More than Conquerors (Introduction, part 5)
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| The Cave in which the Apostle John received the Revelation (Note the three rocks, reminding us of the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, found repeatedly in the Revelation of Jesus.) |
f. The Subject of Revelation is
Jesus revealed completely.
Can you imagine
Christianity without the Revelation? Ponder for a moment what would the hope
have been throughout the last two millennia of Christians and their relation to
the plan of God through Jesus Christ. God’s Messiah was not for the Jews only,
but He was revealed to be the “Light of the Gentiles.” He was born in abject
poverty, lived most, if not all, of his life in obscurity by the world’s
standards. Jesus the Son of Man was misunderstood by his peers, from his
closest disciples to His most ardent critics. What if this Anointed One had only
been described in the pages of the inerrant, inspired, infallible Scriptures of
the New Testament by only the gospels and the epistles of six, perhaps seven,
early disciples, but not by the Book of Revelation.
There is an insatiable
desire to know even more than what we now know through the Bible. But because
of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, penned by the Apostle John, we
have a vastly greater and immensely more impressive understanding of the Alpha
and Omega than we would have had otherwise, even if we were to include the prophecies
from the Old Testament passage.
If we had not the book
of Revelation, we might have concluded that perhaps some of the prophecies of those
inspired writers of the Old Testament were not to have been fulfilled at all
since they were not realized in Christ’s first coming.
If you think that
Revelation is a sealed, mysterious, hidden and obscure book, look at what you already understand about our
Savior and Lord as a result of John’s Revelation on the island of Patmos.
Because of the book of Revelation,
Christ is shown to be the ruler over the kings and lords of the earth and that He
has made us kings and priests to God.
Without the book of the Revelation,
we would not have seen Christ as the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the
End, the First and the Last.
That He holds the keys
of Hades and of Death, and yet He stands at the door and knocks and comes in to
those who open the door to Him; that He gives a crown of life to those faithful
unto death, but will spew out the lukewarm from His mouth; that even though He
appeared as a slain Lamb at His first coming, He is nevertheless the Creator of
all things and is the only One worthy to unseal God’s final judgment on the
earth.
Because of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ, we know that the sky will one day recede as a scroll
when it is rolled up, that 144,000 Jew men, undefiled by women and totally
without guile and deceit, will come from every tribe of the nation of Israel
will be on earth, following Christ.
We know that multitudes,
an innumerable amount of people from every nation, from every tribe, every
ethnicity, every tongue, of every language, of every people will be in heaven,
praising the Lamb of God.
Because John on the
island of Patmos received the Revelation of Jesus Christ and because he wrote
in this unsealed book, we know that in heaven harpists will play harps, and the
redeemed will sing songs, songs that are as old as Moses, songs that are a new
as the new millennium and songs that no one but those who have been redeemed
from the Tribulation will be able to sing.
And for those who are
not in heaven during those last days, they will be able to see in this unsealed
book that a demonic leader will perform signs and miracles and call fire down
from heaven to earth, so that he might deceive those still on earth.
Amazingly, the
Revelation of Jesus Christ shows that that despite God’s mercy and despite
God’s wrath, there will always be those who refuse to repent of their sinful
deeds.
John's eyes had seen the
glory of the coming of the Lord, who is trampling out the vintage where the
grapes of wrath are stored; and that mighty Savior will sound forth the trumpet
that shall never call retreat; that God still has the ark of the covenant in
his heavenly temple, that Satan will be bound into a bottomless pit, chained
for a thousand years, sealed so never to deceive the nations again.
This prophetic book
reveals the great white throne judgment, it reveals the book of life, it
reveals the lake of fire, it reveals the new heaven and new earth, it reveals the
New Jerusalem descending from heaven, the dwelling of God with humanity.
This Apocalypse unveils that
there will be many things NOT in heaven: we shall no longer hunger, we shall no
longer thirst, there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no
more pain, no need for light, no more defilement, no more abomination, no more
lies.
Christ will make all
things new, the fountain of the water of life given freely to all, the gates
made of pearl, the streets made of gold, the city will have the glory of God to
illuminate it.
In it there will be the tree
of life, the presence of the dwelling of the God of all Creation and the
presence of His Son, Jesus Christ.
No wonder than John, who
in his youth had unabashedly and unashamedly said, “Yes, Lord, I am ready to be
baptized with the baptism you are to be baptized with and drink from the same
cup from which you will drink,” now old and who had seen every one of his
fellow disciples crucified, beheaded, cut down by a sword, beginning with his
own brother James, now this same John who had lived through the persecution of his
own Jewish brothers, and then seen the persecution of Nero, of the Emperor Vespasian,
of the Roman Emperor Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem, even as it almost
destroyed itself, and now living in exile under the Emperor Domitian, at the
age of at least 80 years old, said from his banished island and his baptized
life of suffering and his bitter cup of a martyr’s life, “even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Revelation should not
make us afraid, it should make us jump up and shout, Hallelujah, to the Lamb.
Hallelujah to the King of Kings. Hallelujah to the Lord of Lords. We who have
the testimony of the Lamb’s blood shed for our very souls should have no fear
of the coming of the Lord. Notice Jesus says in verse 17, “Do not be afraid.”
In 2:10 , Jesus again says,
“Fear not what you must suffer.”
The book of Revelation is a book that reveals that
uncovers and takes away the veil of Jesus Christ in order to depict Him as He
really is.
