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Rev. 1:1-3
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
Three principles to guide our understanding in our brief time in Revelation:
Revelation is given by Jesus Christ and centers on Jesus
V. 1 The revelation of Jesus sent to show God’s “servants,” i.e. , believers, what will take place “soon.”
The angel is sent by Jesus to declare what He is about to bring about soon.
V. 2 - The message John conveys in the book is the “word of God,” which means it is God’s message for the churches.
V. 3
The promised blessing for hearers & doers (In other words, Revelation is meant to be read, understood & applied)
There is a future aspect to this “prophecy,” but it is primarily a word spoken into the present situation of the seven churches; and its primary urgency is not about the final future event (recorded in chs. 20–22), but the near future for John and his readers.
Revelation cannot mean to us/you what it did not mean first, to the original audience.
V. 4 - To the churches in Asia
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
V. 9 - Written to suffering believers who are being actively persecuted and targeted because they follow Christ.
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
This is a basic rule in all biblical interpretation of Scripture
Revelation is written to comfort and encourage the Seven Churches during their present tribulation
These churches when connected by road make a long, thin horseshoe-shaped semi-circle from Ephesus through Smyrna to Pergamum in the north—still on or close to the Aegean Sea—and then inland in a south-southeasterly direction down to Laodicea, which is about eighty miles east and slightly south of Ephesus.
Still, the number seven seems to have a symbolic import as well, for the message ultimately isn’t limited to the seven churches but applies to all churches throughout history.
Illustration of present suffering of God’s church
A threefold biblical and historical perspective on Revelation
Revelation is couched in 3 pairs of 7 judgments that God releases on the world.
Revelation 6-19 describes the events that occur between the first and second coming of Christ. Most have been taught this is all future during a literal 7 yr tribulation period.
Revelation is not chronological but cyclical using recapitulation as a tool to lay forth what will soon take place. It employs different vantage points to help us understand both God’s Sovereignty & God’s severity.
Ex: Football from the 50-yard line or sometimes from the Goodyear blimp
One more: We must not be ignorant about eschatology (from the time of Christ until now) but neither must we be arrogantly dogmatic either.
Illustration:
Imagine you have a mystery illness. Something is wrong and you know the symptoms and some problems you’re having but you don’t know why. You have gone to many doctors to no avail, but you hear that there is a world-renown specialist in the field and so you travel and allow him to do a series of tests. Then you go home and one day, this doctor writes you a letter with his diagnosis. How would you read it? Quickly or carefully? Would you lay it on the table and read it later or would stop everything and study the letter because your life depends on it! In the same way, Christ has visited his church and has done, as it were, a checkup on his church. The question is, will we heed his diagnosis and live or ignore it to our peril.
Jer. 30:17
17 For I will restore health to you,
and your wounds I will heal,
declares the Lord,
Main idea: John writes Revelation in order to reveal God’s sovereignty and Christ’s preeminence both now and in the future, so that weary believers might experience grace and peace in times of distress.
Four Truths Revelation Reveals Christ’s Preeminence
God’s Trinitarian nature - v.4-5a
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
The Father on a throne v.4;8
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come,
We should note that this very same phrase is used of the Father in Revelation 1:8 and again in 4:8. Since Jesus Christ appears at the end of the grace wish in 1:5, the Father is obviously in view here in 1:4.
In one sense, we should not be surprised that the Father is declared the “coming one,” for even though the Son comes physically, what is true of the Son is true also of the Father.
Isa 41:4 - God is the creator and sustainer of all things
I, the Lord, the first,
and with the last; I am he.
The Holy Spirit is before the Throne -v.4
from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
We need to recall that Revelation is apocalyptic, regularly using numbers with symbolic import.
Thus the number seven here designates perfection and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The Son isThe Lord of Lords
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
V.5 - Jesus Christ is the “faithful witness” (cf. Rev. 3:14; Ps. 89:37; Isa. 55:4).
The word “witness” (martys) in the course of church history developed to mean one who testified to Jesus Christ by giving his or her life in death.
Rev. 19:9-10 - The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy
God’s Vice regents - v.5-6
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
V.5b-6 - Jesus freed his people from sin for a purpose.
He not only freed us he had made us new for a purpose.
His people constitute a kingdom and are priests of God the Father. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in the garden to rule the world for him (Gen. 1:28; 2:15).
They were to be his vice-regents in the world, mediating his blessing as priests to the entire world.
The redeeming work of Christ and the centrality of Christ in God’s purposes do not diminish the glory of God the Father. Quite the contrary.
These realities maximize God’s glory.
God is magnified, God is glorified, in his Son, Jesus Christ, especially in his saving work by which he redeems his people.
These seven suffering churches were God’s representative in a dark and troubled world and so are we.
Notice we have a declaration & a divine interruption
7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
The Declaration & Divine interruption - v.7-8
V.7 - He is coming through his Son, Jesus Christ, to bring in the kingdom.
Believers then, now & in the future can be guaranteed of two things: Protection and vindication.
Protection doesn’t mean escape it means perseverance
Vindication means that God will make all things right; not one act of injustice will get by His Sovereign justice.
