◄ What Does Revelation 1:3 Mean? ►

A unique and glorious blessing is given to the person who reads, hears, and puts into practice the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which is found in the last book of the Bible. Revelation is the unveiling of the Lord Jesus - the revealing of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God, which the Father gave to Him so that He, in turn, could tell His servants the amazing things which must shortly and speedily come to pass at the consummation of all things. And Jesus sent it and communicated it through His angel to His bond-servant John - for our learning.

"Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy," is the amazing promise we are given in this book. "Blessed are those who keep those things which are written therein," we read, "for the time is at hand." As Christians, we should rejoice and be glad to consider the blessing that is given to those who hear, and read, and take to heart all that is written in Revelation.

We should pay careful heed to the content of the book of Revelation and be watchful for Christ's return, and we should be spiritually alert and recognise that the time of the end is drawing ever closer, and yet there are many in the Church today who dismiss the important content of this wonderful apocalyptic book and miss the blessing it offers because they consider it is too difficult to understand.

Many relegate the book of Revelation to the realms of fanciful fanaticism or consign it to the domain of the unknowable. There are also those who focus their attention on the supernatural elements of Revelation, or find themselves adhering to wild conspiracy theories that are based on newspaper eisegesis rather than biblical exegesis, while there are others who are so determined not to be tarred with a New Age or globalist label or become embroiled with an extra-biblical interpretation, that they refuse to study the book.

Revelation is not a mysterious, magical apocryphal book with hidden messages that can only be understood by a few chosen mystics. Revelation is not a closed book with a hidden message. It is an apocalypse - an unveiling - a revealing - a disclosure. Revelation is an open book that has been given to let us know the things that are shortly to take place and those who read it and take to heart the truth that it contains are promised a very specific blessing: "Blessed is he who reads the words of this prophecy. Blessed is he who hears the words of the prophecy. Blessed is he who heeds the things which are written in this prophecy - for the time is near."

Revelation was not only designed to be read by individual believers, but to be read publically as God's final 'chapter' in the canon of Scripture. Revelation should be taught from pulpits and studied by the people of God because it is a tool God has given to His servants to fine tune our appreciation and understanding of the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It has been given to help us comprehend more fully God's plans and purposes for the redemption of the world and to inspire us to live godly lives knowing that the time is drawing ever closer. But Revelation is also a book or predictive prophecy, much of which has yet to be fulfilled in the coming Tribulation Period (after the Church has been raptured into heaven) when God's wrath will be poured out on a Christ-rejecting, God-hating, sinful world that has rejected God's offer of salvation and must face His justified punishment.

And while there is much information of the devastating events that will take place in during that terrible time of devastating disaster - it is a book that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to those who find themselves facing God's wrath - and those in the Tribulation who also read, hear, and heed the words of this prophecy by calling on the name of the Lord will also be blessed - for they too will be saved. 

Heavenly Father, it is amazing to realise that only one book of the Bible has a unique blessing specifically attached to it, as this verse tells us. I pray that many would turn to this final book of the Bible and read it, hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things written in this book… and receive the blessing exclusively reserved for those who read, hear, and heed the words of Revelation. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.