Next we come to the great announcement to the churches. Actually there are four announcements that we will look at in these 5 verses. There were 7 churches in Asia to which this great announcement was being made but this great announcement that is being proclaimed here is to the churches of the world. The announcement is fourfold—four announcements in one. Let’s look at these.
1. The first announcement is proclaimed in verses 4 - 5. This is the announcement to us that grace and peace are ours. READ verses 4-5.
We need to know that the church CAN experience grace and peace. Grace means the favor and blessings of God. It means that God takes an active role in our lives. He looks after us and takes care of us. He provides the beneficial things of life for us whether they are physical, material, or spiritual. We don’t deserve this grace but God loves us and so He showers us with His grace.
Peace means that we can have peace with God and with men. It means that we no longer have to feel that God is far away from us. But peace also means that God is not hovering over us just waiting for us to make a wrong move. That’s because God is not looking for the chance to condemn and punish us. He is not an evil God. God seeks peace with us.
But peace also means that men no longer have to be divided. It means that they don’t have to be fighting, stealing, and killing each other. According to this portion of Revelation, man can now have peace—peace with God and peace with each other.
So the first great announcement to the churches is that we can have grace and peace, but note where. This grace and peace is not found among men. The grace and peace come from heaven. It comes from God. And notice how God is described. God “who is and who was and who is to come.”
That means that God is eternal and He is unchangeable. He is today as He was, and He shall be the same in the ages to come. This tells us that God knows that we need His grace and His peace and He has the power to give both. All we have to do is go to Him. When we do, “. . . the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7)
So, from where do grace and peace come--the Holy Spirit of God. Note that the Holy Spirit is called the “seven spirits.” The number seven is used throughout the Bible and mean completeness, fullness, and perfection. So, “the seven spirits” means the Holy Spirit in all His fullness. It is the Spirit of God who lives within the believer in order to fill the believer with the grace and peace of God. Our duty is to continue to walk in the spirit allowing Him to fill us with the grace and peace of God and it is Jesus Christ who brought the grace and peace of God to earth. Romans 3:24 says “And are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
2. The second announcement started in verse 5 and continues into verse 6. READ. The second announcement is that Jesus Christ is the great Savior, the great Redeemer.
We see five things that are declared about Jesus Christ in these two verses.
a. Jesus is the faithful witness. He is the one Person we CAN depend on. We can trust what Jesus tells us. Jesus is revealing some things to us here in this book and He wants us to remember that what He reveals is the truth. It can be trusted.
b. Jesus is the first to arise from the dead. That is, he is the first to arise who never again had to die. And we too will arise from the dead because He arose. He conquered death. We too will conquer death if we believe that He died and arose for us.
c. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Jesus has been raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God’s throne. He has been given the seat of Sovereign rule over the earth. Jesus is in control. He is able to handle any and all of the chaotic mess here on earth. Some might ask, “Why doesn’t God go ahead and come and straighten out all this mess?” But God tells us in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” Jesus is delaying His return so that more people can be saved and live eternally with God. But some day Jesus is going to return to earth and take over the rule of the world. He alone is the ruler of the kings of the earth.
d. Jesus Christ has redeemed us. Verse 5 says “he loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.” The tense of the Greek word love is in the present tense. That means that Jesus always loves us. He loves us today just as He has in the past. We know that Jesus died for our sins. We are free from sin because of Jesus. Because of what Jesus did for us we can stand before God free and acceptable to Him.
e. Jesus Christ has exalted us. Verse 6 says he has made us a kingdom and priests. As a kingdom, we will oversee and administer the affairs of the universe for Christ throughout eternity. 2 Timothy 2:12 says, “If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us.” By priests it is meant that we have open access into God’s presence any time. We no longer need human priests or mediators. Believers themselves are made priests before God. We can offer our own prayers, praises, worship, thanksgiving, and offerings to God—all through Jesus Christ.
3. Announcement three is “Look, Christ comes.” READ verse 7. This is the theme of REVELATION. Jesus is coming again. And when he does, this verse says two things will happen.
a. Every eye will see him. The glory of God is so bright and so full of light that it actually shines brighter than the sun. You ask, “How do I know this?” Read REV. 21:23. When Jesus returns there will be a display of His glory that will surround the earth, and the reflection of His glory will be seen by every eye. Remember, too, that there will be an innumerable host of angels and believers who are accompanying Christ back to the earth. So we will see and we will know when it happens.
b. The other thing that will happen is that every person who has rejected Jesus Christ and crucified Him will mourn because of Him. This refers to all the enemies of Christ. Every person who has rebelled against Him, cursed Him, rejected Him, ignored Him, and opposed Him will mourn because of Him.
The result will be catastrophic: when men see Jesus return to earth, they will then know that He is exactly who He claimed to be: the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the Savior of the world. But note this: when Jesus returns, the idea is not that of salvation. It is that of wailing, of mourning and crying out, because of the judgment that Jesus Christ is bringing with Him. He will be returning in glory to execute justice upon all who have rejected Him and worked evil upon the earth. Here are some other verses that will give you the full picture:
Matthew 24:30
Matthew 25:31-32
Mark 8:38
2 Thessalonians 1: 7-8
Jude 14-15
4. The fourth announcement is in verse 8 of Rev. 1. READ. That announcement is Jesus Christ is the Almighty God. Three descriptions of Christ are given in this verse.
a. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last. Jesus is the beginning and the ending of all there is. He began all things and
He will end all things. Everything that exists finds its purpose, its meaning, and its significance in Him.
So we have to put our trust in Jesus Christ and cast our lives upon Him. When we do, we receive the great gift of God spoken about in verse 4. We receive the grace of God’s care and provision and the great gift of peace, and we become safe and secure for eternity.
b. The second description of Jesus is that He is the Lord who is, and who was, and who is to come. That means he, too, is eternal and unchangeable. Today He is the same Person He has always been, and He shall always be the same Person. In this, there is a great message for man.
Jesus Christ loves us all. He loves us as much as He loved those who lived when He first came to earth. His love is unchangeable but we must remember that his justice and judgment are also unchangeable. If we trust Him, we shall know His love; if we reject Him, we shall know His wrath.
c. The third description of Jesus is that Jesus Christ is the Almighty. The Greek word used here (pantokrator) means the All-Controller, the All-Ruler. He is the One who controls and rules over all things in the whole universe. This means that Jesus Christ possesses all power. He controls everything—every circumstance, event, and happening throughout the universe.
So Jesus Christ thirdly is the Almighty. This means something wonderful: no matter what a person goes through, if he belongs to Jesus, all things will be worked out for his good. Jesus Christ will control the circumstances and twist them to the good of the believer. Nothing can snatch the believer out from under the control of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38-39)
So what does all this mean to us? It means that we, as Christians, should stand tall and behave as a royal priesthood. We should anticipate a royal inheritance. We need to begin practicing for that perfected life of love and wholeness which will someday be ours. We are, here and now, children of the King, and that is how we ought to act.
Jesus Christ is King of Kings. That tells us who He is. That also tells us who we are as His followers. That tells us what we are to be about. We are His kingdom and His priests in this world and that means that we have a certain responsibility for the world that has been given to us by the exalted status that He has given us. We are not ordinary people. We are a kingdom and priests.
That is our message. Tell it to the world so that no one will mistake it. We have a King! His name is Jesus. And He has called us to be a special people in this world. We are His church, his beloved bride, His brothers and sisters, His
own elect—a kingdom and priests. Now that we know who we are, let’s go out to do what we must do—claim the world in the name of our King!
