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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're in part two of a series on the book of Revelation. We're doing a deep dive into how to read and interpret this amazing amazing book. Enjoy.
Darren Rouanzoin:Man. 10AM. How are doing? Good. How are you guys?
Darren Rouanzoin:We have a 8AM and a 12PM that has some space. I'm so glad you're here though, 10AM. It's so great to be with you. Last week, we had a ton of people at five services. Over 80 people raised their hand to dedicate their life or rededicate their life to Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yeah. That was kind of a golf clap, a little louder than a golf clap, I suppose. It's a big deal. It's amazing to see what God's doing. So many friends coming to this church.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's filling. It's really exciting and we are about to start or reintroduce the series, the Revelation. So we are starting today back into the book of Revelation. Now before I left, we got through about 13 chapters and it started in August and as I was preparing to preach, kind of a mini series coming out of Easter, I was gonna do a thing on, Pentecost. I I really felt the Lord right when I came back to say, hey, just jump back in.
Darren Rouanzoin:It doesn't matter. There's gonna be a lot of new people. And this book has been really defining for us. It started last August and it just became this very, fascinating, inspiring book and rightfully so based on the content of the book. And for those of you that are new to our church, here's what I wanna say, we typically teach through scripture.
Darren Rouanzoin:Like this is good news. You should be evaluated at church whether they hold the scripture as authoritative and for us it is authoritative. It's the final authority in all things in life in the church. That's what we believe. And so we wanna go through the scripture together and teach through the scriptures because scripture forms us.
Darren Rouanzoin:It forms us into the image of Christ. In a world with lots of information, in a world where you're giving yourself, your attention, your focus to lots of other things, we as disciples of Jesus are trying to be formed into his image. So much of our work as disciples are are it's counter formation because right now you're being discipled by someone or something whether you know this. You wake up and you're being formed by the image of the world, by the image and the algorithms of your social media platforms, by the value systems you have, by the way you see the world through your family system, your past, your trauma, all these things shape how you live and interact in the world whether you know that or not. Your peers influence you.
Darren Rouanzoin:And what we have to decide if we're a follower of Jesus is whether or not we will be formed and hold to the truths of Jesus. Does that make sense? Yeah. So that's why we teach scripture and we're gonna jump into Revelation and here's the deal, I recognize that this book more than any other book has both fascinated the church and scared the church. And and Revelation has vivid imagery.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's got apocalyptic themes. It's got complex symbolism and it stirs all sorts of controversies. It's misused to push political agendas. It's often used to frighten Christians and even to teach like a secret code that you gotta decipher. It's been used by cult leaders to convince people that they are the second coming of Christ And it's been treated as a step by step guide for the unfolding global crisis among us, but the reality is this revelation is none of that.
Darren Rouanzoin:That should be good news. Revelation was never intended to be a road map for doomsday preppers. We can make a lot of money if we had that website to get, you know, sell the things that market the doomsday coming. Nope. That's not what it's for.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not a manual for the rapture because rapture is not even mentioned in the book of Revelation, oddly enough. I know I'm getting you now you're listening. Here's what Revelation is, it's a discipleship manual. It is a manual for worshiping the resurrected Jesus Christ. It's a guide for faithful followers to live as a faithful witness in the chaos of the empire.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is designed to give you fuel, courage, strength to live as a faithful witness of Jesus in the chaos of ordinary everyday life. GK Chesterton once wrote about the book of Revelation he said, though Saint John the evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. And that's the truth. I mean so many of us have a vague idea of revelation that's often marked by a theology that we've debunked in the past and we'll do it again. Just not helpful.
Darren Rouanzoin:Many of us have no clue because it is so unique as a book. We don't understand. So today, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna teach, an introduction to Revelation, the whole book. I wanna give you tools on how to read Revelation.
Darren Rouanzoin:So this reintroduction, we've I've done this many weeks ago back in August, will give you, some perspective on how to interpret Revelation properly. Does that sound okay? It's gonna feel like a bible study, but I I I thought it was gonna be a bible study in last service, but the fire turned up. Just the knob. It was like going to eleven on this one.
