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Preacher: Jerry Cisar

What is the purpose of the book of Revelation? If, as we discussed last week, it is not to provide a timeline for when Jesus is coming back, then what is it? To understand this, we need to think about what a suffering church needs. What would a church tempted into the idolatry of the empire need? What would a church following a suffering Lamb need in a world in which power and wealth hold sway?

They would need the book of Revelation, which takes the cover off what we see to show us what is really going on in the world. In it we discover, as it were, that the emperor has no clothes! We learn to worship day and night in a chaotic world. We learn that the ways of the Lamb who was slain, though they require patient endurance, will win in the end.

Revelation comes at the end of a collection (the 65 others books of Scripture) that is about a cosmic war. The rulers of the world rage against God and His messiah and God laughs (Psa. 2). The rulers of this world conquer while God’s ruler is slain. Yet, in the end, the last laugh is God’s.

Join us in worship as we continue our exploration of Revelation focusing on chapters 4-5.

Handout: https://gccc-recordings.s3.amazonaws.com/handouts/20231022.pdf