The Revelation Of Jesus Christ Is For You!

Let's take our Bibles now and turn to Revelation chapter 1. Would you join with me in prayer? Let's ask God to teach us this morning from His Word. God of heaven, our Father, we would ask now that your Spirit would come now and teach us these truths of our Lord Jesus, that we might find joy. We're embarking on this study, Father, one that many have done before.

We do so with humility. We ask that you would teach us. We pray that we would approach this cautiously. And yet, Father, with the expectation that you will accomplish things in our lives, that you will bless us. Give us that attitude, we pray, as we look at these few verses to begin with this morning. And Lord, we pray that whatever happens as a result of our study, we go to the praise and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our King, and the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the earth.

We pray this now in His name. Amen. Listen to these words for a moment. but they come from the prologue of a book called The Killer Angels. This is the story of the Battle of Gettysburg, told from the viewpoints of Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet and some of the other men who fought there. Stephen Crane once said that he wrote The Red Badge of Courage because reading cold history was not enough.

He wanted to know what it was like to be there, what the weather was like, what the men's faces looked like. in order to live it, he had to write it. This book was written for much the same reason That fascinating to me By those two paragraphs you already know something about the author You already know something about why he needed to write this book. And it also gives you a hint, if it doesn't tell you right out, what the book is about, all in the few words of this little prologue.

Such are the first three verses of the book of Revelation. They're a prologue to this great and mighty book. It gets you ready for the rest of the book. It says something about the author. It says something about how it got to you. It says something about what you should gain from it.

And in a few words, this prologue tells you that this book of wild visions and crazy images is a particular kind of a book and that it is intended to be understood by you. Let's look at these first three verses. this prologue to the book of Revelation. 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, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 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. The revelation of Jesus Christ is for you. Now we just want to look at these three verses.

This sets us up to begin the study of the book. It tells us, like I just mentioned, it's a prologue. It tells us something about the author, about the book, where it came from, what it's intended to do. and I think if we concentrate on this, it'll give us the door, open the door to this book by giving us the right way of approach. What do we need to understand?

First of all, you need to understand that this is a revelation. The book is called The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ. That's how it should read. The revelation is a translation of that word apocalypse. We usually translate that word as revelation. That is a revealing of something Now you remember from last week that this word has the idea of removing the veil or to fully disclose or to reveal As you pull back the covers as you remove the veil what was hidden behind it is now disclosed.

It is now revealed. And this book intends to reveal something to us that we have not seen before. That's why it's called the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's telling us some things that we haven't seen before. Now, of course, most everyone sees this as a revelation of what's going to happen in the, quote-unquote, the end times. The end times, that is, this period of time right before Jesus comes back.

And that is what it's supposed to do. It is supposed to reveal that, which we haven't seen before. It's supposed to reveal some things about the end that we haven't seen before. Some things that we haven't seen before and some detail that we have not seen before. I mean, this isn't the first word about the end. Jesus talks about it in Matthew 24.

We find talk about it in the Old Testament. But it reveals it to us in a way that hasn't been revealed before. Let me give you an example. Let's look at Revelation chapter 19. Why don't you look at Revelation 19? Revelation 19, verse 11.

And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Now, as I look at this, one phrase pops out to me immediately. one phrase, you know what it is? It he will rule them with a rod of iron Now why does that pop out to me It pops out to me because I studied years ago and preached on the second psalm That comes straight out of the second psalm Now the second psalm is a psalm written about Solomon. It's a psalm about this king is going to come and he's going to rule the nations and he's going to rule them with a rod of iron and smash them like pieces of pottery.

But what happened is Solomon didn't fulfill that. And so what happens is everyone starts looking for a king that will fulfill the description of that. Now we see exactly and in great detail how that psalm could possibly be true. How could it possibly be true? Well, because there is coming a one who is a descendant of David, who is going to come, now we know, from heaven, and he's going to rule the nations with a rod of iron.

The real meaning now is uncovered. We haven't seen that kind of detail before. It doesn't come out in Psalm 2. And so, in one way, it intends to reveal something to us that we've not seen before. For example, the end of the age. But that's not all.

It also brings into full view, for example, the right of Christ to rule the nations. It tells us why Jesus has the right to rule the nations. Something that we haven't seen before. We say, well, he has the right to rule the nations because Jesus is God. And he has the power. But that's not what the book of Revelation reveals right off.

