Scary Stories in Scripture: Revelation Week 1

Revelation isn't a horror story but a message of hope wrapped in apocalyptic imagery. Written to persecuted churches in Asia Minor, it unveils the spiritual reality behind suffering and shows that Jesus remains sovereign even amid chaos. The four horsemen represent systemic evils like political oppression, war, economic collapse, and death—forces that appear in every generation. Yet the crucial message is that none of these terrors operate outside God's authority. For believers facing fear, Revelation offers the assurance that death isn't the final chapter and that Christ, not chaos, gets the last word.

Transcript

All right, friends, this morning I'm going to invite you to open your Bibles, if you have them, to the Book of Revelation. This is going to be exciting.

It's probably not accurate. Listen, I'm going to. I'm going to board up for you a little bit this week. So we're going to do an introduction this week into the Book of Revelation. We're going to start, though, in the Book of Revelation, chapter six, verses one through eight.

And I'm going to continually use the word revelation, so you understand that there is no S at the end of the Book of Revelation. It is not Revelations. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So if you've got your Bibles, open them up. Revelation 6:1 through 8.

If you don't have your Bibles, you can follow along on the screen. We're going to dive right in. Here's the word of the Lord for us today. I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, come.

I looked, and there before me was a white horse. Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown. And he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. When the lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. Then another horse came out, a fiery red one.

Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword. When the lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. I looked, and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.

Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, two pounds of wheat for a day's wages and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine. When the lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given the power over a fourth of the Earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Amen. Right. This is really hard for us to hear, isn't it?

Have you ever. Haven't. Sorry. Have you ever had a dream so vivid that it left you a little bit shaken? A dream maybe that was so intense that you woke up sweating with your heart pounding, and for a moment you didn't know if it was real or if it was just a dream.

Many of the places in the Book of Revelation feel a lot like that for us. Almost like Revelation is kind of a nightmare for us, God's people. We've always heard about God's love and God's hope and God's peace and grace. And then we read the Book of Revelation and we're like, okay, all, all that's out the window, right? Or is it?

We read about conquest, war, famine, death, the chaos that is brought by the four horsemen of the Apocalypse that we just read about and they gallop across the pages of Scripture and straight into the strangest of nightmares, right? But here's the thing I want you guys to know about the Book of Revelation. It isn't horror for horror sake. The Book of Revelation for us is a wake up call. It's not meant to terrify, but to bring us back to trust in Christ.

So I figured since it is the month of October filled with harvest celebrations, boohaha, and Halloween, I thought that maybe we could take some time to look at some scriptures that might instill fear that if we don't read them correctly, cause us to live in a way maybe we shouldn't. My hope is that if we read scriptures in the Book of Revelation, right, that they can bring us hope.

I promise you, the Book of Revelation was not written to paralyze us with fear. It was written to wake us up to the hope that we have in Jesus. So it was written by a man named John. You know who that is, right? I don't think you do.

I don't think that any of us do. Right. There's still debate on who exactly this John is. Some scholars believe that this is actually the Apostle John, one of Jesus 12 disciples. As a matter of fact, the beloved disciple who is believed to also have authored the Gospels of John and the Letters of John.

First, second and third.

There's another suspected author, and he is known as John the Revelator or John of Patmos. So whoever this John is, he received the visions that make up this book while he was exiled on an island of Patmos. It's a Greek island and it was likely done during the reign of Emperor Domitian. And they think it was probably around the year 95. Again, none of this is assured.

But while John may have penned the book, he might have been the one that actually wrote it. Revelation begins by declaring that it is in fact the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants. And that comes from Revelation chapter 1. In other words, John might have been the faithful witness, but Jesus is the divine author of Revelation. It was written to the seven churches of Asia Minor, that's in modern day Turkey, who were facing persecution, they were facing compromise within their own churches, and they were also facing confusion by the different doctrines that were arising at the time.

The purpose of the Book of Revelation was to unveil the spiritual reality behind their suffering, to show that Jesus is going to be victorious and that evil itself has a shelf life.

