Revelation Lesson 1: The Purpose, the Blessings and the Reminder

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

Many people are terrified of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. They find it hard to read, don’t understand the word pictures that are used, and find it to be confusing. I have known some Christians who have read just about every book of the Bible but Revelation. Many persons who only read the New Testament will find reading the Revelation difficult. But, God put the Revelation here in the books of the Bible for a purpose and for our benefit.

Remember, God does not need the Bible; we do. And God, in His infinite wisdom, penned this book through the Apostle John for us to know things that we need to know to be equipped for the work in the Kingdom of God.

Over the next few months, we will endeavor to go through the Revelation as slowly and as deliberately as possible. We will try to take small chunks, digest them, understand them, and then put it all together so as to understand the whole as best we can. There will always be more to learn. We will never get to the end of a book in the Bible, and that is it. Each time we re-read a passage of scripture, God offers us a new insight into His mysteries and truths.

The Bible ‘ages’ with us; we will understand things in our 20s, that we did not get in our teens, and then see things in our 30s, all from the same passage, and on and on until Jesus comes. The Bible is a ‘living word’ from God, in that we grow with it and it with us.

God is the author of the Revelation, and John the Apostle is the penman. We meet him in Matthew alongside his brother James; they are partners with Peter and Andrew in a fishing business (Matthew 4:18-22). We are now about 65-70 years removed from that initial call of Jesus on their lives, and John is the only apostle alive of the 12 that we see in Acts 1. The others have all been executed for the cause of Jesus, and an attempt was made to kill John as well.

John had an eventful life. He walked and talked with Jesus for 3+ years; he was known as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (he was an earthly friend to the heavenly God); he was entrusted with the care of Jesus’ mother after His death; he wrote 4 other books of the New Testament; and according to history, had an miraculous delivery from death by execution. Finally, he gets to see Heaven and the end of the world like a movie playing before him.

John was arrested in Ephesus and sentenced to death by boiling oil because he was preaching about Jesus. He survived the ordeal and was subsequently sentenced to being in exile on the Isle of Patmos, a small island in the Aegean Sea. Here he sees the Revelation of Jesus Christ and records it for us. We begin our journey here, close to the end of the first century after Jesus.

John has spent the last 70+ years preaching about Jesus, and he has seen some hard things: the death of His Savior and friend; the death of his colleagues; the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Romans; and his own encounters with near death. And now he is about to see the end. And the end is our beginning:

The Purpose, verse 1

What is the purpose of the book of the Revelation? Many would say that it is to confuse us and hurt our brains. It is not. The Revelation is about Jesus. In fact, the book is called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. When we meet Him in the book, He is seen as the Lamb of God (5:6); He is seen as the Lion of Judah (5:5); One worthy of worship (5:11-14); The Righteous Judge (20:11-15); The I Am (1:11); The head of the Lord’s churches (chapters 1-3); The captain of the Lord’s armies; and the King of Israel (19:11).

To be honest, the entire Bible is the Revelation of Jesus; and if we keep that in mind we will understand it a lot more. From Genesis 1:1 (where we are told in John 1 that He is the Creator) all the way to Revelation 22:21, it is all about Jesus. He is our Ark; our sacrifice; our Kinsman Redeemer; our Scapegoat; our Sustainer; our Provider; our Life; our Resurrection; our God; our King; our Master; our Lord; our Friend; our Brother; and on and on we can go. Jesus is the entire story of the Bible. And in the Revelation he is no less the central character. Keep this in mind.

We are going to travel some dark roads in this book. We will see death and destruction on a level that will make 9-11 look like a children’s fairy tale. It will make the 58,000,000 deaths of WW2 look like a small bump in the road, and the rapid succession in which things will happen will leave the people on earth fraught with fear, awe, begging for mercy, and downright angry with God. But in all that we explore, remember that this is the Revelation of Jesus. This will keep us anchored and focused on the task at hand.

The Blessings, verse 3

This is the only book in the Bible where just reading it gives us a blessing. This should be an incentive for us to read this book. Forget about understanding it right off the bat; just read it. If you want multiple blessings, read it often. God incentivized the book of Revelation with a blessing to get us to read it. Let me get in your head a bit more: God intended for you to understand this book. In fact, He has His Holy Spirit in you to help you get it. But it takes work and determination.

Simply read the book, then read it again, then again – and like a puzzle – the pieces will begin to fall into place. But many of us want to understand it before we read it. That is not possible. We know that. Think of your son or daughter coming home from university and telling you they don’t understand the books in a class. The first question you will ask is ‘have you read the book?’

