Revelation 1:19

Write Add therefore The Lord reveals His exaltation in His Manhood as a reason why His servant is not to fear and is to write His words in faith and hope.

the things which are Some take these words to mean "what they (viz. the things which thou hast seen) are," i.e. what they mean. But it is simpler to take the verse as meaning, that he is to write down the whole vision, whether of past, present, or future events. "The things which thou hast seen" are not, indeed, by any logical necessity visions of past events: but all that he had yet seen actually did symbolise the facts of Christ's Incarnation, Resurrection, and entrance into glory. It may be observed, that the Incarnation and Ascension are actually represented in a later scene of the vision, Revelation 12:2; Revelation 12:5. "The things which are" will perhaps refer chiefly to the messages to the Seven Churches, "the things which shall be hereafter" beginning with ch. 4.