Coronation: The Doxological Delivery

Transcript

JRNT 501
Coronation: The Doxological Delivery, Part Two
Revelation 1:4-8
02/09/2025
Jesse Randolph

Well, last Sunday night we launched into our study into the book of Revelation. A new series titled “Coronation: An Expositional Study of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” And in our time together, we accomplished two tasks. First, we went through a fast-paced survey of some of the theological contours of the book of Revelation. And we looked into matters like genre, theme, authorship, interpretation, date, and structure. Then in the second part of the message, we went through a verse-by-verse exposition of the first three verses of this book, the prologue to the book of Revelation. And that reads this way, again by way of review, Revelation 1:1-3, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.” And that’s where we ended last time. That reminds us that there is a blessing which comes to the one who not only reads and hears the words of this book, but the one who “keeps the things which are written in it.”

And that means that our charge as we go through our study of Revelation is that we not merely consider this book to be an ancient artifact to read, hear preached, and generally become familiarized with. But instead we are to “keep the things which are written in it.” Meaning, we are to apply the truths we read and hear to our lives. And why? Well, look at the last few words of verse 3. It gives us the reason. “For the time is near.” And the time of the end is near, the time of our Lord’s coming for us is near. When those events will take place no one knows the day or the hour but the Father. But we know that we’re closer today than we were yesterday. I saw somebody put out a tweet today that said, “Here’s what I am rooting for in the Super Bowl. The Rapture.” But that is knowing that it is coming. And that ought to motivate us to not only receive and hear the Word, but to be doers of the Word as we wait for the One who gave us the Word to come for us.

So tonight we’re going to continue on in our study by covering Revelation 1:4-8. Last week, in the first three verses of this book. This week as we work through these next 5 verses, we are going to be covering John’s greeting to the seven churches. Which is more than a “Dear So-And-So” style of greeting, but instead is rich in doxology, rich in praise. It’s an eruption of worship which is centered on our subject of study this evening, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in these five verses as we’re going to see, John says things, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, which not only reveal His own attitude of worship of Christ, but really which ought to fuel us in our sincerity and a purity of devotion to worshipping the Lord.

So with that, if you’re not there already, let’s go ahead and turn to Revelation 1:4-8. God’s Word reads, “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from the One who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen. Behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Yes, amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

The book of Revelation is fascinating for so many reasons. One of which is how it ties together various multiple, different literary styles and motifs. Last Sunday night in verses 1 through 3, we were in this prologue to the entire book. Next week we’ll encounter John giving his personal and historical account of his vision of the ascended and glorified Christ. In weeks to come we’ll see Christ’s seven letters to the seven churches. And then of course, the remainder of the book is filled with prophetic insights. In tonight’s text, though, we’re looking primarily at a doxology, this written expression of worship which happens to be packaged in the form of a letter. Which is why I’ve titled this evening’s message “The Doxological Delivery”.

Now, getting into it. In traditional letter style, we see that the author of the letter is identified at the outset at the beginning of verse 4. It says, “John.” As we took some time to go over last week, the human author of this book is John, specifically, John the Apostle, the disciple whom Jesus loved, the son of Zebedee, the former son of thunder. This once fiery, zealous young man, but now in his advanced age, is a respected and revered elder statesman in the early church.

Next, he identifies the audience to whom he is writing. Note the next few words of verse 4, “to the seven churches that are in Asia.” John here is referring to seven churches in his day that were in the western part of the Roman province of Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. This would have been John’s immediate audience as he wrote out these words. Recall last week. He was taking down what God had given to Jesus Christ. Jesus had given it to His angel, who had given it to John. Now John is writing these words here in verse 4. It’s not that there were only seven churches in Asia at this time, Asia Minor. But John was moved by the Spirit to address only seven churches in this region. Those would be the churches located in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These aren’t made-up cities or mythical places. These cities aren’t representing different ages of church history. No, the seven churches that John mentions here in verse 4, were actual churches, which were established in actual cities and places on an actual map. And in each one of these churches, they would have been made up of real sinners, just like you and me. People who had once been dead in their sin. People who had once been enslaved to the deeds of the flesh. People who had since repented and believed in the gospel of grace and now had joined a local community of believers known as the church.

