THE GREETING AND THEME OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Revelation 1:4-8
As taught by Dave Lindstrom
I. The amazingly deep greeting in the book of Revelation (Rev. 1:4-6).
A. John writes to not just one church but to seven churches in Asia Minor (modern day western Turkey). This message of Revelation was very important and ultimately was for every local church for the last almost 2,000 years of church history (verse 4a).
B. As with most New Testament letters or books, it starts off with a greeting from the writer and a greeting from Yahweh (verses 4b-5a).
1. Grace (Yahweh’s unmerited favor) and peace (Yahweh’s Shalom) bestowed upon the seven churches (and all future churches). These ultimately can be given only through belief in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection (verse 4b; Rom. 1:7, 5:1-5).
2. This comes from Yahweh who has revealed Himself as Father, Spirit, and Son (verses 4c-6).
a. Yahweh Father is He who is, was, and is to come. This is very closely related to Yahweh’s name (the “I am who I am”) (Ex. 3:14).
b. Yahweh Spirit is represented as the seven spirits before the throne, a reference to the Holy Spirit from the book of Zechariah (Zech. 4:1-10; Rev. 4:5).
c. Yahweh Son (Jesus Christ) is last in this list because the whole book is about Him including His work in redemption, His work among the churches, His judgments, and His coming in His glory to set up His earthly and eternal kingdom (verse 5a).
C. Jesus Christ is described for us with three of His titles and three of His works (verses 5b-6).
1. Title #1 – He is the faithful witness. He is the one who will faithfully speak out Yahweh’s plans of redemption and kingdom for eternity (as the prophesied Messiah and Son of David (2 Sam. 7:8-16; Ps. 89:36, 37; Daniel 9:26a; Isa. 52:13 – 53:12).
2. Title #2 – He is the firstborn from the dead. He is the highest in preeminence (the Hebrew-Greek idea of firstborn) as well as the first to rise from the dead with a new body (Psalms 89:27; Acts 2:29-36; Col. 1:18;
I Cor. 15:23).
3. Title #3 – He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He will ultimately prove Himself to be this earthly king and the eternal King! (Psalms 89:27;
Dan. 7:13, 14; Rev. 19:16).
4. Work #1 – He presently loves us as members of His church body
(Hebrews 13:5, 6, 8).
5. Work #2 – In the past, He has freed us from our sins by His blood
(Romans 3:21-26).
6. Work #3 – He has made all of His believers part of His Kingdom and Priesthood now, but these will be fully realized at His second coming
(Dan. 12:33, Ex. 19:6; Rev. 20:6).
7. Jesus Christ deserves to receive glory (“doxa”) from all of His creation but especially from His people (Isa. 45:23; Phil. 2:10, 11). He deserves the authority and power to rule throughout all the ages (eternity)
(Matt. 25:31-34). May the truth of this statement be affirmed! So be it! Amen (“be firm”)!
THOUGHT: Which title or work of Jesus Christ brought you deeper into Yahweh’s presence today? Let’s make sure and bring a fresh offering of praise to Him for this.
II. The ultimate theme in the book of Revelation is the coming glorified Christ to rule and reign on this earth and throughout eternity (verses 7, 8).
A. The prophecy of verse 7 comes from a combination of two Old Testament Scriptures found in Daniel 7:13, 14 and Zechariah 12:10.
B. Besides these Old Testament passages, Jesus and the New Testament writers prophesied the same thing (Matt. 11:2, 24:3, 30, 31; Acts 1:3, 6, 11; 2 Thes. 2:1, 8).
C. There are seven places in the book of Revelation where Christ Himself tells of His coming (Rev. 2:5, 16; 3:11; 16:15; 22:7, 12, 20).
D. Christ will return in the sky with the clouds. This could be real clouds or/and His Saints (Dan. 7:13, 18, 27; Rev. 19:14).
E. At His return, every eye will be able to see Him. This possibly implies both the living and the dead. Perhaps Yahweh will miraculously open each person’s eyes in visionary form if this is the case.
F. Those who pierced Him (the Apostle John used the Hebrew Text rather than the Septuagint here as in John 19:37) could be both the Jewish and Roman non- believers as were the original Christ crucifiers.
G. Both Zechariah 12:10-13 and Daniel 7:19-26 talk about a time of great mourning and tribulation that will come on the earth before Christ’s return. The book of Revelation will show the truthfulness of this prophecy.
H. An affirmation of the truthfulness of the statement of verse 7 is given by the Lord God (“Kurios ha Theos”) Himself in verse 8.
1. In context, the best person of the Trinity to make this statement seems to be Yahweh Father since He is identified as this part of the Trinity in Rev. 1:4. However, the person of the Son says many of the same things in
Rev. 21:12, 13 so there seems to be a handing over of authority between the Father and Son for a certain period of time. This follows the patterns of Daniel 7:9-14 as well as I Cor. 15:24-28.
2. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and Omega is the last letter. Therefore, Yahweh Father is the great “I Am” (Ex. 3:15) who has existed for all eternity perfectly carrying out His will (Isa. 41:4) as the Almighty Ruler of All.
THOUGHT: The second coming of Jesus Christ is a Scriptural certainty backed up by the guarantee of the truthfulness and word of Yahweh Himself.
