September 10, 2025 • 15 mins
Revelation might be the most misinterpreted book in the Bible. Far from being a cryptic code predicting modern events or a Rubik's cube of end-times prophecy, this mysterious text reveals something far more powerful: a vision of hope for believers facing persecution.
Ryan unpacks how Revelation functioned as apocalyptic literature—not predicting distant futures but "unveiling" present realities from a divine perspective. Written to first-century Christians struggling under Roman oppression, the book showed believers who felt crushed by imperial demands that the Lamb of God, not Caesar, truly sat on the cosmic throne. Those vivid, sometimes frightening symbols weren't puzzles for 21st-century Christians to decode, but representations of powers these early believers encountered daily.
The beast? Roman emperors demanding worship. Babylon? An empire built on exploitation and greed. That infamous "mark of the beast"? Historical evidence reveals citizens in cities like Hierapolis had to receive actual marks after emperor worship to buy and sell in marketplaces. These symbols speak just as powerfully today when we recognize modern "beasts" and "Babylons" demanding our allegiance.
This fresh perspective transforms Revelation from a source of confusion or fear into a profound reminder that even when it seems like chaos reigns, Jesus remains seated on the throne. What empire, ideology, or system threatens to pull your allegiance away from Christ today? Whose mark do you bear? When we see above the fray, we find courage to remain faithful even in our most challenging circumstances. The Lamb who was slain still reigns—and that changes everything.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
What is up everybody?
Hey, this is Ryan.
Welcome to our Reflectionspodcast.
Hey, every summer we do thissermon series.
We call it you Pick wherepeople write in questions and we
try to answer them or respondto them and create a sermon
around them or on a topic or aBible verse or a question.
And then the ones we don't getto or don't have enough Sundays
to get to, which we never do wenever have enough Sundays we
(00:38):
turn it into a podcast.
So I had one that was great andI wanted to sort of talk about
it briefly here.
But it's about the book ofRevelation, one of the most
mysterious books in literature,but also certainly in the
Judeo-Christian Bible and theChristian scriptures, and it is
a weird book.
And here's what I'll say.
A lot of folks, when they hearthe word Revelation, they think
of like these strange images oflike beasts and the end of the
(01:02):
world predictions and like wildscenes and crazy numbers or
codes to kind of crack andmysteries to solve, and but I
don't you know.
The question was how?
How should we read Revelation,and is it this prediction of the
future?
Should we be looking for theAntichrist?
Who is the Antichrist, eventhough every generation has
thought they knew who theAntichrist was, which it turns
(01:24):
out probably wasn't.
But what if the book ofRevelation isn't really about
timelines or hidden codes orlike actual events we're to be
looking for in history?
But what if it's more?
It's a deeper book about hope.
Hope written to ordinaryChristians in the first century
who were struggling under theweight of the empire and the
(01:45):
persecution and the tension thatthe empire created for them as
Christ followers.
So here's why Revelation waswritten.
So it was written in the firstcentury to a bunch of churches
who were living under the bootof the Roman empire and they
were suffering under immensepersecution and they were
wondering is following Jesusreally worth it?
(02:06):
They were facing such difficulttimes and waves of pressure
they wondered is this reallyworth it?
And they faced real persecution, real temptation to compromise
and like to leave it all andjust sort of abandon hope or
abandon following Jesus andinstead kind of jump into with
the empire and get on thebandwagon because it would be a
lot easier.
There's real pressure to jointhis cultural tide all around
(02:26):
them and become part of theempire.
Now remember the empire hadbeen united in this incredibly
dynamic way, mostly undermilitary violence and
suppression and there were allkinds of ways that they did this
.
But the empire demanded that youworship the emperor.
There was emperor worship, theycalled this imperial worship,
was standard practice.
The empire could toleratepolytheism.
(02:48):
You could worship all kinds ofgods, but you had to worship the
emperor as like the number onegod, so you couldn't worship any
other gods above the emperor.
Well, christianity did justthat.
It undermined pagan worship, oridolatry, or imperial worship
at every corner.
They were like no, caesar isnot Lord, the emperor is not
Lord, jesus is Lord.
So as there was, you know, asthe authorities began to enforce
(03:10):
, you know, more and more ofthis emperor worship or imperial
worship, there began to be thisincreased hostility towards the
Christians and persecution.
