Proclaimer Blog
What do you need to preach Revelation?
Enjoying a good day with Steve Wilmshurst and our Cornhill+ team looking into Revelation. Who has ever preached a series on Revelation? All of it, I mean, not just the letters (you've done that too haven't you?). Here are Steve's tips for preaching:
- The key tool for understanding Revelation is a good understanding of the Old Testament quoted/alluded to possibly 600 times (on average once every verse)
- You need to understand numbers, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12 and so on to get to grips with the book
- remember the genre, apocalyptic, prophecy, letter, all at the same time
- keep in mind the big picture before getting wound up about the details, messages that don't fit this big picture are probably wrong
- Make the scriptural connections and help listeners do so as well
- Preach Christ who is the heart and focus of the book, despite there being many other 'supporting' characters
- Don't be sidetracked, the book is full of potential red herrings
- Don't solve the sudokus like some kind of airport puzzle book rather than a book written to encourage God's beleaguered people
- Don't be too clever or dogmatic about things that can justifiably be disagreed upon, e.g. some views on the millennium (certain views at least). More importantly we need to show people that by looking at the text, reading Scripture with Scripture and with the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we can all come to a proper understanding of the text