On this final Monday in January we take one last look at this month’s Tabletalk, Ligonier Ministries’ devotional. The January issue is devoted to the book of Revelation – “The Apocalypse of John” – which is really the unveiling of Christ our victorious Lamb as He comes throughout this final age in all its events, so that he may come fully and finally to usher in the everlasting state of all things, including the perfect redemption of His Bride, the church. I was interested in how Ligonier would treat Revelation, because R.C. Sproul holds a preterist, post-millennial viewpoint of the last things (eschatology). That did indeed come out in K.Mathison’s article “Understanding Johns Prophecy”. But this issue did have two amillennialists writing feature articles (C.Venema and D.Johnson), so at least the perspective was balanced.
It is the last featured on Revelation article which I post about today. It is written by Dennis E. Johnson, who teaches practical theology at Westminster Seminary in California. He had the task of applying the book of Revelation to the church today, and he did a nice job of laying out “seven applications of Revelation”. I cannot give you all of them, nor can I link you to the ones I don’t quote here, since his article is not posted online at this time. But I can at least give you a taste of them. Here are two of the applications that I found especially encouraging for us as the church today:
Revelation Reveals Our Champion in His True Glory
As its title promises, this truly is ‘the revelation of Jesus Christ’ (1:1). It unveils Jesus and fixes our hearts and hopes on Him. He is the hero of each dramatic scene. He is the Son of Man foretold in Daniel 7, luminous in divine glory, who by His resurrection seized death’s keys and now walks among His churches. He is Judah’s Lion who conquered by being slain, redeeming people from all the earth’s peoples. He is worthy of worship from every creature everywhere. He is the Captain of heaven’s armies, riding into battle against His and our enemies, defending beleaguered saints, and finally destroying the Dragon and his beasts. Our Champion lifts our weary hearts with His promise: ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ We reply: ‘Amen. Come, Lord Jesus’ (22:20).
Revelation Calls Us to Stay Pure When Compromise Invites
Some of the first-century churches, like many churches in the twenty-first century, faced a subtler threat than persecution. Satan, the father of lies, tried to mislead believers through purveyors of false teaching (2:15,20). Material comfort and compromise with the paganism of the surrounding culture also proved alluring (2:14; 3:17). Such insidious assaults on wholehearted allegiance to Christ are still with us. Against the Devil’s lies and invitations to idolize pleasure and prosperity, Revelation calls us to keep our hearts and lives pure as befits those who will be the Lamb’s white-robed bride (3:4-5, 17-18; 7:9,14; 14:4; 19:7-8; 22:14-15).
