Revelation: A New Hope (Week 7)
In this series, we’ll explore Revelation through three lenses: the past—its Jewish roots and symbolism; the present—the context of its original audience; and the future—the timeless truth it speaks to the Church today.
For our Revelation Resources page, click here.
Warm-Up: What is your favorite Halloween costume you’ve ever worn? Or, if you still dress up, who are you dressing up as this year? (Alternative Question: if you could wear a disguise or take on another identity for a day, who or what would you choose to be, and why?)
Pete framed our study of the four horsemen of the apocalypse with this quote from pastor and theologian Eugene Peterson in his book Reversed Thunder:
“The four horsemen are brought out on the field of history by the imperative ‘Come!’ commanded from the throne: in acts of worship the battle is joined. The preached and conquering Christ rips the respectable disguises off the evil horsemen and forces them to show their true colors.”
1. What do you think of this idea of these figures as “evil unmasked”? Does it change how you have viewed this passage in Revelation 6 in the past?
Read Revelation 6:1-2.
Pete described the white horseman as representing the false promise of security and success through people or things that cannot ultimately save us.
2. Why do you think we’re drawn to leaders, achievements, or other sources of security as if they could solve all our problems?
3. How can we recognize when our hopes are misplaced?
Read Revelation 6:3-4.
Pete posited that the red horseman represents a “peace” that hides injustice, like the Pax Romana, which John’s audience were living through and was anything but peaceful for them.
4. Where do we see examples of peace or comfort for some people coming at the expense of others?
5. What might it look like for Christians today to be characterized by both justice and mercy?
Read Revelation 6:5-6.
The black horseman reveals a world where some struggle to meet basic needs while others continue to enjoy abundance. Pete suggested that greed hides behind scarcity, the feeling that we never have enough.
6. How can we distinguish between genuine needs and the desire for more?
7. What does the prayer “Give us this day our daily bread” teach us about contentment and generosity?
Read Revelation 6:7-8, and the following quote from Eugene Peterson:
“Our bodies are systematically abused so that they no longer function easily and naturally as temples of the Holy Spirit. The anxiety and tension that are accepted as the necessary price for living in a technological world diminish our capacity to live at the same time that they produce incentives for living. We accept the myth that the most important thing to do with our bodies is to put them to work to make money or achieve reputations. Sickness increases. The rider on the pale horse represents pestilence, epidemic disease, the sickness unto death…. Sickness is the condition in which our bodies are weakened or impaired so that they no longer are effective as temples of holiness shaping rituals of love and witness.”
8. What do you think of this idea of sickness (physical or emotional) as—in part—a cost of living in a culture that prizes productivity at the expense of our spiritual and emotional well-being?
9. Why can being busy feel like a virtue, even when it leaves little room for relationships, rest, or God?
10. Why does God command us to observe the Sabbath? What might Sabbath rest make possible that constant activity does not?
(*Video available after Sunday services)
