Revelation Charts & Outlines

Note that this is not the full study, only the summarizing charts and reference points. Email me if you have interest in obtaining a copy of the full length study.

Topical Segments

Segment Verses
1 Intro

1:1-1:7

2 Jesus & 7 Churches

1:8-3:22

3 Thrones & Seals

4:1-8:6

4 Trumpets & Witnesses

8:7-11:19

5 Great Signs

12:1-15:4

6 Bowls & Babylon

15:5-18:24

7 The Great End

19:1-22:21

 

Segment Verses Purpose Highlights
1 Intro

1:1-1:7

To show his servants those things that must soon take place. To approach: read, hear, heed (connotation: study, understand, apply…not guess or speculate about)

  • Purpose of Book
2 Jesus & 7 Churches

1:8-3:22

This is where we see Jesus in his glory and learn how to respond to who he is. As we change our behavior to match it increases fellowship.

  • Glorified Jesus
  • Letters to the 7 churches
3 Thrones & Seals

4:1-8:6

God in his holiness and righteousness beginning to show his wrath toward sin. An attitude adjustment. Is your focus really on the throne or yourself? Do you have the same distaste for sin that God does?

  • God’s throne room description
  • Four living creatures
  • seven seals
  • 144 thousand
4 Trumpets & Witnesses

8:7-11:19

See what its like for people to be separated from God in reality. See his goodness removed from the planet, what it means to live separated from His goodness and blessing. And the result is many respond in repentance.

  • 7 trumpets (woes)
  • Two witnesses
5 Great Signs

12:1-15:4

Main principles/ideas: Satan is a defeated loser; God’s people are victorious, supernaturally protected. Great and wondrous sign = the end. We win. You get to bet before the game is played. You get to know the final score before the game is played. Appl: we can and need to persevere, and be joyful in our perseverance

  • The Woman
  • The Dragon and other beasts (Sea, Earth)
  • Satan cast from heaven
  • Lamb & 144k
  • better off dead
  • 7 marvelous plagues
6 Bowls & Babylon

15:5-18:24

See what God is wrathful against, and are encouraged to not participate in those things. Ultimately means to be awake. Be awake to that idea. And that he will, obviously, bring everything to final judgment.

  • Bowls of the wrath of god given
  • Great Harlot
  • Babylon Fallen
7 The Great End

19:1-22:21

The party in heaven, the completion of God’s work. Blessings.

  • Heaven is praising God
  • Rider on the white horse
  • 1000 yrs peace
  • New heaven and earth
  • Bride of Christ

 

Glorified Jesus

The glorified Jesus:

His...

Is Compared to...

In...

Important characteristics

Overall Appearance

A Son of man

1:13

Similar but not identical. This is the glorified Jesus

Voice

A trumpet

1:15

Startling, forceful, gets your attention, hard to miss

Clothed

Clothes of royalty (robe to the floor, girded w/ golden sash)

1:13

Long robes was impractical for people who do their own laundry and walk on dirt roads. Gold is expensive. Implication: Jesus = royalty.

Hair

White wool, snow

1:14

Blindingly white. Not brown like we usually picture his hair

Face

Sun shining in its strength

1:16

Midday sun is relentless, beats down on you.

Eyes

Flame of fire

1:14

To be able to see this flame of fire coming out of something that looks like the sun, this isn’t like a candle flickering (more like blowtorches)

Feet

Burnished bronze glowing in a furnace

1:15

Jesus is so full of vitality that his skin glows.

Voice

Sound of many waters

1:15

Really loud, thunderous like Niagara Falls

Seeing Jesus

A dead man

1:17

Seeing this Jesus makes you think you’d died.

The Seven Churches

Letter Structure:

  1. “To the angel of _________ write...”
  2. A description of Jesus from the vision
  3. Positive(s) (“I know...”)
  4. Contrast (“But...”)
  5. Causation (“Therefore...”)
  6. “He who has an ear...”
  7. “To him who overcomes....”

Pay attention to deviations from this structure, they are significant.

Chart of the church's highlights and lowlights:

Church

What Jesus likes about them:

What Jesus has against them:

Essentially...

Should Be...

