Reading Revelation - 1:1-2

This week I am encouraging our church to begin reading the book of Revelation. The Sunday after Easter we will be starting a series on Revelation. I think we will be better benefitted in our sermon series if we have first read what the Bible has to say. 

Typically, when preparing for a series or sermon I read through a text between 10-15 times. I've noticed in my own study that the more I read something, the more questions and sometimes the more answers I have. I'm not expecting anyone else to read through Revelation dozens of times this year (That's my job and I'm honored to do it!). But a single read through will "start the wheels" turning in our mind regarding Revelation as a book given to us by God, through Christ, to John. I'm not promising to write comments on each verse, or each chapter. But today, as we get started reading Revelation, here are some comments to share with you that I'll share with my family as we read Revelation 1 today. 

"1:1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ"

- Revelation 1:1-2 

Three comments here: 

(1) The first few verses of Revelation state clearly that the revelation (unveiling or revealing) is from Jesus Christ as given to Jesus by God. We then note that the Revelation came to John, from Christ. This book is not the "revelation of John". This is the revelation from Jesus to John. We must not lose in the study of Revelation that this book comes as a report from John based on what he had been commissioned by Christ to share. This book claims from the get-go to be a report written by John as an assignment from Jesus. 

(2) The first few mentions of anything time related are in the first verse. From the outset of the book Revelation speaks regarding things past, and things to come. The tense of "which God gave him" shows us that John wrote Revelation after he had received his commission and vision from Jesus. In this way we can all affirm (regardless of our interpretative framework or timetables of the events which John saw) that all of what John saw, he saw before he wrote it down. In this way all of Revelation is in the "past" of John as he was writing down what he had seen. 

The second instance of time in Revelation is the phrase "what must soon take place". When speaking about what John saw the earliest perspective from the book of Revelation is that something "must soon take place". Revelation does not begin speaking of the future in relationship to decades, centuries, or millenniums. Revelation begins discussing the future by speaking about what must take place "soon". It's possible that this could be interpreted allegorically or symbolically. It's possible that this could be interpreted more simply. A more symbolic approach would mean saying something like "while Revelation begins by saying 'soon', it doesn't really mean soon in the way we might first think of soon". A simpler reading would say something like "when John says soon, we should not read extra into that other than things that would happen relatively shortly or within a reasonable amount of time with respect to the original audience reading and hearing Revelation". Reading of the text demands that we interact with what John (and Christ) intended by saying "soon". We cannot escape or avoid making interpretations and developing a perspective on Revelation's focus. The first two verses demand that we begin to consider the timetable of what John saw regarding what Christ revealed. 

(3) In verse two there is a claim of authority. John claims that "everything he saw - that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ". John wasn't writing speculatively; John wasn't writing Christian allegorical fiction. As John wrote Revelation, he claims that this is the word of God which comes as a testimony of Jesus Christ. We do not have the right to simply "check out" of Revelation or cease to care what it has to say. Christ is our example and God's word is our instruction on following Christ's example. To disregard Revelation is to disregard a message from Christ. And a very special message at that! Sometimes I wonder what additional things Christ said or did. We have much of what he taught, like in the sermon on the mount in Matthew, or the prayers of Jesus in John, or the conversations of Jesus with the hurt and demon possessed in Mark. Yet for all that we do have, we don't have every word that Jesus said. For those who like me, are curious from time to time about what else Jesus had to say, we should take seriously this book of Revelation. This was a message from Christ. This Revelation was filled with words and word pictures and visions given to John by Jesus. We would be grossly hypocritical to entertain curiosity about what else Jesus said and yet ignore this message of Jesus given to John. Jesus' words are instructive, they are powerful, they are formative, they are challenging, they are confrontational, they are comforting. All of this and more can be said of Revelation as it is the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ.