The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Why do the followers of the Lamb need to know this? Imagine hearing Revelation read aloud as a believer in one of the seven churches of Asia. You live under the authority of Rome, surrounded by competing religious claims and increasing pressure to accommodate yourself to the values of the surrounding world. Before you are shown beasts, judgements, Babylon, persecution or the New Jerusalem, you are given something far more important: a revelation of Jesus Christ. Believers need to know that the Jesus they follow is not merely a figure from the past. He is “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5). Earthly rulers may exercise considerable power, but none possesses ultimate authority. Jesus does. Knowing this enables His followers to give Him their highest allegiance, even when obedience to Christ conflicts with the expectations of the world around them. They also need to remember what Jesus has already done for them. He is the One “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” and has made His people “a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (1:5–6). One of the most important things they need to understand is Jesus’ relationship with them (Rev. 1:5). Given their circumstances, it would be easy to imagine: “God doesn’t love me. If He did, He wouldn’t let these things happen to me.” Revelation begins by assuring them otherwise. They need to know: • Jesus loves me/us—present tense—with an unbreakable love (Rom. 8:35–39). • Jesus has freed me/us from my/our sins—past tense. • He did so at the cost of His own blood: by shedding his blood for me/us (Rev. 1:5; 5:9). Knowing this enables them to interpret their painful circumstances in the light of God's character, promises and purposes, rather than interpreting God's character through their circumstances. Their identity, therefore, is not determined by their social standing, political influence, prosperity or suffering. They are loved, redeemed, and given a place and purpose in God’s kingdom. Knowing who they are because of Christ enables them to live as His people in a world that pressures them to become something else. John himself embodies the kind of discipleship Revelation will require. He describes himself as their “brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus” (1:9). Followers of Jesus should therefore not interpret suffering as evidence that something has gone wrong. Until the kingdom is openly established, suffering, kingdom and patient endurance belong together. Knowing this prepares believers to remain faithful when following Jesus becomes costly. Then John sees the glorified Christ walking among the seven golden lampstands. Jesus is not distant from His churches. He stands among them. His eyes are like blazing fire; He sees and knows the true condition of His people. He holds the seven stars in His right hand (1:16, 20). Before the churches hear His commendations, warnings and corrections in Chapters 2–3, they need to know that they live under the searching gaze and sovereign care of the risen Christ. The appearance of Jesus also transforms their understanding of fear and death. John falls at His feet as though dead, but Jesus places His right hand upon him and says, “Do not be afraid” (1:17). He is “the First and the Last” and “the Living One”. He was dead, but now He is alive for ever and ever, and He holds “the keys of death and Hades” (1:17–18). Believers facing the possibility of persecution and death therefore need to know that death does not possess the final authority over them—Jesus does. They are also told from the beginning where history is going: “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” (1:7). The Jesus whom the world may presently ignore, reject or oppose will one day be universally revealed. His followers therefore live between what He has already accomplished and what He will openly accomplish when He comes. This means that Revelation's blessing is intensely practical: “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” (1:3). Revelation is not given merely to be understood. It is given to be heard, taken to heart, and lived. The followers of Jesus are told these things so that earthly powers will not command their ultimate allegiance, suffering will not persuade them that Christ has abandoned them, death will not have the final word over them, and the pressures of the surrounding world will not determine who they become. Knowing that Jesus loves and has redeemed them, walks among His churches, sees their true condition, rules over earthly kings, holds the keys of death and Hades, and is coming again enables them to worship, endure, obey, bear faithful witness, and live every day under the lordship of the risen Christ. Revelation begins not by showing us what will happen but by showing us the One who holds everything that will happen in His hands.