The book of Revelation prepares first-generation Christians for first-generation assaults, but in categories and terms that prepares later-generation Christians for other assaults and ultimately for the final assault.

Throughout the book there is an orientation to the end. That is part of the common New Testament perception that unless Christians live their lives in the light of the end, they are not really spiritual.

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What shall he give in exchange for his soul? Do not fear him who can cast your body into the fire, but fear him, rather, who after casting your body into the fire can cast both body and soul into hell.”

The book of Revelation is a book of worship that summons us to recognize the awesome majesty of our Lord.

Jesus among the churches. One of Revelation’s most important declarations is that Jesus appears among the lampstands (1:12; 2:1), which represent the seven churches (1:20). You only need to skim the letters to these churches in chapters 2 and 3 to realize that five of them needed serious correction. Nevertheless, until a church has gone so far as to be withdrawn from its place (2:5), it remains the place where Christ’s presence is found.

John greets the churches on behalf of the Father, Spirit, and Son, whose redemptive work results in the Christians’ new status, all to the glory of God (1:4–6)

v4 John addresses the seven churches. Seven is the favorite number of Revelation. Biblically, it signifies completion or fullness and is originally derived from the seven days of creation. In Lev. 4:6, 17, the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood signified a completed action, as did the seven-day duration of the festivals, services of ordination, the march around Jericho, and the length of periods of cleansing from uncleanness. The significance of the number here is that the seven churches represent the fullness of the church.

The Christian readers need grace to persevere in their faith in the midst of tribulation, especially pressures to compromise .

And in the midst of such external turmoil, they need the inner “peace” which only the eternal God who is sovereign over and above the vicissitudes of space-time history can give. The purpose of this revelation is to give the eternal, trans-historical perspective of Him who is and who was and who is to come, which can enable the readers to understand His commandments and so motivate them to obedience.

The prophetic message is not only from God and Christ, but also from the seven spirits before the throne. The reference here is to the Holy Spirit, the number “seven” again representing fullness.

The Holy Spirit is needed to bring to believers the grace and peace John greets them with here, and His work will be needed if believers are to respond obediently to the prophetic words shortly to come. The Christian readers need grace to persevere in their faith in the midst of tribulation, especially the pressure to compromise .

The Holy Spirit empowers us to become the temple in which God dwells.

v5 John’s greeting comes from Jesus Christ, who is described as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. John is quoting Ps. 89:27, 37, where all three phrases are used. The Psalm speaks of the king who will rule over his enemies and whose seed will sit on his throne forever. Christ has gained a sovereign position over the cosmos. He is the inaugurator of the new creation by means of His resurrection, resurrection has resulted in the establishment of His eternal kingdom.

v6 what Christ has done has made believers a kingdom and priests to serve His God. Their identification with His kingship, means that they too are considered to be resurrected and exercising rule with Him as a result of His exaltation. They have been constituted kings together with Christ and share His priestly office by virtue of their identification with His death and resurrection.

The reference here is to Exod. 19:6: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

What was prophesied as Israel’s role as in Exodus, and never fulfilled by Israel, is now stated as accomplished by John,

Believers have already entered into this role as priests and as kings, even though the manner of their performance is still incomplete.

Christ exercised His role as priest through His sacrificial death, released us from our sins by His blood and faithful witness.

The church is identified also with Christ as a priest and now exercises its role as priests by maintaining a faithful witness to the world and willingness to suffer for Christ. It defeats the strategies of the enemy even while suffering apparent defeat, yet still ruling in a kingdom (as Christ did on the cross).

The expression from Exodus is a summary of God’s purpose for Israel. This primarily meant that they were to be a kingly and priestly nation mediating Yahweh’s light of saving revelation by witnessing to the Gentiles (Isa. 43:10–13), a purpose which, the OT prophets repeatedly observed, Israel never fulfilled (Isaiah 40–55).

Like OT priests, the entire people of God now have free, unmediated access to God’s presence, because Christ has removed the obstacle of sin by His substitutionary blood.

The Son’s kingship and the Father’s sovereignty over history are the basis of the church’s grace and peace and the Father’s glory (1:7–8)

v7 The conclusion of John’s greetings is made up of two OT quotations. John speaks of all the peoples of the earth doing so, and also adds the phrase every eye will see Him. What is applied in Zechariah 12 to Israel is now transferred in Revelation to all the peoples of the earth, specifically those peoples who, having received the Holy Spirit and His grace, that is, all true believers in Jesus, mourn over what they have done to Him.

That Jesus would return in the clouds (probably of divine glory) reflects Daniel 7:13; that those who pierced him would see him and mourn reflects Zechariah 12:10. The language of Matthew 24:30 reflects the same texts, “peoples [tribes] of the earth”.

