CHAPTER S 1-3. THE SON OF MAN AND THE SEVEN CHURCHES. Opening Words (Revelation 1:1). ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show to his servants, even the things which must shortly happen.' The book is the ‘revelation', the revealing, of Jesus Christ. It is not just a revelation f... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Who bore witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw.' John regularly begins his writings with reference to Him Who is the Word of God (John 1:1; 1 John 1:1) and Who is Himself the fullest expression of the word of God to man. We are therefore ju... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Blessed is he who reads, and they who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is at hand.' The book was intended to be read to churches and a special blessing is promised to the one who does the reading and to those who receive its message and resp... [ Continue Reading ]
‘John to the seven churches who are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the rulers of the earth.' This... [ Continue Reading ]
‘To Him who loves us (present tense), and freed us from our sins by (en) His blood (aorist tense), and made us to be a Kingdom, even priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen.' At the thought of what Jesus has done for us John now bursts into praise. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Behold He comes with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, including those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so, Amen.' John now gives us the theme of the book. The book is centred on the Second Coming of Christ, for that is its focal point. In the end al... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.' At this point God is seen as dramatically stepping in to make His declaration over the whole revelation, reinforcing John's words in Revelation 1:4. Alpha and omega are the first and last lett... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIRST VISION. ‘I John, your brother, and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.' Now begins the first vision. It is written by John to the seven churches of Asia Mino... [ Continue Reading ]
‘I was in Spirit on the Lord's day.' The phrase ‘in Spirit' refers in Revelation to the work of the Spirit in bringing John to a specific point or place so that he may receive a vision, moving backwards and forwards in space and time (Revelation 4:2; Revelation 17:3; Revelation 21:10). Compare also... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.' Having been thus carried forward to ‘the Lord's day' he is... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me, and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle.' The seven lampstands are reminiscent of the... [ Continue Reading ]
‘His head and his hair were white as white wool, as white as snow.' In Daniel 7:9 ‘the Ancient of Days', Who is the everlasting God, has hair like white wool, and raiment white as snow. There they represent everlastingness (great age) and righteousness. We can apply the same ideas here. Christ is d... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And his feet (or legs) like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace.' All the descriptions are seeking to bring out His glory, and John no doubt remembers the Transfiguration (Mark 9:1 and parallels) as he gazes at this heavenly figure. The translation ‘legs' (podes) is possible as... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he had in his right hand seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was as the sun shines in its strength.' The idea of the seven stars held in the right hand may have in mind in the background the seven then known planets, the holding in the hand intending to s... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And when I saw him I fell at his feet as one dead.' We can compare this with Ezekiel 1:28 where Ezekiel ‘fell on his face' before God. Here too John is seeing the ‘appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord', and is traumatised. If we really consider Him Who is seen in the vision we may w... [ Continue Reading ]
‘And he laid his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one, I died and, see, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades”.' Here the glorified Jesus applies to Himself the ideas previously applied to God. For ‘the first and t... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter, the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands.' These words have borne a host of interpretations as they have been used as the basi... [ Continue Reading ]