The Book Of Revelation (Revelation 1)

Did you know God promised you a blessing as you study this book in the Bible.

Look at Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand.

• Notice, the book of Revelation begins with a blessing, chapter 1 verse 3, “Blessed is he that readeth…”

• It ends with a blessing, chapter 22 verse 7, “…blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.”

It is the only book in the Bible that begins and ends with a promise of blessing to the one who reads.

It is the first book that many new converts want to read while it is often neglected by older Christians.

Revelation is certainly different from other books of the New Testament.

Many preachers have concluded the book of revelation is a very mysterious book of the Bible and they do not even attempt to teach it.

The word "revelation" in the Greek is apokalupsis, which means "an uncovering" or "unveiling."

Part of the challenge in understanding the book of revelation is that it is written in a style not familiar to modern man. It is an example of what is called "apocalyptic literature" which was quite popular from 200 B.C. to 200 A.D.

There are other examples of apocalyptic literature in the Bible. In the Old Testament, for example, the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah each contain elements of this style of writing.

The book of Revelation is about the revealing of Jesus Christ. We’re going to learn things about Jesus Christ in this book that we wouldn’t know if it weren’t for this book.

God wanted to reveal Jesus Christ in His full glory. And so, he sent the message about this with an angel who delivered it to John and now John is delivering it to the seven churches and to us as well.

Verse 2 says John wrote it down, “He bore witness of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.”

• So, in verse 1, God sets out to reveal the revelation of Jesus Christ.

• In verse 2, John takes the responsibility to write down that revelation,

• In verse 3 it says, “Blessed is the one who reads this book

We need to look at the closing of verse 3 we read these words, “for the time is at hand.” That’s not related necessarily, to time itself, but more to the sequence of events. That is, these things that John will tells us in the Book of Revelation are the next things on God’s calendar of events.

Before we get into the teachings of chapter one we first need to take a few minutes and consider…

I. THE AUTHOR

The apostle John was the writer and the youngest disciple of the twelve disciples of Jesus who became an apostle of the church.

Apart from the Book of Revelation, John has written other Bible books such as: Gospel of John, I John, II John, Third John but the Book of Revelation is the last book he wrote around 96 AD.

At this time, John was the leader of the Church and the only remaining disciple of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ who were alive, others having been persecuted and killed by the Roman Empire, except Judas Iscariot who killed himself after betraying Jesus.

John was about 100 years old when Titus Domitian came to power and ordered the Apostle John to be banished on an island called Patmos to die there.

Patmos is a Greek island. At this time of the Apostle John, the island had no vegetation, very rocky, and people were banished there by the Roman Empire to die. The island was about 10 miles long and 6 miles wide.

But God preserved John in Patmos and in this isolation God appeared to Apostle John and gave him the Revelation of Jesus Christ (The Book of Revelation).

John survived in Patmos until Titus Domitian died and the next Roman Emperor who came to power allowed John to come out of Patmos. And he came out with the Book of Revelation.

We have a good idea of who John is but now let us look at the…

II. THE OUTLINE

(1) Chapter one deals with things which John was seeing.

Verses 1 and 2 speaks about “The things which are”.…(present tense)

(2) Chapter two and three

Deals with (the church age). Realize that when John was being presented with this Book in Patmos, he was living in the Church age which we are in today.

WHEN DID THE CHURCH AGE START?

The church began on the Day of Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover when Jesus died and rose again.