The Revelation

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Revelation 1:1-3

Let’s be clear right off the bat. This is not the book of “Revelations,” plural. It is THE REVELATION (singular) of Jesus Christ. Opening phrase. Title of the book. Disclosure of truth. The information in this book is not sealed, or hidden, as some Old Testament prophecies were until an appointed time. Daniel 12:9 “He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” It is a revealing of the outcome of all the earlier prophecies of scripture. Revelation 22:12 “And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.”

“must soon take place” does not mean immediately, but it means that when these things do start to happen, they will happen speedily.

“His angel”-- divine messenger. “servant John”-- the apostle. The early disciple of Jesus and apostle to the Church; writer of the Gospel of John, 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd John and this Revelation of Jesus Christ. John was the youngest of the original apostles. He was a special favorite friend of Jesus (“whom Jesus loved” John 13:23,19:26,20:2,21:7,21:20) and he lived much longer than the other apostles. At this writing, he was very old, and exiled to Patmos. It is John the apostle “who bore witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.” And as Jesus’ faithful disciple, John had seen a lot. He, Peter and James were the “inner circle” disciples who were with Jesus, Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration. John and Peter were the first ones to enter the empty tomb. They had been privy to a great many other significant events in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Now, the last one of them living was given this prophecy to share with the Church (“His servants”).

There are blessings pronounced throughout the book, and here is the first one, verse 3: “blessed”—happy—is he who reads aloud (to the congregation—exegetes—analyzes) the words of this prophecy, and those who (persistently) hear (pay attention to) and keep (hold on to, cherish, remember) the things that stand written (forever) in it. It won’t be long now.

The expectation was that the churches would read this book as soon as possible, aloud, in the assembly.  It would benefit them to do so. This was information they needed at that time.

In the Gospel of John, 1:1-3, he had reached farther back than any other writer of scripture, into eternity past. In The Revelation, John reaches farther into eternity future than any other writer of scripture. After all those generations and dispensations of history, this last book of prophecy pulls it all together in a clear and meaningful way. This book sums it all up.

While it is true that a great deal of the writing is symbolic, what must have been unfathomable to the readers in John’s day are becoming more comprehensible to us in the 21^st century, with advances in technology that John and his contemporaries could never have imagined. What seemed to be fanciful symbolism to readers in 90-something AD and even 1917 may have actually been graphic detail that those people simply had no frame of reference for, and John described them as best he could at that time. We’ll notice some of those things as we get to them, and we’ll see then that some events described in this prophecy which we couldn’t comprehend even 50 years ago are commonplace now.

Nevertheless, it is an exciting and still mysterious book that requires good concentration and a grasp of dispensational truth to understand. It was written for the Church, but the Church is not the focus of the Revelation. It is mostly about the great tribulation, the second advent, the millennial reign of Christ and the final judgment.

The angel started with His messages to the seven churches in Asia, which at that time had grown enough to have established their patterns of worship, doctrinal teaching and Christian service. There were definite trends within these various congregations which seem to represent the historical development of the Church, universal. Geographically, they were in a circular placement, which was probably followed by the carriers of these epistles and prophecies, as they were read to each of the congregations in turn. These churches existed at the time of this writing, but their characteristics also represented various periods of church history as we approach the rapture.  Jesus had commendations for some and corrections for others. The Church is His Bride. He is very particular about Her standards.