the accuser of “the brothers.” As we saw in Lesson 6, Satan’s charges were silenced by
Jesus when he died for believers on the cross. In anticipation of that victory, Jesus cast out demons and authorized
his disciples to do so in his name. As they did, Jesus “saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18). So,
John’s vision of Satan the accuser being cast down from heaven echoes Jesus’ words and synchronizes Satan’s fall
with the first coming and redemptive mission of Christ.
Jesus also explained his authority to expel demons with another metaphor: “Or how can someone enter a strong man’s
house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house” (Matt.
12:29). Because Christ had bound Satan, he was able to “plunder his goods”—that is, to liberate Satan’s captives from
demonic domination. Now in Revelation 20, John’s vision reflects Jesus’ imagery: the dragon is bound, so it cannot
“deceive the nations any longer.” Like Satan the accuser’s fall from heaven in defeat, Satan the deceiver’s binding
has resulted from the incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Moreover, Christ’s binding of the dragon benefited more than demon-possessed people. As the risen and ascended
Lord empowered his messengers to bring his light to the nations through the gospel (Acts 13:47), the delusion
that had kept “the nations” in spiritual darkness for eons was dispelled. Paul told pagan Gentiles in Lystra:
“We…bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven
and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their
own ways” (Acts 14:15–16). And in Athens: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all
people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by
a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts
17:30–31). The era when the nations dwelt in darkness has passed, as the light of Christ spreads worldwide
(see Matt. 4:13–17).
(By the way, the stated purpose of the binding of Satan—to prevent him from deceiving the nations any longer—
implies that, though the vision of Rev. 20:1–6 follows the vision of Rev. 19:17–21, the “thousand years” cannot
follow the battle between Christ and the beasts temporally in history. That last battle leaves no survivors among
the forces of evil, so in its aftermath there would be no need to bind the dragon: there are no nations to be protected
from Satan’s lies!)
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Besides the salvation of the Gentiles through the church’s global gospel mission, the dragon’s binding has a second
happy result: throughout the “thousand years” Satan cannot gather the international conspiracy of evil that we have
seen in Revelation 16:12–16 and 19:17–21. When he’s released “for a little while” immediately before Christ’s return,
the power-brokers of the world will “converge” to try to eradicate Christ’s church, but the foes’ gathering will be
for their own defeat and destruction in the battle of the great day of God the Almighty, as we have seen (16:13–14;
19:19–21) and shall see again (20:7–10).
By his incarnation and kingdom-launching ministry, death, and resurrection, Jesus has bound the strongman Satan,
the deceptive dragon. As a result, the light of the gospel is dispelling the spiritual darkness that had benighted the
nations. These clear teachings in the Gospels and Acts lead to the conclusion that the “thousand years” of Revelation
20:1–6 began at the first coming of Christ. Because numbers, like so many other features in Revelation, are symbolic,
this “thousand years” represents the entire era that is marked off by the two comings of Christ. Its length, which
transcends many human generations, sends the message that Christ’s followers must be prepared to wait patiently,
enduring suffering, resisting temptation, and maintaining hope, even when our Lord seems to delay (2 Pet. 3:1–10).
While on earth Jesus called his followers to unflagging faithfulness over the long term (Luke 12:35–48), and in his
Revelation to John he repeats that summons to every generation (Rev. 6:9–11; 13:10). During this millennium between
Christ’s comings, sin and suffering persist. Relief from these and other miseries awaits the arrival of the new heavens
and earth at Christ’s return (Rev. 21:1–4).
THE REIGN OF THE SON
In the meanwhile, the Son of the woman reigns enthroned in heaven (Rev. 12:5; 1 Cor. 15:25–28), and he is dispelling
the dragon’s dark dominion over the nations through his church’s witness (“the testimony of Jesus,” 1:2, 9; 12:17;
19:10) in the power of his Holy Spirit. Consequently, now that John has seen Satan bound and, as a result, what is
not now happening on earth (the nations no longer deceived), a second, complementary vision offers a glimpse of
what is now happening in heaven: throughout the thousand years, the spirits of the martyrs, “those who had been
beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God,” now occupy thrones in the heavenly courtroom of the
Ancient of Days because they’re authorized to judge.
The vision alludes to Daniel 7:9–10: “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat…the court
sat in judgment, and the books were opened.” By now we are accustomed to the paradoxes in Revelation’s visions
(for example, the Lion triumphed as the Lamb that was slain, 5:5–9), so we’re not shocked to learn that the martyrs’
death, which ushers them into God’s heavenly court, turns out to be their “coming to life.” They have experienced the
blessedness of “the first resurrection”, so they reign with Christ in heaven throughout the era between his comings
(see Eph 2:6). Appropriately, these victors, who have entered life by laying down their lives for Jesus’s sake, receive
the fifth of Revelation’s seven blessings (Rev. 20:6). They have conquered the dragon, their accuser, “by the blood of
the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (12:11). The reign that
the martyrs share with their Lord is the life-transforming power of their testimony, spreading to the end of the earth,
calling people of every nationality out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
Now a clear temporal-historical statement, “when the thousand years are ended,” makes explicit that the battle
for which the dragon, released briefly, will gather the nations in a final assault on Christ’s church will follow the
era symbolized by the millennium. Satan cannot work his evil apart from God’s permission (Job 1:6–12; 2:1–6). As
God and the Lamb have authority to bind the dragon, inhibiting its deceptive and murderous influence on earth,
so they have the power to set the serpent free, to orchestrate one final rebellion against the Lord and his Christ (Ps.
2:1–2). Like the Revelation to John, Paul speaks of God’s present restraint of Satan and a future relaxing of that
restraint, allowing a final outbreak of evil that will be brought to an end by the glorious return of Christ himself (2
Thess. 1:5–2:12).
T H E F I N A L B AT T L E
We have seen the evidence that shows that the conflict that follows the thousand years is the same climactic battle,
“the battle of the great day of God the Almighty” (16:13–14), which John saw in Revelation 19:17–21. In the first
account, the role of the beast and of the false prophet in deceiving and gathering was shown, but the dragon was not
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mentioned (19:17–21). Now the dragon, the personal power driving all the forces of evil, appears as the agent of the
deceiving and gathering of the enemies of God. As we have seen, the allusions to Ezekiel’s prophecy against Gog of
Magog in Rev. 19:17–21 anticipated the naming of God’s enemies as “Gog and Magog” in 20:8. In both visions, the
forces of evil seem overwhelming (“all men, both free and slave, both small and great,” 19:18; “their number is like
the sand of the sea,” 20:8). We recall God’s word to the invader Gog: “You will come up against my people Israel like
a cloud covering the land” (Ezek. 38:16). How can “the camp of the saints” survive? This description of the church
as “the camp of the saints” teaches that we are “strangers and exiles on the earth” (Rev. 20:9; Heb. 11:13), like Israel’s
tents in the wilderness, exposed to assault but protected by God (Rev. 12:6, 14–16). We are pilgrims traveling toward
the land of our inheritance (1 Pet. 1:1–5). We are also God’s “beloved city,” the birthplace of God’s children from all
the nations (Ps. 87:1, 4–6). Though the forces arrayed against Christ’s church seem invincible, nevertheless in both
scenes of the last battle, Christ’s victory over his foes is instantaneous and complete, achieved by the omnipotent
power of heaven (Rev. 19:20–21; 20:9–10).
Through the vision of the “thousand years” of global gospel advance through the martyrs’ mighty testimony (Rev.
20:1–6), followed by the dragon’s short-lived rebellion and sudden destruction (20:7–10), Christ calls believers in
every generation to patient endurance amid suffering, bold witness among the nations, humble submission to our
Lord’s sovereign timeline, and sober confidence in the Lamb’s ultimate victory.

