INTRODUCTION
Most people approach the book of Revelation one of two ways. Either they're fascinated by it — pulling timelines out of every beast and bowl — or they're completely terrified and avoid it altogether. But there's a third way, and it begins with a single Greek word buried in the very first verse.
σημαίνω (sēmainō) — "He made it known" — NASB. But the word's literal meaning is: to communicate by means of signs or symbols. It is the root from which we get the English word "signify." God did not give John a photograph of the future. He gave him a symbol-language.
God chose σημαίνω. God chose to signify. That's not accidental — it's the first hermeneutical key to the entire book.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT GOD "SIGNIFIED" IT? (Revelation 1:1)
• A sign points beyond itself to something real. A road sign is not the city — it directs you toward it.
• The imagery of Revelation is not meant to be decoded like a cipher — it is meant to be felt, believed, and lived
• The great images of Revelation — the beast, the woman, Babylon, the Lamb — are theological portraits, not newspaper headlines
◦ The woman of Revelation 12 is not a literal woman. She represents the church.
◦ Babylon is not literally Babylon. It represents corrupted worldly power in every age.
"He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John" (1:1). The communication chain: God → angel → John → us. Each step involves interpretation, translation, and symbol.
THE WOMAN ON THE BEAST (Revelation 17:1-6)
In the Chelan sermon on Revelation 17, the shock of the passage is captured in John's response: he is astonished (v. 6 — ἐθαύμασα). He sees a woman who looks like the church, dressed in purple and scarlet, but she is drunk with the blood of the saints.
• The symbol: A woman in Revelation consistently represents a community of faith — either true (Revelation 12) or false (Revelation 17)
• The warning: The church can adopt the values, the methods, and the appearance of power while losing its soul
• The astonishment: John's θαῦμα (wonder/astonishment) is a warning to us — we should be astonished, not comfortable, when religion becomes indistinguishable from worldly power
THE ONLY SAFE PLACE: NOT THE CHURCH, BUT JESUS (Revelation 12:1-6)
Revelation 12:1-6 pictures the true church — a woman clothed with the sun, hunted, but protected. The church cannot save you. Only Jesus can. The symbol-language of Revelation is designed to make this point unmistakably clear.
• "Battle buddies" — the church exists as a community to protect and strengthen us, not as a saving institution
Ἐκκλησία (Ekklēsia) — "Called-out ones." The church is not a building or an institution — it is a people called out from the world to live differently, to bear witness to the Lamb.
• The unity of the church is not optional — the dragon's strategy is division (theological, political, racial, cultural)
READING REVELATION AS SYMBOL (Isaiah 40:28)
• Let scripture interpret scripture — Revelation is saturated with Old Testament imagery
• When you encounter a strange image, ask: What emotion is this designed to evoke? What truth is this pointing toward?
• The goal is not to have every symbol mapped out — the goal is to see Jesus more clearly
σημαίνω. God signified it. He chose the language of symbols because symbols work on us differently than propositions. A map of the battle is less moving than a painting of it. Revelation is a painting.
CONCLUSION
The church cannot save you. Revelation makes that unmistakably clear. But Jesus can. And from first word to last, Revelation is the story of the Lamb who was slain and who now reigns. σημαίνω — He is still signifying. Are you reading the signs?