Darren Rouanzoin:So I can't help it. When we talk about Jesus, I can't help but get really fiery and passionate because it's good. So can we pray? Let me pray for you. Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrected son of God, our Messiah and savior who lived, died, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, reigns currently, and is coming again.
Darren Rouanzoin:We are here for you. And we ask now that you would give us your Holy Spirit. In the midst of the distractions that we brought in here, the life that we're carrying, even just this moment, would you allow us to see clearly and hear your message for us? Give us the tools to feast on your word, to know your word. I think of that passage in Luke 24 where it says that Jesus opened the minds of disciples of the disciples to understand the scriptures.
Darren Rouanzoin:Would you open the minds of Garden Church to understand your scriptures? And may we be good soil prepared for your coming in Jesus name. Amen. Hey, just so I know Seth, this timer is counting. It says 33.
Darren Rouanzoin:How much time was set? Okay. Great. Make it fifty next service. Here we go.
Darren Rouanzoin:Grab your bible. Revelation chapter one. Let me see those bibles. Let's hold them up high. Let's see the come on.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's see. Revelation, if you don't have a bible, we'd love to give you one. Bring them. Look at that. It's getting better at 10AM.
Darren Rouanzoin:The grumblings. You're new to our church. You brought your iPhone. Don't hold that up. One of these big bibles is going ESV study bible is gonna knock you in the head.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's judgment. Just kidding. Revelation one. The best bible is the one you read so it doesn't matter. I'm not judging you if it's on your phone.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's just read the word. It's feast on it. So here's the beginning of the book. Let's read it together. The revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.
Darren Rouanzoin:He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John who testified to everything he saw, that is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near. John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is faith the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom and priest to serve his God and father to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Amen.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's a good intro. Do you agree? Yeah. The word of God, this is how the story begins in Revelation. This book which is so unique.
Darren Rouanzoin:It begins as a book with blessing built in. I love it. It it's a book saying, blessed is the one who reads it out loud. Join a house church, read it out loud. You get blessings.
Darren Rouanzoin:Blessed are those who hear it and take it to heart. Now here's the thing. It's talking about living out what you've heard. Blessed. The word blessed, I love this word so much, and I don't have time to go.
Darren Rouanzoin:I could teach an entire series on this one word. It's from the beatitudes. Jesus uses it but it's so rich and deep. The Greek word is really translated poor poorly into English. We could say happy.
Darren Rouanzoin:We use the word blessed. The markyros The it really means a flourishing life. A life that's anchored in right relationship with God, with self and others. The Hebrew concept of this word is shalom and it's a state of existence that you are designed to flourish as a human being made in the image of God. That's Genesis one and two and the way that that gets reconciled or redeemed relationship with Christ and so what the idea behind this is that if you take the words of the book of Revelation and live them out, you will be flourishing in this life.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's good news, isn't it? Now what would be great for the rest of the book to be is a three step manual on how to live the blessed life now. Right? Like give up the anxiety, do this every day as a discipline but that's not what happens. The book of Revelation doesn't begin with let me confront the crisis that you have.
Darren Rouanzoin:The blessing comes when you realize what's behind revelation. The word revelation is translated from the Greek word apocalypse. Say apocalypse. Apocalypse. And we don't have the right idea of apocalypse.
Darren Rouanzoin:Apocalypse means unveiling. It's the unveiling from Jesus Christ. Revelation is from Jesus, for Jesus, about Jesus, to Jesus. It's about you seeing clearly. This entire book is about you being a disciple that lives in this world that feels real because it is real but recognizes there's a greater reality outside what you can touch and see with the normal human eye.
Darren Rouanzoin:That you need to have an encounter. Jesus will say you need to be baptized. You need to be born of the spirit to see what the kingdom of God really looks like. This entire book is framed around the unveiling of what's really going on behind the curtains of reality and that is what empowers your everyday life as a disciple. Isn't that interesting?
Darren Rouanzoin:Isn't it interesting that what you need more than anything else is the vision of Jesus? I mean think about this for a moment. So the the book will have, all I'm gonna show you to interpret what's going on. You need to have historical context in your mind. To interpret this book you need to understand the literary tools of reading any literature.
Darren Rouanzoin:What genre is revelation? What was going on culturally at the time that it was written? Who was it written by and to whom? What are What's the structure of the book? Because structure provides meaning.