Look at Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. I'm going to start reading in verse 1. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered. So that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. Now, okay, he sets this up. There's this lion, sign of power.

This lion of Judah, descendant of David. Okay? He has what? He has conquered. But let's keep reading. And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals.

For you were, what? You were slain. And by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God. And they shall reign on the earth. How does Jesus have the right to reign?

Because he died. That's not what you're expecting. The Lion of Judah has conquered, and he turns and he looks, and what does he see? A lamb that had been slain. It doesn't make any sense. It does when you understand what he's saying.

He says he's conquered by his blood. He's conquered by the cross. He has the right to rule because he has purchased men from every tribe and every nation and every language. It's not through the bare exercise of power, but through the death of the lamb that the lion has conquered. I'm not expecting that. You see, it's a revelation of that.

But it not only unveils the end, it doesn't only unveil everything about Christ and his right to rule the nations. It unveils the nature of the church's battle in this age. In this age. Now, I'm going to confess something to you right now. All right? I'm going to try my hardest not to beat this horse. because I have grown up in the tradition that has seen the book of Revelation in this wild way about this wild prophetic things that are going to happen in the end times and I have become convinced that that is not the main thrust of the book of Revelation.

It's part of it and it's a major part of it but it's also about life now. the book of Revelation is addressed to us now and what it describes there is our battle now for example it unveils the nature of our battles in this age Turn to Revelation chapter 17 And I confessing that to you because I don want to get so tight up with reacting against all this other stuff that I miss some of what it's for. All right. But look at Revelation for a moment.

Revelation chapter 17. Let's read the first six verses. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of those of whose sexual immorality that dwells on earth have become drunk.

And he carried me away and disappeared into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. This is an oppressive system. It's the oppressive system of that age, the Roman Empire. And that empire gets drunk on the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. So, we are to resist with perseverance. We are to resist with perseverance.

Now, even though I believe that he's originally talking about Rome, that still has application to us today. and we'll see that when we come there. Great application to us today. In fact, when you read the next part, look at what else he says about this prostitute. Turn over to chapter 18, verse 4. Notice, again, it's revealing, it's disclosing, it's unveiling by symbols the battle that we are waging.

Then another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. We are God people And notice here that the same system with all its power and its riches and comforts can seduce God people And we are called to come out of Babylon.

To come out. Or you'll share with her in their judgment. What is he saying here? He's unveiling the nature of the church's battle. And that is part of the battle is not just this great battle of martyrdom against the powers of this age, it's also a battle against the seductions of the comforts and the riches and all the good things that those powers can produce.

Come out. Don't be seduced by all the entertainment. Don't be seduced by all the things you can get. because to be seduced into materialistic living will be to share in the judgment of that great prostitute. Now, I don't know about you, but as I've read and as I've thought, to me, this has become incredibly convicting. How much have I been seduced by the American dream?

How much have I been seduced to pursue good times and comforts and material things. How much have I been seduced? See, it unveils. Personally, can I say this personally, as I've thought about this and I've read about this, I'm thinking, Lord God, you've revealed clearly to me something that I had not seen quite as clear as I do when I read that symbolism.

And so, this is a revelation. It's a revelation about the end times. It's a revelation about our present battles. It's a revelation of Jesus. And this revelation makes things clear by the use of symbols, pictures, and images. All right?

Look at the words that John uses in this prologue. He says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, what? To show to his servants. That's not tell. It's to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. Next phrase, he, that is Jesus, he made it known.

That's an interesting word. It's a word that can mean show by a sign or give or make signs or signals So it not just making it known It making it known by signs or symbols Now one of the best ways of thinking about that is I'll use the word signify because that has the word sign in it, kind of. That's where we get the word signify. It's got the word sign in it.

In other words, you signify something with other than just bare words. you have an image before you. For example, the Lord's Table is a good example of that. All right? It signifies, it makes clear by use of something other than words, what we have in Jesus, doesn't it? On the Lord's Day when we are participating in communion, we have something that signifies to us the forgiveness we have, the new covenant that exists between us and God and so forth.

And so that's kind of the word that he uses here in verse 1. He made it known. That is, he made it known by signs. And John himself says this, that he bore witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. He says, I bore witness to it. And what does he mean by that?

He goes on to say at the end of verse 2, even to all that what? He saw. So this is a revelation that makes things clear by the use of symbols and pictures and images. So by the use of these marvelous pictures, God makes truths clear. Truths that we aren't as familiar with. This is something new.

