Blessed Are Those Who Keep The Faith (Revelation 1:1-8)                    2009.11.29                                 Pastor Richard Yu

        With this message, I’m beginning a new series on the Book of Revelation. Why study this book? I have five reasons: (1) people’s unending fascination with the end times. Does the Bible speak of an end time? If it does, how should we be prepared? (2) Revelation seems to be one of the most difficult books to understand in the Bible. With its complex literary structure, its prophetic and apocalyptic characteristics, and its rich imagery and symbolism, it’s often difficult for its readers to come to a firm grip of its meaning. (3) Revelation is one of the most relevant Bible books to our times. We will discover that it speaks a contemporary word to the church and to the world. (4) Revelation is the only book that carries with it a specific promise of blessing for reading it, studying it, and keeping it (1:3; 22:7). (5) Revelation is the only book that ends with a warning against the failure to keep it in its entirety (22:18-19).

        Therefore, it is well worth our time and effort to hear and see the words in it, and to live according to the truths we find in it. What kind of book is the Revelation? What is so unusual about it that makes it seem difficult to understand? And is it really hard to understand?

        First, the form of this book is very close, but not quite equal, to what is called an apocalypse. This is the Greek word, apocalypses, which we translate as “revelation.”  Apocalyptic literature is in a sense fantasy, using imageries and symbols, visions and dreams, numbers and natural phenomenon, and the like.

        Apocalyptic literature seeks to unveil that unseen reality of the present, to pull back the curtain on the present so that we see what is really going on. The word apocalypses simply means “unveiling” or “disclosure.” It to lift up a cover to reveal what’s underneath, to “expose to full view what was before unknown, hidden, and secret.” So in this sense, although the form seems strange, even bizarre at times, the meaning it carries is not meant to be concealed.

        Second, the contents of Revelation are mostly prophecy. Five times John calls the Book “the prophecy.” Its purpose is to show what must soon take place. The word prophecy speaks of “declaration” more than “prediction.”  It is not merely about prediction of the future events; but about judgment and salvation in the Old Testament prophetic tradition, which requires an immediate response to God’s will.

        The opening words “The revelation of Jesus Christ” can either mean a revelation “about Jesus Christ” or a revelation “from Jesus Christ.” It is a disclosure about Christ Jesus given by himself. It reveals his present work in the church, and discloses future events that concern Christ and his return and activities associated with his second coming.

        Third, the nature of Revelation is essentially a letter – an Epistle. John was told to write what he saw on a scroll and send it to the seven churches (1:11). So this is a letter from John to the seven churches in the province of Asia (1:4; 2:1-3:22). Writing to the churches in his time, and in their specific circumstances, John encourages and prepares the believers who are facing or about to face severe persecution; therefore it is reasonable to think that what he writes would address issues they were facing, and would make sense to them.

        And here is the encouraging news: By and large, Revelation is NOT difficult to know and understand what John means to the first hearers. Because almost all of the imageries, numbers, symbols, and visions could be found in the scriptures, which they were already familiar with. Just as we in the US would immediately identify the symbols of elephant and donkey with the Republican and Democratic Parties.   

        E.g.: The seven spirits who are before the throne of God is readily understood by the first hearers as a figurative designation of the Holy Spirit, expressing the diversity of God’s work in the church and the world. They would have recognized that the expression “seven spirits” is an allusion to Zechariah 4:2-7, which identified the seven lamps as God’s one Spirit; and to Isaiah 11:2, with its reference to the Spirit of Yahweh coming upon the Messianic King. So John’s readers would readily  understand that he is referring to the  sevenfold characteristics of the one Spirit, or the all-around ministry of the one Spirit.

        Finally, we are told in the opening sentences that there is a blessing inherent in the hearing, seeing, studying and keeping of the words of this Book (1:3). This is a promise of the happiness, spiritual blessing, and joy that will come from knowing, and responding to, and living according to, the truth of the book. Throughout the book the promise of blessedness is mentioned seven times (cf. 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7; & 22:14).

        Why Blessed? Because Revelation presents a fundamental issue of life. The same issue facing the first Century believers and us in the 21st Century: Whom or what will I worship? The power of the present age or Jesus Christ? The beast or the slaughtered Lamb? The kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, or humanity in rebellion against God? In the end, John is concerned more about their spiritual complacency than the immediate persecution. That’s why John keeps exhorting them to hold on to their faith to the end, not giving in to the seductive riches and power of “Babylon,” and assuring them that they will overcome because the slaughtered Lamb, the Lion, has already overcome.

        So Revelation calls us to a faithful living – to an unreserved and unwavering loyalty to the Lamb in a world fervently worshipping the beast, to a radical kingdom living as described by Jesus in his Beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount, and be counted among the “blessed!”