Living Outloud: What do we do with Revelation?

We celebrate reaching the end of the Bible's last book, and sit with why Revelation is meant to bless us, not frighten us. We connect Genesis, the resurrected Jesus, and the new heaven and new earth so we can live with steady hope and real urgency. 
• celebrating the full Bible arc from Genesis to Revelation 
• taking Revelation’s blessing seriously by hearing and keeping its words 
• seeing a preview of resurrected life through Jesus’ post-resurrection body 
• naming how sin stains even the best parts of our world 
• exploring why believers feel homesick and why that ache points to Christ 
• imagining the new earth as embodied life with meaningful work and rest 
• treating end times theology as fuel for peace, wisdom, and witness 
Go talk to Jesus and tell him how you're excited to spend eternity with him and ask him to come soon. 

At outloudbible.com, you can find free resources to help you study the Bible. And while you’re there, send us a message to say hi, or start a conversation about having us at your church or event. 

If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.

Transcript

Finishing The Bible Read-Through

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is Out Loud Bible Project Podcast, and this is Living Out Loud, where once a week we're going to take a look at something that we read earlier this week on the podcast and dig down deeper to discover what we can actually do about it. How do we live this out loud? I'm Mike, and I'm here with Kelsey.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hello.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

And this, Kelsey, this is our last section of scripture in trying to get through the whole Bible. Wow. Which is super exciting. Now, that's not the last episode of the podcast. We're gonna keep going. We got we got we're gonna go read things over again and emphasize different things, and we're by no means done, but it is worth celebrating. This is the conclusion of like reading through the whole Bible out loud. It's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

So as of today, the or I guess technically yesterday was when you finished reading the end of Revelation. And so as of yesterday, the Out Loud Bible Project podcast has read through the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation and everything in between. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Oh thanks. It's been fun. It's been a good journey. And we'll we'll talk more about what the next phase looks like and and some fun new things to look forward to. We'll get into that. But we're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. Stick with us. We're gonna, we got more Bible to discover. Uh, you can't get everything you need to get from it from one read-through, but it's a good start. Uh Revelation has been really interesting too because

Revelation’s Blessing And The Ask

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Revelation chapter one actually comes with a blessing. It's a promise of a blessing that Jesus says, Blessed is the one who reads the words of this book out loud. So I'm waiting on that blessing. The checks in the mail. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

But also uh a blessing to those who hear these words and do them. That's why we're having this conversation, living out loud, because we don't want to just listen to Revelation. We got to do something about it. It's difficult with Revelation because it's like, what do I do about that? Like, that's a lot of what what do I do?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Last week's Living Out Loud is probably the most practical portion of uh Revelation, the letters of Jesus to the churches. Those are those are as practical as Paul's letters to churches. But the rest of Revelation feels a little bit less practical, but I think that there's still some good takeaways um in how we ought to live and respond.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Yeah, so let's let's talk about these things. So Revelation, I I hope you've been able to see a bit of the grand scope of the Bible. I know in this past phase of the podcast, we didn't read the Bible front to back, you know, we didn't even read it chronologically. Um, but we've heard it all, right? If you've been with me this long. And um, we know, especially when we look at Genesis, that was how

Genesis To Revelation Full-Circle Hope

SPEAKER_00 2:32

everything started. It's really fascinating to now having read Revelation to see how everything ends. And yet Revelation is not just about the ending, but it's also a new beginning of eternity, which has its own wow, something to look forward to, and we can't fully understand it. Um a lot of people will ask, like, well, what's heaven like? Or what's what is it gonna look like when we're dead, you know? Uh like what what is what's the afterlife, you know, however they phrase it, what does that look like? Well, uh we can point to two, arguably three places in scripture that give us the the best idea of what that looks like. You can look at most obviously Revelation here, um which we just read, and and we can also look at Genesis at how it all started before sin. Seeing what God is revealing about life after sin in Revelation, and seeing what God did and started and created before sin give us a real good sense of what is God's ideal.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