But faithfulness to God matters. So as we start out this morning in this new series, I want to just make this statement so that you all can hear me. The Book of Revelation is not a horror story. It is a hope story wrapped in apocalyptic imagery. The word apocalypse comes from the Greek word apocalypsis, this meaning the appearing or the manifestation.

It means the unveiling or the disclosure. Revelation pulls back the curtain on the cosmic battle between good and evil, showing us that Jesus, who is referred to throughout the book as the Lamb of God or the Lamb that was slain, that this same Jesus is the reigning king. Some of you might be thinking, "But, Pastor, the Book of Revelation, is that still even relevant to us today?"

It's not super popular anymore to preach the Book of Revelation. There are some that do, but many don't. You won't hear the Book of Revelation come in across the lips of folks like Joel Osteen or Andy Stanley or Rob Bell. Oftentimes, you won't hear me talk about the Book of Revelation either. And I think that's because after just generations and generations of pastors, televangelists and podcasters, small town Christian radio hosts and so many others, they've all tried their hand at interpreting the Book of Revelation.

And for the low price of $39.99, they sell you a book or a VHS cassette series or a set of 12 DVDs that go deep into understanding the Book of Revelation. Hallelujah.

Much of the focus of the Book of Revelation has been on the fear of tribulation and a conversation about the Rapture. And as part of our introduction to the Book of Revelation, let me just take a second and talk about the Rapture. Y' all are still here, right? Because, you know, it was just, what, a week and a half ago, September 23rd. All of us were supposed to be taken up to heaven in the clouds with Jesus, right?

There was this move in social media that said that the rapture was happening September 22nd. And I was pretty ticked off because I was really excited about my 45th birthday and I wasn't going to have it if we were all raptured, right? So, friends, did you know that the concept of the Rapture didn't even exist in Christianity until the year 1833? That is 1800 years later from the initiation of the Christian Gospel.

And the problem is that the concept of the Rapture is based on one very specific scripture that's found in the book of First Thessalonians, chapter 4, verses 17. I'll put that on the screen so we can read this together. Here's what it says. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

That is strong, right? Like that, yes. Everything I've heard about the Rapture that meets the criteria. But the phrase caught up comes from the Greek word harpazo, which literally means to snatch away, to pluck, or to carry off, or to take by force. It's got some weird meaning there.

When the Greek writings were translated into the principal Latin version of the Bible, called the Vulgate, it was prepared by a man named St. Jerome in the late 4th century, right? So a long time ago, the word was translated from harpazo in the Greek to the Latin raptura. And I bet you can see how we in the English language got the word rapture, right? The man who interpreted the scripture to create this understanding of what we call the Rapture today, his name was John Nelson Darby. And John Nelson Darby put together this kind of systemic theological understanding of who God was and the work of God through what we call dispensational premillennialism.

Nobody is impressed I learned that word for you guys, right? Dispensational premillennialism. So this basically understanding of history divides history into distinction eras that emphasized a literal futuristic reading of the Book of Revelation. These distinct eras of history, or dispensations, as they're called, are believed to be periods where God acts with humanity in very distinct and specific ways. And there are seven of these dispensations that all involve a test for humanity.

Humanity fails that test, there's a judgment, and then we move on to the next test, dispensation. And I'm going to read this to you. This comes from gotquestions.org this is a great resource I use oftentimes to help me figure out where we get some of the stuff we get. Here's what it says about dispensational premillennialists. Okay?

It says they hold that the second coming of Christ and subsequent establishment of the millennial kingdom, which is a thousand year reign of Jesus, is to be preceded by a seven year long period known as the Tribulation. We've all heard that word before. Seven year Tribulation. For those of you who were into the John LaHaye books in the 1990s when life was so much simpler, you know all about the end times, right? Because it was the end times series.

And then Kirk Cameron, God love him, made the end times, you know, apocalyptic movies based on those same books. Oh, just quality Christian acting there.

