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 ]