Teaching on the Book of Revelation and End Times Prophecy (Session 2) The Setting and History of Revelation
Last week we opened up this topic by setting a foundation to build upon . Just to reiterate my heart behind this message I want to be clear that this is to empower the church and restore her back to her position as sitting at the right hand of the father with Jesus. It’s to magnify and understand the completed work that our precious Jesus has done for us. Finally, it is to destroy the lies of the enemy and take back from him what is rightfully ours. It’s time for us to begin to rebuild broken cities and restore the mantle back to the next generation that has been so badly neglected by the church up to this point. Now, let’s take a look at the history of the first century church to understand what the book of revelation was talking about.
I used scripture to reveal who Jesus was talking to in regards to the information in the book of revelation last week and I want to provide that information again for those who did not get to see it
Insert from last week:
“When the Bible talks about Christ’s second coming it was referring to the annihilation of the Mosaic Age and the setting up of The Kingdom of Jesus.
-The prophecies about the “end of the age” were for the recipients of the letters.
Proof
-Jesus said that some of His disciples will not finish preaching through all the cities of Israel before He comes back (Matthew 10:23).
-Jesus said that some who were living during His time would not die before they see the Son of Man (Jesus Christ) coming in His Kingdom (Matthew 16:28).
-Jesus said that “this generation” will not pass away before all these things concerning His second coming are fulfilled (Matthew 24:34).
-He was talking to the people of that time and the generation of that time. He was saying that they (not us) would be witnesses to these things happening.”
End Insert.
The very first statement made to open up the book of Revelation puts the information that Jesus is about to reveal in a timeframe. The book starts by stating “This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John.” Notice now where it is clearly written “events that must soon take place.” The recipients of this letter understood that it is warning them of events that would take place in their lifetime.
The book of Revelation is revealing Gods plan to transform His people from an old covenant to a new covenant; from an old creation to a new creation.”And the One sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” (Rev. 21:5) This theme is seen throughout the book and should make the church very excited about the completed work of Christ.
Now let’s paint a picture of the setting so the book can be understood in context. We have always known Revelation as a book in the Bible but it was first a letter to warn Gods people to flee from Jerusalem. It was written around 65 A.D by John the Apostle. At this time, Rome was under a leader by the name of Nero. The readers of the letter were familiar with the Hebrew language and could recognize that the Greek spelling of “Nero Caesar” transliterated into the Hebrew characters of 666. Under his leadership, we will soon see that things were elevating quickly and the warnings in the book would soon play out.
The book of Exodus is the story of an escape plan. God used Moses as a shadow of what Jesus would do to help Gods people escape from a nation that was about to be judged by Him. The language and events in the book of Exodus are almost parallel to the Book of Revelation. The readers of Johns letter would have understood this fully and would have seen the letter as just that, an escape plan.
Jerusalem at this point had committed adultery against its Groom and was going to be judged for its ultimate treason by killing Jesus. She turned her back on God completely by proclaiming “we have no king but Ceasar” This judgment came when Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus the son of Vespasian.
We really need to understand what took place from 63 A.D. To 70 A.D. in comparison to our time. The events of this time impacted the known world in an almost apocalyptic fashion. At this point in time, Jerusalem was a very important city to the world economy being a major trading port. Just imagine one day you wake up to have your morning breakfast and turn on the T.V. Normal broadcast has been taken over with breaking news that New York City has complete been destroyed in just one day. Just looking back to the tragedy of 9/11 was bad enough with just the two buildings being destroyed. This is what it was like when Jerusalem was completely and brutally annihilated in one day.
Not only was Jerusalem a major trading port but it was the headquarters of the Jewish religion and the home of the Temple. Under God’s law, the Jews had no way of being right with Him. They needed the temple in order to bring their sacrifices to participate in the rituals required to be cleansed. From this point on, the Jewish religion would never be the same again. It’s hard for us to understand this because we don’t have a good understanding of history anymore but to them this was one of the most devastating events of all time.
The Christian religion began to look a lot different from this point on as well. Before this event, Christians had still always been tied to the temple as a place of worship. Now that the physical temple had been destroyed, it allowed the church to understand and receive the revelation that Jesus had been teaching them all along. They began to live as the temple and as the new Jerusalem with Christ as the center. In this way the whole world can become the temple which was the Father’s main goal. To defeat the enemy and to restore our relationship with Him. We no longer have to go somewhere to find God, He is with us wherever we go. The old temple had to be removed for this new creation to began. This was the beginning of the “New Age” Jesus was refusing to in the Gospels.
Revelation 17:9–10 “This calls for a mind with understanding: The seven heads of the beast represent the seven hills where the woman rules. They also represent seven kings. Five kings have already fallen, the sixth now reigns, and the seventh is yet to come, but his reign will be brief.” A common nickname for Rome was “the seven hills”.
Lets break down what was said in these verses and explain what it would have meant to the recipients of the letter In the first century church . A common nickname for Rome was and still is “The Seven Hills” because of the mountains that the city was built on and surrounded by. This was understood by the church and is why this discretion was used in revelation. They were able to easily understand that what was being revealed here was about the kings of the Roman Empire . Now, let’s take a look at the kings of Rome.
The first king of was Julius Caesar ruling until 42 b.c. He started as a Roman statesman and general and played a critical role in the events that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire. Rome would began to dominate the world from this point forward.
Augustus Caesar gained rulership in 31 b.c.- 14 a.d. Augustus was overshadowed by Herod the Great in the eyes of the would in his time. Herod the great was the 7th Herod mentioned in the bible and this line of Herod’s were the figurehead of Rome. During his time the Israelites commonly referred to him as a seven headed beast. This is what Revelations was referring to when it spoke of the beast with seven heads and the ten horns. (Rev. 17:12) The ten horns in the passage were speaking of the ten provinces that lead Rome at that time. The birth of Jesus occurred during Augustus Caesar’s leadership and Gods plan to restore our relationship to Him is with in reach.