The question often arises, why these seven churches? Why not others? Why do we not see a letter here in Revelation to Philippi, or Thessalonica, or Hierapolis, or Rome? Well, the answer to that question is that these specific seven churches were selected and addressed by John as he writes under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, because they were representative. They were representative of typical conditions of churches in the times that John wrote. Not only that, they continue to be representative of the typical conditions of churches we see in the times in which we live. In other words, if you took all seven of these churches and put them together, what you’d get is a composite sketch of the church at large, throughout the Church Age. Positive or negative. In all of its beauty. But also with all of its blemishes.

Well, moving on, after identifying himself as John and after identifying his audience, the seven churches that are in Asia, John goes on to give a formal greeting to these churches. He says, “Grace to you and peace.” He opens his letter to the churches with a warm Christian greeting, “Grace to you and peace.” This was the customary greeting of John’s day. And for those of you who are familiar with Scripture, you know this is a very familiar greeting. Paul used this very greeting in just about all of his letters. Paul says this in Romans 1:7, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He opened with an identically-worded greeting in 1 Corinthians 1:3, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2 and Philemon 3. Paul changes the wording slightly in giving greetings in 2 Corinthians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” 1 Thessalonians 1:1, “Grace to you and peace.” In fact, the only place Paul does not use this form of greeting was in his three pastoral letters, two he wrote to Timothy, and the one he wrote to Titus. It wasn’t just Paul, though. Peter used a form of this greeting in 1 Peter 1:2, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” 2 Peter 1:2, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” The point is John, here in Revelation 1:4, was using a common and recognized form of greeting for this time.

But what did he mean by it? And what can we glean from his greeting? Well, let’s start with the word “grace.” When we see the word “grace,” “charis” in Greek, we tend to think of it right away in Christian terms. But grace isn’t a term that originated with the Bible or with the Christian church. The word “charis” predated the Christian church. In fact, the word is a borrowed term that the Christians appropriated when the church was established. Before Christian times that word was used to greet people in a very standard way. It would be equivalent of us walking down the street and saying, “how’s it going?” to someone. You would use that expression. It was a common greeting.

However, by the time John was writing Revelation, somewhere around 95-96 A.D., some six decades after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, grace wasn’t just something you said to someone as you passed them on the street. Instead, grace was now recognized as a distinctive spiritual benefit that belonged to Christians. Titus 2:11-13, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” For someone like John then, to say “grace” to these churches and by extension, to us, this was an acknowledgment that they had this distinctive position and placement in Christ. And we do too. Our very identity is wrapped up in the reality that we have been saved by grace. Ephesians 2:1-5, “And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” That’s who we once were, “But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved.”

So that’s the grace part of John’s greeting. He also adds “peace,” though. It’s “grace to you and peace.” Peace, “irene” in Greek, “shalom” in Hebrew. This also was a common greeting among the Jews of this time. This was the way the typical Jewish person would give a greeting to another, shalom to one Jewish person to another. The word was rich in meaning and significance. It was a word which was used to wish well-being upon the person you were greeting. And when you said shalom to somebody, it meant I wish for you peace, I wish for you well-being. Some might even say prosperity for your whole person, and for your whole being.

Of course, by the time John wrote this greeting to the seven churches in Asia Minor, he had something else in view when he says peace. The idea of peace that he was communicating here was brought about and centered on the death of Jesus Christ. The death of Christ had fulfilled the Old Testament expectation that one day a Messiah would come. And one day, looking prophetically, He would be offered as a sacrifice. And one day, because of His sacrifice, there would be peace between God and man. So when you greeted a fellow follower of Christ with peace in John’s day, you were acknowledging the peace Jesus Christ had made between God and man. They were acknowledging that there is peace “through the blood of His cross,” Colossians 1:20. They were acknowledging the fact that He is, in fact, “our peace,” Ephesians 2:14. And you were acknowledging that peace is found through and only through Jesus Christ as Paul puts it in Romans 5:1. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

So, with this context in mind, when John here says in verse 4, “Grace to you and peace” to the dear members of the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, he was saying, in effect, “I greet you as one who is a beneficiary of the peace that we each have through Christ.” So this is more than just a greeting. This is more than just a “Hi, how are you?” It was a profound statement of brotherhood in the Lord.

