Fully Devoted: New CreationSample

Why Revelation Is So Crazy …

Now it’s time to talk about the craziest book in all of the Bible: Revelation. Once again we find ourselves at a point where the debates and disagreements around the proper interpretation are wide. 

Our goal is not to answer all the questions or settle all the debates. Instead, we’re going to take the same approach that we’ve taken to the rest of the Scriptures. We’re going to approach this powerful work of literature with humility and curiosity to discern what these words would have meant to the original audience, and what they’re supposed to mean to us today. 

The Bible is God’s Word for us, but it wasn’t originally written to us. 

Let’s start with the basics. 

Who wrote Revelation? Revelation was written by John, author of the fourth Gospel, while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. 

Who was John writing to? The recipients were Christian communities in the province of Asia, where John was the pastor. 

What was the context surrounding the writing of this letter? The Roman Empire was persecuting Christians because of their refusal to worship the emperor and their insistence that Jesus was the one true King of the world. 

What was the purpose of this letter? John’s goal in writing this letter was to encourage the persecuted Christians to remain faithful to Jesus in the midst of their trials because Jesus is coming back. When He does, He’ll kick out sin, death, and hell and usher in God’s eternal kingdom. 

That seems simple enough. So, where does all the confusion come from? 

The Bible is meant to be read literately, not just literally. 

Revelation is apocalyptic literature. This is a literary genre that uses images, symbols, and poetic language to reveal something to the reader that they were not previously aware of. That something often has to do with the character of God, the nature of reality, or the ways we are (or aren’t) living according to the practices of God’s Kingdom. 

Apocalypse comes from a Greek word that means “to uncover or reveal.” To have a revelation means seeing something in a new way, uncovered and unveiled. It’s seeing something as it really is. This is what the genre of apocalyptic literature is meant to do: knock us off balance so that we can see the world as it really is. Apocalyptic literature is designed to give us a heavenly perspective on our earthly situations. 

In the Bible, the idea of an apocalypse is not a reference to the end of the world. While that may be the way much of the modern world has understood it, biblically speaking, it’s about God giving us a new way of seeing the world. As the people of God, this should excite us, not scare us. God wants us to lay down our old assumptions, bad perspectives, and false ways of looking at the world so we can see the world as He does. 

While the idea of apocalyptic literature and this way of communicating may seem strange or new to some of us, it would not have been that way for the original audience. All throughout the Jewish Scriptures, this genre of literature shows up. And all throughout the biblical story, God gives revelations to His people to help them see the world in a new way. 

The Bible is meant to be read in passages, and not just pieces. 

Reading Revelation wisely will bring us back to the Jewish Scriptures constantly. Why is that? Because almost every symbol, image, and piece of poetic language in Revelation is pulled from the Old Testament. While many people have been tempted to interpret the different pictures from Revelation in the context of modern events, that is only going to lead to greater confusion. Before we can understand what the words of Scriptures mean now, we have to do the work of discovering what it would have meant then. 

To John’s original audience of mostly Jewish Christians, the words of Revelation would have exploded with power, meaning, and relevance. They would have seen the way he was drawing upon the writings of the prophets, themes from the Exodus, and the exile in Babylon and applying those to their very real struggles under Roman persecution. 

But not only that, they would have seen the way John was using this symbolic language to point forward to the return of our resurrected King. Throughout the book of Revelation, John is picking up the threads found throughout the rest of the biblical story and bringing them together to show his readers that there will come a day when the rightful King of Creation returns to rescue His people from the bondage of sin and restore His good creation. 

If we read Revelation in pieces, we’re going to come up with all sorts of crazy ideas about the what, why, and how of the end of the world. But when we read Revelation as one more passage contained within the larger story of God’s redemptive plan to rescue humanity from sin and restore creation, we start to see this book for what it truly is: the announcement that God’s Kingdom is more real than Rome’s Empire ever will be—and that Caesar is a passing shadow in light of our eternal King. 

The Bible is meant to transform us, not just inform us. 

Revelation is not a step-by-step guide to help us navigate the end of the world. Revelation is an invitation to see the world as it really is, and be transformed in the process. 

What we see determines how we live. And often, we can be so focused on our earthly circumstances that it can be really challenging to see the world with a heavenly perspective. But when we do, we see that God is at work to save and redeem His sin-riddled world through the life, death, resurrection, and eventual return of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.  

Journaling Questions 

• What verse stands out to you most in today’s reading? Write it in your journal. 
• If you had to explain the purpose behind Revelation to someone, what would you say?
• How might God want to use this portion of the biblical story to transform us? Journal about what you have been learning this week. 

Memory Verse

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 NIV