Revelation: The End -- and a New Beginning
By Ray C. Stedman
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Podcast Description
What is it that makes us want to read the last chapter of a book first? For some reason, many people begin reading the Bible with the book of Revelation; but this is a serious mistake. This book plunges you into a confusing array of dragons and trumpets and vials and seals, with many amazing sights and sounds and visions. A person starting here might well throw the whole Bible away in frustration, unable to make head nor tail of it. It is very significant that the book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible. And if you have read the rest of the Bible before you come to Revelation, you will be much better equipped to understand the climax of the entire revelation of God to his people.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Behind the Scenes of History (Revelation 1:1-20) | We have just come through the earthquake of October 17, and can give thanks that most of us survived without serious damage. There is one thing that can be said about an earthquake -- it is a great priority adjuster! When the World Series was being held it was regarded in its beginning games as one of the greatest events taking place on this planet at the time. Almost everybody thought it was tremendously important which team would win. But at 5:04 p.m. on October 17, there was a remarkable and visible change. At 5:05 all priorities were suddenly different. | 9/29/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
The Church that Lost its Love (Revelation 1:19 - 2:7) | What a wonderful week this has been! The whole world has been caught by surprise at the developments in Eastern Europe. New doors of freedom have opened there; even the barrier of the Berlin Wall has been set aside. It has been fascinating to watch. What struck me most was the universal reaction of people to this dramatic change. No one ever expected it to happen! | 9/22/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
Smyrna and Pergamum -- The Pressured Church (Revelation 2:8-17) | It has been often said, with much truth, that Christians ought to live with the newspaper in one hand and a Bible in the other. It takes one to understand the other. The newspaper records the visible events that are taking place upon the earth at the present hour, but the Bible looks beyond to the invisible realm where the councils of God determine what will take place on earth. You cannot really understand life until you see both realms. | 9/15/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
Thyatira: The Worldly Church (Revelation 2:18-29) | As we look at these seven letters in the book of Revelation, it is helpful to remember two things about them: First, they are a picture of seven kinds of churches that you find in any age, in any period of history. Every church in the world today will fall into one or more of these categories of churches. We fit into one of these ourselves. The second thing is the prophetic nature of these letters. They are a preview of the entire age of the church, falling into seven periods, from the first coming of our Lord to his second appearing. | 9/8/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
The Church of the Zombies (Revelation 3:1-6) | Some years ago I was in the city of Adelaide in Australia, and found I was scheduled to preach in a certain church on Sunday evening. I had never been there before, and had no idea what the service would be like, but I can say that it was so terrible that I have never forgotten it. It was an old-fashioned church building, with a spire reaching up into the heavens and a great pipe organ in the auditorium. Although it could seat about 800 people there were only around 35 present. Most of them must have been well over 60 or 70. | 9/1/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
The Little Church that Tried (Revelation 3:7-13) | Everyone knows that our historic American city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, named for the church to which we come today, means "brotherly love" (although some Philadelphians today call it "the city of the brotherly shove!"). The biblical city was located about 28 miles southeast of the city of Sardis. It was the youngest of the seven cities whose churches are addressed in these letters. | 8/25/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
The Poor-Rich Church (Revelation 3:14-21) | The city of Laodicea was located about 100 miles directly east of Ephesus, the first city to which these seven letters were addressed. Laodicea was part of a tri-city area, closely associated with the cities of Colossae (to which the letter to the Colossians was written), and Hierapolis. Laodicea was noted throughout the Roman province of Asia for its wealth, its commercial life, and its medical practice. As the banking center of Asia, it was the most prosperous of the seven cities. | 8/18/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
Supreme Headquarters (Revelation 4:1-11) | Chapter four of the book of Revelation represents a dramatic change. We move now to the third division of the book. In 1:19, we learned from the Lord himself the proper divisions of the book. There John the Apostle heard the Lord say to him, "Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later (or after this)." It is very important to observe these three divisions because they will guide us through this difficult and sometimes hard to understand book. | 8/11/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
9 |
The Great Breakthrough (Revelation 5:1-14) | In Chapter 4 of Revelation, John the Apostle was caught up into the presence of God in heaven. There he saw the throne of God and the court of heaven. Though the scene in Chapter 5 is still in heaven, the theme changes from the worship of the Creator to the worship of the Redeemer. Both of these themes are often reflected in Christian hymns. One of my favorites praises God for his creative wisdom: | 8/4/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
Four Terrible Horsemen (Revelation 6:1-17) | The sixth chapter of Revelation brings us to the beginning of the judgments of the wrath of God. It is not an easy passage to preach on, but it is part of the content of blessing promised to those who read and keep the prophecies of this book (1:3). I grew up on the Great Plains of Montana, and during the summer months we often experienced sudden thunderstorms. Often before the storm there would be strange calm, a sense of foreboding in the air. One could almost feel the violent storm that was about to break. This is what we experience frequently in today's world. | 7/28/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
11 |
To Jew And Gentile (Revelation 7:1-17) | Everyone knows that the tiny nation of Israel, with a population of less than four million people, nevertheless receives enormous attention in the world's media, far beyond what its size would warrant. The only explanation for that extraordinary fact is that it indicates the central place that Israel has in the program of God. God will not let the world forget Israel! In the Old Testament, of course, Israel is always center stage. Everything centers around this nation. | 7/21/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
12 |