Darren Rouanzoin:All of these tools, which you're about to receive, will help you make interpretations but here's the point, it's Jesus. Like we already have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the life of Jesus, his death on the cross, and a glimpse of the resurrection but Revelation is the ascended, resurrected, lamb who was slain bringing a vision to his church in the midst of chaos and persecution going, what you need is not anti persecution slogans. You need me in your eyes. Me in your heart. You need to see me for who I really am.
Darren Rouanzoin:You He says, behold, look over and over again. And the the problem is you're looking and beholding at the wrong things. Every day you're walking around being formed by your devices. You're beholding the influence of your friends and peers more so than the Christ who's been crucified, raised from the dead, and reigns in the heavenly realms. Revelation is to get the ordinary folks in this church to live beholding Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:In the world that says the power of social social media and tech giants, a tweet can cause tariffs to create economy to go crazy, lose $6,000,000,000,000. We have wars and nuclear weapons and AI machines, generative technology shaping the world, and Jesus wants to pull back the curtain and say, there's something else going on. This this is what revelation is about. The easy interpretation, the dispensational theology, that's a big word. We'll talk about it another time.
Darren Rouanzoin:That wants you to go, okay, when things get hard, you're gonna zap out of here in a thing called the rapture, which by the way is not mentioned in the book of Revelation at all. And then you're gonna be freed from the trib tribulation that's coming. That's nowhere in the entire scripture do you see the people of God not suffering and experiencing the suffering as a way of witness. So this book forms you and how does it form you? Well I'm gonna sell you seven practices to help you have a 10 x life.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. Jesus. How does it form you? Well if you could just take a day off from your hurry life you'll have a less busy lifestyle. No.
Darren Rouanzoin:Jesus. If I could just stop doing this and do that no. Jesus. Unless you see him clearly, nothing matters. Your family won't matter as much until you get Jesus at the center of your life.
Darren Rouanzoin:And right now, you have a threat to his kingdom in your heart because you continue to put idols on the throne room of your heart and there's only one being that's designed to sit on it, it's Christ. How we doing church? Man. I I was talking to Jesus about this because I was like, man, how do I do this again? Because I wanna go back and teach all of it over based on what I know now.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because I have like, when I started I was learning as I went, as I taught you and now reflecting on the last 13 chapters that we've taught in-depth over, I'm realizing the depth and beauty and the passion that's in this word and I'm just like, okay. God's like, take your time. There's no rules. Because what else do you have to do? Like I was thinking about, I'm like, the time, I'm like, okay, we we wanna get to lunch.
Darren Rouanzoin:Ezra was like, my son, Ezra was like, ten's the best because you can go lunch right after. I'm like, it's good. That's why you're all here. It fits in your cozy schedule. But Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's like what else do you have? He has the words of life and we know it. Remember I said on Easter I I predicted in my heart we'd have the largest numbers in Easter attendance in the West and it absolutely broke records in the church across the world because the tide of revival's here. You gotta know what time it is and there's no greater book that wakes you up to what time it is than Revelation. So here's some tools.
Darren Rouanzoin:Are you ready for some bible study practices? Let's go. I got I don't know how much time. Just cut it. We're just gonna go till 8PM.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna be hungry, so DoorDash some food. Let's go. Alright. Number one, we need to understand historical context. Imagine if it's the year forty twenty five, two thousand years from now, and you're an archaeologist that discovers this ancient language that you know as English.
Darren Rouanzoin:Right? And you pick up this random gray piece of paper with this ancient text English, and it reads, this section says this, bottom of the ninth. Angels down by one against the Pirates. Two outs, two strikes, runner on third steals home to tie. The pitcher throws a curve, and the batter knocks it out of the park.
Darren Rouanzoin:A fight breaks out between the dugouts. And you, as this ancient archaeologist, realize this without historical context of baseball, begin to teach the world that there was an ancient tribe of angels against warring against the pirates in this epic battle. Context matters. Does it not? If you don't have the context of baseball, you're gonna misinterpret the meaning.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you don't apply the historical context, you will misinterpret the meaning of Revelation. How are doing church? So context matters. So Revelation was most likely written at around 8096 by John the Apostle, also the beloved disciple who was in his eighties exiled on a prison island called Patmos. Now here's the deal.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is debated. So some people think it happened around the time of Nero in the sixty AD before, the temple was destroyed in seventy AD and most historians. In fact, most church fathers also who some would have received this letter believe it was written by the apostle John the beloved in the nineties. So there you go. You We'll talk about that as we go and that matters to me.
