Revelations - Introduction

¹The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

² Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

³ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

⁴ John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

⁵ And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

⁶ And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

⁷ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

⁸ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

We see from the first verse that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Lets keep that in mind. This isn’t a book that John wrote because he had a vision. This is the very vision and word of Jesus Christ. It is to be taken all the more seriously.

We seem to have a difficult time in calling the Bible the word of God. We have an easier time with attributing Scriptures with the author who wrote it. We neglect all to easily that God wrote all the Scriptures. It has so happened with the book of Revelation that even though it says right from the get-go that this is Jesus’ revelation, we attribute it to John.

The next thing to note is some of the symbolism and descriptions of Jesus used in verse 4-7. Lets take a quick moment to break these down:

Who are these seven spirits before the throne? We find a reference to them in the book of Tobit (which is found in the Catholic Bible). These are also mentioned in the book of Enoch. Though neither of these books are Scripture, they do give us a little insight into some of the mindset 2000 years ago when Revelation was written. The seven spirits are the seven angels. Who are the seven angels? We know of two of them: Michael and Gabriel. The other 5 have been lost to us (either by apocrypha or otherwise). Tobit mentions an angel named Raphael. Beyond that, I’m not sure we can really know for sure the names of the other 4 angels who stand before the Lord’s throne.

In verse 7 we find the phrase “He is coming on the clouds.” A reference to look upon is Jesus’ own words in Matthew 24:29-31, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Now a quick note about clouds is that they are less about Jesus standing on them and riding them like a surfboard and more about Jesus cloaking Himself. Clouds are always in a description of when God makes Himself seen. Think about it. Ever since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden, anyone who seems to have seen or spoken with God face to face seems to describe that they did so with a cloud. We have Abraham who saw the smoking pot and the fire, Mount Sinai, the cloud that leads the people Israel through the wilderness, and God’s glory filling the Temple like a cloud. These are just a few obvious mentions. Every mention of speaking with God directly seems to also indicate a cloud – this does not include the many times that people spoke with the angel of the Lord.

The next thing mentioned in verse 7 that I want to bring up is the little bit about “even those who pierced him.” Now, this is an obvious reference to Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”

The reason I want to note this is twofold: it is a prophecy of Israel’s redemption and it relates specifically to the words of Jesus from Matthew 24. We can be assured that this is indeed speaking of how Israel will come to know their God. They will behold Him whom they have pierced. But what always catches me is that it wasn’t Israel that pierced Him. According to 1 Corinthians 2:8, the powers of the air (demons) were the ones who killed Jesus. So this has everything to do with that same passage of Matthew that I quoted earlier.

In Matthew 24:30 we see that at the coming of Jesus all the “powers” of heaven will be shaken. Why? These powers (I must assume) are influenced by one power. That one power from which they derive their strength and wisdom and purpose is Satan. When the nations, or tribes, or powers weep at the return of Christ it is because their end has come. It is now time for their judgment. James even states that they tremble.

I believe that is why there is a repetition. It seems redundant when we first read it: “Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.” We see the same kind of parallel in Psalm 2: “Why do the nations rage and the people conspire a vein thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord…” Why the redundancy of the nations and people - kings and rulers? Are we talking about the same thing or are we describing two different things? I believe that we are talking about principalities and powers and then humanity.

¹² And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

¹³ And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

¹⁴ His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

¹⁵ And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

¹⁶ And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

¹⁷ And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

¹⁸ I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

¹⁹ Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

²⁰ The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

In verses 12-15 we see a description of Jesus that sounds quite reminiscent of Daniel’s vision of the ancient of days seated on the throne in chapter 7 (verses 9 & 10). We see that these seven stars represent the seven angels and the seven lampstands represent the seven churches. It has been said, and I agree, that the word angel here can simply mean pastor (because angel means messenger). This is the leadership of the Church.