What what is it?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Because heaven is gonna be what God says is ideal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

And and he created what he created was good. And before sin came in and corrupted everything, and Satan was given permission to wreak havoc on the earth and and in people before that happened. We can also see a bit of what Jesus, uh what God intended of his creation. And I said a third area to look at is uh a brief moment of time after Jesus was resurrected and before he went to heaven again. There's like 40 days there, um, where we see him interacting with people a little bit and what Jesus is there, he sees kind of showing off the new model of of what a human body, a resurrected human body is like. One that uh isn't really bound by space, as he can kind of go into locked rooms, but also can eat and drink and seems to enjoy the taste of things and um is recognizable. Is recognizable as a person, uh, isn't sick, isn't injured. He kept his scars, I think, intentionally. There's no indication that we would have any scars from our time on earth, but I think he intentionally kept his. Um, and and uh it just that I get it's that's what we can expect with our resurrected body. He's he's showing off his new resurrected humanity that we can kind of have a sneak peek at the new model. So um, Genesis, post-resurrection, Jesus, and revelation give us a really good sense of what to expect. And that's be this whole story. I hope you've recognized that this whole story of the Bible is one big arc, or dare I say full circle. And through this all, Jesus is uh is the thread that connects the way it was supposed to be in Genesis to the way it's going to be in Revelation. And we see parallels. Like, God is a master craftsman and storyteller when it comes to time and events. That's an understatement, of course. But like he's pretty good at it. Um, but he's very intentional with bookending some how what we see in Genesis with what we see in Revelation. So when we take a look at Revelation, say, chapter 20, in verse 7, we see what's described as Satan's final defeat. Like he's gonna be released from his prison after a thousand years, and he's gonna put up one big final battle, and then fire comes down and destroys them, and he's gonna be thrown into the lake of fire and soul for for to be tormented there day and night, forever and ever, it says. Like, done. And yet we see Satan's first victory in Genesis, right? So we see his first victory over humanity in Genesis, uh, and we see his final defeat and revelation. God's just bringing this full circle to a close and uh and done deal.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

We also see in in And we also to connect that middle thread in there, we saw with Jesus' death and resurrection what Satan's thought was his ultimate victory and his defeat in one story there, right in the middle.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

God cursed the serpent, Satan, and saying, Yeah, you're gonna you're gonna strike his heel, but he's gonna crush your head. Yeah. And that's what we see there with the head.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Revelation is the crushing of the head.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

And um, and and arguably Jesus' resurrection crushed his head, but then it's dead and buried and gone in Revelation, um, and no more victories can be had. And we see just in Genesis how God created the heavens and the earth, right? That's like Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, in 21-1, in Revelation, it says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth, that's what was referred to in Genesis 1-1, had ceased to exist. And it just it makes me think of how everything we see, you look out your window, everything you see has been touched by sin.

A World Touched By Sin

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Everything has been affected by sin in some way. I right now at this recording, it's springtime. I love springtime. I see green buds on the trees, uh, and starting to see some flowers pop up, and it's beautiful, and we have a beautiful world. However, everything is touched by sin. I know that this tree outside my yard also is kind of rotting on the inside, and there's some dead branches. And I know the flowers were actually uh bit by frost the other night, and they're kind of wilty. And I see homes that were built by people, and they look they look great, but you know, even the businesses we see around are human institutions that were built with some underlying sense of ambition and greed and wanting to get ahead, and everything we see, whether it's natural beauty or some man-made achievement, is all tinged by sin. And God is getting rid of all of it.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

The fact that he hasn't yet blows my mind. Just proves to me that I'm not God. Because I would have, I would have cleared this planet a long time ago. I would have sent the flood and not saved Noah. Like I would have sort of like, never mind, that was a bad experiment. Let's start over, let's not do that again. Uh, this human experiment was a bad idea, but God doesn't apparently see it that way, and he's got patience upon patience upon patience. But there will come a time where everything that we know and see now will go away, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth that will not have an opportunity to be corrupted by sin.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

