1:4John to the seven churches that 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 that are before his throne; 5and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; 6and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen. 8I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

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?

That 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 of many 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?

John is commissioned as a prophet to write to the churches,

1;9 I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet 11saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

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

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.

What John Saw

12And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. 14And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and his voice as the voice of many waters. 16And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

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 uses the “lampstand” image to stress the Jewishness of faith in Jesus and the continuity of believers’ faith with the heritage of ancient Israel.

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).

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.

John elates 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 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.

John pictures him with head and hair white like wool, as white as snow. That doesn’t mean he’s decrepit.

And his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.” 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).

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).

,17 Fear not; I am the first and the last, 18and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 19Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; 20the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches

Don’t be afraid John

This phrase the first and the last 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,

Jesus refers to Himself as the Living One, thus alluding to His triumph over the power of death.

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

Write this message John

19Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; 20the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches.

Then John is to record “what will take place later,” First, the book itself obviously references all the material after chap. 3 and the messages to the churches in Asia.

How we handle the expression beyond this depends entirely on presuppositions as to the nature of the book

If the book is viewed as allegorical then is merely a highly stylized picture of the perpetual warfare between good and evil throughout the course of the present age.

Preterists and historicists treat the expression the same way except that they make some attempt to find historical substance in the remainder of the book. However, both groups still see the events as an unfolding of the history of the church either in the time of John or else in the succeeding centuries.

Many futurists prefer to interpret the events of the prophecy as the expectation of the church. the rest of the book as belonging to an end-time scenario. Meanwhile some futurists take this even more literally and understand the meaning to be “after the things of the churches.” These interpreters believe chaps. 4–22 reflect a period after the church has been taken into heaven.

The meaning is discernible only as a direct act of God’s revelatory will. The author is now informed that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches, and the seven stars are the “angels” of the seven churches.

Possible meanings for the “angels,” are numerous but are essentially two.

1. the seven churches in Asia (maybe all New Testament churches) have an angel assigned to the church as a part of God’s providential oversight of the assemblies.

this view preserves the most natural reading of the Greek aggeloi, especially in light of the frequency with which such spirit beings appear in the Apocalypse. Also, the idea of angels assigned specifically to certain tasks on earth is not entirely foreign to the New Testament. For example, women who pray or prophesy in the church are to have authority on their heads “because of the angels” (1 Cor 11:10). This suggests the presence of heavenly visitors in the worship of the congregations. Care is to be taken with children since their angels “do always behold the face of [the] Father” (Matt 18:10 KJV). While not supporting the popular idea of guardian angels, this latter passage does at least lend support to the heavenly assignments of angels.

The book of Daniel (Dan. 10:13, 20–21) and most of early Judaism recognized that heavenly angels guided the activities of earthly rulers, and in some Jewish traditions these angels shared the responsibility for the earthly rulers’ behavior.

The difficulty with this view is; If John is the last of the intermediaries receiving the message of the risen Christ assisted by angels, what is the purpose for John’s writing the message from angels to give to other angels?

How, in turn, do these angels of the churches ferry John’s words to their congregations? No precedent appears in the Bible for either writing or addressing churches by angels.

2. This led other interpreters to suggest that the older meaning of the Greek noun “messenger” or “angel” of the church could refer to another person, a delegate from John, or perhaps even the pastor of the church.

The whole subject shows the difficulty of confining this fluid use of symbols within the logical categories of the modern mind.

The last identification in the chapter is that of the seven lampstands, which are now plainly said to represent the seven churches of Asia. A more appropriate symbolism for the church is scarcely imaginable. The church is like a lamp, a receptacle that is to give light in darkness. However, like a lamp, the church is helpless to fulfill its mission without fuel. .

When the church is filled with the Spirit of God, then she is able to give light to the world. Minus such presence and anointing, despite outer appearances, a church has no real possibility of fulfilling her Great Commission mandate.

Reflections on 1:9–20

On the idea of tribulation. 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?

Further thoughts on tribulation. 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? Reflect on this in 2:23

On God’s sovereign presence. God is the Alpha and Omega, and Christ is the first and the last, the force behind human history. How do 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?

On the significance of the end times. If Revelation teaches that the end times began with the cross and the resurrection, what then does this mean for us?