Read the book of Revelation. We need it as Christians and as churches. The first three chapters are addressed to us, the church-age people. The book of Revelation begins with you and me and makes us aware that we are going to be judged by Jesus as to how we ran His churches. Notice I said churches; there is no such thing as a Universal church. The church has always been local.

Notice that each church is addressed as a church at a specific location: the church at Ephesus, Laodicea, Pergamos, etc. Each local church is a visible assembly of saved and baptized persons who have gathered together for worship, edification, and the promotion of the Gospel of Jesus. Each church is headed by Jesus, as we can see in chapter 1-3, as Jesus pronounces blessings and judgments on each church.

Lastly, while these churches do represent dispensations of churches – for instance the church at Laodicea represents the kind of churches that will be dominant nearer to the beginning of the Tribulation – there have been churches like all seven churches throughout the last 2,000 years since the ascension of Jesus.

Once again, I emphasize the importance of simply reading the book of the Revelation. God offers us a blessing just for doing so. Go be blessed by God today.

The Reminder: verses 1, 4

We are reminded twice in the first 4 verses that the things in the Revelation must soon happen. In verse 1 we are told these things must “shortly take place,” and in verse 4 we are told “the time is near.” Wow, you say! It has been 1900+ years since this Revelation was written; John sure got it wrong! These things did not happen soon; and in fact, most of them have not happened yet, so what is this about soon?

Time is relative for us. As an adult, we can look at a week and it does not sound long to us. We promise our children that we will take them to the newest ride at the local amusement park, and it is only a week away for us. But to them a week sounds like forever, so we break it up into sleeps – only 7 sleeps to go. When we are teenagers, being thirty years old is just that, old. But when we get to thirty and see how fast it went by, we do not think it is old.

Time is the same way for God. He is not bound by it. He is the First and the Last; they are the same for Him. He sees time like a chess board. He is above it and can actually see the end of the game even while it is still playing. To God, who is not bound by time and who has no past and no future, 2,000 years is near and soon. We must get the right perspective or we lose context, and then we lose the proper interpretation. Without the right understanding we lose sight, and then we lose our faith.

For us, the things in the Revelation are closer than ever before. Truthfully, they must shortly come to be, and we will begin to see some of the preparations in our time. We have seen so much of the Old Testament fulfilled in the last 100 years that one has to be deliberately blind to deny that all God has said will happen has happened. As such, we should expect everything else to fall into place as well.

Jesus is coming soon; He is coming for His churches, then He will refocus the world on Israel—and in particular, Jerusalem. Then He will show up and judge the nations, set up a new kingdom, and then prepare for a final battle royal with Satan and his cronies. He, Jesus, will destroy Satan and usher in the true New World Order—one of righteousness and Holiness and one that will last forever.

Are you ready? Do you know Jesus as Savior?

Now is not the time to waste; now is the day of salvation. God’s free offer will soon come to an end for many; but for now the grace of God offers you and I salvation paid for in Jesus’ blood. In it you and I are redeemed; our sins are completely and forever washed away, and we are covered in Jesus’ righteousness.

Do you know Jesus? Rather, does Jesus know you?

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

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Zechariah Lesson 35, Chapter 14: 16-21

“And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

“This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. In that day ‘HOLINESS TO THE LORD’ shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.”

They say that all good things will come to an end. This is true for some things but not all.

When we look at books like Zechariah, we get to the end as far as reading or maybe studying is concerned, but there is no end. These prophets spoke of things that are yet to come, so this good thing has not come to an end. As children of God, we need to realize that it is actually the opposite for us. All bad things will come to an end; soon Jesus will return and make all things good and right. He will take away the bad things forever.

Ezekiel 38

During this week of April 2018, we find that the USA and Russia are at odds over Syria. Israel has already attacked Syrian military bases and there is a lot of posturing around war. Well, we know that, according to Ezekiel 38, a great army led by Russia tries to invade Israel. Right now, all of the players in the war except the USA (they are not mentioned as far as we can tell) are in place, and it would seem that the fuse is lit or about to be lit in the Middle East.

We are told in Isaiah 17:1 and in Jeremiah 49: 24-27 that the day is coming when Damascus (in Syria) will be destroyed and left as a ruinous heap. Right now, the armies of Israel, USA and the UK are focused on Syria; and we are not sure what the military action will be, but it is coming.

The Bible tells us the end and the beginning; it tells us the middle and prepares us to see the glory, majesty and power of the Lord in every generation. Our loving God still extends mercy to the whole world. We still live in the age of grace, and the love of God is still evident in the death of His Son for our sins.