So the Tribulation is the earthly activity of the Antichrist as well as the outpouring of God's wrath on mankind. That does not sound super hopeful. Dispensational premillennialists hold that the nation of Israel will be saved and restored to a place of preeminence in the millennium. That's again that thousand year reign of Jesus. Thus Israel will have a special function of service in the millennium that is different from the rest of the church.

When we read the context surrounding the scriptures that John Nelson Darby took to become this rapture theology, when we read 1st Thessalonians 4, we can see that there has been a little bit of disservice done to the text, what should be considered a great Pauline teaching, meaning a teaching of the Apostle Paul about the second coming of Christ and the assurance that we will all live with God at the end time. All of this became grounds for an interesting but often overemphasized misunderstanding about the faithful Christians who basically get to escape all the challenges of the end. All of the challenges associated with the Tribulation, they get to get away scot free. So we need to read the context a little bit deeper. Right?

So first Thessalonians, in chapter four, we're going to read 13 through 18, it says this, brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about these who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope, right? We believe that we have hope even in death. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again. And so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him according to the Lord's Word. We tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will Rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.

So I hope you can see that there's more about the second coming of Christ here than there is about this kind of special revelation for John Nelson Darby, how we're going to escape the tribulation. This comes way before the Book of Revelation is even written. This comes as a way to say that when Jesus Christ comes back, there's an order to things and we don't get to escape life.

We get taken when God's timing is complete. Even if there is this tribulation that happens In Revelation chapter 7, we may not get out of it. But wherever you stand on the Book of Revelation, we're talking about the Rapture. It should be clear that the Book of Revelation and knowing about Christian eschatology, which is the study of the end of all things, it is just as important today as it has ever been.

When we talk about things like the Rapture, if it's still making the news in 2025, we should probably be informed about what Scripture says about it. People are talking about it on TikTok and other social media outlets. Then we've got to know something, right?

The Book of Revelation speaks to every generation that faces fear, injustice, temptation and suffering. Through the Book of Revelation, we are reminded that Jesus is present with us, his church, and that our worship of God is kind of this form of resistance against evil. And that the scary story that we hear about in the Book of Revelation, it ends resurrection and recreation.

So I mentioned the word eschatology before. Eschatology means something that deals with things concerning the end of time. Have you heard it before today? Did you know that word? The Book of Revelation contains some very specific visions of what the end of the world is going to look like.

So it's considered a book of eschatology. Revelation speaks of visions of false prophets and beasts, the Antichrist, war, tribulation, death, pestilence, violence, and all kinds of stuff like our world has never experienced before. Many of the things that it speaks of can be very scary. And I remember as a teenager how, like, absolutely intrigued by the Book of Revelation I was. And I don't know if you guys remember the 1990s, but it was this era where there were all kinds of prophetic preachers who wanted to preach about the Book of Revelation.

And for me, as a young person, I wanted every bit of It. I just sucked it up like a sponge.

But every time I read through the Book of Revelation, I get a little more clarity about what it's actually saying about a God who loves us and the Christ who saves us from having to worry about the end. Because as Christians, we know that no matter what happens, our end is guaranteed. So today, I want to remind you that the purpose of the Book of Revelation is not simply trying to predict the future. It's not just about telling you the end of all things and how we can decide what timing is going to happen and what prophecies need to be fulfilled. It's about us being faithful to God here and now in the present.

So now that we've got a bit more context of the Book of Revelation, let's dive into the Scriptures that we read earlier so that we can get a better understanding of what God has for us, so that stories in Scripture aren't as scary as we read them today. On this first Sunday In October, in Revelation 6, 1 2, it says, I watched the lamb open, the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, come. I looked, and there before me was a white horse. Its rider had a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

This first rider on the white horse symbolizes conquest and domination. And for John's readers, it would have absolutely been very clear. He's talking about political empires flexing their power. John's audience knew Rome's conquering spirit all too well. They had lived through oppressive taxes, crushed revolts, and the weight of the empire that dictated how they were going to live their lives every day.

This is just the beginning of the great coming of things.

