I’m not gonna lie—there are times when I cringe when the book of Revelation enters the conversation. Why? Because so many people just over complicate it and miss the point! Revelation isn’t for us to try and guess the Second Coming, Jesus even told us that the time is not for us to know in Acts 1:7. That’s why I want to take a blog series to talk about the practical lessons we learn from Revelation. We’re not going to complicate it; we’re not going to even discuss the potential time for the Second Coming. Instead, we’re just going to talk about what God is teaching us in His Word.
Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy aloud, and blessed are those who hear and obey the things written in it, because the time is near! Revelation 1:3
New English Translation
This verse indicates that God provides information in Revelation that we can apply to our lives today. After all, how can we obey if we’re just reading a bunch of information for figuring out His return? So, with that knowledge, we need to practically approach the text, seeking ways to obey God and ways to live out His words. Let’s take a look at what we can see upfront.
To the one who loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood and has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and Father—to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! Amen. Revelation 1:5-6
New English Translation
Jesus, through His sacrifice, set us apart as priests. That’s an amazing realization. It can be easy to assume that the only benefit of being a Christian is forgiveness. However, the truly cool thing is that we are given a new role, a better job. Before, we lived for our own selfish gain. We wanted to honor ourselves and seek out what made us feel good. As priests of God, now we seek to honor God with every action. We look to Him for the answers to our questions. When people come to us for help, we don’t rely on our own wisdom, instead, we turn to God and ask Him for help. Isn’t that cool? We’re promoted to God’s priests, which gives us purpose and a Higher Up (God) to turn to for help!
(Look! He is returning with the clouds,
New English Translation
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him,
and all the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him.
This will certainly come to pass! Amen.) Revelation 1:7
Every eye will see Him. That’s our desire, or at least it should be. As Christ followers, we shouldn’t be seeking attention for ourselves. Instead, we should always be pointing others to Christ, helping them see Him in their lives. That’s where people will find hope. Sure, by seeing Christ in us, they will see some hope. However, the real hope is in seeing Him. Why does this verse mention mourning? Well, if you’re not following Christ, then you’re going to mourn when you see Him and realize how far you are from Him. That’s the sad truth. As priests, we should be helping people move toward God so they don’t experience that.
One of my favorite things I’ve heard is from Matt Heard who said that eternal life starts here on earth. Eternal life is about living life closely with God. Every choice we make, every moment we live, we choose between eternal life or life far from God. When we choose to follow Christ, we don’t get to live like the world anymore. True fellowship with Christ is in surrendering your entire being to Christ and then living with Him every moment. That’s the only way that anyone will be able to look at you and know that you are different than the world. That’s what it’s like to be a priest.
So, what do we learn right away from Revelation? We’re different. We are supposed to be different. Plus, we have a special task from God to not only honor Him with our lives but to allow Him to work through us when others need our help. It’s not about us, it’s always about God, and that’s the truth that we need to take into every thing. Here’s the basic beginning of Revelation that I want you to keep in mind as we continue our journey through Revelation.