Decoding the purpose of Revelation | Revelation 1:1-20

Let me pray again as we get into this part of God’s word. Father, we thank you that you speak in many different ways. We pray that you would cause our hearts to be inclined to what it is that you are saying to us through this interesting, curious, perhaps confusing word, that we would see how you want to change our lives. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now, before I begin, I need to say for those of you who are of the youth variety, you can self-identify however you would like. There’s a little handout at the back, a little booklet that you can fill out if you would like to. I think it’s just at the back. It reminds me that when I was a kid in church, I used to read the book of Revelation when I was getting bored. And so, if you’re getting bored by the preacher, just read the book and you’ll get lots out of it. So there you go. That’s my challenge to you.

Christmas is five months away. Every time I say it, it doesn’t matter what number I give. If I say 11 months away, everyone’s, “Oh, no.” One month away, “Oh, no.” Christmas is five months away. And Christmas is that wonderful time of the year when you gather the family for that one special meal and you’re meant to invite everyone. And guaranteed, there is always at least one awkward relative in your family. You can deny it all you want, but there’s a strange uncle, a weird cousin, a bizarre person, and you’re all thinking of someone right now. I can guarantee it. Indeed, some of you are thinking to yourselves, “I am that person,” and we love you, but can you limit the amount that you talk to me?

You know what I mean? There’s the weird one. Everyone agrees they’re meant to be there, but nobody knows how to talk to them. Revelation is the awkward relative of the New Testament. We know it’s invited to the Bible party, but we want to limit the amount that we talk to it. And that’s what a lot of people think. How do I avoid this book?

There’s a smaller group of people who take the exact opposite approach to the book of Revelation. Some Christians think this is the best book in the Bible. In fact, some Christians seem to operate as if it’s the only book in their Bible. These are the folks who like wearing sandwich boards saying, “The end is near.” These are folks who, when their kids have a birthday party, they play pin the tail on the Antichrist. Avoidance or obsession, which is it going to be?

Now, despite the radical difference between those two proposals, there’s actually one thing they have totally in common, and that is this: they both assume this key idea. They both assume that the purpose of Revelation is so we can map how the world will end. That’s what they both assume. That’s why people avoid it or that’s why people obsess about it because they sit there and they go, “I’m either interested in that or I’m not. But that’s what the book of Revelation is about, right? So I can precisely map exactly how the world will end.”

Now, right at the start of our series, I want to ask the question, is that why God gave us this book? Because look with me at the first three verses of the book. They’re going to come up on the screen. I’m using a slightly different translation. Follow along in yours.

“The revelation from 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, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and who take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”Revelation 1:1-3

There it is in verse one. “The revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” Revelation is going to do that. It’s going to show us what must soon take place. So doesn’t that mean that it’s going to be all about the future and exactly how the world will end? But I want to ask you a question. Why does God want to show his people what must soon take place? Why does God want to show us the future?

The Purpose of Revelation is Discipleship

There’s a cupboard in my house and in that cupboard there is a glass jar that is always filled with lollies, jelly beans, strawberries and cream, maybe a random snake, a jube. Most of you don’t even know what that is. Always there. Many weeks of this year, I will buy a pack of lollies for that jar. And you might want to go, “Why?” There’s a very simple reason why. My youngest daughter is a type 1 diabetic. And so, it’s one thing to know what the contents of something is. It’s another thing to know why it’s there. You might have heard that I have a jar of lollies and made some assumptions about why it’s there, but actually they were probably shattered. And it’s important to know why things are there because every time I’m stealing from Jenna’s lollies, I need to remind myself, “Mark, these are here so that your daughter can live.” And then I only take half of what I originally took.