Ephesus

Deeds, toil, perseverance

Left their first love

Loveless

Perfect in love

Smyrna

Tribulation

(no bad qualities)

Persecuted

Faithful in tribulation

Pergamum

Hold fast in tribulation, don’t deny Jesus’ name

Have bad doctrine mixed in (eg. eat food sacrificed to idols, commit acts of immorality)

Compromising

Accurate in doctrine

Thyatira

Deeds, love, faith, service, increasing greatness of deeds

tolerate Jezebel, immorality

Immoral

Zealous for purity

Sardis

Deeds, good name

You are dead

Dead

Spiritually Alive

Philadelphia

Deeds

(no bad qualities)

Faithful

Consistently biblical

Laodicea

(no good qualities)

Lukewarm

Lukewarm

Extreme

Description of Jesus relating to Churches:

Church

Description of Jesus

Significance

Ephesus

The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand

Seven stars symbolize angels of each of the seven churches (Rev 1:20). God holds the angels in his right hand.

The one who walks among the seven golden lamp-stands

Heb 9 shows the parts of the tabernacle were symbolic of Christ. Lampstand of pure gold was in the Holy Place to give light and symbolized the Church. See also Rev 1:20 Num 8:2, Zec 4:2.

Smyrna

The first and last

God exists outside of time, Jesus was there before creation and after.

Who was dead and has come to life

Speaks of Jesus's Resurrection

Pergamum

Has the sharp two-edged sword

"Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword...", Psa 149:6 Let the high praises of God be...a two-edged sword in their hand"

Thyatira

Eyes like a flame of fire

God made frequent appearances as a flame of fire in OT, flames consumed mountains and chaff and thorns and briars. See Isa 10:17, 43:2, Oba 1:18. God sees who is a believer and who is the chaff and the chaff will be consumed by fire. See Dan 10:6

Feet like burnished bronze

Bronze withstands high temperatures. Bronze was used for the tools for the offering altar in the tabernacle/temple. See Dan 10:6

Sardis

Has the seven Spirits of God

See Rev 4:5, equated to the 7 lamps

Has the seven stars

See Ephesus, Angels of the churches

Philadelphia

Has the key of David

See Isa 22:22. Whoever possesses this key can open doors no one can shut and shut doors no one can open.

Opens doors no one will shut

God's will cannot be blocked by other people.

Shuts doors no one will open

Jer 13:19 Captivity.

Laodicea

Faithful and true witness

Jer 42:5, God is a fatihful and true witness to his plans of what will be.

The beginning of the creation of God

God was the beginning of creation

 

Church

To Him Who Overcomes

Comments

Ephesus

I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is the Paradise of God

 

Smyrna

Will not be hurt by the second death

The first death might hurt, but they will have eternal life with Jesus rather than a second death.

Pergamum

Given: some of the hidden manna, a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.

 

Thyatira

Given: Authority to rule over the nations, and the morning star

 

Sardis

Clothed in white garments, name will not be erased from book of life, Jesus will confess your name before His father and His angels

 

Philadelphia

Be made a pillar in the temple of God, God’s name, new name, and city written on you

You become a permanent fixture in God’s kingdom, something that bears the weight of others.

Laodicea

Sit with Jesus on His throne

 

 

Seals/Trumpets/Bowls Compared

 
Seal
Trumpet
Bowl
1
white horse
conquering
(political change)
to the earth
hail & fire w/ blood
1/3 earth burned,
1/3 trees burned,
1/3 grass burned
on earth
loathsome and malignant sore (on mark of beast)
2
red horse
takes peace from earth
(sociological change)
to the sea
mountain burning with fire thrown into sea
1/3 sea becomes blood
on sea
sea became blood
3
black horse
w/ scales and money
(economic change)
to the rivers & springs
star burning like torch fell
1/3 waters become wormwood
rivers
became blood
4
ashen horse
kill w/ sword, famine, pestilence, & beasts
(ecological/demographical change)
1/3 sun struck
1/3 mood struck
1/3 stars struck
(shine 1/3 less)
sun
scorch men w/ fire
5
martyrs cry out for avengeance
given white roves while wait for more of them
locusts released from bottomless pit, tormented non-believers for 5 months, sting like scorpion
throne of beast
kingdom darkened (gnawed tongues)
6
great earthquake, sun blackened, moon like blood, stars fell to earth, kings of earth hid
Kill 1/3 mankind with plagues: fire, smoke, brimstone
the great river
Euphrates dries up
7
prayers of saints go up to God, 7 trumpets given to 7 angels
lightening, thunder, earthquake, great hailstorm.
the air
earthquake, leveling planet, 100lb hail

 

 


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