The Source of the Revelation, Revelation Chapter 1 Verses 1-3 (God's WordTM)

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      1 This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. God gave it to him to show his servants the things that must happen soon. He sent this revelation through his angel to his servant John.
    This is the REVELATION of Jesus Christ
To reveal something is to bring to our knowledge that which was hidden. We have been given the accounts of Jesus in His human form in the gospels. Now the apostle John is shown by visions the eternal form of Jesus Christ. It is a picture, in the broadest sense, of a Bride (the body of true believers) and Her Bridegroom (Jesus Christ). The first five chapters of Revelation are about the Bride. The middle section is about the Bridegroom preparing for the Marriage to the Bride. And they live happily ever after from Revelation 19 on.

Visions of spiritual nature are not new. One example in the Old Testament was the dream given to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and interpreted by Beltashazzar (Daniel) - Daniel 2:27-30. The visions given to John are either left to us to interpret (from other symbols in the Bible) or are explained directly by an angel.

    God gave it to him
In these five words, we are shown how God will be represented during these visions. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus also contains all of God (Colossians 2:8-9-15). Yet here in the Revelation, Jesus is shown to be a separate person apart from God, the Father. The visions are passed from Father to Son.
    to show to his SERVANTS
The word SERVANT is much closer aligned to the word BONDSERVANT. A bondservant was one, who after serving a master as slave to repay some indebtedness, could opt to remain as a servant to that master for the rest of his life. When that was agreed to by the master, a hole was pierced into the ear to indicate such a BOND-SERVANT status. This is described in Deuteronomy 15:12-18. In the same manner, when we totally commit our lives to Christ, we become ETERNAL SERVANTS of his.
    the things that must happen soon.
Time is a relative entity. Anything in the future, since we can't see into the future, is "shortly" or imminent. Depending upon your interpretation of this phrase, "soon" may have meant 'in John's day'; it may have meant 'from the writing of Revelation until now'; or it may mean 'from the writing and on forever'. Since much that is discussed in this book does not appear to have happened yet, most of the "soon" remains to occur.
    He sent this revelation through his angel to his servant John,
Angels are right in the middle of this revelation process. They play an important role (over 60 times they are mentioned in Revelation alone), in explaining and carrying out the events to occur. To have a heavenly messenger to give the visions is known to occur before - Daniel 10:10-14, 20-21.

So the Revelation of Jesus Christ comes to us like this:

2John testified about what he saw: God's word and the testimony about Jesus Christ.
    John testified about what he saw:
John didn't leave anything out this time. He recorded everything meticulously, for us to read, hear, and heed. This is not a novel or science fiction book; it is what John actually saw (and heard) as he was transported divinely back to the future.
    God's word and the testimony about Jesus Christ
This phrase is used so often...he is emphasizing that the book of Revelation is part of the God's word. "God's Word" even carries a prophetic tinge to it. Samuel, a prophet, told Saul to send his servant on ahead so that he might dish out God's word directly to him, Saul - 1 Samuel 9:27. In the same vein, John, too, stands us up alone (Revelation 19:10) and says, "hold on to the testimony of Jesus." This is serious stuff ..... because in the next verse, we are to "heed" these words. Compare other instances of the use of 'God's word' and 'the testimony about Jesus Christ': There is no doubt about it. This Revelation is a continuation of John's testimony of Jesus Christ. First, he closes his gospel, John 21:24-25, with his bearing witness to the things Jesus Christ did. He continues in the beginning of his first letter to proclaim what he has seen and heard - 1 John 1:1-4. And culminates his closeness to Jesus Christ with the Revelation of Jesus, Revelation 22:16.

3 Blessed is the one who reads, as well as those who hear the words of this prophecy and pay attention to what is written in it because the time is near.
    Blessed is the one who READS, as well as those who HEAR the words of this prophesy and PAY ATTENTION to what is written in it
John clearly understood the way this, his prophesy ( = future events and present spiritual exhortations and warnings), was to be presented in the church. That is, one reads (and receives this special blessing) and the rest listen and understand what is being read. Jesus, talking about himself, said in Matthew 13:16-17, that the hearers were privileged to listen to Him even as many prophets of old and future generations of righteous would not. The reading of the Revelation, thus, makes Jesus Christ come alive to the hearer just as though He Himself were speaking the words.

Comparing the first three verses of this chapter with the conclusion in Revelation 22:6-21, one gets the feeling that this Revelation should be read to the congregation in its entirety in one sitting. Perhaps this is the only way that the full blessing promised in this verse can be realized.

This verse contains the first of seven "Beatitudes" in Revelation:

  1. Revelation 1:3 - for the present day.
  2. Revelation 14:13 - related to the Great Tribulation period.
  3. Revelation 16:15 - related to the Great Tribulation period.
  4. Revelation 19:9 - deals with Armegeddon.
  5. Revelation 20:6 - points to the Millennium.
  6. Revelation 22:7 - Celestial City
  7. Revelation 22:14 - Celestial City
    because the TIME IS NEAR.
Christ's return and the fulfillment of the Judgment as told in Revelation 11:15-18 always has been imminent. We always are to be looking for His return - John 21:20-23 and Acts 1:9-11.

If the TIME is near, why don't we see it arriving now. Because Christ is patient with the world and its inhabitants, 2 Peter 3:8-9, and the believers are still being transformed into their glorified forms - 2 Corinthians 3:17-18.

Compared to eternity or forever, any time period is NEAR, whether it is one second or 2000 years. Thus all the apostles except for Peter (John 21:20-23 and 2 Peter 1:12-15) had the hope of seeing the "TIME" even as we do today. Now that we are almost 2000 years closer, we definitely must get on with the "reading" (our effort in putting this into computerized form), the "hearing" (your effort to study this exposition), and the "heeding" (our actions that show we paid attention to) the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

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References to the Revelation of Jesus Christ are in bold italics. All other references are in bold only. Return from cross-references by using the BACK button.