Westserve

Reflections on Revelation

If you are a regular reader here, you will know that at SNC we are working our way through the book of Revelation.
It was a deliberate choice to take a ‘broad view’ approach to the series – covering it in seven talks.
The down side to that is we have to skip over some of the juicier bits of the book that are worth looking at.
The upside is having to focus on the big themes of the book, which often get lost when working through it in greater detail.

One of those big themes is that of the perseverance of the saints.
The letter was originally written to churches suffering (or about to suffer) severe persecution, and Jesus (through John) offers encouragement to stand firm and keep on testifying to Him.

There are some very poignant passages that speak of this.
For example, Revelation 6:9-11 Jesus is opening the seals on the scroll which contains God’s plan for the world. The fifth seal reveals this image of Christians who have died for the faith:

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. ¹⁰They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” ¹¹Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

The words of ‘comfort’ that Jesus speaks to them, is to say “hang on guys, there’s a whole bunch more who have to join you, having died for me”

Of course, revealed by the sixth seal, are images that point us to Jesus death on the cross – a reminder of what he went through for us, and then Revelation 7 is a wonderful section, painting a beautiful image of all the saints in God’s presence, singing and praising God and the Lamb!

I love the balance, of the ideas and images, and how the ‘bad news’ of the deaths of the saints is placed into the context of eternity of heaven.

These are just wonderful truths, and they are very encouraging – in the big picture sense. But…
I wonder what we in the western world really do with this information?
We don’t suffer the kind of persecution that the saints of Revelation 6, or many people in other parts of the world today do. So how do we act on these greats truths, in a way that is in context with the life we live?

The only kind of ‘persecution’ most of us suffer is the ridicule and mocking of people whom we might share Jesus with.
And for many people, that simply means they stop sharing Jesus and find other ministries to do.

But the urging of Revelation is for the saints to keep testifying, even if it costs us our life.

We western Christians really do need a reality check, to help us start taking the Word seriously…

What do you think?
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