Don’t Fear the Book of Revelation

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Nancy Guthrie
I want to tell you that this breakout session is sponsored by crossway. And we are very grateful. I’m deeply, deeply grateful. I love being on crossway author, we’re grateful for their generous support to make this session possible. And you can learn more about crossway by visiting their booth in the exhibit hall or [email protected]. And they are the nice folks who gave each of you who are here in the room, a little excerpt booklet from my new book on Revelation. Alright, so this is the way I start the book. And I’ll start this session this way too. And that is to start with a confession. Although I imagine maybe there are some people in here who might share this experience with me. It was probably about 10 or 15 years ago, I was asked to help teach a study of revelation at my church. And I began looking for a way to say no. Can somebody relate to that? And a little, maybe, but I thought, you know, maybe before I said, say, No, I should read the book. And so I started reading Revelation, I got to the third verse, And here was this promise, blessed are those who read this prophecy, those who hear and keep what is written in it. And I just thought to myself, Well, is there any blessing from God about which I would want to look at that and say, I don’t need that. I kept reading. And that’s the way the book ends with that same promise of blessings for those who hear and keep what is written this book. So it emboldened me to dive in. And I hope maybe that promise of blessedness would embolden you to dive in to Revelation as well. When I think about what my fears have been about the book of Revelation, in terms of teaching it, I’ve had the fear, and honestly, I still gotta have this fear a bit. And that is a fear of not being able to answer someone’s question. So if you thought about teaching it or leading it through a group, that’s a very real fear, isn’t it? I think we fear controversy, because we know that this book can be people have very strong opinions about it, at times, just fear of not understanding it, not getting it wrong, I mean, not getting it right, especially if we’re the ones upfront are leading the discussion. So I’m going to work our way through for what I think are the four most common fears that we have about the book of Revelation. All right, so number one, we fear that we’re not going to be able to understand it. And if we’re teaching it that we are going to get it wrong. Now I think there’s there’s three real challenges to understanding it. First of all, most of us are unskilled in this genre, of apocalyptic literature. We get historical narrative and we can trace the argument in an epistle or a letter. But apocalyptic prophecy that’s a little more challenging to us. Secondly, we’re unfamiliar with revelations allusions. It’s Old Testament and some New Testament, even allusions, and we’ll talk about that we are intimidated by its symbolism. We’re afraid that we’re not going to be able to rightly interpret so I want to work our way through what I think are these three challenges to understanding it. And in terms of being unskilled in this genre, I would say we might be unskilled in this genre. But we can become better skilled in this genre. Revelation is an epistle it is a letter, it doesn’t just contain seven letters. It is a letter, but it is also prophecy. But it’s a particular subset of prophecy in the Bible, apocalyptic prophecy, and apocalyptic you know, when we think about that word, we think about, you know, like descriptions, I always think apocalypse, you know, it’s just when I see that description in a movie or television show, I’m pretty sure I don’t want to watch it. Because it’s probably something about the end of the world, right, some big cataclysmic thing. Well, the word apocalyptic really just mean uncovered, or revealed. When we read this first line of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, it is the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. So it’s clearly it’s just what’s being revealed. But the thing is, after John wrote the book of Revelation,

Nancy Guthrie
