Rev 1:1 | KingComments | STEP | The book of Revelation is probably written around the year 90 by the evangelist and apostle John. This book is addressed to seven churches in Asia ( ) in the first place, but is also meant for the whole Christian church through the ages. Revelation has its own, unique place among the twenty seven books and letters the New Testament contains. After the five historical books and the twenty one letters in which also prophetic portions appear, the book of Revelation is in its whole a strictly prophetic book ( ). This last book of the Bible reveals our future and is in that way a nice counterpart of the first book of the Bible that declares our origin . In the book of Revelation it is about the future of the Lord Jesus. And His future determines the future of the world, of Israel, of the church and of the devil and his henchmen. In this Bible book the Lord Jesus is in the center. It is about His Person, about His redemption work, His resurrection, His glorification and His return. This book is the great terminus where all trains that have started to run in the Old Testament, reach their final destination. I haven’t checked, but someone has found, in the four hundred and four verses that make up this book, at least two hundred and seventy-eight verses that you can somehow connect to a verse or section in the Old Testament. That, of course, is not strange if you consider that Christ is also the subject of the prophecy of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we are pointed ahead to Him as the One Who is coming. In the book of Revelation He has come and as the revealed Christ He is the Center of all events. It is the book of contrasts. You will discover how the spiritual powers light and darkness and good and evil oppose each another. In the same way God and Christ and satan are opposites. Other opposites are people who are saved and people who are not saved, and also holy and unholy angels. All these persons are actors who are performing on the world stage. You will see how the stage changes and transforms from time to eternity and vice versa. The backdrop of the show is formed by heaven and earth and the abyss and the lake of fire. Everything is supported by music and songs and other expressions of feelings. The song of the victory and the ‘woe’ cry of the defeated cause happiness and also sadness. But the outcome is that God triumphs and that the glories of the Lord Jesus in both the millennial kingdom of peace and in eternity shine in undimmed and immortal beauty and splendor. There are various possibilities to subdivide this book. The simplest and clearest one is supplied in the book itself, in Revelation 1 ( ). It is a subdivision in three parts: 1. the things which you have seen (Revelation 1:1-20), 2. the things which are (Revelation 2:1-3:22) and 3. the things which will take place after these things (Revelation 4:1-22:21). . The first word of the book, “revelation”, indicates that something is about to be unveiled. There is something to be made known which formerly was hidden. It is therefore remarkable that to many Christians this book is incomprehensible and mysterious. I do not claim that everything is easy to explain, but I do say that the events in this book are not obscure, but are made clear. The veil over the future is taken away. You shall indeed have to make efforts to figure out in which way the future is clarified here. Many symbols, for example, are used. But your attempts to also understand this part of God’s Word will be doubly rewarded if you continually remind yourself that God finds this the best way to communicate to you His thoughts about the future. If you only read this first verse carefully and allow that to sink in, you will see that it is full of instructions for understanding the contents of this book. It says that it is the revelation “of Jesus Christ”. That means that Jesus Christ is the One, Who reveals or makes known (cf. ). He acts. At the same time it is of course also true that the revelation refers to Him, which means that He is the One Who is revealed. He is both the Center and the Executor of God’s counsels. Then you read that “God gave Him” that revelation. That means that the Lord Jesus is seen here as Man, Who has taken a place of dependence. He receives everything out of the hands of God. He is so truly Man, that it is written of Him that He as Man does not know when the fulfillments of the things will take place ( ). Here you stand before the inconceivable mystery of God and Man in one Person. Then John writes about the purpose of the revelation and that is “to show His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place”. The bond-servants here are in the first place the prophets ( ), but they also represent the believers in a general sense ( ; ). To be able to see the future things and to take them in, you need the mind of a bond-servant. Conversely, knowing the things to come will make you a better slave. You will be serving with insight in accordance to the great plans of God, with a view to the church, professing Christianity, Israel and the world. The word “show” plays an important role in the book of Revelation. God continually ‘shows’ things to John, and John in his turn passes on what has been ‘shown’ to him. The aim of this book is to show that the judgment is coming. It must “soon” take place or ‘in a hurry’, which is rapidly, quickly. You may say that it is not that soon, for it is nearly two thousand years ago that this has been written down and it still has not happened. But don’t be mistaken. This word remains in force, for time doesn’t count for God and for faith ( ; ). And it “must” happen. You may say that there is mention here of a Divine must. God is not only the omniscient God Who tells what is going to happen, He is also the omnipotent God Who makes things happen the way He wants. To make known His plans with the world and most of all to reveal His Son, He has used angels. Angels have been used more often by God as mediators ( ; ). The fact that God uses angels indicates that there is a distance between Him and John to whom He gives His messages. This goes even more for those to whom John in his turn has to pass on those messages. Formerly John received messages from the Lord while he was reclining on His bosom ( ). That indicates confidentiality. However, John is not apostle here, but prophet. Prophets speak to God’s people when decay takes place. They warn for of the judgment that is imminent. John is the last one in the chain of five links through which the revelation of God reaches His bond-servants: 1. the revelation is from God; 2. comes of Jesus Christ; 3. by His angel; 4. to John; 5. to His bond-servants. The revelation was “communicated” or “signified” (NKJV) to John. This expression “signified” is typical for this book. It is derived from the word ‘sign’. John often receives the messages on the things to come by the means of signs or symbols, through which he gets to see what must take place. Something like that we see in Matthew 13 where the Lord makes use of parables. He uses them to teach. He tells His disciples why He does that and says that through His explanation they will be able to understand the deeper meaning of these parables, while it will remain hidden for the mass of people ( ). In this book you will see that the symbols which are used especially are borrowed from nature: celestial bodies – the sun, the moon, the stars; the natural phenomena, such as wind, lightning; the world of plants, such as trees, grass; the world of animals, such as lamb, the grasshopper; the world of men, such as mother and child, harlot and bride; the world of culture, such as musical instruments; agricultural tools. Also the many numbers used in this book are often symbolic: two, three, three and a half, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve, twenty-four, forty-two, one hundred and forty four, six hundred and sixty six, one thousand, twelve hundred and sixty, sixteen hundred. Its explanation is not left to your imagination. The symbols are explained 1. by the book itself, 2. by the context of the book and 3. by the use of it in the Old Testament. That does not mean that there is always one unambiguous explanation for each symbol. It also happens that certain matters or events are no symbols, but that they must be taken literally. All in all, by opening this book to read it we stand at the beginning of an exciting discovery journey. Let us do that with the humble mind of people who are aware that the omnipotent God wants to share His plans with us. Let us at the same time pray that what He reveals to us will have the effect that we put our life at His disposal. Now read Revelation 1:1 again. Reflection: Thank the Lord that He wants to involve you in His future plans and ask Him to help you to live in accordance with them.