No assurance could better encourage suffering believers than the knowledge that Jesus will come to set matters right, and the church’s oppressors will have to acknowledge the wrong they have done to God’s servants. It is not altogether clear from Revelation 1:7 whether the “mourning” implies repentance (11:11–13) or—more likely in the case of the Gentiles implied here (Matt. 24:30) it is fear (Rev. 6:16), but the note of vindication is very clear.

John confirms once again that all history is in God’s hands, the future as well as the present (1:8); his people need not fear as if something will happen to them apart from God’s plan. The title “the Alpha and the Omega,” like the one “who is, and who was, and who is to come,” indicates God’s eternality, that all of history from beginning to end is the same to him.
v8 The greetings section is concluded by the Lord’s description of Himself using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the Alpha and the Omega. This is a figure of speech that involves the stating of polar opposites to highlight everything between the opposites.

The statement that God is the beginning and end of history stresses His presence throughout and His rule over all events in between.

This middle element is actually put first, out of order, to highlight for the readers that God is present with them, ruling over all the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Reflections on 1:4–8

Given John’s use of the number “seven” and its significance here as representing the church as a whole or the universal church, how should we think of the church today?

Is our understanding often limited to our local congregation, or perhaps to other congregations with which we are familiar?

How can we adjust our vision to see the church more broadly as God sees it?

On the Holy Spirit as the builder of the temple, Zech. 4:2–7 refers to the seven lamps representing one Spirit bringing grace for the building of Israel’s second temple. John represents this same Spirit as building the temple of the church.

How do we learn to appreciate more profoundly what it means that the Holy Spirit is building the church into a temple? Is

He often an ignored figure in the process? How could 1 Cor. 3:16–17 and 6:19 shed light on this?

Christ is the firstborn from the dead means that He has inaugurated the new creation through His resurrection.

Do we appreciate the significance of the resurrection as the greatest dividing line in history, or do we think of other events, past or future, as constituting greater dividing lines?

How does this understanding of Christ’s resurrection as the beginning of the new creation affect the view that the end times are still yet future?

On believers as a kingdom and priests. Christ has made us a kingdom and priests to serve God. In what practical ways do we as believers exercise our kingly and priestly roles today? How could Rev. 1:6 help us reflect on this question?

How might the idea of Jesus continually coming affect the way in which we live as Christians and conduct our church life today?

John is commissioned as a prophet to write to the churches, because their confidence is based on Christ’s position as heavenly judge, priest, and ruler of the church as a result of His victory over death (1:9–20)

John is commissioned to write a prophetic revelation. He identifies himself as one with his readers in the tribulation, kingdom, and perseverance that are ours in Jesus.

One cannot exercise kingdom rule except through tribulation and endurance. This kingdom is unanticipated by the majority of Judaism. The exercise of rule in this kingdom begins and continues only as one faithfully endures tribulation. This is the formula for kingship: faithful endurance through tribulation is the means by which one reigns in the present with Jesus.

John uses the word fellow-partaker underscores the active involvement of saints, not only in enduring tribulation, but also in reigning in the midst of it.

Their being identified with Christ is the basis for the trials which confront them, as well as for their ability to endure such trials and to participate in the kingdom as kings. This paradoxical form of rule mirrors the manner in which Jesus exercised His authority in His earthly ministry and even from the cross, and Christians are to follow in His path.

This becomes a major theme as Revelation develops.

Believers will conquer by refusing to compromise in the face of trials (2:9–11; 3:8–10), by suffering as John himself did, and in general by pursuing Christlike character. Revelation reveals that the saints’ reign consists in overcoming, by not compromising their faithful witness in the face of trials.

The tribulation is a present reality and will continue among the churches in the imminent future (2:10). John himself was enduring this tribulation on Patmos, where he had been exiled due to his witness to Christ: because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

This would mean that rejection of the “testimony” of Jesus and of Christians by the world and its courts becomes the basis for their judgment in the heavenly court (see on 11:3 and 22:20).

The vision develops the themes of suffering, kingdom, and priesthood already found in vv. 1–9 and introduces the new theme of Christ as judge. It was His overcoming of death which placed Him into these offices and that His kingship primarily concerns His rule over the church. Vv12-20

How does Christ’s function as judge relate to His kingly and priestly roles?

If the churches do not maintain their role as priestly kings by faithfully witnessing to “the testimony of Jesus” in the face of suffering, then they will be judged by Christ. If they are faithful and are unjustly persecuted, they need not fear. They can be assured that ultimately they will overcome their defeat in the same way Christ did.

12 The first things John sees are the seven golden lampstands, which represent the church 1:20. In Zech. 4:2–6, the lampstand with its seven lamps is a figurative expression by which part of the temple furniture stands for the whole temple, which by extension also represents faithful Israel Zech. 4:6–9.

