Revelation

I recently shared a meal with a very experienced retired minister with a long history of preaching.  We were talking about how at Northside we were reading through Revelation as we neared the end of the SOAP experience of reading and journaling through the New Testament.  He said something that both shocked and comforted me,  "I don't understand Revelation.  Some of it sounds like it runs counter to the rest of the New Testament."

Now he was in no way questioning Revelation's place in the Bible, he was just making an honest confession of his struggle with the book.  I found it shocking that with his experience  he would say he did not understand it.  He is someone who has always seemed sure of himself, his opinions and his insights but here was an admission of where he truly was inside.  I have felt and still feel the same way.

There are places in Revelation that don't sound like the rest of the New Testament.  I will agree to that, but as I am reading it again I am finding that even in all the earth shaking judgments and the cataclysm of the apocalypse there are moments of incredible intimacy - far beyond the rest of the New Testament.

I mentioned in last week's message how it moved me to read in Revelation 1:17 (as if I had read it for the first time) these words as John described his seeing the overpowering, brilliant glory of Jesus in heaven, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  Then he placed his right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid.'" 

The all glorious, all powerful Lord Jesus reached down with his almighty right hand and touched this old friend in his fear and faltering understanding.  Then he spoke words that John had heard before from those lips, "Do not be afraid."  In all the near unimaginable images in Revelation, I am glad that intimate encounter is there at the beginning.  It brings to light the unchanging love of Jesus. Even though his appearance is so drastically different, he has the same heart that John knew on earth.

Jesus is the one who was and is and is to come.  That gives us all something to look forward to even if we do not understand it all.

for the journey...

Tim