Bible Commentaries
Revelation 1

Verses 1-20

III

AN EXPOSITION OF THE INTRODUCTORY PASSAGES

Revelation 1

Having clearly in mind the analysis of the entire book already given, we shall begin with the interpretation of the book of Revelation.

The first word in this book, as in the Old Testament books, gives its name: Greek, Apocalupsis, Latin, Revelatio, English, Revelation. They all mean literally an unveiling of that which is hidden.

The source of the revelation, as you see from the text, w God the Father. The medium of the revelation ’is Jesus Christ. The agent employed in signifying it is an interpreting angel. The revelation is made to John the apostle for the people of God. Notice that the word "signify" is appropriately used, since the revelation is to be made known by signs or symbols. The angel, who signifies it, is the author of the great voice as of a trumpet in Revelation 1:10. We hear his voice again at the beginning of Revelation 4, and he reappears on the scene in the last chapters of the book. Revelation 1:2 tells us which John received this revelation in these words: "Who bare witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw." It is quite important to know when John bare witness of the word of God. The tense is the "aorist" and usually, according to grammatical construction, refers to something in the completed past. Following this sense of the aorist we are bound to construe Revelation 1:2 as identifying the John to whom this revelation was made and the bearing witness would refer to the witness that he had already borne in his Gospel. This construction would conclusively establish the authorship of the book. It would prove that the author of the Gospel is also the author of this book, and that the Gospel was written first.

The only escape from this conclusion is to make the witness bearing refer to what John now does concerning this revelation which he is receiving. Many great scholars insist on making this the meaning, and calling the tense the epistolary aorist. I see no necessity for adopting this latter construction. By reference to John’s Gospel, and indeed to his first letter, we see that he there claims to have borne witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that be saw and heard.

In Revelation 1:3 we have the words: "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy." We know that in later times the churches had readers who would read to them any communication received and explain the communication. The rest of the church would hear. We have already found that Paul gave directions that his letter to one church should be read to another church, and the letter to that church be also read to the first church named. So it is unnecessary to go to a later date to find the origin of a reader to the churches. The New Testament itself gives the origin.

From Revelation 1:4-6 we have John’s greeting to the seven churches of Asia to whom the entire book is addressed. Not only all of Revelation 2-3 are specifically devoted to special messages for the churches named, but at the end of the book, Revelation 22:16, we have these words referring back to the whole book, "I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for the churches."

It is important to note in this connection our Lord’s use of the word ecclesia. In Matthew 16:18, he says: "I will build my church," using the term to signify the institution. In Matthew 18:17, he says, "tell it to the church," referring to whatever particular congregation the decision of the case of discipline belongs. Many times in the hook of Revelation he uses the word "church," and in every case the reference is to particular churches. Our Lord’s usage of the word knows nothing of a now existing universal church, whether visible or invisible. He does not say to the church of Asia, but the seven churches of Asia. There is nothing in his use of the word to indicate the existence of church in any provincial, national, worldwide, or denominational sense. On the contrary, he seems to guard very carefully against such a use of the term. It is true that in Revelation 12, without using the term "church," he does present the idea of the church as an institution under the symbol of the woman arrayed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, which woman later becomes, in Revelation 19, the bride of Christ or the church in glory.

Carefully note the expression in Revelation 1:6: "and he made us to be a kingdom and to be priests unto his God and Father." Again we have the past tense, signifying that the kingdom already exists. It would be strange to make one part of the sentence mean a kingdom to come, and the other part to mean an existing priesthood. We know from many scriptures that Christians are now priests offering spiritual sacrifices unto God, and so also they now constitute a kingdom. The kingdom is now and has been since the God of heaven in the days of his flesh set it up. It will become the kingdom in glory but it is a kingdom in actual fact now.

Revelation 1:7 needs very careful interpretation. "Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him and they that pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him, even so Amen." Alford holds this verse to be the key passage of the book and so does every premillennialist. They are sure that it refers to the final advent of our Lord. I do not wish to startle you, but it is necessary to ask where John obtains this imagery.

Your attention has already been called to the most notable fact in connection with this book, that while not directly quoting the Old Testament, it teems and bristles with references to the Old Testament. All of its analogues are taken from the Old Testament. The paradise of Genesis, the plagues of Exodus, the visions of God in Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and the marvelous visions of Zechariah, furnish the molding of the book.