To understand John’s perspective requires us to imagine ourselves among first-century Christians. Jewish Christians proclaiming a Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of ancient promises to Israel.

John’s circle of Christians believed that they were the heirs of the Old Testament promises, but probably did not think in terms of a largely Gentile church “replacing” Israel. John uses the “lampstand” image to stress the Jewishness of faith in Jesus and the continuity of believers’ faith with the heritage of ancient Israel. Today, Gentile Christians should continue to see themselves grafted into the spiritual heritage of Israel, yet we should do so by recognizing, as we often have failed to do, that it was we and not the heritage that changed.

In the tabernacle and temple the lampstand, with its seven lamps, stood in the Holy Place before the very presence of God in the Holy of Holies, along with the bread of the presence, and the Jews understood the light that came from its lamps to represent the presence of the Lord (Num. 8:1–4).

In Zechariah’s vision the seven lamps (4:2) seem to represent the power of the Spirit (4:6) which will give the people of Israel (the lampstand on which the lamps sit) the power by which to rebuild the temple. John sees seven lampstands, each representing one of the seven churches and all together representing the universal church. The church, as the continuation of true Israel, is likewise to draw its power from the seven lamps, which represent the Holy Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 4:5), as it seeks to build the new temple of God.

For John, the latter-day temple has already been inaugurated in the church, as has been suggested by the earlier reference to Zechariah (v 4 ) and implied by the use of Exod. 19:6 in v. 6 (the church as priests and kings). This is confirmed by Rev. 11:1–13, where the lampstands represent the church as the true temple during the time between the first and second comings of the Lord.

In the light of vv. 5–6, Christ’s death and resurrection have laid the foundation for the new temple, which He will build through the Spirit (the lamps on the lampstand). The shift from one lampstand in Zechariah to seven in Revelation stresses not only that this letter is intended for the church universal of the escalated end times, but also the idea that true Israel is no longer limited to a nation but encompasses all peoples.

13–16 John relates his vision of the Son of man. Dan. 7:13–14 and 10:5–6. Even as the OT priests tended the lamps and lampstands, so Christ is pictured here as a heavenly priest who tends the lampstands by correcting and exhorting them, chapters 2 and 3 will help unfold this.

That Christ’s eyes are like a flame of fire (v. 14) speaks of His role of judgment, as is clear from 19:12, where the same phrase is used to describe Christ in His role as judge. Jesus’ constant presence with the churches means that He always knows their spiritual condition, which results either in blessing or judgment. This role of judgment is enforced by Daniel 10,16

In a Jewish society the picture of God as being the Ancient of Days is one that pictures him with head and hair white like wool, as white as snow. That doesn’t mean he’s decrepit. He might have all the signs of age, but his eyes are sparkling like fire, blazing fire, vitality, seeing everything. “His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace …”

That Christ’s feet are like burnished bronze, fired in a furnace (v. 15) speaks of a foundation of moral purity in Christ which He wants also to build in the church (note how the similar phrase in 3:18 refers to moral purity). The description of the Son of man’s head and hair is taken from the picture of the Ancient of Days in Dan. 7:9, showing how Christ and God can be thought of in the same terms. The description of His voice like the sound of many waters is also taken from a vision of the Almighty, though this time from Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:24; 43:2). That Christ (v. 16) holds in His hand the seven stars (identified in v. 20 as the angels of the churches) shows that His authority extends also to the heavenly realms.

The point of Jesus’ fiery eyes, white hair, and bronze feet (1:14–15) is that he was radiating light or fire (the bronze is said to be “glowing” in 1:15)—like some visions of God in the Bible (Ezek.

1:27; Dan. 7:9–10; cf. Rev. 21:23; 22:5).12 this image is an allusion to Isaiah 11:4 (“He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked”)

This may suggest that the stars, even if angelic, represent the church’s heavenly existence and the lampstands its earthly existence. The sharp two-edged sword coming out of Christ’s mouth 2:16 and 19:15) is based on the prophecies in Isa. 11:4 and 49:2, both speaking of Christ in His role as judge (“He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,” Isa. 11:4). With this sword, Christ will judge both disobedience in the church (2:16) and the world (19:15). Christ’s face being like the sun shining in its strength is an allusion to Judg. 5:31, where the same is said of the victorious Israelite warrior. Here the portrayal in Judges is viewed as pointing to Christ as the ideal end-time messianic warrior.

v. 17a is John’s response to this vision.

It follows the same pattern as that of Daniel’s ( Dan. 8:16–19 and 10:7–12): the prophet receives a vision, falls on his face in fear, is strengthened by a heavenly being, and then receives further revelation.

