Revelation

1.1-20

As you diligently attend to God's Word, this is what you can anticipate reading the book of Revelation: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near." “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” (Revelation 1:3; 22:7). There are 22 chapters in the final book of the New Testament. The book of Revelation is a prophecy delivered by God through a vision to the Apostle John, written most likely around 96 AD. The Word reveals divine judgments, the end times, and the ultimate triumph of God in Christ. Of the 404 verses, 278 allude to the Old Testament. How appropriate that we cannot begin to understand this final book of Scripture without a foundational understanding of the first books of Scripture. Many will avoid the book of Revelation because of the many symbolic references, claiming it to be too difficult to understand. Others will spend most of their life focusing on the prophecies of the future to the exclusion of all else. Indeed, there are mysteries within these verses (v20). But just as surely, God intends for us to understand them, as he explains the very first mysteries as soon as they are pointed out (v20). Pray for wisdom as you read these verses, and do not hesitate to seek answers to the questions you have about what you read from other believers and faithful followers of Christ and His Word. "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15.

CHAPTER 1

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John,
2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.

Message to the Seven Churches

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from the One who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—
6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
7 BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and EVERY EYE WILL SEE HIM, EVEN THOSE WHO PIERCED HIM; and all the tribes of the earth will MOURN OVER HIM. Yes, amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

The Vision of the Son of Man

9 I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the witness of Jesus.
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,
11 saying, “Write in a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.
14 And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.
15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters,
16 and having in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword which comes out of His mouth, and His face was like the sun shining in its power.
17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not fear; I am the first and the last,
18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
19 “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.
20 “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.