Day 1
1 The revelation from 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, 2 who testifies to everything he saw – that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud 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.
Things were really bad for the early church. Persecution, real persecution, was happening and more was on the way. It was about 50-60 years after Jesus’ death and resurrections and Christians were a hated and despised minority. The cult of emperor worship was spreading and was beginning to be enforced.
The empire wanted to unite its people under one banner and the worship of the emperor as a god was seen as one way to do that. Of course, Christians couldn’t do that without insulting their Lord, and some Christians had already met their death at the hands of the empire for refusing to acknowledge that Caesar was a god. The Apostle John, seen as a leader of the Christian movement and the writer of the book was a prisoner in exile on the Island of Patmos for his preaching.
You can bet that many Christians were asking their pastors what was going on. I should imagine that the death of Antipas, mentioned in 2:13 as one of the first Christian martyrs in the region would have resulted in lots of questions. Maybe those questions were getting through to John. How come they were experiencing these things? Why wasn’t God putting a stop to it? Didn’t God care that they were suffering? Wasn’t this supposed to be the golden age? Wasn’t God supposed to look after them if he loved them?
And John tells them in chapters 2 and 3 that it is going to get a lot worse. Great!!!
So God gives John a vision to communicate to his people.
Revelation chapter 1 verse 1 says
“the revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.”
This vision, or two visions in fact, are given to prepare God’s people for what is coming. Forewarned is forearmed they say.
As we get ready to take a closer look at the book which deals with the reasons behind persecution and suffering, can you think of other Bible passages that shed light on suffering? You might check out Hebrews 2:10, 12:1-14; 1 Peter 4:1; 2 Cor 4:17; 2 Tim 3:12 as some among many passages.
Now the book of Revelation has a real air of mystery about it. It’s full of weird imagery and most people think it’s just too difficult to bother with, what with 666 and the beast from the sea and all that. It’s strange that a book that is called “Revelation” seems to hide so much, or at least seems to complicate things.
The word “revelation” means something like “unveiling”.
Have you seen that show on TV that shows you how magicians do their magic tricks? You look at the trick and you think “How did he do that? It’s magic!” And then he shows you how and you say, “Ah now I see. It wasn’t what it seemed!” That’s what the book of Revelation is about. You look at the world around you and you see all the pain and good people suffering and you wonder what is going on, and in this book John goes behind the scenes and shows you what is really going on, so that you can go “Aha, now I understand!”
PRAYER
Our God, who has revealed himself to us, thank you for not leaving us in the dark but giving us the light of your word. Amen
Day 2
1 The revelation from 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, 2 who testifies to everything he saw – that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud 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 word ‘soon’ here means right away. “The time is near” he says in verse 3. And in 22:10 he is told not to seal up the words of this book because the time is near. The events described in Revelation are going to start happening right away. They are not a record of things that are going to happen hundreds and thousands of years into the future, but of things that were going to start happening right then. It’s not some magic book of predictions, like Nostradamus, that you have to work out the secret code for. The word used her for “he made it known” has the idea behind it of this is not an exact representation, like a photograph of heaven, this “signifies” what was really there. It’s a symbol or a sign of what is real. That is really important. When he sees Jesus with a sword sticking out of his mouth [chapter 19], that is not necessarily how Jesus walks around in heaven. It’s symbolic of Jesus words being powerful and maybe being the sword of the Spirit. And he probably does not have white hair with feet like bronze glowing in the furnace. This vision is not meant to be John’s happy snaps of heaven.
‘He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
John tells us that what he records is the word of God and the testimony of Christ. Revelation is all about Jesus. You can see that clearly borne out in chapter 19:10 where the angel says, “It is the spirit of prophesy who bears testimony to Jesus.” Prophesy, according to the Angel, is about telling people about Jesus. It is Jesus focussed. [Paul Barnett, Apocalypse Now and Then, pg40.]
John then goes on, 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud 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. John intended his writing to be read out as scripture in the churches. He intends them to take it to heart, and live by it. In chapter 22 right at the end, he also forbids any additions of subtractions from it. He sees it as God’s word. This revelation is not given to satisfy curiosity, but to inspire godly living. It’s meant to help us when we don’t understand what is going on in life – when problems overtake us and life overwhelms us. Have you thought of the book that way? In some ways it’s like the book of Job that recounts the suffering of a servant of God in order to help us see that suffering has purpose and that God is sovereign. Who’d have thought reading of the suffering and musings of one man could be so encouraging and uplifting. So was the book of Revelation recorded for us.
PRAYER
God of all comfort, thank you for your word that is a comfort for my soul and a challenge to my life. Amen
Day 3
4 John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
These churches are named in verse 11. Asia is the Roman Province of Asia, not our Asia. He prays that they will have God’s grace and peace, which is strange when he is going to tell them that things are going to get much worse than they are. He’s obviously talking about an inner peace; a calm right in the middle of life’s storms, like the eye of a cyclone.
He describes God as the one “Who is and who was and who is to come.” God is unchanging. He is in everything but also over everything. The seven spirits thing is a bit strange but it’s almost certainly a reference to the Holy Spirit [and again in 5:6]. 7 was considered a symbol for perfection, so it might be meant to signify he complete, perfect spirit of God. Or maybe it was to represent the Spirit completely present in each of the seven churches addressed.
