Revelation: A Letter of Hope for the Suffering Church

“Since the joy of the Lord is the strength of those who endure for Christ, let us find in this letter the encouragement and hope that is intended.”

Revelation 1:4–8

When many people think about the book of Revelation, they immediately think about the end of the world.

They think about the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, wars, judgment, the great tribulation, and all the frightening images that fill the book.

For many Christians, Revelation has become a book that produces more fear than hope.

I think we have missed something important.

Revelation was not given to the church to terrify God's people. It was given to encourage them.

Revelation Was Written to Suffering Christians

In 1972, director Donald W. Thompson and writer Russell S. Doughten made the movie A Thief in the Night. The movie became popular in Christian circles, and it became common for churches to show it as an evangelistic tool.

The goal was understandable: scare people enough about the future that they would repent and be ready for Jesus.

But somewhere along the way, many people began treating movies like A Thief in the Night and Left Behind as though they were accurate representations of what the book of Revelation actually teaches.

The result has been that some people approach Revelation as though it were a Christian horror story.

That is not how Jesus intended His letter to be received.

John begins Revelation with these words:

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it.”
— Revelation 1:3

Notice the word blessed.

The first thing Revelation promises the person who reads it is not terror.

It is blessing.

So perhaps we need to change the way we approach this book.

If we come to Revelation assuming it is nothing but doom and gloom, we may find exactly what we are looking for. But if we approach it as a letter from Jesus to His beloved church, we begin to see something different.

We begin to see encouragement.

We begin to see hope.

And we begin to see Jesus.

We Have to Learn How to Read Revelation

One of the biggest obstacles to understanding Revelation is simply biblical literacy.

If we don't understand the kind of literature we are reading, we can spend our time trying to put puzzle pieces together that were never intended to fit together.

Revelation is apocalyptic literature.

The word apocalypse means an unveiling or revealing. It is the idea of pulling back a veil so that something previously hidden can be seen.

That is much closer to the image of a groom removing his bride's veil than it is to the modern idea of an atomic bomb destroying everything.

Revelation uses symbols to communicate truth.

Numbers matter. Images matter. Colors matter. Creatures and objects can represent something beyond themselves.

Jesus even explains some of the symbolism for us.

“The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
— Revelation 1:20

Why seven churches?

Because seven represents completeness.

Jesus is writing to seven actual churches in Asia Minor, but the number also communicates something bigger. This is a message for the complete church.

The lampstands represent the churches, and the stars represent the messengers of those churches, most likely their pastors or leaders.

And Jesus has something to say to these churches.

Some have remained faithful.

Some have begun to compromise.

Some have tolerated false teaching.

Some have allowed their desire for the world to become greater than their desire for Christ.

Jesus takes that seriously.

He is not simply interested in building bigger churches. He is concerned about building a faithful church.

The Danger of Spiritual Compromise

One group mentioned in Revelation is the Nicolaitans.

They appear to have been associated with spiritual compromise. The early Christian theologian Tertullian described them as being focused on the “maintenance of lust and luxury.”

In other words, they wanted Christianity without giving up the desires of the flesh.

And that temptation has not disappeared.

There will always be a temptation to make Christianity fit comfortably into the desires of our culture.

We can begin to pursue wealth more than faithfulness.

We can pursue pleasure more than holiness.

We can rewrite Scripture to make it agree with us rather than allowing Scripture to correct us.

Eventually, we can begin deciding for ourselves what is righteous and what is sinful.

And when we do that, something very important has happened:

We have denied the lordship of Christ.

Jesus' words to the church are sobering:

“Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
— Revelation 2:6

Jesus loves His church, but His love does not mean He ignores its sin.

He calls His people to faithfulness.

Don't Forget Who Was Reading This Letter

There is another important piece of information we have to remember when reading Revelation.

The people receiving this letter were suffering.

John introduces himself as their:

“brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.”

John was writing from the island of Patmos because of his faithfulness to the Word of God and his testimony about Jesus.

The churches were living in a hostile world.

Christians could lose their jobs and their ability to participate in trade organizations. They were slandered and accused of various things. Under Roman persecution, Christians were crucified, burned alive, and killed in public spectacles.

This is the world into which Jesus gave the Revelation.

These were not comfortable Christians sitting in a comfortable church wondering what might happen someday.

They were Christians who were already suffering.

That changes the way we read the book.

When Jesus tells them about suffering, they understood exactly what He meant.

When He tells them to remain faithful, they understood what faithfulness might cost them.

When He tells them not to fear, they needed those words.

And when Jesus reveals the future to them, He isn't simply satisfying their curiosity about what will happen at the end of the world.

He is giving suffering Christians hope.

The Church Has Always Suffered

This is something we should remember as Christians.