The Feast of Tabernacles, verse 16

The war is ended, the total destruction of the armies of the Anti-Christ is complete, and the rest of the world comes to their senses and decides to worship Jesus. It is amazing what it will take for some people to submit to God. But, make no mistake; the whole world, or what is left, will submit to Jesus. I cannot imagine what the earth will look like after 7 years of God’s wrath – multiple earthquakes, falling brimstone and falling meteors, war after war, drought, the oceans and rivers destroyed.

The earth will look like one global, nuclear wasteland. But there will be people; we are not sure how many. Right now, we have about 7,000,000,000 people living on our planet. What percentage will be left is unknown, but it will be way, way less than the current number. It is with this reduced number that Jesus will form the new world.

These people will come to their senses and begin to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. This is the 7^th and final feast that the Jews were required to observe each year. This feast is also called the ‘feast of booths.’

The Jews were required to appear before the Lord three times a year, and this was the final appearance each year. They would build temporary shelters called ‘booths’ and live in Jerusalem. According to Deuteronomy 16:16, they were not to come empty-handed; they were required to bring a gift to the Lord. The feast is celebrated on the 15^th day of the 7^th month (in Sept-Oct) and runs for 7 days. We see this feast celebrated in Nehemiah 8. These people will see Jesus face to face and celebrate with Him.

The Rebellious Remnant, verses 17-19

Some people are just stiff-necked; no matter how hard they get hit, they will refuse to submit to God. There was this guy called Pharaoh in the days of Moses who was the same way. Well, in every generation God has clearly revealed himself in a way that the people of that time can understand. Yet, even when they know for sure that there is a God, the true all-powerful God, they still refuse to submit and obey.

These folks just witnessed the total destruction of one of the world’s largest armies. No doubt the invasion of Israel was on CNN, ABC, NBC, the Drudge Report and all the international channels. These people saw Jesus step out of Heaven; they saw the armies of the world melt before Him. Yet, still they refused to submit. God refuses to let it rain on them, and they suffer drought. On top of the drought, there is also a plague that He sends on them.

Some people will go to Hell looking Jesus in the face as they go.

This is hard for us because we really believe if they could just see Jesus, just look Him in the face and see His love, they will melt and repent. But man is evil to the core, and some would rather burn in Hell than humble themselves before God. We are surrounded by people like this. It is not that they don’t know; they just don’t care and will not, under any circumstances, bow to Jesus. The Bible calls these people fools. Well, fools will exist even in the aftermath of the Tribulation, even after having a front-row seat to the wrath, power and majesty of God. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.

The Holiness of Judah and Jerusalem, verse 21

I am just about finished with the complete reading through the Old Testament, and one of the things that struck me as I read about the nation of Israel and her relationship to the Lord is how often she ran off to worship other gods – gods made of stone and wood, covered in gold and silver, gods that could not hear, walk, talk, or act on their behalf. They would sacrifice their firstborn children to a false god rather than dedicate them to the true and living God.

But, in the last few verses of the book of Zechariah, all that is gone. That foolishness and rebellion is passed. In the nation of Israel and, in particular, the areas of Judah and especially in Jerusalem, there is no question as to who God is. Jesus is worshipped as God, He is the unquestioned leader of the world, and holiness is the standard of operations in the new global government, to the very bowls used at the altar.

Oh yes, there is an altar again in Jerusalem. There is a new Temple and worship that goes on like it did in the Old Testament. We are told at the end of verse 21 that there are sacrifices again in Jerusalem. People will be using the pots for the meat, to cook in the pots when they come to Jerusalem.

There is a lot about the Jerusalem that Jesus rules that make us rub our heads. But what is a fact is that Jesus will rule the world and, even with Him being seen, there will be rebellious persons and maybe even entire nations who will not come to honor Him. The world will begin to have a time of peace like it has never known before, and righteousness will be the predominant driving force.

There will be lots of work to do for those of us that have come through the church age. We, the Bible tells us in Revelation 1:6—He has made us to be ‘kings and priests,’ having washed us in His blood, to God the Father. There will be work in the Kingdom, the work of governance from Jerusalem to the uttermost ends of the earth. Without war, the population of the world will begin to grow very quickly, and there will be people to manage and countries to rule for about 1,000 years.

Can you imagine what 1,000 years of Holiness will look like? We can’t imagine that for a day, furthermore, a millennium.

All around us there are prophecies being fulfilled, and the pieces of God’s chess set are falling into place. Soon He will ‘checkmate’ Satan, and evil will come to an end. Are you blind to the truths of the scriptures? Only the Holy Spirit can open your eyes and help you see. You need to be born again to have the Holy Spirit in you, showing you the Word of God.

Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready to meet Him?

2 Corinthians 6:2 “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation).”

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