It's hard to imagine that's so exciting. And because right now we have to live in this tension of yes, it's God's world is beautiful, but it's still corrupted and it's still temporary. And there's that's that's I was thinking about this just the other day about um how we don't feel as a as a Christian, we don't feel like this is our home, right? I I have a whole playlist of of Christian folk music, and it seems like the common theme of Christian folk music is like this idea of of uh this is not my home, and I'm I'm a sojourner here and and I'm I'm homesick for heaven, these sort of ideas. That seems to be very folksy in the Christian world. Um and and I just been thinking about these concepts of just like, ah man, yeah, you you have that ache of like, I mean, I it's nice here, but this is not where I belong. And how do we get to that point? Does only only Christians really feel that sense? You look at people in the world, they seem perfectly at home. They seem perfectly comfortable being here. They've figured out the systems, they figured out how to make money, they figure out how to how to make the world work for them, but that's because they have a nature that is of the world, a sin nature. You have a a sin worldly nature. So if you have a worldly nature, you are at home in the world, just as much as a fish has a water nature and they are at home in the water.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Um And yet I would almost argue that there is a spiritual reality because we are all made in the image of God, whether we follow him, whether we acknowledge him or not, that is what's true of every single individual, every single person. And I would argue that all of those ambitious things, all of those ways that people have tried to be more comfortable in the world is seeking something that only Christ and only heaven will satisfy. Um, but it's trying to make it's try those people are trying to make earth into what only heaven can be. Um and and I think that there's a sense that they are it is vain, but it is, it is, it's not going to ultimately satisfy. But I think that that's why uh people do push to be more comfortable, more successful, and have more and more and more and more and more, because there's something innate in us that says what we have is incomplete. Who, like what where we live is incomplete, and I'm not actually at home here. And so people are trying to find belonging, they're trying to find purpose, they're trying to find a reason for living. And that reason is only found in Christ. But people who don't have Jesus are looking for it in ways to try to make a heaven out of earth, they're just going to ultimately be unsatisfied.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

But then isn't it interesting? Let's say that person becomes a Christian, right, and and follows Jesus, you get a new nature. You no longer have a sin, uh sin nature, a worldly nature. Jesus gives you his nature.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

You're a new creation.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

You're a new creation. However, then you're still on this earth, and that leaves you with this homesick feeling. So you're trying to feel at home before Jesus, right? You're trying to feel like trying to fill this hole you you fill in your heart. Let's say, praise God, you find Jesus. He gives you a new nature, and now where you were a worldly person trying to f make sense of this like higher heavenly nature that that you are trying to get in all the wrong ways, then you become saved. Jesus gives you this spiritual heavenly nature, but then you're stuck here and you still feel like, oh, I'm I this isn't the way it's supposed to be. It's this is just the tension we have to live in. And can you imagine what it's gonna be like to have as a as a believer now, with a new Jesus nature, a

What The New Earth Might Feel Like

SPEAKER_00 12:46

new heavenly nature, to be living in the environment that you were created to be in, environment being with Jesus Himself and and free from sin, it's gonna feel like we're like a fish out of water this whole time, just like trying to gasp for breath, and it's like this isn't the way it's supposed to be. Why is it such a struggle? I'm flopping around out here, this isn't where I believe and belong, and then oh, finally we get placed in where where we're created to be. I I I say that, but it's also important to note that we are human and we will be human. Like we're not going to shed our body. Jesus demonstrated what a resurrected body was. If anyone could have just had this spiritual presence, it would after death, it would have been Jesus. But he's like, no, no, we have we're we're human. I I I came to be a human, I'm in, I'm in it for the long haul. And and as humans, it's not like we're we're gonna lose this body and and just be a spirit. Right? We that living in this new nature also means like, yeah, there's there's this spiritual component to it, there's this physical body component to it. We're just a creature that that that God delighted in creating that's different from everything else. And we get to finally live and experience what that's like on the other side of of of death.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

