The Great Revelation And Announcement Series

We begin by looking at some basic facts about the Book of Revelation. Revelation means to uncover or unveil. It means to pull back a covering or a veil that is hiding something. This is what the Book of Revelation is. It is the great revelation of Jesus Christ to us, His followers.

There is a wonderful fact in this revelation and what it means. It means that there are some things that God wants us to know and we could never know them if we were left on our own. It means that God cares about us and He loves us enough to reveal these things to us.

In fact, God cares so much for us that He has revealed a whole book of events to us. What are these events? They are truths that are out in the future—events that concern the end of the world.

The theme of the Book of Revelation is not the seven churches, not the seven seals, not the seven trumpets, not the seven bowls, or the Beast, or the Antichrist, or the symbolism. The theme is that Jesus Christ is victorious!

The book is primarily a book of prophecy; it seems to begin as an epistle or a letter. It addresses seven different churches with seven different problems or challenges. It foretells things that are to come.

I want to again mention that the book is about the revelation of Jesus Christ. It depicts Him as:

• The risen glorified Son of God ministering to the churches.

• The faithful witness.

• The firstborn from the dead.

• The ruler over the kings of the world.

• The Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

• The One who is and was and is to come, the Almighty.

• The One who is holy and true.

• The beginning of all creation.

• The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

• The Lamb on the throne.

• The Messiah who will reign forever.

• The King of kings and Lord of lords.

• The bright and morning star.

In the first three verses, there are four significant things that are said about the revelation of Jesus Christ. So many times people are so eager to get into the millennial views of the Book that they skim over some very important things that God is trying to tell them. Let’s look at these four facts:

1. The first is that the revelation was given by Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is actually the author of the Book of Revelation but we must note that the revelation was given to Jesus by God the Father.

READ verse 1. When Jesus was on earth, this is what He said about His return and the end of the world in Mark 13:32. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

However, when Jesus ascended into heaven, God the Father revealed these things to Christ. This is significant because it means that the things we are about to learn did not come from man, but from God Himself. So this revelation concerns things that God Himself wants us to know.

Think of the thousands of self-proclaimed prophets on earth right now. Each of them claims to know about God and to have some revelation from Him but here in the very Word of God, is a whole book that He Himself has authored and this book contains some very special things God wants us to know. What are these things? That’s the next point.

2. The revelation concerns things that will take place soon. We are told in verse one that these things must soon take place. We need to note some things about the end time revelation.

First, the revelation concerns future events; events that are yet to happen in the end time.

Secondly, the early believers had looked for these events to take place very soon. They expected it to happen in their lifetime. Did it? No! Because they expected it to happened in their lifetime, they did just what Jesus told them to do—look and watch for His return. Jesus said in Matthew 24:42, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

The third thing that we need to note about the end time revelation is that God’s clock measures time differently than man’s clock. That’s pretty clear to us. After all, it’s been almost 2000 years since Jesus gave this revelation and it hasn’t happened yet. Does this mean that John was wrong in saying that the events were to happen shortly? No!

God clearly reveals to us that we are living in the last days and of the events that are to happen in the last days. He also reveals to us that a thousand years is as one day with God. The point is, the return of Christ and the end of the world are God’s affairs, not man’s. The time frame is based on God’s time, not man’s. The events are in God’s hands. In fact, based upon God’s measurement of time it has been only about two days since Jesus Christ revealed the events of the revelation, give or take.