Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life
Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life
The Revelation - Introduction | Episode #1004
August 14, 2025
Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life
The Revelation -Introduction
I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.
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This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.
Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.
I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.
I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.
His word to you and allow you.
To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.
As far as the Book of the Revelation is concerned. And I want to say that at the very start,
it is the Revelation, and that's the title of the book off. Oftentimes you'll hear people say revelations or something like that. And the reason we call it the Revelation is because it starts that way, right?
It says in verse one, the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, as we're studying through this,
I want you to know a couple of things about the book or the revelation. By definition, if this is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
then obviously it's not something dark or ominous.
It's not something to be hidden.
It's something to be revealed. So when you're thinking about the Book of the Revelation, oftentimes especially, you know, with videos and Facebook and YouTube,
you'll see people make it out to be something ominous.
And as we study through the Book of the Revelation, I want you to understand that it's not an ominous book. It is the revealing of Jesus Christ. And what I mean by that?
Well,
the Gospels were written to give us a depiction or a narrative of the life of Jesus from the perspective of four of his disciples or four people who were apostles.
And you go, well, they weren't all apostles. Well, Matthew was.
And Mark's Gospel is actually the Apostle Paul's. I mean, the Apostle Peter's gospel.
It is Mark's writing of what Peter told him about the life of Jesus. And then you've got Luke and Dr. Luke was a companion of the Apostle Paul. And so that gospel is from the Apostle Paul.
And then obviously John,
which is the book we're studying on Sunday morning that is a book about.
It's a book about Jesus. It's not written in chronological order. It's written for a purpose. Every story kind of gains a purpose toward the ultimate end of presenting Jesus Christ.
And then you've got the book called the Book of Acts, which is the Acts or the story of Jesus Christ through his church.
Now,
the book of the Revelation is a culmination of not only the church age,
but all of history,
all of what God made.
It is God bringing it about to its conclusion. And remember, why did God create the universe? Well, he created the universe so that he might be known to glorify himself.
He created the universe so that he might be seen in what he made.
And so when we're studying, when we're studying the book of the Revelation, this is the culmination of God revealing himself. It's not dark. It's nothing dark about it. In fact, it is.
It is, it is something that's pretty easy to go through and interpret. And we're going to use, we're going to use the rule of interpretation that the Bible gives us throughout Scripture.
And what I mean by that. Well,
oftentimes people say, well, all the symbolism in the revelation, and there is a lot of symbolism. We don't know what it means. We don't know what it points to.
Well,
first of all,
when we're reading the book,
when you're reading the stories of Jesus,
when you're reading in the New Testament,
the New Testament will tell you,
it will let you know when it's giving you an analogy,
an allegory. It'll tell us when it, when it's giving you a parable.
Jesus says,
but, but if Jesus says there was a man, that means there was what a man. If he says the kingdom of heaven is like,
what is he saying? Well, this is a, this is a parable. This is a, a story that's going to give you an insight into a spiritual truth. Well, that's, that means that that's not the way it actually is, but it's, it's a story to let you know.
So when we read the story of, let's say, let's say Lazarus the rich man and Lazarus the Bible, Jesus starts that story off by saying there was a rich, There was a man named Lazarus who begged at the gate.
Well, does that mean that Lazarus actually existed?
Yeah, it does. That's what it means.
Means that there was a man.
Now, if Jesus said, you know,
this is like unto.
Well, it means that it's like unto. Now, when we get into the symbolism, and I want you to hear me today,
when we get into the symbolism of scripture,
I want you to understand that symbolism is not for you to sit down and come up with neat new ways to interpret Scripture.
Okay?
Symbolism is a roadmap. Symbolism is literally signs.
Okay.
If I have a subject matter that's talked about over and over and over again,
maybe I ought to go through and look at that subject matter, Especially if we're talking about the Bible.
Maybe I ought to go to all the subject, all the areas of the Bible that talks about that subject matter, and maybe I can get a better understanding of what I'm reading about.
If, if I'm, if I'm going to look at love,
sure. Is there some great passages on the, on the idea of love? Sure there are. There's some great teachings by Jesus about love. Sure there is. But. But wouldn't it be better rather than just going off of, let's say, First Corinthians 13,
wouldn't it be better to maybe go to First John and see where it's talking about love there and maybe go through some of the things that Jesus said about love?
Maybe if I put all those things together,
I get a better understanding of the teaching Scripture gives me about love.
Well, the same thing is true about the symbolism of scripture. And there's all kinds of symbolism.