that term has come to describe this unique genre of literature that we find in Revelation. We find it in other places of the Bible, as well. It’s in the second half of Daniel, we’d call that apocalyptic books like Zechariah. We find apocalyptic in the Olivet Discourse, in Matthew and Mark. And in apocalyptic literature, we quite often read accounts of dreams, visionary experiences As journeys to heaven in which the writers use vivid symbolism to describe what they saw, and the message that was often mediated to them by a heavenly or angelic being. And perhaps the most succinct way to define what apocalyptic literature is, is that it describes ready for this. It describes earthly events from a heavenly perspective. And so to grow in our ability to understand apocalyptic, we have to reckon with reality that apocalyptic literature invites us into a spiritual reality, beyond what we can see with our human eyes. It plunges us into the world of angels and demons, it gives us insight into present realities going on right now on Earth, it gives us insight into what we can expect in the future, as God continues to work out his sovereign plans for the unfolding of history. So secondly, our skill that we need to develop rightly, to understand apocalyptic literature is that of identifying Old Testament allusions, which quite often in Revelation are kind of our ticket to guide us into appropriate understanding of what is being communicated to us. You see, the the book of Revelation doesn’t quote, The Old Testament very much, actually. But it alludes to the Old Testament, probably more than any other New Testament book, what’s the difference, you’re not going to see the parts that it from the Old Testament set off in quotes, like the prophets so and so said this, like you see in the Gospels and some other books, instead, it’s just part of the text. And you have to have eyes to see it, or I guess what you really need is a rigorous Old Testament knowledge to see it. You’ll be reading along and you’ll hear something and you think, oh, that sounds kind of familiar. This is where the cross references do, you have a Bible with good cross references, I hope you do. A Bible with good cross references,

Nancy Guthrie
you’ll be reading along, you’ll hear something kind of familiar. And so your job at that point, is to go back to the Old Testament passage that John is alluding to in Revelation, and look at the context in which that illusion comes from. And you’re gonna find, oftentimes, that really takes away some of the mystery of trying to understand it, it’s going to guide you into a reliable understanding of what he’s communicating. Let me give you a couple of examples of this. So for example, in Revelation one, seven, John writes, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. So as you read that, you think, Okay, that sounds kind of familiar. And what you discover is actually in that one sentence, he has combined a phrase from Daniel 713, that, and a phrase from Zechariah 1210. So you go back to Daniel seven, you look at the context, and you recognize this, he is coming with the clouds, it seems to be describing the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God, where he receives a kingdom, you look at Zechariah. And it’s speaking of those who pierced him wailing on account of him. And it seems to be more about His Second Coming. And so the events of redemptive history from ascension to his present reign and heaven, all the way to His coming, judgment and salvation, it coming and judgment and salvation, they all seem to be in mind here. And so John uses these words from Zechariah and from Daniel to turn our gaze toward the anticipation of the day when Jesus the King, is going to come again to this earth in power and glory. Let me give you another example. Revelation 220, in his letter to Theia Tyra, Jesus says, But I have this against you that you tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and his teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrifice to idols, so calling her Jezebel probably wasn’t a real name Okay. Jezebel it’s we think we should immediately think okay, wherever heard this name before, so lingo figure out who this was in the Old Testament, and we go back to first Kings, and we realize that she was the one who urged the Israelites to worship Baal and Ashraf alongside worship of the one true God. Odd, and that that worship also involved sexual liaisons at pagan shines. So to get the connection, you got to be willing to go back to the Old Testament passage that John is alluding to in what you read in Revelation. And so with a willingness to engage with our whole Bibles, we can connect revelation to the Old Testament allusions and it greatly adds to our understanding. So how about this third issue of understanding revelations symbolism? Revelation does have a lot of symbols. And so is it possible to come to relative certainty that we are rightly interpreting revelations symbols? Well, I think maybe we can’t always be dogmatic about our interpretation of them. But I do think that we can come to relative certainty for most of them. And the truth is, even though we think about Revelation being so heavily symbolic, and it is, there’s actually a lot of symbolism throughout the whole of the Bible that hasn’t necessarily intimidated us all that much.