1. What other explanations of “the millennium” have you encountered? In these other views, when does “the
millennium” begin, and what are the conditions of life on earth like? As you compare and contrast the expla-
nation offered in this study to other views, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches?
2. What difference does our understanding of the thousand-years vision (Rev. 20:1–6) make in the way we
“process” trends in world news, and in our everyday Christian living?
3. How should Revelation’s portrait of the church as a holy “camp” of pilgrims, traveling through a wilderness,
influence where we rest our hopes and invest our resources?
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THE LAST JUDGMENT
The sounding of the seventh trumpet evoked from the twenty-four elders a song of praise for the arrival of the
last judgment:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” (Rev. 11:17–18)
Now, John sees that final Judgment Day. Again, the vision echoes Daniel’s description of the Ancient of Days, enthroned
among his holy attendants, before whom “the books were opened” to disclose the record of conduct on which each
verdict would rest (Dan. 7:9–10). The whiteness of his throne speaks of the wisdom and purity with which he now
administers justice to the human race.
Before the judge of all the earth calls humankind to account, John sees earth and sky flee from his face. In fact, “no
place was found for them,” with the result that “the first heaven and earth…passed away” (21:1). This dissolution
of the present sin-stained and curse-infected universe corresponds to similar eschatological forecasts elsewhere
in the New Testament (Heb. 1:10–12; 12:26–27; 2 Pet. 3:7, 10). Earlier in Revelation we glimpsed this cosmic
cataclysm in extreme earthquakes, the sky’s vanishing like a scroll, and the dislocation of mountains and islands
from their places (Rev. 6:12–14; 16:17–20). As we shall soon see, the disappearance of the present cosmos sets the
scene for “a new heaven and a new earth” (21:1), a pure environment in which death, mourning, weeping, and pain
are unknown (21:4).
The dead, “great and small”—in other words, everyone, both believers (11:18; 19:5) and unbelievers (13:16; 19:18)—now
stand before God’s throne (20:12) because the sea and the grave (Hades) have given up the dead that were in them
(20:13). This is the general resurrection of the just and the unjust, which Jesus foretold: “…an hour is coming when
all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and
those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29). All people will return to embodied life,
for “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he
has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). The books record each person’s lifetime, every thought,
word, and deed, which means the evidence in them constitutes conclusive grounds for God’s just verdict on every
person (Rev. 20:12–13).
Anyone whose conscience is even slightly sensitive to God’s holy standard will feel a twinge of dread at the words,
“and [the dead] were judged, each of them, according to what they had done” (20:13). Whatever others may think
of us, deep down we know the truth of Scripture’s verdict on the whole human race, including ourselves: “None
is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have
become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10–12). To our overwhelming relief, in this scene of last
judgment, flawless judgment, John glimpses one ray of hope: “Then another book was opened, which is the book of
life” (Rev. 20:12). This book belongs to the Lamb who was slain to redeem people by his blood, those whose names
were inscribed before the foundation of the world (3:5; 13:8; 17:8; see Phil. 4:3; Luke 10:20; Exod. 32:32–33; Dan.
12:1). Those whose names are found in this life-giving book have robes purged white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev.
7:14). When they stand before the great white throne, the divine judge’s verdict will hinge not on what the books
disclose about “what they had done,” but instead on the righteous life and sinless sacrifice of the Lamb slain for
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them (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8–11; Rom 5:15–21). Over people who stand under the slain Lamb’s invincible protection,
the “second death,” which is the lake of fire, “has no power” (20:6, 14–15). As the final act of judgment, “Death and
Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.” As Paul made clear to his friends in Corinth, Christ “must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25–26). Death’s destruction
concludes the cluster of history-ending, first-creation-destroying events: Christ’s return as the captain of heaven’s
armies, the resurrection of the just (by grace) and the unjust, and the destruction of the last enemy, death, never
again to threaten Christ’s beloved ones.

