Revelation

September 22, 2023

Revelation

This week we finished Revelation and is our last week in this blog series. The purpose of the book is told in the book “to reveal tings that must shortly come to pass.” (Rev 1:1).

The key verse of the book is Revelation 1:5b-6: “to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.”

The apostle John is ‘in the Spirit” and receives a message from Jesus addressed to the seven churches of Asia that were facing persecution. The letter to each church states the good the church is doing, and then discusses areas where the church needs improvement, except for the church of Philadelphia which was having no problems.

The number seven represents wholeness; thus the seven churches is a representation of all the churches at the time, and in the future. The book is applicable to us now.

Chapters 4-22 are the visions that John sees while he is “in the Spirit.” As Stephen Witmer states in his Bible study about revelation, “Through its pervasive allusions to the Old Testament, Revelation demonstrates that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment and climax of history. Believers live after Jesus’ first coming, suffering as he suffered, but full of hope because of his atoning death and their assurance of his future, victorious return. The entire book strains forward to the new heaven and new earth.” This is evidenced in Revelation 21:1-7, “Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”^[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’^[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

⁶ He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. ⁷ Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. ⁸ But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

To summarize: Revelation is about Jesus, and his final return as the King of Kings. His plan is to restore the people who believe in Him into a new creation. He encourages those who believe to endure the difficulties, because eternal life with Him will be amazing.

Revelation is a difficult book to read and understand. I challenge you to dig deeper and do a study. By doing a study, you may feel like this book is not as intimidating as you once thought.

I pray you received your blessing by reading Revelation.

Please let me know if you have any prayer requests.