The next Caesar went by Tiberius. This is when John the Baptist stepped onto scene and started preaching repentance and the kingdom to the people of God. This was fair warning to the Jews to turning back to Him or face his judgment. Also, Jesus’ ministry and first three chapters in the book of Acts takes pace during Tiberius’ reign.
Gaius Caesar or Caligula was the next up to the plate. He was a very young ruler and came down with a sickness early in his leadership. This sickness left him with permanent mental issues that resulted in reckless and twisted behavior. His selfishness and lack of sanity ultimately ended in his assassination and he was replaced by Claudius Caesar. Claudius was murdered by his wife so her son (his step son) could lead. She did this because she knew she would be pulling the strings with her son in charge. Unfortunately, this plan backfired on her and Nero had her executed.
We can see the chaos quickly elevating in Rome and it was just getting started. five have fallen up to this point and the sixth now reigns. Nero was Claudius’ successor and was in rulership during the time the Book of Revelation was written (54 A.D.-68A.D) He staged a massive fire in part of the city that he wanted to rebuild. He had plans to name it Neropolis but the Romans didn’t think it was such a good idea. Realizing he had a big problem on his hands he panicked and blamed the Christians. This was the beginning of the end for Jerusalem.
In 64 A.D.a huge persecution of the Christians initiated and it continues for the next 7 years. The Romans had a hard time differentiating between Christians and Jews leading to heavy Jewish persecution as well. They were thrown in prison, banished and killed fueling the fire and pushing Rome into deeper turmoil. The Jews revolted and all out war broke out.
Tension levels were on an upward slope in Israel over the last 20 years and the liberal Sadducees who wanted to partner with Rome could not see eye to eye with the conservative Pharisees who wanted to stand against Rome. These acts by the Romans finally pushed them to the edge and the Jewish wars began.
The Roman procurator over Judea at this time was Gessius Florus. He began to still from the temple and brutally killed over 3600 nonviolent citizens in a five year span. This motivated the radical conservatives and zealots to start a revolution. This forced Agrippa II and Bernice out of Jerusalem and Cestius Gallus the governor of
Syria attacked Jerusalem in 66 A.D. This was an attempt to knock out the revolt in its early stages. For reasons unknown, after a few days, Cestius decided to retreat and started heading back to Syria. This gave the radicals courage to lead an attack and they defeated him.
The church had been made well aware of Johns letter (the Book of Revelation) from a few years earlier by now and understood what was going on. Jesus said flee to the hills when they saw armies surrounding Jerusalem. This only makes sense in their context because they were surrounded by mountains. If this warning was for everyone today it wouldn’t make sense because we aren’t all surrounded by mountains. Jesus also told them to pray it’s not on a sabbath and that they weren’t with child during this time because they needed to escape quickly. The church took heed to this warning and escaped to the wilderness of southern Judea once the armies were retreating. Their obedience spared them from the horrific attacks that were about to take place in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, the conservatives had gained control and civil war filled the streets. Nero, wanting to end this uprising, appoint Vespasiam in 67 A.D. He and his son were sent out and entered in to Judea with 60,000 of their best troops.this event was an absolute blood bath. The earth was scorched and the smell of burning flesh filled the air. The sea of Galiliee was blood red and bloated dead bodies floated on top of the water. This attack was one of the most brutal and heartless slaughters of the Jews up to this point in history.
After the attack in Judea, 1000 of Jews escaped to Jerusalem and it became overpopulated overnight. Civil war intensified between the Jews that wanted to make peace with Rome and the ones that wanted to continue the fight. It wasn’t looking good for Jerusalem and their time was very near. The covenant they had with God was broken and for the first time in ages, they were a people without His divine protection.
In 68 A.D. Nero was executed and the seventh king who is yet to come but would only briefly reign was up next. Nero’s successor was Galba Cesar who ruled in a time known as “the Year of the Four Emperors” because of the chain of assassinations that were about to occur. He reigned for less then two months from December 3 68 A.D. — January 15 69 A.D. Two others attempted to take over his position and suffered the same fate. Finally, Vespasian who had been at work in Israel from 69- 79 returned and gained the title of Caesar. The Romans were greatly distressed by this event and thought it was the end of the world. There was disaster, famine, disease, and despair taking over the known world and the world economy was in trouble.
The Fall of Jerusalem finally took place in 70 A.D. Vespasian had to make his way back to Rome in order to clean up and end the chaos that had infiltrated them after the victory in Judea. He’s son Titus was left to lead the clean up operation in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was put under siege again by Titus in April and it was all they could handle. Gods once blessed and protected city fell into famine and starvation conditions because the radicals burned all the food in rebellion. Unspeakable cannibalism and the worst imaginable drought conditions took over the city and ultimately defeated them. There is a story of a Roman officer who was looking for food from door to door and demanded a woman to give him the food she had. She offered him the only food available witch was a new born baby boiling in water. The city was destroyed in August and the temple was burned to the ground .
Now that we have been through the history of the first century Church and understand the culture a little better it is pretty easy to see that these were the events Jesus was warning them about. Again, my heart behind this teaching is to empower the church and to destroy the lies of the enemy. Understanding that the “Book of Revelation” has already been completed will destroy fear in our lives and allow us to begin to rule with Jesus as co-heirs and restore the relationship that the Father so desires to have with us. Be blessed and begin to rebuild cities, church!
