A Door Open in Heaven

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

I’m not sure if you’ve seen on the internet or in a museum some of the great, uh, big story narrative tapestries that have been made throughout history. For example, the Bayeux Tapestry that was made in the 11th century, it’s 70 meters long and it tells the story of the Norman conquest of England. And it goes through all these different stages, and you walk along it, and you get It tells the story of, of how they took over the land, and you see little pictures and little phrases and little words, all made together over a long period of time of weaving with wool.

A- another one, probably the most magnificent, is called the Tapestry of the Apocalypse, which is a tapestry about the Book of Revelation, where they’ve pictorially created the Book of Revelation in the 14th century. It’s 140 meters long, and, and you can go to a museum and you can walk along this enormous wall, and it’s just picture after picture, scene after scene after scene in beautiful ornament depicting all of the incredible pictures that you see in the Book of Revelation. It was organized by Louis I of Anjou, and its magnificence is kind of overwhelming. I mean, you just look at the pictures online, and it’s something to cr- incredible to b- incredible to behold, but you could imagine going there and standing in the building and looking at the whole thing. And it’s too big to take it, sort of, in one breath, right? You’d have to walk through it and stand back, and walk through it and stand back to try and catch it all.

And the Book of Revelation itself is a little bit like that tapestry. Uh, it’s a big tapestry with lots of stuff in it, with scenes and different pictures. And in order for us to benefit from it, it’s really helpful for us to just step back for a second this morning and to consider the tapestry itself so that when we then begin to get into some of the scenes and the pictures and the details, Lord willing, it can be more of a blessing to us. We can feed upon it.

Because for many of us, I have no doubt, for many of us, we look at the Book of Revelation and we kind of go, “It makes a cool story, but I’ve got no idea what to do with it. I mean, there’s locusts with hair and women’s mouths. There’s horsemen. You know, there’s just so much stuff going on it’s an exciting read, but I’ve got no idea what it means.” And Lord willing, we don’t want to be left there. We want to be able to read it with benefit.

And so, as we approach this tapestry, I want you to have this mental imagery in your head. You walk into where the Tapestry of the Apocalypse is, and you walk in and the first thing you do is you go up to the tapestry because you want to see what it’s made of. And so you walk up to it and you begin to feel it. You know, this is a strange museum. You’re allowed to touch the exhibits, unlike most. In this museum, children, you get to touch it. And so you walk up and you touch the tapestry, and this tapestry is made of wool. They make tapestries of different things, sometimes silk, linen, all sorts of different material. This one’s made of wool, but it’s made of a very particular type of wool. It’s made of Old Testament wool. In fact, around about 70% of the Book of Revelation is either a direct quotation or an allusion to the Old Testament.

And that should strike you, and that should immediately cause you to think about how you then understand the Book of Revelation. The key to understanding the Book of Revelation is not looking into modern geopolitical events, and yet isn’t that so often what happens? In the middle of the Cold War, everything was about Russia, and so the locusts were Russian tanks, and the horsemen were Russian generals. And it was all about, “What’s going on in the media around me, and that’s gonna enable me to understand the events listed in the Book of Revelation?” Well, the Book of Revelation is not made up of geopolitics. It’s made up of the Old Testament.

And this makes sense when you consider John’s position. What is John doing? Well, he’s just been welcomed, as it says in verse 1, into heaven, right? He hears a voice. He sees a big, open door to come into heaven. Now, we, we often forget that heaven is not like Earth. Now, you know the things around you and how to understand them because you live in this world, right? If you went into heaven, into a place that you’ve never seen, that you don’t understand anything about by nature, how would you interpret it? Well, you can only interpret it based off your experience, right? And John’s whole experience, his whole framework of knowledge is the Old Testament. And so as he sees mysterious things in heaven, he interprets them through the lens of the Old Testament. It’s like he’s wearing Old Testament glasses, and as he witnesses everything, his Google lenses keep popping up Bible verses that tell him what’s going on.

