Let’s be honest: Revelation can be an intimidating book. Because of that, some of us have avoided Revelation, deeming it to be too difficult to interpret and understand, too controversial, or too scary. Perhaps we’ve ignored it because we have assumed the book is only about the future, with nothing “practical” for us today.

The truth is, while the apocalyptic prophecy of Revelation presents some challenges to us as modern readers, it also provides gifts of insight and understanding to those who are willing to engage with it. Revelation is a letter written to gird us for faithful allegiance to Christ as we wait for his return. And that is encouragement we all need!

“I want to invite you to study Revelation for the joy of it.”

I want to invite you to study Revelation for the joy of it. And since Revelation is full of sevens (seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, and many more sevens), it seems appropriate to provide seven reasons Revelation is a joy to study.

1. Revelation is a message from God sent to us.

It is amazing that the God who made the world has condescended to speak to us in human language. In the Bible, the God of the universe tells us what we most need to know. And there is something special about the way his message in the book of Revelation is delivered to us. At the outset, we’re given its specific chain of delivery:

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. (Revelation 1:1–2)

What John wrote down in the book of Revelation came from God the Father, to Jesus Christ, to his angel, to John, who then wrote it down — first for the seven churches who originally received it, and also for all who were then or would become partners in the “the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). God has a message for you in the book of Revelation that you don’t want to miss!

2. Revelation opens our eyes to see the risen and glorified Christ.

Most of our mental pictures of Jesus have been shaped by the Gospels. In our mind’s eye, we see him as a baby in a manger, standing on the hillside teaching, hanging on the cross. But in the book of Revelation, John is given a vision of Jesus as he is, right now, today. As John was suffering imprisonment on the island called Patmos, he heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him, felt Jesus reach out and touch him, and saw Jesus in all his resurrected, ascended glory (Revelation 1:9–20).

We don’t want our understanding of Jesus to be confined to the years of his earthly humanity — glorious as those Gospel pictures are. The Jesus we call out to and commune with day by day is the risen and glorified Jesus. Seeing him as he is now, through John’s vivid record of his vision, builds our trust in him, heightens our attention to him, and expands our joy in him.

3. Revelation provides a picture of Jesus’s presence with us.

In Revelation 1, John sees Jesus “in the midst of the lampstands” (verse 13). We’re told that the lampstands represent the churches (verse 20). When those who first received this letter gathered to hear it read to them, it must have deeply encouraged them that Jesus was not standing off at a distance while his followers suffered for him. He was right there with them, walking in the midst of them, keeping their fire for the gospel burning, correcting them, watching over them, strengthening them.

We need these same reminders, don’t we? What a joy to have this picture Revelation provides of Jesus standing in the midst of his people. In the midst of suffering for our allegiance to him, as we face temptation to be unfaithful to him, we can be assured that he is with us, providing what we need for patient endurance.

4. Revelation enables us to see this world from heaven’s perspective.

In Revelation 4:1, John records being invited to “come up” into heaven and to come into an open door to see something. In a visionary state, John peers into the heavenly throne room of God and sees the thunderous worship taking place around the throne. But from this vantage point, he is also enabled to see what is taking place on earth from heaven’s perspective.

We sometimes foolishly assume we have all the data we need to evaluate what is happening in our world. But we don’t. Our perspectives are limited by our humanity and our earthly vantage point. But as we take in what John recorded about what he saw, we find that we are better able to see the true nature of our present reality. This is perspective we need. Rather than seeing this world’s offerings as attractive, from heaven’s perspective we can see how ugly and unsatisfying they are. Rather than seeing the persecution of faithful believers as tragic defeat, we’re able to see it as glorious victory.

5. Revelation assures us that God will deal with the evil in this world.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). He delivers us day by day, and Revelation shows us that one day he will deliver us in an ultimate and final way. His pouring out of wrath will be the answer to our prayers. You and I don’t want to live forever in a world tainted by evil, rebellion, idolatry, and immorality. And we won’t have to. The day is coming when God will cleanse away all the ugliness and evil from his creation, making it fit for us to live in as our forever home.

6. Revelation shows us what our eternal future will be like.

Sometimes the notion of “heaven” or “eternity” can seem so vague. We want details. And while the Bible might not give us all the details we’d like, the final chapters of Revelation uniquely provide us with beautiful images that give us a sense of our eternal future.

As we take in the book’s imagery of marriage, we can smile, sensing the intimacy we’re going to enjoy in face-to-face communion with God. As we read through its imagery of a city, we find ourselves anticipating the richness of being part of a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Its imagery of a temple causes us to imagine what it will be like to bask forever in the radiant glory of God. And as we take in the imagery of a garden, we exhale as we anticipate what it will be like to live in an atmosphere of healing, wholeness, and complete satisfaction for all eternity. Can you almost feel the joy of this marriage, this city, this temple, this garden?

7. Revelation promises blessedness.

When we think of beatitudes, most of us likely think of the “Blessed are . . .” statements from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–12). But did you know that Revelation has its own beatitudes? Within its pages are seven statements about the person who is blessed. As we survey Revelation’s seven beatitudes, it becomes immediately obvious that the blessedness God promises is nothing like the modern social-media version of #blessed.

Who will be blessed, according to Revelation? Those who hear and keep what is written in the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:3; 22:7). Those who refuse to compromise with the world (Revelation 19:9). Those who die in the Lord (Revelation 14:13). Those who stay awake, watching for the return of Christ (Revelation 16:15). Those who reign with Christ (Revelation 20:6). Those who have had their robes washed in the blood of the Lamb and have the right to eat from the tree of life (Revelation 22:14).