Numbers. The Bible's full of numbers.
And are all numbers.
Are all numbers symbolic of something?
Well,
probably,
but I don't know what they are.
And anybody who tells you that the Bible says there were 13,482 and that means something crazy that they came up with,
don't take that, because I promise you, if you looked up 13,482, that's the only time that's in the Bible.
Well, if it's the only time it's in the Bible, then it's a sign that I can't go to anywhere else and look for.
But say the number one that's in scripture a whole lot usually points to the unity or the sovereignty of God.
Most passages, when you deal with the number one generally points to that. Two is either division or the Holy Spirit. It's just kind of when you, when you read it, you'll.
It'll either be talking about two being divided or two coming together with the Holy Spirit drawing them together.
Three is obviously the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Four,
when you're looking through scripture, you're going to find that four oftentimes points to some aspect of the way God created the universe.
It just is the four winds, the four corners of the earth, four seasons for, you know, as you look through four, you realize, oh, this is foundational stuff on how God made everything.
Five is almost exclusively. If you find the number five, you usually get grace.
Just is six,
right? That's the bad number, right?
Bad, right. The Antichrist, we come up with that. And so many people say, well, you know, what does 666 mean? Is he going to have it printed on his forehead?
Well, if he has it printed on his forehead, let me tell you something,
everybody's going to know that. So I'm going to tell you. It's not on the Antichrist forehead. And by the way, there's two Antichrists, not one. Did y' all know that?
Well, we're going to talk about that. Also, six is the number for man.
So if I say six, six, six, I would say six,
six,
six, three times. Three times would be the Godhead, right? So it'd be man trying to be God.
Well, that is what the Antichrist is.
He's man trying to be God.
Seven's the number of completion. Eight's the number of.
Is a number that is generally always associated with new beginnings.
Okay?
And as you go through Scripture, you're going to see these things. Every time you run across a boat in the Bible, somebody's getting saved.
You know, it's just one of those things that you sheep are, well, dumb animals that follow Jesus and not don't do it very well. Right?
I mean, so, I mean, when you're dealing with sheep, who are. Who are sheep? Well, we're generally sheep, right?
But interestingly, we're fish, too.
In the Bible, when it's talking about fish catching fish, I'm going to make you fishers of men.
In fact, in the book of the Revelation, where the water flows from the throne of God, it's going to flow into a pool that's full of the fish that feed off of the river of God.
It's a picture of people. Interestingly, trees are. Trees are pictures of people.
Trees are pictures of people who can't move toward God because God's got to go to them.
Okay?
And so as you're going through all this, I'm giving you these things not so you can ride me. And I have trees, trees, trees all over the place. I'm giving them to you so that you can say, oh, I see the roadmap.
I see how kind of God is showing me that I could go from. I could take this and I could look here, here, here, here, here,
and I might get a better understanding of what's going on.
Remember,
God did not write the Scriptures.
He did not write the Bible for you to not know Him.
In fact, the Apostle Paul says this a couple of times. In scriptures, I write these things that you may know.
Well, I'm writing you these things so you can know it's not. So it can be hidden from you. And in fact, if God's going to hide something from you, you know what he does?
He says, I'm hiding that.
Okay,
I'm high. This is hidden from you.
Okay?
When I was. When I was a child.
Well, I was a teenager,
you know, I can see how I was a little bit intimidated and intimidating to my.
I could not stand. The answer is that's just something we're not going to know till the end.
Well, the only reason I'd ask the question is because it's in the Bible.
Okay?
Now, if you ask me a question that I don't know the answer to, you know what I'm going to tell you?
I'm not going to tell you that. Nobody knows that. I'm going to tell you that I don't know that. Okay? I don't know the answer to that. And there are going to be things in scripture that we don't have an answer to.
Okay?
And so when we're talking about the revelation of Jesus Christ,
remember, revelation comes in different categories.
You've got the general revelation of God in his creation,
which is found in Romans, chapter one.
God reveals himself in that which he's made.
In fact, he says it can be clearly seen. His divine nature, his eternal qualities can clearly be seen in that which he made. Then there is the specific revelation of the character of God that is found in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the full revelation of the intricacies and the intimacy and the power of God.
Does that make sense?
All right,
then you have revelation. That is personal revelation.
All right?
Now the personal revelation can't come.
You can't have personal revelation without having.
Without having the specific revelation of Jesus Christ because God can't reveal his plan to me by just talking to me without first giving me an understanding of who he is and that who he is is Jesus.
