I'll be very honest, I was very intimidated and a bit overwhelmed at the thought of teaching Revelation. There is a reason most churches never teach it (except the easy part; chs. 2 & 3). It was without a doubt the hardest series I had to prepare and deliver messages for. Prophecy is NOT my teaching sweet spot. I'm much more at ease with narrative or even imperatives. But Revelation...well it is unique to say the least! It took me more preparation time for each message than anything else I've ever taught, and it forced me to brush up on my eschatology and overall theology. There were weeks that I thought I did a decent job of presenting the message and other weeks that...well, let's just say I wish I could have had a Mulligan.
Despite the diffuclties I am glad that I "manned up" and took on the book and here are a few reasons why:
- People want and need to know this stuff -end times sells books and movies and there is a reason; people want to know what the world is coming to. (People thanked me throughout the series, and told me that they had never been taught Revelation)
- It challenged our church -There were concepts/ideas that wouldn't be presented in probably any other book/series that were brought to the surface to consider. (After all, who naturally gravitates towards a topical message on the Lake of Fire or the Whore of Babylon?)
- It grew me as a teacher -After teaching Revelation for months I found it easy to discuss issues in our relationship series (even controversial ones) that might have been more difficult in the past (Revelation built my teaching muscle!)
- It gave us all a vision for Jesus as an exalted King. -It's great to study the 1st coming of Jesus in the gospels and the ramifications in the epistles, but Revelation like no other book highlights the majesty, power and glory of Jesus, and we need to understand this since this is the Jesus coming back for us!
For these reasons and more, I'm so glad we worked through the book of Revelation at Calvary Fellowship, and make no mistake, I'm also glad to be done! :)
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