Darren Rouanzoin:We should present these facts and what we know at the time of ninety six AD is there was an emperor who was deeply insecure that ruled the Roman Empire. His He was worshipped as Lord and God. He renamed the Roman Empire to the eternal empire. He called himself the everlasting king and he organized and unified the entire empire by this little thing where he made you worship him as a god. So unity in the Roman empire required you as a polytheist as you you who worship all these different gods, some of you are really doing that right now because you worship Jesus and your body, your curated image, your pride, your social, your your retirement, your bank accounts, right?
Darren Rouanzoin:Your career, your family, those are just other deities that you worship. Well, you just throw Caesar on top of that and say Caesar is Kurios. Caesar is Lord. Throw a little pinch of offering onto a statue on your way to the marketplace, all is well except if you're Christian. The Romans thought Christians were atheists because they didn't worship all the other gods and they started stealing the Caesar's brand.
Darren Rouanzoin:The Nike swoosh, they had Nike swooshes all over the place saying that Jesus is curious. The first to use it was Caesar and now the Christians went around saying Jesus is curious and why was that controversial? Because when you say Jesus is Lord you're saying at the same time Caesar's not. So that's why Domitian killed 40,000 Christians in a few years. He went after the Christians and John was so famous he didn't want to inspire the revolution so he trapped him on an island.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it's on the island Of Patmos that we get the revelation from Christ where we get this letter from John and John will say later on in chapter one he'll say, on the day on the Lord's day I was in the spirit. So John's imprisoned by himself doing church by himself on the Lord's day. I just wanna say that the church for the last two thousand years up until COVID has made it a priority to be with the people of God on the Lord's day. It's the Lord's day not your day to do whatever you want because it's your Sabbath. It's his day to form you into his image.
Darren Rouanzoin:And right now you have if you're like, oh, I you know, our church is discipling the youth. Like, the youth, you are being formed by school, by YouTube, by social media far more than the church can disciple you two hours on Thursday or two hours on Sunday. So this day is the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it. Do you know the song? This is the day.
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. Anyway, that's just for me then. Growing up in kids ministry, some things stick. My point is he is worshiping Jesus all by himself and has a revelation to encourage the church. Now John writes this letter to seven local churches in Asia Asia Minor.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's really important. So John is in exile at Patmos and he writes under the prison censors an apocalyptic letter to encourage church into faithfulness faithfulness. And he's writing to these seven churches, that are literal locations because he is a local pastor writing to local people and that matters. It matters because he is a pastor who knows these people. This is not some podcast released into the world to the the Internet world and you don't know who they are.
Darren Rouanzoin:He knows these people and their problems and he writes them. Does that make sense? It's incarnated. Couple more things. So historical context, context matters, genre of literature matters.
Darren Rouanzoin:The genre of revelation matters. So throughout the Bible, there's various genres in the Bible. There's poetry, there's historical, there's narrative, there's wisdom, there's prophecy, there's gospels, epistles, apocalyptic. All these genres shape how you interpret what you're reading. If you're reading poetry, it's different than history or historical context.
Darren Rouanzoin:So just like if you were going on a date night with your wife and you wanted to go see, let's just say, the anniversary of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith. That kind of very intense ending, by the way. You know, anyone you wanna just the ending of anyone see this one? Like, how he becomes Darth Vader. Lava.
Darren Rouanzoin:Let's just say it's very very bad. Very different context than a romantic comedy. Would you agree? Or like a drama with a love story. You know, it's you're the expectation, the rules of the the genre shape what you're going to experience and how to experience it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Does that make sense? Okay. So the genre of revelation is unique. One scholar says it's three different things. As an apocalypse, as apocalyptic, it reveals what must soon take place.