A- and we should understand the importance of this, because if I say to you some of you, probably not many, but some of you are immediately gonna have a powerful imagery come into your mind, and you’re gonna go, “Yes, love it.” And when I hear that word, I have the fondest memories and thoughts in my head and heart of times with my family. But to most of you, you have no idea what I’m talking about. I could be talking about a sport. I could be talking about a fighting competition. I could be talking about anything. Well, it’s because it’s a Dutch word that you can’t really translate, but it expresses the idea of, like, the perfect atmosphere with the perfect people that is warm, cozy, enjoyable, lovely. But if you don’t have an interpretation, if you don’t have a point of reference with which to interpret something, it’s useless, right?

This is why ancient languages remain completely out of reach for centuries, and centuries, and centuries until they began to discover archaeological things that gave clues like a code cracker. And that’s what’s going on in the Book of Revelation. He’s seeing mysteries, and without the Old Testament, guess what? They’re just mysteries. and all you can do is make bizarre guesses, like the mark of the beast is a chip from Elon Musk. Because I’ve got no other point of reference, right? But when we step back and see it in light of the Old Testament, all of a sudden, ah, it’s like I’ve been given a key to understand the book.

And I think there’s, 2 important lessons that come from this, but let me just illustrate this very quickly for you in chapter four and five. I, I won’t, we won’t walk through it, but did you know when you read through chapter four and five, there are 14 steps that work through in chapter four and five, and all 14 steps that work through in chapter four and five correlate perfectly to Daniel 7? So, it’s almost like John has Daniel 7 in his hand as he r- as he watches the throne room of God play out, and he’s writing with Daniel 7 ink. And so, if you don’t go back to Daniel 7, how are you ever gonna understand Revelation 4 or 5? And, and this, this leads us to 2, I think, helpful little lessons.

Firstly, you need to read the Old Testament. Uh, one of the plagues on the New Zealand church is a complete ignorance of the Old Testament Bible. Uh, when I went to Bible college, my first year, I studied at a little missionary training college in Gordonton, and I still remember going to the Old Testament survey Bible class and, and hearing people And this was not, like, a one-off. It was all over the classroom, people going, “Oh, whoa, I’ve never read this before.” So, they’re training to be overseas missionaries in a foreign context, and they’ve never read the Old Testament in their life, because they’ve been brought up in what’s called a dispensational framework, which says the Old Testament’s basically a waste of time. The only reason it exists is to get you to the New Testament. So, once you get there, why would you bother reading it anymore? I mean, why do you wanna read about priests and garments and buildings and incense when I can just read the gospels?

But we have one book, don’t we? One covenantal book given to us by God. This is one of the reasons we’re preaching through Nehemiah, because all of the Word of God is breathed out by God, and useful to build us up, to make us perfect. And so, brothers and sisters, let me encourage you, take time to read the Old Testament. Let me encourage you to read the Bible cover to cover consistently throughout your life. Just read through the whole thing over and over and over again. It will edify you greatly as you start to see the threads of scripture tying together. Do it with your children. Do it among your friends.

There’s another lesson that comes from this, and this is the importance of, of what we call the infallible rule of interpretation. So, interpretation is how we interpret and understand the Bible, right? The Westminster Confession says, “The only infallible rule of s- interpretation is that scripture interprets scripture.” So, if you run into a problem in the Bible, the only perfect way to answer that problem is not a theologian, is not a pastor, but is the Word of God itself, because the Bible helps us understand the Bible. And so, the difficult passages get explained by the easy passages.

And so, I remember, uh, we were having family dinner not so long ago, and we had a family member over at our house, and we were reading through the story of Hezekiah. And there’s this interesting little conundrum that happens, because God comes to Hezekiah and he says to him, “You are going to die.” Hezekiah says, “Will I recover?” He says, “No, you are surely gonna die.” And Hezekiah prays, he says, “God, remember my faithfulness to you.” And then God says to Isaiah, “Go back and see Hezekiah.” So, he goes back to Hezekiah and says to him, “God has said you shall not die.” And the family member that was visiting us, with us said to us, “Ah, see? God changed his mind, or he lied.”

