Blessed are those who hear

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, for the time is near. Revelation 1:3 ESV

Obviously from this verse we can see that the revelation was meant to be read aloud to the church. The Revelation is a blessing both to the reader and the listener. The book of revelation truly is a blessing. It is full of reassurances of our faith in Christ.

As the verse states, the revelation is a prophecy. A prophecy of things to come and as the last part of the verse says, the time is near. SInce this is put right in the introduction of the book we have to realize that John is putting things in context for the readers and hearers of the revelation. “The time is near”.

As we read through this book we need to keep this in mind. This book was written at the end of the first century, to the first century church. Verse one spoke of “the things that must soon take place” and verse two says “the time is near”, that tells us something about the urgency of the book. The readers of this revelation must realize that the prophecy they are reading is about to take place.

This verse also says that the hearer is to “keep what is written in it”. In other words this this prophecy and the message of it are to be applied to the lives of believers. There are things in the prophecy that they will need to be ready for. As we read the revelation we too must realize the implications for us as believers today and apply them to our lives. We will will develop this theme as we go along.

In the next post we will look into the historical context of the revelation.

© 2013 Leo J. Woodman