Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

In this lesson we begin our actual study of the text of Revelation. If you haven’t read the introductory material yet, I would recommend starting there.

Summary

 The Book of Revelation is a personal letter, written by John from Jesus to seven churches in Asia – churches that John knew personally.

Why did Jesus give this letter? So that whoever reads/hears it and takes it to heart will be blessed (v. 3). Yes, that’s right. Jesus promised that you will be blessed if you study Revelation and take it to heart! No need to be frightened our sorrowful.

And why wouldn’t we be blessed? After all, God made you and me into a kingdom of priests who will eventually reign on the earth (1:4-6 and 5:10). As Christians, we are the children of the promise, the spiritual nation of Israel, the chosen ones of God. Some day, Jesus will come again in the clouds for us. Everyone will see Him and know who He is. And as much as the devil looks like he is winning battles in our world, we are on the winning side of the war!

John reminds us in many ways throughout this chapter that God has no beginning and no end. He always was, always is, and always will be. This God we serve is, truly, the Great I Am, and He holds the church (you and me) in His right hand where He will always hold and protect us.

Please take a moment before continuing to stop and thank God for that, and ask Him to help you take this to heart and be blessed by it.

Notes On The Text:

1:1-2

God gave this revelation to Jesus, and Jesus gave it to John through His angel. The revelation included the things God said (His word) and Jesus’ testimony to them

John tells us that the things he saw must soon take place:

• Don’t let the word “soon” trouble you. Biblical prophets often blend near and distant on a signle canvas
• After all, John is covering at least 1000 years in his prophecy, so obviously the word “soon” is used very broadly.
• As both the Psalmist and Peter remind us, a day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day to God (Psa 90:4; 2Pet 3:8). God stands outside of time. In the scheme of the world’s entire history, a few thousand years is “soon.”
• At any moment, we can experience the comfort of knowing that we’re on the team that will win in the end.

Significantly, the only weapon Jesus uses to win the final victory in Rev. 19:15 and 21 is His word!

• Abigail Adams once wrote that “We have too many high sounding words and too few actions that correspond with them.”
• But we need to remain keenly aware that God’s words aren’t like our own. He spoke and the world was created. God’s words bridge the gap between speaking and acting because His word is “living and active” (Heb 4:12).
• “My word that goes out from my mouth,” God said through Isaiah, “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isa 55:11)
• God’s words always achieve the result He intends.

1:3

So what result does God intend to achieve with the words in Revelation? He tells us in verse 3:

• “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it.”
• People often feel a sense of fear or sorrow when they consider studying the book of Revelation.
• But God’s intention is that those who “take it to heart” will be blessed by it. It is a message of supreme hope!

1:4-6

It is obvious from the way John names himself and the Asian churches that this writing was a personal letter. It follows the same pattern other ancient letters followed (including the “epistles” in the Bible):

• It is from two people: John (v. 4) and Jesus Christ (v. 5)
• It is to “the seven churches in the province of Asia.“

Notice that Jesus, the faithful witness and firstborn from the dead, rules over the kings of the earth.

• Not only that, He has done more than love us and free us from our sins. He has made us to be a kingdom of priests. Rev. 5:10 clearly says that we will reign on the earth in this kingdom.
• We’ll visit this in greater depth later, but it’s important to understand that the church is the true Israel, and Christians are the heirs of the spiritual privileges of the Old Testament people of God.
• In a very real sense, our faith is the genuine continuation of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses because Jesus, whom we believe in, was the fulfillment of their promises. Anyone who rejects Him abandons the Jewish faith. Anyone who accepts Him accepts the Jewish faith. If you are a Christian you are a “true Jew,” regardless of whether your last name is Smith or Goldsmith.

1:7-8

Jesus will come again with the clouds and everyone will see Him - even people who are now dead! When this happens, “all the peoples of the earth” will morn.

• The first time Jesus came, you could only know that Jesus was the Messiah by faith. It wasn’t self-evident.
• There’s an important passage about this in Mark. A high priest directly asked Jesus if He was the Messiah (obviously it wasn’t self-evident). Jesus said “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:61-62)
• When He comes again, everyone will know.

By calling Himself the Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), God emphasizes that He rules over all time. He “is, was, and is to come.” He is the “I Am.”

1:9

John tells us that three things are ours in Jesus: Suffering, the Kingdom, and Patient Endurance.

