The Mustard Seed Mill

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

When we consider the book of Revelation, many things come to mind.  

Fear seems to be on the outskirts of this book.  

Disagreement over theories of the end times.  

The mark of the beast…

The Antichrist…

I grew up reading, but not understanding a lot of details about the Bible, much less the book of Revelation.  I have a dusty old memory of being in one of the “fellowship” rooms in our small church with some man who had unlocked all the secrets to the book of Revelation and had them mapped out in a chart.  The adults were ready to know what the future held and the kids were some blurry mixture of confused, bored and afraid. 

As an adult, I didn’t spend too much time thinking about the book of Revelation, even noting scriptures such as Acts 1:11 as a reason for me to not worry too much about understanding Revelation or the end times, but to focus on what God has for today.  

While I can definitely get behind the warning: “don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good,” I also don’t think that God would give us a part of His word that He does not intend to use for edification of His church.  In my experience, the book of Revelation can either become the cornerstone of someone’s faith fight, or it can be like that bag of giblets that’s stuffed in a frozen turkey.  Hardly anyone really knows why those are there or what to do with them. So, we either throw them away or turn them into something weird for people to gawk at on the otherwise glorious Thanksgiving table. 

I’d like to take a minute, however, to examine an important part of the book of Revelation that we seem to gloss over.  

The very first verse. 

Revelation 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. 

Yes, this scripture talks about things that must take place, but what does it say before that?  The first words in this book are: “the revelation of Jesus Christ.”   In reading the book of Revelation, and so often in our lives, we worry about the things that must take place and we leave out the revelation of Jesus Christ.  All throughout Revelation, we see things that are happening, much of which can scare us out of our minds if we’re just thinking about the antichrist and terrible conditions that are described.  But what we fail to remember is that throughout the book of Revelation, there are descriptors of Jesus.  He’s the rider on a white horse.  His eyes are like flames of fire!    In the book of Revelation, we see never before seen footage of who Jesus is.  When we look, we can see Jesus in the midst of it all.  

I think about the book of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets.  So many prophesies of Jesus and circumstances surrounding His coming.  I wonder if there was a traveling middle-aged man with a chart there in the fellowship hall of the synagogue on a Wednesday night mapping out just how Jesus would come and how he would overthrow the Roman government.  Was there a group of Jews fighting over whether or not Jesus would come before or after certain events?  Whether or not they would be there to be a part of His reign? 

I don’t know exactly what those discussions were like, but I do know they did expect Jesus to return and set up an earthly kingdom.  They expected Him to overthrow Rome. 

Jesus had something much bigger in mind.  Something we didn’t imagine from the prophecies.  Jesus wanted to free them from something more eternal than Rome.  He wanted to free them from sin and self.  He wanted to free them from the law of sin and death.  

When we look at Revelation, there is much we can discern, but there is also much that we are unable to understand in this present time.  Prophecies are like that.  We get a taste of what’s to come, but it’s often not until we are looking back at the prophecy that we can fully appreciate it for what God was trying to tell us.  So, of what can we be sure when we look at the book of Revelation? 

The book of Revelation is the only book that carries with it a special blessing for reading it, hearing it, and keeping what is in it.  

The book of Revelation is where we see Jesus, shown like never before in the midst of a world that offers a lot of unknowns.  

We see Jesus as victorious and having the final say.  

Remember that moment when Peter stepped out onto the water?  Sometimes we want to give Peter a hard time for the moment when He took his eyes off Jesus.  First, let’s give Peter the credit he is due for being the only one who stepped out of the boat.  Then, let’s remember that the circumstances around him seemed to be so overwhelming that he took his eyes off Jesus to look at what was around him.  The book of Revelation can be like that.  We can get too busy looking at the circumstances that we don’t keep our eyes on Jesus.  

Jesus didn’t want us to be oblivious or ignoring of the circumstances around us, but instead, He wanted us to look to Him through it.  John 16:33 is an example of this.  Jesus reminds us in this scripture that in this world we will have trouble, but to take heart because He has overcome the world.  

When we look at the book of Revelation, or at our lives, we see circumstances that lead to unknowns.  We see things we really want to understand and know ahead of time.  We want to advocate for our viewpoint.  We want to be able to clearly spell out what we believe the future holds and we often want to cling more tightly to those things than we do to Jesus.  

Being aware of our circumstances is important.  Looking around and having a discerning eye is important.  Prayerfully considering what the future holds is important.  But let’s not take our eyes off of the One by which all things exist: Jesus.  

Peter was in the same storm when he got out of the boat and started walking as he was when he started to sink.  His circumstances didn’t change.  His gaze changed.  

When we read God’s word or when circumstances come, are we fixing our gaze on the storms and unknowns or are we fixing our eyes on Jesus?  I think most often, Jesus wants nothing more than to reveal more of Himself to us.  The book of Revelation is a great example of this.   

So, as you read God’s word or experience life circumstances, I encourage you to keep your gaze fixed on Jesus. He’s the one, who regardless of circumstances, will keep you afloat.  

I pray that above all else, we will have a revelation of Jesus Christ.