Many preachers over the years have learned that announcing a study of Revelation is like offering free money. Folks flock in to get the inside word on when Jesus will return, which political leader might be Antichrist, or how their credit cards will contribute to one-world government. The success of Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth a few years ago is ample evidence of the fascination such topics hold and the desire for some word about the future.
Yet the Revelation is so much more than a peek into the future. In it we gain a new understanding of who God is and how He wants to work in our lives.
I. We Learn What God Is Like
He Is Complete. Note the description of God as "him who is and who was and who is to come," then see it echoed in verse 8. There is here a sense of completeness, of fullness. No matter what our need, God is sufficient.
He is Sovereign, the description of Christ in verse 5 as "the ruler of kings on earth" emphasizes His sovereignty in history. Unlike the temporal rulers of earthly kingdoms, His rule is complete and eternal.
There is great assurance in knowing that God is in control of history. No matter how desperate human events may seem, we can find peace in the knowledge that God reigns over it all.
He Is Almighty. Though this word is only used one other place in the New Testament, John uses it nine times to describe God's power and greatness. For him, God was great beyond description.
Imagine our world hurtling through space as it circles our sun, along with the other planets that compose our solar system. Then imagine millions of other solar systems, larger than ours, also propelled through space, making up galaxies of unimaginable size. And then try to grasp that the same God whom we serve is the creator and sustainer of it all. What a powerful, almighty God we serve!
That's why it's so amazing that God would take a personal interest in you and me. Yet through John's Revelation...
II. We Learn What God Does For Us
He Gives Grace and Peace. Grace is undeserved favor that God extends to us through Christ. We don't deserve salvation, we can't do anything to earn it, yet He gives it freely out of His infinite love.
Grace produces peace -- not an absence of struggle, but an assurance of God's presence in struggle. Peace is that quality that allows us to weather the storms because we sense God's hand upon our lives.
He Abides With Us. The number "seven" has great meaning for John. In this book he will talk about a variety of sevens -- candlesticks, stars, lamps, seals, horns, eyes, thunders, angels, plagues, vials. For John the number seven represented completeness.
So in writing to seven churches there is a sense in which John is writing to the entire church of which these seven were symbols. And in talking of the seven spirits, it is likely he refers to the Holy Spirit as it is manifested with each of the seven churches. Thus we see the presence of the Spirit of God working alongside the people of God -- helping, supporting, sustaining, interceding.