1. Psalms 96 and 98 invite heavens and earth, sea, rivers, forests, and fields to rejoice because the Lord is coming
to judge the earth, as do the elders in Revelation 11:17–18. Are you eagerly anticipating the Lord Jesus’ return
from heaven “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not
obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thess. 1:7–8)? Why or why not?
2. If there were no final reckoning, no just righting of this world’s wrongs, what would that absence say about
the truth, justice, and (even) mercy of God?
3. Obviously, having your name in the book of life makes all the difference between endless torment in the
lake of fire and eternal delight in the new heavens and new earth. And the writing of names in the Lamb’s
book of life “before the foundation of the world” shows God’s sovereign and gracious choice of individuals.
In light of this, is there anything we can do in response to this vision, which reveals the only way of escape
from the second death?
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1. Which view of the millennium is supported by the evidence in Revelation 20 and why?
2. How will varying views on the nature and timing of the millennium—how it relates to the first and second
coming of Christ, and what life on earth may be like during the “thousand years”—affect Christians’
perspective on current events and the state of the world? How will our understanding of the millennium
influence the way we live our lives as followers of Christ?
3. How does Revelation’s literary strategy of reduplication (successive visions showing the same era or
complex of events from various perspectives), help us make sense of the visions in Revelation 12, 19,
and 20?
4. Christians and non-Christians alike are distressed, even outraged, at the injustices in society, especially
about the ways the poor and powerless are victimized by those in control of “the system.” Yet many
people are offended by, even scornful of, the Bible’s announcement that every person who ever lived
will stand before the judgment seat of God, the absolutely just judge. Why is Revelation’s assurance that
Christ will return to judge and destroy the dragon, its agents, and its servants good news to the sufferers
of injustice? Why is it bad news to the perpetrators and beneficiaries of injustice? Which are we? How
should we respond to this forecast of the coming judgment?

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T H E N I S AW A N E W H E AV E N A N D A N E W
E A R T H , F O R T H E F I R S T H E AV E N A N D T H E
F I R S T E A R T H H A D PA S S E D AWAY, A N D T H E
S E A WA S N O M O R E . A N D I S AW T H E H O LY
C I T Y, N E W J E R U S A L E M , C O M I N G D O W N
O U T O F H E AV E N F R O M G O D , P R E PA R E D
AS A B R I D E A D O R N E D F O R H E R H U S B A N D.
A N D I H E A R D A LO U D VO I C E F R O M T H E
T H R O N E S AY I N G , “ B E H O L D , T H E D W E L L I N G
PLACE OF GOD IS WITH MAN. HE WILL
DWELL WITH THEM, AND THEY WILL BE
HIS PEOPLE, AND GOD HIMSELF WILL BE
W I T H T H E M AS T H E I R G O D.” . . . A N D H E
W H O WA S S E AT E D O N T H E T H R O N E S A I D ,
“ B E H O L D , I A M M A K I N G A L L T H I N G S N E W. ”
R E V E L A TION 2 1 : 1 – 5
Lesson 10
ALL
Things
NEW
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O Lord, we hear your Son’s promise, “I am coming soon,” and our longing hearts readily reply, “Amen. Come,
Lord Jesus!” We’re weary of this sin-cursed world’s pain and death, tired of the tears of sadness. We’re frustrated
and shamed by our own failure as your church, your beloved bride, to display the beauty you’ve prepared for
us, pure white in holy devotion and radiantly reflecting the glory of our husband. We’re grateful to hear your
triumphant announcement, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5). No one but you could make all
things new, everything within us and everything around us. Purify us even now, more and more, by the grace
of your Spirit of holiness. And hold our faith fast in your strong hand, from which no one can snatch us. We
ask expectantly and confidently through the Lamb, who is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the
beginning and the end. Amen.
READ TOGETHER: ISAIAH 65:17–19; REVELATION 21:1–8 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

1. Christians sometimes imagine that our final destiny is to be spirits dwelling forever in heaven with
God, but scripture affirms the hope of our physical resurrection, through which “our lowly body” will be
transformed “to be like [Christ’s] glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). Revelation’s concluding vision describes
a new heaven and earth, in which God will dwell with his people. Although Revelation’s portrait of
the new Jerusalem in the new earth is full of symbolism, how does its visual and tactile concreteness
correct our tendency to neglect the physical reality of the future God has in store for us?
2. Sometimes our imaginations about what will be best about “heaven” (or, better, the new heaven and
earth) focus on present miseries that will not be there (tears, pain, death, sorrow) or on the visual
and tactile pleasures that will be there (streets of gold and gates of pearl, the water of life and fruit
from the tree of life). Without devaluing such blessings, Revelation directs us elsewhere to show the
new creation’s highest joy: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (21:3; see verses 7, 22–23;
23:3–5). Why is this the best treasure that awaits the children of God? Is this the focal point of your
hope and desire?
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READ ISAIAH 65:17–19; REVELATION 21:1–8 (BIBLE STUDY P. 98)

