This same word is used of the guards who watched over the tomb of Jesus after He was crucified. God promises a special blessing for those who hear these words.īut the final one of these is the most important, when it says “And HEED the things which are written in it, for the time is near.” The word “heed” here is a Bible word (tereo) that means “watch over it guard it KEEP it”! Spend some time just listening to the word of God. (We also have a means of fulfilling this in our lives that those who lived in the 1st Century didn’t: we can listen to the Bible through various recordings and Bible apps! I know some of you are doing that. LISTEN to the messages where we read these words aloud and teach them. Attend the services where we read these verses aloud together. So reading the scripture out loud was an important part of the first worship services - and should still be an important part of our worship today.īut again, God says specifically hear THIS book read out loud. This practice continued in New Testament churches: I Timothy 4:13 commands us: “Give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation and teaching.” In Luke Jesus publicly read Scripture in the synagogue. Not everyone could read - especially in those ancient times literacy rates were not what they are today - so an important part of the ancient worship service (both in Judaism and in Christianity) was the public reading of scripture. Then He says those are blessed who “HEAR” the words of this prophecy. If for no other reason, that ought to cause us to want to read it! Don’t miss the blessing God will give you for reading this book! But God specifically promises a blessing to the one who reads this book. So it is profitable to read any scripture. II Timothy 3:16 says “ALL scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable …”. and HEED the things which are written in it”įirst of all, God specifically promises a blessing for those who read this book! That is striking, isn’t it? I mean, there is surely a blessing that attends the reading of ANY book of the Bible it is all God’s word. “and those who HEAR the words of this prophecy” If you look carefully at this verse, you can see there are three “blessings” promised to those who attend their devotion to this Book: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.” We’re continuing our study of the first chapters of Revelation this morning, moving on to verses 3, 4, and 5, where we are both comforted and challenged by what we read here: In one sense, it is the source of some of the greatest comfort we have as Christians - and yet, in a number of ways, it is also very challenging to us, in both understanding it and applying it to our lives. I’m going to suggest this morning that the Book of Revelation is something like “that child” among the books of the New Testament. Some of you can really relate to this thought: if you have a child who is in some ways both the greatest comfort and love in your life - but also in other very real ways, a great challenge to you? Anybody got a kid like that? (Maybe everybody who has children can relate to that!) They can probably all be simultaneously our greatest comfort, but also one of our greatest challenges.
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