V.8 - God declares himself to be “the Alpha and the Omega,” referring to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet.
He rules over every particle and speck of history, and has and always will be eternally God.
He is mighty God in every moment faced by those who belong to him.
There was never a time he was not supreme Lord over all, and there is no chance that history will spin out of his control.
The sovereignty of God assures believers that his kingdom has come and it will fully come and his will be done absolutely.
The Church’s Tribulation - V.9
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Partners in tribulation
Spiritual persecution - Emporer worship - Jewish betrayal - Physical poverty
Present tribulation due to emperor worship being enforced
The issue at hand is the church is going thru present tribulation & needs to be encouraged to persevere.
Emperor worship was quite common during the first century in the province of Asia, and hence, as we shall see, John’s message was directed to concrete circumstances in the life of the churches.
John knew this first hand for he was banished to an island for his faith. (Movie: Cast Away - tom hanks talking to a volleyball!)
Two reasons for John’s tribulation: The word of God & the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Partners in the kingdom
Those who persevere in Christ will be the ones who will enjoy Christ in His very presence
Rev 20 - Wedding day is coming
Therefore write what you see for these Seven churches present encouragement and perseverance.
The Son of Man - v.12-16
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
Sovereign priest - v.12-13
This, plus the fact that high girding (“around his chest”) denotes the dignity of an important office, suggests that this part of the description is intended to set forth the high-priestly function of Christ.
Sov. Wisdom -v.14
14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,
Dan 7:9
The hoary head was worthy of honor and conveyed the idea of wisdom and dignity (Lev 19:32; Prov 16:31).
Continuing with the description, we learn that his eyes “were like blazing fire” (cf. Dan 10:6), an item repeated in the letter to Thyatira (2:18) as well as in the account of the victorious return of the conquering Messiah (19:12).
It expresses the penetrating insight of the one who is sovereign, not only over the seven churches but over the entire course of history as well.
Sov. power/ stability - v.15
15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
Below the long robe the feet of Christ appeared like “bronze.”
In any case, the shining, bronze-like feet portray strength and stability.
His voice was like a mighty rushing class 5 rapids (Niagra Falls)
Sov. control - v.16
16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
That Christ has the full complement of stars in his right hand indicates his sovereign control over the churches.
It may also imply protection (John 10:28: “no one can snatch them out of my hand”).
Truth/judgment (Sov. victory)
A sharp, double-edged sword proceeds from the mouth of Christ.
The sword in these vignettes symbolizes the irresistible power of divine judgment.32
The authoritative word of Christ is to be understood over against the fraudulent demands of the imperial cult.33 It is the word of Christ that will ultimately prevail.
Glory
John’s account of the inaugural vision now reaches its high point.
The countenance of the exalted Christ is described as being “like the sun shining in all its brilliance.”
The Son of Man Speaks - vv. 17-20
Fear - v.17a
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
John’s response - fell down like a dead man
The glory of God in the Son of Man was more than John could take as a mere human being
Jesus, as the Son of Man, declares, “I am the first and the last.”
These words are picked up again in Revelation (cf. 2:8; 22:13).
What is remarkable is that these words allude to what is said of Yahweh in Isaiah (Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12)
Fear not - v.17b -18
But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades..
He touched me - Why should john not fear?
This title is essentially the same as the divine self-designation in 1:8, “the Alpha and the Omega.” In 22:13 both titles are joined by a third, “the Beginning and the End.”
In Isa. 44:6 God declares, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God” (cf. Isa 48:12). The title emphasizes the absolute sovereignty of God.
“Keys” indicates his authority over both Death and Hades (cf. Isa. 22:22; Matt. 16:19; Rev. 3:7).
It declares that in his essential nature Christ possesses life and therefore is to be understood in sharp contrast to the dead (or inanimate) gods of paganism.
Because the Emporer’s gods are lifeless, powerless idols and Jesus is sovereign and alive!
The Son of Man’s abiding presence - v.19-20
19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches
Write
So translate, “Write, therefore, the things you are about to see, that is, both what now is and what lies yet in the future.”44
This relationship between present and future underlies the entire Apocalypse.
His vision comprehends all of history, including the present and the future, which are integrally related to the past.
Jesus is the Sov God with his people then, now and in the future.
Mysteries (Revealed and kept) - v.20
In Dan 2:47 Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that Daniel’s God is a “revealer of mysteries.”
It is in this same sense of the “inner meaning of a symbolic vision”46 that Christ now supplies the interpretation of the seven stars and seven lampstands.
The lampstands are the churches. In v. 13 we learned that Christ stands among (AV, “in the midst of”) his churches.
Facing persecution in a hostile environment, they are to realize his abiding presence.
Why did Christ give John this Revelation?
So That
Believers might experience comfort in times of distress
Believers might expect abundant Grace in times of persecution
No comfort nor grace in the Emporer/Gov
No Unlimited power in the Emporer/Gov
No eternal kingdom in the Emporer/Gov
The purpose of the church is to bear the light of the divine presence in a darkened world (Matt 5:1v.4–16).