Nancy Guthrie
For example, and I love it, John Piper read this passage in his message this morning, where he read Exodus 19, for where God says to Israel, I bore you on Ingle on eagle’s wings. And when he says that we don’t think, okay, he flew the Israelites out of Egypt. On the wings of literal Eagles do we know we recognize that this symbol of an eagle communicate something about the speed and the strength of his rescue? Similarly, Jesus uses a lot of symbols to talk about himself, think about the book of John, all of those things he calls himself, he says that he is a good shepherd. He says that he is the bread of life, that He is the vine, he’s using a symbol to communicate some of the reality of who he is here. And so similarly, perhaps more pervasively, John uses symbols to communicate in Revelation, and he uses them quite often to communicate some complex realities. So for example, when he talks about Babylon, Babylon, we know he’s not talking about specifically the historic city of Babylon, but he uses Babylon as a symbol of worldly idolatry and immorality. By calling the city of man Babylon, it carries, it like grabs up a lot of meaning in that one word, based on what we know about the history of Babylon, and, and then communicates that Babylon throughout biblical history is a symbol of human ingenuity and independence from God. Another symbol he uses when he talks about the sea. Throughout the Bible, the sea is a symbol of chaos and the threat of evil. So we get to the end of Revelation, Revelation, and we read that there is no more see, the beach lovers in this room do not have to shed a bunch of tears, okay? There is no more Saint that’s always been a symbol for the source of chaos and evil. And so really, he’s using that as a symbol to give us this good news that evil will have been done away with for good, and we won’t have to fear that anymore.

Nancy Guthrie
Also, in Revelation, you’ll know this colors and numbers quite often have symbolic meaning. Now, sometimes the meaning of revelation symbols is playing sometimes it’s even stated explicitly. And I think that helps us a lot. If we wonder whether or not we should try to interpret some of its other symbols symbolically, for example, we’re told that lampstands in Revelation 120, he’s already talked about lampstands. And then he tells us explicitly lampstands are the what churches Exactly. white linen. It tells us explicitly in chapter 19, eight that the white linen represents the, the righteous acts of the saints, or in chapter 22, he tells us exactly who the ancient serpent is. He says, the ancient serpent is the devil. So sometimes it actually tells us explicitly, of course, then other times it’s it’s a little bit more challenging. Now some interpreters of revelation will suggest that if we don’t read every day image and take every image in Revelation as literally as possible, then we’re not taking the Bible seriously. But I think that an important part of taking the Bible seriously is recognizing and interpreting, interpreting each part of the Bible, in the literary genre used by the human author as well as inspired by the Divine author. So to interpret symbols, symbolically, is not spiritualizing the text, it’s rightly interpreting the text. For example, when we read about the lamb, standing as though it has been slain, don’t we instinctively this is, this is one of the symbols that maybe is more familiar to us, right. And so we instinctively know that John is using symbolism, to communicate something to us about the crucified Christ, when He speaks about the lamb. And God being seated on a throne. We know he’s communicating something to us about the sovereignty of God, over the universe, and over history, when he speaks of the beast. He’s communicating something about the nature and intentions of Rome in his day, and every government since then, every human power since then, that has set itself against God and His people. When he describes a dragon, with seven heads and 10 horns, he’s saying he’s communicating something, something to us about the terrifying power of, of Satan. You see, by using symbols, by just this one word, he’s communicating a whole reality about these things. So our first step, and rightly interpreting various symbols, is going to be to explore wherever we have seen that symbol earlier in the Bible. You know, for many people, the first step in assemble is to look up out or maybe in the newspaper or on the news, actually, the first step should be to look back into the Old Testament, because that significantly informs our understanding. So for example, we read about plenty of sacrificial lambs throughout the Old Testament. And so that gives us insight into what he means when he says, a Lamb who looks as if he has been slain. We actually read about beasts in the book of Daniel, and these beasts in the book of Daniel represent worldly kingdoms. And so that helps us understand what John might mean, when he talks about this beast in Revelation. We read about armies sweeping in to attack Israel, and they’re described as locusts in the book of Joel. And so that helps us understand, when we see locusts show up in Revelation, we’re probably reading something about a spiritual tack of an army of demons in the book of Revelation. Now, if you have some fear, in regard to understanding revelation, here’s the most important thing I want you to hear into this point. Revelation wasn’t written for scholars. It was written for ordinary believers living in the first century, with the expectation that they could understand it’s very clear message.

