Revelation

Revelation Chapter 1 with a sweep through chapters 2 and 3

This opening chapter states the purpose of the book of Revelation.  It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ to seven named churches, and the churches had to prepare for the things that God was about to do there and then.

The first Christian book I bought was all about biblical prophecy and I got caught up in it.  At no point did the book say that biblical prophecy that is not yet fulfilled presents difficulty in understanding, which is does.  There are however things in this chapter that are clear.  John was to write to seven churches that were in existence at that time and God through what John wrote directly addressed those churches and warned them about their sin and commended them for their good works.

I spoke on Balaam, and I said that it was my opinion that the angel of the lord who stood in Balaams way and caused the Donkey to speak is in fact the lord.  My evidence for this is that Balaam fell before him and I do not think an angel would permit that, and also it seems to me that the Angel of the lord in numbers and the angel in Revelation 1 ( for john does call him an angel) are very similar and therefore likely to be the same person. 

I do however think that the angel in Revelation, is clearly a glorified manifestation of Christ for he repeatedly says that he is

1)      The Alpha and the omega

2)      The first and the last

3)      I am he that liveth and was dead

4)      Behold I am alive forever more.

5)      I have the keys of hell and death.

THE UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD

Do you believe in the universal priesthood?  John being a Jew would be familiar with the Jewish priests but in verse 5 he says that Jesus is the first begotten of the dead who has made us kings and priests unto God. 

THE TRINITY

I see the trinity in this chapter.

Verse one says that is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to HIM, to show to his servants. If  have understood the context correctly, the God referred to is the father who gave the revelation of Jesus Christ to him, i.e. Jesus the son and  John says that when he saw this he was in the spirit on the lords day, so there you have it, father son and holy spirit.

That does not seem to make sense to me, but we are grappling with spiritual issues.  It seems to me that is it saying that the revelation of Jesus Christ came from the father to the son about the son through the holy spirit.

There is a promise in this chapter.  In verse three the reader and those who hear the prophecy are blessed.  This is the point of the book

John, an apostle, was exiled to the isle of Patmos.  The church was being severely persecuted.  In verse 9 John refers to himself as a bother and companion in Tribulation

It is because of this verse that I know that he was writing to people who were being severely oppressed. He calls it tribulation.  He is seeking to encourage them in their difficulty by reminding them over and over that although there is difficulty, there is also a certain hope, for Jesus is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, and he holds the keys to death and hell, he is all powerful and he cares for his people.

Tribulation, is a strong word.  I wonder if things were so bad that they felt like giving up.  Christ had not yet returned, and the Roman empire was oppressing them and they would wonder is it worth it. 

In later chapters the churches are told to lay aside their sin and they will be rewarded for their faithfulness and they are reminded in this opening chapter of whom we serve.

ANGELS

Three Possibilities

1)      The book is written to seven specific churches each of which has an angel.  Somehow angels are involved in this communication because they are symbolised in this chapter by the seven stars and in the following chapters addressed to each church John is instructed to write to each angel. Somehow by writing to the churches he was writing to angels. The angels would communicate the contents of the letter. I cannot say that I really understand this, but that is what it is saying. 

2)      Some think that they were the people who carried the messages and passed them on to those who would read them.

3)      The Greek word for Angel is sometimes translated MESSENGER so perhaps the angels were people in the church who would read it out. At this distance in time, we have no way of knowing, but the original readers would have understood this.

There is urgency in his writing. 

Picture this, the church is in tribulation, and the revelation is to encourage them.  There would not be much encouragement in a revelation that was exclusively about things that would take place thousands of years after their life time.  Indeed john urges them to prepare for the time is it hand, it was near. God’s blessing would come upon them if they were faithful and it was about to happen.

Therefore at least some of the contents of the book were to take place in the lifetime of the readers and hearers.

The fact that John is able to say that he has seen the lord in this glorified form would be a great encouragement.

We know that john was one of the men who was on the mount of transfiguration.  He with peter and James saw Jesus body glow and they saw him talking to Moses and Elijah. Here he sees the glorified lord and he falls before him as if he is dead.  He had seen him day by day in his earthly form, he had seen him transfigured but somehow in this vision, he was so struck by what he saw that he fell down as if dead.  He did not fall down on the day he saw the transfiguration, the offered to feed Jesus Moses and Elijah.  I wonder if they really knew what they were saying that day and saying something was better than saying nothing.

 In Revelation, He was terrified.  He had not seen the lord like that before, but the lord has compassion on him, and reaches out and puts his right hand upon him and said, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forever more AMEN.

Those words, Fear not, must have been so comforting to John. They would also have been a comfort to the readers of this book.  To see God was an awesome thing and he was so holy that sin could not abide in his presence.  To see God was to die. John had seen God and did not die. Instead God had compassion on him.

Jesus had loved him in his human form.  He loved him still when glorified.

If we look at the following chapters, we can see that the churches could be described as follows

1)      Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7) - the church that had forsaken its first love (2:4).

The book lists their good deeds, but they lacked love and they are told to repent and do the things they did at first.  We can be theologically sound and yet lack love.

(2) Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11) - the church that would suffer persecution (2:10).

They were told that some of them would be cast in Prison and they were not to fear. They were to remain faithful unto death. They were told that some of them would be put in prison, and as they were to resist unto death then presumably some would die, and this would go on for 10 days. ( We see God still being glorified in suffering, and he had put a time limit on this campaign of 10 days)

(3) Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17) - the church that needed to repent (2:16).

This church had its good deeds, but is was also this church who had people among them who held as I said a few weeks ago to the Doctrine of Baalam.  You will recall that Balaam was asked to curse Isreal, but he could not.  However he told Balak to encourage Isreal to eat food that God had forbidden to commit adultery and Gods judgement came upon them in the form of a plague.  Evidently there were adulterous people in this church, and there was false doctrine

(4) Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29) - the church that had a false prophetess (2:20).

There was a woman whom John calles Jezabel who claimed to be a prophetess who led the people into adultery and eating things sacrificed to idols.  God had given her time to repent and she had not, therefor God would bring an illness upon her.

(5) Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6) - the church that had fallen asleep (3:2).

They had to repent and wake up.  They had to remember what they had heard and put it into practice.  There were however a few people among them whom the lord commended.

(6) Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13) - the church that had endured patiently (3:10).

They were faithful and endured and God promised that he would keep them in the hour of testin

(7) Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) - the church with the lukewarm faith (3:16).

They held fast and did not deny the faith, but they were LUKE WARM.  They were wealthy, but did not realise they were poor in spirit.

It is interesting to note that it is of this church we read a well known verse.  In

Revelation 3:20,”Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and dine with him, and he with me”.

We hear that verse used in evangelism to appeal to the unconverted to come to Christ.  However that is the wrong context.  We see here that the correct context is that Christ is appealing to his church and asking them to let him in.  Do we shut him out?

The seven churches, were seven literal churches in Asia minor, but todays church may take lessons from them.  We need to be awake, we need to love, we must not be luke warm, we must not tolerate sin and we must let Christ in.