As we've been making our way through the book of Revelation thus far, I've been emphasizing that the book of Revelation is a word of hope to these seven churches who, in the first century, were going to experience great persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. To first appear in the face of persecution is something that most believers desire to do. No one stops and thinks about persecution and says man, I hope if persecution ever comes, I'm the first one to sell Jesus out. That's not the way we think. No one wants to be the first one to give up their faith. In fact, our aspiration is actually the exact opposite. We see faithfulness as a very important virtue. To have a conviction, to have beliefs and to hold to them is something that we greatly value.

We've all had someone come to us with a story of something amazing that they've seen. Now some people experience, say, a rare phenomenon or an unlikely event, and it becomes something that they just have to tell other people about. It's something you just can't keep to yourself. You have to share, and actually the chances are that you've been on both sides of having to tell a story like this. I know that I have been and I will say that I find it to be just as hard to explain something amazing to someone as it is to understand something amazing that someone is telling you. I don't know about you, but when I'm telling people about something amazing, I find myself spitting out well, it was like this, but it wasn't quite like this. It was that, but it wasn't that right. I'm sure it doesn't make any sense to them, but I'm excited about it. It's something I need to share and I'm sure if you have ever been on the other side of me describing something in this way, you're just trying to keep track of what I'm saying. You're trying to picture in your mind, but you know that unless you see what I'm talking about yourself, you'll never fully be able to understand what it is that I'm trying to describe. Regardless of how well somebody describes something to you and regardless of how well you understand it, you can never really understand it unless you see it. But you do come away with something. You do know that what they saw was exceptional, maybe it was even amazing. That is easy to convey.