Hometown: heaven

Our Tuesday night Bible study took off. We are reading Revelation, especially finding the big ideas which are clear and many people agree about. The overarching structure of Revelation is plain as day:

• Jesus Christ, the first and the last, ch. 1
• The church, where Christ walks among his people, ch. 2-3
• Heaven, a place of order, praise and harmony, ch. 4-5
• Gathering clouds of judgment on earth: though God continually acts to protect and comfort the saints, most of the world ignores calamities intended to bring about repentance, ch. 6-16
• Final doom upon Satan and the secular city, ch.17-20
• The new heaven and the new earth, God abiding among us, ch.21-22

My previous outline is very complex and misses the point.

Some thoughts that particularly blessed us were:

• “in heaven a door stood open” (4.1), no matter how many closed doors you face on earth, there stands a door open in  heaven.
• “in heaven stood a throne” (4.2), God reigns in heaven, does God reign in your heart?
• “four living creatures” (4.6), representing wild and domesticated animals, humans, and birds. All of us who love animals can derive comfort from the presence of all God’s creatures before the throne.
• The three great hymns of ch. 4-5 teach us three reasons to praise: because God is (4.8), because God created all things (4.11), and because God redeems the world (5.9-10,12)

I’m struck again at the broad, deep threads of praise and pastoral care that run through Revelation. This book was written for suffering people to give them hope of victory and comfort in the storm. It should do the same for us today.

But when we look at it primarily as a secret code to be deciphered, we miss the biog picture.