How do you explain that? And I said, “Well, I’m not entirely sure, to be honest, not off the top of my head, but I know this, that the Book of Malachi says, ‘I, the Lord, do not change. I, the Lord, do not lie.’” Now, that’s a very clear statement, isn’t it? I don’t lie. I don’t change. So, whatever’s going on in the story of Hezekiah, I know He’s not lying, and I know He doesn’t change. I may not be able to explain it right now, but I know it’s not that. That is not the answer. And so, the clear passage helps us understand the difficult passage.

And if you keep that in your mind when people challenge you with stuff, you know, like, a friend or a, a work colleague will come to you with a Bible passage and say, “See? Aha! I told you so! I told you you were w- you were wrong!” You know, well, well, wait a second. The answer here is not some clever apologetic technique. There’s a biblical answer here. And so, to do that, you’re gonna need to know the Bible, aren’t you? So, be a student of the Word so that you can answer your questions with the Word, just like Jesus does. Remember that? The devil uses scripture to attack the devil da- to, to attack Jesus, doesn’t he? He says, “Ah, the Psalms say if you throw yourself down, an angel will catch you.” And Jesus says, “Ah, yes, but the Word also says, ‘Don’t put the Lord to the test.’” And so, Jesus answers scripture with scripture. And so, we should do the same.

And so, you, you get up and you feel this tapestry, right? And you feel the Old Testament wool that’s in it and holding it all together. And then you step back, because you’re not just here to feel some wool. You could have done that at home. You step back, and as you step back, you begin to take in the scenery. You begin to take in the pictures of the tapestry, and you begin to observe that it’s telling a story. This tapestry is a story. It’s one story, just like all tapestries, just like the tapestry of the Norman Conquest. This tapestry tells one story.

But what sort of story does it tell? Now, there’s different ways of telling a story, isn’t it? Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever spent much time with, with elderly people, but there’s one thing that most elderly people Ah, I’m not talking about John and Carol, like, way old people. Um, one thing that elderly people are really good at is what? Retelling the same stories over and over and over and over. I, I remember going to my grandfather’s house just as he was going into early-stage dementia, and he told me the same story he told me last time. And when I went and saw him the next time, he told me the same story again, and this Again and again and again. And my Oma’s getting forgetful, and so now she’s beginning to tell me the same thing when I go and visit her or when I ring her, when she calls me.

Well, the, the story of Revelation isn’t an old person, but there’s, there’s similarity to that in the sense that it’s a retelling of the same story over and over and over again. One of the mistakes we make when we come to the Book of Revelation is we assume it’s telling a, what’s called a linear story, you know, from 1 point to another point. So, we see the words like, “After this, I saw. After this, I saw. Then I saw,” and we think that John is seeing events like a historical narrative playing out. So, there’s gonna be this, and then there’s gonna happen that, and

But the problem is, we immediately recognize there’s some issues when we start reading it, right? Because you sort of get through some chapters, and then the final judgment happens. A- and then all of a sudden, you’re back again? And then a few chapters later, there’s another final judgment. You go, “Oh, wait. So, is there 2 final judgments?” But then you go around. “Oh, there’s another one?” You go, “Wait, how many final judgments is there?” And then there’s another one. And now all of a sudden, the, the enemies of God are back again fighting. You’re like, “Wait a second. This isn’t a historical narrative being told.”

This is a different type of story. This is what you might call a cyclic, you know, circle, a cyclic repetition story. So, in order to really get the point home, John is gonna tell the same story a number of different ways, over and over and over again. And one of the clues for this is the number 7. And so, we just finished studying 7 what? Churches. And we heard about 7 churches as they live out their life during this period that we are in. And then, we’re going to, in chapter 6, begin to hear about 7 seals. And then in chapter 8, we’re gonna hear about 7 trumpets. And then in chapter 10, we’re gonna hear of 7 thunders, but we’re not gonna hear them. And then, we’re gonna hear about 7 bowls, and then there’s gonna be 2 cities. And in another part, there’s gonna be a dragon and some beasts. And all of these are almost like still images. If you step back from the tapestry and you see an image, after an image, after an image, after an image. and each one of those images is telling the same story. But here’s the thing. It’s putting emphasis on a different thing. It’s teaching something different about God’s redemptive history.