Now, it’s important to note here, that while Christ is our source of grace and peace… We remember Ephesians 2, God made us “alive together with Christ.” We remember Romans 5:1, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” While it’s important to remember that Christ is our source of grace and peace, grace and peace are not sourced exclusively in the Second Person of the Trinity. Rather, both grace and peace are sourced in the First and Third Persons of the Trinity, God the Father and God the Spirit as well. Look at the next part of Revelation 1:4 and moving into verse 5. He says, “Grace to you and peace from the One who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ.” Here we see that grace and peace comes from all three Persons of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son. All three members of the Trinity are identified in this passage as being our source of our grace and peace. And we have peace “from the One who is and who was and who is to come.” We have peace “from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,” and we have peace “through Jesus Christ.” Let’s take these one by one.

First, there is the phrase “from the One who is and who was and who is to come.” This is a reference to God the Father. In fact, turn with me over to Revelation 4:8 for a cross reference here. This is the throne in heaven scene. “And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” God the Father is the One “who is.” God the Father is the One “who was.” And God the Father is the One “who is to come.” God the Father is an eternal being. He existed before the present time. He exists in this present moment. And He already exists in every moment that we conceive of as being in the future. In other words, God is everywhere. He is in all points of time. At least, as we conceive of time. God the Father occupies the space that was, is, and is-to-be, at least as we conceive of those realities in our limited perception of them.

Now, you might be thinking, “how does that work? I get that God the Father was. He’s the Ancient of Days. And I get that God the Father is One who eternally is. He is not changing or changed by time. But what do you mean that God the Father is the one that is to come? Isn’t it God the Son who we are waiting to come for us? And aren’t we confusing here the first and second members of the Godhead?” We are not. I can assure you. We know and can affirm that “God is spirit,” John 4:24. We know and affirm that it will be God the Son who breaks through the clouds one day as He returns to this earth with His raptured church and places His foot on the very mount from which He ascended, and comes in judgment at His Second Coming.

But we also know that Jesus Himself said in John 14:9 that “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Meaning, there is a sense that when Christ returns to rule and reign, it will also be the Father who will be coming to rule and reign. We have to remember going back to the “Summer in the Systematics,” where we learned that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, all share a singular divine will. Meaning that at the Second Coming of our Lord will be a Trinitarian phenomenon. All three members of the Triune Godhead will be joined inseparably in this event. In his commentary on Revelation, Robert Thomas summarizes this reality well when he says, “Though two separate Persons, they,” meaning God the Father and God the Son, “along with the Holy Spirit are nevertheless one God. The Son possesses equal dignity with the Father, and when the Son returns, He will come as the representative of the Father. So there is a legitimate sense in which it will be the advent of the Father also.”

So grace and peace come from God the Father. Next, we’re going to see that grace and peace also come from God the Spirit. Look at the end of verse 4. After saying grace and peace from the one who is and the one who is to come, that’s God the Father – then he says, “And from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” Now, I should begin by stating the obvious. The text does not say “and from the Holy Spirit.” If it had said that my job tonight would be a lot easier! Instead, the text says “and from the seven Spirits.” Now, there have been two major views presented over the years as to what this phrase, “and from the seven Spirits” might mean. One view takes the seven Spirits to be supernaturally created angels. The other view takes the seven Spirits to be a reference to the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

As I’ve already hinted at, I take the latter view. I think this is referring to the Holy Spirit. Now, the angels’ interpretation isn’t totally out of left field. Angels are, after all mentioned in many places throughout the book of Revelation. But the main reason I do not go with that interpretation of the seven spirits here are referring to angels is that angels are never used elsewhere in Scripture in connection with this grace and peace blessing formulation. Nor could it be said that angels are the source or originator or giver of grace and peace. If grace and peace were to come from angels, it would put them on an equal level with God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit. It would be the equivalent of saying, “Grace and peace from God the Father and God the Son and the angels,” which wouldn’t make a lot of sense, because we know that angels were created by God. They are not on par with God. So I reject the angelic view of the meaning of the words “the seven Spirits.” Instead I believe this is referring to the Holy Spirit so that we really do have a trinitarian formulation here. Grace and peace from the One who is and was and is to come -- God the Father. Grace and peace from the seven Spirits -- that’s the Holy Spirit.

