Revelation of Jesus Christ

December 29, 2021  

Nelson Ave Church Family,  

This coming Sunday (January 3) we are starting a sermon series on the book of Revelation. At this point we are calling the service “Unveiled Hope” (I am “borrowing” the title from the 1997 album by Michael Card, an album of songs based on the book of Revelation—highly recommended!).  

You may be wondering “Why the book of Revelation?!??!?!” Here are some reasons I would offer for looking at this book of the Bible at this time:  

1.   From time to time we will take a Bible book for our Sunday morning services. Revelation is a Bible book and so would be in consideration (along with the other 65 books!) for a sermon series.  

2.   Due to the global pandemic, the book of Revelation is a book people are thinking about a lot these days. We want to think about it as well in order to see what the Spirit of God might be saying to us, in our particular time and place in history, through this important book.  

3.   There are two extreme reactions when it comes to the book of Revelation: people either (1) obsess about it or (2) they ignore it (because they can’t seem to “figure it out”). We certainly don’t want to obsess about this book and doing a sermon series will help us not ignore this great biblical book.  

4.   For many people, including followers of Jesus, the book of Revelation is shrouded and clouded in mystery. I hope our sermon series will help remove some of the shrouding and clouding and encourage us to hear the book’s message for our day.  

5.   The book of Revelation serves as a culmination to the Bible’s Story. As the Story comes to a climax the book picks up many of the rich images from the rest of the Story. Thus, if we know the book of Revelation we will know much of the Bible’s Story (and vice versa!).  

Resources: there are lots of great resources on Revelation available. I list here just a few to consider:

1.   Michael Card Unveiled Hope album (mentioned above)—available via Youtube, Spotify, etc.

2.   2 Bible Project Videos on Revelation (available on Youtube or at the Bible Project web site) are a good place to start

3.   Darrell Johnson’s book Discipleship On The Edge: An Expository Journey Through The Book Of Revelation is a great resource

4.   We have people in our church family who have studied and even taught on this book. We hope to hear from them during this series as well!  

Questions / Comments?: If you have any questions about Revelation or if there are particular verse, image or theme in Revelation you have questions about or a particular passage you would want us to look at during a Sunday morning message, please let me know.  

As we read and listen to this book together may Jesus, the Lamb of God, receive the honour and glory due his name!  

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father— to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen (Revelation 1:5b-6)