It's taking the veil away so we see something in a different light. We see it fully disclosed. Friends, you know as I've been thinking about these things and doing reading and just the stuff that I do in preparation, it's becoming clear to me that God never intended this book to be something that was unclear, but to be clear, to make some things absolutely clear.

Now he says this is not just a revelation, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, that of Jesus Christ presents a quandary to us. Now, you say, I never had a quandary with it. Well, let me give it to you then, so you do. All right? This is some of the things that you wrestle with when you're studying the text of Scripture.

It says the revelation of Jesus Christ. It could mean the revelation from Jesus, right? The revelation of Jesus Christ. That could mean the revelation that came from Jesus, right? Can you see that? But it could also mean that it's a revelation about Jesus.

So when you read the revelation of Jesus Christ, what does John mean? does he mean it's a revelation of Jesus in the sense of Jesus is giving it? Or does he mean it's a revelation of Jesus in the sense that it's about Jesus? Hmm. Let's look at this. Notice it is a revelation from Jesus. How do we know that?

I don't know. You know what? Sometimes I think I am so... Sometimes I think I have a skull that's about that big. Because I never saw this before. I am 50, thank you dear, I am 54 years old, okay?

You know, you get to the point in your life where you have to start doing the math, okay? I'm 54 years old, and I never ever saw this phrase, that this revelation of Jesus Christ was given to him from God. Have you ever noticed that? I never did. Your skulls probably aren't as thick as mine. I didn't see that.

So this is a revelation from Jesus because God took this revelation and gave it to Jesus. And so he gave it to what? An angel, and that angel showed John. As we go through the book, you see John meets this angel, and this angel introduces him to this wonderful world of symbols. But it is a revelation from Jesus because it was given to him by God to give away.

So it is from Jesus. That to me is fascinating. You know why? You know, in our Sunday school today, our Sunday school class today, we were talking about how everything that we have, we have what? In Christ, right? The same is true about this revelation.

It's only ours in Christ. God gave it to His Son so He would give it to us Turn over to John 5 This is what occurred to me It occurred to me this morning I really don't like that, when thoughts occur to me on the day I've got to preach a sermon. I want to have it all done and finished, but it wasn't finished until about 40 seconds before I got up here.

Watch this. This is what occurred to me today in my meditations. In John chapter 5, it's in verse 19. So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.

Isn't that great? He gave him this revelation because he loves his son. And he loves us. And he gave us this revelation through Jesus. You can go over to verse 30 of John 5. I can do nothing on my own as I hear I judge.

And my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Jesus is doing the will of his Father in telling us these things. He's doing the will of the one that he loves in order to give us this truth from his Father. His Father gave it to him. He gives it to us. And all that we have, even this book, all that we have, even this disclosing, this unveiling of all these important truths, we only have through the agency of Jesus who died for us and who gave us these things.

So it is a revelation from Jesus, and yet it is also a revelation about Jesus. Because in the compass of these verses, John writes that he bore witness to the Word of God. What is that Word of God? It is the testimony of Jesus Christ. That little and there is something that, it's one of those, and I can't remember the grammatical term, ex-epigetical I think is what it's called, and we use it in our language sometimes we use that and to say this is what I mean by that So when he says I bore witness to the Word of God and what he saying is I bore witness to the Word of God, which is the testimony of Jesus Christ.

John says that everything he saw, the whole book is a testimony regarding Jesus. And so, when we look at the revelation of Jesus, it means both. It is a revelation from Jesus. It is a revelation about Jesus. Now, someone might object and say, but Pastor, you have pounded into our brains that the entire Bible is a revelation of Jesus. That's true.

The entire Old Testament, the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings are about Jesus. The entire New Testament, the Gospels, the Book of Acts, and all the Epistles are about Jesus. That's all true. But Revelation is about Jesus in a special way. In some magnificent ways, the veil is going to be pulled back so that we will see Jesus in ways that we have not seen him before.

And we will see words from him. We will see from him truths that he has not given us before. Now, we will see some things that we have seen before, but in much greater detail and in a way that we haven't seen before. but this book then discloses, unveils things about Jesus and from Jesus that we haven't seen anywhere else in the Scriptures. Now, like we said last week, he borrows so much from the Old Testament, and yet he's going to give us truth from those Old Testament images that we haven't seen before.