Now why do I say what I have said so matter-of-factly, especially when there is a reference to seven Spirits? How do we get the singular Holy Spirit out of something that says seven Spirits? Well, some commentators have pointed to Isaiah 11:2 as evidence that what we have here in Revelation 1:4 is a reference to the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11:2 gives a listing of what some have called the “sevenfold designation of the Spirit.” Which, it is argued, supports the conclusion that the seven Spirits of Revelation 1:4 are in fact a reference to the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at Isaiah 11 and we will start in verse 1 just to give context. But what we want to get into is verse 2.

It says, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” Now here is our language, “The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.” You see them there. This one who is coming will have the spirit of… and then you see the list, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of Yahweh. That’s only 6 items, that’s not 7. Now, you go over to the Septuagint, Greek translation of the Old Testament, this same verse picks up seven designations. But in our manuscript, the earlier Hebrew manuscript, there are only 6. Meaning that supposed link between Isaiah 11:2 and Revelation 1:4 is broken.

So where does the idea that the seven Spirits of Revelation 1:4 are a reference to the Holy Spirit come from? What is a better place to go? Zechariah chapter 4. Go ahead and turn there with me to Zechariah 4. Here, we encounter an angelic vision given to the prophet Zechariah. It includes seven lamps and seven spouts attached to them. Look at Zechariah 4:1-4. “Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is roused from his sleep. And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it, also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side.’ Then I answered and said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, ‘What are these, my lord?’” So the prophet initially didn’t know what he was seeing in the vision. And he admitted it in verse 5. The angel asked him, “’Do you not know what these are?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord.’” But the angel of Yahweh then clarified things in Zechariah 4:6, “Then he answered and spoke to me saying ‘This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says Yahweh of hosts.’” In other words, the angel in this scene is directly linking the seven lampstands and seven spouts with the singular Spirit of God. Similar to the way, I would argue that John links “the seven Spirits” to the singular Spirit of God in Revelation 1:4. I’m using Zechariah 4 to take us to the conclusion in Revelation 1 that “the seven Spirits who are before His throne,” that’s a reference to the Holy Spirit.

So, tying it all together here in Revelation 1:4, grace and peace come from God the Father, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the Holy Spirit. Now we come to the beginning part of verse 5. I suppose you could say this is the easy part. “And from Jesus Christ.” This one is a bit more easy to interpret! Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Trinity and normally he as the Second Person is mentioned second in any Trinitarian formulation, not third, as He is here. But by being listed third, John isn’t demeaning or describing Christ in any way lesser or inferior way. Instead, He’s listed third here because what is to be said next is all about Christ. It makes literary sense, from John’s perspective, to place him third here to bridge into all that He is going to say now about Christ in verses to follow.

Let’s keep working our way through verse 5 where Jesus Christ, the glorified God-Man, is described as “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” What’s really fascinating is that each of those titles that you see there in verse 5 can be traced back to Psalm 89. I won’t have you turn there right now, but it might be good to go ahead and locate and place a finger in Psalm 89. I will reference a few times. Psalm 89 is God’s divinely-inspired commentary on the Davidic Covenant given in 2 Samuel 7:8-16. Psalm 89 is all about extolling the promises God gave to David that he would have a Ruler on his throne forever. That Davidic Heir and Ruler, of course, would later be revealed to be Jesus Christ. And who is the book of Revelation all about? Jesus Christ. So it makes sense that John would reach back to Psalm 89 here as his source of illustration.