And so you have this context.
It's into this context thatJohn writes not a riddle or like
a Rubik's cube to be solved, tofigure out future events a
thousand or two thousand yearslater, but rather it's a vision
(03:30):
of God's truth, god's future andhow it shapes and frames how
they were to live in the presentmoment under the persecution of
this empire.
So the genre helps too.
Now, every book in the Biblehas a genre, and actually every
piece of literature usually hasa genre.
It might fall into a couple andthat's how you know how to read
it, how to interpret it.
For example, you would read thenewspaper, which is a genre
(03:51):
news.
Well, let's just take classicalnews, for example.
You would read that differentlythan you would.
Poetry.
Poetry and news are not thesame and it's not the same as,
like fiction, mystery.
These are all different genresand they impact how you read it.
Well, the book of Revelation isactually this very famous Jewish
genre of literature.
They call it apocalypticliterature.
(04:12):
Now, we think of apocalyptic aslike end of the world and
zombies and you know, nuclearwar, this kind of thing.
But the word apocalypsisliterally means unveiling or
revealing, or taking the coveroff, like think of it as pulling
back the curtain so you can seewhat's really going on.
So this is a book that istrying to pull back the curtain
for you and I, for the readers,especially in the first century,
(04:33):
but also us today, to seewhat's really happening Now.
This style wasn't new to John.
There were other apocalypticwritings in the Hebrew
scriptures, like Ezekiel andDaniel, that are full of
apocalyptic visions and so on.
But it tries to lift the readerabove the chaos above the
clouds and the fray, so you canget a glimpse of this
transcendent or godlikeperspective on the world,
(04:54):
current events and, like what'sreally happening, who's in
charge, who's driving?
So it's less about predicting astep-by-step unfolding of
history and there's been fiveblood moons and three tsunamis.
It's not about that at all.
It's more of an unveiling ofwhat's really happening behind
the scenes of the cosmos.
And in Revelation, john you knowwho they think is the beloved
(05:16):
John is pulled up into theheavenly throne room and he sees
this vision.
Now, in the vision inRevelation, he sees, for example
, many things.
He sees the Lamb of God who wasslain on the throne.
This is like a central visionto Revelation.
Now think if you're a firstcentury Jewish Christian who's
like trying to be faithful tounder this boot of the empire,
(05:39):
and you hear this vision like,hey, look on the throne of the
whole cosmos, who's in charge?
Not the emperor, not the empire, but Jesus, the Lamb is
reigning and is in charge and weare going to be okay.
That's what apocalypticliterature does.
It lifts you above the fray tosee what's really happening Now.
This means that Revelation isnot some kind, as I've mentioned
(06:02):
, a secret code book forpredicting the future or events
or these kinds of things.
If that was the case, if, like,revelation was written just to
predict what would happen in2025, then it would have been an
irrelevant book for Christiansfor the last 2,000 years.
Like, think about that.
John was writing just for ustoday to predict who would be
the next Antichrist, whether itwas president so-and-so or prime
(06:23):
minister so-and-so, like theywould have meant nothing to
anybody in the previous 2,000years.
So it's not, I would argue, andthere are many other scholars
who believe it's not about codesand a crystal ball to be
cracked to try to discoverwhat's happening in the future,
how it's unfolding.
Rather, it's hope duringdifficult times, and that was
true in the first centurybelievers under the Roman Empire
(06:44):
, and it's true for us today, ina world still filled with
oftentimes difficult times andpressure to like abandon the
faith or persecution.
You know whether it's on largescale or small scale, but we
tend to lose hope today.
This book also does indeedspeak to us today, but not in
the way of like kind ofpredicting the future, but
rather to give us hope when ournecks are under the boot of this
(07:08):
, maybe an oppressive regime oran ideology that would have us
abandon the faith altogether.
It's to give us hope thatChrist, that Jesus the Lamb, is
still on the throne.
Now here's the thing.
There are these incredibly wildimages that are in the book
that can also still speak to ustoday, but I think more like a
symbolic way.
Here's an example.
There's actually two greatexamples of these vivid images.
(07:28):
There's a beast in the book ofRevelation and Babylon.
So for John's audience, thebeast they would have known this
immediately as a symbol thatrepresents this military and
political power of Rome likeembodied.
