Book of Revelation - difficult or easy to read.

The Bible has 66 books in which there are 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament.

The last book in the Bible is the Book of Revelation.

Ironically, in spite of the name of this book many people think that this book is full of hidden meanings as well as very difficult to read because of all the imageries seen by John (author of the book).

It talks about seals, trumpets, red dragon, wild beast, bowls and lastly in chapter 21 and 22 the new heaven and the new earth.

 image source: https://lh3.ggpht.com/c3ZihJ0Q1wnt8xEqfbRCs7EPfnAOSeYfswPZKFmZJPGp3H9mQx7pE9QUjzqjN48z0A=h900

Have you read the Book of Revelation?  What do you think?  Is it difficult or is it easy?

I think it is both difficult and easy.

It is easy to read

Let’s go over the easy part.

This book is written with the very purpose of revealing things from Jesus Christ.  Revelation 1:1 (The Revelation of Jesus Christ …) explicitly spell out that this book is the revelation of Jesus Christ for us to understand.  Also in verse 3 it points out that those who read, hear and practice whatever is written in this book will be blessed.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

The whole Bible is inspired by God and profitable

• for teaching,
• for reproof,
• for correction,
• for training in righteousness

and that man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (II Timothy3: 16 – 17).

With these 2 ideas, we can be sure that we are not supposed to be confused by the content of the book in the Bible.

It is true that there are a lot of imageries in the Book of Revelation in which we can interrupt this way or we can interrupt another way.  What can this be and how it is being done?

If we look at these imageries, they are not the focus of what the Book of Revelation is about.  The book is to tell of God’s greatness, His wrath to sin and what is to come with the purpose that we will be ready for Jesus’ second coming.

Many people like to speculate who the Anti-Christ is?  But how does it matter if we know who the Anti-Christ is?  How will this affect us if we can clearly identify who the Anti-Christ is?

Take for example: If you are standing on the street and I suddenly say to you "A car is coming".  What do you do?  Do you immediate step back to the sidewalk?  Or do you take your time to look at what car is coming? Is the car big or is the car small?  What color is the car?  Is it a late model?  The car is domestic  made or foreign made?

It does not matter the exact detail of the car.  The point is that a car is coming and is going to hit you if you still stand on the street.  

The reason that I tell you that a car is coming is that you can step back to the sidewalk and avoid being hit.

This is the main idea for the Book of Revelation - we are to listen and take heed so that we are ready for Jesus' second coming.

It is difficult to read

God only reveal what we need to know and nothing more.  There are things in the Book of Revelation is interesting to dig deeper.  How it is related to the OT?  

One example is in Rev 5:4 John wept greatly when he saw that no one is worthy to open the seal of a book that he saw.  Why did John wept?  Is it because no one is worthy or the book cannot be open or both?  We do not know.  There are no hinds in the Bible to tell us.

Another reason that the Book of Revelation is difficult to read is that we are not Jews and we are not familiar with the Old Testament especially the book of Ezekiel and Daniel.

I myself is interested to be able to link the imageries describe in the Book of Revelation to the Old Testament and if we can better understand of the Bible.  But I don't think this will be hindering us to understand the true purpose of the Book of Revelation.

It is for us to read

With this I hope I can provide one perspective for you to read the Book of Revelation and to be blessed because you read, hear and take heed of what is written in this book.

Chapter 4 and 5 is what I called the ultimate worship.  The 4 Living creatures and the 24 elders respond to God's greatest who is sitting on the throne and bow down to worship.

My favorite verse is Ephesian 1:17: I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know 

1. what is the hope of His calling, 
2. what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and 
3. what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe

I hope our hearts are enlightened so that we can see/know (fully understand) the riches of the glory of the inheritance that we are to receive.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, we are to sit on Jesus' throne along with Him and not that He will have a big throne and we get some other smaller throne but we got to sit on His throne also.  How glorious it is to be sitting with Him on His throne.

Can you see how glorious this is?  Are you ready for Jesus' second coming?

Basic Prerequisite of Giving an Acceptable Service to our God.

Each day I thank God for granting me strength, wisdom and life and most of all salvation so I can “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace …” (Hebrews 4:16).

As I read the book of Hebrews I came across Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we receive a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.” To show our gratitude for God we are called to offer an acceptable service.