• Thank God for the last two if we must have the first!
• If you’d like to read more about those, read John 16:33 and Acts 14:22
• John is our “brother and companion” in all of those
• More specifically, he reminds the seven Asian churches that he is their brother and companion in those things. This emphasizes that John had a personal relationship with these seven very real churches

1:10-11

John was on the island of Patmos “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ”

• Do you remember those words? John said this Revelation itself was “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” In other words, he could easily have been on Patmos “because of” this book of Revelation itself.
• Tradition says John was banished to Patmos because he was punished for preaching the word. That could be, but the Bible no where says that.
• A reasonable alternative is that God had John go to Patmos for the purpose of giving him this revelation.
• Patmos was a small island off the coast of Ephesus. It had a civilization of its own including temples to Greek gods, a prison, etc.

John was to send this letter to the seven Asian churches.

• Interestingly, the churches are listed in exactly the geographical order a courier would have to travel in order to deliver it to each of them.
• To me this, plus the fact that John was intimately familiar with the churches (v. 9), is enough to show that these are seven literal churches rather than “symbols of seven periods of church history” as some believe.

1:12-16

We’ll come back to the seven golden lampstands in a minute (v. 20)

The description of Jesus in verses 13-15 are very similar to the descriptions given by Daniel (Dan. 7:9-13; 10:5-6) and Ezekiel (Ezk. 1:24; 43:2).

• The garments He is wearing are those of a priest and judge (read Exodus 28).
• His white hair shows that He is older than time and wise
• His blazing eyes show that He sees everything with both penetration and passion
• Jesus’ feet are “like bronze glowing in a furnace,” showing that He has walked through trials and come out pure
• His voice was powerful, “like rushing waters.”
• Out of His mouth came a double-edged sword, which is the word of God (Heb. 4:2)
• His face shone like the sun.
  • This is how Jesus was described in the transfiguration (Mat. 17:2).
  • And do you remember when Moses came down Mt. Sinai after seeing God, how his face was glowing so much that he had to cover it with a veil (Exod. 34:29-33)?
  • And when Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus, Paul was blinded by the light (Acts 26:13-15).

1:17-20

When John saw “someone like a son of man” (Jesus), he fell down at His feet “as though dead.”

• When Daniel saw and received a prophecy about the end from “one who looked like man“, he says he fell into a deep sleep (Dan. 8:18-20; 10:8-9; 10:17-19)
• It was common for people who received direct revelations by God to feel a sense of terror until God touched and reassured them (Also see Gen. 15:12; Ezekiel 1:28 and 11:13)
• In John’s case, we might view John’s experience as symbolic of the death and resurrection that the rest of the book of Revelation talks about.

Verse 19 lays the outline for the rest of the book of Revelation. Jesus tells him to write:

• “What you have seen,” which would represent the current chapter
• “What is now,” which would be the letters to the seven Asian churches in chapters 2-3, and
• “What will take place later,” which would describe the rest of the prophecies in the book.

The seven lampstands, Jesus said, are the seven Asian churches

• We are familiar with the menorah (seven lampstands) from Jewish symbolism around the holidays
• In Jewish symbolism, the menorah represented Israel as complete under God - similar to “one nation under God” in our pledge of allegiance.
• By identifying the menorah with churches, John is claiming once again that Christianity is the true form of Judaism.
• Don’t miss the reassurance that Jesus is holding these lampstands in His right hand - which designates a special place. He will keep and protect His people.

The seven stars, Jesus said, “are the angels of the seven churches.”

• It is unclear what the “angels” of the churches are.
• The Greek word aggelos, which is translated “angel” throughout the New Testament, literally means “messenger.” It does not always have the meaning of “angel” as we usually think of it. For instance, in Luke 9:52 the words is translated “messenger” to refer to a courier. And in James 2:25, the same word is translated “spies!”
• The angels here could have been guardian angels (one for each church) or heavenly counterparts of the earthly reality of the churches
• The angels could be the messengers that delivered the scroll to the churches. However, there was likely only one copy of this book to be circulated among the churches and generally one person who would deliver it to all of them
• Alternatively, the angels here could be the public scripture readers in each church. On that point, notice that “those who read” and “those who hear” are named separately in v. 3. Most people couldn’t read back then, and there would have likely only been one copy of the scroll. So, churches had readers who would read the scriptures to the members. They were, in essence, messengers.
• There is no way to know for certain which of these was meant - or something completely different. I lean toward the latter - that the public scripture readers are the “messengers” He refers to.