You see, this is a story about God’s redemptive plan. And that’s why one of the most center, central themes in chapter four and five is a tiny little scroll, a scroll written on the front and back. You see it here in chapter 5, verse one. “I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with 7 seals.” And this scroll, a spoiler alert for next week, the scroll is the redemptive plan of God. And John weeps because there’s no one to open it. And if no one opens it, the redemptive plan of God doesn’t get fulfilled. But then one like a lamb that was slain comes and opens the scroll. He is worthy to open it and to break its seals.

And you see, what we’re gonna be witnessing over and over again is the story of redemption between the leaving and returning of Christ, and how God’s people live out their lives. The 7 letters are a little bit of an example of this in the sense that they all tell kind of one story, right? Each one of them tells a story of a church that Christ wants to be faithful in its testimony, and yet each one is different. Each one has a different part to stress, a different purpose to fulfill. And the same is true with the whole book.

And so, the wonderful thing is you can step back and look at the whole tapestry at once and see something magnificent, but you can also step right into the fine details, and you can consider the i- the reasons it’s a locust, and the reason that the locust has beautiful hair and is attractive, and yet has teeth of a lion. And you can ask yourself, “Well, why is that?” Well, it’s because deception always looks beautiful on the outside. But when you look in the mouth of evil, you see what’s really going on. Because it seeks to destroy and devour. And each step of the way, we have this joy of seeing this.

And, and I think this teaches us one pretty simple lesson, which is to guard us against the first light TV channel-type interpretation of the Bible, which is to look through every page of Revelation and s- and ask ourselves the question Here’s the temptation, to ask ourselves the question, “Where does Where am I in history in this passage? So what part am I up to?” Are we in Are we in the 4th trumpet, or are we in the 5th trumpet right now, or are we in the 7th? What’s going on? Is, is this the, uh, the time for the one global world government? And, and st- A- and you end up getting so distracted by these things that you actually lose sight of what’s really going on.

It helps us to focus clearly that God is trying to stress several important truths for us, which brings us to our third point. And that third point is the purpose of the tapestry. So you walk up, you feel the tapestry. You step back and you notice that it, it’s telling a story. And as you’re sitting there observing this tapestry, all of a sudden, you know, you feel someone walk up next to you. You know how you get that? You just sense someone’s coming up next to you. And some gentleman comes up and stands next to you, a- and he says to you, “Would, would you like to know why the creator made the tapestry?” And you think to yourself, “Oh, this guy must be quite knowledgeable.” And you say, “Yeah, but how would you know?” And he says, “Well, I made it. I’m, I’m the creator, and I made it for a very important purpose. Several purposes, actually.” You say, “Well, that would be great to know.”

And, and so what purpose What purpose has Christ given us the Book of Revelation? We do remember this Book of Revelation isn’t John’s revelation, right? Chapter one tells us that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. John just happens to be the guy that writes it. This is not the apocalypse of John. It’s the revelation of Jesus Christ. So what is he telling us? What is the purpose?

Well, I, I love the way Sinclair Ferguson put it, that if you want the overall purpose for the whole book, the Book of Revelation is the movie version of Matthew 16:18. And you say, “Well, what does that say?” Well, Matthew 16:18 says, “I build my church, and the gates of Hades will never overthrow it.” So Revelation is the movie version of that promise. Jesus promises that he will build his church, and no matter what hell throws against it, it will never overcome his church. And the Book of Revelation is like a wonderful narrative version, a picture book- of how Jesus does that, of how Jesus built His church, of how Jesus preserves His church, of how Jesus faithfully defends His church against all the gates of hell.

