• When I was in school, new textbooks were written and released every couple of years.  And I remember one year was especially exciting because as we flipped through our new textbooks for the year I noticed something new.  There, in the back of the book…the answers!  Man it was awesome!  Got homework?  Done!  Can’t figure something out?  Got it!  
• And it was Charlie Brown who once said, “In the Book of Life, the answers aren’t in the back.”  But Charlie was wrong…the answers are all in the back, even in the Book of Life, the Bible!
• Turn with me if you will to the very last book of your Bibles.  The Book of Revelation!
• The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a wondrous book!  In this book you and I find the answers to life.  And the answers are simple!  Jesus is on the throne…Jesus is coming back.  That’s all we need to know to navigate any problem…to handle any situation!  Jesus is on the throne, Jesus is in control, Jesus is coming back…with that as our focus…always in the forefront of our minds… then we can handle it, and we can handle it with great strength!  
• If you’ve placed your life, your hope, your trust in Jesus then no problem…He’s in charge!  He’s coming back, He’s going to take us home, and He’s prepared a mansion for us…an abiding place.  Peace is on the way!  
• The Book of Revelation was written by John while exiled on the Island Patmos.  Geographically speaking, Patmos is off the coast of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), situated within the Aegean sea.  You can go there today however its much different today than it was in John’s time.  Today it’s a tourist attraction with hotels and trees and such, but in John’s day…it was desolate.
• It is a very small island, only about 10 miles long and 6 miles wide throughout history, it was used as a prison several times because of its location and generally depressing landscape.
• There is little question that the book was written by the Apostle John while he was exiled by Domitian for continually evangelizing.  Tertullian, a second century historian, wrote of John’s exile to the island as well as his oil bath.
• Iraneus, a second century bishop type in France wrote about John’s exile by Domitian and his eventual return to Ephasus after Domitian’s demise where John planted several churches.   Jerome also, one of the most prominent Christian historians wrote a similar account of John’s exile and authoring of this Book.
• There are others that we could envoke including Clement of Alexandria, but with these three notable and trustworthy sources we can positively ascribe the Book of Revelation to John the Apostle, while exiled on the Island of Patmos, between 81 and 96 AD (the reign of Domitian).
• This is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John and the three Epistles of John.  But John was quite deliberate in always giving a specific reason for taking the time to put pen to paper.
• The Gospel of John, the message is “believe.”  John writes in John 20:31, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and by believing, you might have life through His name.”  The Epistles of John, the message is “be sure.”  1 John 5:13 declares, “These things I have written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you are saved.”  John the writer of Revelation wrote his gospel that we might believe…he wrote his epistles that we might be sure…and he wrote the Book of Revelation that you might be ready.  Believe, be sure, be ready.  
• Turn to the last page of Revelation.  There in Chapter 22 verse 22 Jesus said, “Behold I come quickly” and John answered, “Amen, even so, come Lord Jesus!”
• Chapter 1 Verse 1…The Revelation of Jesus Christ…This book is about encountering Jesus Christ…it is the Revelation…the revealing of Jesus the Son of God.  And John, the pastor, the church planter, the last remaining apostle of God writes this to the churches there in Asia Minor because much like us today, they needed Jesus to be revealed in their present situation.
• They were under intense persecution.  Caesar Nero had just left the scene and now his evil twin, not by relation but by action, Domitian was in power.  He followed Nero’s pattern of boiling Christians in oil, covering them with tar and using their bodies to light the emperor’s gardens…horrible persecutions.  And John, the pastor, knows what the people need…to see Jesus on the throne still, to know that He is on the way, and that He is coming to take them home.
• And so back in verse 1, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show His servants.  Notice why the Revelation…to show His servants!  God gave this to Jesus because Jesus would give this to John and John would give it to his churches and so on!  
