Introduction

Christ “entrusted the apostle John with this book of Revelation, to deliver it to the church as a prediction of the most important events that would happen to it to the end of time.” He did this “to support the faith of his people and direct their hope.” The reason it is called Revelation is “because God reveals in it those things that could never have been sifted out by human reasoning, those deep things of God that no one knows except the Spirit of God and those to whom he reveals them.”

Revelation 1

v1-3: “Jesus Christ, as the king of his church, wished to let his church know by what rules and ways he will proceed in governing his church, and as the prophet of the church, he has revealed to us the things that will come in the future.” He chose to deliver this revelation about the future to all the members of the church through John. “These future events are shown not in the clearest light in which God could have set them but in the light that he considered most appropriate and that would best answer his wise and holy purposes.” We are blessed not only when we read this revelation ourselves but also hear it “read by others who are qualified to explain to us what they read and to lead us to understand them.”

v4-8: The Lord Jesus is the faithful witness who “was from eternity a witness to all the purposes of God, and he was in time a faithful witness to the revealed will of God,” and we can depend on his testimony. He is the firstborn from the dead, “the only one who raised himself by his own power, and who will by the same power raise up his people from their graves” to everlasting life. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth, who “receive their authority from him… and… are accountable to him.” He is “the great friend of his church and people,” willingly shedding “his own blood to purchase pardon and purity for” us. ** He will be the Judge of the world, who will come “to take vengeance on those who do not know God as well as on those who do not obey the Gospel of Christ.”

v9-16: The apostle John was “persecuted, banished… imprisoned for his faithfulness to Christ.” On the Lord’s Day, “the day that Christ set apart for himself,” he was in the Spirit, because “those who want to enjoy fellowship with God on the Lord’s Day must seek to remove their thoughts and affections from worldly things and be wholly taken up with spiritual things.” Our Lord Jesus, “the author of our salvation, revealed himself in his glory to the apostle” among the golden lampstands, “for Christ has promised to be with his churches to the end of the world, filling them with light, life, and love.”

v17-20: John “was overpowered with the greatness of the brightness and glory in which Christ appeared.” In response, He “spoke words of comfort and encouragement,” as He instructed John who He was, “His divine nature… His former sufferings… His resurrection and life.”