Where, then, the question recurs, do we find the origin of the phrase used in Revelation 1:7? In Daniel 7, we have "One like unto the Son of man coming in the clouds to the Ancient of days and receiving the kingdom." This unquestionably refers to Christ’s ascension and exaltation after his resurrection. In Zechariah 12:10, we have the origin of the piercing of Christ, as follows: "And they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son."

This mourning, after beholding whom they had pierced, is followed by the opening of a fountain for sin and uncleanness. It is not the mourning of despair by the lost who shall see Christ at his final advent, but it is the penitential mourning that follows the pouring out of the Spirit of God upon the house of David that enables them to see Christ pierced and held up before them in the gospel and thus find life. John has already, in his Gospel, referred to this passage in Zechariah, applying it to Christ crucified and not to Christ coming at his final advent. The language of the Gospel is: "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water; and he that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he sayeth true, that ye might believe, for these things were done that the scriptures might be fulfilled: They shall look on him whom they have pierced."

Since the text "the coming in the clouds" and "piercing" and "mourning" are all borrowed from the Old Testament and all refer to Christ crucified and held up before sinners, who, through the pouring out of the Spirit, are enabled to recognize him and believe in him and thereby be saved, we are hardly warranted in making this passage the key passage of the book, and certainly are not warranted in referring it to the final advent of our Lord. The key passage of the book we will consider directly. It is the purpose of Revelation 1:7 to refer to the spiritually prompted vision of Christ by faith on the part of all the tribes of the earth.

Bearing on the statement that the kingdom now exists we may consider verse, where John says, "I, John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus . . ." Here, so certain as John then partook with them in the tribulation of persecution, and in the patience that steadfastly endured that persecution, so it is certain that he, at the time of the writing, was partaker with them in the existing kingdom.

Revelation 1:10, commences thus: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day." It has been the safe interpretation of the fathers that the Lord’s Day here refers to the first day of the week, the Christian sabbath. We have already noted in Colossians that the entire system of the Jewish sabbaths, weekly, monthly, annual, septennial, and the sabbath of the Jubilee, were all nailed to the cross of Christ, being shadows and finding their substance in Christ they were abrogated; henceforth the Christian should not be judged for failing to observe the Jewish sabbatical system. He might observe that system from motives of expediency that he might gain others, but certainly not on demand and as an obligation. We have already seen in our discussion of the letter to the Hebrews the distinction between the sabbath and the seventh day. The sabbath is perpetual with all its obligations. Hebdome, or seventh day, was not perpetual. "Another day" is referred to, and as the Father finishing the work of creation appointed a commemorative sabbath on the seventh day, so Christ, having finished the greater work of redemption, appointed "another day," the first day of the week, so that there should remain to the people of God a sabbath-keeping.

On this, therefore, the Lord’s Day, or the Christian sabbath, John was in the Spirit, and heard the angel voice as of a trumpet instructing him to write in a book the visions to be received, and send it to these seven churches of Asia. Woe to the professed Christian, and especially to the preacher, who hears no voices and sees no visions. We thus hear and see when we are in the Spirit. The man who has no sabbath-keeping (sabbatismos), who consecrates no Lord’s Day, will not likely be in the Spirit.

We have a remarkable vision which is the key passage to the interpretation of the whole book of Revelation in Revelation 1:12-16. The elements of the vision are, first, seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the candlesticks a vision of Christ as the Sun of Righteousness. He holds in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword. This vision he explains himself: The candlesticks represent the churches; the stars represent the messengers or pastors of the churches; the two-edged sword represents his word, or the gospel. The whole vision is one of light. The central light – Christ, the Sun of Righteousness; the lower lights – the churches and’ the preachers; the instrumentality of dispensing the light – the Word of God.

In the next chapter we see that while Christ is in the midst of the churches, he is not there in person, but through the other Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who is his "alter ego," his vicar here upon earth. John in his Gospel had previously represented Christ as the light of the world, but since he ascended into heaven this light is reflected in the churches and preachers through the Spirit and by the Word. The object of the vision is to show that the whole world will be illumined by the churches and the preachers in the dispensation of the gospel, which dispensation is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, for when Christ speaks to the churches he says: "If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth to the churches."

