When I was a boy I loved to visit my grandmother, partly for her chicken and dumplings, and partly for her magazines. Grandma knew I was a voracious reader, so she would save old copies of National Geographic and Life magazines, and I could spend hours blissfully browsing through back issues.
When I was about ten, however, I suffered a traumatic experience on one such visit. While sifting through a stack of Grandma’s magazines I stumbled across some X-rated material. No, no, it wasn’t sexual material – Grandma wasn’t hoarding old copies of Playboy, or even Playgirl – it was explicit RELIGIOUS material: graphic drawings of awful images.
• People screaming in agony with horrible boils
• Hail and fire mixed with blood falling from the sky, incinerating millions of victims
• Menacing monsters that were a hideous hybrid of leopards, lions, and bears
That’s stout stuff for a ten-year-old! Even worse, I learned these images came directly from the Bible – the BIBLE! The inspired, infallible, authoritative B-I-B-L-E I was taught every Sunday to cherish and respect! Can you imagine what nightmares can be generated in a child by intense images of burning sulfur and a bottomless pit? I was terrified!
Looking back, my guess is that Grandma had been visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses. But I have since learned my experience was not an isolated one. Back in 2012, after I announced to my congregation that we would be going through a series on the book of Revelation, a young woman caught me in the hallway and announced in no uncertain tones that she would NOT participate because she had read Revelation once and it frightened her so much she had vowed never to read it again!
I suppose those experiences are a backhanded testimony to the enduring power of this book. Revelation packs a wallop because it is intended to have an impact.
Along the way, however, I learned four things about Revelation that enabled me to stop fearing, and start loving, the book. Curiously, all four are found in the first three verses:
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
Body: In reverse order of importance, here are the concepts that changed my perspective. For the sake of time I will only touch on these briefly, but you will find them developed more fully in the handout we have provided you.
IV. REVELATION WAS WRITTEN FOR US – BUT IT WAS NOT WRITTEN TO US.
This is a distinction that is true of much of the New Testament, but one that we don’t make often enough. For example, when we are reading Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, or the Thessalonians, or to Timothy or Titus, we reading someone else’s mail, and that fact should guide how we interpret those books.
The phrases “the time is near” and “what must soon take place” indicate Revelation was directed to a first century audience (see 22:6). So, if we wish to know what it MEANS, we must first ask what it MEANT. Revelation was written to a suffering people (1:9, 6:9-11, etc.).
Suppose you are invited to join a new religion with the following sales pitch: “Join us, become a Christ-follower, and you’ll be a member of a despised, illegal group. By the way, our Founder was a convicted criminal who received the death penalty, and he has promised his followers that they, too, may suffer a horrible death on a cross.” Would you rush to sign up for that offer? Now suppose you did, and sure enough the persecution begins. Several of your new-found friends have their heads cut off, and you are next in line for the chopping block when you are offered a stark choice: renounce Jesus, or die. What would it take in order to remain faithful in that situation? You would have to be absolutely confident of three things:
a. Jesus truly is Lord;
b. Your suffering really is worth enduring, because;
c. You will ultimately be rewarded – even if you die – and Christians will be victorious!
KEY POINT: This is the true meaning of Revelation 2:10 “Be thou faithful until death and I will give thee a crown of life”! You’ll note that like any good Church of Christ kid I grew up memorizing from the King James Version. And, like any good Church of Christ kid, I understood that verse to mean “Once saved is not necessarily always saved, so after you’re baptized you’d better straighten up and fly right and never sin again until you draw your last breath, buster!”
What Revelation 2:10 is actually saying is, “Don’t renounce Jesus, even if they kill you, because martyrs receive an eternal reward.”
III. REVELATION IS AN IMMERSIVE SENSORY EXPERIENCE. The phrases “show his servants” (verse 1) and “everything he saw” (verse 2) are certainly borne out throughout the book. The words “see,” “I saw,” “I looked,” or “I watched” appear 49 times; “I heard” appears 27 times; even the sense of taste is engaged (10:9-10)!
The first word of the book is apokalypsis, which means a “revelation, disclosure, uncovering.” John makes it clear he is viewing a vision (9:17). Think of Revelation as an IMAX of the imagination, a divine drama played out on a breathtaking scale. It is the nature of apocalyptic literature (see Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah) to use vivid, memorable visuals to communicate spiritual realities. The book itself explains it is using symbolic imagery (1:20, 12:9, 13:18, 17:9, 17:18, 19:9).