Back to Revelation 1:5. John starts with describing Jesus Christ as “the faithful witness.” This is an allusion to Psalm 89:37, which reads, “It,” meaning David’s seed, “shall be established forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful.” Applied to our Lord, this calls to mind John 18:37, which is that scene where Jesus was standing before Pilate and Pilate asked Him the question, “So You are a king?” And Jesus replies, “You yourself said I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” In this way, the Lord Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the faithful One who came to testify to the truth. The One who came to “bear witness to the truth” and who is, as John 14:6 puts it, “the truth” itself. He is the faithful witness.

Not only that though, here in Revelation 1:5, Jesus the Son of God is called “the first born of the dead.” That’s another allusion back to Psalm 89 and specifically, Psalm 89:27, which says, in reference to David, “I also shall make him My firstborn.” Now, applied to Jesus, the word “firstborn” here is not referring to birth order, the way that we think of the word firstborn in our day. That would have no application to our Lord, who though in His humanity did take on flesh, otherwise has no beginning or birth as the eternal Son of God. Rather, firstborn here refers to a place of prominence, something like the greatest or the one who is in the highest place. That’s what John is saying here when he is calling Him the firstborn. He is preeminent. Colossians 1:18 says, “And He is head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”

Our Lord is not only the firstborn though. Reading on here in verse 5, the text says, that He is “firstborn of the dead.” Others, of course, have died and been raised back to physical life only to later die physically again. We think of Lazarus in John 11. However, no one else has died, been raised back to life, and been given their new glorified body. That distinction belongs to Jesus alone. And what that means simply is that He is our example of what our resurrection bodies are going to be like, because He is the only One who has received a glorified body thus far. He is the One we can look to as a forerunner, as the first fruits, of what our resurrection bodies will be like. He is the “firstborn of the dead.”

Next here in verse 5 we see that He is “the ruler of the kings of the earth.” Once again, this is another allusion back to Psalm 89 and specifically, Psalm 89:27, which says that the one in David’s line would be “the highest of the kings of the earth.” Of course, with respect to the Son of God, there is a sense in which He rules over all of the earth today. Psalm 93:1 says that “the Lord reigns.” But what John seems to have specifically in view here when he refers to the Lord Jesus as the “ruler of the kings of the earth” is something more specific. He is referring to the one day return of Jesus Christ to this earth when, as we see in Revelation 19, He comes back as the “King of Kings.” He is defeating the kings of the earth who oppose Him as He prepares to set up His physical kingdom here on earth.

With these words in Revelation 1:5 where Christ is described as the “ruler of the kings of the earth,” John officially winds down his opening greeting to this letter. And now, in the rest of verse 5 and all the way through verse 8, and surely with his thoughts on the glories of Jesus causing his head to spin, John shifts into a doxology -- this spontaneous eruption of worship and praise starting with the words toward the end of verse 5, “To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.” What a glorious truth that is. The One who is the supreme “ruler of the kings of the earth.” The One who is the “firstborn from the dead.” The One who is the “faithful witness.” He loves us. Is that staggering to you? We are the objects of His love. And not only that, because the verb here for “love” is in the present tense, the idea here is that His love for us is ongoing and continuing. His love for us isn’t conditional. His love for us isn’t here today, gone tomorrow. No, He loves us. Period. He loves us from eternity past. Ephesians 1:4-5, “In love, He predestined us.” He will love us into eternity future. And as this passage tells us, He loves us now. How comforting are these truths, brothers and sisters. No matter what you are going through right now, it’s good to know that our Lord’s love for us is ongoing, active, and uninterrupted. To know that, as we are told in Romans 8:38-39, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate [you] from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What an amazing truth, what a sure promise, and what wondrous love.

Not only does our Lord love us though, as the rest of verse 5 says, He has “released us from our sins by His blood.” John 8:36, Jesus Himself said, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” The freedom Jesus was speaking of there, and the freedom John is thinking of here when he said that we have been “released from our sins by His blood,” is the freedom from enslavement to sin. If we’ve put our faith in Jesus Christ we’ve been released from the shackles of the sin which once enslaved us.