And the new heaven and new earth I I think are going to be places for us to live.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Um yes, physical, physical places and uh it's not like I know I when we were kids that seemed like and there's still some false ideas of like, yeah, well, heaven, you'll just everyone gets your own cloud and you you you I don't know, sing songs and play an instrument or something all the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

It's like I Specifically a harp.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Specifically a harp. It's like I don't I don't like I don't like harps. I don't want to be on a cloud. And uh that that's not biblical, that doesn't come from here. What what we do see is a city, a new Jerusalem coming onto a new earth, and in the context of a new heaven and and kind of like stairways, like a just a sense of like here's a new place to to live and be. And well, I don't like singing. I don't like the I'm gonna get bored if I just sing to God all the time. Well, A, I don't think you're gonna be bored if that's what it was, but also B, I that's not what we see either necessarily. Like just remember what what was Genesis like? Working, walking, cultivating. Imagine all of those things without the struggle that has been a result of sin, without the vanity and the sweat and the blood and the tears. What if we got to live just like God created it in the first place in the Garden of Eden? Where we walk with him in the cool of the evening and where we work and interact with each other and build a community and and explore and discover. We have the freedom to do that without the demands of having to pay rent and without uh having to take time off for being sick and without the selfish ambition of someone else trying to, you know, get their way and disadvantaging me. Like all these things we don't have to worry about. Can you just imagine? I I I uh was talking with our pastor a couple weeks ago just about what this new heaven, new earth would look like, and and he kind of proposed this idea of like, well, well, Mike, what if, you know, we're in his house. He hasn't he has a nice, a very nice house with a nice yard. And he said, What if, what if my wife and I said, Hey, you know what? Mike, we're heading, we're heading out uh to go, I don't know, travel the country. And we want to just give you this house. Here's the keys to the house. We don't need it anymore. It's yours. Uh we'll we'll is that an offer?

SPEAKER_01 16:23

When do we move in? I I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

I don't I don't I think it was a I think it was an illustration.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Oh, hypothetical.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

I know, uh, hypothetical. And uh and I'll have food delivered, so you have groceries in the fridge more than you need every week, and uh help yourself to the yard. I I'll pay the taxes, I'll I'll, you know, there's no neighbors around to bother you. Uh I'll help you.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Seriously, when do they leave?

SPEAKER_00 16:47

And uh and it's like if if that was the case, how would you feel? I was like, oh man, I I kind of feel my shoulders lowering just a little bit, just thinking about that, not having to worry about rent and having to, you know, take care of all of those things and just what would you do? It's like, I don't know, I'd probably have some people over and celebrate, throw barbecue and I don't know, uh take a nap. Probably uh I don't know, explore explore the the woods in the back for a little bit. It's like by by everything we can tell, like wouldn't that be heaven if God says all the things that you're used to struggling for and all the things that are have been in the way of you enjoying the best life with me, take those out of the way, and here's a space for you to live and grow and be with people and and enjoy what would you do? Well, that's probably what you would do in heaven, as best as we can understand it. And uh and hopefully that lets your shoulders lower a little bit, which for the believer is the point of revelation.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Yeah, yeah, I I think sometimes revelation gets a bad rap of being a scary book. Um, and there's a lot that's uh that I don't understand. There's a lot to unpack. There's a lot, there is parts of it