‏ Revelation of John 1:1

Introduction

The book of Revelation is probably written around the year 90 by the evangelist and apostle John. This book is addressed to seven churches in Asia (Rev 1:11) in the first place, but is also meant for the whole Christian church through the ages.

Revelation has its own, unique place among the twenty seven books and letters the New Testament contains. After the five historical books and the twenty one letters in which also prophetic portions appear, the book of Revelation is in its whole a strictly prophetic book (Rev 1:3). This last book of the Bible reveals our future and is in that way a nice counterpart of the first book of the Bible that declares our origin.

In the book of Revelation it is about the future of the Lord Jesus. And His future determines the future of the world, of Israel, of the church and of the devil and his henchmen. In this Bible book the Lord Jesus is in the center. It is about His Person, about His redemption work, His resurrection, His glorification and His return.

This book is the great terminus where all trains that have started to run in the Old Testament, reach their final destination. I haven’t checked, but someone has found, in the four hundred and four verses that make up this book, at least two hundred and seventy-eight verses that you can somehow connect to a verse or section in the Old Testament. That, of course, is not strange if you consider that Christ is also the subject of the prophecy of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we are pointed ahead to Him as the One Who is coming. In the book of Revelation He has come and as the revealed Christ He is the Center of all events.

It is the book of contrasts. You will discover how the spiritual powers light and darkness and good and evil oppose each another. In the same way God and Christ and satan are opposites. Other opposites are people who are saved and people who are not saved, and also holy and unholy angels. All these persons are actors who are performing on the world stage. You will see how the stage changes and transforms from time to eternity and vice versa. The backdrop of the show is formed by heaven and earth and the abyss and the lake of fire.

Everything is supported by music and songs and other expressions of feelings. The song of the victory and the ‘woe’ cry of the defeated cause happiness and also sadness. But the outcome is that God triumphs and that the glories of the Lord Jesus in both the millennial kingdom of peace and in eternity shine in undimmed and immortal beauty and splendor.

There are various possibilities to subdivide this book. The simplest and clearest one is supplied in the book itself, in Revelation 1 (Rev 1:19). It is a subdivision in three parts:

1. the things which you have seen (Revelation 1:1-20),

2. the things which are (Revelation 2:1-3:22) and

3. the things which will take place after these things (Revelation 4:1-22:21).

Purpose of the Book

Rev 1:1. The first word of the book, “revelation”, indicates that something is about to be unveiled. There is something to be made known which formerly was hidden. It is therefore remarkable that to many Christians this book is incomprehensible and mysterious. I do not claim that everything is easy to explain, but I do say that the events in this book are not obscure, but are made clear. The veil over the future is taken away.

