"As we look at this book we will find that it reveals warnings to the church about its besetting sins. It reveals instruction to the church about the need for holiness. It reveals the amazing power and glorious overcoming strength of Christ and the Christian over sin and Satan. It reveals the ultimate triumph of believers who are killed for the cause of Christ. It reveals the glory of worship. It reveals the end of human history. It reveals the final political set up of the world. It reveals the triumph of God's saving purpose. It reveals the career of Antichrist and the final battle of Armageddon and the alignment of the nations of the world. It reveals the need to fight the forces of evil patiently. It reveals the glories of Christ's Kingdom on Earth and in the new heaven and the new Earth. It reveals the triumph ultimately of God's saving purposes, no matter what Satan endeavors to do. It reveals the victory of Christ over all powers, human and demonic. It reveals the final end of Satan and the final end of sin. It is the opposite of a puzzle, it is the opposite of a mystery, it is not a covering, it is not a hiding, it is an unveiling. And so we say its essential nature is that it is the revelation and that word is chosen very carefully by John. It is the apocalypse, the unveiling, the disclosure of details heretofore hidden from human view. The history of the end of the universe and how it will take place and what will come after that.

In fact, the best way to say it is it is a front-page story of the future of the world written by someone who was there...who was there. If I could title the study of Revelation in a contemporary concept I would title it, "Back to the future...

... Once you traverse this book it will become apparent that you are seeing the main central theme is Jesus Christ. In fact, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ appears in seven chief images. He is the risen glorified Son of God among the churches. He is the Lamb in heaven, publicly invested with authority to carry out the determined preliminary judgments on men. He comes to Earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Fourthly, He is Christ. Fifthly, He is the judge on the Great White Throne. Sixthly, He is the Lamb upon the throne of God and of the Lamb. Seventh, He is I, Jesus, the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star.

 And less you think there are only seven times in this book when He is spoken of, I will give you a list of other titles that He bears. In this book He is the faithful witness, He is the firstborn from the dead. He is the ruler over the kings of the Earth. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is the One who is and who was and who is to come. He is the Almighty. He is the first and last. He is the Son of Man. He is He who lives, He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks amidst the seven golden lampstands. He who has the sharp two-edged sword. He is Son of God. He is He who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass. He is He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. He is He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord holy and true, the Lord God almighty, the King of the saints and the Word of God.

All of that in this book. He is the center of the book and He is the circumference of the book. He is the beginning and the end, He is the top and the bottom, He's the inside and the outside. He is the over and the under. The heavens are opened in this book and you are going to see a vision of Jesus Christ not in humility, not in human form. You're going to see a vision of Jesus Christ in His sovereign majesty and eternal glory and it will flash before your eyes over a prolonged period of time, as it did for a split second in the vision of Stephen. You remember that? He saw the Son of God in heaven when he was dying as a martyr in Acts 7:56. What flashed across His eyes in a moment shall be prolonged in your vision as we go from chapter 1 to chapter 22. Jesus Christ always seen in majestic glory, never in humiliation.

The essential nature of the book, it is an unveiling, an uncovering of things heretofore not known, details of the end of the universe and the coming of Christ. The central theme, Jesus Christ...

...if you're not a Christian these truths are closed to you. Oh, you may understand the words that I say and as I go through if you listen carefully to my explanation it may make sense to you in terms of the data on the page, but it can never grip your life, it can never become real to you in your heart, you will never comprehend its significance fully and its meaning in terms of its real depth because you're not a bond-slave. You remember back in Matthew 13 when Jesus was teaching in parables, He said to His own disciples, "I speak to them in parables because while seeing they do not see, and while they hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." You may see the page, you may hear the words, but you will not see with spiritual eyes, you will not comprehend. And then He says to His disciples in verse 16, "Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear." Because you're bond-slaves. This is a book for Christians and no one else can understand it... 

...And so its truths, as John notes in chapter 10, are bittersweet, bittersweet. It is a book of judgment. It is a book of doom. It tells the end of the world, the end of human history, the end of sinners. And the darker side of the picture is never for one moment concealed, it too is fully revealed. God is just, as we know, sin must be punished, impenitence and rebellion will issue ultimately in misery and defeat, disaster, death and eternal judgment. This is no sentimental book. It is a serious book. It is a compelling book. It is a heart-wrenching book. It is a disturbing book. There is no weak tolerance of evil. There is a Lamb who has been slain, but there is the wrath of the Lamb also...there is a river of the water of life, but there is a lake of fire, as well.

Here we find a God of love who will dwell among men and wipe away all tears and abolish death and abolish sorrow and abolish pain. But before that, He will send His enemies into a place of sorrow and pain and death and tears that is unimaginable. And so there is no hiding of the dark side of the glory of Christ. A brighter day is to come, yes. But there is thunder before the dawn. And so, we will look at the future. It will be back to the future as we go back to this ancient book written in 96 A.D. and see in it the future written by a man who was there, for John the Apostle was there, transported by visions. It is prophecy..."  End quote.

Read the complete transcript Back to the Future pt.1.