• A lot of the time I hear people say, “I just don’t seem to be getting any revelation…I’m not growing, things aren’t fresh, they’re not exciting…”  Let me be clear…revelation is given to be passed on.  Revelation is not given to people to satisfy curiousity…or to feed the intellect.  Revelation is given to people to edify family.  If you approach the Bible with curiousity, with intellectual desire…it’s not going to work for you.  Revelation is given to you to flow through you to those around you.  
• Revelation is not factual fortitude.  The revelation of Jesus Christ is the divine ability to navigate this life that we’re in…to be living with eternity’s values in view.  Revelation of the truth, discernment of reality, the perspective of eternity…is given to anyone who says, “I’m not here to satisfy myself…I’m here to edify family.  God’s family…all around me…I need revelation from You Lord because I want to see others around me saved!”  If you’re not interested in sharing, you’re not going to be shared with!  
• In Luke 8:18 Jesus said, ^“Take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
• Revelation day by day comes to those who will say “I’m going to help others.”  Whether it’s my kids, my wife, my boss, my friend…I want to help others.  God says “ok time to equip you!”
• So back in Verse 1.  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants things which must shortly take place.  
• The word shortly there is entachon.  It’s actually two words.  En  meaning in and tachon meaning rapidity.  The word tachon is the same word that we use in technology today with a tachometer.  It gives the RPMs…as the engine revs up!  And like that, when you start to see these things rev up…realize the time is now…it’s going to rapidly come about.  So here’s the way to understand prophecy and this book specifically, once you begin to see these things start to happen, it will come about rapidly!  And we are the generation that is seeing the tachometer of propohecy rev up!  Beginning May 14, 1948…with the rebirth of Israel as a nation in a night…and since then, the times have accelerated very quickly…and so shortly all things will take place!
• And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John.  Note the word signified.  It means literally, “coded.”  This book is in code.  A most intriguing code.  
• Why would God write it this way?  Embedded with code?  A couple reasons.  First, to provide protection.  At this time, if certain people got a hold of it and all was clearly stated…the emperor, the authorities of that day being written of clearly, the Christians would have been in even more danger than they already were!  And so it was coded for their protection.
• It was also written this way to provoke investigation!  This book, 22 chapters contains 404 Verses, half of them are a direct reference to the Old Testament.  There’s virtually nothing new in this book that hasn’t been discussed, presented or talked about already in the Old Testament.  And so to complete the picture, to crack the code, you have to know your bible!  
• And man that is true of each day’s circumstances too!  So why the code God?  To provide protection, to provoke investigation and finally to excite emotion!  As the pattern unfolds and we piece the picture together man it’s like finding treasure!  We’ll read of beasts with horns, angels with trumpets, Jesus in heaven…a new heaven and a new earth!  This book should be read with hearts pumping!  Body heat rising!  It’s coded you see because it’s not just dry doctrine but unveiling revelation!!

Chapter 1 Verse 2

• John says, I not only recorded this but I put my seal of authority as a pastor, as an apostle, as the one whom Jesus loved on it…that it is true!  (Quite consistent with chapter 1 of his first epistle)

Chapter 1 Verse 3

• This is the only book that comes with a particular promise of blessing.  None of the 65 other books contain a stated blessing as Revelation does.  Blessed are you who reads this Book, as we are doing tonight and as you are doing in your own time as you prepare for this teaching.  Blessed are you who hears…not just simply hearing it read but man HEAR it!  Do you take it in…or are you just listening?  Have you ever asked your kid or your husband or your wife or your friend, “hey, do you hear me?”  That is the thought here…not just listening but absorbing it, taking it in!  
• But it’s not just reading, hearing…but also keeping those things which are written.  The blessing of this book is supernatural.  But it’s not just in hearing and reading but you have to keep it!  
• The word keep tereo is a very powerful and particular word.  It doesn’t mean to keep like you would a keep sake…it’s not keep it in the drawer, keep it in the bank, keep it in your pocket…this word means keep at it, keep in it, keep after it!  It means you are saying “I gotta handle this thing constantly!  It is not something I listen to passively or listen to audibly…I’m living it!” 
