1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass: and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John; 2 who bare witness of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand. 4 John to the seven churches that 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 that are before his throne; 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood; 6 and he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen. 8I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

The first thing to recognize about the book of Revelation is that it belongs to a category, a genre, of literature that was not uncommon from about the second century BC to toward the end of the second century AD in both Jewish and Christian circles. We call that genre apocalyptic.

Therefore, it is something that we have to understand within the first-century setting, in fact, within the setting of approximately 300 BC to approximately AD 300, when people did write a lot of this material.

Some good background reading would be some Second Temple Judaism apocalyptic. For example, 4 Ezra, 2 Esdras, First Enoch, The Book of Jubilees, The Apocalypse of Abraham, things like that, (all documents written between about 200 BC and about AD 100–150) then you come back to the book of Revelation and you think, Oh, this isn’t so strange after all.

Almost always in that kind of literature, it is a heaven’s perspective, a God’s-eye view on history and what’s going on. It’s not looking at things from below. It’s looking at things from above. The seer, the prophet, the apocalyptist is caught up into heaven in order to see things and they’re looked at from God’s perspective. Heavy symbolism, often very sharp, black-and-white sorts of issues.

Did you know there’s no devil in the first two chapters or the last two chapters of the Bible?Revelation, gives us a kind of God’s-eye view of sweeping history. Now in one sense, the whole Bible gives us a God’s-eye view. It’s a God’s-eye view directly in visionary and highly symbol-laden terms, through human intermediary, to the entire church. It is a spectacular from-heaven point of view.

This God’s-eye-view vision of things that includes individuals, suffering, terror, victory, drama, symbolism, and all the rest, it is moving somewhere. It’s a narrative that finally climaxes either in hell or in the new heaven and the new earth.

When we face such temptation, Christ’s revelation to us can put everything back into perspective. No matter how difficult our situation, Revelation announces that God is still in control and that he will conclude this stage of history the way he has promised.

We North American Christians have proved to be timid when it comes to witnessing. Revelation challenges our complacency, whether by pointing us to the price true Christians must be prepared to pay for following Jesus, or by revealing the dangers of compromise with a world inescapably opposed to the one we acknowledge as Lord.

Verse 3 is not only a blessing, but a blessing specifically directed toward those who hear. Revelation is not good news for everyone. It should terrify those satisfied with the way things are the same way it would have terrified many ancient hearers who learned of its message.

The subject of the book is the events that “must soon take place” (1:1). But what “soon” means is a matter of great controversy since Jesus did not come back in the late first century. Some understand all biblical references to an imminent (“soon”) coming as referring to a secret return of Jesus for his followers before the final Tribulation, but most of these references in context clearly refer to Jesus’ return to consummate history.

Some take the word “soon” here to mean that once the events begin, they will proceed rapidly (11:14);18 but it seems more natural to take them in their more frequent sense as implying that the events of the end will come swiftly.

Many of the events promised in this book may actually have begun in or before John’s day 12:5–6, but surely Jesus’ return did not come “quickly,”

The exception might be if John meant that the “time” was near in the sense in which the kingdom was near in Mark: Although the consummation was future, the kingdom was also invading the present through the activity of Jesus Christ, placing its demands on our lives (Mark 1:15).

Revelation is so intertwined that a lot of your decisions really depend on what you make of later pieces, because some of the symbols, some of the expressions, and some of the categories are picked up and developed later.

In Revelation 13, you must not try to decide what the first and second beasts are, what they refer to, without doing a lot of detailed study of Revelation 17, where the beasts come back and of Revelation 19 and 20, where not only do the beasts come back, but there’s a reference to the False Prophet, who is clearly picking up the symbolism from the second beast, the third creature.

The symbolism of the Apocalypse is, particularly appropriate for describing divine realities.

How shall we talk about the throne room of God apart from the odd prophet or apostle, like Paul, who is caught up to the third heaven and sees things that are not lawful to be uttered? That expression probably means not only that he’s not permitted to but also that he can’t, because we don’t have the categories.

Before the opening of the vision in Revelation 1 John provides us with a brief word of praise, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen!” (1:5–6).

For all the startling and even terrifying pictures of God and of the Lamb in this book, we start out with a declaration of Jesus’ love, his peculiar love for the people of God: “To him who loved us … be glory and power for ever and ever!” There is nothing that inspires our gratitude and awe more than the love shown us by the eternal Son of God on the cross.

