Imagine momentarily that you are the risen Christ. The first century is coming to a close. In spite of many hardships, your new Church is growing rapidly.

Focusing on the big-picture battle between the kingdoms of light and darkness, you want to both encourage your followers and warn them about difficult days in the future. To complicate matters, you know that your words need to remain relevant to your people for not only hundreds, but thousands of years to come.

Would you have come up with speaking your truth by way of sharing a series of visions? Sure, these highly imaginative word-pictures will be subject to all kinds of wild interpretations. But they will also merit careful study by the finest of biblical scholars.

To my way of thinking, what Jesus pulled off was beyond genius. The apocalyptic approach was a style the early Church understood. Moderns can also appreciate the complications involved if our Lord attempted to be too literal in His approach. For example, how does one refer to countries like the United States or Brazil, or a religion such as Islam, when none of these have come into being yet?

What Jesus did was craft a message that was applicable to the early Church, the Church through the various ages, and even the Church of the modern day. His work has been especially appropriate for Christians in settings where persecution exists. Then again, people who have experienced peace all their lives also gain much from the study of it.

Parts of His Revelation still remain a mystery. Its basic message, however, is not only understandable, but incredibly helpful in terms of how you and I live our lives as His followers.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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The name of the last book of the Bible could have been “Apocalypse.” Chapter 1, verse 1 reads:

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.”

The verse could just as easily begin, “The apocalypse of Jesus Christ…” That’s because the Greek word translated as “revelation” is apokalypsis. It was rendered revelation to emphasize this unique revealing of divine truth about the end-times that humans aren’t capable of discovering on their own.

The way the word apocalypse is popularly used today, it involves events that mark the end of the world as we know it. You’ve probably watched movies that deal with this theme. My guess is that familiar international landmarks were shown being destroyed. Scenes of this sort portray without words that catastrophic changes are in the offing.

In New Testament times, people were accustomed to an apocalyptic style of writing. From approximately 200 B.C. to A.D. 150, various unknown Jewish and Christian writers used pseudonyms, or the name of some well-known figure from the past, like Enoch or Moses, to write with supposed authority about the cosmic battle of Good versus Evil. They frequently made use of dreams, or journeys to heaven or highly symbolic imagery to get their messages across. It was also common to contrast this present evil age with a better world that was to come.

Daniel is considered the prototype of all apocalyptic writers. Re-said, he’s the originator of this type of material.

Revelation is not the only place in the New Testament where this type of writing is seen. Scholars also point to Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25 and to Chapter 2 of Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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An old man lay sprawled across three entire seats in the movie theater. When the usher noticed this, he whispered, “Sorry, sir, but you’re only allowed one seat.”

The old man just groaned but didn’t bulge. The usher became impatient.

“Sir, if you don’t get up from there, I’m going to call the manager.” Once again, the old man just groaned.

The usher marched back up the aisle, and in a moment returned with the manager. Together they tried repeatedly to move the old man, but with no success.

Finally they summoned the police. The officer surveyed the situation briefly, then asked, “All right, buddy, what’s your name?”

“Fred,” the old man groaned.

“Where you from, Fred?” asked the police officer.

With terrible pain in his voice, and without moving a muscle, Fred replied, “The balcony.”

A pastor friend e-mailed me that story. Here were people so caught up in the details of their own agenda, they completely missed the big picture.

Revelation has all kinds of details that can quickly bog things down. I’m convinced that what it wants to tell us is big-picture. Let me give you an example.

Starting in Chapter 2, Jesus has a message for each of seven churches. In every case that message is relatively easy to understand even though there are details that might remain confusing.

We can clearly grasp what our Lord’s message is to the church in Pergamum even though we’re not sure what the“hidden manna” or the “white stone” refer to in verse 17.

Be willing to overlook some of the details as long as you have the big picture clearly in mind. The guy needs to be taken to the hospital. At the moment, the detail of the “one seat per customer” rule isn’t all that important!

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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