Why Should We Study Revelation? (Revelation 1:1-3)

VIDEO 

Why Should We Study Revelation? (Revelation 1:1-3)

GIST: Studying Revelation should not be a fight or a riddle; it is meant to bless us and warn us while revealing Jesus to us.

“1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

Several years ago, I walked our youth group through the Gospel of John. As we approached the final chapters of what ended up being a three-year adventure, I asked our little group to pray about where they would like to go next. They ended up asking to study the letters of John. So we did. And...that is where I had every intention of departing from the Apostle of love (for then, at least). However, when I posed the same question after finishing John 3, Hannah responded with, "Didn't John write Revelation, too?". She knew the answer… So we dove prayerfully into this challenging text together, and it was great. That journey ended right as I was becoming your pastor. It was a really rewarding experience, and I have always wanted to walk through the book as a whole church because I know there are a lot of questions and misconceptions… but I had no intention of coming to it this fall. That is, until several people came to be, not realizing there had been others, asking if we could. I’m here to serve you guys for Jesus…so here we go ☺️.  

Now, why was I hesitant to teach this book? Well, maybe for the same reasons you clicked on this link. The book of Revelation tends to spark curiosity and controversy. Some love to discuss it's meaning while others cringe at its complexity.

For me, it brings back memories of being a teenager and sitting next to fierce debates or passionate discussions...that I didn't understand at all. Terms like "The Great White Throne of Judgment" or "The Four Horsemen" meant very little to me...and I knew everyone expected me to just know this stuff because I was the missionary kid. See, the Left Behind series really took off when I was about 10. Then, the movies came out when I was a teenager. So, many of my peers were really intrigued by the "what's", and "when's", and "who's". Then, I befriended several budding scholars in college who plagued me with questions about my millennial view (which, I now know has nothing to do with Y2K) and my interpretive stance--was I a preterist, idealist, historicist, or dispensationalist. I had no idea what they were talking about (and lacked the humility to admit this at the time).

Though I grew up in a house that valued the Scripture, and I read my Bible, I had never actually studied Revelation. In fact, I'd never really read it. I'm not a fast reader. Despite being an English teacher, I really struggle with distractibility, so it took me about six years to get through the "reading chart" in the back of my first Study Bible. Because of that, I was in my early twenties before I even got to it in my personal quiet time. 

I know this is much longer than my typical introduction. So, why am I going into all of this? Because I really think there are a lot of other people out there who approach the book just like I did. We've heard so much noise, it just seems too confusing to mess with. But, it shouldn't. I will not claim for a second to be a scholar or expert on all things Revelation. In so many ways, I'm still that kid who was too embarrassed to admit he had never read the whole book. However, I do not want confusion, apprehension, or even arrogance to stop anyone from seeing the great messages of salvation, redemption, judgement, and heaven found in this God-inspired revelation. 

So, for this first lesson, I don't want to get too far into the text. I just want to establish our goal here a bit. Let's look at it like this: Studying Revelation should not be a fight or a riddle; it is meant to bless us and warn us while revealing Jesus to us.

First→ 

I. What A Study Of Revelation Cannot Be

1. A Fight

Remember those questions my college friends asked me? The answers to those questions have been the source of heated arguments amongst Christians far too often. This... is terrible. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul condemns the church for suing each other in front of nonbelievers. Not only was this in bad form, but it presented an awful testimony to the world. Is this Christian love? Nope. Here's the deal; there are several interpretive views of Revelation. Several are held to be orthodox (aka--not heretical). I will not be covering them in detail. Though I’m sure I could be classified as an adherent to one of those positions, I'm not covering them because doing so, in this context, often misses the forest for the trees. Or maybe it's more like missing the forest because of giant, imposing, man-made road-signs which were designed to help you see that there's a forest.

Either way, the big issue we need to remember is all of these views interpret the core meaning of Revelation the same. Full disclosure: as entertaining as the Left Behind series is, I do not believe that way of interpreting Revelation is faithful to the text. Nonetheless, even that perspective sees Jesus as the center of the entire letter.The differences, primarily, are found in how they interpret specific events and chronology. Therefore, fighting over which one is most right is meaningless. Besides, to fight over details Jesus explicitly said we would not know (Matthew 24:36 ...more on this in a second) is, plainly, not Christ-like. 

2. A Riddle

A lot of us like solving problems. Crime-based dramas have made a killing (pun-intended ☺️) dragging us through neat 45-minute mysteries each week. We like “figuring things out”. It's in our blood, so we approach Revelation like this. Unfortunately, that's not the point. Look at the first two verses again, I'm going to add some bold letters to emphasize a few things: “1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw." 

These opening verses tell us that the book is a revelation. The Greek word there is apokalypsis, which means to lay bare, reveal, or expose. We will see as we go through the book, some of the imagery is easier to interpret than others. Nonetheless, the intention was never to be some form of hidden clues about specific people and chronology. Much of what is lost on us, wouldn’t have been as tricky to the original audience which was steep in the Old Testament imagery this letter employs. We have to cling to this. In its original context, this letter was meant to encourage and warn the early Church. If it was cloaked with messages only our 21st century context could make sense of… it wouldn’t have been very encouraging. 

Also, as I alluded to earlier, Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24:36, “36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” So, it is safe to say He did not inspire John to write a book that was a set of hidden clues to help us figure something out He explicitly said...we would not figure out. 

This dives into a lot of what makes this book so needlessly controversial, and we'll hit more specifics as we move through our study. For now, I will just say this. One of the major problems with trying to read Revelation chronologically, and, therefore, solve for the specifics of "when", is trying to figure out where you are in that chronology. Most often, this results in a reading which limits Revelation to the specifics of your time period (i.e. in the 1940's Hitler was the antichrist). This isn’t a book meant to inspire academic arguments. So→  

II. What A Study Of Revelation Should Be

1. A Blessing and Warning to Us

The first of seven blessings pronounced in the book comes right out of the gate, and it shines a huge light on the significance of the book. Look again at verse 3→ “3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”

We're blessed by reading and hearing these words. If that's not a reason to teach through Revelation, I don't know what is! Let's not miss the blessing here; let's seek to read and understand this gift God has given us. 

We're blessed by keeping His Word. We are called to not only read, but obey these words. Remember, Revelation is not a riddle to be solved, it is an image of Jesus Christ packed with very practical lessons--not least of which being the necessity of salvation and living a life devoted to Jesus. We should approach this text expecting to learn from Him, and be changed. This is not somehow a "less Biblical" portion of Scripture. This, too, is the Word of God.

We're warned that time is short. The first thought that comes into most people's minds about Revelation is "end times". And that's not inaccurate. Jesus is telling us about the end of the world. However, this is not so we can “figure out the time frame”, but rather so that we can be ready and be about helping others get ready.

2. A Revealing of Jesus for Us

     Lastly, we cannot forget the real subject here. All of Scripture is about Jesus, and He remains the true focus of Revelation. I remember reading through Revelation for the first time years ago. I had just gotten my journaling Bible, and was excited to read through the book without any study notes to distract me. I didn't want to be redirected; I just wanted to see the text more like the original readers would have (even though I lacked almost all the cultural experiences they brought to the table). At the end, I was most struck by how much of the book described Jesus being worshiped. The "horsemen" and "millennium" were sidenotes in a much bigger message. The whole shebang centers around Jesus and His victory over sin. Let's not miss Him.

We had a lot to talk through today, so let me just hit our gist statement as our→ 

TAKEAWAY

Studying Revelation should not be a fight or a riddle; it is meant to bless us and warn us while revealing Jesus to us.

So, here’s my challenge for you. Read the letter looking for Jesus.