Revelation 1:1-8 - Things to Come Shortly

Revelation 1:1-8

Introduction and Benediction

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Greeting the Seven Churches

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.”

John was exiled to the island of Patmos where he received the prophetic series of things to come shortly in the history of mankind until the final judgment and reign of Jesus Christ on an earth made new with the very temple of God in person come in the New Jerusalem here.  These things to come are veiled in detail to we His servants for the most part just as the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah-Christ had been.  These, however, are to be revealed over time as they happen as an unveiling as events occur.  The details may be hidden in prophetic descriptions but there are major important overviews of God’s work towards judgment to come in the areas more clearly visible.  John was given these visions of heavenly sights which words struggle to describe to us and make it more difficult to understand clearly as in a foggy mirror (1 Corinthians 13:12) which will be cleaned to see perfectly in only at His coming to us in the end when these things here have come to fruition and we stand before the Lord at last (Job 19:25-27).  This apostle John wrote these things to all who come after him as a testimony of Jesus Christ and witness of God’s word given in its finality to unravel before us as events happen towards His coming on a set day known only to Himself (Mark 13:32) to judge the world (Acts 17:31) in righteousness.  These then are the things he saw as shown by the Lord that we may be blessed in reading them and do all we are called to (Luke 11:28) as told us there to give glory to God for all His righteous works in His sovereign reign as we read in Jude 1:25 before.  The time is nearer (James 5:8, Revelation 22:10) than we imagine!  The letter begins by addressing the seven major churches of the time which are also representative of all to follow by their respective types of doctrine and living as examples for us to heed.  The messages begin with grace and peace from the eternal Lord who always exists and in the presence of seven angels who stand before His throne in heaven at His bidding.  They are also from the sovereign king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the firstborn from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) who rose up from the grave as a promise and reminder that we all will rise one day in the end to either a resurrection of life (Daniel 12:2, Matthew 25:46, John 5:29, Acts 24:15) or of judgment and suffering.  In Christ we have the forgiveness of our sins by the atoning sacrifice of His lifeblood given in our stead that we might be seen as clean in His righteousness and not our own.  We will rule with Him in eternity (2 Timothy 2:12) as we persevere to this end of time when all face the judgment seat of Christ.  Yes, Je will surely return in the clouds just as He promised the apostles and disciples (Acts 1:9,11) He will do just as He went back to His Father in heaven in their sight.  Everyone will see His return and mourn the one whom they rejected and crucified as one pierced through (Psalm 22:16, Zechariah 12:10, John 19:37) for their sins.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn and last, the beginning one who created all things and the last one to end the reign of sin in us by a new world to come after His final judgment on us all.  He is the Almighty who was and is and is to come!  This book is of hope in the end and not just the doom and gloom of judgment of divine justice seen int all the things to come shortly.