So it wasn't like just someethereal spirit power, but like
it was this thing that wasembodied in emperors like Nero
(07:50):
and Domitian and the Christiansearly Christians actually called
the emperor, they called himthe beast.
The beast was the empire'soppressive might, demanding
allegiance and worship at everyturn.
Now Babylon, who in the ancientworld folks knew stood for this
city that was like, prosperousand had gained money and
(08:10):
affluence and wealth and powerthrough exploitation and greed
and these kinds of things.
I wonder if there are anycities or nation states like
that today that have gainedprosperity and wealth and
influence and power throughexploitation and greed and
things like this.
Maybe, maybe not, but in theimage of Revelation, the
(08:30):
prostitute or the harlot or thewhore of Babylon rides in on the
beast.
There's a chapter in Revelationthat talks about the prostitute
of Babylon and she's riding onthe beast Because Rome as an
imperial military power, itswealth and its cultural prestige
rested on the back of militaryconquest and oppression.
So the beast and sort of theharlot of Babylon, these are
(08:53):
things that are like they werevery present in the ancient
world.
In the first century.
They were like oh, that's theemperor, domitian is the beast
and the whore.
The harlot of Babylon was likeany country, in this case the
Roman Empire, that had gainedprosperity and wealth through
these nefarious means.
But like there are lots ofiterations of these kinds of
things Do you know what I mean?
Like there are lots of beastsor antichrists, things that
(09:16):
oppose the way of God, thingsthat try to put their boot on
the neck of the weak and thepoor, that take advantage.
And there are lots ofiterations of the beast or the
Antichrist that sort of live inthe same way as the emperors
Nero and Domitian did and thatbehave in the very same way.
And so it's no wonder thatChristians are always looking
for the next beast or Antichrist, because there are lots of them
(09:38):
popping up all over.
And the same with Babylon.
Like Babylon was thisincredibly prosperous city I
think of.
Like there's this incrediblyprofound image in the Hunger
Games, the capital, I think it'scalled.
I forget the story, but likethe capital is like Babylon.
Like the capital is thisincredibly affluent,
self-aggrandizing, you know cityor nation or capital.
(09:59):
That is like oppressing all theother parts of this, of its
empire, in these ways and solike, and there's obviously this
revolution.
But so it comes up inliterature, it comes up in
movies all the time.
And so Revelation warnsChristians and others hey,
beware of aligning yourself andyour life with the empire and
(10:19):
with systems that oppress andexploit people.
Beware of confusing yourloyalty to the state with your
loyalty with Jesus.
That is a message thatChristians today need to hear.
Be careful when your loyaltybegins to bleed over from Jesus
into the empire or into theCaesar or whomever your king is,
because every empire that sortof absolutizes its own
(10:41):
prosperity at the expense ofothers, ancient or modern
societies.
They find themselves wearingthe shoes of Babylon, you might
say.
So that's what it's a warningto us today, like, hey, be
careful of where your allegiancelies and watch out for empires
that begin to exploit andoppress, and be careful of
people who embody this idea thatwhen they look like Nero and
Domitian and Okay.
(11:03):
So there are some stories thatbring this into focus a bit more
.
So there's one of the discipleshis name was Philip, and Philip
grows up in this podunk area ofGalilee.
He's like a fisherman, but heends up after Jesus goes, you
know, after Jesus' death andresurrection, philip who's this
disciple of Jesus goes.
He ends up in a place calledHeropolis, like an ancient world
(11:23):
version of Las Vegas, likethings have gone off the rails
there, like anything goes.
And he goes there and he's likea missionary to Heropolis.
Now, when you go to Heropolis,citizens were expected to walk
into Heropolis through what theycall the Domitian Gate, and it
was a way of worshiping EmperorDomitian.
So you would walk under thisgate that was called the
Domitian Gate and in doing so,you were saying.
(11:45):
You were saying, you weredeclaring out loud that Domitian
is God, domitian is Lord.
Then, after you pass throughthe special gate, you would go
to this other area and you wouldlight incense and offer further
worship to Domitian.
Now, in return.
In doing this, in sort ofoffering your worship, your
allegiance to Domitian theempire and imperial worship, you
would receive like a mark onyour hand and on your forehead,
(12:09):
and this mark would then allowyou to buy and sell in the
marketplace.
Now, remember that theChristians called the emperor
the beast.
