Welcome to my meditations on the Book of Revelation. Because I need to increase the level and breadth of spiritual discipline in my life and because I hope others might find it helpful, I plan to work through the book of Revelation as I try to move deeper in my understanding of Christ and Him crucified. I imagine other reasons, other benefits will make themselves known as God makes Himself known through His living Word, “for the time is at hand”.
Well, the Thanksgiving holiday is over for this year, though we hope the spirit of thankfulness to God for his many blessings continues and sustains us in the days to come. Time to return to my comments on the apocalypse, the book of Revelation. We’ll pick up with the apostle John’s salutation to the “seven” churches.
The blessing of this prophecy is in the “testimony of Jesus” which the speaker and reader receive. For the content of the apocalypse, what is read, heard, and kept is the gospel of Christ. We have a short summary of the blessing in the three verses that follow vs. 3. As we move further into the book we will look closer at these elements of grace.
“…to all things that he saw…” John left nothing out of the revelation given him from Christ. Nor did he add to it (Rev. 22.18-19). He was faithful in his testimony as his Master was in his. We can trust the eye witness of John the Revelator for it is the God-breathed “testimony of Jesus” given especially for those who would live in the “time of the end” (Dan. 12.9), “for the time is near” (Rev. 1.3).
“…the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ…” > In the broadest sense, this pregnant phrase describes the content of the Apocalypse, including the Old Testament scriptures (the word of God) and the New Testament “testimony”, the New Covenant revelation of and from Jesus Christ. In one sense, it is a summary of the whole of God’s self-revelation through his prophets, for the testimony of Jesus “is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19.10). In another sense, it is the message of unfolding history from Genesis to Revelation, the everlasting gospel of the everlasting covenant.
“…bore witness…” John presents himself to us as a witness. This word, this idea, is central to his thinking, not only in the book of Revelation, but in all of his writing. In what we call the Gospel of John he uses the original Greek word more than ninety times. Here, in this book, he will take the word to new heights, investing it with a meaning that would change the word forever.
“To show“…The New King James renders “show” with the Word “signify”, a closer meaning to the original Greek word, accenting the revelation through symbols. The chain of revelation has come from the Father, through Christ, to his angels, down to his bond-servant, John, who then delivers what has been “signified” to him to the seven churches that are in Asia.
Updated on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 by
Jan McKenzie
“…the things which must soon take place…” If we combine this phrase with 1.19; 4.1 and 22.6 we find a link with Daniel 2.28,29,45. (According to G.K. Beale in his commentary on Revelation, the link is supported in the grammar of the original language). For us lesser lights, the theological linkage is evident through the context of God’s act in revelation, in these two expressly apocalyptic forms of prophecy. Since the later portions of the book of Revelation draw explicitly on Daniel (see Rev. 13) and other less explicit allusions abound, this early echo should not surprise us.
“His bond-servants”…God’s identifying marker for this covenant people, bond-servants of God through their union with Him in Christ. The church of Christ is also the church of the cross, identified through through sacrifice in Christ as Christ was identified as the true Messiah through his suffering for humanity’s sin.
“God gave him”….This phrase introduces a thought about the nature of God’s revelation to us, about the role of his Son in relation to the Father, something about the doctrine of the Trinity.
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him…”. The book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, comes from Jesus Christ and is about Jesus Christ. We see this truth reflected in the opening words of the Apocalypse, in a phrase that at first seems ambiguous, “the revelation of Jesus Christ”. It is the little word “of” that stretches our meaning to include a message both from Him and about Him.
I’d like to offer Dr. John Paulien’s outline for the book of Revelation. For more, here is the link to his website, The Battle of Armageddon. You can also find him here on Facebook.
I will be adding an Introduction to the book of Revelation, hopefully in the near future, concentrating on the principles of interpretation.
