Christ with us – walklikejesus

This is our second post in our journey through Revelation.

The letter of Revelation was a message of hope and comfort to help and correct the early church in its struggle with evil – to endure both trials and temptation in faithful witness of Christ’s coming kingdom. Although this prophecy was written for them, it is preserved for us. Therefore, everyone who reads these holy words today and hears its invitation to “behold!” will also see how Christ is near to us, is moving in us, through us and for us his Church to accomplish the culmination of his glorious kingdom. This revelation of Christ’s victory over evil in this world brings comfort and strength to endure until The End.

A note on my approach towards Revelation: In this discovery through Revelation, I will not write scholarly or critical, but rather devotional and encouraging. The posts will be like all my other posts: an attempt to read the text from the view of the first readers. How did these seven congregations make sense of this apocalyptic prophecy from their imprisoned apostle? What was the message of hope to them? For this, I will keep to the explicit nature of the book: Revelation is an apostolic letter to seven congregations in Asia Minor (1:4,11), which contained a prophecy from the Lord (1:3), in the apocalyptic genre (1:1) which is rich in symbolic images and numbers, rooted in (a) their first-century geopolitical context, and (b) Old Testament literature. If we stick with these principles, the symbolism in this remarkable book becomes alive and life-giving. (I expounded more on this in the first post in this series).

Greeting and blessing (Revelation 1:4-8)

This short greeting by John is a masterful introduction and succinct overview of the book’s message. He blesses his readers (and hearers) with grace (divine help) and peace (wellness) from the Triune God. His name for the Father “(He) who is and who was and who is to come” (1:4) takes the readers back to God’s self-revelation to Moses (Exodus 3:14) before His great deliverance from Egypt. The Spirit is titled “Seven Spirits” (1:4) from Isaiah 11:2 in that great chapter that speaks of the Messiah’s divine wisdom and righteousness by which he will destroy the oppressive nations and restore all of creation in peace. Here John says “God had delivered his people before from the tyranny you suffer, and He has promised to end this violence once for all!“

Next, John answers the question “Can Jesus save us?” with a loud “Yes, he can, and he will!” Jesus is first introduced as the “Christ” (1:5) – the long-awaited Messiah who will restore the righteous rule of God on earth. Then Jesus is hailed “the faithful witness” to a church struggling to maintain their faithful witness under brutal persecution and the seduction of a perverse society. He is held as their example who faithfully proclaimed and demonstrated God’s kingdom and eventually accomplished it by His vicarious death and resurrection: the ultimate witness of God’s Kingdom coming to earth is Jesus’ rank “Firstborn from (or over) death” (1:5). Not only does Jesus have authority over every spirit, even death, he is also “Ruler over the kings of the earth” (1:5) – good news to the readers oppressed by Emperor Domitian! These titles stirred flickers of hope to those battered congregations wondering whether Jesus is indeed the Christ who will bring righteousness and peace to the earth.

The next portion answers the question in the heart of every suffering believer: “Does God care about me?” John writes YES HE DOES! Jesus is called “Him who loved us and loves us and frees us from our sin by His own blood” (1:5). This phrase, a reference to the Cross, is a clear allusion to the Passover lambs slaughtered to deliver God’s covenant people from Egypt by judging the oppressors and preserving the Israelites (Exodus 12:21 ff). And as God adopted and honoured the delivered Hebrew slaves, these battered believers were called “kings and priests to God” (1:6, compare Exodus 19:6), sharing in his eternal reign.

“But does God not see how we suffer by the hand of our oppressors?” Yes, he does, and his Day of Judgment will come! Alluding to Zechariah 12:8-10, John writes how the Christ will defend and deliver his covenant people from their oppressors, and how he will reveal Himself in glory to those oppressors so that they will weep at his fierce judgment (1:8).

As the nature of the letter is prophecy, the greeting ends with Jesus introducing himself as “the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End who is and who was and who is to come” (1:8). For the contemporary reader of the day, the Greek alphabet was known to have each letter attributed to a major Greek god. Thus, Jesus’ self-revelation comforted his hopeless church “I am the All-powerful, Ever-living One – your covenant God and Saviour. Do not despair!”

Section 1: Christ among the Lampstands (Revelation 1:4-3:22)