See Rev 1:1-3 below........and, then my comments below the verses.
1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
1:2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Revelation, means unveiling. Like taking a sheet off that has been covering a statue, and pulling the sheet off to show what is there. This book is an uncovering of Jesus Christ.
This uncovering if for His servants. This is for you as a Christian. God wants to show this to you.
The things He shows us in this book are the things which will take place as the future rolls on. So, God is going to reveal to us in this book what will happen in the future, right on up to the end of all things as we know it, and beyond.
God gave this to Jesus to give to John, through His angel. It's a revealing to John, and then to us.
There is a blessing promised here. See 1:3. The blessing is for those who will read this book, and for those who will hear what's said in this book, and for those who will keep the things that are written in it. The time for these things is near, or coming. ( The phrase, "the time is near" does not mean that these events were going to happen immediately upon their writing, but rather when they begin to happen, they would happen in pretty rapid order )
What an exciting time we are living in. This book will help unfold to us the plans that God has for the world. We are living in the last days.
May I encourage you to read through the book of Revelation. And to enjoy these daily short little devotional commentary thoughts I'll post.
We will be teaching through the book one chapter per Sunday, starting on Jan 8th.
Pastor Bob Grenier
Calvary Chapel Visalia
