There have been two extremes on the book of Revelation.
One is to ignore it because of all the symbolism, and all the areas there. There are things brought up that are very difficult sometimes to interpret, so people simply ignore it. That really is a great loss as we find in Revelation 1:3-4 that this is the one book of Scripture that promises a blessing for those that read it. It says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” So, we want to be reading it and heeding it and living by it.
The other extreme is to press every symbol and every idea so literally that we come up with really weird interpretations. People have tried to identify the antichrist through the book of Revelation. They have tried to set a date for the return of Jesus Christ and things along that line that are simply beyond the scope of the book. That is not what we want to do. We want to go through the book as it is written and be blessed by the teaching that is here.
It opens with the words, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” So, it is not just a picture of the future. It is a revelation, a revealing, of Jesus Christ himself. He is the central character and the central feature of the book. That is especially so in the early going as we look at the first several chapters.
I want to drop down to Revelation 1:4 and pick up several of the themes. It says, “John to the seven churches that are in Asia.” So, the immediate audience for these writings are seven churches in Asia minor or modern-day Turkey. He says, “Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” Now we know here that the one spoken of here – the one who is and who was and who is to come – it describes in the book of Revelation both the Father and the Son. So, I don’t know that we need to distinguish that so clearly here, but this is the description of Christ and the Father. It also speaks of the seven spirits before His throne. The seven spirits are going to be found throughout the book of Revelation and in many places. We are never really told, however, exactly who these seven spirits are. So, there has been a lot of interpretations, and a lot of ideas. We are going to leave it where John and the Lord leave it. We do know the seven spirits that are before His throne are angelic beings of some sort, but we are not going to press it beyond that. Revelation 1:5 says, “and from Jesus Christ,” and so here we are talking about Jesus Christ Himself.
What we want to find out here in the first seven verses are two things about Jesus Christ: who He is and what He has done. So, let’s look today at who He is. We find many things about who Christ is in these opening verses. It says first, in Revelation 1:5, that He is, “the faithful witness”. I think this speaks of His incarnation. When He came to earth, He said in John 1 that He came to reveal to us or exegete to us – explain to us the Father. So, He did that faithfully as He came to this planet. As He came to this earth and lived among us, He testified of the Father. He showed us who God was. If you want to know who God is, take a real good look at Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness. Secondly, we find He is, “the firstborn of the dead.” So, the picture here moves straight beyond the cross, not denying the cross in any way, but it moves beyond the cross to the Resurrection, and He is the firstborn of the dead. He died on the cross, but He has also been resurrected from the dead. So, He is alive, and the picture in the book of Revelation is of a living Savior. Thirdly, we find He is, “the ruler of the kings of the earth.” He is the ruler over all things. This becomes a prominent theme. In fact, many things in Revelation 1 become prominent later. In Revelation 14 and 19 we see He is the ruler over all things.