And notice that this book unveils and discloses what Jesus began to do, what Jesus continues to do. and what Jesus will finally accomplish. Again, this book is not just about what we typically call the end of the age. Now, I want you to listen to me carefully, and to think carefully with me about some of the things the Apostle John did as he writes these first three verses.

In fact, he does it all the way through this book. But he starts off right away. Now, we read from Daniel chapter 2 on purpose. okay of course we always read from the text of scripture on purpose here but there's a reason why i chose daniel chapter 2 i want you to turn back there real just for a moment keep your keep your finger here because we got to flip back and forth a little bit Daniel chapter 2 John purposely picks up the mantle of a prophet here.

Notice he says this is a prophecy. He picks up the mantle of a prophet. In particular, he picks up the mantle of the prophet Daniel. Daniel is going to appear the most in this book. In the book of Revelation, John is going to use a lot of what Daniel has said and is going to tell us what Daniel meant. And he draws a lot of images from the book of Daniel, one of those apocalyptic books.

We talked about this last week, remember. One of those apocalyptic books that reveals truth through the use of symbols and pictures. Now notice that this is the same kind of prophecy as Daniel. Look at Daniel 2, verse 27. Daniel answered the king and said, No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked.

But there is a God in heaven who reveals mystery. It's like Daniel because there's a God in heaven who reveals the apocalypse, the mystery, to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you not see that? So it is God who reveals this. He does it here in Daniel. He does it through Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Revelation.

God reveals it to his son. note as well that it's like Daniel in that it uses images now we didn't go all the way through this chapter I was tempted to read the whole chapter but what what you see here is this picture of this great statue his head is gold shoulders and middle parts silver and then bronze or iron, and then a mixture of iron and clay and the feet. All right? So it's this picture, and Daniel interprets this as gold is your kingdom, then there's these four successive kingdoms that come after you, Nebuchadnezzar.

All right? But the point I want to make is he uses images to make the point and symbols. And he uses the same language. Now understand that, okay, like John had a translation of the Old Testament. okay you have a translation of the Old Testament only it's in English John was working with the translation of the Old Testament only it was in Greek because that's the language of the people you know if you go to Chicago today and go to a restaurant on Toohey Avenue called Jack's in Skokie, Illinois.

Skokie, Illinois has a ton of Jewish people living there. And you go into Jack's, this little restaurant on Toohey Avenue in Skokie, and you come up to a Jewish person and say, Speak Hebrew to me. You know what he'd do to you? He'd say, What, are you nuts? I don't know Hebrew. Of course he doesn't know Hebrew.

He lives in America. All right? Hebrew was lost for centuries. Well, the same thing is true in John's day. Most of the Jews did not live in Palestine, didn't know Hebrew, but they knew the universal language of that day, which was Greek. And so John had a Greek translation of the Bible.

Now here's what I want you to see. In Revelation 1, John says, he made it known, I'm in verse 1, let's see, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the thing that must soon take place, he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John. You look back at Daniel chapter 2, and he uses the same word here. But there is a God, I'm in verse 20, there is a God in heaven who reveals mystery, and he has made it known, and he uses that exact same word.

He has made it known, although in our English, in Revelation 1, has to show. So to be consistent, we'd say, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mystery, and he has shown to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. He picks up that same phraseology. Jesus, or God gave him to show, not to King Nebuchadnezzar here, but to his servants, to show him.

But here's what's interesting. Notice what Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar. To King Nebuchadnezzar, what will be, Okay? He has shown to his servants the thing that must soon take place, or the things that must be. Same word there, it doesn't come out in the English. Only Daniel says, in the latter days, and John says, that which must soon take place.

Totally different. Not the latter days, but what's going to soon take place. Look at the end of verse 3 here. For the time is near. John purposely changes that The latter times have arrived Daniel saw the latter times John is saying they're here. They've arrived.

The end has started. It's been inaugurated in God's work through Jesus. By the way, there's another clue, and I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but there's another clue that John intended this whole book to also describe not just the future, but the age in which we live. Look at Daniel chapter 12, verse 9. Daniel chapter 12. Again, after one of those visions and things.

If you look at the book of Daniel, the first six is pretty historical. The first six chapters, but from 7 through 12, it's all of this apocalyptic visionary stuff. Now look at Daniel 12, verse 9. he said, go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Alright? So Daniel, all these visions and stuff, seal them up. They're for the time of the end.

Okay? Now, look over at Revelation 22. Revelation 22. Revelation 22, verse 10. And he said to me, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near. Boy, that's on purpose, folks.