Suffering for the Gospel is not something that suddenly appears at the end of history.

It has been part of the story of the church from the beginning.

When Christianity came to Japan in the early 1600s, the church grew rapidly, eventually reaching roughly 300,000 believers in the southern part of the country around 1635.

Within only a few years, persecution had nearly wiped out the visible church.

The government viewed Christianity as a threat to the rule and traditions of Japan and systematically sought out believers, priests, and missionaries.

This kind of suffering has been repeated throughout the history of Christianity.

The early Christian theologian Tertullian famously said:

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

That should cause us to think carefully about the way we approach suffering.

We sometimes assume that following Jesus means God will protect us from hardship.

But the first Christians did not have that promise.

Jesus never promised His followers a life without suffering.

He promised to be with them in it.

The church has been called to endure suffering for the name of Christ since Jesus ascended into heaven.

As Jesus told His disciples:

“A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”
— John 13:16

The question is not simply, “How can I avoid suffering?”

The Christian question is, “Will I remain faithful to Christ when suffering comes?”

How Does the Church Become Fearless?

If these Christians were suffering so terribly, how could they possibly maintain hope?

I believe this is one of the great purposes of Revelation.

John sees Jesus.

And the Jesus he sees is not the weak, beaten, crucified Jesus that the Roman world thought it had defeated.

John sees the glorified Christ.

His eyes are like a flame of fire.

His feet are like burnished bronze.

His voice is like the roar of many waters.

His face is like the sun shining in full strength.

And when John sees Him, he falls at His feet as though dead.

Then Jesus says:

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
— Revelation 1:17–18

That is the message the suffering church needed to hear.

Jesus is still in control.

The Christians of John's day could not control the Roman government.

They could not control whether they would lose their jobs.

They could not control whether they would be imprisoned.

They could not control whether they would live or die.

But Jesus held the keys.

He is the first and the last.

He died, but He is alive forevermore.

Death does not have the final word.

Jesus does.

Sometimes Seeing Jesus Changes Everything

I remember hearing about a family whose husband and father was deployed overseas as an Army engineer in Afghanistan.

His family was proud of him, but having him in a dangerous place affected everything at home.

If there was a bump in the night, he wasn't there.

If something broke, he wasn't there to fix it.

When the kids had ball games, his wife went by herself.

He could write letters, and those letters were encouraging, but they weren't the same as having him home.

Then one Christmas, there was a knock at the door.

He was standing there.

He was home early.

He would eventually have to return, but seeing him standing in the doorway changed something in that house.

There was renewed hope because they had seen him.

That is part of what happens in Revelation.

The church is suffering.

The future looks uncertain.

And then Jesus reveals Himself.

He doesn't give them every detail they want.

He gives them something better.

He reminds them who He is.

Their Lord has seen their suffering.

Their Lord is still alive.

Their Lord still holds the keys.

And their Lord is coming again.

That knowledge gives courage.

Revelation Is a Letter of Hope

Imagine what it would have been like to gather together on a Sunday and hear an apostle who had actually seen Jesus tell you what he saw.

Imagine your church being named in a letter from Jesus.

Imagine Jesus addressing your struggles, your temptations, your suffering, and your faithfulness.

Imagine what kind of fearless passion that could produce in God's people.

That is what Revelation is about.

It is about a Lord who sees His people's suffering.

It is about Jesus allowing His beloved apostle to see what the future holds for those who remain faithful to Him.

And ultimately, it is about the promise that God will make all things new.

The end of the story is not suffering.

The end of the story is not persecution.

The end of the story is not death.

The end of the story is God's people dwelling with Him forever.

Read Revelation With Hope

Revelation contains strange things.

It contains frightening things.

There are judgments, beasts, wars, suffering, and death.

We should not ignore those things.

But we also shouldn't allow those things to become the entire message of the book.

Revelation begins with a blessing.

It was written to suffering Christians.

Jesus corrects His church because He loves His church.

Jesus warns His church because faithfulness matters.

Jesus reveals Himself to His church because He wants His people to know that He has not abandoned them.

And Jesus reminds His people that He holds the keys to Death and Hades.

So when we read Revelation, we should not simply ask:

“What terrible things are going to happen?”

We should also ask:

“What is Jesus trying to show His church?”

Because the answer is ultimately the same hope that sustained the first Christians:

Jesus is Lord.

He sees our suffering.

He calls us to remain faithful.

He has conquered death.

He holds the future.

And He is coming again.

Revelation is not ultimately a horror story.

It is a letter of encouragement to those who love Jesus, remain faithful to Him, and long to dwell with their God and be His people forever.

So let us read it that way.

Since the joy of the Lord is the strength of those who endure for Christ, let us find in this letter the encouragement and hope that is intended.