The Word Made Fresh
1God gave this revelation to Jesus Christ to show his servants what will happen soon. He revealed it by sending his angel to John, his servant, 2who told us everything he knew about the word of God and the teaching of Jesus Christ, and everything he witnessed.
3Blessed are those who read the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it. The time is near.
4John writes this to the seven churches in Asia:
Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is to come, and also from the seven spirits who stand before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of all the kings of the earth.
To the one who loves us and washed away our sins by his blood, 6who made us to be a kingdom and priests to his God and Father – to him is given glory and power forever. Amen.
7Look! He is coming with the clouds!
Everyone will see him, even those who pierced him,
and everyone on earth will mourn for him.
So shall it be. Amen.
8The Lord God the Almighty, who is and was and is to come says, “I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.”
9I, John, am your brother, and I am your companion in suffering and in the kingdom and in patient endurance that is ours in Jesus. I was on the island of Patmos because of God’s word and the witness of Jesus. 10On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit. I heard a loud voice behind me. It was like a trumpet blast, 11and it said, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
12I turned to see who was speaking to me, and when I had turned I saw seven lampstands made of gold. 13Among them I saw someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a golden sash across his chest. 14His hair was white as wool; white as snow. His eyes were aflame 15and his feet shone like polished bronze that had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the sound of a rushing stream. 16He was holding seven stars in his right hand, and in his mouth was a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun, bright and shining.
17I fell like a dead man at his feet when I saw him, but he put his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18the one who lives. I was dead, but look – I am alive and will live forever and ever. And I hold the keys of Death and Hades. 19Write down what you have seen of what is and of what will come afterwards. 20The seven stars you saw in my right hand are the angels of the seven churches and the seven golden lampstands are the seven churches.”
Commentary
1-3: The book of Revelation is enigmatic to say the least. It promises to reveal, but instead seems determined to obscure. It proposes to show “what will happen soon,” but the Church still awaits the events described. The opening verses proclaim that God gave Jesus Christ the knowledge of what would happen; Jesus in turn gave it to an angel, and the angel was sent to Jesus’ servant, John. John, however, is not the end of the chain, for John wrote it down and shared it with the church, with instructions for those who read and those who hear to keep it because, he says, the time is near. I suppose the time still is. Many attempts have been made to identify the author of Revelation with the author of the fourth Gospel, but with little success. Revelation was probably written by a Jewish Christian from Asia Minor for whom Greek was a second language. More than that is difficult to determine.
4-6: The book is addressed to “the seven churches in Asia,” what we today call Asia Minor. The reference is, of course, to the seven churches mentioned in chapters 2 and 3. He offers them grace and peace from God, from the seven spirits before the throne (representing the seven churches), and from Jesus. That is followed by a triple ascription of glory to Jesus: the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the “ruler of all the kings of the earth,” meaning that John’s allegiance is given to Jesus rather than to any earthly king, which might explain why he wound up on an island (Patmos, see verse 9). Likewise, the church is described with a triple blessing: the church consists of those whom Christ loves, whom he frees from sins by his blood, and whom he made to be a kingdom of priests to serve God.
7: This appears to be an early hymn expressing the expectation that Christ will return.
8: God is the alpha and the omega (the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet), “who is and was and is to come” (as was already stated in verse 4), which is just a very long way of saying God is eternal.
9: There was apparently some kind of widespread persecution going on amid the churches of Asia Minor at the time the book was written (probably between 80 and 100 A.D.). To the Roman government both Christianity and Judaism were false religions, and from time-to-time efforts were made to stifle the spread of the church. The prevailing theory is that John was exiled to the island of Patmos by the proconsul of Asia. Patmos is located about 50 miles southwest of Ephesus off the coast of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. John names seven cities (churches) in western Turkey to which he claims brotherhood, perhaps indicating that he is from that region. Patmos is a small, isolated, rocky island only a few miles long and about a mile wide. There is some evidence that it was once used as a penal colony of sorts. If you look at pictures of the island today (thanks to Google) you can imagine what it must have been like to be stranded there for any length of time. No wonder the man started seeing things!
10-11: “On the Lord’s Day” is when John says his vision began. He hears a voice behind him telling him to write down what he sees and send it to the seven churches.
12-16: The vision begins without further ado. He sees seven lampstands which we will learn represent the seven churches (see verse 20). In their midst is the fantastic appearance of a “Son of Man” with a long robe, golden sash, white hair and beard, fiery eyes, and bronze-like feet. The visions of Ezekiel come to mind. This figure will be identified with Jesus in a bit, but for now John is simply overcome by it. The seven stars in the man’s hand represent the seven angels of the seven churches (see verse 20). The two-edged sword represents the word of God (see Hebrews 4:12). The man’s face shining like the sun is a way of picturing the irresistible nature of the presence of the divine, and represents the authority of God for judgment.
17-20: John faints. The man touches him and identifies himself as Jesus, repeats the command for him to write in a book what he sees, and explains the symbolism of the stars and lampstands.
Takeaway
We are embarking on a fantastic and mysterious journey as we read the letters sent to the seven churches. John will lead us through difficult to understand realms as he describes what will happen in heaven and on earth over the centuries to come. It will be a fascinating and mysterious journey.