Darren Rouanzoin:As a prophecy, it testifies to the word of God and to Jesus. As a letter or an epistle, it addresses seven churches in the Roman province of Asia. So the Revelation has three different genres all working at the same time. So how we interpret this book really matters. So the first and primary focus of the book of Revelation is it's an epistle or a letter written by a pastor to specific people that he's pastoring.
Darren Rouanzoin:In other words, Revelation is written by a specific person to specific people living in specific cities at specific time in history to meet their specific needs. Right? This means we must take the specific historical context, amen, hallelujah, historical context seriously to understand the message correctly. John is a pastor who writes pastoral letters in Revelation to the people he's pastoring. K?
Darren Rouanzoin:Is that helpful? So this would have made sense to the seven churches that are receiving this letter. Now I just wanna add, so these are seven literal churches but also seven is part of the apocalyptic literature that has symbolic meaning of the complete church, the whole church. So it would have been read to other churches as well. You good?
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna drop a ton of information right now and I know this row handles it. These two rows, the youth, you got it. You're taking notes? Look at taking notes. I'm gonna read some of yours so you better be good.
Darren Rouanzoin:Sorry, Harlow. I'm not gonna read yours today. Love you. The second is it's apocalyptic, meaning it is a genre that was so popular two hundred years before John lived and about a hundred years after John lived. It was what would be, sci fi or, fantasy genre, and it was used as a way to enable hope and resistance by revealing truth about unseen present realities.
Darren Rouanzoin:So Revelation specifically wants to show you God and heaven and hell and unknown future realities that are happening behind the scenes from a perspective of heaven showing judgment and salvation and this is specific to apocalyptic works. Now apocalyptic is not unique to Revelation in the bible. In our canon of scriptures, our old and new testaments, we have other writings that fit this genre. Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Mark and Mark 13 and Matthew 24. If you've ever read the gospels and you get to Mark 13 or Matthew 24, you're like, woah, this is weird.
Darren Rouanzoin:It is weird because it's apocalyptic. It's using a the fantasy version, the sci fi genre to communicate something. And if you go from reading Mark 12 into Mark 13 thinking it's just historical, historical narrative gospel, you'll miss how it shifts into something else. A genre of liter a literary genre that needs a different way of interpretation. Does that make sense?
Darren Rouanzoin:This will help you as you read the book of Revelation to understand what's going on. So there's all these themes and symbols that are used universally across the board in all of the apocalyptic genres we are we have. So all of the apocalyptic writings in the old and new testament as well as outside of our bible use similar symbolisms to communicate deep meaning and messages. For example, animals and beasts often represent empires and leaders. So we see the lamb that was slain and the dragon or the beast from the sea.
Darren Rouanzoin:These all represent people and empires. Right? Jesus is the lamb. The dragon is, Satan. Natural disasters symbolize political power.
Darren Rouanzoin:Earth, often reference these natural disasters, earthquakes and flood floods represent political powers or social upheave upheaval like plagues and kingdoms shifting throughout the, generations. Colors have rich symbolism. White represents victory, purity and resurrection. Red represents bloodshed and violence. There's all sorts of things going on.
Darren Rouanzoin:Numbers are symbolic. Let me just say this. Numbers are symbolic. We when we approach apocalyptic, we're not taking things literally when it comes to numbers. There's poetry in the storytelling of the use of numbers.
Darren Rouanzoin:Seven is complete. Six is imperfect. Six six six is the complete imperfect. Right? One one hundred and forty four thousand represents the perfected, perfected fullness of God's people.
Darren Rouanzoin:12 times 12. 12 tribes, 12 apostles times a thousand. A thousand symbolizes vastness or immeasurable quantity, not a literal thousand. Are you with me? Some of you are with me and I'm just challenging some perspectives.
Darren Rouanzoin:I wanna offer this to you for you to do the research. There's all sorts of cosmic imagery in apocalyptic style of writing. Cosmic imagery is the common. Are you with me? I'm gonna keep going.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alright? Can we skip that? Man, I lost half of you. I lost this side. Where did it go wrong?