The doctrine of this vision is of incalculable importance. It teaches that the Spirit dispensation, or Word dispensation through the churches and the preachers, is to accomplish the whole work of the application of the salvation achieved by our Lord’s vicarious death. We will find in every subsequent revelation this ruling thought; the world to be illumined by these light-bearers. There is no hint of any other source or medium or instrumentality of light. There is no hint that the churches will fail on the earth and that some other divine interposition must take place to finish the mystery of the kingdom of God. This is in accord with the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19: "Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo! I will be with you all the days, even unto the end of the world."

The pessimist who believes that the object of the gospel is simply and only to be a witness and to take out a few here and there of the lost world and that light will become feebler and dimmer until the second advent, and then by marvelous displays of miraculous power, the return of Christ in person to supersede the Spirit, the world is to be conquered for Christ – this view, I say, is at war with all the teachings of this book, and of the other New Testament books. The Spirit, through the churches and the gospel, will accomplish all the conquests that are to be accomplished and Christ’s return is not as a sin offering unto salvation, but to raise the dead, judge the world, and wind up the affairs of this kingdom preparatory to turning it over to the Father.

The final, personal, visible, audible, palpable return of Jesus Christ to the earth, with whatever displays of divine power, is not for the conversion of any man. It ends the days of salvation. If we hold in our minds that practically the gospel will be a failure and that the world will grow worse and worse until the second advent of Christ, and that we are to look for the great forces of redemption after he comes back, then we cannot, except with a very limited faith, press the mission work for the evangelization of the world. It will not be in our hearts to hope to see missions accomplish the salvation of men. We may count, therefore, the whole book of Revelation as a vision of ever-increasing light until by the gospel through the Spirit the whole world is flooded with light – and indeed this idea is manifest as the governing thought in every subsequent revelation until the final consummation of eternal light presented in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters, the closing chapters of the book.

In Revelation 1:17 we are told that when John saw the glorified Christ he fell at his feet as one dead. It is the uniform teaching of the Bible that the nearer we approach to God and the clearer our vision of him, the more sensibly do we feel our sinfulness. Job had a very good opinion of himself and talked boldly of his desire to meet the Almighty face to face, but when the Almighty came, and Job stood in the white light of the holiness of God, though he was the saintliest man of his day, he cried out: "I have uttered that which I understood not, but now that mine eyes seeth thee, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." Isaiah, also, the saintliest man of his day, when he saw the vision of the Almighty, cried out: "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King Jehovah of Hosts." When, therefore, you hear one making the extravagant boast of his sinlessness, you may know that the boast argues his distance from God rather than his nearness. If he were indeed in brighter light, then would he be able to see the spots upon his garments that are invisible in his state of semidarkness.

This vision represents our Lord, as a royal priest on his throne. The glory of his exalted state, and of the authority with which he is invested when understood by faith, dispels fear; though the saint is so imperfect, his voice comes: "Fear not. I am the first and the last, and the Living One, and I was dead and behold I am alive for ever more, and I have the keys of death and of Hades and I have the keys of David, with power to open so that none can shut, and power to shut so that none can open."

To the despondent Christian, a vision of this exalted Christ is a sure cure of both his despondency and of his fear. It is a vision not of our Lord in the days of his humiliation when he had not where to lay his head, when he was emptied of the glory of his original state in heaven, but it is a vision of the risen, ascended, and exalted Jesus on the throne of the universe, and as his presence is felt in the churches. Through the Spirit the word preached by the churches is the power of God unto salvation.

