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Revelation Chapter 1 Verse 1 (NKJV)

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1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants -- things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,

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 of 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.

     which God gave Him

The real source of the whole of Revelation is God. He permitted Jesus to show this to John. Recall Jesus always did the will of God even when facing death - Luke 22:39-42.

     to show his SERVANTS --

These servants really were ones, who after serving a master as slave to repay some indebtedness, could opt to remain as servants to that master for the rest of their life. When that was agreed to by the master, a hole was pierced into the ear to indicate such status. This is described in Deuteronomy 15:12-18. In the same manner, when we totally commit our lives to Christ, we become dedicated servants to Him. Even more beautifully, Jesus Christ agrees to care for us for our ETERNAL life.

     things which must shortly take place

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, "shortly" 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 "shortly" remains to occur.

     And He sent and signified it by 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:

       GOD
         |->Jesus
              |->angel  (see also Revelation 22:16)
                   |->John, a Servant
                        |->all Servants (those who have accepted Christ)

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.