And so, within that overall big purpose, you actually th- see 3 particular purposes, and they, they’re directed to 3 particular groups or people, the first being towards Himself. Jesus gives the Book of Revelation to declare Himself for His glory, and it’s interesting that if you have a look at chapter one, in chapter one it says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants. The things that must soon take place.” Now, the question you need to ask yourself is, what does it mean when he says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ”? It can be taken 2 ways. It can mean the revelation that belongs to Jesus Christ, or it can mean the revelation about Jesus Christ. And I think both is true. This is the revelation belonging to Jesus Christ, but almost more importantly, because it’s obvious that it belongs to Jesus Christ, because all of the Word of God is Jesus’ word, but more importantly, this is a revelation of Christ himself. It’s a revelation of his person. It’s a revelation of who he is, his character, the way he works, type of god that he is, who he is in his humanity, who he is in his divine power, who he is in his ascended glory, who he is in his humility. All of these things come out in this book. But it’s, it’s a declaration of his work and his purper- person for a purpose, and that’s for his glory, so that he would be glorified in the pages of Revelation.

Now, this is really important because if you come to the Book of Revelation and don’t understand anything more about Jesus, you’ve missed the point, right? Jesus says, “This is a book all about me.” That’s striking, isn’t it? Uh, if someone said to you, “What book should I go to if I wanna learn about Jesus?” how many of you would say the Book of Revelation? Probably not many, right, if we’re honest? We’d probably say, “Well, one of the gospels.” Gospels are great. You get to see Christ in his earthly ministry. You don’t get to see him in his ascended ministry. You don’t get to see him glorified in, on the throne. There’s a whole I mean, the majority of Christ’s human existence is not in the gospels, right? Because the last 2,000 years, he hasn’t been on the Earth. He’s in heaven, enthroned on high.

Would you send them to the Book of Romans? Well, that’s helpful theologically. It teaches you a lot about Jesus. I’d almost be tempted to say, if you really wanna know about Jesus, the Book of Revelation is one of the most fantastic places to go, because it’s jam-packed with him. All of it’s pointing to him. All of it’s declaring him. So, don’t see the Book of Revelation as like a, a, a puzzle book that you have to try and figure out some special code from, but see it as a book to show you and teach you more of your Lord. And so, when you read it, at home, as we journey through the series, which I’d encourage you to do, be asking yourself the question, what does this show me about my savior? What does this show me about my Lord?

So, firstly, one of the purposes Jesus says is to reveal more of myself to you. The second purpose is related to his church. The Book of Revelation is given for his church, for their benefit. Remember Matthew 16:18? “I build my church.” I, so it reveals Christ. “I build my church,” and so it tells us about the church. The Book of Revelation is written to comfort an afflicted church. We remember, don’t we, that at the writing of the Book of Revelation, the church is sore oppressed! Persecution on many fronts. We saw this as we went through the letters, didn’t we? Wicked emperors are seeking to stamp out Christianity, and the church is hurting, th- the gates of Hades are trying to overcome. And so Christ, the shepherd of the sheep, writes to his church to comfort them, to give them solace in the middle of their pain and affliction.

Which means, brothers, sisters, for you and I, when we come to the Book of Revelation, we can come to the Book of Revelation looking for comfort, looking for the one who says, “I will wipe away every one of your tears.” Well, that’s a comforting thought, isn’t it? Not just a God who judges, but a God who comforts. But he’s also setting before us this purpose for the church to encourage her in her testimony, to encourage her in her witness. You see, one of the temptations when you s- are sorely afflicted and, and persecuted is to do what? If I just silence myself, if I muffle my voice, if we speak in hushed tones and hide in caverns, then no one will hurt us. No one will harass us. They’ll leave us in peace.

