Revelation is the easiest book in the Bible to read and to teach—providing you have read all the books in the Bible that precede it! We noted at the very start of our study together that the Bible—in its final, finished form—is a unified literary work: The curtain rises in Genesis and it falls in Revelation. In between we have a linear narrative: God is the main character; sin is the conflict; redemption is the theme. Thus, reading Revelation is like reading the final chapter in a 2,000-page novel.

In this lesson we turn to future events, what the prophets refer to as “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Here we witness the cataclysmic events that the prophets foretell and that Peter foresees in 2 Peter 3: 10—“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

In Revelation 1: 19 the risen and glorified Christ tells John to: “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.” That is the basic architectural structure of Revelation: 1) what you have seen (past tense, “what was”: chapter 1); 2) what is now (present tense, “what is at the time John is writing”: chapters 2 & 3); and 3) what will take place later (future tense, “what will be”: chapters 4-22).

Jesus’ entire public ministry leads to his death, burial and resurrection. Indeed, Jesus tells us himself that he came “to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20: 28). We often are given the impression that Jesus was the innocent victim of corrupt religious authority and political intrigue. That is wrong. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he left Galilee for Jerusalem on Passover in the third year of his ministry.

Jewish Bibles classify Daniel among the “Writings,” not the “Prophets”; Christian Bibles elevate Daniel to the position of a major prophet. Daniel is taken captive to Babylon after its first attack on Jerusalem in 605 B.C. Daniel’s book is set in Babylon and spans the years 605 – 539 B.C.

Left to our own devices, humanity is incapable of resolving the issue of sin. God must do it for us, and here he introduces his plan.

Jesus launches his public ministry when he is “about thirty years old” (Luke 3: 23); it lasts three years. During that time “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4: 23). In this session we sample his teaching, preaching and healing.

As we move through the Bible, we encounter both oral and writing prophets. Elijah and Elisha, for example, are oral prophets, neither one writes anything that we know of. We simply have their stories in 1 & 2 Kings, stories about what they said and did. Writing prophets, on the other hand, write books. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve Minor Prophets commit what they have to say to writing, sometimes in long books like Isaiah (66 chapters), and other times in short books like Obadiah (1 chapter).

Jesus resurrection is the single most important event in human history. In last week’s lesson, we followed Jesus through his death, burial and resurrection; this week we shall delve deeply into the resurrection, understanding it’s full impact on both Jesus...and on us.

Drawing primarily on Luke and Matthew this session focuses on Jesus’ birth. John writes in his prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... [and] the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1: 1, 14). This is the great miracle in the Bible: God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, became man and lived among us.

While Paul is in Corinth, A.D. 50 – 52, he writes three epistles, two to the church in Thessalonica and one to the churches in Galatia. Paul spends only “three Sabbath days” in Thessalonica (Acts 17: 2) and he encounters such opposition that “as soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea” (Acts 17: 16), lest they be stoned.

The curtain goes up on our story as we view creation, both from God’s perspective and from man’s.

Paul meets Timothy at the beginning of his second missionary journey. On the first missionary journey (A.D. 46 – 48), Paul visits Lystra, a city in central Asia Minor. It seems he had little success there, as in Lystra “they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead” (Acts 14: 19). On his return to Lystra in A.D. 50, however, Paul meets Timothy, a young man whose grandmother Lois and mother Eunice had become believers, apparently during Paul’s first visit to Lystra.

In this lecture we introduce the four foundational principles upon which our Logos Bible Study program is built. The Bible is: 1) rooted in geography; 2) it emerges from history; 3) it is—in its final, finished form—a unified literary work and 4) it is the Word of God.

After Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection he commissions his disciples to take the gospel “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 8). And they do just that. Those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and works travel throughout the Roman Empire, telling stories about him: What he said, what he did, miracles he performed, conversations and debates he had. Over time, those oral stories take on shape and form—not changing from telling to telling, as many insist—but solidifying into a standardized form.

Titus is classified among Paul’s letters, but I put it in this lesson before turning to the General Epistles. The General Epistles are all those correspondences written by anyone other than Paul: Hebrews, once attributed to Paul, is now attributed to an anonymous author, someone in Paul’s inner circle; James is attributed to “James, the Lord’s brother” and the leader of the church in Jerusalem (Galatians 1: 19); 1 & 2 Peter are attributed to the Apostle Peter; 1,2,3 John are attributed to the Apostle John; and Jude is attributed to Jude, another of the Lord’s brothers (Matthew 13: 55).

Revelation is the easiest book in the Bible to read and to teach—providing you have read all the books in the Bible that precede it! We noted at the very start of our study together that the Bible—in its final, finished form—is a unified literary work: The curtain rises in Genesis and it falls in Revelation. In between we have a linear narrative: God is the main character; sin is the conflict; redemption is the theme. Thus, reading Revelation is like reading the final chapter in a 2,000-page novel.

If Isaiah is the Thundering Prophet and Jeremiah is the Weeping Prophet, Ezekiel is the Weird Prophet! Ezekiel is taken captive to Babylon after its second attack on Jerusalem, 597 B.C. Ezekiel’s book is set in Babylon and it consists of thirteen separate “visions” that span twenty years. And they are very strange visions, indeed!

Although not the first of Paul’s epistles, his Epistle to the Church in Rome (or simply, Romans) takes the place of first importance. Written from Ephesus in A.D. 57, Paul crafts a formal argument in Romans, employing the structure of a “scholastic diatribe,” stating and defending his theses that we are “saved by grace through faith.” Romans is a brilliant work, and it is foundational for understanding the all that Paul has written.

In Revelation 1: 19 the risen and glorified Christ tells John to: “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.” That is the basic architectural structure of Revelation: 1) what you have seen (past tense, “what was”: chapter 1); 2) what is now (present tense, “what is at the time John is writing”: chapters 2 & 3); and 3) what will take place later (future tense, “what will be”: chapters 4-22).

Paul arrives in Corinth in mid-A.D. 50 and spends 18 months forming a church there. Of all the churches Paul founded, the Church at Corinth presented the greatest challenges and the most difficult problems. When Paul finally leaves Corinth in A.D. 52, he sails home via Ephesus, recognizing an enormous opportunity in that city. In A.D. 54, Paul begins his third missionary journey, going directly to Ephesus and spending most of his time there, A.D. 54-57.

The Minor Prophets are minor because they are shorter in length than the Major Prophets, not because they are less important: Isaiah is 66 chapters long; Obadiah is 1 chapter. All of the Minor Prophets write during the time of the kings, 1050 – 586 B.C., or after the return from Babylonian Captivity, 539 – 430 B.C. Most tell us when they are active. Hosea, for example, begins: “The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah…” (Hosea 1: 1).

While Paul is in Corinth, A.D. 50 – 52, he writes three epistles, two to the church in Thessalonica and one to the churches in Galatia. Paul spends only “three Sabbath days” in Thessalonica (Acts 17: 2) and he encounters such opposition that “as soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea” (Acts 17: 16), lest they be stoned.

Paul meets Timothy at the beginning of his second missionary journey. On the first missionary journey (A.D. 46 – 48), Paul visits Lystra, a city in central Asia Minor. It seems he had little success there, as in Lystra “they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead” (Acts 14: 19). On his return to Lystra in A.D. 50, however, Paul meets Timothy, a young man whose grandmother Lois and mother Eunice had become believers, apparently during Paul’s first visit to Lystra.

In Genesis the curtain rises on our story. Genesis introduces most of the major themes in the Bible. Listen closely as Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy takes you through the story of creation, the fall of man, grace, atonement, faith, justification, redemption and much more in this extraordinary story of beginnings.