The last book of the Bible names itself in its first three words, and the name is not the revelation of the future. Then it does something no other book does: it pronounces a blessing on anybody who reads it out loud.
A Bible study on Revelation 1 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 13 min read
Table of Contents
Most people come to Revelation for the beasts. The book itself starts somewhere else entirely — with a title, a chain of delivery, a blessing, and a description of a Man that takes six verses and leaves the reader on the floor.
Everything the rest of this series deals with — the seals, the trumpets, the two beasts, the city coming down — is introduced by this chapter, and the introduction settles what kind of book it is.
Revelation 1, In Full
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.
Revelation 1:1-20 KJV
Whose Revelation Is It?
So, according to verse 1, the whole book of Revelation is a special message given by God the Father to Jesus Christ “to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.” It also says that he (Jesus) sent and signified this message via his angel (perhaps Gabriel) to his servant John.
The title deserves its own sentence, because a great deal follows from it. The book is not called the revelation to John, or the revelation of the last days. It is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” He is the subject of it before He is the source of it — and a reader who finishes a study of Revelation knowing more about beasts than about Christ has read a different book from the one that is named here.
The chain of delivery in verse 1 is worth laying out as the verse lays it out: from God, to Jesus Christ, by His angel, to His servant John, for His servants. Five links, and the last one is the point. It was sent to be handed on.
Blessed Is He That Readeth
“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
Revelation 1:3
No other book of the Bible opens by blessing the person who reads it. And notice how the blessing is framed for a world where most people could not read and books were expensive: one person readeth, aloud, and a room full of people hear. The blessing is on the reader and the congregation together.
It is also the answer to the commonest thing said about this book — that it is too hard, or too frightening, or best left alone. Revelation blesses the person who reads it in its third verse, and its second-to-last chapter tells John not to seal it up. Whatever difficulty a reader meets in between, it was not put there to keep anybody out.
And the blessing has a third verb: keep. Not decode, not chart, not predict. Keep.
Kings And Priests
“Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
Revelation 1:5, 6
The order in those two verses is the gospel in miniature: loved, then washed, then made. Nobody is made anything until they have been washed, and nobody is washed who was not first loved.
And what they are made is the thing this ministry has spent years on. Israel was told at Sinai, “ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6), and the two offices almost never sat together in one person afterwards — kings from Judah, priests from Levi. The one man who held both was Melchizedek. Here the whole company of the redeemed is told it holds both, in the past tense, on the strength of the blood in the previous clause. That thread is followed at length in The Melchizedek Message.
Behold, He Cometh With Clouds
“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”
Revelation 1:7
Every eye. That is one of the plainest sentences in the book and it settles a good deal. Whatever the second coming is, it is not private, not gradual, and not something a person could be told about afterwards by somebody who saw it.
The clause about those which pierced him reaches back to Zechariah, where God says the house of David will “look upon me whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10). And the wailing is not the wailing of people being attacked. It is grief.
Alpha And Omega
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8
The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet — everything that can be said, from one end of the alphabet to the other. He says it again in the last chapter, in almost the same words (Revelation 22:13), so the book is bracketed by the same claim at both ends.
Your Brother, And Companion In Tribulation
“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 1:9
He does not introduce himself as an apostle, or as the last man alive who had leaned on Jesus at supper. He says your brother, and companion in tribulation — and he was writing to churches under pressure, from a prison island, as somebody who had been put there for the same reasons they were suffering.
That is worth holding for the whole rest of the book. The visions of the throne and the Lamb and the city were given to a man in exile, and the first thing he tells his readers is that he is one of them.
One Like Unto The Son Of Man
Then the description, and it is built from the prophets: a garment down to the foot and a golden girdle, hair white as snow, eyes as a flame of fire, feet like fine brass burning in a furnace, a voice as the sound of many waters, seven stars in His right hand, a sharp two-edged sword out of His mouth, and a face like the sun shining in full strength.
Nearly every one of those details will be picked up again in the letters of chapters 2 and 3, one at a time, matched to the church that needed it — the sword to Pergamos, the eyes of fire and feet of brass to Thyatira, the seven stars to Sardis. The vision is not decoration. It is the vocabulary for everything He is about to say.
“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:”
Revelation 1:17
Daniel had the same reaction to a similar vision — “there remained no strength in me” (Daniel 10:8). Ezekiel fell on his face by the river. It appears to be what happens to people who see this.
What follows is the detail that governs the rest of the book. The hand holding seven stars is laid on a frightened man, and the first words out of the mouth with the sword in it are Fear not. Then the reason: “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18). The One with authority over death is the One who has been through it.
The Mystery Of The Seven Stars
The chapter ends by explaining itself: “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches” (Revelation 1:20).
That is worth noticing before the difficult chapters start. This book defines its own symbols — the stars and candlesticks here, the dragon in chapter 12, the waters in chapter 17, the fine linen in chapter 19. A reader who is patient enough to let Revelation explain itself will need to guess far less often than the reputation of the book suggests.
What This Asks Of Us
Revelation 1 sets the terms for everything after it. The book is about Jesus Christ. It was sent to be passed on. It blesses the person who reads it aloud and the room that hears it, and asks them to keep it rather than solve it. It was written by a man in trouble to people in trouble, who called himself their brother before he called himself anything else.
And the first thing the central figure does, when the man He is speaking to collapses in front of Him, is put out a hand and say fear not. Everything in the twenty-one chapters that follow happens under that sentence.
Next in this series: To Him That Overcometh — four letters to four churches, and a promise at the end of each one.