So in this city, heropolis,under the Roman rule, in order
to buy and sell and trade in themarketplace, you had to go and
receive the mark of the beast onyour hand and your forehead.
(12:29):
So maybe the mark of the beastis not some chip that's being
invented by, I don't know, elonMusk or somebody that's going to
go into your forehead.
Maybe it's anytime you offeryour own allegiance to the
empire and to foreign idols orto gods that are, you know, here
and even far away but the gods,in order to kind of fit in, to
sort of buy and sell in themarketplace.
(12:50):
It's sort of like selling yoursoul If you do that, in order to
like sort of profit from it.
That's receiving the mark ofthe beast, if you read it in
this way.
And so for Christians, likegoing into the Domitian Gate
offering incense it wasn't justlike a civic duty in order to
buy and sell and trade goods.
It was actually idolatry.
To worship the beast was tobetray Jesus in every way, and
(13:11):
so this imagery of the mark ofthe beast.
It comes right out of that likecultural reality of the first
century.
So, again, talking aboutmicrochips and barcodes and
these kinds of things, wheredoes your allegiance lie, with
the empire or with Jesus?
And this is why Revelationmatters today, because it
unveils reality.
May we all have an unveiling inour own lives of the ways in
(13:31):
which we've become maybedisloyal to Jesus and have kind
of climbed into bed with theempire or the ways of the empire
, the ideologies of the empire,and we've sold our soul in order
to buy and sell and trade andthese kinds of things.
And at its heart, revelationisn't about fear, it's about
hope.
How can we then be reminded ofthe hope that it's Jesus on the
throne, that he wins the finalbattle, that at the very, very
(13:56):
end, god promises to restore andrenew all things?
And we have this vision ofGod's future breaking into the
present, here and now, that wecan live in light of God's
victory and the victory of Jesuson the throne and him running
the cosmos, that the throneisn't empty, that Jesus reigns
and rules and that, because hereigns, you and I can have
courage to not abandon our faithor abandon the ways of the
cross and to jump in with theempire.
(14:17):
But we can have clarity andhope, even in difficult times
where we feel like man, this isnot going to work out well for
us, but when we know the end ofthe story, in order to live more
deeply rooted in courage andhope and faith in our time today
.
So the next time you hear aboutRevelation, remember it's not a
prediction or a chart or aprediction of future events or
(14:38):
those kinds of things.
It's about perspective, seeingabove the panic, above the fray,
above the chaos, andremembering that the lamb is on
the throne.
This vision changes everything.
All right, love you guys, peace.
Hey, if you enjoy this show,I'd love to have you share it
with some friends.
And don't forget, you arealways welcome to join us in
person at Central in Elk Riverat 830, which is our liturgical
(15:02):
gathering, or at 10 o'clock, ourmodern gathering, or you can
check us out online atclcelkriverorg.
Peace.
What is up everybody?
Hey, this is Ryan.
Welcome to our Reflectionspodcast.
Hey, every summer we do thissermon series.
We call it you Pick wherepeople write in questions and we
try to answer them or respondto them and create a sermon
around them or on a topic or aBible verse or a question.
And then the ones we don't getto or don't have enough Sundays
to get to, which we never do wenever have enough Sundays we
(00:38):
turn it into a podcast.
So I had one that was great andI wanted to sort of talk about
it briefly here.
But it's about the book ofRevelation, one of the most
mysterious books in literature,but also certainly in the
Judeo-Christian Bible and theChristian scriptures, and it is
a weird book.
And here's what I'll say.
A lot of folks, when they hearthe word Revelation, they think
of like these strange images oflike beasts and the end of the
(01:02):
world predictions and like wildscenes and crazy numbers or
codes to kind of crack andmysteries to solve, and but I
don't you know.
The question was how?
How should we read Revelation,and is it this prediction of the
future?
Should we be looking for theAntichrist?
Who is the Antichrist, eventhough every generation has
thought they knew who theAntichrist was, which it turns
(01:24):
out probably wasn't.
But what if the book ofRevelation isn't really about
timelines or hidden codes orlike actual events we're to be
looking for in history?
But what if it's more?
It's a deeper book about hope.
Hope written to ordinaryChristians in the first century
who were struggling under theweight of the empire and the
(01:45):
persecution and the tension thatthe empire created for them as
Christ followers.