Studying End Times With Peace

SPEAKER_01 17:56

that are very confusing.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

There's a reason we're not unpacking like Revelation 16 and 17 right now, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Um, but I think uh on the whole, reading Revelation here's how I see it. We only know anything about what is to come because God wants us to know something about what is to come. If he didn't want us to know anything about how the world ends um and what he's gonna do about it, he wouldn't have told us. John wouldn't have been given this revelation and he wouldn't have written it down. We only know what we know because God wants us to know it and he wants us to be prepared. And so I think that we have a responsibility to study revelation. I think we have a study, uh, a responsibility to study end times um theology and and scripture and to study it and to be on the lookout for things that that God said would happen. And I think that we can be filled with a sense of peace and a sense of joy, knowing that regardless of how bad things look in our world, regardless of how bad politics are getting, regardless of how bad the economy gets, regardless of how bad interregulational um interpersonal relationships get, regardless of how bad things look, God has a plan and it will not be thwarted. And and we can know something about what to look forward to. And I think that we can be students of revelation in order to have an understanding of what's coming so that we can live now in the peace and the hope of what is to come as followers of Christ, and so that we can live with a sense of urgency to share Christ with others who don't know him yet. And so I I really look at revelation as a gift from a God who knows everything. He's choosing to share some of what he knows is gonna happen with us, not to scare us, but to give us a sense of understanding and wisdom as we live out the days that we have here on earth, knowing that he is ultimately in charge and that nothing is happening that is gonna take him by surprise or throw off his plans.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

I think with that, like that's how how special the last chapter of the whole Bible is that when we keep this in mind, when we read something like uh he says, The Lord, the God of the spirit of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must happen soon. Like he's showing his servants what must happen, and it's gonna happen soon. And and it's like in parentheses here in verse 7 of chapter 22, look, I'm I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of this prophecy expressed in this book. And even another parenthetical thing says in verse 12, look, I'm coming soon. Like he was like, hey, do you get the picture? Jesus is coming soon. And he says in verse 12, My reward is with me to pay each one according to what he's done. That's not a threat of of judgment according to what he's done, it's a reward for what has been done. Like he said, remember at the beginning in chapter one of this book, he was like, Blessed are those who hear the words of this book and do what it says. Well then then live accordingly and and uh receive a reward. He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega. That means the first and the last.

Come, Lord Jesus And Final Words

SPEAKER_00 21:06

I am God of Genesis and I'm the God of Revelation. The beginning and the end. And because he's the beginning and the end, we can trust him. Why would we be afraid when he's the beginning? He is the beginning and the end. He wasn't just at the beginning and the end, he is the beginning and the end. And so we can have a response like in 22 17 it says, and the spirit and the bride, the bride is us, that's the church, say come. That's the sp Holy Spirit inside of us is also saying come, right? Come, Jesus. And let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come. That Jesus, you come, and you know what, if I'm thirsty and I'm in desperate need of Jesus, then I'm invited to come and take the water of life free of charge. This is open invitation. If anyone is scared uh or nervous or afraid of what we've read in this book, this should put that to rest. Look, if uh just come. Come and Take the water of life, that is Jesus, free of charge. I'll just read how the book ends and then we'll close it there. I think it's a good reminder. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book. A little final warning of like, hey, I don't need anyone to fix this. I don't need anyone to soften this, take anything away, or add to it to make it more than what it is. This is exactly the revelation of Jesus that I want to be shared with my people. And it says in verse 20, the one who testifies to these things says, Yes, I'm coming soon. And then John writes in response to that, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. Thanks for joining us on this journey through the Bible out loud. I hope this discussion of Revelation has been an encouraging one and a comforting one and an exciting one. Go talk to Jesus and tell him how you're excited to spend eternity with him and ask him to come soon. Maybe, maybe he'll listen to you. I don't know if he's listened to me yet. Uh and and and get this thing going. Let's get this on the road. But he's he's patient so that as many of his children as possible can join join him in this in this wonderful time that we get to look forward to. Well, uh, thanks for joining me here. We're going to keep going with another run through the Bible in a different way with some different things to emphasize. And we're going to talk more about what that looks like. And I'm excited to uh take this journey and continue it with you. This has been Living Out Loud, part of the Out Loud Bible Project podcast here with Mike and Kelsey. We'll see you next time.