That's on purpose. Daniel, you, seal yours up for the latter times. John, this is it. It's come. Don't seal it up. It's ready to be read.

You follow? So, this book unveils and discloses what Jesus began to do, continues to do, and will finally accomplish. It's all of those things. What he did is in this book. What he is doing is in this book. And what he will yet do is in this book.

So, he's going to tell you what God has already accomplished in Christ, what God is accomplishing in Christ, and what God must yet accomplish in Christ. All of that are in this book. All right? So, we have to understand this is a revelation. But please notice understand that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ for you This is my burden this morning This book is for you.

Do you see why God gave this prophecy to Jesus? Look at verse 1. Here's why He gave it to us, to Jesus. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave Him to what? To show to His servants. That's you and me.

To show to his servants, to show you. This book was never intended to be the sole province of some egg-headed Bible scholars who can finally unlock all the secrets and tell you all the horrible things that are yet to come. That wasn't the intention. God gave it to you and for your understanding. And, note, Jesus gives this book to you so that you will experience his blessing.

Look at verse 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. Blessed. This blessedness is a deep-seated sense of well-being. It's a consistent, joyful outlook. It's a sense of deep well-being.

God intended this book to produce that sense of well-being, that sense of joy, that deep-seated sense of satisfaction. That's all conveyed in this word blessed. God intended this book to produce that well-being, to produce that joy. Many people walk away from this book with anything but a blessing. Anything but a blessing. You know what someone said to me last week?

Here's what someone said to me. You know what, Pastor Tim? That is the first sermon on the book of Revelation that I have heard that did not terrify me. You're not supposed to read this book so you're terrified. You're supposed to read this book so you're blessed, so you have joy. But that's not what most people do.

Some walk away from this book with the sense that they've figured out everything that's going on on the international scene. Okay? Ah yeah Babylon You know it just a desolate city ruins in Iraq today but it going to come back Did you know Did you know I can remember this from the prophetic conferences we used to have at my church growing up. Did you know, the speaker would always say, did you know that Russia is accumulating this huge cavalry?

And we're going, really? Don't they have tanks and everything? Ah, but what you didn't know is they're developing a weapon that will neutralize all tanks, and they're going to be ahead because the book of Revelation talks about this great horde of cavalry from the north which is going to invade Israel. That's stuff we heard all the time. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I didn't know that Russia was accumulating great cavalry. Well, they weren't. Did you know that all the license plates in Jerusalem are starting with the 666. Oh! Did you know that limestone is being quarried in Indiana today to build the temple? That's all the stuff.

And instead of blessing, people are walking away with these big heads, you know, like, wow, I know really what's going on. My unchristian friends, they don't know what's going on in the world, but I do. All right? Others think they got it together because it's proven their eschatological viewpoint. Now, eschatology is the doctrine of last things. Eschatological, you know, dealing with the last things, okay?

You're going to be exposed to these words. Learn them. Eschatology, I should... Oh, I should say, repeat after me. No. And so they walk away saying, I've got it figured out.

I'm a pre-trib, pre-mill. And the other guy says, no, you're not. The book of Revelation is clearly post-tribulation, post-tribulation rapture. And other people go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not pre-trib. You're not post-trib.

There's no trib. All right? And so we get that. I used to walk away from teaching this book completely disappointed. In 1960s, I'll tell you what. In 1967, the summer before my seventh grade year in grade school, okay?

The summer before I was to enter the seventh grade, you know what happened in the summer 1967, the Six-Day War, where Israel finally got Jerusalem. Israel just beat the living daylights out of Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. Remember that? Most of you don't remember that. Some of us are old enough to remember 1967. And Israel got, you know, that's when they got the peninsula, the Sinai Peninsula.

They just beat the Egyptians out of the Sinai Peninsula. They got the Golden Heights. They just slapped the Syrians around, and they got all of Jerusalem. And we were all hearing, oh, Jesus is going to come back. He's going to come back. He's going to come back in a year, because the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled.

And everyone's going, yes, Jesus is coming back. And I am really disappointed, because I am in seventh grade, and I haven't even kissed a girl yet. you laugh but that's what I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm not ready yet I haven't even kissed a girl this is terrible news all right but I'm not walking away from this thinking blessing and joy right I'm disappointed see that's a lot of what people do with this book they don't go after it for a blessing. They don't go after this book to be blessed.