KEY POINT: We don’t have to take Revelation LITERALLY in order to take it SERIOUSLY!
For example, when we get to heaven – suppose you discover that the streets aren’t literally made of gold (as pictured in the book). Will you stomp into the throne room of God and complain to management? Or will you realize what Revelation was trying to tell us all along is that our heavenly home is going to be so much more wonderful than our earthly existence that the most precious metal in this world is like pavement by comparison.
This doesn’t mean I believe hell is actually air conditioned – it’s just that Revelation pushes human language to the limits in an effort to communicate infinite realities to finite minds.
II. READING REVELATION BRINGS A BLESSING. Verse 3 “blessed…..blessed”
In fact, Revelation contains eight such beatitudes (1:3, 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, 22:14). It is a book of blessing! Revelation IS terrifying – but only for those who find themselves on the wrong side of the Lamb (6:16). For faithful disciples, this is the book that demonstrates the reality behind our worship; shows Christ’s constant concern for his church; exposes evil; provides hope for a persecuted people; and pictures the eternal reward that awaits us. Those are blessings indeed!
KEY POINT: Don’t deprive your congregation of those blessings – preach/teach the book!
I. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING REVELATION REVEALS IS THE GLORIFIED CHRIST! Verse 1 “The revelation of Jesus Christ” is true in three senses:
First, Jesus sent it (22:16);
Second, it contains his “testimony” (see 1:10);
Third: Above all, Revelation demonstrates Christ’s eternal splendor!
Any book that reveals the last words of Jesus should be precious to Christ-followers! This book, however, reveals much more than his message: it completes the picture of Jesus begun in the gospels by fully revealing his divine might and majesty that was largely hidden while he was on earth. The contrast between the humble Son of Man and the resplendent heavenly Christ is staggering.
One example may suffice: in the gospels, the apostle John is described as leaning against the chest of Jesus (John 13:23-25), a reflection of the obvious closeness between them (see Luke 9:28). In the Revelation, however, when the same apostle encounters the glorified Jesus in all his fierce, fiery holiness (1:12-16), John is so overwhelmed that he falls to the ground like a dead man (1:17). Truly “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (5:12).
Conclusion: Look, I can’t claim I understand every detail of the text, but the message of the book is crystal clear! Revelation demonstrates Jesus is worth living for – and if necessary, he is worth dying for – because doing so places us on the winning side of the great cosmic conflict between good & evil now raging in the universe.
STORY: Seminary students in gym playing basketball saw the school’s custodian, an elderly man, taking a break in the bleachers, reading his Bible, reading the book of Revelation. “Do you need any help with that?” “No, I understand it just fine.” “You do? What does it mean, then?” they asked patronizingly. “God’s gonna win, boys,” said the old man, “God’s gonna win.”
Victory is already assured: one day Christ will come for his people, and we will reign with him, IF we will exercise “patient endurance and faithfulness” (13:10, 14:12, 17:14; see 2:3, 2:19, 3:10, 5:9) and “hold on” to our faith (2:25, 3:11, 12:17, 19:10), thus “overcoming” (2:7, 2:11, 2:17, 3:5, 3:12, 3:21, 12:11, 21:7) opposition and the temptation to give up. “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
[“See” or “I saw” – 1:12, 1:12, 1:17, 1:19, 1:20, 5:1, 5:2, 5:6, 6:9, 7:1, 7:2, 8:2, 9:1, 9:17, 10:1, 10:5, 13:1, 13:2, 13:11, 14:6, 15:1, 15:2, 16:13, 17:3, 17:6, 18:1, 19:11, 19:17, 19:19, 20:1, 20:4, 20:4, 20:11, 20:12, 21:1, 21:2, 22:8. “I looked” – 4:1, 5:11, 6:2, 6:5, 6:8, 7:9, 14:1, 14:14, 15:5. “I watched” – 6:1, 6:12, 8:13. “I heard” – 1:10, 5:11, 5:13, 6:1, 6:3, 6:5, 6:6, 6:7, 7:4, 8:13, 9:13, 9:16, 10:3, 10:8, 12:10, 14:2, 14:2, 14:13, 16:1, 16:5, 16:7, 18:4, 19:1, 19:6, 21:3, 22:8, 22:8.]
Dan Williams