Hang Onto the Keys

Last time we discussed the fact that we all bring our preconceived bias to whatever we hear or read or learn. So in preparing to launch on an epic adventure exploring the vast mysteries of possibly the most important document in the world, the book of Revelation, it is vital that we first be willing to challenge our personal paradigms and presumptions to allow the true Author of this book to correct our thinking so we can find better understanding. There is no end to speculations about why this book was written, who is was intended for or what it might mean. I have my own speculations and beliefs, and like many I tend to think mine are a bit closer to being right than most others. So why should we seek to explore something that from a distance seems impenetrable if it merely involves another round of speculation, especially from an untrained expert with little formal education? Good question.

In reading this book we will discover that nearly everywhere we look there appears to be locks or coded messages inhibiting our ability to understand clearly. Last time I mentioned the fact that when we begin to read this book we are offered at the very beginning at least two keys that have potential to give us a huge advantage over those who ignore these keys. I want to examine the first of these keys and I invite you to join me on possibly the greatest adventure possible. We may discover that this is far more than merely a fascinating thriller novel and in fact may be the most radical discovery of reality that just might jolt us into seeing things around us in new ways never before possible.

During this study it is urgent that we pray earnestly and often for the same Jesus introduced in the first chapter of this book, to apply the eye salve He says we need in order to begin to see our own condition mentioned in the last message in chapter 3. What He says about the condition of the last group of people living on earth is all too true. For just as He says, we imagine we are smarter than anyone else who came before us, better off, more highly educated, wealthy in knowledge and wisdom and think we pretty much have all the truth compiled from all the history that we have behind us.

But Jesus sees us differently, insisting that from heaven's perspective we are a pitiful mess, that in reality we are wretched and can't see past our own nose. He even insists that we are naked and poor, something so shocking we tend to glaze over when we hear it. We acknowledge we hear the words, yet our heart disbelieves it is actually true about ourselves. So long as we fail to believe His words over our perceptions, we will remain in the very condition He describes which could best be described as double-minded. James writes that so long as we are in this condition, holding opposite opinions about God in our mind and heart at the same time, it is impossible to receive anything from God. That is a very desperate situation that I don't want to remain in longer, and I have been praying for some time to be fully cured of double-mindedness, and God has been faithfully at work healing me of this. I am very grateful for that, yet at the same time I realize there is much more to heal before I can be confident that I no longer have double vision from the intoxication produced by pride, arrogance or false confidence that I have all the truth and simply need to compel others to agree with me.

With the healing eye salve of heaven comes clarity, both about my own wretched condition but more so about how God sees me and values me as precious, beautiful (I guess the correct term is handsome for a man), and extremely cherished in His heart. I confess that when it comes to seeing myself the way God sees me, I am just beginning to have capacity to even believe the words. Yet this is why my condition is so wretched and why my life feels so naked and full of shame. There is a huge difference between the truth about my identity and the truth about my condition. I had no clue about this until a few years ago when God made me aware of this. Condition and identity are entirely separate and yet related things, for what I choose to believe about my identity in turn affects how my character forms.

What does this have to do with Revelation? Well, the very word Revelation itself means to expose what is hidden. Curiously this ties into the express definition of the word Judgment given by Jesus in his dialog with Nicodemus in John 3. There Jesus says that His definition of Judgment is simply what happens when the Light of truth shows up. We either choose to resist it, deny it, try to suppress it because it threatens everything we have invested in to prop up our sense of worth and identity, or we choose to face it directly and move toward it no matter how uncomfortable or exposing it is for us. Jesus says that those who come toward the light in spite of how it makes them feel initially, are those who do the truth. I find that compelling and highly relevant when examining a book named Revelation that is full of light and truth about Jesus Christ who says He is the light of the world.

That brings me to the first key that is crucial to keep constantly on us in order to navigate the labyrinth of Revelation and not get hopelessly lost in a maze of confusion, fear and wild speculation. The very first words of this book alert us that Jesus as the sole standard of what is true about God and we must not allow anyone's ideas or speculations interfere with that reality. For me this means that any notion, speculation, assertion, interpretation, doctrine or whatever we might imagine while reading anything in the rest of this book, cannot contradict the clear light of truth as portrayed in the 4 gospels that show us what Jesus thought, taught, shared and how He related to others.

