Revelation Study 2: Book structure and main themes

4. The next step in an overview is to break the book into major sections, then break those sections into parts. This gives you a working outline to see how the book is put together. To save you time, we have suggested some divisions on the following pages. Go back through the book, and make up a title for each major and secondary section. (Feel free to alter the divisions; they are arbitrary in some places.)
If you have trouble making up titles for all of these passages now, do only the main sections and fill in the subsections as you study each lesson.

 

1:1-20. Prologue and the vision of Jesus, Introduction
    1:1-8 Prologue and introduction to letter 
    1:9-20 Jesus among the lampstands, John’s assignment 

 

2:1-3:22 Letters to the seven churches 

    2:1-7 to Ephesus 
    2:8-11 to Smyrna 
    2:12-17 to Pergamum
    2:18-29 to Thyatira
    3:1-6 to Sardis
    3:7-13 to Philadelphia 
    3:14-22 to Laodicea
 

4:1-5:14 A view of heaven
    4:1-11 the throne of God 
    5:1-14 the scroll and the Lamb
 

6:1-8:5 The seven seals 
    6:1-17 the first six seals opened 
    7:1-8 the sealing of the 144000
    7:9-17 the great multitude
    8:1-5 the seventh seal opened

 

8:6-11:19 The seven trumpets
    8:6-9:21 the first six trumpets blown
    10:1-11 the angel and the little scroll, seven thunders
    11:1-13 the two witnesses 

    11:14-19 the seventh trumpet blown, God’s temple in heaven opened 
 

12:1-14:20  Spiritual battle
    12:1-17 the woman, the child and the dragon
    13:1-10 the beast from the sea
    13:11-18 the beast from the earth
    14:1-5 the Lamb and the 144000
    14:6-13 messages/warnings from 3 angels
    14:14-20 the earth harvested 

15:1-16:21 The seven plagues and seven bowls
    15:1-8 seven plagues, the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven opened 
    16:1-21 seven bowls poured out
    

17:1-19:5 Judgment comes
    17:1-18 the great prostitute 
    18:1-24 Babylon falls
    19:1-5 heaven rejoices
 

19:6-22:5 The final consummation 
    19:6-10 the marriage supper of the Lsmb
    19:11-21 the Rider in a white horse victorious. Heaven is opened. 
    20:1-6 the thousand years
    20:7-15 Satan’s final defeat 
    21:1-22:5 the final judgment before the great white throne, the new heaven and new earth, the new Jerusalem, the river of life 

22:6-21 Final words 
    22:6-11 Jesus is coming soon 
    22:12-17 a final warning and encouragement 
    22:18-21 a warning about adding to or shortening the prophecy of the book

5. From your first reading of Revelation, what would you say the book is about? What is its major message, or what are its chief themes?

Jesus knows and is with His people   

God rules.  He is glorious

There is spiritual war
Jesus has won through the cross

God will judge

Everything will be all right st the end   

 

ESV Study Bible 

1. Through his sacrificial death, Jesus Christ has conquered Satan, the accuser, and has ransomed people from every nation to become a kingdom of priests, gladly serving in God’s presence.
1:5, 18; 5:5–10; 12:1–11
2. Jesus Christ is present among his churches on earth through his Holy Spirit, and he knows their trials, triumphs, and failures.
1:12–3:22
3. World history, including its woes and disasters, is firmly in the control of Jesus, the victorious Lamb.
5:1–8:1
4. God is presently restraining his own wrath and his enemies’ efforts to destroy the church as he patiently gathers his redeemed people through the testimony that his suffering people proclaim about Jesus.
6:5–11; 7:1–3; 8:6–12; 9:4–6, 18; 11:3–7; 12:6, 13–17
5. Present disasters (war, drought, famine, epidemic disease), though limited in scope by God’s restraint, are foreshadows and warnings of escalating judgments to come.
6:3–17; 8:6–13; 11:13; 16:1–21; 20:11–15
6. By maintaining their faithful testimony to the death, believers in Jesus will conquer both the dragon and the beast. The martyrs’ victory, now hidden, will be manifest in their vindication at Christ’s return.
2:10–11, 26–29; 3:11–13; 6:9–11; 7:9–17; 11:7–12, 17–18; 12:10–11; 14:1–5; 15:2–4; 20:4–6
7. Satan attacks the church’s perseverance and purity through violent persecution, through deceptive teaching, and through affluence and sensual pleasure.
2:1–3:22; 13:1–18; 17:1–18:24
8. At the end of the age, the church’s opponents will intensify persecution, but Jesus, the triumphant Word of God, will defeat and destroy all his enemies; the old heaven and earth, stained by sin and suffering, will be replaced by the new heaven and earth; and the church will be presented as a bride in luminous purity to her husband, the Lamb.
16:12–16; 19:11–21; 20:7–22:5