B E H O L D, I A M M A K I N G A L L T H I N G S N E W
Revelation 21:1–8 forms a bridge between Christ’s triumph over the forces of evil (19:11–21; 20:7–10) and the closing
vision of the breathtaking beauty and joy that will result when God makes all things new. A new heaven and earth
appear, now that the first heaven and earth, tainted by human sin and its sorrows, have passed away (20:11; 21:4).
Through Isaiah, God had promised to create new heavens and a new earth, in which exultant joy would replace
sorrow and distress, fruitful thriving would replace frustration, and peace would replace violence (Isa 65:17–25).
Drawing on Isaiah’s imagery, Peter identifies the ground for this full and final blessedness: “But according to his
promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13) Sorrow and
suffering disappear because sin is no longer present in this new creation. Consequently, “no longer will there be
anything accursed” (22:3). The sea (the abyss of rebellion and chaos from which the dragon summoned the beast,
12:17–13:1; 17:8) “was no more” (21:1). Night and its threatening darkness, too, will be no more, dispelled by the
radiant light of the Lord God (21:25; 22:5). Human devotees of the dragon and its beast have been consigned with
their deceivers to the lake of fire and sulfur (20:15; 21:8), banished from the bliss of the new cosmos and God’s new
Jerusalem (21:27).
John sees this city descend from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband (21:2). From God’s throne comes an
announcement that explains the central significance of this holy city: “Behold, the dwelling place [tabernacle] of God
is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God”
(21:3). The presence of God with his people pervades John’s final vision. The city needs no temple, because the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb fill it with their glory (21:22–23). God’s servants worship in his presence and see his
face (22:3–5), enjoying the intimate communion that no human on earth (except the incarnate Son) could possibly
survive (Exod. 33:20; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16).
In all the centuries since Adam and Eve were banished from God’s presence in the garden (Gen. 3:23–24), God’s
people longed for restoration of intimate communion with our Creator. Despite the estrangement caused by
human rebellion, the Lord still appeared to Abraham (Gen. 17:1–2; 18:10–33) and promised to be with Isaac (Gen.
26:3), Jacob (28: 15; 31:3), Moses (Exod. 3:12), Joshua (Josh. 1:5), and others. His tent, filled with his glory, was at
the center of Israel’s camp in the wilderness (Exod. 40:34–35); and later his radiant presence flooded his temple
in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6:11–13; 8:10–11). Through the prophet Isaiah, God promised the birth of a virgin’s son
whose identity would be Immanuel, “God with Us” (Isa. 7:14). In due time the Lord kept that commitment when
the Word who was God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 14). His name is Jesus (“the Lord saves”),
for his purpose in coming to us was to save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21–23), thereby to restore our
communion with God that was forfeited in Adam’s Fall. Our heart’s thirst for God’s presence will be satisfied
by “the spring of the water of life,” bestowed “without payment” as the free gift of his mercy (21:6; 22:1–2), as
promised through the prophet Isaiah (55:1). Only those who, nourished by his grace, have conquered through
steadfast faith, whose names appear in the Lamb’s book of life, enjoy the refreshment of God’s eternal paternal
love (21:7, 27).
God on his throne announces, “Behold, I am making all things new,” directing John to record his words, which “are
trustworthy and true” (Rev. 21:5). Since he is “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” transcending history
and sovereign over history’s every event (21:6; see Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12), his personal guarantee of his promises is
more than sufficient grounds for our trust. Yet in this final vision, multiple witnesses join their voices to affirm the
reliability of the enthroned one’s declaration. Angels and prophets, including John, confirm the divine revelation
entrusted to them (22:6, 8). Jesus himself, who is soon to come as the divine “Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,
the beginning and the end” and “the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star,” testifies to the truth
of God’s imagination-exploding promises (22:12–13, 16, 20).
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1. In Isaiah 65:17–25 and Revelation 21–22, how does the Spirit use symbolism and analogy from our present
experience to paint a portrait of a completely new world, untouched by sin, sorrow, and death?
2. What do each of these images in Revelation 21:1–8 (to be explored in 21:9–22:5) convey about the joys that
God has prepared for his people, to be experienced fully in the new heaven and new earth?
• A bride adorned for her husband
• The dwelling place of God with man
• He will wipe away every tear from their eyes
• He will give the thirsty to drink from the water of life
• The conqueror as God’s son and heir

THE BRIDE, THE WIFE OF THE LAMB
Several parallels link the preambles to the unveiling of the prostitute Babylon (17:1–3) and the bride, the wife of
the Lamb (21:9–10). In both, an angel bearing one of the seven plagues summons John, “Come, I will show you…”
In both, the angel carries John away in the spirit, like the ancient prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 3:12; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 37:1;
43:5), to a specific vantage point. John views the prostitute from the wilderness, but he sees the bride from a
“great, high mountain,” as in Ezekiel’s vision of God’s final temple (Ezek. 40:1–2). At the conclusion of each vision,
the angel affirms the truth of the message that he has delivered from God and refuses the worship John tries to
offer (19:9–10; 22:8–9). These similarities, of course, highlight the differences—the complete contradiction, in
fact—between these two women.
The wife of the Lamb is “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (21:10, echoing 21:2). The
glory of God, which fills the city, gives it “a radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” Since the
semiprecious stone jasper in our world is opaque and found in a variety of colors, such as mustard yellow, red, or
green, it seems that John is straining the limits of human language and experience to paint an impression of what
he saw. When we hear that the city and its street were “pure gold, like pure/transparent glass” (21:18, 21), again we
realize that John’s vision blends features that transcend our experience in this world to convey an impression of
luminescence with precious worth.
T H E M O S T H O LY P L A C E
The imagery of the vision is architectural, but the reality to which the picture points is communal and personal.
John sees a city shaped like a cube, its width and length and height equal, surrounded by a high wall, accessed by
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12 gates, resting on 12 foundation stones. But the city has already been identified as the bride, a portrait of God’s
beloved people in both the Old Testament (Jer. 2; Ezek. 16; Hos. 2–3) and the New (John 3:28–30; Eph. 5:22–33).
And John has heard the bride’s gown of “fine linen, bright and pure” interpreted as “the righteous deeds of the
saints” (Rev. 19:8).
The number 12 that pervades the city’s description likewise signals that this “city” is a community of people,
ransomed by the blood of the Lamb and assembled for eternal worship. The city’s 12 gates bear the names of Israel’s
12 tribes. Its 12 foundation stones bear the names of the Lamb’s apostles. As in Ezekiel’s vision of the final temple
(Ezek. 40–42), an angel measures the city, determining that its dimensions in all directions—length, width, and
height—are 12,000 stadia.1 Its walls measure 144 (that is, 12 times 12) cubits. In Revelation 7:1–14 we heard the
census of those sealed and protected from the coming wrath of God: 12,000 from each of Israel’s 12 tribes. Then
in a complementary vision we saw that these precisely-numbered Israelites were, in fact, a countless multitude
from every ethnic group on earth (7:15–17)—the whole people of God throughout history, under the old covenant
and the new. Now in this vision of the new Jerusalem, that unity of God’s people is shown in the combination of the
gates that bear Israel’s names and the foundation stones that bear the names of the Lamb’s apostles. The imagery
coincides with Paul’s description of the church as being “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets”
(see Eph 2:19–22; Matt 16:18).
Since the apostles and prophets received the revelation of the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:5), the church’s faith rests
on their inspired writings (Scripture), which testify to Christ the cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). Paul portrays the church
not as the city of God, but as the temple of God. Yet John’s vision conveys the same truth: the city’s cubic shape
reflects the cubic shape of the Most Holy Place in Israel’s temple, where God’s glorious presence was most intensely
concentrated (see 1 Kings 6:20). So, the whole new Jerusalem is sanctuary: the whole people of God across the ages
is the Lord’s dwelling place (see 2 Cor. 6:16–18; 1 Pet. 2:4–5; 4:14–17; Rev. 3:12).
Since the entire city is a “Most Holy Place,” John “saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty
and the Lamb,” and the city’s endless source of light is the glory of God himself, permeating the new Jerusalem and
illumining the new earth (Rev. 21:22–25; see 22:5). Consequently, night (and the evil deeds concealed by its darkness)
“will be no more” (22:5; see 21:25; John 3:19–29; Eph. 5:8–14). In an earlier vision, which portrayed the experience
of the embattled church between Christ’s first and second comings, John was instructed to measure the sanctuary
of God but to leave the courtyard unmeasured, signifying that “the holy city” would be trampled under Gentiles’ feet
for a season (Rev. 11:1–2). There we saw the church protected spiritually from apostasy but exposed to physical and
economic assault from the unbelieving world. Now, since its enemies have been destroyed, the whole “holy city” is
measured, completely safeguarded from any and every threat. Its gates always stand wide open to receive the glory
of the kings of the earth (21:24–26).
John does not list the names of Israel’s 12 tribes inscribed on the pearly gates in the city’s wall, though he recorded
them in Revelation 7:5–8. Nor does he give the names of the Lamb’s 12 apostles. He does, however, identify individually
the 12 precious and semiprecious stones on which the apostles’ names appear.
1
God’s first-century readers, knowing the length of a Roman stadium (about 607 feet or 185 meters), would recognize that the
city’s dimensions must be taken symbolically, not literally. If it were a literal cube, its length and width and height would be 1,380
miles (2,220 kilometers). For residents of the Roman province of Asia, this would have been over six times the distance from
Pergamum, at the northwestern extreme of the circuit linking the seven churches, to Laodicea in the southeast.
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TWELVE PRECIOUS STONES
This collection of stones alludes to three Old Testament sources:
1. At least eight of the 12 are the gemstones that adorned the breastpiece worn by Israel’s
high priest as he entered the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, to atone for
the sins of God’s people (Exod. 28:15–21). Engraved on the 12 stones of the breastpiece
were the names of Israel’s 12 tribes. This echo further assures us that the entire city
is the Lord’s temple, and this city-temple signifies the people among whom God is
pleased to dwell.
2. Some of the stones appear in the Lord’s promise of rescue and restoration to his beleaguered
people in Isaiah 54:11–12:
O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted,

behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of agate [Septuagint/LXX: jasper],
… and all your wall of precious stones.
Suffering believers—whether in ancient Israel, in the first-century churches of Asia, or in our

own day—need the hope and comfort of this promise that our God will reverse our distress
and adorn his beloved bride with priceless beauty and solid security.
3. Many of these stones appear in an Old Testament description of Eden, the garden of God:
“… sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle…”
(Ezekiel 28:13). This echo of Eden’s abundance shows that the New Jerusalem, in the new
heavens and earth, is paradise restored, the home with our God for which we were created.
L I V I N G WAT E R A N D T H E T R E E O F L I F E
Other echoes of Eden and of Ezekiel’s vision of the final temple conclude the debut of the Lamb’s bride. Flowing
from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the city’s thoroughfare is the river of the water of life (Rev. 22:1).
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden’s trees (Gen. 2:10), and Ezekiel saw water flowing from the temple’s
threshold, deepening into an impassable river as it poured southeast into the Dead Sea (Ezek. 47:1–12). The water
of life John now sees is the renewing and refreshing presence of God’s Spirit, which God promises to all who thirst
for communion with himself (Rev 21:6). It is the life-generating, fruit-producing rainfall of the Spirit promised
through the Old Testament prophets (Isa. 44:3–5). It is the living water Jesus offered to a Samaritan woman
(John 4:14) and to worshipers gathered for the Feast of Tabernacles (7:37–39). From its fountain, the throne of
God and the Lamb at history’s consummation, it flows backward in time to the present, as the church testifies to
the gospel of God’s grace and issues his gracious invitation: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one
who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without
price” (Rev. 22:17).
The tree of life was central to Paradise—the reward of faithful obedience that Adam forfeited by his rebellion (Gen.
2:9; 3:22–24). On the banks of the river that Ezekiel saw, too, were trees bearing fresh fruit monthly and having leaves
that heal (Ezek. 47:12). So also, the angel shows John “on either side of the river, the tree of life,” yielding its fruit
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each month and providing leaves “for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2). All the refreshment, nourishment, and
healing for which we have longed in this sin-stained, suffering-cursed world flow from our gracious God through the
Lamb, who was slain for us and is alive forevermore.