• This is the key to revelation.  Not just the book.  But a life full of revelation.  A life that’s rich.  A life that is deep.  A life full of meaning and purpose.  The road to richness for every one of us…this is it.  How can I be blessed?  Keep on, keep in, keep at…don’t stop.  The key to blessing, to richness…the key to life eternal…is not based (a whole lot of Christians do not understand this)…the simple key to a blessed life and a secure eternal life is not based on agreement with scripture or with a sermon…it is not in the agreeing with the scripture, it is the doing of the scripture!  You keep at it, you keep on it, you keep with it!
• What do you mean, Matt?  Listen, the road to rich revelation is not in the desire …I desire to take my kids on vacation to see their grandparents in South Carolina…I really have a desire for April to see her parents and for my kids to see their grand-parents…and so I get in my car and I head due west (the opposite direction).  And April says, “where you going?”  And I respond, “Babe I really have a desire for my kids to see their grandparents and for you to see your parents!”  And then April says, “Well, you’re going the wrong way!  You’re going west…my parents live east.”  “But babe I have a desire a strong desire to take ya’ll to see them…”  But at this point it doesn’t matter because I’m not going to make it…I’m going the wrong way…
• The road to richness is not based on desire…it’s based on decision you see.  If I want to take my kids to see their grandparents, I must go East.  I have a decision to make.  Agreeing with the concept is not enough.  A desire is not enough.  
• If you want to be used by the Lord, revelation from the Lord, blessing that just enriches you in your marriage, in your parenting, in life…the desire is not enough.  Decisions are where it’s at!  
• Pastor John is saying,  “here is who will be blessed…those that read yes, those that hear yes…but you also have to grab hold of, not let go of, keep on…you have to treasure and take and not look back…”  This is the one simple yet essential point that hardly ever sinks in…that decisions must be made, hard decisions and they must be made for the Lord…you keep on it, you keep at it, you keep in it.  And if you do, you’ll be blessed.  If you don’t…you won’t.
• I pray that tonight you resolve…that if God says that I’ll be blessed if I not only hear but also do…if I not only listen but also take a hold of…then, Lord Jesus…count me in.
• These are serious times.  The end is at hand.  We will all stand before Jesus and give an account for what we did in this life with the measure of faith that God has given to each of us.  Are you more on fire than you’ve ever been?  Are you leading your family in a way that it needs to be led?  The time is shortly coming…when we’ll stand before the Lord and say, I heard, I read and I kept Your Word Lord.  
• The time is at hand.  I promise you at that moment and throughout eternity, you’re not going to regret what you gave up to make that statement.  You’re not going to regret anything that you gave to the Lord.  You will regret wasted time.  When you knew more about Wall Street, when you knew more about football, when you knew more about cars and home improvement than you did about the Book of Revelation.   
• These things must shortly come to pass.  And on that day, the Day of the Lord, that day each one of us will come to singularly, oh the joy of looking into the fiery eyes of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and saying…I have run the race Lord, I have finished strong.
• Life is short, heaven is real…this is not a game.  I am not here to entertain you.  Worship leaders aren’t here to perform for you.  This is serious stuff.  This is the time for you husbands to say to your wives, honey we’re going to church.  This is the time for you parents to say to your children, “Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life.”  Its time for you single people to stop spending all of your thought equity on marriage or on money…and get real about your walk. 
• Tonight the Bible, John the revelator would say to us “get ready.”  The Revelation of Jesus Christ will change your life.  Facts about Bible prophecy won’t.  Agreement with the scriptural concepts won’t.  If you’re here for either of those reasons, you will be very disappointed.  But if you’re here saying, “change my life Lord, use my life Lord, soften my heart Lord and open my eyes to an eternal perspective!”…you’ll find yourself blessed at the Revelation of Jesus Christ