See, Revelation includes pictures of the future. But why? For what purpose? What is God wanting to do in us by showing us the future? And here I want you to pop down to verse three in that opening section. In verse three, it says this, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

Now, focus in on that final line. “Blessed are those who take to heart what is written in this book.” The phrase “take to heart” there translates a single verb in Greek. Literally the word is “keep.” Now in your NLT it will say “obey.” And that is brilliant because throughout the New Testament the Greek word for “keep” is a word that you use with regards to obeying Jesus’s commands. So in Matthew it says, “Teach people to obey everything that I’ve taught them,” that is, teach people to keep it. If you keep my word, if you keep my commands, “keep” is a discipleship word. It’s when you obey what you’ve heard.

And so, how do you keep Revelation? How would you hear what God is going to do in the future and then keep it, take it to heart, obey it? And here’s the very simple truth I want to guide all of how we look at the book of Revelation, which is: when you live differently in your present because God has shown you his future. That is the key to the book of Revelation. Not being able to map the end of the world, but sitting there and going, “Because you’ve shown me your future, God, I will now live differently in the present.”

And so, my measurement for your interpretation of Revelation is not your end-times wall chart. It’s your discipleship. God didn’t give this book to make us into end-times weather forecasters. He gave this book so that you would grow as a disciple, just like he gave every book of the New Testament and the Old Testament to us. And so here’s the tragedy of so many interpretations of Revelation. We’ve sacrificed discipleship for forecasting. Because what Revelation does is it unveils the future, but its focus is actually our present. Its focus is our present.

You’ll see this by skipping forward with me for a brief moment to the end of chapter 1. In Revelation 1:19, it says this, “Write therefore what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later.” The book is not only about what will take place later. The book is also about what is now. Because Revelation unveils the future, but its focus is our response in the present.

A Letter to Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable

And that helps explain to us something that people often ignore. But what we find in verse four of this chapter, chapter one, it says, “John to the seven churches in the province of Asia.” I think it was a little more explicit in your New Living Translation there where it says this is the letter that John is writing to the seven churches in Asia, because this whole book is a letter. It’s a letter. It’s admittedly not the standard letter you receive from your friend. “Dear Riverstone, just wanting to tell you about a great dream I had the other night… 22 chapters later… Bless you. Bye-bye.” That’s really what happens. And yet the whole book is a letter from John to seven first-century churches in the Roman province of Asia.

Which means that we read this letter like we read every other New Testament letter. Because when we read Paul’s letter to the Romans, we know that on the other end of the telephone line, there is an actual church in Rome that’s receiving it first. And we read Romans best when we understand what it meant for them first before we then apply what it means to us now. And so John wrote to real churches in real places like Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, or Laodicea, which is the picture you see behind me. You can still visit these places. This is a picture of when I went there in 2011. These places are amazing to still visit. Most of them—don’t go to Thyatira. There’s nothing there. Okay, hot tip. It’s a waste of time. But most of them—I’m sure the people are lovely—but most of them you can go and visit these ancient sites because they were real churches there who were really receiving this letter for the first time. And so if you want to see how this letter can transform your discipleship, the best place to start is to see how it challenged theirs. That’s where you want to see.

But here’s something even more brilliant about this book. Revelation is a letter written to seven different churches. So, some of you might know, but if you don’t, Revelation chapters 2 and 3 are specific messages from Jesus to the individual churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Pergamum, so on and so forth. I say this, that it is written to seven different churches, because people often assume that all of the audience of Revelation were in the same spiritual situation and that the spiritual situation of all of the churches in the book of Revelation was one of persecution. You often hear this said, and it’s easy to understand why people assume this about the book of Revelation. Because at the time this book was written, the Roman Empire was not an easy place to follow Jesus. We know that people had begun to worship Roman power. There were actual temples to Rome. There were actual temples to the Roman emperor. People treated the Roman emperor like he was God.

Now think about what it means to be a Christian in that scenario. To say that only Jesus is Lord automatically would make you weird, abnormal, and actually a little bit suspicious. It puts you in the firing line for suffering. And so that’s why in verse 9, John says he’s been exiled to the island of Patmos because of his testimony to Jesus. He’s suffering for his allegiance to Christ. So, it’s understandable that we assume that, hey, everyone must be suffering persecution if that was the scenario at play.