Darren Rouanzoin:Let me just Let me come back. So all to say spiritual realities are often conveyed through these metaphors and symbolic, use of language. So that's apocalyptic, the point is we're gonna pull back the curtain of reality and reveal, Jesus wants to reveal to you what's happening behind the scenes of what you see. So when you think the Roman Empire is gonna dominate and win, when he opens up the curtain of reality, what do you see first? You see a throne room and the entire cosmos of reality is circling around the throne and Jesus is on the throne, not Caesar.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do you see what I'm saying? That's apocalyptic. It's trying to get you to understand what's really going on. But the third element is prophecy and prophecy is often mistaken in our time because we think it's primarily about prediction. Prophecy is not primarily about prediction but declaration.
Darren Rouanzoin:The heart of biblical prophecy is not look what is coming but thus says the Lord. This is not to say that God does not enable some of his people to predict the future and then accurately convey that prediction. It is simply to say that prophecy, God is it What prophecy is is that God is enabling some of his people, usually the prophets to see what others cannot see especially concerning the will of God for the moment. So calling the book of Revelation prophecy means God is now revealing something that requires a response at this very moment and a new response to obey his will for the time. So as a prophecy which the book of Revelation calls itself a prophecy, it's expecting those who hear to respond to the word of God in the moment.
Darren Rouanzoin:Can I just do a pastoral moment for us? Every time the word of God is preached here, every time you hear the word of God proclaimed and preached, it requires you to respond. And somehow in our information age, we are just consumers of content. We are not good soil. Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a sower who sows seed into four different types of soil.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's saying at any given time, you are one of these four soils at any given time. It could plant and and just go on dry land and nothing happens. It can it could be planted and birds come and the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth rob you and choke out the word of life growing inside of you or you could be good soil in this moment. Right now as I say this and let the word of God come into the the depths of your soul and allow it to grow to produce an unbelievable amount of ministry. 60 to a hundred fold, like that's so ridiculous.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's no dividends that good to invest in. Unless your soul is cultivated with Jesus, you become a good investment of his word. So every time there's this edge, like I want you to I want you as a church to know the difference between good content and the word of God being preached. That there are moments that where, even for me, I'll show up, it will be a base hit, I'm faithful to teach the word. And then there are moments where there's oil on it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Like there's it's 8AM, something happened. 10AM, not the same. Twelve, something else happened. It just happens like that where all of a sudden for whatever reason, there happens to be by nothing of rehearsal, by nothing of me trying to say content, God just shows up. And we pray before every single service for God to do that.
Darren Rouanzoin:That 8AM would have an encounter, ten, twelve, and six. We reconsecrate ourselves as leaders to be on this platform to steward the work that God's doing for our community. But are you doing the same? When the word of god that that cuts through, do you receive that seed and then just stick it in your pocket? Or do you take the seed and plant it into the soul of your being and water and tend and nurture it to life because that's what he expects of you.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's what prophecy does. That's what prophecy does. And the we have a prophetic preaching at Garden Church. Not always but there are moments where it just turns. Like I told the team today, I'm just teaching bible study today.
Darren Rouanzoin:No way is this bible study. This is the Lord turning the dial and getting you ready for what's here. And the only way to get it is to have a revelation of Jesus. Are you with me church? So prophecy, structure matters.
Darren Rouanzoin:Man, we're we're going. Structure matters. Structure of any book provides meaning for the book in the bible and enter anything you read, the structure, poetry, literary tools that are used to create structure of what you're reading helps you interpret it. So in the book of Revelation, you should write this down, there are 404 verses in the book of Revelation but over 500 Old Testament references. You can't read a sentence in Revelation without it referring to the backdrop of the Old Testament.
Darren Rouanzoin:So if you wanna be an expert at the book of Revelation, don't read the new testament. Don't read the newspaper. Read the old testament. Because then you'll have a word of God saturated vision to to pick up on the beautiful nuance of what John is doing. So in the book of Revelation, to understand the structure, it's so important, you have to write this down.
Darren Rouanzoin:You have to come across the word that he uses to break up the structure of the book and the word is open or opened. That one word in the Greek is like you double clicking on a mouse and a new website popping up. A new page. It takes you to a different place and that's exactly what this word does. It structures the book.