1. It’s hard to take in the many vivid details in John’s vision of the bride, the wife of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem.
Read back through Revelation 21:9–22:5, noting these images and themes: light (with purity/transparency),
gold and gems, the water of life, and the tree of life. What does each of these tell us about the church’s identity
today and the church’s final destiny?
2. What is revealed about the New Jerusalem by: (a) the names on the 12 pearly gates and the names on the 12
foundation stones; (b) the dimensions of the city’s length, width, and height?
3. What is the highest joy promised to believers in the vision of the New Jerusalem?
ECHOES OF THE PROLOGUE
The angel who showed John the New Jerusalem affirms the trustworthiness of God’s words
concerning “what must soon take place” (22:6; see 1:1; 19:9; 21:5).
Jesus promises, “I am coming soon,” and pronounces the sixth of Revelation’s seven benedic-
tions, echoing the first (22:7; see 1:3). Continued on pg. 120
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John attests to what he has heard and seen, acknowledging his second misguided attempt to
worship an angel who is merely his “fellow servant” (22:8–9; see 19:9–10).
The angel directs John not to seal up the words of the prophecy “for the time is near”
(22:10–11; see 1:3).
Jesus repeats his promise, “I am coming soon,” affirming that he is Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last, the beginning and the end” (22:12–13; see 1:3, 8; 21:6).
The seventh benediction welcomes “those who wash their robes” into the city of God, to eat
of the tree of life (22:14–15; see 7:14; 21:6–8; 22:1–5).
Jesus announces that he has sent his angel to testify for the sake of his churches (22:16; see 1:1–2, 4).
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come,” inviting the thirsty to drink the water of life, God’s free
gift (22:17; see 7:17; 21:6; 22:1–2).
Jesus (apparently: see “he who testifies,” 22:20) testifies that adding to or subtracting from the
words of his prophecy has dire consequences: as the word of God, it is inviolable (22:18–19).
Jesus, who testifies these things, repeats his promise, “Surely I am coming soon” (22:20; on
“coming” see 1:7; 2:5, 16, 25; 3:3, 11, 20; 16:15; 22:7, 12; on “testifies” see 1:5; 3:14; and “testimony
of Jesus,” 1:2, 9; 12:17; 19:10; 20:4).
The bride (church) responds, “Come, Lord Jesus” (22:20; see 6:10–11).
A brief concluding benediction pronounces the grace of the Lord Jesus on all (22:21; see 1:4).
As this “revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:1) draws to a close, this great cloud of witnesses repeats and re-emphasizes
the momentous themes that the triune God (the Enthroned One, the Lamb, the Spirit who addresses the churches)
intends to impress on all who hear the words of this prophecy.
God’s Trustworthy Word. In the midst of a world captivated by the dragon’s deception, we who “keep the words
of this book,” holding fast to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, can rest assured that the foundation of our
faith is “trustworthy and true” (22:6). These words originate from “the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets,”
and they’ve been conveyed by Jesus himself, “who testifies to these things” (22:20) as the faithful and true witness
(3:14). They have been testified through his holy angel (22:16) to John, who personally heard and saw all he has
recorded (22:8). The multiplicity of these witnesses is for the sake of the churches (22:16), that our faith may stand
fast in a world hostile to the word of God and his followers.
Because this book contains the pure word of God, human beings must not tamper with it, either by addition or by
subtraction (22:18–19). This prohibition is the New Testament counterpart to the sanction that God pronounced
in Deuteronomy 4:1–2:
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Lesson 10
And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live,
and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not
add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD
your God that I command you.
All who speak presumptuously in God’s name, delivering messages that God has not given, bring down on themselves
the plagues that befall God’s enemies, and they forfeit the blessedness of the Lamb’s beloved Bride.
Imminence. Jesus repeatedly assures us, “I am coming soon” (22:7, 12, 20). Therefore, John is directed, “Do not
seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near” (22:10). This theme of the imminence of events
that will consummate in Christ’s coming was introduced in Revelation’s prologue: “things that must soon take place”
(1:1) and “the time is near” (1:3). By contrast, Daniel had been commanded to “shut up the words and seal the book,
until the time of the end” (Dan. 12:4; see 8:26; 12:9). Daniel’s visions offered symbolic portraits of events that would
belong to a future redemptive-historical epoch, so the full significance of his words would remain concealed until
that distant era arrived. John’s visions, on the other hand, unveil the spiritual warfare that rages behind the scenes
in human history, from the defeat of the dragon Satan (deceiver, accuser, murderer) and the offspring of the woman,
the Son of God, the Lamb slain for sinners.
Revelation’s focus, therefore, is on the era between the first and second comings of Christ, the era in which the
first-century believers of Asia live and in which the twenty-first century global church lives. Of course, the timespan
between Satan’s downfall and binding through the incarnation and the cross, on the one hand, and Satan’s final
destruction, on the other, has extended over many generations (as the “1,000 years” signals). Nevertheless, God
isn’t slow in keeping his promise but patient to gather everyone in every generation whose name is inscribed in the
Lamb’s book of life (2 Pet. 3:9). He isn’t callously delaying the rescue of his suffering saints (Luke 18:7–8; Rev. 6:10–11).
Although his timing may not seem so to his embattled church in the midst of conflict, from the perspective of eternity
we will concur that our champion came to our rescue “soon”—right on time. In the meanwhile, our confidence of his
coming and uncertainty about its timing keep us vigilant and faithful in our stewardship (Luke 12:35–40; Rev. 16:15),
eagerly awaiting “our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Christ’s Divine Supremacy. The epilogue draws a sharp contrast between the status of Jesus himself and that of
his highest angelic servants. Throughout this book holy angels deliver messages from God to John for the churches.
Two of these—the angel who shows John the prostitute and the angel who introduces the bride—apparently have
such splendor that John’s instinctive reaction is to fall at their feet to worship (19:10; 22:8–9). Immediately the angels
rebuke John, “You must not do that! …Worship God.” They will not permit John, even in the intensity of his prophetic
experience, to violate the living God’s exclusive claim on his creatures’ worship, stated in Scripture and on the lips
of Jesus himself: “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:10).
The angels’ appropriate refusal to receive worship stands in the sharpest contrast to the praise and adoration
received by Christ the Lamb in Revelation’s worship scenes and songs (Rev 5:9–14). After no creature anywhere
in the universe is found to be worthy to open the scroll in God’s hand, the Lamb appears, receives the scroll, and
is praised by the four living creatures and 24 elders (Rev 5:9–10), then by millions of angels (Rev 5:12), and finally,
along with God Almighty, by every creature everywhere (Rev 5:13–14). The elders in heaven adore the enthroned
King and the Lamb in the very way that only God himself deserves! Jesus the Lamb, no less than the Father, is “God
over all, blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5).
Likewise, the titles that Jesus claims in the epilogue (as well as earlier in Revelation) show his supremacy as God.
Earlier in the book, we heard God himself declare his eternity and sovereign control of the whole span of history:
“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty’” (Rev.
1:8). “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (21:6). These echo the Lord’s announcement of his
unparalleled uniqueness as the only true God in the prophecy of Isaiah:
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Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel

and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god. (Isaiah 44:6; see 43:10–11; 48:12)
Now in Revelation’s epilogue, the Christ who promises, “I am coming soon” as judge identifies himself with these titles
of divine eternity: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:12–13).
The one “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” is the one to whom “glory and dominion forever
and ever” belong (1:5–6).
The Great Divide. Christ’s mercy as the sacrificed Lamb, his just wrath as the divine judge, and the imminence
and unpredictability of his coming converge to confront everyone with the urgency of the question of our ultimate
allegiance, whether to God Almighty and the Lamb or to the dragon, its beasts, and its prostitute. The final benediction
on “those who wash their robes,” who “have the right to the tree of life” and to “enter the city,” stands in stark contrast
to those who will be forever banished from the bliss of the new creation: “sorcerers and the sexually immoral and
murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (22:14–15). Their place “outside” the
city will be, as we have seen, “the lake that burns with fire and sulfur” (19:20; 20:10; 21:8; see 14:10). They will suffer
unspeakable torment for high treason against the Creator of all. Before every person on earth stand the alternatives
with which Moses confronted the Israelites: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore
choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to
him” (Deut 30:19–20). This life-or-death choice cannot be deferred or delayed, “for the time is near” (Rev. 22:10).
Grace. Although Jesus is coming soon and the window for repentance is closing, still God’s testifying church invites
the thirsty to turn away from the world’s dry and broken cisterns and to drink deeply from the Lord, “the fountain
of living waters” (Jer. 2:11).
At first, when we hear “the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’” (22:17), we might interpret it as a prayer in response to
the Christ who promises, “I am coming soon” (22:12), and that’s the promise and prayer we hear in verse 20: “’Surely,
I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” But the “Come” of the Spirit and the bride is first an invitation to people
who are spiritually dehydrated, deserving death and at death’s door: “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who
desires take the water of life without price” (22:17).
We heard an anticipation of this gracious invitation in the promise of the One who will make all things new: “To the
thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment” (Rev. 21:6). Now, the promise is transformed
into an invitation, which echoes both an ancient prophetic preview— “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price”
(Isa. 55:1)—and Jesus’ later announcement in the temple—“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37–38). This living
water, John explains, is God’s life-generating Spirit (John 7:49; see Isa. 44:3–5; Ezek. 36:24–27; 37:1–14). The Son
of God gives the water of life freely, without charge, making the spiritually dead alive by grace alone through faith
alone, apart from our works (Eph. 2:5–9).
So great a gift to such guilty rebels does have its price, of course. The wonder of grace is that the cost is borne by
the faithful and holy Lord whose authority we’ve defied and whose glory we’ve offended. The seventh, climactic
benediction reminds us of the price Christ paid in order to bestow fine white linen on his bride. “Blessed are those
who wash their robes” (Rev. 22.14) brings us back to the scene of the international choir of the redeemed in heaven,
who “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14). Revelation opened with doxology
“to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (1:5–6). By his blood the Lamb “purchased people
for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (5:9). Nothing less than the sacrificial blood of the
Son of God could cleanse our consciences and present us in perfection before God’s throne (Heb. 9:13–14). A hymn
fittingly captures the focus of joy awaiting us when our bridegroom appears:
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Lesson 10
The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace;
not at the crown he gifteth, but on his piercéd hand;
the Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.2
The final words of Revelation are the brief but momentous and astonishing benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus
be with all. Amen” (Rev. 22:21).

1. The Bible clearly states that: (a) no one knows the time of the Lord’s second coming (Mark 13:32; Luke
12:35–40; Acts 1:7; Rev. 16:15); but (b) Jesus is coming soon (Rev. 1:1, 3; 22:6, 7, 12, 20); and yet (c) we must not
be discouraged by his apparent delay (2 Pet. 3:4–10). What spiritual danger does each of these truths (a, b, and
c) guard us against? How can we hold all three truths together without dissolving into confusion or turmoil?
2. Reflect on what each of the titles and names of our Savior in Revelation’s epilogue (Rev. 22:6–21) reveals about
his identity: “the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets” (22:6 with 22:16); God (22:9 with 5:9–14); the
Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (22:13); Jesus, Lord Jesus (22:16, 20–21).
What response should each of these revelations of Jesus Christ bring forth from us?

1. Remembering that Revelation’s first audience received its message by hearing it read aloud (Rev. 1:3),
try to imagine together the impressions that, as hearers, you would take away from John’s vision of the
New Jerusalem, the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:1–22:5)—the shape, the size, the stones and pearls and
metals, the transparency and luminescence. What overall message would you receive and retain from
hearing this Scripture?
2
Anne R. Cousins, “The Sands of Time Are Sinking” (1857). Public domain.
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2. Why would God embed such detail into this concluding vision, since he knew that so many of his people
would receive it through hearing, not reading, study, and research?
3. Discuss how the epilogue (22:6–22) sums up and reinforces themes from the prologue (1:1–8) and the
visions granted to John (1:9–22:5).
4. What spiritual needs do these final words address?
5. What responses are elicited from us hearers by the epilogue’s promises, prohibitions and commands,
blessings, and warnings?
CLOSE IN PRAYER (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

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RESOURCES
Bauckham, Richard. The Theology of the Book of Revelation. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Beale, G. K. Revelation. The New International Greek Testament Commentary.