I cannot refrain from reference to an incident in my own life in the summer of 1905. I was on a train in the Panhandle and greatly distressed in mind as I thought of the imperfections of the churches and of the preachers. The despondency increased when I saw in all the Southwest, a territory larger than all the rest of the South) no provision made for training preachers to be great and efficient in their ministry. When I saw representatives of some ministerial training schools coming into Texas and other states of the Southwest with their minds poisoned on the vital doctrines of the inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, his vicarious expiation, the transcendent power of the Holy Spirit, my despondency increased the more. How can we have in the Southwest a school for the adequate training of our preachers? How can we safeguard it from heresy when it is established? How can we make it a barrier against the inflowing tide of semi-infidelity in the pulpit? It was at this very juncture that I recalled to mind this vision which John saw on the isle of Patmos, and so vivid was the recollection that it was to me as if I heard Jesus speak audibly: "Fear not, I am the Living One. I was dead, but am alive to die no more." Instantly my heart leaped with joy and I half rose from my seat saying to myself: "Jesus is alive, and if Jesus be alive he can manifest that life now as well as he manifested his life on earth and even with greater power. If when alive in the flesh he could still the storm, heal the sick, raise the dead, reconcile us to God by his vicarious death, then surely after his resurrection, ascension, and exaltation, with all authority in heaven and on earth in his hands, he can make it possible to do anything desirable for the efficiency of his churches and his preachers. It would not, then, be necessary to rely upon historic monumental evidences, but each of us now could have sensible demonstration that Jesus is alive and king forever." It made an epoch in my life. It gave me the faith and courage with which to undertake the establishment of the seminary of which I am president.

In Revelation 1:19 we have our Lord’s analysis of the book of Revelation: "Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter." What he saw was this vision. The things which are, were: First, the revelation of our glorified Lord, in his relation to the churches and pastors, and their consequent mission as light-bearers. Second, the state of the imperfect churches here upon earth as set forth in Revelation 2-3. Third, the revelation of the throne of grace in heaven, as set forth in Revelation 4-5. Fourth, the things which shall come to pass hereafter, are the things presented in all the rest of the book from Revelation 6 to the end.

In this interpretation of the book, while on some details the teaching cannot be dogmatic, yet the main lines of thought are just as clear as the main lines of thought in the Four Gospels. A patient study of the book will be of incalculable advantage to us. As we pray and study and have faith, the assurance will settle upon our hearts that whatever may be the temporary ebbs and flows) the outcome will be that all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ through the work of the churches and the preachers, and that earthly imperfections are more than compensated for by the great power of God from the heavenly throne of our Lord, keeping the lamps filled with oil and trimmed and burn

QUESTIONS
1. Analyze verse I, showing the meaning of apocalypse, its source, medium, instrument, method, to whom, for whom.

2. How may a strictly grammatical construction of the aorist or past tense of "bare witness" in Revelation 1:2 prove that the apostle John wrote both the Fourth Gospel and Revelation, and that Revelation, was the later book?

3. Judging from the expression in Revelation 1:3, "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear," and comparing it with 1 Thessalonians 5:27, and Colossians 4:16, when originated the custom, so well attested in later days, of having "readers to the churches"? And what modern invention superseded the necessity for the custom?

4. "The seven churches that are in Asia." Counting the instances in Matthew and Revelation: (1) how many times in the record of our Lord’s own saying does the Greek word ekklesia occur and (2) in what two senses alone, and (3) since he says "The churches of Asia," and not "The church of Asia," and since several times in chapter 2 and 3 he Bays "Hear what the Spirit saith to the churches," and not "to the church" – what is the bearing of this usage on the idea of a provincial, national or universal church?

5. Prove from the use of the word "kingdom" in Revelation 1:6 and Revelation 1:9 that premillennialists are mistaken in contending that there is yet no kingdom except an ideal one.

6. Compare Revelation 1:7 with the Old Testament analogues in Daniel 7:1-14, and Zechariah 12:10-14; Zechariah 13:1, with John 19:37, and then answer: (1) Is this "coming with clouds" the final advent of our Lord? (2) Do the tribes here see him with the natural eye in the glory of his final advent, or with the eye of faith lifted up on the cross by preaching (as in Acts 2 and 3, by Peter, and in. Galatians 3:1, by Paul)? And (3) Is the mourning when they see him a mourning of despair or a mourning of penitence unto salvation?

7. Interpret the key passage of the book Revelation 1:12-16, explaining each metaphor, and then answer particularly: (1) Is Christ present with the churches personally or through the Spirit? In answering this question consider Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:11; Revelation 2:17; Revelation 2:29; Revelation 3:6; Revelation 3:13; Revelation 3:22. (2) Does he, as the Sun of Righteousness, shine directly or reflectively through the churches and preachers, making them the light of the world, and through the Word, represented as a sword issuing from his mouth? (3) Trace through the book the proof that this vision of the world lighted by these instrumentalities is the key passage (4) And is there anywhere in the book any proof that the world will otherwise be illumined or men saved?