In 1991, instead of immediately entering Chongshin University master’s program after university, I took a year off and began my ministry as an educational evangelist (part-time) at a small church where the father of my friend pastor served. Since the church was small, there were many opportunities to preach in addition to the department that I was in charge of. I took turns preaching in Wednesday worship, Friday prayers, and Sunday sermons. Although it was before I studied theology, I first analyzed the text, referring to the Thompson Chain-Reference Bible and preached with what I contemplated on. It was before I studied theology, so I lacked interpretation of the text, but I did not feel much difficulty in preaching because I could have enough time to think through.

I liked to choose a book from Bible and preach from chapter one to the end. It suited my personality, but I preferred it so that I could see the Bible as a whole. I thought that if I preach in this way, I could someday preach the entire Bible, so I tried to preach from chapter to chapter even after I moved to another church. Thanks to that, I was able to preach the entire Bible, and now, I sometimes preach using certain themes, covering both Old and New Testament or preach chapters that I covered before. Moreover, as new annotations continue to appear, even books previously preached can be studied again, so I always prepare my sermon as if I am studying something new.

I decided to preach the Revelation from Wednesday worship this week. If I remember correctly, I think this is the fifth time I’ve studied Revelation and preached. I thought this should have built some familiarity with Revelation for our church members, but I decided to cover it again, as the pandemic brough people’s interest in apocalypse and yet many people seem to lack understanding of Revelation compared to other books, that they are too easily received by heresy’s arguments on apocalypse. What I have learned from studying the Revelation several times is that this book does not present a timetable for the end of mankind, but rather gives courage and comfort to the seven churches in Asia minor at the time and our church members today to live loyal to the gospel. Although it was written with the aim of encouraging the people of the Lord to keep their faith until the end, like the Job of the Old Testament, I want to solve the misunderstanding of this book because it seems to be approached like an end puzzle or a cryptic solution.

Fortunately, it was good to share the Revelation with the church members during the pandemic period while doing the Prayer Project, but there were some regrets. So, I want to help church members to have a right perspective on this book while dealing with the Revelation in depth. In general, many people have a preconceived notion that the Revelation is a book that deals intensively with Jesus’ re-appearance if other New Testament books introduce, believe, and serve Jesus, but it is not true.

As the gospel and various letters teach about the end, the Revelation only teaches the end to that extent, and the important thing is to follow, serve, and testify to Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Book of Revelation was written not only to focus on the end, but to encourage the people of Asia Minor who were suffering from idol worship related to the success of the world and forced worship of the Roman emperor with political persecution. This is similar to the situation we are all facing in the world today to live as Christ’s disciples.