Nancy Guthrie
And this means that as we invest ourselves in understanding this message, and what it meant for the original readers, it’s going to take us a long way and understanding what its implications are for us today. Here’s the thing, you and I are able to understand revelations, all important central message. Here’s what I’ve come to think, as I’ve studied the book of Revelation, that the greater challenge of this book is opening myself up to the adjustments in my life that this book calls for. That that’s much harder than actually understanding what it’s calling for. But I would say this greatest challenge of opening up our lives underneath it is also what offers the greatest blessing. So you don’t have to be afraid that you can understand the book of Revelation, you can understand its central message and in fact, its central message is essential for living our lives in this world as we wait for His kingdom to come. And here’s what the central here’s my articulation of what I think the central message of the book of Revelation is. I would say it this way, Revelation and is a call to patient endurance of suffering for our allegiance to Christ, and to refuse to compromise with the world, as we wait for the King to come and usher in his kingdom, in all of its glorious fullness, can can you under scan we understand it’s called to refuse to fall away, or to refuse to drift away from Christ. Can we? Yes, we can. Can we understand it’s called to refuse to compromise with the world as we wait for His return? Yes, we can. So the challenge of Revelation is not so much understanding it, but to gird ourselves for the endurance that it calls for, to figure out what it’s going to mean for us to refuse to compromise. The challenge is not so much about figuring out what horses and locusts and Blood Moons mean, it really isn’t. Alright, number two, so if my first one was, we’re afraid, we can’t understand it. Number two, we fear the controversy that surrounds this book and how to interpret it. And I gotta tell you, it’s true. It’s true. There is a lot of controversy that surrounds interpreting the Book of Revelation, no way around it, there are different camps who have different ways of approaching the book. In fact, we find that if we kind of survey teachers that we know and respect, that they might actually interpret it differently. In fact, if we surveyed the gospel coalition council members, in terms of some of their views and understandings of Revelation, there would be some differences among them. And then certainly, we have friends and family that we know, interpret things differently from us. And as I said, many people have very strong opinions about this.

Nancy Guthrie
I think one important thing as we anticipate maybe some controversy, as if we’re thinking about leaving, or being a part of a study of the book of Revelation, is that we really need to understand how many peoples and maybe even our own understanding of what the Bible presents to us about the unfolding of redemptive history, how some of those ideas have been shaped. Now, if you are of my generation, which some of you are, I think, but if you’re of my generation, then perhaps like me, your youth years, were filled with many showings of the film a thief in the night. Can I see some hands? All right, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Right. And so for some of you who are younger than I am, I’ll just tell you, here’s the plotline. There’s this girl named Patty, and she wakes up and to a radio broadcasting, and it’s announced that millions of people around the world have disappeared. And the the radio announcer suggests this, the rapture of the church may have happened, she finds her husband has disappeared, and the United Nations sets up an emergency government system, and declares that anyone who doesn’t receive the mark of the beast is going to be arrested. So this way of understanding what the Bible teaches about the return of Christ. In my for most of my life, it was not presented to me as one way to understand what the Bible presents, it was really presented to me as the only way, the only faithful way for most of my life, I continue, I perceived this view to be the way that people who take the Bible seriously understand how the future will unfold, and that anyone who holds some other kind of view is liberal, or just doesn’t take the Bible’s teaching seriously. So it was presented this way. I can also remember besides a thief in the night, there was a huge selling book called The Late Great Planet Earth, which is still on the bookshelf at my parents house. And then in the 1990s, the left behind book series was was was launched. I think there are about 65 million copies of that series of books that have been sold. Stories have power. Stories have a lot of power to shape our understanding of things and these stories have shaped many of our understandings of many other people’s understanding. The other thing that has shaped our understanding is that this view of redemptive history has been dominant in most Christian media, Christian radio, Christian publishing, this is the view that has been dominated. So we just need to understand as we go on, maybe you didn’t grow up with it, you don’t even know what I’m talking about, well, then maybe you gonna need to know that a little, at least a little bit about that. Because this view has so shaped so many of us. For me, it wasn’t until I, I tried to figure it out, I think was about 2006. I was listening to a message. And he was talking about Matthew 24. And it’s about that scene in Matthew 24, where it says, like, two people are working at the mill and one disappears, you know, talking about it. And then there’s another scene, somebody disappears. And, and, and as I heard this message, he said, he emphasized how that little story begins when it says, And we heard Melissa say this in her message the other night, it will be as in The Day of Days of Noah. And it continues on it tells us it says they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will the coming of the Son of man be. And then it talks about, you know, to their wonderful, so that the speaker pointed out that the key referent that helps us what’s under what understand what’s happening in this picture, we’re meant to be looking at what’s happening in light of what happened in the days of Noah. So if you think about what happened in the days of Noah, who was swept away, and who was left behind.

