{"id":5069,"date":"2025-11-28T09:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5069"},"modified":"2025-11-28T09:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:24:17","slug":"revelation-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/28\/revelation-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 1:1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u00a0Each day this month we\u2019re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible \u2013 exploring what we can learn from chapter one \/ verse one of various Old and New Testament books.<\/em>

\u201cThe revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave\u00a0him to show his servants what must soon take place.\u00a0He made it known by sending his angel\u00a0to his servant John.\u201d

Revelation is one strange book.

It features bizarre creatures, dazzling images, and fearful portents of heavenly and earthly events \u2013 all of which have been subjected to crazy theories over the centuries.

The British wit G.K. Chesterton once observed, \u201cThough St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.\u201d

During my years as a local church pastor, I had the opportunity to teach a number of midweek Bible studies. The largest turnout I can recall was on the first night of a three-month series on the book of Revelation. I couldn\u2019t believe how many people had chosen to show up at church on a Wednesday night. I was pumped.

About 15 minutes into the opening session, however, it began to dawn on the crowd that I didn\u2019t have the answers to all of their questions. I wasn\u2019t going to pass out a multi-colored calendar linking current events to the end of the world, nor was I going to take a stab at the date of the Second Coming.

I could feel the air gradually going out of the room. The second week\u2019s crowd wasn\u2019t nearly as big.\u00a0

So, what good is the book of Revelation if you can\u2019t use it as a guide to interpreting today\u2019s headlines?

Scholars have long debated the nature of the Bible\u2019s last book. Do its fascinating names, numbers, and images describe events that happened exclusively in the first century? Are they pointing instead to happenings that are hundreds or even thousands of years in the future? Or are they entirely symbolic, proclaiming the unquestioned power of God and authority of Jesus for every generation? \u00a0

It\u2019s worth noting something remarkable about Revelation\u2019s content.

Readers have long noted that its 404 verses are brimming with direct or indirect references to Old Testament texts. Scholars, in fact, have identified at least 505 citations or allusions to the Jewish Scriptures. Revelation quotes or alludes to an astonishing 28 of the Old Testament\u2019s 39 books.

The Bible\u2019s last book, in other words, is perhaps better characterized as a fresh look in the rear-view mirror than a crystal ball glance at the far distant horizon. \u00a0

Look again at the first half of chapter one \/ verse one: \u201cThe revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave\u00a0him to show his servants what must soon take place.\u201d

The word \u201crevelation\u201d translates the Greek word apokalupsis<\/u><\/em>. We know the word \u201capocalyptic.\u201d It\u2019s both exciting and unnerving. It\u2019s used to describe dramatic events like earthquakes, Wall Street meltdowns, and threats of nuclear annihilation. Does this mean we finally get to talk about some end-of the-world stuff?

Not exactly.

The word apoklupsis<\/em> literally means \u201cto uncover.\u201d It\u2019s hard to improve on Eugene Peterson\u2019s thoughts in Reversed Thunder<\/em>, his commentary on Revelation:

\u201cImagine a pot of stew on a stove. A person enters the house and becomes aware of rich aromas coming from the kitchen. The smells are inviting. He guesses at some of the ingredients. He asks others in the house what is in the pot and gets different opinions. The cook doesn\u2019t seem to be anywhere around.

\u201cFinally, everyone troops into the kitchen. One of the company takes the lid from the pot; they all crowd close and peer into it. Uncovered, the stew with all of its ingredients is exposed to the eye: Apocalypse! What was guessed at is now known in detail and becomes food for a hearty meal.\u201d

An \u201capocalypse,\u201d in the Bible, is a \u201crevelation\u201d \u2013 a sneak peek or a revealing, if only briefly, of what is really going on behind the scenes.

For all of the chaos and turbulence in human history, Jesus rules the cosmos invisibly. Many things may be wrong. But the day is coming when Jesus will set all things right.

If he wanted, God could share his playbook with us. He clearly has no interest in doing so. God is considerably more interested in our choosing to trust him \u2013 even if tomorrow brings a crisis no one saw coming. Even if we don\u2019t know whether we\u2019re still at the beginning of human history, or right at the end. Even if \u2013 perhaps especially if \u2013 we don\u2019t have anything to go on except his promise that he will always be there for us.

The book of Revelation is a call to cling to Christ, no matter what.

On September 11, 2001, shortly before United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in western Pennsylvania, its 40 passengers and crew had learned through AirFone conversations that other jets had been used that morning as guided missiles.\u00a0

They began to formulate a plan. The words of passenger Todd Beamer were later widely reported by the media: \u201cLet\u2019s roll.\u201d\u00a0

Less mention was made of 38-year-old Tom Burnett, executive of a medical research company, who called his wife and said, \u201cAll of us are going to die.\u201d The passengers knew the reality of their situation.\u00a0 Then Burnett said something else. Everyone on the plane was going to die, but \u201csome of us are going to do something about it.\u201d

What wonderful theology.

All of us are going to die. But before we die, are we willing to do something<\/em> with the incredible life that God has given to each one of us, even though we never know precisely what might happen next?\u00a0\u00a0

Perhaps it\u2019s appropriate, as we conclude our month-long look at some of the Bible\u2019s most memorable opening statements, to finish with the very last words of the Bible\u2019s last book:

\u201cHe who testifies to these things\u00a0says,\u00a0\u2018Yes, I am coming soon.\u2019 Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God\u2019s people.\u00a0Amen\u201d (Revelation 22:20-21).

Jesus is in charge of everything.
Jesus is going to come again.
We can trust Jesus with all of life\u2019s details.
Both today and tomorrow. \u00a0

Amen!\u00a0<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here \u00a0Each day this month we\u2019re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible \u2013 exploring what we can learn from chapter one \/ verse one of various Old and New Testament books. \u201cThe revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave\u00a0him to show his servants what must soon take… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1029,1039],"class_list":["post-5069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-11-series","tag-revelation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5071,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5069\/revisions\/5071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}