Revelation 1:11

saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last; and, What thou seest, write a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

For the third time John, writing with solemn emphasis, mentions his name: I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and in the kingdom and in the patience in Jesus Christ, found myself on the island which is called Patmos on account of the Word of God and on account of the testimony of Jesus. John knows nothing of hierarchical aspirations: he does not even mention his special office. It is with a show of calm satisfaction that he calls himself the brother of the believers to whom lie is writing, and their companion in every form of Christian experience. See Philippians 1:7. All believers are partakers of the tribulations which came upon Christ; they know that they can expect nothing else in this world. But at the same time John and all believers are partakers in the kingdom of Christ, at once the most miserable in the sight of men and the most blessed in the sight of God. and therefore we share also in the patience of Christ, for tribulation, endured for the sake of Christ, works patience, Romans 15:5; Philippians 1:29; Hebrews 12:1. Thus we are enabled to persevere, to be steadfast in the midst of all the misery and distress and afflictions of this life. John says that he found himself, that he was, on the island called Patmos, banished from Ephesus by an imperial decree. But it was not as a criminal that he was suffering the due punishment of any crime. He was there for the sake of the Word of God, which he had preached so fearlessly: because of his testimony of Jesus Christ, whom he confessed so willingly. It was a form of martyrdom which John suffered in his exile.

John now describes the manner in which he first received the revelation of the Lord: I found myself in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest write into a book, and send it to the seven congregations: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. It was on the Lord's day, on a Sunday, that this revelation was vouchsafed to John, probably while he was busy with his special Sunday devotions. The entire book, as one commentator remarks, makes the impression that it belongs to Sunday; there is something of a holiday, something festive about it. John found himself in the spirit, in that peculiar ecstasy which detached the mind from the body, as it commonly attended special prophetic revelation, Ezekiel 37:1; Daniel 10:1; 2 Corinthians 12:17. While he was in this state, it seemed to him that the sound of a great trumpet came from behind him, the voice in the sound commissioning him to put the description of the visions which he would see down on paper and send the book to the seven principal congregations of proconsular Asia. Ephesus was the most important city of this district, on the Caystrian Gulf, in Lydia. Smyrna was about forty miles north of Ephesus, on the Smyrnean Gulf; it has grown in importance steadily and is now the largest city on the eastern shore of the Aegean Sea. Pergamos, or Pergamum, about sixty miles northeast of Smyrna, in Mysia, was the capital of a former small, but wealthy kingdom, noted for its splendid library. Thyatira was a city in Lydia, on the road from Pergamos to Sardis, a prosperous manufacturing town. Sardis, thirty miles south of Thyatira, was the ancient capital of Croesus, the wealthy king of Lydia, whose empire was overthrown by Cyrus the Great. Philadelphia, about twenty-fire miles southeast of Sardis, also in Lydia, was the center of a rich farming region. Laodicea, finally, the capital of Phrygia, some fifty miles from Philadelphia, was noted for its prosperity, a fact which caused it to be very independent. Note that the order of the names is that of a circuit, such as one would make in starting from Ephesus and traveling clockwise.