But here’s the surprise, and we find this out if we move forward to read chapters 2 and 3, that not all of those churches are suffering persecution. If you read carefully, you’ll see that some were suffering and some were not. Some churches needed to be comforted and some of those churches needed to be challenged because they’re compromising their faith in order to blend in with their surroundings. So, here’s the amazing thing about the book of Revelation. It’s one of the reasons I love it so much. Revelation both comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. It does both things. The one vision can encourage one believer to keep going and can challenge another believer to turn around and repent. What a book.

Jesus is at the Burning Center of this Book

And Revelation does this by centering our hearts and minds not first of all on the future, but by first of all centering our hearts and minds on the surpassing greatness of the Lord Jesus. Is Jesus the center of our lives? That’s the thing that’s going to determine your present and your future. Is Jesus the center of your life? And so Jesus is at the burning center of this book. Look with me at verse 5. John continuing his letter says,

“Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”Revelation 1:5

So many people read Revelation and they pay attention to everything in the book except Jesus. So don’t be that person. If you walk away from Revelation and all you can remember and talk about is locusts and beasts and people drinking blood and stuff like that, that would be to major on the minors because the major figure of the book is Jesus from start to finish. So as the text goes on,

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”Revelation 1:5b-6

But it’s in verse 12 that Jesus fully bursts onto the scene. In verse 12, it says,

“And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”Revelation 1:12-16

When you read the gospels in the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—a few of them, people like Matthew and Mark and Luke, they have this episode that we have come to call the Transfiguration. Normally within the gospels, Jesus is presented to us as a very ordinary person who says and does remarkable and extraordinary things. So his speech and deeds are remarkable but he looks very normal and ordinary. Now Philippians 2 describes this as he took the nature of a servant. But there’s this one occasion in the gospels, this one occasion where Jesus takes a small group of his disciples up a mountain and for the briefest of moments his appearance is transformed before them. We call this being transfigured. So Matthew 17 is one of those accounts. And on top of that mountain, the disciples all of a sudden see his face shining like the sun and his dusty clothes start glowing white. And what’s happening is they are seeing a glimpse of Jesus in all of his glory.

The same thing is happening here on a much bigger scale in Revelation chapter 1. And it’s a reminder to us. Don’t ever domesticate Jesus because it’s easy enough to do. It’s easy enough to take the Lord Jesus’s humility, that he humbled himself to become a peasant carpenter, and we end up sentimentalizing him as Christmas card Jesus, as homeboy Jesus, as buddy Jesus, as the person who we can be best friends with and forget that he is ever our Lord. And I get why you do that. And there’s a good part of that, but there’s a bad part of that when we domesticate him.

Because the same Jesus who spoke parables and built tables is the same Jesus who is here presented to us in all his glory in Revelation 1. He’s human. Yes, he looks like a son of man. That’s just a way of describing his humanity. But he’s a king. He’s dressed in a royal robe and sash. And the son of man has hair white like wool and his eyes are like blazing fire. And those are the characteristics associated with God in Daniel 7:9. And the voice of this Jesus sounds like rushing waters just like God’s voice in Ezekiel. And if the sound isn’t intimidating enough of hearing a churning bunch of waters, John sees a mouth with a sword coming out of it. And so when you first see this Jesus, at least my first thought isn’t, “Hey Jesus, how about you come in for a hug?” I think I’d die, which is exactly what John experiences. John falls to the ground thinking, “I am done for. I can’t stand in the presence of this.”

It makes me ask the question of myself and of you. When was the last time God showed you the majesty of Jesus and you trembled? Have you ever had a moment in God’s word, in prayer, in worship where you actually just wanted to drop to your knees because you couldn’t think of any other response? In fact, it was almost involuntary because in Revelation 1, Jesus is awesome. Awesome. Now there’s a word, we’ve debased the currency of that word a little over the years, haven’t we? Because everything is awesome, as the Lego movie so wonderfully brought home to us those years ago. We say things like, “This burger is awesome,” and then we say, “God is awesome.” Now, any word that you can use to describe both a burger and God has probably lost some punch. When something is awesome, technically, it’s meant to inspire awe.

