So What's In Revelation?

Ask folks what comes to mind when they think of Revelation (not Revelations by the way) and what will they say?  Perhaps the Anti-Christ, perhaps the four horsemen of the apocalypse; or perhaps they will think of the seemingly incessant turmoil and violence in the Middle East.  Images of destruction, "Hell on Earth," dragons and devils, angels and demons may come to mind.  It may be the end of the book with its glorious image of the New Jerusalem coming down to earth.  Far too commonly folks read Revelation about the same way they regard Tarot Cards or a daily horoscope.  It becomes simply a book about telling the future.  I argue that reducing the book to simply a means to tell the future effectively renders impotent one of the most powerful parts of scripture.

Yes, Revelation does refer to Christ's return, but it is also much more than that.  The trouble with Revelation is that too often we listen to what others say about the book rather than actually reading it ourselves.  "Why don't you read Revelation?  Well, because I don't understand it.  Well why don't you understand it?  Well, because I don't read it!"  Instead of reading and pondering the mysteries of the book for ourselves, we settle for the Left Behind series of cheap novels and movies.  Yes, Left Behind and its sequels are works of pure fiction, and one could almost say that any similarity between them and and historic Christian teaching about Revelation could almost be said to be accidental.

So what is Revelation?  Among many things it is a book of worship.  The grandest scenes of worship in all of scripture are found here.  We see here worship in the heavenly throne room, on earth, the entire universe even.  Over the next five Sundays I'll be doing a series of sermons that I've been pondering for years.  Each week I'll be preaching from one of the worship scenes of Revelation.  In my opinion, this is far more important than trying to decipher from the pages of the book who the Anti-Christ is or when a temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt.

Why are the worship passages important?  Primarily, it's because they focus our attention on the one who is being worshipped.  The remind us that only God and the Lamb are to be worshipped.  Domitian (the Roman emperor at the time Revelation was written) is not to be worshipped.  God alone is.  We aren't to worship any of the things that we make with our hands be they job, status, political party, political leader, or possessions.  These passages can drive us to our knees in awe and wonder at the glory of our God.  In seminary some years ago, one of these passages quite literally reduced me to tears as I studied it.  Chapter five, the first of these worship scenes, sets in motion everything else in the book and is arguably the most important chapter in Revelation.

Come worship with us to hear, absorb, and breathe in these majestic passages.  I won't mention the fictitious rapture event, the Anti-Christ, or the millennium.  Instead, I will describe things far more important.  You will hear the song of ten thousand times ten thousand angels worshipping the Lamb that was slain.  You will meet a great multitude in robes made white in the blood of the Lamb.  You will smell the incense that wafts up before the throne of God, incense that is the prayers of the saints and martyrs.  You will taste the great feast that is the marriage supper of the Lamb.