“Revelation sets before us true and lasting rather than false and fleeting blessedness.”

Revelation sets before us true and lasting rather than false and fleeting blessedness. This is the blessedness around which we want to orient our lives. This is the blessedness of eternal Sabbath rest that Adam failed to lead humanity into. We can be sure that Jesus, the last Adam, will not fail to lead us into it. Revelation shows us how he will do it. Anticipation of this blessedness is what fills us with genuine joy now.

My friend, don’t be intimidated by the book of Revelation. Don’t ignore it. Dive into it. Explore it. Have your perspective changed by it. Find joy in it. Experience the blessedness promised in it.

Sunday school has marked me since my childhood — literally. I have a scar on the top of my right hand from being burned by the popcorn popper when I was about 3 years old. Sunday school has left much deeper impressions, however, in my heart and soul and in the way I have read and understood the Bible for most of my life — especially in terms of how I have read and understood the Old Testament.

For most of my life, I saw the Old Testament primarily as a series of disconnected stories about people showing how (or how not) to live the life of faith. I knew that the Old Testament spoke of Christ, but in my mind, that was limited to the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah.

I did not see that all of the Old Testament prepares us to understand who Jesus is and what he would do. I didn’t understand that from Genesis 3:15 onward, we’re meant to trace the woman’s line to the promised offspring — the descendent of Abraham, the son of David — who would deal with the curse and the serpent for good. I was in my forties when I began to understand that the Bible is one story of God’s redemption through Christ.

When I began to understand that the Old Testament can be understood only in light of Christ, a new world opened. I determined that I needed to go back to kindergarten in terms of understanding the Bible’s story. I bought several books on the topic, including one that revolutionized my Old Testament reading.

Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament

I got no further than the introduction of Christopher Wright’s Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament when I read a passage that blew my mind. Speaking about Jesus’s connection to the Old Testament, he writes,

These are the words he read, the stories he knew. These were the songs he sang. These were the depths of wisdom and revelation and prophecy that shaped his whole view of life, the universe and everything. This is where he found his insights into the mind of his Father God. Above all, this is where he found the shape of his own identity and the goal of his own mission. (11)

This paragraph caused me to think about the humanity of Jesus more deeply. It challenged me to read the Old Testament differently. And it sent me on a mission.

Humanity of Jesus

Though Jesus is fully human and fully God, the deity of Jesus has been easier for me to grasp than his humanity. This passage caused me to stop and give more thought to what it must mean that Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52). Jesus grew in his own understanding of who he was, what his life was all about, and even what his death and resurrection would mean from meditating on the Old Testament Scriptures.

Jesus, typical of Jewish boys of his time, learned from hearing the Old Testament scrolls read in the synagogue. One of the only scenes we have of him as a child depicts him staying behind in Jerusalem to sit among the teachers, “listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). He was thinking and putting it all together. He was coming into a recognition that when he was in the temple in Jerusalem, he was in his Father’s house.

“When Jesus read the Old Testament, he saw the suffering he would experience — as well as the glory on the other side.”

We know what he thought when he read the beginning of Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” He read this aloud in his hometown and told the people it was fulfilled in their hearing that day (Luke 4:16–21). What was it like for him to read passages like Psalm 22:14 — “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint”? What did he think as he pondered Isaiah prophesying, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5), eventually knowing that he would be pierced, that he would be crushed?

When Jesus read the Old Testament, he saw the suffering he would experience — as well as the glory on the other side. That is why he told the two disciples on the road to Emmaus that if they had believed all that the prophets had spoken, they would have understood that it was “necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory” (Luke 24:25–26).

Reading the Old Testament

This sentence in Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament also caused me to read the Old Testament differently, asking myself throughout, What might Jesus have pointed to and said, “This is about me”?

Luke writes that there on the road to Emmaus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). To explain to these followers who he was and why he had to die, Jesus evidently did not start with his birth in Bethlehem, or his Sermon on the Mount, or his wrangling with the Pharisees, or the plot against him facilitated by Judas.

Rather, he opened up Genesis and Leviticus and Psalms and Jonah and Hosea and the rest of the Old Testament and said, “This is about me. . . . This is about the curse I came to bear. . . . This is about the mercy I came to lavish on sinners. . . . This is about the sufficiency of my salvation. . . . This is about my deliverance from death. . . . This is about the judgment that was poured out on me at the cross.”

“It is not just individual prophecies or passages that point to Jesus, but the Old Testament as a whole.”

According to Jesus, it is not just individual prophecies or passages that point to him, but the Old Testament as a whole. He said to the religious leaders, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). And a few verses later, he says, “If you believed Moses you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). The entirety of the Old Testament is about him — not only in its prophecies, but also in its history, its promises, its people, its law, its ceremony, its song.

On a Bible Mission

I can trace the discovery that flowed out of this passage to the personal mission I’ve been on since then. I am on a mission to infiltrate Bible study in the local church with biblical theology. By biblical theology, I mean an approach to the Bible that recognizes its cohesive story. Even though the Bible is made up of various kinds of literature and was written over centuries by forty human authors, it is really telling one story about what God is doing in the world through Christ.

So, how much has that sentence, and these discoveries about the book that Jesus loved most, changed for me? After going back to kindergarten on the Old Testament, I wrote the One Year Book of Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament and then a series called Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. Now I teach the Biblical Theology Workshop for Women around the country and internationally.

I have found that when people who love the Bible and love Christ are shown how to see Christ from the beginning to the end of the Bible, their joy explodes. Seeing the beauty, sufficiency, and necessity of Jesus Christ from every part of the Bible — including from the Old Testament — has the power to truly, deeply, and eternally change our lives.