Jesus Christ “by his sacrificial and atoning death, Jesus expiated our sins and thereby freed us from their curse. Not only so, but all the benefits we receive, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises of God’s enduring protection, eternal life, the consummating resurrection, have been secured by Jesus’ death, and all of them combine to free us from our sins, their guilt, their power, their results.

Christ “has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.” There is a sense in which we are in the kingdom, the sphere of his saving rule. There is another sense in which Christ now rules over all in unconditional sovereignty (Matt. 28:18; 1 Cor. 15:25), and in that sense everyone and everything is in his kingdom.

But insofar as Christians are the peculiar locus of the redeemed community and the foretaste of the universe-transforming redemption still to come, we ourselves can be thought of as his kingdom. Moreover, he has made us priests. Christians do not have priests other than Jesus their great high priest: there is but one mediator between God and human beings (1 Tim. 2:5). But in another sense, we are priests: all Christians mediate between God and this broken, sinful world. We mediate God to fellow sinners by faithfully proclaiming and living out the Gospel, and bear their needs in our intercessory prayers before our heavenly Father. Jesus Christ has made us a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.

REVELATION

Basically there are four fundamental interpretations of the book of Revelation. There have been all kinds of footnotes, subdivisions, and so on within each framework.

The Idealist Approach

The Idealist approach finds timeless principles in Revelation. Everyone who holds that view in some sense denies any specific historical or future meaning for the book.

The Futuristic interpretation

It holds that much of what the Bible in the book of Revelation is talking about describes events that are still future to us, not just future to John’s day, but future to us.

It most commonly holds that everything from Revelation 4:1 on refers to events still future to us, which means (if this interpretation is correct) that there is nothing in the book of Revelation from Revelation 4:1 on that refers directly to us. Now there could be all kinds of moral implications for us, just as there is nothing in Leviticus that refers directly to us in terms of case law, but there are all kinds of implications for us.

So also if this interpretation is correct, you cannot read this book and say, “Oh this beast is referring to the kind of evils that are going on today in place X or something like that. They say, it’s referring to specific events still future to us under the futurist interpretation. The biggest problems with this view, is that there are too many passages in the book of Revelation which would have been read by the first readers as referring to events in the first century, at the time they were living it out.

The Preterist view

In this view, virtually everything that takes place in the book of Revelation, with the possible exception of the last couple of chapters, is already in the past, in fact, was already in the past in John’s day.

Most of the events are understood to refer to the catastrophic fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, including perhaps imperial persecution in the Roman era under Nero in the mid-60s. All of these events are heavily symbolized sorts of descriptions of historical events that for John and his readers in the 90s are already past tense.

The Historical interpretation

In this view, the book of Revelation lays out in symbolic terms, a great deal of the history of the church from the first century until the end.

That was standard Protestant interpretation in much of the Western church. That’s what the Puritans thought, George Whitefield and Wesley held this view.

Clearly, the dominance of that interpretation during the time of the Reformation warns us about the possibility of reading our own times and culture into the text just so quickly that we lose a certain kind of historical perspective. Not enough people were asking the question,

Yes, but how would the first readers have read it?

For example, during the Reformation the general view was they married to their time, and saw the Pope as the anti-christ. The medieval papacy who all thought was the Anti-Christ did not exist in the first century!

The General interpretation

In this view the book does not refer to things still future to us, nor to things all past (all in the first century), nor to a rolling history across time but rather this book refers to principles of God’s administration. It’s not referring to any particular persecution or any particular beast or any particular evil woman on seven hills or anything like that.

What it’s doing instead is talking in symbolic terms to give us a kind of Christian philosophy of history, a kind of way of looking at the struggles of good and evil as they recur in the cycle of the church.

That is not likely, because Revelation is not just a abstract philosophy in colorful terms.

Once we understand what God was saying to the churches of Asia through John, we can begin to draw analogies for how the same message is relevant to our churches today.

Thinking concretely how to bridge the gap between Scripture’s words in the past and our culture today is important; the very reasons biblical writers said what they did in one setting caused biblical writers to say different things for different settings, and we need to hear them clearly before we reapply their words to our setting.

So the question still is, How would first century readers who are familiar with the genre read this stuff?

I don’t think they would’ve read it as abstract philosophy.

The book of Revelation has to be interpreted in the first instance against the historical background of the first century, the literary genre, the historical background of the first century.

The book of Revelation in that regard prepares first-generation Christians for first-generation assaults, but in categories and terms that prepares later-generation Christians for other assaults and ultimately for the final assault.