This is just the beginning of the Book of Revelation. There's war, there's famine and death to follow. In Jewish apocalyptic tradition, dreams and vision expose the world's brokenness. It wasn't just as a prophet, you speak something that doesn't exist into reality. As prophets of God in ancient times, when they had dreams and they began to reveal those dreams to people around their cities and towns, those dreams revealed truth about the political happenings in their very moment of life.

The horsemen in Scripture aren't random terrors. They're snapshots of systemic evil. Political oppression, war, economic collapse, death, mortality. Right. It's like watching the evening news.

One channel shows war in Ukraine. Another today shows hunger in Sudan. Another shows unrest in American cities. Our news feeds are filled with visions of destruction in Gaza, debates about genocide, federal forces rounding up people on the streets in a way that doesn't really quite feel American to me. So if you're connecting the dots of Scripture, like I always try to do, I bet you might see that the Book of Revelation, especially beginning in chapter six, feels very relevant to our lives today.

The nightmare that we recognize in the end times may be real, but I want to remind you that nightmares lose their power when we see who holds the story.

John Wesley often preached about the world being his parish, recognizing that human sin plays out across all nations, across political lines, across economies. And the four horsemen of the Apocalypse remind us that evil is not only personal, like sin doesn't just happen in our own lives. Sin is also systemic, which is why the United Methodist Church emphasizes both personal holiness and social holiness.

If the Book of Revelation stopped here, it would be a horror story without hope.

But the real twist comes when we notice who it is that's holding the scroll and who it is that's opening the seals. In Revelation 6, 3, 6, it says, when the Lamb, who we just sang about earlier, when the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. I looked, and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures say, two pounds of wheat for a day's wages. Six pounds of barley for a day's wages.

And do not damage the oil and wine.

Each horseman rides forth, but none apart from Jesus, who is the Lamb. None ride forth without his authority. Jesus, I want to remind you, is never surprised by war or famine or collapse. He is sovereign even in the storm. The chaos that we are experiencing today doesn't dethrone Christ.

It just continues to reveal our desperate need for the peace that Christ offers. It reveals the need for us to be peacemakers. The seals are not opened in this scripture accidentally, right? John stresses, that is the Lamb that opens them. This means that even though terrifying forces are unleashed, they are not beyond God's awareness or authority.

Do you guys remember the Book of Job? In the Book of Job, you have this incredibly righteous man who, because Satan wants to test his righteousness in the face of hard things, he says, hey, let me take away all the cool things that you've given him. And then we'll see how faithful he really is. And if you know the story of Job, even in the midst of losing his children, in the midst of losing his wealth, in the midst of losing his health, he never curses God. It got to the same point where he was just so stressed out.

His wife was like, look at your life, man. Wouldn't it be better if you just cursed God and died? And he said, woman, thank you. Got one chuckle. All right.

So I couldn't imagine my wife saying, dude, you should just end it. That's how bad your life is.

But just like as we get recorded in Job chapters one and two, where Satan cannot act without God's permission, the Book of Revelation frames suffering within the sovereignty of God. Everything is going to happen as it's written, but nothing is beyond God's control. And that doesn't ever make suffering good. But it reassures us that chaos never gets the final word.

Imagine a pilot flying through turbulence. Have you ever been there before? Yeah. Sometimes in the midst of turbulence, the passengers panic. I've seen some videos that I would never want to be on those planes.

Sometimes they grip their armrest. Sometimes in bumpy, really bumpy weather, if your seatbelts not on, you see the people coming out of their seats. But the pilot's calm voice comes over the intercom. I've flown this route a thousand times. I promise we're going to get through it.

In the midst of the turbulence, the pilot is still in control. The same is true for us. Even when things look rough and scary, God is still in control. So while the horsemen may ride wild, Revelation assures us that the Lamb is the one holding the reins. So what do we do when the world feels like it's unraveling?

Well, Revelation doesn't leave us guessing. The words tell us where we need to fix our eyes. Do you remember what we do in our church at the beginning of every single January?