They go after this book for some wacky reasons or they don't approach it as, oh, wow, I love Jesus. I can't wait for him to come back. And, wow, I've got to be prepared for the battle that we're raging that this book talks about. We don't do that. But you notice here, though, and this is very, very important, for you to receive the blessing of this book, you are responsible to do certain things.

You see what it is? To read it and to obey it. Now, reading it is necessary to get to know its contents. Now, the ESV says read it aloud. That says something about the way it was back then. You've got to remember, there were no books back then.

Everything was hand-copied. there was no printing presses, so people did not own books. So when the book of Revelation arrived and it was sent to those seven churches mentioned that we talked about last week It arrived in Ephesus and then probably went on to Smyrna and then to Pergamum and then to Thyatira and probably made the rounds. When this arrived, the church would gather and it would be read to them.

When a gospel would arrive at a congregation, the church would gather together and they would read it. All right? Because, number one, you didn't have books or printing presses, so if the church had copies of it, you didn't have a copy. The church had it, but you didn't. That was too hard and much too expensive to copy it out for everybody. So the church had it, and you would read it out loud.

And the second thing is, most of the Christians were slaves. They didn't know how to read. A lot of them didn't know how to read. And so they would have to listen. So when he says read it aloud, he's giving us an idea of what happened. This letter arrived, and it was read to the congregation.

At least for us, it means this. We need to read it. Read it. Read this book and become familiar with its content. You'll receive a blessing if you first read it. Then, after familiarizing yourself with the contents of the book, you have to hear and obey.

He doesn't just mean hear it. Hear and obey is a way of saying, emphasizing a figure of speech, meaning you need to obey. Hear it, read it, and obey it. And if you read it and if you obey it, God will bless you. You'll have that joy. If you read it and you obey, you'll have that joy.

Now, why should you take those responsibilities so seriously? Because, he says, the time is near. He says to these seven congregations, the events and the people and the trends which I reveal to you are about to commence. So you must know and obey what I have written if you would experience God's blessing. Now, listen. You will experience blessing not because you have a detailed map about what's going to happen in the end times. again that kind of how some of us were God at all You going to be blessed because you going to know all the stuff that going to happen Oh by the way we not even going to be here From chapter 4 on, I was taught, the church isn't even going to be here.

The church is going to be gone. But you'll be blessed because you're going to know all the dirty, rotten stuff that's going to go on earth while you're gone. That doesn't make any sense. You know why it doesn't make any sense? Because he doesn't say, read it and know it. What does he say? read it, and obey it.

Which means there's plenty here for us to obey. And the whole book, not just the first three chapters, the whole book is given to us to obey. Boy, that's incredible. This is addressed to us. Again, turn back to Revelation 18. Please hear again.

Then heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues. For her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back, for she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds. Mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.

And so on. Here is something for us to obey. Come out of her. Don't be a part of Babylon. Don't be seduced by the prostitute. Obey, and you'll be blessed.

You'll be blessed. God revealed this vision so you would obey his command. My friends, look, this book is for you. God intends for you to experience great blessings as you obey this revelation of Jesus Christ. So, we stand at the beginning of the great unveiling of Jesus and his glory, a revelation given to us by Jesus himself. As we learn more about him, as we learn more about our duties in light of his person, may we experience then the blessings that he promised Don see this as merely an intellectual exercise And don approach this as something that finally going to satisfy your curiosity.

Look, banish it from your mind, okay? Don't approach this book now as, oh, finally I get all my questions answered. Don't approach it that way, alright? Rather, this is a gracious revelation given to us for our blessing if we will obey its teachings. That's the door that God has opened up for us now. God help us to study this book now in a way that will bring his blessings upon us and bring us joy, bring us the deep-seated sense of satisfaction in the knowledge of Jesus and in obedience to him.

Father, we anticipate your blessings as we study this book. We anticipate great things from you. As, Lord, this reveals the coming glory of our King who will see justice done on this earth. We expect your blessings as we see unveiled to our sight how we are to respond in the battle in which we are engaged. Father, we're looking for your blessings. We're looking for that blessing as we come to this book to see what you have accomplished in Jesus and what that means for us now.

Would you, Father, give us a spirit not of just getting this book down finally and not even a curious spirit, give us a spirit that says, Lord God, unveil the true meanings of our faith that we may live for you, faithful to you, in expectation of your coming. Grant that, we pray, for the glory of our Lord Jesus. Amen