The book of Revelation is a book of prophecy. It foretells events that are to take place in the future. It was written by the apostle John near the end of his life. Prophecy is a fascinating subject and regularly generates passionate debate and discussion. There are some who would want us to believe we shouldn’t concern ourselves with prophecy. To those people I would suggest they read their Bible again and remember why it was written. The Bible reveals to us God’s plan to redeem all mankind back to Himself through the work of Jesus Christ. That plan includes future events that were revealed in Scripture. We were told to look for those events and to warn others about them.

One of the things I have always liked about this verse is the promise of blessing. In fact, it was this verse that motivated me to teach through this book the first time. It promises a blessing to the one who reads it and to the ones that hear it and obey. I wanted the church to be blessed and so I taught through the book of Revelation.

Many people avoid Revelation because it uses imagery that seems to be very difficult to interpret. Taking this by itself, this is true but taken in context of the rest of Scripture it can be easily understood. Some of the images are still strange but they can be understood enough so that we can do what today’s verse tells us to do, basically, listen and obey. God wouldn’t ask us to obey something that He wasn’t going to enable us to understand.

John concludes this verse by telling us why we should read Revelation; the time is near. John wrote that about 1,900 years ago. Unless you live under a rock, it is not hard to see that we are living in very difficult times. There are worldwide events taking place that all point to a dark and bleak future. John’s warning is more applicable today than any other time in history.

Revelation describes the end of the world as we know it. John describes in very vivid terms the utter devastation of everything we know today. Included in that destruction is the death of billions of people over a relatively short period of time. It might be hard for some to imagine how reading the book of Revelation could be a blessing. It is the ending of the book that brings the blessing.

The book ends with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom. Death and sin are destroyed forever. Satan and his demons are forever cast into the lake of fire and can no longer tempt mankind to turn away from our loving Creator God. For believers, this will mark the beginning of an eternity in the presence of God in our new glorified bodies. That is something to be excited about. But not everyone is going to be excited when that day comes. Who do you know who doesn’t know that ‘the time is near’? Jesus, teach us to look forward to Your soon Coming.

Read: Joel 1:1-3:21; Revelation 1:1-20; Psalm 128:1-6; Proverbs 29:18