When we think about who we once were, sin was a brutal master, was it not? It sure was. It weighed us down and it drug us down. But now, having been released from the heavy shackles of sin, we are not only free in Christ, but we have now been made slaves of Christ. We see Paul say this very thing in Romans 6:17,18, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” In Romans 6:19 it says, “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to further lawlessness,” that’s the past tense, who we once were, “so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.”

Yes, those of us who have trusted in Christ have been released from our sins by His blood, Revelation 1:5. We have, in that sense, been set free. But we are still slaves. We are slaves of righteousness and slaves to Christ. We are no longer under the back-breaking, soul-destroying yoke of sin, but rather we now wear the gentle and easy yoke of our gracious Master and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean that life in Christ is always easy. Some of the things He calls us to do are difficult. Some of the experiences He allows us to go through are hard. But better to live under the always-good, ever-gracious rulership and authority of Christ, than it is to live under the reckless anarchy of our own stubborn wills.

Continuing on here in verse 5. The text tells us and John reminds us that we who have trusted in Christ have been released from our sins by His blood. Now, there’s nothing mystical or magical or unique in His blood, rather His blood represents His death. It was on the cross that the Father poured out His wrath on the Son, and through that event that the door would be opened to receive those who identify with the Substitute. This through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the death of Christ at Calvary through which redemption was paid and salvation was offered, as the price for our sin was forever and fully paid. And it is by His death that we come into a right relationship with God. Praise the Lord for these truths!

Well, having been bought by such a gracious Master we have been set apart, sanctified to do God’s work. Look at the beginning part of verse 6. “And He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” Note the hyphen at the end of verse 5 and there is also one at the end of this first half of verse 6. This is the translator’s way of setting these words apart. They are almost like a parenthetical, this mild interruption in his ordinary flow of thought. And the purpose of this interjection here is to stress that the Second Person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, has made us something. He’s actually made us two things as we see in this verse. First, He has made us to be a kingdom. Second, He has made us to be priests to His God and Father. Collectively He has made us to be a kingdom and individually we are priests to His God and Father.

John here as he has wanted to do in much of the book of Revelation, is borrowing from Old Testament language here, Exodus 19:6, where God the Father said to the Israelites at Sinai, “you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In John’s context, living when he lived, he’s speaking of our privileged status as people of God. In being made a kingdom of priests, he is saying we are eminently privileged to be a part of the people of God now. But our status as citizens of this kingdom of which John speaks, that’s going to come to full fruition in the future, when Christ sets up His literal, physical, thousand year reign on earth in that period of time the Bible describes as the Millennium. When our Lord returns to this earth after the Rapture and after the Tribulation, He is going to return to establish a Kingdom in which He has all power, and all authority, and all autonomy. There won’t be voting or bicameral legislatures or unicameral legislatures in the kingdom of Christ on earth. There will not be checks and balances. This will be a monarchy ruled and mediated by Christ who, because He is holy and righteous, will rule and reign in a perfectly righteous way. And as a part of this coming future kingdom we are going to have the privilege of ruling with Him.

In verse 6 we’re also told that we are His priests. Of course, back in Old Testament times, priestly duties could only be carried out by a certain people and by certain members of a certain tribe within that people and by a certain group of men within that certain tribe. Our God is a consuming fire and there were those who were, in fact, consumed by Him for not following His rules in approaching Him. But because of what Christ accomplished in His finished and sufficient work on the cross we who have trusted in Him for salvation are now called priests here in Revelation 1:6. The application here is that we have no need for any earthly representatives to have access to God. We don’t need to call on bishops or cardinals or popes. And for that matter we don’t have to call on pastors or elders or deacons to have access to God. We have access to God through God the Son, our great high priest, our advocate. We even have access to God the Spirit as our intercessor. Romans 8 says He intercedes on our behalf with groanings that we don’t even know. It’s an amazing truth especially when you think of how offensive our past life of sin once was to God. Think about when we once lived in open rebellion against God. We now have the ability to access that same God, the very God of heaven, the God who has shown us such love, grace, mercy, and peace through the death of Christ. Amazing grace, indeed!

