Revelation 1 (ESV)

This is the introductory post in our study of the book of Revelation.  As such, it is somewhat fitting to begin with the first chapter.

An important thing to note is that right from the beginning, John (the author of the book) is establishing the authority of what he is about to write down.  He also tells us that the things which he is about to tell us must soon take place.  In the second verse, John asserts his own credibility by saying “…John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ…”  He is making sure that his audience knows for certain that what he is telling us in this book is credible.

In verses 4-5a, John gives us a greeting.  Another important thing to note in these verses is that John is starting the main part of the book (everything after 1:1-3) with God, in turn focusing the entire book on God.  In the next set of verses (5b-8), John starts out by praising God; he says:  “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.”  Directly after this, John tells us that Christ is indeed coming again, that He is “coming with the clouds.”  He tells us that when Christ comes, people will wail and mourn on account of Him.  Then John says:  “Even so.  Amen.”  Whether praising God or lamenting because of sin, even so, amen.  So be it.

However, the main passage of this introductory chapter is verses 9-20; John’s vision of Christ.  In verses 9-11, John again reassures us that these words come directly from God.  In the next five verses, John gives us very descriptive accounts of the Son of Man.  He first gives a picture of royalty: “…one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.”  This convinces us that this vision is indeed of Christ, as He is often referred to as the Prince of Peace, King of Kings, so on and so forth.  After this, John gives us a picture of the sheer glory of this Son of Man.  “…His eyes were like a flame of fire…his voice was like the roar of many waters…In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharpt two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”  All of these descriptions are visions of glory, from the mighty sword to the roaring voice, from the eyes of fire to the shining face, this is all testifying to the glory of the Son of Man.

In verses 17-19, we see John falling at the feet of this Son of Man.  This is a significant event, showing that this was not an angel appearing to John.  In every account of angels visiting humans, and those humans falling down to worship said angels, these angels told the humans something to the effect of “Do not worship me, I am but a fellow servant.”  The Son of Man does not say that.  Instead, He says:  “Fear not…[I am] the living one.  I died, and behold I am alive forevermore…”  This proves to us that this is not an angel visiting John.  Verse 20 tells us something that I believe is fairly significant.  Christ says:  “As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”  The number seven, which is used very, very frequently in Revelation, is a number of completion.  I believe that this symbolism of the number came from the Creation (the seven days of Creation.  However, that is not what is significant.  We see that on the right hand of Christ are angels, worshippers, as we will see later on.  The seven lampstands (again, all of the church, seven being the number of completion, thus, the complete church) are seen earlier, specifically verses 12-13, surrounding Christ.  We can thus conclude a very important piece of information:  That Jesus Christ is surrounded by worshippers.  That the heavenly beings worship Jesus Christ and all of creation will worship Christ (see verse 7).

The next post will be on Revelation 2.  Just for a head’s-up.