All nine campuses of Brentwood Baptist Church recently started a sermon series on the book of Revelation. That’s a book of the Bible that gets a bad rap sometimes because so many of us grew up hearing about how it was all about the United States and the Soviet Union and World War III. There were helicopters and nuclear bombs and microchip implants, even though the book was written nearly 2000 years ago to a group of believers who were centuries away from that kind of technology.

Yes, there is a lot of symbolism and strange imagery in the book of Revelation, but mostly it’s about Jesus. I heard it described as a book of worship centered around the reign and rule of Jesus. Basically, if you wanted to summarize Revelation, it would be Jesus wins and everything’s going to be okay in the end.

It helps to remember that the book was written to a group of churches in the first century who were undergoing horrific persecution under Roman emperors. The believers needed a lifeline because the odds were good that many of them would lose their lives for confessing Jesus rather than Caesar as Lord.

There’s also been some problematic teaching about this book. I remember when Revelation was used as a kind of scare tactic to make sure people were ready to meet Jesus. As a result, many grew up fearing the return of Jesus instead of welcoming it and more have avoided the book of Revelation like the plague (pun intended) ever since.

But if a cliff notes version of Revelation existed, it basically would state that Jesus is in control. Though right now, chaos seems to be in charge, the reality is that Christ is ruling even now and one day we will see a new heaven and earth and all of creation restored.

I read a book once about Revelation called Unveiled Hope. I think that pretty much sums up the theme of the book quite nicely. And as Billy Graham once said, I’ve read the last page of the Bible, and everything’s going to be alright in the end.