So if you're. If you're going to have a revelation from God and it excludes scripture,
it excludes the word of God, well, then you're going to have a problem.
You're going to have a problem because I can't have specific revelation of God's will and God's plan for my life outside of Jesus Christ.
All right?
So understanding that this is the unveiling or the finishing or the final chapter of the story.
It's the 66th book of scripture. Now, some people would argue that ought to be other books in scripture. Some people might not. But I always,
I've always thought that 66 is interesting because 66 is 6 twice, right?
So it'd be man being revealed to by the Holy Spirit, right?
So that's the way I always look at it. Now,
is that in the Bible? Does the Bible say book number 66, the book of the Revelation? No, it doesn't say that. It just starts out the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants things which must soon take place.
Now, we start out with a verse that is oftentimes used by a lot of people to say, well, the Bible's God's lied to us and told us it's not true.
Okay, because this was written 2000 years ago, right? And when it says must soon take place,
well, it's not happen soon. Am I right? It's not happen soon. Well, what they don't understand is, is the revelation doesn't start with,
well, the Rapture or the coming of Jesus Christ. It doesn't start with that. The book of the Revelation starts with what is known as the Church age.
Okay,
the church age began.
Does anybody know where the church age began? It began at Pentecost.
Okay?
Now, Jesus prepared the leadership of the Church. He empowered the leadership of the Church, meaning the apostles and those who are followers of Him. He empowered them from prior to Pentecost.
But what did he say that they should do in order to be prepared to be fully the Church? Well, what he did was when he was resurrected,
he revealed himself to about 500 people,
right?
And he said to them,
wait or tarry in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high.
All right, now I want you to hear me.
What he was doing was he was saying, I want you to trust me and I want you to wait in Jerusalem 50 days.
50 days from the Passover.
Now,
did he tell some of them 35 days out? Sure,
he might have told them.
He might have told some of them 10 days out. We don't know how long it was from the time he was resurrected till the day he ascended to the Father, but that was sometime in that 50 day period.
Okay?
And he revealed himself to 500 people. Now, I want you to hear me.
If he was revealing himself to 500 people, that means all those 500 people had a, what, a relationship with him.
Am I right?
All right,
now when they received power from on high at Pentecost, does anybody know how many people were there?
It was 120.
Okay?
Which means the other 306. 380 figured out some way or some reason not to do what God told them to do.
Now,
did some of them maybe receive power from on high later on?
Probably.
Okay.
Did they receive power from on high at that time?
No. Because remember, there's a difference between being born again,
being saved,
and walking in the power of God or walking in his fullness or his rest.
Okay, all right.
Being born again is a work of the Holy Spirit.
By the will of the Father, I do nothing for it.
Being saved,
God reveals himself to me and I turn and repent and chase toward Him. So I go from chasing after myself to chasing after God. Salvation begins there. And salvation is a process by which I walk with God the rest of my life.
I want you to listen to me.
But receiving the power of the Holy Spirit,
the receiving the power of the Holy Spirit only comes to those who hear God's word,
specific revelation of Jesus Christ, believe it,
apply it to their life,
and walk in it.
If you. If you said to yourself, well, I know a lot of Christians, and they don't have a whole lot of power,
I want you to hear me today. It's not because the God doesn't love them.
It's because they're unwilling to trust him and walk by faith.
Now, that is very important.
When you receive a revelation from God,
you must act upon it.
Okay?
You must walk in it. If you don't walk in it, then you're just like the 380 who were not in Jerusalem, where, you know, if Jesus had been resurrected from the dead, especially if I'd been one of the disciples or one of his followers, and he revealed himself to me and I knew that he was raised from the dead and he said,
go to Jerusalem and wait until I receive power from one. How do you think you'd have waited? Right?
Well, I'm just telling you in a room, probably. There's probably 100 people here today, maybe 80 or 90 in a room this size, only 20 of us would have showed up.
And if you think about it, that goes back to that 20% rule, right? 20% of the people in the church do 90% of the work.
You know why that happens?
Because only 20% of them have the power.
Now, we have a very neat church because well over half the people end up doing stuff here. If you stay long enough, you can end up serving God. You end up walking by faith.
And so we have a lot more going on here because of that. But that being said,
that being said, that principle is true.
If you're not willing to walk by faith in what is revealed then. Then exactly what good is the Revelation been to you?
It's important that we come to that understanding.
As you go today, I pray that.
The Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.