Jesus writes to his church to fan their testimony into flame, to set alight to blaze in the darkness so that the Kingdom of God would advance, so that as Christ says, “I’m building my church,” the church would be busy building the church. Because Christ builds his church through the church as the means of grace played out into the darkness. “Sons and daughters of darkness,” we’re told in Colossians, “are transferred, are transformed into, translated into, the kingdom of his beloved Son.” Christ doesn’t want us to grow cold. He doesn’t want us to, as the Little Kids song, children, goes, he doesn’t want us to hide our little light under a bushel or let Satan blow it out, but rather, let it burn brightly till Jesus comes. Let it shine till Jesus comes. I’m gonna let it shine. That’s what Jesus wants from his church.

And so we can come to this word saying, “Well, Lord, I want more zeal. I want to be more faithful in my testimony.” Well, let’s read the Book of Revelation. Can you imagine if someone said to you, “What would you recommend? What book would you recommend if we want to do a class at church on evangelism?” How many people say, “The Book of Revelation”? And yet the Book of Revelation is written for the purpose of exciting evangelism in the church. And if we rightly understood the book, we would actually get that. And we saw it in the 7 letters, didn’t we? As churches were tempted to things like pragmatism and compromise. Why? Because they were afflicted and they were under pressure because of the word of their testimony. And so Christ is going to encourage us, but it’s also to fill us with eternal hope.

You see, because there is one final enemy in this life for us, isn’t there? And that’s death, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. The final enemy is death. Because we are fallen, we must die unless Jesus comes back first. And the idea of dying is terrifying, unless you know there’s hope. And so the apostle Paul says, “Where is the sting of death? Well, it’s the law.” But thanks be to God. Why? Because in Christ, he has removed the sting of the law by fulfilling it. And so the Book of Revelation is written to give us eternal hope as we see saints standing in the presence of God, even now, as we see pictures of the return of Christ and the saints gathered together in his presence, as we see life after death, as we see healing for the nations, as we see wiping away of tears, as we see sorrow no more, death no more, sin no more, as we see that a day is coming when my sin will be taken away and no more will I, will I rebel against my King, no more will I hate things that God loves, because I’ll be perfected.

And as we see these things in the Book of Revelation, we find hope, hope for another day. As I’ve said to you before, one of the great goals of counselors is just to give someone enough hope to last till when we see them next time. the Book of Revelation functions like that. And so, if we’re, if we’re weary and fearful and heavy-laden, and if we’re worried about sickness, if we’re concerned about what tomorrow might bring, the Book of Revelation comes to us to fill us with hope. It’s a very practical book, brothers and sisters. Yes, it’s strange language, but it’s incredibly practical.

But there’s another thing that this book comes for. This book is to declare Christ, it’s to build up and edify his church, but the third one is as it relates to the world. Remember that promise, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades,” which is the representation of Satan, the kingdom of darkness, the world, the flesh, “will never overthrow it.” And one of the chief purposes, Jesus says, is to send a message to the world. To send a message to the world. And that message is, there is a king on the throne of glory. His name is Jesus Christ. There is a day coming when that king will return to judge the living and the dead, and anyone who does not repent today shall be judged by him tomorrow. And in the day of judgment, all that will not cast themselves upon the mercy of the Lamb shall face the wrath of the Lamb.

This book is an invitation for salvation. It is a gospel message. This is one of the recurring themes as you get the story being retold. God judges the nations, and the nations refused to repent. They refused to repent in spite of all that God does, in spite of all that God declares, the wicked refused to repent. They refused to turn to God and live. They see the angry, wrathful face of the Lamb, and they flee away rather than fleeing to him, because the only way to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb is to hide in the wrath of the Lamb, to hide in the wrath that was poured upon Calvary.

This book is a glorious declaration of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that “I will save any that will come to me. I will cast out If you will flee to me,” Jesus says in the Book of Revelation, “I will keep you safe from judgment. All you need do is come to me, and I will keep you safe.” And so, it’s a warning. It’s a warning to those that would persecute the church, that God’s patience will not last forever. We’ll see this when we get up to the 7 thunders. It’s the third 7. And after it sounds, God says, “John, don’t write it down, because I will denay- I will delay no longer.” And we don’t hear what the 7th thunder says or does. God skips over it and rushes right to the last one, the 7 bowls. Why? Because he’s telling us, “I will not endure objects of wrath forever.”

