A New Year's Revelation

A Gift Still to Be Opened

The new year teases like a bright green package still waiting to be opened. What does it hold in store? We want a new beginning, but we don't want things to change. We pick up a blank journal, turning hope into history with a deep resolve to meet our destiny unafraid. Some people take Christmas with them, leaving up tiny twinkle lights all year. But what if we all kept candles burning out of holy expectation?

A Revelation to Behold

A revelation dawns upon us that this could be the year: an ending tucked inside a beginning. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel!" we cry. "Lord Jesus, come again!" But, for some, this hope seems simplistic, even escapist. They have it all mapped out--how God's children will change the world like Roman roads making it easy for the King. But is this what John envisioned? Is this the message he heard and delivered? On a quiet Lord's Day afternoon, he hears Christ's great voice behind him, speaking like a trumpet:  "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last" (Revelation 1:10-11). Christ commands John to write in a book what he sees and to send it to the seven churches of Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

As John turns around to heed Christ's voice, he sees the Majestic Lord standing among the seven golden candlesticks. He is clothed with a garment down to His feet, and He wears a golden sash. His head and His hair are as white as snow, like wool--the Lamb of God slain for the world. His eyes are a flame of fire and His feet are like fine brass, as if they have been burned in the furnace. His voice speaks as the sound of many waters, and in His right hand are seven stars. Out of His mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance is as the sun shining in its strength (Revelation 1:10, 12-16). John falls down before him as a dead man, but Christ lays His hand upon him, saying, "Fear not; I am the first and the last" (Revelation 1:17). And what John hears and sees shows, not a world remade, but a world about to be undone.

A Warning to Heed

The words of exhortation and warning which Christ speaks to the seven churches echo as if from the end of time with a deadline of utmost urgency. It is believed that these seven churches, occupying what is now the western third of Turkey, were selected because they represent various types of need and Christian experience (Zondervan's Bible Dictionary). Without a doubt, the exalted Christ's words of warning to five of these seven churches are not only sobering but alarming and present the highest level of alert possible: if five of these churches do not repent, and quickly, Christ will come to them and remove their golden candlestick. These words resonate with Christ's indictment against false prophets in Matthew 7:23, when He utters the most chilling verdict possible: "I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity."

How can a church work iniquity? Isn't every church of at least some social good, even when The Gospel has been dimmed? Tragically, Christ's warning would make clear that a wicked church is worse than no church at all. Peter writes in his first epistle, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (I Peter 4:17-18). Clearly, the highest duty of the Church today is not to reform the world but to be transformed ourselves into Christ's image. This comes only with true repentance.

A Fate to Be Expected

Here we see our Savior still tender in His mercy before He becomes the Judge. If these churches will but heed His infallible criticism and command, they will be shielded by His triumphant promise: "And on this rock [You are the Christ, the Son of the living God] I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:16,18). But the five erring churches did not listen, and the gates of hell did indeed prevail against them. Modern Turkey is not only hostile to Christianity; it has long been a stronghold of Islam and breeds the sentiments of antichrist. With what prophetic gravity did Christ warn His people, "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness" (Matthew 6:23).

A Blessing to Be Claimed

Jesus is coming again, and this longing for a new beginning rumbles deep within the earth as it literally groans and travails for redemption (Romans 8:22). We can almost hear it daily as some new large quake shakes the foundations of civilization. Earthquake Hazards Program It also seems that, on every hand, we stumble across some new video post of prophecies being fulfilled before our eyes. Are we ready, or have we ignored Christ's roadmap for our soul's complete redemption? Studying the book of Revelation proves a riddle to be solved, not by intellectual investigation, but by obedient application. The clearest proof of this stands as bookends to the text: although Revelation closes with a warning, it opens with a blessing: "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 1:3).

Let's open the gift of revelation the Lord has sent us, knowing the best is yet to be. John writes, "Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also who pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen" (Revelation 1:7). And let's keep our candle burning to the end! "Even so, come, Lord Jesus," (Revelation 22:20).