There are even elements of a kind of philosophy view. Not because it’s philosophy, but because it is teaching you how to think of God acting in history.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

The Father gives something to Christ, who discloses these things to his servants through his servant John. The material will help believers understand what’s going on, not simply satisfy their curiosity. “God gives this material that tells them what must soon take place, so that they will learn how to live under the terrible conditions that will take place.

The book has as its goal edification, strengthening, building up.

So this angelic being, it’s part of the way things work in apocalyptic literature. It’s common already in Daniel
God sanctions Christ to give his servants a revelation which Jesus then passes on to John to give to the people by means of an angel. It can be seen as the testimony of Jesus.

verse 3: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

it is a good thing to do that with respect to all of the Bible, clearly, but it’s also common phrasing in apocalyptic literature. You find similar sorts of things in First Enoch and things like that. It is a common sort of thing. “This book is so important that you really ought to read it. Blessed are you if you do.”

Likewise, at the very end of the book, you have this kind of warning. 22:18 and following: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life,” and so on.

The identity of the “seven spirits” (1:4) is not fully clear. Early Judaism thought in terms of seven archangels before God’s throne, and especially given the angels of the seven churches (1:20), many of John’s readers may at first have assumed that this was what he meant.

Angels are sometimes listed elsewhere with the Father and Son (14:10; Mark 8:38; 1 Tim. 5:21). But sevens are common in the book of Revelation, so the “seven spirits” before God’s throne need not refer to the seven angels he mentions elsewhere.

Indeed, Revelation does not use “spirits” to refer to angels, and because in Greek each group has its own article, the “seven spirits” appear to be explicitly distinguished from the seven angels in Revelation 3:1.

Thus most commentators take “the seven spirits” as the “sevenfold Spirit” of Isaiah 11:2And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah.

In Revelation the seven spirits “before his throne” (1:4; 4:5) are the seven eyes that belong to the Lamb (5:6). The “seven eyes” reflect the eyes of God in Zechariah (Zech. 3:9; 4:10), which one might take as God’s angels sent to patrol the four corners of the earth (1:8–11; Rev. 6:1–8), who are the “four spirits of heaven” (Zech. 6:5, cf. 6:1–7); but in context the eyes could refer to God’s Spirit (4:6).

If we read the seven spirits as God’s Spirit here, 1:4–5 invokes a blessing from the Trinity: Father, Spirit, and the Son.

Regardless of whether John invokes the Trinity here, he closes with Jesus because his role is the central focus. It is especially because of their allegiance to Jesus that John’s readers face opposition from the synagogue community and hence from Rome.

Jesus the Deliverer (1:5–6)

John provides several titles that describe Jesus’ person in 1:5 and three statements about his work in 1:5–6. Each of Jesus’ titles in 1:5 provides special encouragement to a suffering church: Jesus had testified (and so suffered like many of John’s first audience), had risen from the dead (a promise of hope to that audience), and now reigns (an assurance against their persecutors).

Jesus is the “faithful witness,”. Because he is the “faithful and true witness” (Rev. 3:14), believers can depend on his promises (Prov. 14:5, 25); (Jer. 42:5).15 Jesus provides the perfect model for Christians who will bear witness for him (Rev. 19:10) and suffer for that witness (17:6).16 Thus the only named martyr in the book of Revelation is likewise called a “faithful witness” (2:13).

That Jesus is the “firstborn from the dead” recalls a standard early Christian way of expressing the fact that Jesus was the first person to rise from the dead (Col. 1:18; Heb. 1:6; cf. Rom. 8:29), but was especially relevant to Christians who might soon face death for his name.

Most Jewish people expected all the righteous dead to rise at the end of the age (Dan. 12:2); the early Christians believed that Jesus had actually inaugurated that future event in the midst of history (thus they preached “in Jesus the resurrection,” Acts 4:2).

As the “firstborn,” Jesus’ resurrection was the guarantee that his dead followers would also be raised (1 Cor. 15:20)—hence they had nothing to fear, even from death itself (Rev. 1:18). In Jewish teaching, angels hostile to Israel’s interests ruled the nations, but here Jesus rules over the kings of the earth. The language alludes to Psalm 89:27, where God’s “firstborn” rules over the other “kings of the earth.” To believers suffering under agents of mighty Caesar, this title of Jesus would encourage them indeed!

