The book of Revelation is the conclusion of John’s writings. As we pointed out in the life-study of John, the writings of the apostle John are of three categories: his Gospel, his Epistles, and his Revelation. John’s Gospel is for the imparting of life. In John 10:10 Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly,” and in John 12:24 He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In these verses we see the imparting of life, which is the central thought of the Gospel of John. In John’s Epistles is the fellowship for the growth of life. Although life has been imparted into us, it needs to grow. Life grows by fellowship. Therefore, in John’s Epistles we see the fellowship for the growth of life. In the last category of John’s writings, his Revelation, we have the reaping of life. Firstly, life is imparted, then it grows, and eventually it is reaped. Without Revelation, we would have the imparting of life and the growth of life, but not the reaping of life.
Revelation is also the conclusion of the New Testament, which is composed of the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. In the Gospels we see the sowing of the seed of life, for in the Gospels Jesus came to sow Himself into humanity as the seed of life, sowing Himself into a small number of people, such as Peter and John. In the Acts is the propagation of life. In the Epistles we see the growth of life. The central concept of all the Epistles written by Paul, Peter, John, and the others is the growth of life. We all need to grow in life. In Revelation we see, once again, the harvest of life. In chapter fourteen of Revelation we have a ripened field and a harvest. Revelation 14:15 says, “Another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Send forth Your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” In Revelation 14, the whole field is harvested. By this we see that Revelation is the conclusion of the New Testament.
As the last book of the Bible, Revelation is the conclusion, completion, and consummation of the entire divine revelation, the whole Bible. The Bible needs such a conclusion. The seeds of most of the truths of the divine revelation were sown in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The growth of all these seeds is progressively developed in the following books, especially in the books of the New Testament, and the harvest is reaped in the book of Revelation. For example, in Genesis is the seed of the serpent, and in the book of Revelation there is the harvest of the serpent. Hence, most of the things covered in this book are not absolutely new, but refer back to the foregoing books of the Bible. In Genesis is the seed of the divine revelation, in the following books is the progressive development of the divine revelation, and in Revelation is the harvest of the divine revelation. Therefore, we all must get into this book and know it. If we do not know this book, we cannot be clear about God’s revelation. In our travels, we often are not clear about the way, the road, until we have reached our destination. After we have reached our destination and look back upon the way we have taken, we become very clear. In Revelation we arrive at the destination of the whole Bible. Having arrived at this destination, we can understand this divine Book.