Introduction
Revelation 1:4-8
"John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; 5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. 8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
Last week we saw that Revelation is a prophecy and an apocalypse. Our text this morning shows us that Revelation is also a letter. It begins with a salutation in 1:4 and continues through to 22:21 where it has a closing benediction: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Have you ever thought about Revelation as a letter? Just like the other letters that make up a large part of the NT, Revelation was written to a particular group of churches in the first century. It had meaning to them, but as a part of Scripture it has been spoken to the church for the past two millennia, and it speaks to us today.
It has some unique features because after this normal salutation it quickly highlights the roles of Christ pointing the centrality of Jesus to the message of the letter. Then there are the seven small letters to the seven churches in Asia minor. Each of the small letters and the prophetic content of Revelation is for all of us. So this morning we are going to read the mail.
1. Revelation 1:4
"John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne"
John did not feel the need to include the title apostle or anything extra. He wrote Revelation simply as John. Some people are into titles. John realized as he says later that he is our brother and fellow sufferer as a witness of Jesus Christ. They knew who John was.
He writes to the seven churches in Asia. We do not know why the Lord chose these seven churches. There have been many theories. These churches were in a circular route that may have been along the mail route. They also may have been the centers around which other churches gathered. They were in the area where modern-day Turkey is. The number seven represents fullness. These churches represent the entire church at its best and its worse. Each of the churches had strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Throughout the history of the church, there have been churches like those John writes to here. Those who follow the historist approach and some futurists have attempted to interpret the churches to represent the various ways the church has looked throughout history. The problem with this is that all of these churches existed in the first century, and there have been similar churches throughout the entirety of church history.
To all of the churches and to us, he greets them with "Grace and peace." This is very similar to the greetings we find in the rest of the NT. Grace is the free gift of God's favor, unearned and undeserved. Peace (shalom; wholeness) is a result of God's grace.
This grace and peace come from One. John uses a unique name for God here. This is the same name God uses for himself in 1:8, "Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." It sounds like the name that God shared with Moses at the burning bush. Grace and peace come from the One who has always been, the Eternal One! Others may come and go, kings and kingdoms may rise and fall. The writer of Hebrew says that the universe will wear out like a garment and as a vesture, but this God is the same and His years have no end. He remains constant. The world that John was writing about was changing. The political landscape was changing. The principalities and powers in heavenly places were at war. The world we live in is shifting and changing, but John said, before we talk about any of those things, let me tell you that grace and peace are flowing towards you from the One Who is constant. He isn't going to change! You're concerned about a lot and there may be some major things ahead, but grace and peace are yours!
The seven Spirits which are before His Throne may refer to the fullness of God's Spirit as it is described in Isaiah 11. John uses this language again throughout Revelation. Seven is the number of completeness. The residing place of the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form is in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:9). The Spirit is within Him without measure (John 3:34).
2. Revelation 1:5a
"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth."
John describes God in all the multifaceted ways in which He has revealed Himself. And it finds its crescendo in Jesus Christ. Who is...
"The Faithful Witness" The word for witness is the word from which we get our word martyr. Right now in Afghanistan, there are Christians who are experiencing things like those that John's original readers were experiencing. They are being persecuted simply because they believe in Jesus. We should take a moment and just pray for them. Jesus is the Faithful Witness. Later Jesus will use this same title of Antipas, a first-century Christian who gave his life as a witness for Christ. Peter writes that "Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession" (1 Tim 6:13). Jesus led the way, laying His life down for us. Often there are moments when we want to do great things for God, and we miss the moments God gives us in everyday life to lay our lives down as a witness for Him. As a faithful witness, Pilate could find no fault in Him! As a faithful witness, He prayed for His enemies. As a faithful witness, there was no guile in His Mouth! He had a gentle answer! The churches that John was writing to were about to experience persecution and John was pointing them to Jesus as a model for how to behave. God is calling us to do the same!
"The Firstborn From the Dead" Jesus is preeminent in all things. Psalm 89:27 speaks of David and of the Messiah using these words, " I will make him my firstborn. Jesus is the model for a martyr's death, but He is also the first to arise from the dead! The resurrection has already begun. The old song, says because He lives I can face tomorrow! Paul says that if God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32). If we are alive with Jesus then one day we will reign with Him!
"The Most Exalted of the Kings of the Earth" Psalm 89:27 goes on to say that the Messiah would be the most exalted of the kings of the earth. The path to exaltation is not the path the world points to. In the second chapter of Matthew, there are wise men from the East who come and worship Jesus. They prophetically portray what will be. In the fourth chapter of Matthew, the satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He will fall down and worship Him. Jesus retorts that it is only lawful to worship God. Through the Gospel of Matthew Jesus never refuses worship and then in the closing chapter the disciples worship Jesus and He declares that all power in heaven and earth has been given to Him. The enemy was about to try to sidetrack John's first-century readers, but Jesus through John gave them this threefold epithet for Jesus to remind them that even in the hard times if you will be faithful eventually you will have all the things that this world grasps for but can never obtain!