Darren Rouanzoin:So here's the outline. Right? So it starts with the prologue and then it moves into the son of man speaking to the seven churches and then open and the lamb and the unseen you see the unseen, unseals the lamb unseals the scroll. Excuse me. So you're given this new universe of Jesus on the throne and this cosmic energy being poured out, judgment, wrath, the condition of the world throughout history.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then in Revelation chapter 11, verse 19, you have that word open again and now there's this cosmic conflict and here's what you need to know about Revelation, the entire book, the center of the entire book is this section right here that we are in the middle of. And it starts with this woman dressed in the stars and the moon and she's giving birth to a baby and this dragon comes out of nowhere, tries to eat the baby and then and can't and then he goes after all the kids of this woman. It's like this, what is going on? And we know if you were here during December when I did the apocalyptic Christmas that this is the Christmas story. And you would think, oh, what happens first is the seals get unleashed and then the next sequence of events is this cosmic conflict but this isn't written chronologically.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's showing you glimpses of the world behind the scenes of reality. So chapters, they're not sequential and they're not chronological. Go back to that other page. And then there's another open and there's this this the bowls of wrath fall, a sign of judgment and then God comes and Jesus comes and restores all things and then there's a conclusion. That's the structure of the book and that will help you interpret what we're interpreting.
Darren Rouanzoin:So that's just a framework to know that revelation is not chronological and that's important especially when we get to chapter 11 verse 19 to recognize, that what you have to do to understand what's going on is to read Revelation is to ask the question not what happens next but what did John see next in the visions that he's had. Is that is that good? You getting questions? I'm not gonna answer them right now but anyways, there we go. Write them down.
Darren Rouanzoin:Couple more things then we'll conclude. So powerful. There's some big themes that shape the book. So we've talked about context for interpretation that will help us. The type of genres that Revelation is a three different genres.
Darren Rouanzoin:So those genres shape how we interpret the letter itself, and then the structure of the book helps shape our interpretation. So knowing the structure allows us to see, look, chapter 12 doesn't come after chapter 11. It does sequentially but it's taking you back in time. So if this was a movie, would be a flashback. Does that make sense?
Darren Rouanzoin:I should just talk in movie language. That would help us. Right? Because we're not So chapter 11 is just the flashback, the story of what's happened and how we got to this crisis and it's the cosmic conflict behind what we're experiencing as faithful followers today. And then there are these themes and here's what I need you to I really need you to listen to this part because this this is the formation part for following Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:So the themes throughout the book, John will say 40 times I saw. 32 times he will say, I heard. John sent his work to the seven churches intended to be read aloud. So if you're reading this out loud, you would hear this word over and over again. This rhythmic, I saw, I saw, I saw.
Darren Rouanzoin:He would hear the voice of the lion of Judah. He would hear the voice and this is what's going on, but then he would turn to see the voice and what he sees is a lamb that was slain. The primary encouragement to the reader is not to trust and obey but to listen and look. Especially look. John is telling us we have we're having a hard time trusting and obeying Jesus Christ in our life because we are not listening and looking.
Darren Rouanzoin:Correction. We are listening and looking. It's just that we are not listening to to and looking at the right things. Is this not the problem today? That when we look out at the world and we what we see is the failure of the church and I will say we see the failure of the church because the church are is beholding the wrong thing.
Darren Rouanzoin:We are constantly listening and looking to the wrong content. We're being formed by the image of the world and not by the image of Christ who is available now to you. And he's trying to convince the church that you have these things that influence you, that are powerful. You have the Roman empire that context wise, it shapes your behavior. It shapes the way you think.
Darren Rouanzoin:It shapes the way you consume, eat, drink, purchase. It shapes your clothing and culture. It shapes your language and longings. It's shaping who you're becoming, and you're looking and listening to the wrong thing. Revelation is gonna say all of your problems, all of the things that you're trying to fix have to do with what you behold.
Darren Rouanzoin:So behold Jesus, the resurrected lamb who was slain. It's not let me fix all of these other problems, it's get back to Jesus. I gotta tell you something. Today, in our first set of worship, I was thinking about what I had to preach and the Lord did a thing. It happens to me in worship where it's something about being in a place where we're honoring God.
Darren Rouanzoin:And there's like this ecosystem, this culture of an environment of encounter where where the praises of the Lord he inhabits his praises. And so for whatever reason it's like okay we're singing this rich theology about the lamb. Holy forever. If you've been forgiven, if you've been redeemed. I have been forgiven.
Darren Rouanzoin:I have been redeemed. And in that moment I have this little movie, My Flashback Journey. And it's like Jesus wants to reveal to me a revelation of who he is in my life. So in my worship I begin to see this season where I was 14 or 15 years and I dealt with self hate, insecurity. I I was so insecure I was doing I had suicidal ideation.
Darren Rouanzoin:And Jesus showed me that little boy and he says that was going on but I freed you. And then when you were older and you're at UCSB and you were living lost, I redeemed you. I took you out of UCSB, put you back in vanguard in the house of God. I called you. And when you were on the way to the hospital terrified when your wife had that heart condition, I was next to you.
Darren Rouanzoin:And when when you in the hospital with your boy who was six weeks old, I had this vision where I was praying for his oxygen level to go up with RSV. And Ezra was worshiping me with me in the a, I started bawling. He was like, I sustained your prayers. Brothers and sisters, I was sitting in the second service and I was hearing the stories of your life. When you thought your divorce was the end of your story, he says, I am.
Darren Rouanzoin:When you thought that you were gonna be taken out by that that thing that messed your entire life up, he says, I am. When you thought that you would be marked by that addiction because you couldn't see another way out, he says, no. I am. We don't serve a God who doesn't have hands. We don't serve a God who doesn't love.
Darren Rouanzoin:We serve the one true God who's sitting on a throne. And let me tell you what Revelation begins, what it says. He doesn't just sit on a throne. He walks amongst the lampstands. That means he's in the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's not judging from afar. He's right here. And it says in Revelation three, he's knocking on the door. Let him in. And it's not some oh let him in once in your life.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. Let him into that space right now that all of a sudden you realize there's a door that's been closed because of a trauma. And somehow it opened up and you realize there's all this pain that's affecting your relationships. He's like let me into that space. Don't go into that therapy office without my presence with you.
Darren Rouanzoin:He wants to be with you. Brothers and sisters, you need to have eyes to see Jesus. He's a God of second chances, third chances, and 72 chances. Do you know that Jesus, that's what this book is about. It's not about decoding the rapture.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's about being set ablaze so that your life, your mundane, everyday, ordinary coming and going, eating and drinking, sleeping and waking is fired. Fiery passionate love of Jesus is in that space. That when you go to school it's not gonna win the school it's I'm gonna be faithful to this one friend in this moment. I'm not gonna use my words to gossip about people. I'm not gonna use my words to slander people.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm not gonna use my business for my glory. It's his business for his glory. That's revelation. So my call, my call for a church, It's the call that's for the church to wake up, rekindle first love, repent and do what you did at first and just get back to Jesus. If you are clouded with the wrong image of Jesus, repent from beholding the world and behold the one true king.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you don't know where you stand, come to him and confess him as lord and savior knowing I don't fully know what that means but I want a life that's blessed because I wanna hear your word and let it grow into fruit. I wanna be good soil but I've messed up the soil with wealth and anxiety and fear and sin. And he says, you don't have to do it. I'll do it with you. Are you with me?
Darren Rouanzoin:So let's worship. We stand. Sorry. I had like 15 other pages and we're just gonna cut for it. Come, Lord Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Let's just cut I know some of you are drawing. Come to the altar. Just come to the altar.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just get before Jesus. Let's let let the worship begin. If you're outside and wanna come in, come in. We're gonna sing. We're gonna just pour ourselves out back on Jesus right now.
Darren Rouanzoin:So if you need to respond, you God's calling you to repent or you need prayer, just come forward. Just begin to confess him as Lord. Begin to worship the one true king. Father, we just ask that you would release your presence today. Rekindle your church to be full of love.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can come all way up up here. We have more people that are gonna come. Ministries coming forward. Just create space. If you're coming forward, you can come all the way up.
Darren Rouanzoin:Lord, we just ask that you'd move in our church. Come, Lord, right now. We want you to come, Jesus. It says in your word that you have come, you will come. And right now, you are in the midst of coming.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're The time is now. The time is near in your present. We wanna respond to your nearness. We want you here. In Jesus' name.
Darren Rouanzoin:Amen.
Intro/Outro:Thank you so much for listening. For more information, please visit us at garden.church.