Revelation—A Simple Book With A Simple MessageSample

Revelation is a Simple Book with a Simple Message

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is God’s message to Jesus who in turn gives the message to John, who then passes it to seven churches by writing this letter. Through these churches, the message passed to the rest of the Earth by becoming a part of the Bible. 

It is vital to understand to whom this book is addressed. It is addressed to believers. John uses the Greek word for servants, doulos, who is somebody who must serve a master to whom they belong. How the servant discharges that duty determines whether they are faithful or unfaithful, useful to the master’s purposes or not useful. In either event, they are servants. Only believers in Jesus are His servants.

Revelation is an instruction to His servants. That means any believer can benefit from the message of Revelation. God wants to give a blessing to His servants, and the word He uses for ‘blessed’ is makarios which means happy. We all want to have a happy life. God tells His servants three things they need to do to be blessed, or happy:

1. Read this letter
2. Hear (or understand) this letter
3. Keep (or do) the things written in this letter

The purpose of the book of Revelation is for servants to learn how to be blessed by reading what’s in this prophecy, understanding it, then doing it. It’s a very simple book from that standpoint. 

Do you think it would make sense for God to say we can be blessed by reading a prophetic word, then give us a letter in a language that can’t be read? Of course not, that would be silly. Is it any less absurd to consider that God would tell us we can be blessed by a prophetic word if we understand it, then give us a letter that was incomprehensible? Again, that would be unthinkable. 

Perhaps the biggest key to understanding that Revelation is a simple book with a simple message is the next word: keep. Would it make sense for God to give us a prophetic word for us to keep, or do, then not give us anything to do? If God gave us a prophetic word so that we could read, understand, and keep or do, then it must be readable, understandable, and doable. 

Revelation has many predictions about the future, but we cannot do in the future. We can only do in the present. The main purpose of Revelation is not to give us a future-events puzzle to untangle. Rather, the primary purpose is to show us what to do now, in the present. As with anything, making a decision to do begins with hearing (or thinking), coming to an understanding (making a plan) then acting. 

Why then all the information about the future? And what is it that we are supposed to do, that brings such great happiness?

The great blessing of happiness promised to God’s servants in Revelation is a great reward from Jesus that He has reserved for faithful servants. In other words, for followers who do what God asks us to do. Blessing or happiness comes from obedience. 

The bottom line of Revelation is very simple: being a faithful servant, living in obedience, brings great happiness. No matter the circumstances, God calls His servants to walk in faithful obedience so that they can receive a great blessing. 

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