The Revelation of Jesus Christ

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The Book of

REVELATION

Revelation Chapter 1: John’s Vision of Christ  Vv. 1-3: Prologue  Vv. 4-8: Greetings and Salutation

 Vv. 9-18: Vision of the Glorified Christ  Vv. 19-20: John commissioned to write

Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants--things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John…  John is doing the speaking here…  The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is the One being revealed.  Which God gave Him to show His servants: God gave the revelation to Christ, He is the source of the revelation; the intended audience of the revelation are the servants of Christ…Revelation is not written to the unbeliever.  Things which must shortly take place: The idea is not that the event may occur soon, but that when it does, it will be sudden (Walvoord).  And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John…: Notice that the verse says that Jesus sent “His angel” as opposed to “an angel.” A special angel was

appointed the task of conveying the revelation to John who is identified as “His servant.” Angels play a prominent role throughout revelation, and here we see that God gives assignments to angels. The presence of the angel signifies that the vision originated in heaven, and was not merely a dream or creation of the apostles own mind.  An important note of interpretation: John is speaking in the third person, calling himself by name…this authenticates the book as having apostolic origin.

Revelation 1:2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.  John is still speaking…  who bore witness to the word of God: John is referring to himself as the

one who receives this word of God, or revelation.  and to the testimony of Jesus Christ: This specifies what the word of God or revelation is…  to all things that he saw: John further affirms his report as valid and reliable, having been an eyewitness to what he is about to write.  Note of interpretation: Notice that all the verbs in vv. 1-2 are in the past tense: John has already received the Revelation and is now writing as to what he saw… The book of Revelation is not only “the Word of God,” that is, originating in God, but John bears witness of his reception of it. It has the added weight of being “the testimony of Jesus Christ” and the record of John is a complete recital “of all things that he saw.” John is an eyewitness. (Walvoord)

Revelation: 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy:

The Revelation is Good News to the church, and those who read and those who hear the words of this prophecy, should not fear, but rather, rejoice! As stated in the introduction, Revelation is prophetic…it foretells things to come. And what is to come is Christ and His kingdom, peace on earth, and eternal life!  and keep those things which are written in it: to keep is to pay attention to the message of Revelation and to not lose heart.  for the time is near: In prophetic revelation, time is relative. “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Peter 3:8

Revelation 1:4 John, to the seven churches which 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 who are before His throne.

 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: This is a formal

salutation, that is common to the format of Greek letter writing… (http://web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/OM/CSC.html)  Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come: One cannot have peace with God until they have received the grace of God.  “Him” is The eternal God, the source of all grace and peace, is introduced as the One “which is, and which was, and which is to come.” (Walvoord, Gaebelein, MacArthur)  and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne: Some have considered the term an allusion to the Holy Spirit (cf. Isa. 11:23). (Walvoord, McGee, Gaebelein, MacArthur) the fact that the number seven is used speaks of completeness, and perfection which we would attribute to the Holy Spirit, therefore JPF agrees with the above commentators.

Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness: As the faithful Witness He

fulfilled the role of a prophet (John 18:37) (Walvoord).  the firstborn from the dead: Jesus is the first to rise from the dead, never to die again. This makes Him the firstborn from the dead.  and the ruler over the kings of the earth: This role speaks of His future reign on the earth, however, He is now exalted as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood: Christ is the One who keeps on loving us (present tense) and who “loosed us” (past tense) once for all, in or by His own blood. (Walvoord). Christ love is sacrificial, as well as unconditional, and there is no love on earth that will ever compare to His love for us.

Revelation 1:6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.  and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father: The Greek for

kings may be translated, “kingdom”; the idea is not that some believers are kings and others are priests; Christ is the only King. The meaning here suggests that the believers are royal priests (see I Peter 2:9); Because Christ is King, we share in His royal position as ministers before His father.  to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.: This is an exclamation of worship for who Christ is, and what He has done.

Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

 Behold, He is coming with clouds: Christ ascended to heaven in the

clouds (Acts 1:9) and will come back the same way. In Revelation 14:14 He is pictured as sitting on a cloud. Clouds have traditionally symbolized the Glory of God (see Exodus 40:34; 2 Chronicles 5:13-14)  and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. Every eye will not see Him at the rapture, because Hs is not coming to the earth; however, when He comes to rule the earth for which He is entitled, every one will see Him; the fact that the actual ones who pierced Him are dead, this may refer to the Nation of Israel recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah.  And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.: This expression is almost identical to that found in Matthew 24:30, where it states, “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.” To this John adds, “Even so, Amen.” The Greek word amen meaning “truth” or “faithfulness.” (Walvoord)

Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the

Lord: Alpha and Omega refers to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The idea here, is that Christ is the author and finisher of all things. It also may denote that nothing comes before or after Him that carries divine authority (no prophet, no deity, no savior).  who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.: Here Christ is saying “I like my father (v.4) am eternal.” This is not a new idea, in that Jesus said to Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the father.” (John 14:9) Also, Isaiah 9:6 states, “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”