Nancy Guthrie
So when you look at you realize, oh, left behind, that’s what I want to be. I want to be left behind, right, preserved in the ark, like Noah. And so maybe this passage in Matthew isn’t about those who are joined to Christ being snatched away from the Earth, but perhaps is about those who are outside of Christ, being swept away in the judgment of God, while those who are in Christ are left behind. Around that same time, I also heard or read something I had never seen before. In regard to First Thessalonians four, which says that the Lord Himself will descend the dead and Christ will rise, then all who are alive who are left, left behind and then say behind, I’m just adding that for, you know, effect, all who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So I had always heard this taught as believers being taken away from Earth. But you see, while that Matthew passage requires that we consider what we read about in reference to the days of Noah. This passage, required for proper interpretation requires that we consider the setting of ancient cities like Thessalonica, that Paul was writing to, and when a king or dignitary came to the city, the inhabitants of the city would go out to greet, or welcome, this honored guest with great fanfare and celebration, and then accompany them back into the city. So what we have pictured here is the Lord returning to Earth. It says that all who have died in Christ will be with him and those who are still alive are being caught up. Or this is where we get the word rapture. It’s that word caught, caught up to meet the Lord, as King See, comes to establish His kingdom on earth. The question is, when we go out to meet him, is he taking us somewhere further away? Are we ushering him in to establish His kingdom here? I think that’s what this is saying that he’s coming back. He’s giving us resurrected bodies to live with Him forever on a resurrected renewed earth. And we read in this passage, and so we will always be with the Lord. It seems to fit to me now, but I have to say, potential conflict or disagreement about these things? It isn’t a reason to avoid revelation. Did you notice neither of the passages I was reading to you was from Revelation. But potential cause conflict or disagreement isn’t a reason to avoid revelation. It’s a reason to study revelation. My experience is that as we work our way through the text, taking in what it does clearly reveal about what we can expect in this time in between the ascension of Jesus at the right hand of God through the period of time we’re living in now until the return of Jesus is binding that it has the power Power to focus our attention on what is clearly revealed. And away from what is sometimes imposed on the scriptures. I’m finding it puts some of the unusual aspects and emphasis of the teaching of popular prophecy teachers into perspective, so that what God has apocalypse or uncovered or revealed to us actually becomes clearer. And what may be some other voices might have imposed on the text or the timeline, we might discover that it becomes less credible, or less compelling. So what are we going to do with this sphere of controversy that surrounds the book of Revelation? Number one, focus on the text? It is your salvation from controversy, as you focus on what is there in the texts, and discuss it and give it authority. Listen, first, for the meaning for the original recipients. So everywhere you read in Revelation, ask yourself, what would this have meant to those people in the first century in those seven churches who first received this letter, because it cannot mean something radically different for us today than it would have meant for them.