So here's why Revelation waswritten.
So it was written in the firstcentury to a bunch of churches
who were living under the bootof the Roman empire and they
were suffering under immensepersecution and they were
wondering is following Jesusreally worth it?
(02:06):
They were facing such difficulttimes and waves of pressure
they wondered is this reallyworth it?
And they faced real persecution, real temptation to compromise
and like to leave it all andjust sort of abandon hope or
abandon following Jesus andinstead kind of jump into with
the empire and get on thebandwagon because it would be a
lot easier.
There's real pressure to jointhis cultural tide all around
(02:26):
them and become part of theempire.
Now remember the empire hadbeen united in this incredibly
dynamic way, mostly undermilitary violence and
suppression and there were allkinds of ways that they did this
.
But the empire demanded that youworship the emperor.
There was emperor worship, theycalled this imperial worship,
was standard practice.
The empire could toleratepolytheism.
(02:48):
You could worship all kinds ofgods, but you had to worship the
emperor as like the number onegod, so you couldn't worship any
other gods above the emperor.
Well, christianity did justthat.
It undermined pagan worship, oridolatry, or imperial worship
at every corner.
They were like no, caesar isnot Lord, the emperor is not
Lord, jesus is Lord.
So as there was, you know, asthe authorities began to enforce
(03:10):
, you know, more and more ofthis emperor worship or imperial
worship, there began to be thisincreased hostility towards the
Christians and persecution.
And so you have this context.
It's into this context thatJohn writes not a riddle or like
a Rubik's cube to be solved, tofigure out future events a
thousand or two thousand yearslater, but rather it's a vision
(03:30):
of God's truth, god's future andhow it shapes and frames how
they were to live in the presentmoment under the persecution of
this empire.
So the genre helps too.
Now, every book in the Biblehas a genre, and actually every
piece of literature usually hasa genre.
It might fall into a couple andthat's how you know how to read
it, how to interpret it.
For example, you would read thenewspaper, which is a genre
(03:51):
news.
Well, let's just take classicalnews, for example.
You would read that differentlythan you would.
Poetry.
Poetry and news are not thesame and it's not the same as,
like fiction, mystery.
These are all different genresand they impact how you read it.
Well, the book of Revelation isactually this very famous Jewish
genre of literature.
They call it apocalypticliterature.
(04:12):
Now, we think of apocalyptic aslike end of the world and
zombies and you know, nuclearwar, this kind of thing.
But the word apocalypsisliterally means unveiling or
revealing, or taking the coveroff, like think of it as pulling
back the curtain so you can seewhat's really going on.
So this is a book that istrying to pull back the curtain
for you and I, for the readers,especially in the first century,
(04:33):
but also us today, to seewhat's really happening Now.
This style wasn't new to John.
There were other apocalypticwritings in the Hebrew
scriptures, like Ezekiel andDaniel, that are full of
apocalyptic visions and so on.
But it tries to lift the readerabove the chaos above the
clouds and the fray, so you canget a glimpse of this
transcendent or godlikeperspective on the world,
(04:54):
current events and, like what'sreally happening, who's in
charge, who's driving?
So it's less about predicting astep-by-step unfolding of
history and there's been fiveblood moons and three tsunamis.
It's not about that at all.
It's more of an unveiling ofwhat's really happening behind
the scenes of the cosmos.
And in Revelation, john you knowwho they think is the beloved
(05:16):
John is pulled up into theheavenly throne room and he sees
this vision.
Now, in the vision inRevelation, he sees, for example
, many things.
He sees the Lamb of God who wasslain on the throne.
This is like a central visionto Revelation.
Now think if you're a firstcentury Jewish Christian who's
like trying to be faithful tounder this boot of the empire,
(05:39):
and you hear this vision like,hey, look on the throne of the
whole cosmos, who's in charge?
Not the emperor, not the empire, but Jesus, the Lamb is
reigning and is in charge and weare going to be okay.
That's what apocalypticliterature does.
It lifts you above the fray tosee what's really happening Now.
This means that Revelation isnot some kind, as I've mentioned
(06:02):
, a secret code book forpredicting the future or events
or these kinds of things.
If that was the case, if, like,revelation was written just to
predict what would happen in2025, then it would have been an
irrelevant book for Christiansfor the last 2,000 years.
