Therefore write down the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things that will happen after this.Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter.Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter;
5 sermons cite this verse
So this is to catch us up with where we are. God told John, write down the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things which will take place. And this is the outline for the book of Revelation. But I wanna be clear because right now when we hear second coming, a lot of us might think rapture. What we're not talking about tonight rapture of the church. And Pastor Skip has gone in depth to the difference between the rapture and the second coming, and I want to be as faithful to this text as possible, but I'll add a little bit of clarity. Rapture comes to us because you might hear people say, the word rapture is never actually in the Bible. Well, true. The word Bible is also never in the Bible. The word Trinity is not in the Bible. There could be a case to be made that biblos was in the Bible, but it's literally just when Paul was telling Timothy, hey, bring those books that I left behind. And he uses the word biblos. But that's beside the point. I digress. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 4, he says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren. Here's something, you're grieving because people around you have suffered and died because of a persecution. I don't want you to be ignorant about eschatology because it's actually going to be proving to be a great help to you. …
… But he gets a vision of the glorified Christ. And then he is told, write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. That's chapter 1, verse 19 of Revelation. And that single verse forms the outline for the entire book. Book of Revelation is divided into three parts. The things John saw, the things which are, and the things which take place after those things. So, what did he see? He saw a vision of the glorified Christ. Write the things which you have seen in chapter 1. Write the things which are. So chapter 2 and 3 are the current conditions, when John writes, of the seven churches scattered throughout Asia Minor. The condition of the church, the things which are. The third is, and you will write what will happen after these things. In Greek, meta-tauta. After this, after these, after these things. Meta-tauta. When you get to chapter 4, chapter 4 begins in the Greek, meta-tauta. …
… Remember this, Revelation chapter 1 verse 19. Whenever you study Bible prophecy, it's not a mystery. The Bible says in the book of Revelation very clearly, write the things which you have seen. This is Jesus speaking, by the way, to John. Write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this. Do you remember that? Do you guys remember what we connected this to? Three buckets. Can we see pictures of those buckets again? There's things when you read the Bible, we're going to do it tonight. We're going to practice what we preach tonight with what we're about to read. Does what we're reading in the Bible have to deal only with the past? In other words, it's over. That's done or that's fulfilled. For example, I'll give you one that's in the past and it's done, it's fulfilled. It's a Bible prophecy. It's over. It will never happen again. But you remember it every Palm Sunday. Zechariah chapter 9 verse 9 tells us that the Messiah would come into Jerusalem riding on the back of a little donkey that's never been ridden before. …
… dies. And John will live. And more than that, verse 19 gives him his commission. Therefore, write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. Go to work, John. Start writing. This is just the beginning. Amazing. Here is another saint who literally was devastated under the vision of God, who is called and commissioned like Isaiah was, like Ezekiel was, like Paul was. up, dust yourself off, and write the things which you have seen in the past, things which are in the present, things which will take place after these things. Get back to work. It's all history that John wrote. He's writing history before it ever happened. He's writing the future. And for us, go back to verse 3, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. You want to be blessed? Look at the future through the book of Revelation, not through any human perspective. …
… in a kind of symbolic way. Every eye will see him. The conservative churches have said, yes, we take this as a real historic, actual future event. But the conservative churches have tended to obsess on when will it be? What year will it be? What will the signs be? So that we can predict his coming. Now, not only did Jesus repeatedly say, no one knows the day or the hour, Nobody knows when that's going to be. In fact, Jesus, when he was on earth, said even he didn't at the time know when it would be. But to even try to guess shows that you don't understand how this doctrine is supposed to really shape our lives. So what is this doctrine? Well, take a look here. Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him, so may it be. Amen. Now, all Bible scholars over the years have said that the book of Revelation, more than any other New Testament book, draws on Old Testament imagery. …