Revelation Commentary – Introduction to
the book of Revelation Verses 1:1 through 1:20

page l 1 l 2 l 3 l

- 3 -

 

Billions of people will be slaughtered.

 

Revelation 19:19   Then I saw the beast and the Kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army.

 

Revelation 19:20   But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

 

Revelation 19:21   The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.”

 

The surviving saints will tremble at the power and majesty of Jesus as the Jews did at the foot of Mt Sinai! Do you remember these words – spoken at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus?

 

Matthew 26:63   But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

 

Matthew 26:64   “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 

Matthew 26:65   Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.”

 

Now, look again at this verse:

 

Revelation 1:7   Look, he (Jesus) is coming with the clouds (of angels), and every eye will see him(as Earth rotates beneath His appearing), even those who pierced him (will be resurrected to behold the Second Coming); and all the peoples of the earth will mourn (suffer anguish) because of him. So shall it be. Amen.

 

I wonder what these men will think when they are awaken from their sleep to behold Jesus as He really is? Incidentally: What would be the point of resurrecting those wicked men to see Jesus come in clouds of glory if, as many people believe, they were already burning in Hell?

 

Continuing:

 

Revelation 1:8   “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and is to come, the Almighty.

 

Revelation 1:8   “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says (Jesus, who is) the Lord God, “who is (alive), and who was (alive through ages past), and who through the ages), is to come, the Almighty (who spoke to Abraham and Moses).”   

 

Two points:

Did you notice that John uses the same language in verse 8 to describe the eternal existence of Jesus that he used in verse 4 to describe the eternal existence of the Father?

 

Revelation 1:4   “…from him (the Father) who is (alive), and who was (alive through all past ages past), and who is (alive through all ages) to come, and from the seven spirits (angels that stand) before his throne.”

Good point to remember: Jesus is co-eternal with the Father. Contrary to what some claim, I believe the Bible teaches that Jesus was not created by the Father.

 

Second, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. This expression comes from the Greek alphabet. The first character is alpha and the last character is omega – the beginning and end. Jesus declares a profound truth about Himself. He was not created. He was in the beginning and He will be present at the end. He is eternal.

 

Genesis 17:1   When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I amGod Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.”

 

Exodus 6:2  God also said to Moses, “I am the Lord.

 

Exodus 6:3   I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.”

 

Revelation 1:8   Jesus declares: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty – the omnipotent One.”

 

Continuing:

 

Revelation 1:9   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.

 

Revelation 1:10   On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

 

Revelation 1:11   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.”

 

Now, with a few inserted words:

 

Revelation 1:9   I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patent endurance that are our in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God (the Scriptures / compare with v2) and the testimony of Jesus (the words of Jesus).

 

Revelation 1:10   On the Lord’s Day (the seventh-day Sabbath) I was (taken away from the physical world) in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

 

Revelation 1:11   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.”  

 

 

Commentary:

 

“The Lord’s Day”

 

When John wrote the book of Revelation in A.D. 95, the Jews were hated and despised by the Romans. Twenty-five years earlier, Jerusalem had been destroyed and the Romans were well aware of “the Jewish Sabbath.”

 

Prior to 45 B.C., the Romans did not celebrate one day of the week as a special holy day. At that time, the Romans were polytheistic; they worshiped some 300 different gods. However, Mithraism was brought to Rome around 45 B.C. (the time of Julius Caesar), and worshipers of the invincible sun god Mithra, observed Sunday – the first day of the week, as the day of the Sun, the first day of enlightenment. (They didn’t care that the weekly cycle was started at Creation and the Sun was created on the fourth day of the week, but that is another matter.)

 

Strange as it may sound, Mithraism was very similar in many ways to Christianity even though Mithraism began in the East a couple of centuries before Jesus was born. I think it is possible that the devil anticipated the ministry of Jesus and begun preparing a counterfeit of Christianity two hundred years before Jesus was born. 

 

For what it’s worth, the birthday of Mithra was said to be December 25. In the fourth century A.D., the Christian Church at Rome announced that Jesus was to be born on December 25 in an effort to eclipse the popular holiday that was associated with Mithra’s birthday. So, about 150 years later after the introduction of Mithraism in the empire of Rome, John was exiled on Patmos and Mithraism was a popular religion in Rome and similar to Christianity in many ways.

 

One more aside….

Around A.D. 274 the Roman emperor Aurelian proclaimed Mithraism the official state religion. A few years later, emperor Constantine reversed Aurelian’s state religion and made Christianity the state religion.

 

These things are important to know because Sunday had become a well-respected holiday and the worshipers of Mithra were pleased, and the working people were blessed. Sunday became a day of rest in Rome before Jesus began His ministry on Earth! Because the early Christians as Jews (Christians were thought to merely be a sect of the Jews) – And the Jews hated the Christians because Christians were destroying the pillars of Judaism, there was a three-way hostile tension between Romans, Jews and Christians.