Like, think about that.
John was writing just for ustoday to predict who would be
the next Antichrist, whether itwas president so-and-so or prime
(06:23):
minister so-and-so, like theywould have meant nothing to
anybody in the previous 2,000years.
So it's not, I would argue, andthere are many other scholars
who believe it's not about codesand a crystal ball to be
cracked to try to discoverwhat's happening in the future,
how it's unfolding.
Rather, it's hope duringdifficult times, and that was
true in the first centurybelievers under the Roman Empire
(06:44):
, and it's true for us today, ina world still filled with
oftentimes difficult times andpressure to like abandon the
faith or persecution.
You know whether it's on largescale or small scale, but we
tend to lose hope today.
This book also does indeedspeak to us today, but not in
the way of like kind ofpredicting the future, but
rather to give us hope when ournecks are under the boot of this
(07:08):
, maybe an oppressive regime oran ideology that would have us
abandon the faith altogether.
It's to give us hope thatChrist, that Jesus the Lamb, is
still on the throne.
Now here's the thing.
There are these incredibly wildimages that are in the book
that can also still speak to ustoday, but I think more like a
symbolic way.
Here's an example.
There's actually two greatexamples of these vivid images.
(07:28):
There's a beast in the book ofRevelation and Babylon.
So for John's audience, thebeast they would have known this
immediately as a symbol thatrepresents this military and
political power of Rome likeembodied.
So it wasn't like just someethereal spirit power, but like
it was this thing that wasembodied in emperors like Nero
(07:50):
and Domitian and the Christiansearly Christians actually called
the emperor, they called himthe beast.
The beast was the empire'soppressive might, demanding
allegiance and worship at everyturn.
Now Babylon, who in the ancientworld folks knew stood for this
city that was like, prosperousand had gained money and
(08:10):
affluence and wealth and powerthrough exploitation and greed
and these kinds of things.
I wonder if there are anycities or nation states like
that today that have gainedprosperity and wealth and
influence and power throughexploitation and greed and
things like this.
Maybe, maybe not, but in theimage of Revelation, the
(08:30):
prostitute or the harlot or thewhore of Babylon rides in on the
beast.
There's a chapter in Revelationthat talks about the prostitute
of Babylon and she's riding onthe beast Because Rome as an
imperial military power, itswealth and its cultural prestige
rested on the back of militaryconquest and oppression.
So the beast and sort of theharlot of Babylon, these are
(08:53):
things that are like they werevery present in the ancient
world.
In the first century.
They were like oh, that's theemperor, domitian is the beast
and the whore.
The harlot of Babylon was likeany country, in this case the
Roman Empire, that had gainedprosperity and wealth through
these nefarious means.
But like there are lots ofiterations of these kinds of
things Do you know what I mean?
Like there are lots of beastsor antichrists, things that
(09:16):
oppose the way of God, thingsthat try to put their boot on
the neck of the weak and thepoor, that take advantage.
And there are lots ofiterations of the beast or the
Antichrist that sort of live inthe same way as the emperors
Nero and Domitian did and thatbehave in the very same way.
And so it's no wonder thatChristians are always looking
for the next beast or Antichrist, because there are lots of them
(09:38):
popping up all over.
And the same with Babylon.
Like Babylon was thisincredibly prosperous city I
think of.
Like there's this incrediblyprofound image in the Hunger
Games, the capital, I think it'scalled.
I forget the story, but likethe capital is like Babylon.
Like the capital is thisincredibly affluent,
self-aggrandizing, you know cityor nation or capital.
(09:59):
That is like oppressing all theother parts of this, of its
empire, in these ways and solike, and there's obviously this
revolution.
But so it comes up inliterature, it comes up in
movies all the time.
And so Revelation warnsChristians and others hey,
beware of aligning yourself andyour life with the empire and
(10:19):
with systems that oppress andexploit people.
Beware of confusing yourloyalty to the state with your
loyalty with Jesus.
That is a message thatChristians today need to hear.
Be careful when your loyaltybegins to bleed over from Jesus
into the empire or into theCaesar or whomever your king is,
because every empire that sortof absolutizes its own
(10:41):
prosperity at the expense ofothers, ancient or modern
societies.
They find themselves wearingthe shoes of Babylon, you might
say.
