Revelation 1:1-3 / A Time for Letters.
A Letter from Exile
The book of Revelation was written by a Pastor named John the Theologian, a man who had been exiled to the island of Patmos by the Roman Emperor, Domitian. It was written to Christians in the ancient cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicaea, each with an established church numbering likely not more than a couple hundred members in each city.
Life as a Christian in the year 95 was difficult. Most of them would have known, personally, someone who had been martyred by the Romans for practicing Christianity. Christian living is disruptive to empires like Rome. To say that Jesus is Lord is to say that Caesar is not! And to take part in the life of the church was to take part in the violation of cultural norms, and to subvert the kingdom by elevating those whom the empire purposefully oppressed. And by the end of the first-century, the Christians are tired. The comforts, power, and the wealth and ease of life on offer from the evil empire are becoming a greater temptation.
The church exists to change the empire, but John is worried that the empire might be changing the church instead.
This is the world and these are the people to whom John has decided to write. But instead of instructing them on right living or offering pastoral counsel, he discerns that their problem is one of imagination. He wants to tell a story that reaches into their imagination and stirs up hope again. John has written a story to bless them. And he promises them that, if they read it aloud, they will receive that blessing and they will know that things will not always be this way.
Read Revelation 1:1-3.
Discussion Questions:
What were you raised to believe about the book of Revelation?
Do you have a reading of Revelation that stirred up fear, or hope?
What kind of story would you tell, fictional or not, to inspire hope in a child who needs it?
Have you ever heard a story that inspired spiritual growth more-so than a passage of scripture did?
Who, in your view, is impacting the other more in our day: The Church, or The Empire?
What symptoms do you see that support your view?