Jesus is then described as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth now and not off in some distant future. Many see the book of Revelation as centred around a coming great battle between Christ and the evil one –the battle of Armageddon, but the book of Revelation very clearly states that the great battle between Christ and the evil one has already been fought and won. So, in 3:1 Jesus says, “He who conquers I will grant him to sit on my throne as I myself conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.” In 5:5 we read, “The lion of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered.” In 11:5 it says, “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” We read the same in Colossians 2:15 where it says that Christ triumphed over evil at the cross. The decisive battle with evil was at the cross and Jesus was completely victorious.
The message of Revelation is that Jesus rules right now. That is one of the keys to understanding this book. So why is there still suffering? We’ll see that as we work our way further into the book, but the big message of chapter 1 is that God is in control. What is more this one who is in total control is the one who loves us, present tense. 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 for ever and ever! Amen.
He is powerful and he loves us. It is often said that suffering means one of two things: either God doesn’t love us or he is not powerful enough to stop suffering, or both. The opening few verse of the book of Revelation makes the statement that God does love us and that he is in control. That means that whatever happens, there is a meaning and a purpose. If God does love us and he is all-powerful then we need to look for another explanation for suffering in the world. The book of Revelation gives that explanation.
PRAYER
Father, thank you for your immense love and your great power. Help me to trust in both of those characteristics when life is hard. Amen
Day 4
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 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.
7 ‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and ‘every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him’;
and all peoples on earth ‘will mourn because of him.’
So shall it be! Amen.
8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’
We don’t need priests to be our go-between with God, we are all now priests [v 6]. We have direct access to God. There is nothing that will be a barrier between us and our God. Then John breaks into praise. To Him be power and glory for even and ever. Amen.
You know we hear that same old same old about Jesus being our Saviour and about him dying in our place and we can get bored with it. It’s the same thing over and over again. Yet the Bible writers never tire of it. Time and time again they go over the old message and they break out into praise. Just think, one day when we stand before the Lord of the universe and the books are opened and our name is called, we will step forward, our sin will be open before all the world to see, but we will be pardoned and the whole of heaven will rejoice! That is cause for praise right now. We live in the light of that future.
Then John goes on
7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
Jesus is coming back. That will be a great day!
We will celebrate but many will mourn because they have rejected him, and it will be too late to change that. “So shall it be”, he says. It will happen!
Every eye will see him. No one will miss it. No one will be able to escape his coming. There will be no hiding from him. Elsewhere the Bible says it will be like a woman in childbirth. When the time comes and the contractions start it’s no use saying, “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to go through with this.” [1 Thess 5:3]
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Alpha is the first word of the Greek alphabet and Omega the last. God is saying, “I’m the A to Z”. I am the be all and end all. In the middle of all that is going on, the persecution and strife and trouble, God is immovable and unchanging and loving. Life is telling us one thing, but God is saying something else. John is writing to lift the curtain so that we can see what is going on behind the scenes. This life is not what it seems. There are unseen forces at work and John will go on in the rest of this letter to talk about that unseen world.
PRAYER
Lord God, in the midst of all that goes on in life, keep me always confident in your immovable power and your wonderful love. Amen
Day 5
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.’
12 I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash round his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
19 ‘Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: the seven stars are the angels[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
John now begins to tell us about his vision.
This is John, one of Jesus’ inner circle of three, and he describes himself as “a companion in suffering,” [v 9]. Patmos was a prison island the Romans used for its exiles. It was one big copper mine where the prisoners worked. His imprisonment and suffering doesn’t make him doubt that God cares. It doesn’t make him question his faith. He doesn’t throw his hands in the air and say, “It’s too hard, I give up.” He doesn’t scream “God this isn’t fair!” He just says that suffering goes with the turf. That is what living in a condemned world looks like. That is part of the message of Revelation.
We treat suffering as an abnormality, and somehow think it shouldn’t happen to us if God loves us, but John treats it as part of the package. For him it would be weird if Christians didn’t suffer. And it’s not just suffering for the gospel he’s talking about – later on he will describe plagues and natural disasters and illnesses and all sorts of things that will hit everyone.
One Sunday he gets a vision. He sees seven golden lampstands and “someone like a son of Man” walking among them. Later on in the chapter we’re told that the lampstands represent the seven churches mentioned. The one like a Son of man is Jesus. The phrase “Son of Man” was one of Jesus’ favourite descriptions of himself. It comes straight out of the book of Daniel in chapter 7.
The churches are depicted as lampstands, presumably with lamps on top. Churches are meant to hold up a light to the world. Jesus told his disciples14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
The image here is a great one. Each church is depicted as holding a light in the darkness. Each church is an outpost of heaven. It’s meant to shine Jesus out to the world.
You cannot stress the importance of the local church enough. It’s not an optional extra in the Christian walk. Meeting together is fundamental to Jesus’ plans for us. We, as a body, as a community, hold the light of Christ. And in his vision John sees Jesus walking among the lampstand churches. He’s not observing from afar. He’s not distant. He walks among us. We are under his care. Each church! There are at least three explanations about the stars but the point is Jesus’ care and control.
Can you see what this first part of the vision would communicate to a struggling persecuted church? God is telling John and John is passing the message on, “Despite how it looks, despite how you feel, despite the fact that it looks like the forces of evil are winning and life is spinning out of control, the reality is that Jesus is in control. He knows what is happening to you and what will happen to you. He has his reasons for what you are going through”, and we get the explanation later in the book.
PRAYER
Thank you, father, for the reassurance that despite how things may sometimes appear you are in absolute control and that all things work out for our good. Amen