Angels of Doom (Revelation 8:1-13) | In our studies in the book of Revelation we have been following the unrolling of the seven-sealed scroll which the Lamb of God won the right to open by his death upon the cross. The title of that scroll is "The Mystery of God," and when we come to Chapter 10 we will read that that mystery -- exactly how God is going to bring about universal peace and joy to a sinful, angry, and murderous world -- is completed. God is doing that very thing with individuals even today. | 7/14/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
13 |
All Hell Breaks Loose (Revelation 9:1-21) | Chapter 9 of Revelation presents the judgments of the fifth and sixth of the seven trumpets which were introduced in Chapter 8. These two trumpets are also identified as the first and second of three great "woes" that will come upon the earth. I want to stress that the judgments of this book are real. They are terrible, horrible disasters, and there is both a literal and a figurative dimension to them. | 7/7/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
14 |
The End of the Mystery (Revelation 10:1-11) | In Chapter 10 of Revelation we come face to face with several mysteries that have confused many from time to time. I suppose there are millions of people on earth this morning that struggle with the mystery of a silent heaven. Why doesn't God explain what is going on? It must seem to many that he is unconcerned, and, perhaps, even unable to do anything, about human affairs. Evil seems to run rampant everywhere. Miscarriages of justice, cruelty, viciousness, and increasing crime are on every side. | 6/30/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
15 |
The Last Warning (Revelation 11:1-19) | Recently I enjoyed seeing the stage production ofLes Miserables in San Francisco. I had read Victor Hugo's novel in a somewhat torturous experience of French when I was in college, but I did not remember anything but the main plot. The most memorable thing I learned was that the French do not care what you do as long as you pronounce it properly! But when I saw the play it all came to life. The characters took on real flesh and blood. Recently I enjoyed seeing the stage production of Les Miserables in San Francisco. | 6/23/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
16 |
Woman and the Serpent (Revelation 12:1-17) | If any of you are immigrants to this country and you entered through the port of New York, you will remember that the first sight you had of this land was of a great statue of a woman holding a torch in her upheld arm. That was not an advertisement for underarm deodorant! It was the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the freedom that America enjoys. Chapter 12 of the book of Revelation also opens with the symbol of a woman. In fact there are three symbols here: The woman, her son, and a great red dragon. | 6/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
17 |
When Men become Beasts (Revelation 13:1-18) | The thirteenth chapter of Revelation brings before us the most famous number in the world -- 666. If you get that number on your license plate or on your credit card it sends shivers of fear down your spine! I learned this morning that a couple from this congregation had that as their house number. They were so disturbed they asked the city to change the number, which they did. Six hundred sixty six has become a sinister number in the eyes of many. Several movies have been based upon the powerful mystery connected with it. | 6/9/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
18 |
The Time of the of Harvest (Revelation 14:1-20) | John Wesley once said, "Give me a hundred men who love nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the whole world for Christ." I think Wesley probably underestimated, because in the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation, to which we come this morning, we read that Jesus chose not just 12, not even 100, but 144,000 men, and with that number he would to shake the world in the closing days of this age. In Chapter 7 we saw these 144,000 were chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, 12,000 from each tribe. | 6/2/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
19 |
Earth's Last Trial (Revelation 15:1 - 16:21) | The book of Revelation surveys God's solution to the crisis of history; how he will bring about the long promised world of peace and blessing. After centuries of patient waiting and putting up with might-is-right arrogance, hate, greed and the bloodshed that has characterized our earth so long, God says there comes a time when he will call a halt to the whole rotten business! Eugene Peterson, with his gift of eloquence, has put it this way: | 5/26/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
20 |
The Dragon Lady (Revelation 17:1 - 19:5) | One of the frequent questions asked about the end times is: "Will the church go through the great tribulation?" I am not going to deal at length with that question now, but we have seen in many passages of Scripture, and especially in the seven letters to the churches of Revelation, several reasons to say, "No, the true church of Jesus Christ will not go through the great tribulation." Those who truly know the Lord and who are alive when this period comes, will be caught up to be with him before the tribulation begins. | 5/19/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
21 |
The Rider on the White Horse (Revelation 19:6-21) | Chapter 19 of Revelation brings us to the climax of this great book -- the Second Coming of Jesus, the glorious appearing of our Lord. It is fitting that we should consider this on Palm Sunday, when we celebrate the Lord's so-called Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. He would not have called it a triumphal entry for he wept as he came down the mountainside. But this Second Coming described in the book of Revelation is the true Triumphal Entry. Last week we ended our study in the midst of a great Hallelujah Chorus in heaven. | 5/12/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
22 |
One Thousand Years of Peace (Revelation 20:1-15) | Over 100 years ago, Victor Hugo, the French novelist and author ofLes Miserables, wrote these words: In the twentieth century war will be dead. The scaffold will be dead. Hatred will be dead. Frontier boundaries will be dead. Dogmas will be dead. But man will live. He will possess something higher than all these: a great country, the whole earth, a great hope, the whole heaven. | 5/5/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
23 |
The City of Glory (Revelation 21:1 - 22:21) | Many of you are too young to remember this, but years ago, before World War II, there was a radio news broadcaster by the name of H. V. Kaltenborn. He always began his news broadcast with the words, "Well, we've got good news today!" That is the way I would like to start this last section of Revelation. It is indeed good news! The judgments are past, the terrible plagues upon the earth are ended. | 4/28/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 23 Episodes |
Listeners also subscribed to
- Matthew: Behold Your King!
- Ray C. Stedman
- View In iTunes
- Thessalonians: Hope for a Hopeless World
- Ray C. Stedman
- View In iTunes
- 2 Corinthians: authentic Christianity
- Ray C. Stedman
- View In iTunes
- Colossians: Power to Endure with Joy
- Ray C. Stedman
- View In iTunes
- Timothy: The Pastor's Primer
- Ray C. Stedman
- View In iTunes