So that's what it's a warningto us today, like, hey, be
careful of where your allegiancelies and watch out for empires
that begin to exploit andoppress, and be careful of
people who embody this idea thatwhen they look like Nero and
Domitian and Okay.
(11:03):
So there are some stories thatbring this into focus a bit more
.
So there's one of the discipleshis name was Philip, and Philip
grows up in this podunk area ofGalilee.
He's like a fisherman, but heends up after Jesus goes, you
know, after Jesus' death andresurrection, philip who's this
disciple of Jesus goes.
He ends up in a place calledHeropolis, like an ancient world
(11:23):
version of Las Vegas, likethings have gone off the rails
there, like anything goes.
And he goes there and he's likea missionary to Heropolis.
Now, when you go to Heropolis,citizens were expected to walk
into Heropolis through what theycall the Domitian Gate, and it
was a way of worshiping EmperorDomitian.
So you would walk under thisgate that was called the
Domitian Gate and in doing so,you were saying.
(11:45):
You were saying, you weredeclaring out loud that Domitian
is God, domitian is Lord.
Then, after you pass throughthe special gate, you would go
to this other area and you wouldlight incense and offer further
worship to Domitian.
Now, in return.
In doing this, in sort ofoffering your worship, your
allegiance to Domitian theempire and imperial worship, you
would receive like a mark onyour hand and on your forehead,
(12:09):
and this mark would then allowyou to buy and sell in the
marketplace.
Now, remember that theChristians called the emperor
the beast.
So in this city, heropolis,under the Roman rule, in order
to buy and sell and trade in themarketplace, you had to go and
receive the mark of the beast onyour hand and your forehead.
(12:29):
So maybe the mark of the beastis not some chip that's being
invented by, I don't know, elonMusk or somebody that's going to
go into your forehead.
Maybe it's anytime you offeryour own allegiance to the
empire and to foreign idols orto gods that are, you know, here
and even far away but the gods,in order to kind of fit in, to
sort of buy and sell in themarketplace.
(12:50):
It's sort of like selling yoursoul If you do that, in order to
like sort of profit from it.
That's receiving the mark ofthe beast, if you read it in
this way.
And so for Christians, likegoing into the Domitian Gate
offering incense it wasn't justlike a civic duty in order to
buy and sell and trade goods.
It was actually idolatry.
To worship the beast was tobetray Jesus in every way, and
(13:11):
so this imagery of the mark ofthe beast.
It comes right out of that likecultural reality of the first
century.
So, again, talking aboutmicrochips and barcodes and
these kinds of things, wheredoes your allegiance lie, with
the empire or with Jesus?
And this is why Revelationmatters today, because it
unveils reality.
May we all have an unveiling inour own lives of the ways in
(13:31):
which we've become maybedisloyal to Jesus and have kind
of climbed into bed with theempire or the ways of the empire
, the ideologies of the empire,and we've sold our soul in order
to buy and sell and trade andthese kinds of things.
And at its heart, revelationisn't about fear, it's about
hope.
How can we then be reminded ofthe hope that it's Jesus on the
throne, that he wins the finalbattle, that at the very, very
(13:56):
end, god promises to restore andrenew all things?
And we have this vision ofGod's future breaking into the
present, here and now, that wecan live in light of God's
victory and the victory of Jesuson the throne and him running
the cosmos, that the throneisn't empty, that Jesus reigns
and rules and that, because hereigns, you and I can have
courage to not abandon our faithor abandon the ways of the
cross and to jump in with theempire.
(14:17):
But we can have clarity andhope, even in difficult times
where we feel like man, this isnot going to work out well for
us, but when we know the end ofthe story, in order to live more
deeply rooted in courage andhope and faith in our time today
.
So the next time you hear aboutRevelation, remember it's not a
prediction or a chart or aprediction of future events or
(14:38):
those kinds of things.
It's about perspective, seeingabove the panic, above the fray,
above the chaos, andremembering that the lamb is on
the throne.
This vision changes everything.
All right, love you guys, peace.
Hey, if you enjoy this show,I'd love to have you share it
with some friends.
And don't forget, you arealways welcome to join us in
person at Central in Elk Riverat 830, which is our liturgical
(15:02):
gathering, or at 10 o'clock, ourmodern gathering, or you can
check us out online atclcelkriverorg.
Peace.
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