As John lists three titles of Jesus in 1:5, he also lists three works of Jesus in 1:5–6. He “loves us”; he “freed us from our sins”; and he “made us … a kingdom and priests.” Jesus’ love for us is expressed in his death on our behalf, as elsewhere in the New Testament (John 3:16; Rom. 5:5–8; Gal. 2:20). This assurance of Christ’s love would encourage the suffering believers among John’s readers; his death also provides an example for those called to join in the Lamb’s sacrifice on behalf of God’s mission in the world (Rev. 6:9).

In declaring that Jesus made us a “kingdom and priests,” John reminds his audience that salvation is not just what God saves us from (our sins, 1:5), but what he saves us for—for a destiny as his agents and worshipers (1:6). Exodus 19 reminded Israel that they were to be holy, or separate to God, and that they were God’s special and treasured possession (Ex. 19:5–6). But that passage especially declared that Israel’s mission was to be a kingdom of priests (19:6). Like other early Christian writers (1 Peter 2:9), John applies this title and mission to all believers (Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6), who have been grafted into the heritage of Israel. For John’s audience, such an application is no small matter: Many are probably Jewish believers expelled from their synagogues for faith in Jesus (see comment on 3:8–9). Jews were exempt from worshiping the emperor, but some were accusing Christians of being no longer Jewish, hence subject to reprisals for their failure to worship Caesar (see the Introduction). By reaffirming that his audience remained attached to Israel’s heritage, John encourages them of the rightness of their claims.

John adapts the wording slightly: a kingdom and priests (1:6).18 Although a “kingdom” normally meant a ruler’s right to reign (Ps. 145:11–14), it sometimes meant the people over whom he reigned (105:13), and in this case the word implies delegated authority, as when Adam and Eve ruled creation for God (Gen. 1:26–27). This kingdom will “reign” with Jesus (Rev. 5:10; 20:6), as in the biblical promises (Dan. 7:22, 27).19

Their title as “priests” is also significant. The Qumran community saw its own mission as priestly, and its community included many priests. But the sort of priesthood John means here is a spiritual priesthood like that of ancient Israel as a whole ( Isa. 61:6). As priests Jesus’ followers will offer worship (Rev. 4:10–11; 5:8–10; 22:3) and offerings, both the incense of prayer (5:8; 8:4) and the sacrifice of their own lives (6:9).

After John expresses his prayer for grace and peace from the triune God, he pauses to offer a doxology of praise to Jesus (1:6). (This is not surprising behavior for a writer who is part of the priesthood he just mentioned.) Whereas traditional Jewish texts praised God the Father, here the praise is apparently directed toward Jesus (cf. also Rom. 9:5), the one who died for us (Rev. 1:5) and made us priests to his Father (1:6).22

Concluding Promise and Affirmation (1:7–8)

Johns intro words climax in a promise before concluding with another affirmation of God’s eternality (1:8): Jesus is coming (1:7). That Jesus would return in the clouds (probably of divine glory) reflects Daniel 7:13; that those who pierced him would see him and mourn reflects Zechariah 12:10. Because the language of Matthew 24:30 reflects the same texts, it is likely that John here echoes an earlier saying of Jesus. The “peoples [lit., tribes] of the earth” may reflect the organization of local citizens in the cities of Asia, where they were divided into tribes; Philadelphia, for instance, had seven. No assurance could better encourage suffering believers than the knowledge that Jesus will come to set matters right, and the church’s oppressors will have to acknowledge the wrong they have done to God’s servants. It is not altogether clear from Revelation 1:7 whether the “mourning” implies repentance (cf. 11:11–13) or—more likely in the case of the Gentiles implied here (cf. Matt. 24:30)—fear (Rev. 6:16), but the note of vindication is very clear.

Last, John confirms once again that all history is in God’s hands—the future as well as the present (1:8); thus, his people need not fear as if something will happen to them apart from God’s plan. The title “the Alpha and the Omega,” like the one “who is, and who was, and who is to come,” indicates God’s eternality, that all of history from beginning to end is the same to him. Greeks sometimes used symbolic letters to describe their deities, but John uses the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet to describe God as the “first” and the “last”; some Jewish writers used the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet (Aleph and Tav) to make the same point. In both cases the writers allude to the book of Isaiah, where God declares that he is both the first and the last (Isa. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12). Pagans also might recognize that “the first” depicts a supreme deity, or even used “the first and the last” in this manner; but Jewish people in particular described God as first and last, as well as the “beginning and the end of all.”