Huh? We do, but it is called something very specific. The first week of January, we always do what is called the Wesley Covenant Service. And as a part of this Wesley Covenant Service, we recite what is called Wesley's Covenant Prayer. In that holy prayer, he says, let me be full.

Let me be empty. Let me have all things. Let me have nothing. And this should show us that John Wesley radically trusted God. And the radical trust that John Wesley expressed in those words mirrors for us Revelation's call.

Even in the midst of conquest and famine and war, when we live as people who confess Jesus as our Lord, we can be Reassured that our future rests on the goodness of a Jesus who loves us. When Christ holds the reins, we can trust whatever happens. Even when it's scary, even when it's uncomfortable, when it's hard, Jesus, friends wants the best for us. In Revelation 6, 7 and 8, it goes on to say, when the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. I looked, and there before me was a pale horse.

Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given the power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. The last rider we see is death itself. And I don't know if you guys feel this way, but to me, nothing feels scarier than death. Nothing feels more final than death.

But the Book of John, chapter 16, verse 33, says this. I have told you these things, Isaac. I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.

Fear may be a part of the journey of faith for us, but the promise of Jesus in the Book of Revelation is that fear doesn't get the last word. Death is not as final as it sometimes seems. For those who were first readers of John's Apocalypse, they would have been very familiar with the chaos that John is talking about through the four horsemen mentioned in the Book of Revelation, chapter six. Many of the Christians of John's time were persecuted for their faith now. And I'm not talking about the kind of persecution where they're like, I can't bring my Bible to school with me.

I don't have the ability to pray in school. That's not persecution, friends.

Many of the Christians of John's time were persecuted in ways that were terrible. John's audience had seen loved ones die, some martyred for their faith in terrible and painful ways.

For Christians in the first couple of centuries, death was always looming. But the Book of Revelation is not silent about death. It acknowledges its power, but it points us beyond death. Later on in the Book of revelation, in chapter 21, verse 4, John promises us this. It says he will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. According to Scripture, death may be the last horseman, but it's not the last chapter.

Even when John Wesley was dying, he was on his deathbed, and he had had all of his friends around him as they were listening for him to Give his final words. With his arms lifted up, he declared, the best of all is God is with us.

In John Wesley's last moment, it wasn't a denial of death. It became for him a defiance of death and a statement that death does not have the final word.

John Wesley stared death right in the face and said, you don't win.

Chaos and fear may knock at the door, but Christ answers with resurrection. What begins in the Book of Revelation with this chaos, war, pestilence, violence. Death does not end that same way. The Lamb who opens the seals is also the one who wipes away every tear. The nightmare that we see in these four horsemen may ride on special horseback, but hope still holds the reins.

Friends, we are resurrection people, and we have to hold to Christ, the One who holds all things together.

I have done a lot of funerals in my very young life, very young. And one of the things that my wife says is that, man, funerals are your jam. And I don't know how I feel about that, but I know that a good funeral is one of the best ways that we can honor those who go on to God. In the words of the United Methodist Funeral Liturgy, have power to. Our funeral liturgy declares these words, dying Christ destroyed.

Death rising. Christ restored our life. And the Book of Revelation echoes the very words that we proclaim over every single grave, that the power of death is temporary and Christ's power is eternal.

The Book of Revelation is hard. Understanding the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are not something that come easily. And we're just jumping in today as a beginning. So if you feel today in any way that your world is unraveling, if fear is riding hard in your life, friends, I want to remind you we have the authority of Jesus to look to the lamb. Jesus is not absent.

He's not overwhelmed. He's opening the scrolls for us, and he's holding the reins. Christ is writing a story that ends in resurrection. Revelation 1:17 and 18 says this. Do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead, and now look. I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys, Death and Hades.

And that should be the voice that we hear when we read any scary story. And I pray that that's the voice that speaks over us today. So, friends, over the coming weeks, as we dive into some of these scary stories in the Book of Revelation, I want to remind you that fear does not have the last word. And the great news is we have hope. And Christ calls us to be people of hope to all people around us.

Let's pray together.