In other words, if anyone tries to convince me that something in Revelation is a truth about God that does not correspond to what I learn about Him from the Jesus found in the gospels, I need to instantly step back and question it seriously. If this book is what it claims to be, a revelation of Jesus Christ, then it must only and always square perfectly to the revelation Jesus brought that challenges the paradigms of what people have imagined God to be like throughout all history.

He who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)

God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power... (Hebrews 1:1-3)

The first and most important key to use constantly in our exploration of this map is that the only safe truth to embrace at any time is truth that corresponds to the truth as is found in Jesus alone.

There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved! (Acts 4:12)

In Scripture the term name strongly infers character. It is not like we tend to do today, randomly picking a name for a baby based on whatever appeals to our fancy at the moment. Words have become so cheapened in our day that it is hard to know what anyone really means because everyone is so adept at manipulating words to suck us into believing things to manipulate us for their advantage. God is not that way, and when He uses words He always means something and is never deceptive. The problem now is that we are so accustomed to reading into what people say what we think their motives might be to manipulate or exploit us, that it has become difficult to communicate at all. More on this next time.

When the gospel insists there is no other name but Jesus by which we are saved, we must not distort that by shallow religious logic. Name is not referring to literal syllables of some language comprising a label some language uses to identity the Son of God who lived among us on earth 2,000 years ago. No, this is talking about how we choose to perceive God and what we will believe about how He feels about and relates to us. That is the primary reason Jesus came to this earth. The core problem caused by sin is that complete trust in God on the part of most of the created beings in the universe was seriously affected by super subtle insinuations of the most brilliantly smart being every created.

Lucifer claimed that he had advance and secret knowledge about God that no one else could know because no one was as smart as he and didn't have access to what he had direct access to – the hidden secrets of God. It was true that God had created Lucifer for the purpose of taking the hidden things of God that were far beyond what others could discern and translate them in order that others might have deeper appreciation and affection for God. Yet this very honor and privilege that involved God's trust in Lucifer became the very thing Lucifer exploited to promote his own agenda to discredit Christ as a competing revelation of God. This created tension in heaven as contradictory views of God began to cause division, confusion and at last open rebellion. This is the same war we now all find ourselves born into and is summarized in chapter 12 of Revelation. Chapters 12 and 13 are located as the center hub of this book around which everything else revolves and derives its meaning.

It is with this as the back story that we begin to see why the first words of the book are the very first thing God wants us to know. Just as the first chapter of Hebrews emphasizes the conflict between two competing entities claiming to represent God, one by an angel and the other from Jesus the Son, so too the book of Revelation exposes the competing versions of what we are urged to believe about God.

Revelation is all about the supernatural war we are unavoidably caught up in.

Revelation presents the two contenders vying for our allegiance and trust and our very soul.

Revelation is all about motives and methods and which ones we will believe and rely on to overcome.

Revelation is about the stark contrast between the methods God uses and the methods of His enemies.

Revelation exposes the subtle lies of the enemy that infects all of our thinking and paradigms.

The first key we must pick up and hold tenaciously if we wish to unlock the mysteries in this amazing drama is that whatever we think, feel or choose to believe from this book must align harmoniously with the life, teachings and example of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus introduced at the very beginning of Revelation is the very same Jesus that John knew personally as a disciple. It is this Jesus that radically affected John's heart so deeply that he was transformed from being known as a son of thunder to the most humble, caring, compassionate and loyal friend and became known as John the Beloved.

In John's 3 letters we find this same man unleashing such concentrated truth about God's love for us that most people can hardly begin to ingest it effectively. John obsesses over the reality that God is love and that all who allow God to align them with Himself will reflect that love unavoidably. Keeping those letters as our context for reading Revelation is a very wise choice for any of us serious about wanting to see the glory hidden in this book. Let us pick up this key and use it consistently and we will be able to rejoice with those who rejoice throughout this treasure stash of prophecy.

This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)