 

I am putting this on the table because the term, “the Lord’s Day” is used only once in Scripture. However, there is historical evidence that it was also used by early Christians. Why? Early Christians used the term the “the Lord’s Day” to distinguish their observance of the seventh-day Sabbath from that of the “despised Jewish Sabbath.” Because the Romans hated the Jews with a passion, early Christians tried to put as much separation between themselves and Jews as possible. Thus, the seventh-day Sabbath was frequently called, “The Lord’s Day.”

 

Why was this term selected?

 

One Sabbath, Jesus and His disciples were walking through a ripened grain field. Some of the disciples gathered up some grain in their hands as they walked along so they could eat.

 

Mark 2:24   The Pharisees said to him (Jesus), “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?

 

(Actually, the actions of the disciples was not unlawful, but the Pharisees declared it unlawful because they had badly distorted the fourth commandment.)

 

So, Jesus used a well-known story to make a point:

 

Mark 2:25   He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

 

 Mark 2:26   In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat.

 

The response of Jesus was powerful. The Jews could not answer Him.

 

The Pharisees would not condemn David for eating the sacred bread because David had already been chosen and anointed as Israel’s king when he took the bread and ate it. In other words, by right of his ordination and the circumstances, David did not incur guilt when he ate the holy bread!   

 

Then, Jesus said,

 

Mark 2:27   Then He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

 

Mark 2:28 (I am the One who did not punish David, I am the One who made the Sabbath holy, and I tell you) So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. (As Creator and Owner of the Sabbath, I define what is proper on the Sabbath.)“This is the meaning of “Lord even of the Sabbath.”

 

 The words of Jesus were used by early Christians to defend themselves against doing the things that Jews did or did not do on Sabbath. The Lord’s Day and the Jewish Sabbath, even though they were the same day, they were observed in different ways. The Jewish Sabbath required attendance at a synagogue.

 

Worship on the Lord’s Day did not require attendance at a synagogue, but Paul encouraged those who kept the Lord’s Day to not forsake assembling together because Christians need each other and they need to worship with each other.

 

So, “the Sabbath of the Jews” became known as “The Lord’s Day” to Christians. Around A.D. 150, Christian’s converts from Mithraism began to observe Sunday in Rome as a convenient day for worship and they appropriated the title “the Lord’s Day” to Sunday. That’s how the transition from Sabbath to Sunday started and the rest is history.  

 

Continuing:

Revelation 1:12   I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

 

Revelation 1:13   and among the lampstands was someone ‘like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.

 

Revelation 1:14   His head and hair were while as wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 

 

Revelation 1:15   His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.     

 

Revelation 1:16   In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

 

Three comments should be made about the appearance of Jesus:

 

1.   A glorious appearance – white hair, glowing feet, eyes on fire, a powerful voice, face as bright as the Sun, wearing a golden sash. Jesus did not look like this when He lived on Earth because He came to teach us about the character of God, not the glory of God. Obviously, the glory of Jesus was strangely familiar to John. He had briefly seen the glory of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah.

 

2.   The seven stars in His right hand. These seven stars represent the seven angels who stand at attention before God’s throne. These angels are ready to execute anything commanded. The location of these stars “in the right hand” indicates that they are powerful. These angels are at His “right hand.” They immediately to whatever He commands – and this brings us to the sword….

 

3.   John saw a double edge sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus. This means that Jesus has power over life and death. He is Sovereign. He speaks and people live. He speaks and people die. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation 19:21)

 

The appearance of Jesus in this vision is telling. Jesus has been given great power.

 

 

Continuing:

Revelation 1:17   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 (eternal) the First and the Last (the Alpha and the Omega of everything that exists).

 

Revelation 1:18   I am the living One, I (Jesus, a co-eternal member of the Godhead) was dead (for a few days), and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold (have authority) the keys of death and Hades (grave).

 

Revelation 1:19   “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.

 

Revelation 1:20   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 of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

 

Two interesting points:

Each of the seven angels was assigned to a church. This will prove interesting in our next study. Also, keep in mind that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches. This symbolism is very helpful. What was the purpose of the seven churches? Before answering this question, compare Christianity with the purpose given to Israel:

 

Acts 13:46   Then Paul and Barnabas answered them (the Jews) boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.

 

 Acts 13:47   For this is what the Lord had commanded us (believers in Christ): “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that  you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.”

 

Acts 13:48   When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”

 

The seven churches are represented as seven candlesticks because they had become the light of the world!

 

End Text:

page l 1 l 2 l 3 l

- 3 -

[TOP]