Purpose of this book
1
📚The Revelation 📖 of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show 📖 to his servants 📖 things which must quickly 📖 take place. And he sent and signified 📖 it by his angel 📖 to his servant John, 2 📚who testified concerning the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and everything that he saw.1:2 Here the “word of God” and “testimony of Jesus Christ” refer to this book of Revelation. The Lord Jesus was the final great prophet of God – notes at Deut 18:18-19; Matt 1:1; John 7:16; Heb 1:2. In this book He continued this ministry He began on earth. It comes with His full authority.⚜
A blessing on the obedient
3 📚Blessed 📖 is he who reads the words of this prophecy 📖, and those who hear it and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is at hand 📖 📖.
Grace and peace to the churches from the Trinity
4 📚John 📖 to the seven churches 📖 which are in Asia 📖: Grace be to you, and peace 📖, from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits 📖 which are before his throne,
Christ’s love and accomplishment for believers
5 📚and from Jesus Christ 📖, who is the faithful witness 📖 and the firstborn from the dead 📖, and the ruler of the kings of the earth 📖. To him who loved us 📖, and washed us 📖 from our sins in his own blood 📖, 6 📚and has made us kings 📖 and priests 📖 to His God and Father, to him be glory 📖 and dominion forever and ever. Amen 📖.
Christ’s second coming
7 📚Look, he is coming 📖 with clouds 📖, and every eye will see him, and those also who pierced him 📖, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn 📖 because of him. Even so, Amen.
8 📚“I am the Alpha and the Omega 📖, the Beginning and the End”, says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty”.
The vision of Christ John saw
9 📚I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation 📖, and in the kingdom and patient endurance 📖 of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos 📖, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
1:9 Observe what accompanies the kingdom of the Lord Jesus in this world.⚜
10 📚I was in the Spirit 📖 on the Lord’s day 📖, and heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11 📚saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Write what you see in a book, and send it to the seven 📖 churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea”.
1:11 Note at v 4.⚜
12 📚And I turned to see the voice that spoke to me. And being turned, I saw seven golden lampstands 📖, 13 📚and in the middle of the seven lampstands someone like the Son of man 📖, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and with a golden sash 📖 tied around the chest. 14 📚His head and his hairs were white like wool 📖, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire 📖. 15 📚And his feet were like fine bronze 📖, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters 📖. 16 📚And he had seven stars 📖 in his right hand, and out of his mouth went a sharp double-edged sword 📖, and his face was like the sun 📖 shining in its strength.
What John did, what Jesus said
17 📚And when I saw him, I fell at his feet 📖 as though dead. And he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid. 📖 I am the First and the Last 📖. 18 📚I am he who lives 📖. I was dead, 📖 and, look, I am alive forever and ever 📖. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and death. 📖
19 📚“Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are now, and the things which will take place after these things.
1:19 John’s writing is in three parts:
“The things you have seen” – the vision of Christ in this chapter “The things which are now” – the conditions prevailing in the seven churches (chapters 2 and 3).
20 📚The mystery 📖 of the seven stars which 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 which you saw are the seven churches. 📖