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Boekestein, William. The Future of Everything: Essential Truths About the End Times.
Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2019.
Gilbert, Richard. “Christ and the Book of Revelation,” Modern Reformation, August 24, 2007.
https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/articles/christ-the-book-of-revelation/
Hemer, Colin J. The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting. United Kingdom:
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1986.
Hoekema, Anthony A. The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994.
Horton, Michael; Riddlebarger, Kim; Johnson, Dennis; Baugh, S.M. “A Revelation Roundtable,”
Modern Reformation, November 1, 2011. https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/
articles/a-revelation-roundtable/
Johnson, Dennis. Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation. Phillipsburg: P&R, 2001.
Keele, Zach. “The Slaying of the Dragon: Revelation 12:7–12,” The Mod, September
24, 2019. https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/web-exclusive-articles/
the-mod-the-slaying-of-the-dragon-revelation-127-12/
Lee, Brian J. “Finding Comfort in Eschatalogical Texts?” Modern Reformation, July 16, 2007.
https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/articles/finding-comfort-in-eschatalogical-texts/
Riddlebarger, Kim. A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times. Ada: Baker Books, 2013.
Riddlebarger, Kim. “A Present or Future Millennium,” Modern Reformation, August 16, 2007.
https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/articles/a-present-or-future-millennium/
Riddlebarger, Kim. “The Antichrist,” Modern Reformation, May 2, 1994.

https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/articles/the-antichrist/
Riddlebarger, Kim. The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth About the Antichrist.
Ada: Baker Books, 2006.
Warfield, B.B. “The Gospel and the Second Coming,” Modern Reformation, June 13, 2007.
https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/articles/the-gospel-and-the-second-coming/
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B L E S S E D I S T H E O N E W H O R E A D S A LO U D T H E W O R D S O F
T H I S P R O P H E C Y, A N D B L E S S E D A R E T H O S E W H O H E A R , A N D
W H O K E E P W H AT I S W R I T T E N I N I T, F O R T H E T I M E I S N E A R .
rEVEL Ation 1:3
“HOW SHOULD Christians discern the signs of the times?” “Why hasn’t
Christ returned yet?” “Who is the Antichrist?” “What will happen at the final
judgment?” These are questions we often receive at Core Christianity. And
whether you’re a new believer or have been walking with Christ for decades,
Core Christianity’s Revelation Bible study will help you understand the Bible’s
final book, as you experience the comfort, hope, and blessing promised to those
who hear and heed its words.
At Core Christianity, we strive to help people understand the core truths of

the Christian faith. Every time we answer a caller’s question on our daily radio
show, every article we run on corechristianity.com, and every resource we
produce seeks to help people gain a clearer understanding of the gospel—the
core message of Christianity.
REVELATION We wrote this study thinking of Sunday school classes, Bible study groups,
informal gatherings among friends, and individuals who want to learn more
about the Christian faith. Designed for groups to move through in 10 weeks, this
L E A D E R ’ S
study is perfect for a semester or quarterly study. Each weekly lesson includes
E D I T I O N selected passages from the Bible, explanations of the key themes revealed in
that passage, and reflection questions. This leader’s edition includes prayer
suggestions, leader’s notes, and additional reflection questions that will help
leaders facilitate edifying discussions each week.
We pray this study will help you to better understand how to approach this mys-
terious and often misunderstood book of the Bible. And we hope it will strengthen
your faith and confidence as you look to Jesus and heed his call to persevere.
Dennis E. Johnson (Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary) is Professor Emeritus of

Practical Theology of Westminster Seminary California and Assistant Pastor of
Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Dayton, Tennessee. He is the author
of Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures, The Message of
Acts in the History of Redemption, and Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on
Revelation. He and his wife have four married children and 15 grandchildren.
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Revelation by Dennis E. Johnson

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REVELATION

© 2021 Core Christianity

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be

Design and Creative Direction by Metaleap Creative

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing —March 2021

ALL OF OUR STUDIES ARE DESIGNED WITH SEVERAL THINGS IN MIND:

NOTE TO LEADERS (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

AND BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HEAR,

PRAY (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

READ TOGETHER: REVELATION 1:1–9 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

OPENING REFLECTION QUESTIONS (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

READ REVELATION 1:1–9 (BIBLE STUDY P. 10)

NAMES AND TITLES OF JESUS

1. Jesus (1:1–2, 5, 9; 12:17; 14:12; 17:6; 19:10; 20:4; 22:16, 20–21)

2. Christ (Messiah) (1:1–2, 5; 11:15; 12:10; 20:4)

3. The faithful witness (1:5; 3:14)

4. Firstborn of the dead (1:5; see 22:16)

5. Ruler of the kings of the earth (1:5)

7. One like a son of man (1:13)

9. The Son of God (2:18)

10. The Amen, the faithful and true witness (3:14)

11. The Lion of the tribe of Judah (5:5)

12. The Root of David (5:5)

14. The woman’s male child (12:4–5, 13)

15. Faithful and True (19:11; see 1:5; 3:14)

16. The Word of God (19:13)

17. Lord of lords and King of kings (17:14; 19:16)

19. The root and descendant of David (22:16)

20. The bright morning star (22:16; see 2:28)

SEVEN BLESSINGS IN REVELATION

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 13)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 14)

READ REVELATION 1:4–6 (BIBLE STUDY P. 15)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 16)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

END IN PRAYER (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

I WILL MAKE HIM A PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE

COMES DOWN FROM MY GOD OUT OF

PRAY (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

READ TOGETHER: REVELATION 1:9–20 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

OPENING REFLECTION QUESTIONS (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

READ REVELATION 1:9–20 (BIBLE STUDY P. 20)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 21)

3. What aspects of John’s vision encourage and reassure you?

READ REVELATION 2:1–7, 12–28; 1 CORINTHIANS 6:12–20 (BIBLE STUDY P. 22)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 23)

READ REVELATION 2:8–11; 3:7–13 (BIBLE STUDY P. 24)

SEVEN PROMISES TO THE ONE WHO CONQUERS

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 25)

READ REVELATION 3:1–6, 14–22 (BIBLE STUDY P. 26)

FIVE PASSAGES ABOUT THE CONQUERING

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 27)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

END IN PRAYER (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

GOD FROM EVERY TRIBE AND LANGUAGE

PRAY (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

READ TOGETHER: REVELATION 5:1–14 (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

OPENING REFLECTION QUESTIONS (LEADER’S EDITION ONLY)

READ REVELATION 4:1–11; ISAIAH 6:1–7 (BIBLE STUDY P. 30)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 31)

READ REVELATION 5:1–10; DANIEL 7:9–14 (BIBLE STUDY P. 31)

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION (BIBLE STUDY P. 32)

READ REVELATION 5:11–14 (BIBLE STUDY P. 33)