Nancy Guthrie
First, get clear on what it would have meant for them. And that’s going to guide you in the right understanding of what it’s going to mean for us today. detect the emphasis. And by that not all the periphery stuff, man, can it be easy to get lost in the details of the colors and the numbers and the creatures and everything in Revelations, right, but detect the emphasis, not the periphery. Rather than obsess about the details. A step you’re going to have to take is to determine what you think the structure of the book is. And I don’t have time to talk a long way through that. I hope some of you have discovered this blessed podcast we started a few weeks ago, have some of you discovered this the blessed podcast? Yeah, like it. So this is going to be 10 episodes, I had conversations with fabulous scholars about Revelation, it will really be helpful to you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts, but listen to my conversation with Vern Poythress, especially on this aspect of the structure of the book. And by that I mean, you’ve got to decide, are you we reading a chronological account that as we go along in the book, what we read in the next chapter is something that’s happening after the chapter we just read? Or are we getting a sense that throughout the book, it’s almost like John has picked up the camera from this scene. And now he’s going to move the camera over here, and we’re gonna see the same set of events from another angle, with a different emphasis. That’s a decision you’re gonna have to make as you go along. And then finally see all the facets of the gospel in the book, not just the return of Christ, huge misconception that revelation is all about the return of Christ. It is, it is. But actually, what’s delightful as you work your way through the book of Revelation is you see the whole, every facet of the gospel, you’re going to see his incarnation, and you’re gonna see his righteous life. And you’re going to see his sacrificial death, and His glorious resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of God, his present reign in heaven all the way to his return and establishing the new heavens and new earth. So look for all of those revelation is not primarily about the future. It’s written to fortify believers in the first century and every century since then, to live out bold allegiance to Christ, as we wait for His kingdom to come in all of its glorious fullness. I’m skipping ahead now because my time is going so fast. Let me give you these few little tips here. Learn from leaders you respect but don’t slavishly follow them. In terms of the controversy, challenge conversation partners to support their views from the text, not from someone else’s teaching or some other book, explore the assumptions underneath their opinions. What do I mean assumptions like war in Revelation being a literal war between geopolitical entities, assumptions like believers will never have to face terrible persecution assumptions that material in Revelation is presented chronologically. Don’t allow anyone to dogmatically impose a chart or timeline on the present and future of redemptive history, I would say other than what is revealed in the Apostles Creed. You can’t go wrong. And then allow me to indulge myself here. Just recognize that a lot of writers and teachers make a lot of money selling books and videos about the latest thing in the news that demonstrates Jesus is about to return that makes everybody feel afraid. There’s a lot of money in that, okay? I don’t I don’t mean for you to become cynical, but I do want you to use wisdom, use wisdom, and be appropriately skeptical. You don’t have to have charts to study revelation, you don’t have to have a bunch of discussions about signs in the news that Jesus is about to return. You don’t have to be dogmatic about how the return of Christ and the ushering in of His Kingdom, and the defeat of evil is going to take place.

Nancy Guthrie
And you don’t have to be afraid of your study of revelation becoming a mishmash of things that people have heard prophecy teachers, teach, not, if you stick to the text, and focus on the central message, that the the central message for the original readers, and then draw the message for us from that. Number three of my four we fear the suffering and persecution Revelation tells us to expect rather, but actually revelation rather than generating fear it was really intended to and actually, I think, has the power to generate courage for boldness, to provide assurance of ultimate protection, to set before us these beautiful promises of blessedness that are going to outlast and surpass any suffering that we’re ever going to experience in this life. Although let’s face it, we are really kind of oriented ordered, oriented toward a life of comfort and ease. We think that’s what being blessed is life filled with material things but Revelation is going to show us that’s not what true blessedness about blessedness according to Revelation is enjoyed by those who are prepared for an eager for Christ’s return. It’s reserved for those who are living out of the righteousness that has been imparted to them by Christ and now is working out through their lives by the Holy Spirit. Revelation is a call to patient endurance of suffering for our bold allegiance to Jesus Christ. Yes, there is a lot in Revelation about persecution. And honestly, it can be troubling. When I think about the first readers of this letter, some of whom and had friends and family members put to death for their allegiance to Jesus Christ, I can’t help but wonder how it must have hit them. When you get to this part and