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Who knew the book of Revelation has such a positive message?

Jesus victoriously wins, satan miserably loses!

Summary
Prologue
Introduction
Back Cover
Summary

Unmasking Revelation

We often see the coming traumatic End Times in the book of Revelation as if they were somehow directed at us, the followers of Jesus. The End Time traumas are not directed at us! Once “the Scroll” is opened, God makes all-out, no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners war on sin and satan. (pg 74)

This “final scene of time” is going to be Jesus bringing about the ultimate physical redemption of Believers. Jesus is dealing a death blow to “the evil one” and all those who willfully and stubbornly follow his ways. Inside that scroll is packaged God’s final judgment on sin and hell and death! This is ultimately going to be about Jesus assuring every one of us that sin and satan will be banished from our lives forever! (pg 74)

Revelation 6-20 is to show us that satan, and the antichrist, use every single weapon at their disposal to defeat God and HIS MESSIAH, and they completely, and dramatically, lose the war against the Creator of the universe! (pg 159)

The climax of the story comes when in chapters 19-20, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords returns with millions (perhaps billions) of His Saints, who in spite of all of satan’s efforts to stop them, have been redeemed from their sins and have received their eternal reward. On the other hand, satan, the antichrist, and those who have refused Jesus’ salvation are eternally destroyed with a single sentence from Jesus’ mouth!  (pg 159)

That is what is supposed to stand out to us when we study the book that is called the “Revelation of Jesus Christ” because: Jesus is the conquering hero of the book! (pg 159)

Prologue

Jesus’ disciples are shocked! Their world had turned upside-down. For three years they had witnessed leprous stubs grow into fresh new feet, thousands of shekels of food appear out of nothing, and dead people brought back to life! Six months ago the momentum in their already insane new life had taken a startling shift, and now for the last six weeks they were, literally, living every moment of their lives in mouth-hanging shock!

The gears shifted last fall when their long-awaited, miracle-working Messiah had announced that he was going to die! He had slipped it in at the end of a bizarre moment up in Caesarea Philippi standing in front of the pagan “gates of hell” grotto where human beings were daily being sacrificed. “I will build my church,” he had shouted. “The very gates of hell will not stand against it! The ‘Church,’ my Church,” he had said, “will bind and loose on earth what has already been bound and loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19). What in the world could that possibly all mean they wondered?

As if that hadn’t been startling enough for fishermen and tax collector brains to absorb, Jesus began to enlarge on the fact that once they got back down to  Jerusalem, he was going to suffer terrible things at the hands of the religious leaders, and then be brutally murdered. “I will be killed,” Jesus had said, “but on the third day I would rise from the dead” (Matthew 16:21). That last phrase went right over their heads. It didn’t sink in at all. They were still so absorbed and confused by the “I will be killed” phrase! Peter tried to challenge Jesus: “No way, Lord,” he had said. “That’s never going to happen to you!” Jesus gave him one of his deep-into-your-soul stares and said, “Get away from me, satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things purely from a human point of view, not from God’s” (Matthew 16:22-23). Everybody else shut their mouths and tried to make sense out of what seemed senseless.

  • Then he died! Jesus died, just as he had predicted! Hundreds of people watched his pale, bloodless, lifeless body being hauled down from the cross and carefully packed into Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. Lots of people commented on how accurate Jesus’ prophecies about himself had been. Nobody dared mention Jesus’ final “rising” line in Caesarea Philippi. To even repeat the line would require faith, and their faith was shattered.
  • Then the sun rose Sunday morning! When the disciples arrived at the tomb, they were greeted by two men, obviously angels, in dazzling robes asking them, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He has risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee that the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinful men? He will be crucified, but he would rise again on the third day” (Luke 24:5-7)!
  • And then, there he was alive! They saw Jesus with their own eyes, they talked to him, and they touched him. His words reached deep into their hearts! The religious leaders had rushed around injecting “spin” about his body being stolen from an obviously empty tomb over the next five weeks. But everybody knew it was a lie. Every person who lived in and around Jerusalem had some friend or relative who had literally seen, and heard, and touched the resurrected Jesus!

Introduction

….As the Church did their first read through of the new letter, they were excited about the “letter directly from Jesus” part. They loved the “blessing when you read it” part, but there was one key piece they were all looking for – Was this the book that was going to answer all their questions about Jesus’ expected return! They didn’t have to read far:

Revelation 1:7, 8: “Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven. And everyone will see him— even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! Amen! ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,’ says the Lord God. ‘I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.’”

As they read and read, and reread through their new letter, it didn’t take long for them to understand that there was more to Jesus’ “Second Coming” than just the “pre-signs” Jesus had mentioned that would happen BEFORE his return – they were now getting their first prophetic look at what was going to happen AFTER Jesus’ return!

  •  The final veil was ripped off their minds – they now knew how it was all going to end and they were electrified! They now had the final key to the “Gospel” message; they caught something huge that they hadn’t caught before
  • Satan wasn’t going to win his battle against God! Jesus was going to victoriously clean satan’s clock, destroy the chokehold of death, and even the curse of sin itself would be purged off this planet (Revelation 22:3)! Jesus would set up an eternal reign and all the redeemed Believers would be reigning with him!

Nobody in the Early Church let their “Revelation letter” collect dust. Nobody said, “It is just too hard to understand.” They were pouring over it every day, making sure they understood it. The message of the letter was intense (it still is): Jesus victoriously wins… satan miserably loses!

Ethan and the Early Church did not see the coming traumatic End Times in the book of Revelation as if they were somehow directed at them, the Church, the followers of Jesus. They read that once “the Scroll” is opened, God makes all-out, no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners war on sin and satan. That’s the part the Church had not yet heard. For all they had known Jesus was going to be returning to a sin-soaked planet. They might be lifted off, but satan would forever be wrecking this planet, and it’s future inhabitants, their grandchildren.

Once they read through their final letter of Revelation they realized that the returning Jesus was going to deal a death blow to “the evil one”! Inside that scroll with seven seals was packaged God’s final judgment on sin and hell and death!

Jesus/John “unveiled” that satan and the antichrist use every single weapon at  heir disposal to defeat God and HIS MESSIAH, and they completely, and  ramatically, lose the war against the Creator of the universe (Revelation 6-20)!

  • The excitement in the Churches reached a level never known before! Their
    worship services could be heard to the edges of town. The first time the Elders publicly read the account of Jesus’ actual return, the Church came unglued (Revelation 19)! “The King of all kings and Lord of all lords returns to this earth with millions of His Saints.”
  • In spite of all of satan’s efforts to stop them, the Saints have been redeemed from their sins and have received their eternal reward! On the other hand satan, the antichrist, and those who have refused Jesus’ salvation are eternally destroyed with a single sentence from Jesus’ mouth!
  • JESUS triumphantly WINS…satan miserably loses!

Back Cover

Revelation is a book that many Christians dislike and ignore!

The Early Church saw this letter 180 degrees opposite. They were being persecuted, their possessions and families ripped away. Satan seemed to be winning! When those “hunted” people got this letter, they were electrified. They now had the final key to the “Gospel” message – they caught something they hadn’t caught before! Satan wasn’t going to win his battle against God! Jesus was coming back, and when he did, all evil would be defeated!

Nobody in the Early Church let their “Revelation letter” collect dust. Nobody said “it is just too hard to understand.” They studied deeply – because those words were the keys to their future! They now knew the end of the story! When Jesus returned, he would reward his Saints and crush satan! He would purge the “curse” off the planet! (22:3) The message of the letter was intense – it still is: Jesus victoriously wins…satan miserably loses!

Jesus didn’t intend the End Times to scare us! He didn’t intend for his “unveiling” to sit unread! What if – the 63-year-old carpenter, the 42-year-old salesperson, the 30-year-old nurse, and the 16-year-old student could all finally say: “It’s not scary mumbo-jumbo to me any more! What if instead of sparking confusion and fear, Jesus’ “Revelation” could ignite awe and worship?

Sam Chess has intentionally written to make the difficult understandable – to “unmask” the weird and scary, to simply unfold the chronological storyline of Jesus’ final triumphant victory!