The Saints Are Priests

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
-- Rev 1:5-6 NIV

The priest/temple theme also permeates Revelation. Again, John includes himself and his readers among those who have been made priests. In Revelation, he is not talking about the Levitical priesthood or an earthly temple. The saints do not worship and serve their God in an earthly temple made with hands; instead, they serve in the true tabernacle, one eternal in the heavens where the Lamb of God (not a literal lamb, but the real Jesus) has entered once for all times to make atonement for them (Hebrews 9:24; Revelation 5:6). Their prayers ascend up before the true God with incense offered by an angel on the golden altar in that heavenly temple. Those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb will stand before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple (Revelation 7:15).

And he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
-- Revelation 7:16-17 NIV

Worshiping God and experiencing the blessings of fellowship with him are real and eternal. They are not imaginary.

A Kingdom and Priests

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
-- Rev 1:5-6 NIV

John here compares himself and the saints of Asia Minor with the Israelites of old. Just as Israel had been freed from slavery by the blood of a lamb and made to be a kingdom and priests to serve God (Exodus 19:6), so he and the saints in the churches had been freed from sin by the blood of the Lamb and made a kingdom and priests to serve God. John continues throughout Revelation to use the themes of a kingdom and priests, themes borrowed from the Old Testament, to describe New Testament saints. When you read about God's kingdom and priests in Revelation, you are not reading only about Abraham's physical descendants, but about people of all nations who are children of Abraham by faith.