Revelation, Revelation chapter six. It says when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God, and for the witness they had born, and they cried out with a loud voice, oh, Sovereign Lord, Sovereign Lord, we know your sovereign over all of this God, right? Oh, Sovereign Lord, holy and true. We know you’ll do what’s right. How long, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. And it says, Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete. Who were to be killed as they themselves had been? And when I read that, I’m like, what? I mean, is that not countercultural, even counter Christian culture? Here’s the Sovereign Lord you the sovereign over this, and instead of acting now, to put an in to this slaughter of your people, you’re waiting until the full number of martyrs is complete? Is he putting our trust in a sovereign God over something like the persecution of his people? I think it presents a real test for us, doesn’t it? And maybe it’s a test we need. What enables us to trust him is that here in Revelation, we’re shown over and over again, that suffering our suffering for Christ will not be the end of the story. Instead, our suffering is going to give way to great glory. Nothing can happen to us outside of the Lambs grip on his sovereign plans. Our suffering will not be meaningless, it will not go unnoticed. It will not last forever, but in fact, Revelation says it will be rewarded into all eternity. If you’re if you’re afraid of the suffering or persecution aspect of Revelation, Then instead soak up as you go along and Revelation soak up all of the goodness that’s present. And to those who suffer for him, it begins with saying grace and peace. It’s giving you grace and peace, the grace, you need the peace you’ll need for the conflict. Over and over again. You see Christ among the lampstands, who are his churches, were assured of the presence of Jesus here with us in the midst of the suffering. And the message over and over again, is the promise of protection. For those who are joined to Christ, in the midst of the judgment that’s going to fall on the rest of

Nancy Guthrie
the Earth, you’ll be protected. He’ll be with you, he’ll give you the grace and peace you you need. The feet is going to what is actually going to turn out to be victory. And what seems like ultimate loss is actually going to result in eternal blessing. Finally, number four, we fear the judgment, blood and wrath of Revelation. Yeah, there’s a lot of blood. In this book. There is the blood of those who reject Christ. But you know what the focus is much more on the blood of the Lamb, and what it has accomplished. It’s the Lamb’s book of life that we read about in this book that lists out all those who have been covered by the blood of the Lamb. Yes, there is judgment, the judgment, for so much of the book, inherent in the judgment is a warning, so that all who read this book can flee to the safety and protection found in Christ. Now, yes, there is even a little bit of judgment for believers. But it is judgment in the sense that there is therefore now no condemnation, the judgment faced by believers, when we get to Revelation 20, when the books and the book are opened, we discover that actually, in that judgment, everything written in the books about us is going to be confirmation that we were genuinely joined to Christ, not condom nation. And yes, there is wrath, but the rap is celebrated by the saints throughout revelation. That’s kind of the shocking thing to me. Throughout revelation, as you read about it over and over again, we hear the saints in heaven celebrating the wrath of God. And when I read that, I was like, what do they know that? I don’t know? Because that’s not my first instinct. When I read about the wrath of God, more likely to feel embarrassed about it. I mean, our modern world is all for a God of love. But it really doesn’t know what to do with a God of wrath. And so we need revelation because it encourages us to sing along with those saints in heaven, a song that celebrates the wrath of God as a demonstration of His perfect justice, and righteousness. You see, Revelation provides us with a response to the question, maybe you’ve heard it before. The question, why doesn’t God do something about all of the evil and suffering in the world? And the answer of Revelation is, be patient. evils Day Of Doom is surely coming. In fact, Revelation brings all the storylines of the Bible to a beautiful resolution made possible by the full and final wrath of God being poured out. The curse of sin and death that was dealt with at the cross is eliminated for good. That is what the wrath of God accomplishes. This is what Abel is what enables us to celebrate it, rather than be embarrassed by it. You see, when we get to the end of the book of Revelation, we’ve also come to the end of the Bible. And what we find is a fitting conclusion that marriage, that faltered in Eden, is finally consummated. In Revelation. The all of the children of God received their promised inheritance, people from every nation flow into the city making it a beautiful multi national community. God dwells in his temple, which now covers the whole of the earth. At the end of the of Revelation, we see that Jesus, the second Adam will not fail to lead us into a garden that will be even better than Eden, where we will enjoy fellowship with Him for all eternity. So don’t be afraid of Revelation. Enjoy and savor revelation. Allow it to shape your expectation. is for life and to fortify you for faithfulness, as you live in this in between time in between the ascension and the return of Jesus. May it be so. thank you so much