We have such a limited view of human history and the rulers of the world. John has not yet mentioned the Roman empire or the power behind it. Before He does any of that He wants to show a portrait of the sovereign Lord!
Jesus has gone before us and led the way through death to complete victory!
3. Revelation 1:5b-6
"Unto Him, that loved us, and washed/loosed us from our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. "
"Washed/loosed us from our sins in His own Blood" There is a whole lot of Exodus imagery throughout Revelation. There are more OT allusions in Revelation than in any other NT book. John's thinking was saturated in the OT. Jesus loved/loves us. If you could get a revelation of the love of God, you could really live your life! God told the children of Israel in the Exoddus that it was no their status as a nation or their numbers, skills, or talent that caused Him to choose them, it was His love. If you want to overcome your dread and anxiety and depression, spend some time every day meditating on the love of God! His love is eternal. It transcends time. Before He created anything He knew that humanity would fail and in love He prepared a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The redemptive work of the Son is the center of the eschatological drama that unfolds in Revelation.
That Lamb, like the Passover lamb losses us from our sins. It washes us from our sins. It is the Blood of Jesus. That Blood protects and preserves and loses us! There is wonderworking power in the Blood of the Lamb! When Yahweh passed through Egypt destroying all the firstborn, those who had applied the blood found themselves loosed!
And that Blood makes us kings and priests. God called Israel to be a kingdom of priests. They were rightly afraid of the Holiness of God. And so God chose the house of Aaron and the Levites to be priests. They had to be washed in blood. They had to offer blood sacrifices continually. It was the blood that cleared them and loosed them from their sins. But, it was temporary. Every day and every year they had to offer up the sacrifices continually. But, Jesus offered Himself up once through the Eternal Spirit! He has perfected forever those that are sanctified. You are loosed! And you are free to be the royalty that God called you to be! Stop looking so deeply at your flawed past. Stop looking at the future of this planet with dread. You are somebody in Jesus. You're a royal priest. A priest's job is to intercede to God on behalf of others. God is calling us in this hour to pray for our families, our cities, our county, our state, our nation, our continent, our hemisphere, our world! A priest petitions God that the blood would loose others!
The Divinity of our Lord is again reinforced. We are kings and priests to His God and Father. We have become what we were not because He became what we were!
Before we talk about anything else, we need to talk about Who Jesus is and what He has accomplished, and what that means for us. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen!
The Taliban can't rule forever! Ceasar is not an eternal Lord! We are in the family of God!
4. Revelation 1:7
"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen."
The doxology of the redemptive work of Christ and His exaltation leads to the next thing on God's prophetic time clock, the promise of the glorious day of Christ's return, and the hope that at the end of history as we know it, He will come! These words and the vision that follows bring us back to Daniel 7, which speaks of One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds. Throughout the OT Yahweh is spoken of as coming with clouds. They are symbols of God's Presence in the Theophany at Sanai, in Solomon's temple, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus is taken up from the disciples in Acts 1. In Daniel's vision, this happens after four beasts arise out of the sea. These beasts represent the nations of the world. When Jesus comes, "every eye shall see Him." It is going to be an event that everyone will be aware of, "even those who pierced Him." John is the only one of the NT writers to use this language. It was a Roman soldier who fulfilled this prophecy from Zech 12:10 (cf. John 19:37). But, it was not only the Romans in the first century, or the Jewish leaders that pierced Him. We all stand on level ground at the foot of the cross! While Zechariah said that the house of Judah would mourn for the pierced Messiah, John says that all the nations will mourn for him. Some with bitterness and remorse as Divine judgment falls at the coming of Christ and the wrath of the Lamb. Some with repentance. Every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! It is so!
5. Revelation 1:8
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
Now, God speaks. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In 21:6 God is spoken of as "the Beginning and the End." In Hebrew, it would be the Aleph and the Tav. In English, the A to the Z. God is the sovereign Lord over everything that takes place in the entire course of human history! (Mounce). He is every letter in between and every possible combination of those letters. He is the Eternal Word that creates worlds through Divine Speech!
He repeats the title we began with. He is letting the Christians who are about to suffer persecution that He is right there with them and He is in control of what is happening. He is the Almighty. This name for God is used nine times in Revelation. He is sovereign.
There is a lot going on in our world today that could be anxiety-provoking. It seems that when things start to get back to some normalcy that there is something else that happens to provoke our fears. Covid-19, world powers shifting, governments failing.
The Almighty is here this morning and He is inviting us to lift our eyes to look towards Him.
Look away from the world for a moment with me. Let's pray.