You shall indeed have to make efforts to figure out in which way the future is clarified here. Many symbols, for example, are used. But your attempts to also understand this part of God’s Word will be doubly rewarded if you continually remind yourself that God finds this the best way to communicate to you His thoughts about the future.

If you only read this first verse carefully and allow that to sink in, you will see that it is full of instructions for understanding the contents of this book. It says that it is the revelation “of Jesus Christ”. That means that Jesus Christ is the One, Who reveals or makes known (cf. Gal 1:12). He acts. At the same time it is of course also true that the revelation refers to Him, which means that He is the One Who is revealed. He is both the Center and the Executor of God’s counsels.

Then you read that “God gave Him” that revelation. That means that the Lord Jesus is seen here as Man, Who has taken a place of dependence. He receives everything out of the hands of God. He is so truly Man, that it is written of Him that He as Man does not know when the fulfillments of the things will take place (Mk 13:32). Here you stand before the inconceivable mystery of God and Man in one Person.

Then John writes about the purpose of the revelation and that is “to show His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place”. The bond-servants here are in the first place the prophets (Rev 10:7 ; Rev 11:18), but they also represent the believers in a general sense (Rev 7:3 ; Rev 19:5 ; Rev 22:3; Rom 6:19-22). To be able to see the future things and to take them in, you need the mind of a bond-servant. Conversely, knowing the things to come will make you a better slave. You will be serving with insight in accordance to the great plans of God, with a view to the church, professing Christianity, Israel and the world.

The word “show” plays an important role in the book of Revelation. God continually ‘shows’ things to John, and John in his turn passes on what has been ‘shown’ to him. The aim of this book is to show that the judgment is coming. It must “soon” take place or ‘in a hurry’, which is rapidly, quickly.

You may say that it is not that soon, for it is nearly two thousand years ago that this has been written down and it still has not happened. But don’t be mistaken. This word remains in force, for time doesn’t count for God and for faith (Psa 90:4; 2Pet 3:8). And it “must” happen. You may say that there is mention here of a Divine must. God is not only the omniscient God Who tells what is going to happen, He is also the omnipotent God Who makes things happen the way He wants.

To make known His plans with the world and most of all to reveal His Son, He has used angels. Angels have been used more often by God as mediators (Acts 7:38; Gal 3:19). The fact that God uses angels indicates that there is a distance between Him and John to whom He gives His messages. This goes even more for those to whom John in his turn has to pass on those messages.

Formerly John received messages from the Lord while he was reclining on His bosom (Jn 13:23-26). That indicates confidentiality. However, John is not apostle here, but prophet. Prophets speak to God’s people when decay takes place. They warn for of the judgment that is imminent. John is the last one in the chain of five links through which the revelation of God reaches His bond-servants:

1. the revelation is from God;

2. comes of Jesus Christ;

3. by His angel;

4. to John;

5. to His bond-servants.

The revelation was “communicated” or “signified” (NKJV) to John. This expression “signified” is typical for this book. It is derived from the word ‘sign’. John often receives the messages on the things to come by the means of signs or symbols, through which he gets to see what must take place. Something like that we see in Matthew 13 where the Lord makes use of parables. He uses them to teach. He tells His disciples why He does that and says that through His explanation they will be able to understand the deeper meaning of these parables, while it will remain hidden for the mass of people (Mt 13:10-17 ; 34-35).

In this book you will see that the symbols which are used especially are borrowed from nature:

celestial bodies – the sun, the moon, the stars;

the natural phenomena, such as wind, lightning;

the world of plants, such as trees, grass;

the world of animals, such as lamb, the grasshopper;

the world of men, such as mother and child, harlot and bride;

the world of culture, such as musical instruments;

agricultural tools.

Also the many numbers used in this book are often symbolic: two, three, three and a half, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, twelve, twenty-four, forty-two, one hundred and forty four, six hundred and sixty six, one thousand, twelve hundred and sixty, sixteen hundred.

Its explanation is not left to your imagination. The symbols are explained

1. by the book itself,

2. by the context of the book and

3. by the use of it in the Old Testament.

That does not mean that there is always one unambiguous explanation for each symbol. It also happens that certain matters or events are no symbols, but that they must be taken literally.

All in all, by opening this book to read it we stand at the beginning of an exciting discovery journey. Let us do that with the humble mind of people who are aware that the omnipotent God wants to share His plans with us. Let us at the same time pray that what He reveals to us will have the effect that we put our life at His disposal.

Now read Revelation 1:1 again.

Reflection: Thank the Lord that He wants to involve you in His future plans and ask Him to help you to live in accordance with them.