“This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John, 2 who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near. “
Revelation 1:1-3
God is always intentional in the ways in which he reveals himself to us. Few places in scripture spell this out more clearly than the first verse of this chapter. “This is a revelation from Jesus Christ…” (1:1) that alone should be sufficient to demand the attention of anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus. The events that John describes in the following chapters are presented as future events at the time of writing in the first century, yet many are still in events that we consider in the future as we know it. Some of the events described may have more than one application, in that it may be something that already transpired, but could also be describing an event yet to come. As interesting as all that may be, I don’t believe the chronology is the critical focus of the book.
Verse three is particularly interesting to me and points us to what I believe is the main idea of the book. He writes, “God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and as those who hear and obey what it says.” It would seem to me the book of Revelation is about understanding God’s desire to bring his creation back into perfect unity with himself for eternity. In the final picture love and justice come together in perfect harmony.
Seems pretty clear to me that if we fail to consider the revelation found in this book, we have an incomplete picture of God, and are missing some of the blessing he intends for his people.