This is what C.S. Lewis was getting at when he wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And he has this character called Aslan. And in that book, the beavers who can talk—just go with me—the beaver characters in this who are talking to the human characters, they’re discussing who is Aslan. And the children in that story, they ask because Aslan’s a lion, they ask the beavers and they say, “Is Aslan safe?” To which the beavers reply, “Safe? Safe? Of course, he’s not safe, but he’s good.” I think that’s how John feels in the presence of Jesus. It’s Jesus with eyes like blazing fire. You wouldn’t describe him as safe. But what John wants to get across is he’s unspeakably good.

Awed but Not Afraid

And you can see the goodness and the kindness of Jesus through what happens next. Verse 17, you see the touch of Jesus’ hand. It says,

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’”Revelation 1:17-18

Note the words that Jesus says first. “Do not be afraid.” Fun fact, exact same thing happens in Matthew’s account of the transfiguration. They see Jesus in all his glory. They fall face down on the ground and Jesus comes and touches them and says, “Get up. Don’t be afraid.” This is the wonderful thing about the good news that in the presence of Jesus we feel awe but we don’t need to feel afraid.

How is that even possible? How can you be in the presence of this majesty? How can you be in the presence of someone with eyes of blazing fire, clothes shining brighter than the sun and not be afraid? And the reality is expressed in the touch of that hand is that Jesus is for us. It said there earlier in the chapter, “to him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood.” And that love is then unveiled again in verses 17 and 18. “I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I was dead and now look. I am alive forever and ever. and I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

There’s no sweeter truth in the Bible that God is for us. That Jesus died and rose again for us. He didn’t need to die and rise again in order to inherit eternity. But he needed to die and rise again so that we could inherit eternity. And as the scripture says, if God is for us, whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear? Because my Lord holds the keys of death and the grave. My Lord holds the keys over everything. And if you know Jesus, if you trust in him, then nothing can separate you from the love of God. Jesus is for us. And in the presence of Jesus, we are awed but not afraid because he sits far exalted over everything we could ever fear. He holds the keys. He holds the keys.

What is God Going to Say to You?

And that, my friends, that is the foundation for how you keep the book of Revelation. How do you take to heart what is written in it? How do you obey what is written in it? The anchor for all discipleship in this book is that Jesus our Lord holds the keys of death and the grave and in him is life eternal. If Jesus has triumphed over sin and death, anything you sacrifice for him is no great loss because in him is life that is truly life. It’s the risen Jesus who can give us courage to live differently in the present. And it’s the future return of Jesus that gives us perspective to live differently in the present.

And so, Revelation here was written to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. And so, my opening question to you that sets up the whole sermon series is, what is God going to say to you? Because do you know what would be terrible? What would be terrible is if you read Revelation for comfort when you actually need to repent and vice versa. It would be terrible if you read it as if you were needing to repent when God is wanting to speak to you words of comfort.

I want you to hear what God is saying to you as he shows you Jesus and shows you his future. And so as you spend four weeks in this book, I wonder if you might pray this prayer to God. “Father, whether it be comfort or rebuke, I want you to speak to me.” You have the courage to pray that prayer. And as you pray that prayer, I don’t want you to look at the person next to you. I don’t want you to sit there and go, “I wonder if they’re experiencing the same thing.” Because it may be that they’re not. It may be that some of you need to be comforted and some of you need to be rebuked. It may be that some of you need to be encouraged and some of you need to be challenged. That’s the beauty of this book. How is God calling you to respond to this glorious Jesus? And what is this God going to say to you about your present life? Because you now can see what will ultimately happen in the future. We’re going to start to look at that over the next three weeks.

Let’s pray. Father God, we thank you for your goodness in wanting us to see Jesus’ glory because in him is life. And we pray that as we read your word and understand it that we would live differently in the present on the basis of the future that you have won for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it’s in his name we pray. Amen.