Letters of Great Joy and Sorrow

Revelation 1:4-8 

4 John, to the seven churches which 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 who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.  To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.  7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The letters to the seven churches were real places, but also represent churches in similar states throughout time to come.  Though there are both words of praise and words of strong rebuke, all the churches are first given a prayer and desire for grace and peace from the I AM and the entourage of angelic beings worshipping and serving at His throne.  This grace and peace is from Jesus Christ, who is described as the faithful witness, firstborn from the dead, and ruler with authority over all those on earth.  He was faithful to preach the Kingdom and to give His life for ours as the gospel for us.  He was the first to resurrect Himself to prove that we will rise in Christ at the end in like manner with a new nature.  He rules over all authority because it is all His (Matthew 28:18).  He loved His chosen people to the point of sacrificing Himself to die in shedding His blood that we might not shed ours in dying for our sin as we deserve to.  Furthermore, Jesus makes us rule and minister as His royal servants, children of the Most High King!  We will rule with Him to whom we give all the glory in His rule.Therefore we eagerly wait for His coming (Romans 8:25, Philippians 3:20).  He will come as He left, in the clouds, and this time the entirety of creation will see the return, unlike only His disciples when He ascended before (Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:9).  The world will see who they killed, the Lord of glory, and be greatly saddened by their rejection of Him and His salvation.  We who are His rejoice greatly and hasten His return, He who is the beginning and the end, who was here and will return, who always existed and always will.  He is the I AM, Emmanuel, and these letters of the Revelation give hope as well as judgement, woe and warning as well as joy and an eternal future, face to face before our Lord forever!