William Burkitt's Expository Notes

Revelation 1:1

That is, "This revelation God the Father gave to Christ his Son, as Mediator, and therewith. commission to impart it to his faithful servants, especially the ministers of his church, and particularly to St. John, who bare record in his gospel, and in his epistles, that Jesus Christ was the essential and eternal Word of God, and also bare record of the testimony of Christ, that is, of his doctrine and miracles, of his death and sufferings; declaring all things that he saw, namely, in his visions, and as they were represented to him."

Here note, 1. The favour granted to St. John, he had. vision or revelation of future things. Revelations from God were sometimes by visions, sometimes by voice, and sometimes by dreams: this revelation which John had, was of. mixed nature, partly by vision, and partly by voice.

Note, 2. The primary author of this revelation, God the Father, the first Person in the Trinity, he revealed it; The revelation which God gave.

Note, 3. The order in which God gave forth this revelation; first, it is given to Christ, The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him: next unto the angel, then unto St. John, to reveal it to the church. Christ, as God, knew all things from eternity, but as man and mediator he received this revelation from God the Father, and imparted it by the angel to his servant John; we see then that Christ, in his state of exaltation, by revealing to his servants the mind and will of God.

Note, 4. The subject-matter of the revelation, Things which should shortly come to pass; mark, not things which were already past, (then this book had been an history, and not. prophecy,) but which should certainly and suddenly come to pass; that is, they should shortly begin to be accomplished, and to take effect; not that they should all be immediately performed, but in God's time, in respect of whose eternity. thousand years are but as one day.

Note lastly, The fidelity and great integrity of St. John, in the making known to others all things that he saw; that is, he had by his writings told the churches what Christ by his angel told him, even all that he heard and saw in this vision, as St. Paul did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God, Acts 20, (he doth not say he hath declared the whole council of God, for who but God himself could declare that?) So St. John here bare record of the whole word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw and heard.

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William Burkitt's Expository Notes

Revelation 1:1

Old Testament

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