Revelation for All of Us

The one who keeps you sits in the throne

Oh no. You’ve just made it to church with 3 minutes to spare. It’s the first week of summer vacation, and none of the kids were ready to get up this morning. It’s been a long week, and you’re just hoping to catch up with a friend and hear an encouraging word. You grab the bulletin. Yikes. The sermon is on Revelation. Guess I can forget about trying to relax this morning. The title? “The Easiest One: How We Know Why This Is Here and the End of Fake News.” What does that even mean? Do we have to talk about politics? And surely you don’t mean to tell me that Revelation is an easy book?

Actually…maybe that is what I’m trying to say. And maybe Revelation is exactly the kind of book to come back to when you’re exhausted and discouraged.

Of course, that sermon title is the name of the sermon from last Sunday. What do I mean when I say that Revelation is the easiest book to understand? Maybe it would be helpful to first tell you what I don’t mean. For one, I don’t mean that we always know what’s going on. I don’t mean that there’s a way to make perfect sense of it, and I certainly don’t mean there’s an obvious way to read every verse.

What I do mean is that perhaps no book in our Bibles stands before us with such a clear goal in mind.

There’s no doubt that Revelation is unique. Only Daniel 7-12 really comes close to it, and that’s because both Revelation and the second half of Daniel belong to a particular genre of writings: apocalyptic literature.

With most books of the Bible, we don’t know what they are about just from reading the first verse, let alone just by knowing what kind of book it is. We probably wouldn’t know the central message of Exodus just by knowing it’s a historical book. We definitely don’t know how Leviticus relates to the gospel just by knowing that it has a bunch of laws. When we read the letters of Paul, we have no idea what their contents are without doing just that: reading them.

Apocalyptic writing is nothing like that.

In a way, books like Revelation do all the heavy lifting for us. We might struggle to understand all of the details, but they always have a clear point in mind that we can know even before we read it. In other words, even if we are confused on a particular detail, we can easily remember the big idea because the author's main point will constantly remain the same.

First, some context. “Apocalyptic” actually got its name from the very first word of Revelation. Believe it or not, there’s nothing about the word “apocalypse” that has anything to do with the end of the world. Perhaps you notice that it actually sounds very similar to other words, like Eucalyptus for example. Here’s a picture of a eucalyptus tree blooming:

Do you see how the bud almost looks like a cap, keeping the flower beneath it hidden from sight? One might say that the flower is “well-hidden.” In fact, that’s exactly how it got its name. Kalyptos means hidden, and the Eucalyptus tree hides its flowers quite well!

Apocalypse sounds similar because it also comes from that same word, but instead of hiding, it reveals what is hidden. We might say that an apocalypse refers to “lifting the veil” over something hidden. It became easier just to call this book “Revelation.” Of course, it’s also easy to see how it makes most people think of the end. Revelation does reveal a number of things set in the future. But its purpose is actually not to simply show the future, but to show how God could possibly still be in control during the craziness of the present moment.

Biblical apocalyptic writing always strives to make a single point as clear as day : despite all of the evidence that points to the contrary, you have not been forgotten, you are right where you’re supposed to be for reasons you cannot comprehend, and you will be decisively restored and vindicated because of it.

Revelation assumes that God’s people are not always doing well. It doesn’t bury its head in the sand and pretend nothing is wrong. Instead, it aims to show how our lives can feel like they’re falling apart and still be part of what God has in store for us in the times to come. It says there’s no hole we’ve dug ourselves into that’s too deep, no person in our life who's too lost, no report or diagnosis that’s too severe. It knows that God’s people are in trouble, and in the same way that it tells us the Church will be preserved through the end, it assures you that the God who is for you is the same who is in control, working all things for your good.

You'll be surprised what else it knows.

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