The vision is interpreted in vv. 17b–20. The Son of man describes Himself as the first and the last, using the same words God attributes to Himself in Isa. 41:4; 44:6; and 48:12 and also in Rev. 1:8.

This phrase refers to the complete sovereignty of God over human history from beginning to end, and its use by the exalted Christ here shows that He too is Lord over history, thus removing any doubt that He too is divine. This is enlarged on in 22:13 in such a way that Christ there (and here) must be understood as such.

Christ is the force behind history, causing it to fulfill His purposes. John’s audience, like Isaiah’s, is meant to take confidence in God’s sovereignty by allowing it to strengthen their prophetic witness.

v. 19 John is commissioned anew to prophesy on the basis of who Christ is and His triumph over the powers of death, as set forth in the vision of vv. 12–18.

This series of visions deals with the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things. The latter phrase alludes to Daniel’s revelation of the end times, which even now, according to Rev. 1:1, are beginning to be fulfilled in Christ.

It is in this respect that John and his readership should not fear. Jesus refers to Himself as the Living One, thus alluding to His triumph over the power of death. The threefold formula describing the resurrection in v. 18a (living … dead … alive) is not accidental, but is designed as a further support of the divine attribute ascribed to Christ. Jesus’ death and resurrection was an integral working out of the divine purposes in history and established that He Himself was guiding this history. He also is the One who lives forever and ever, the same phrase used of God the Father in the OT (Deut. 32:40; Dan. 12:7).

That Christ has the keys of death and Hades shows that He now rules even over death.

The background is probably Isa. 22:22, Once Christ Himself was held by death’s grip, now not only has He been set free from it but He also has the power to determine who else will be liberated. This verse assures believers that, regardless of what sufferings or trials they may now endure, if they persevere, they will indeed reign forever with Christ.

John stands at the beginning of the end times, he is to record both what is already happening around him and the things which will continue to unfold as the end times proceed.

Therefore, the scope of Revelation deals with all the events of world history commencing with the death and resurrection of Christ and concluding with His final return.

The events recorded in it will recur throughout human history and thus remain relevant to readers of all times, though they also point to a final climax at the time of the Lord’s return.

v20 Now John begins to unfold the mystery, another clear reference to Daniel (2:29). The lampstands are now clearly identified as the churches. The angels are heavenly beings (the word is used with this reference approximately sixty times in Revelation) closely identified with the churches they represent and help.

The “angels” are not human leaders or representatives of the churches or personifications of the churches or human letter carriers, The churches are addressed through their representative angels, apparently in order to remind the believers that already a dimension of their existence is heavenly and that their real home is not with the unbelieving “earth-dwellers” (3:10).

And one of the purposes of the church meeting on earth in its weekly gatherings (as “he who reads and those who hear” in 1:3) is to be reminded of its heavenly existence and identity by modeling its worship on that of the angels’ and heavenly church’s worship of the exalted Lamb.

This is why scenes of heavenly worship are woven throughout Revelation.

This initial vision has shown Christ standing in complete authority over human history, yet He does so standing amidst the churches (v. 13), which are undergoing all sorts of trials and even apparent defeats.

Rev. 1:13–16, 20 shows the “Son of man” in a present position of sovereignty among the weak and suffering churches of His kingdom,

Mystery, on the surface, refers to the hidden meaning of the stars and lampstands, which are about to be interpreted. But mystery also carries the connotation of unexpected, end-time fulfillment included in the meaning of the stars and lampstands in the present context.

The mystery that Christ reveals here to John is the reality that His rule coexists with the suffering of the churches. This is in fact the mystery of the cross, the same mystery by which Christ Himself, though the Creator of the universe, had to submit to the power of death.

Reflections on 1:9–20

If the kingdom as marked by tribulation and endurance was unexpected by Judaism, in what ways could we say it is also unanticipated by contemporary Christians?

What happens when we wrongly understand Christianity by focusing on “conquering” or health and wealth in our lives without reference to Jesus’ cross and our imitation of his suffering?

How does understanding end-time tribulation as a present reality rather than referring to a defined future period affect how we understand challenges we may expect to face as Christians?

On Christ’s presence with the church. It seems that John is commissioned, like the OT prophets, to bring a message both of comfort and of judgment. How could these two themes coexist?

The reality of Christ’s presence in the church by His Spirit reminds us of His awareness of all that goes on within it. Are we as aware of His presence as He is aware of the state of our hearts?

We know that Christ comes to judge the world, but how could it be said that He also comes to judge the church? Look at this in 2:23

God is the Alpha and Omega, and Christ is the first and the last, the force behind human history. How does the sovereignty of God and Christ and their continued presence with their people help believers to view the challenges and suffering that come into their lives?

If Revelation teaches that the end times began with the cross and the resurrection, what then does this mean for us? Do we see this truth consistently witnessed to in other parts of the NT?