Revealing Jesus
By Matt Watson
I used to be terrified of zombies. I grew up with the modern resurgence of zombie disaster movies, from Resident Evil and Dawn of the Dead (the 2004 remake turns 20 this year, by the way) to World War Z and The Walking Dead. Most of these films were a result of our social anxiety following 9/11. Though scared, I was also fascinated—addicted to the tension inherent in stories about surviving an apocalypse.
Kids in the ’90s will also remember the craze surrounding the Left Behind books. Authors Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins wrote a dispensationalist premillennial fairy tale about the end of the world, and church ladies everywhere went wild for it. My mom had and read them all. This was the Christian version of the zombie movie feeling: surviving amidst global disaster, filled with anxiety, tension, and the unknown.
We are fascinated with the apocalyptic genre, but we don’t understand it. We think the apocalypse is all about the end of the world, when the word itself just means revelation. Thus, when we read the book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John, we focus on all the crazy stuff and miss what it’s actually about. The book of Revelation is not about revealing specific details about the end of the world, nor does it encourage us to chart and plot timelines, signs, or predict rapture dates. Yes, the end of the world (as we know it) is presented in the book of Revelation, but that is not what it’s about.
Eschaton
Like the rest of the Bible, Revelation is about Jesus and God’s final fulfillment to make all things new (Rev 21:5) through his Son. This is called the “eschaton,” from the Greek word for “end.” It’s about Jesus and the end of death (1 Cor 15:26), Jesus and the final judgment of all humankind (2 Cor 5:10a; Rev 20:11–13), Jesus and heaven (Rev 21), and Jesus and hell (Matt 25). But the common denominator in each of these topics is Jesus.
We cannot miss this. There is no end-times code to be interpreted from its pages. It is not secret, hidden, or mystical. It is not Gnosticism, where you need “deeper knowledge” or special tools to understand it. It is a message from Jesus to his people before the closing of the canon of Scripture and before the closing of history itself.
Our fears lead us to read Revelation through the lens of our news feeds. We need the faith to read it through the lens of Jesus’ victory.
Follow Me
What does Jesus have to say here? What if, and I’m not just speculating, it’s not a metaphor for America? Perhaps it’s a specific message given by Jesus through John, first to the seven churches at the beginning of the book, and then to the rest of Christendom afterward. In short, that message is: “Follow me.”
One thing we see in the opening verses is that we Christians today should respond as John did 2,000 years ago. Like John, we ought to:
Bear witness to the Word of God. We are to believe it and proclaim it, not edit or apologize for it.
Bear witness to the testimony of Jesus Christ, including his life, work, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Bear witness to all we see Jesus doing in our lives and the lives of others.
Whatever we are, Christians are not silent.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3 ESV
Know Jesus and Help Others Know Him
We proclaim Jesus, and we follow Jesus. We know Jesus, and we help others know him. That has been the calling on the lives of God’s people from the garden in Genesis 1:28 (the first commission), to the Great Commandment (Deut 6:4–6; Matt 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34), through the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20), and on through the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles to the churches in the New Testament. Know Jesus and help others know him.
Why? Revelation 1:4–8 tells us. It is because Jesus:
is the one “who is and who was and who is to come,”
is the “faithful witness,”
is “the firstborn of the dead,”
is “the ruler of kings on earth,”
“loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,”
has “made us a kingdom,”
made us “priests to his God and Father,”
has “glory and dominion forever and ever,”
and he is coming back, and everyone will see it and wail in fear if they are not his.
Jesus Wins
As a church, we are only studying the first three chapters of Revelation, which contain a series of rebukes and praises made by Jesus to seven churches in the region. Let’s pay attention to what he says and apply it to our obedience today.
It’s worth noting that, yes, there are other topics and considerations in the book of Revelation. I am not saying these things are unimportant. I am saying they are secondary to the main point of the book: Jesus and his victory on the cross. Remember that at his death, he said, “It is finished.” The atoning work is done. He is now on his throne, ruling everything and everyone. That is the main point of the book of Revelation.
This article was originally published by Matthew Watson with Awake! Put on strength!, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.