When I read the word “acceptable”, another verse came to my mind.  Romans 12:1 “

I URGE you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship”.  The word acceptable can be pleasing.  So how can we give a pleasing/acceptable service to God?

The basic requirement for giving an acceptable/pleasing service to God is to have a clean conscience.

In Titus 1:15 “To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled.”  When Adam fell, our consciences are darkened or defiled but thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ, his blood not on cleansed our sins but all “restored” our conscience.  Hebrews 9:14 tells us “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” 

Also in Hebrews 10:22 “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”

When we received Jesus into our heart not only is our sins forgiven, our conscience is restored and  thus we are able to offer acceptable/pleasing service to God.

The 3 roles of a Christian.

After we have received Christ we are considered righteous (sinless) in God’s eye – “Justification by faith” which is mentioned in Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Being a Christian, we inherited 3 different roles:

• Children of God
• Trainee of God
• Servant of God

Most people will say we are king, priest and prophet after we received Christ in which I totally agree.  I am just trying to look at this at a different angle.

Children of God

Romans 8: 16-17 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  These 2 verses clearly stated that we are children of God.  This is why we call other Christians brothers and sisters.  This is great honor that we can call the Almighty God – heavenly Father.

Trainee of God

“For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,  do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might” (Eph 1: 15 – 19)

Romans 8 17 stated that we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.  We are to inherit the Kingdom of God.  Ephesians 1: 15 – 19, Paul prayed earnestly that the eyes of the Christians in Ephesus be enlightened that they may see the riches of the glory of God’s inheritances. 

We are to reign with Christ in God’s Kingdom.  We are to be trained to know how to rule with Jesus.

Servant of God

This is the main idea that I would like to share with you.  Living in America, it is not so easy to understand what a servant is.  Often times we don’t really understand what is the role of a servant.  It is different from an employee.

Jesus die on the cross for us and we are bought with a very high price. In 1 Cor 6:20 “

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body”.

Like it or not we are a servant of God.  We are to serve our Master.  A servant will pick up trash for the Master.  A servant will clean the toilet of the Master.  No question asked.  Just do it.  

At church are you willing to pick up the trash for Jesus? At church are you willing to clean up the dog shit in front of the worship center.  This is the basic job of a servant. 

Also as a servant we are to be humble before our fellow Christians.  In Philippians 2: 3 "

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves"

We need to have a servant’s heart.

Had anyone asked you - "Does God has a name"?

A name represent a person.  Parents name their children according to their expectation to the kids.  Most people live up to their names.

In Exodus, God asked Moses to lead the Israelite out of slavery in Egypt and go to the Promised Land.  Moses asked God saying – “Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

So what is God’s name?

Exodus 3:14 “And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM; and He said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “I AM” has sent me to you”

God’s name is “I AM”.  This is how God called Himself.  When we say His name we will say “HE IS”.

O.K. so what? 

In Exodus 3:15: God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.

We know God is love, God is righteous and even Jehovah Shalom (LORD is Peace).  But why “I AM” or “HE IS”?

It means God is EVERYTHING.  Jehovah Shalom is only one aspect of God.  It cannot truly describe God.

This has special meaning to me.  God is EVERYTHING that he can be my coach, teacher, counselor ….

Do you have such faith to trust that God is EVERYTHING?

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

We must have faith to please God.  Well faith in what?  The faith is that we believe that his name is “He is”.  Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”.

As a person experience, I like Chinese Kung Fu/Martial Arts and I can even say I have a passion on Kung Fu.  I have to say I am a peaceful man.  I like Kung Fu as a sport and it is amazing to see how the Kung Fu master issue the force to expel people a few feet away.  Well, I never have a chance to find a master to learn Kung Fu from.  15 years ago I have a good opportunity to learn from a Master but the class was in Sunday morning.  I have to worship God on Sunday morning so I passed out this opportunity.   

But then I ask God to be my Kung Fu master.   

And sure enough God had honored me since I have honored Him to forsake my personal interest so that I can worship Him on Sunday.  God show me insights on various aspect of Kung Fu and I can say I have certain “knowledge” on Kung Fu. 

God is EVERYTHING.  I encourage you to explore this aspect of God.