And so, to the world and to those of you that are unbelievers, the Book of Revelation is very practical, because it’s calling you to repent. It’s calling you to cast yourself upon the Lamb, to flee from the wrath to come that you might not be like the unbelievers in chapter 6 who cry out in verse 16, calling to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

This has some practical uses for us. Firstly, it should remind us that we should not come to this book looking for controversy, looking for debate in order to have all of your questions answered about your pastor’s view on the millennium or anything else. But you should come to this book to discover more of your Jesus. Let us set aside our quibbles. Look, eschato- eschatological differences matter. They’re important. And our view of end times is important, but if we lose sight of our Savior in the midst of it all, what benefit have we gained? But if you are relatively ignorant of the different views of eschatology but you love your Lord more, and you find Jesus more precious after we’ve journeyed through Revelation, I will consider it a great success. Because he is who we come here for, right? The person and work of Jesus Christ.

The second lesson for us is, be built up by it. Come to it to seek to be edified, and your faith emboldened, and to find your comfort, and to be spurred on in your testimony, and to have eternal hope. Come looking for what your soul needs. Come hungry. Come thirsty so that you might find what you need. And if you are of the world, come with one simple motive: repentance unto eternal life. Because none that seek will not find, and none that knock will the door not be opened, and none that ask shall not be answered. But as Jesus said, “If you ask, you will be answered. If you seek, you will find. If you knock, the door shall be opened to you.” And so come. Come hungry and thirsty to find eternal life, to find the living waters and the bread of life.

Brothers and sisters, in Revelation 1, it says these wonderful words: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” There is a blessing in chapters 4 through 21. We can be tempted, I think, sometimes to be a little bit like the child that always wants to stay in the shallow end of the pool. You’ve probably all seen this, right? There’s the kid who’s like, “I’m not leaving this end. I can stand with the water up to my waist and I’m perfectly fine. I actually really love it down this end of the pool, and I actually don’t want to go down there at all.” And you’re like, “Come on. You’re just afraid. Let’s learn. Come on, I’ll help you get-” “No, no. I love being in the shallows. It’s actually great.” You’re like, “You’re gonna have way more fun in the deep-” “No, no, no, no, no.”

We can be like that in the Book of Revelation. We sort of do the first 3 chapters and we’re like, “This is good. I really enjoy this.” And then we turn to the next page and we’re like, “Whoa.” How about we start a new series? That’s a great idea, Pastor.

Let, let’s not be afraid of the deep end of the pool. It’s written for a blessing for us. But, but note, there’s a blessing for those who read it, which is a special blessing for me as I read it out loud to you. There’s a blessing for you as listeners, a special blessing for you as you hear the word read and preached. But notice, for those who keep it. Just last night, I was reading a fantastic sermon by Thomas Manton on the word of God the Father saying at the transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son whom, in whom I am well-pleased.” And he says, “Listen to him.” And Manton says, “What does it mean to listen to Christ? Well, to listen to Christ consists of 3 things: to hear,” audibly, just to hear, like any of us who are not deaf are capable of doing, “to understand mentally with our minds,” which humans are able to do but animals can’t. But thirdly, to attend, to hear, listen, and to apply it to our lives, to be obedient, to be submissive, to embrace that which Christ says, to believe.

And that is the mark of the believer. The blessing comes not just because you heard it with your ear. Even an animal can hear me when I read the Bible. It doesn’t come because you understood it with your mind, because even a pagan can do that. But there is a blessing for those who hear, understand, and believe, and keep the Word of God in their lives.

So don’t get drawn and distracted into many things, but with humility, come to the Book of Revelation and say, “God, grant me ears to hear. Grant me a heart to believe and a will to do that which your word says.” And may God be magnified in us as we are transformed into the image of Christ through the Book of Revelation.

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