And it’s those truths that we are now this “kingdom, priests to His God and Father,” that causes John to burst into these words of praise at the end of verse 6, “to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.” Jesus is the clear object of praise and glory here. As through his pen John falls down in praise of the One who is our Savior. He’s the One who loves us and by his death redeemed us from our sin. He also is the One who will reign when He comes to establishes His kingdom here on the earth. To that Jesus, John says, “be the glory and the might.” And not only that, “forever and ever.” John is letting it be known that the reign of Christ will have no end to it! It will be forever. Nothing and no one can ever usurp His authority or His reign.

And then John ends with a simple word there in verse 6, “Amen.” Now that word is not the way we think of the word “amen,” like “the end” or “I’m done now” or “let’s eat.” That’s not the meaning of the word “amen.” Rather the word really means to signify one’s agreement with the truthfulness of what was just said. In this case, what John has said about Jesus Christ deserves an amen. It’s true. John has accurately portrayed the glory of Christ, the weight of His holy being. He has accurately portrayed the might of Christ, His dominion, His rule, and His authority in this world. And so we all should say with John, “Amen.”

And then now and seemingly out of nowhere come these words from John in verse 7 where he says, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds.” Having given glory and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of verse 6, John now says, without much in the way of transition, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds.” And in doing so John launches into his first prophecy regarding the risen and glorified Christ. John starts with the word “Behold.” In John’s time when someone said “behold” they knew something important was about to be said. This is like a verbal trumpet blast. This is an intentional way of saying, “Stop what you’re doing, listen carefully, pay attention and heed these words.”

And he says, “He is coming with the clouds.” This is a very clear reference to a Messianic Old Testament text. Turn with me to Daniel 7:13,14. “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and came near before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not be taken away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.” It’s quite evident there in Daniel 7 that this is the Scripture that John had in mind as he wrote these words of praise in Revelation 1:7.

And then look at what comes next here in verse 7, “And every eye will see Him.” The whole human race will see Him. The return of our Lord is going to be a global event. Just like the flood was a global event in Noah’s day, the return of Christ will be a global event. All will see, every eye will see Him. Then we receive this qualifier, still in verse 7. “Even those who pierced Him.” This is drawing from Zechariah 12, which places special emphasis on a human level, on who was responsible for our Lord’s death. There in Zechariah 12:10, it says that “the house of David” and “the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” “will look on Me whom they have pierced.” Zechariah 12:10 is describing that day in the future when Israel will mourn in repentance as they come to realize their guilt in crucifying their Messiah. And God will bring about their repentance on that day supernaturally through what He describes in Zechariah 12:10 as His “Spirit of grace and supplication.” This will be a future day of mourning and repentance for Israel. It is brought about by the grace of God, through the Spirit of God. The eyes of the people of Israel will be opened on that day, bringing about their salvation. This will truly be a glorious day.

But not for everyone. Look at the next part of verse 7, which says that while Israel will repent on that future day, “all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.” Unlike the mourning of repentance that Israel will experience leading to their salvation, the tribes of the earth, the nations of mankind, everyone else in the world, will experience a mourning of grief. We also see this portrayed in Matthew 24:29,30. Turn with me. This describes the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the Tribulation. It says, “But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. And the stars will fall from the sky. And the powers from the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” That’s the event that is described over in Revelation 1:7 where it says, “and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him.”

This grief the tribes of the earth will experience will be brought about by their own sorrow for having rejected the coming King who is coming on a white horse to judge the world. Their own realization that their stiff-necked rebellion has put them in a place where they are His enemies and that their day of reckoning has come. And so they will “mourn over Him.”

Verse 7 then concludes with this simple statement, “Yes.” Or as some translations have it, “So it is to be.” And then again, “Amen,” which drives home the certainty of what John is predicting here.

As we turn to verse 8, we see these words, “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” These are familiar words and these are important words. In fact, our college and young adults’ ministry gets its name from these words! So what do these words mean? More specifically, who are they referring to? As you read the various commentaries, there’s a fairly even split on this question with some saying that God the Father is the Alpha and the Omega. The Alpha and Omega are the first letters of the Greek alphabet. It’s describing His power, might and authority.

Others say that God the Son, Jesus, is the Alpha and the Omega. I take the latter position. I believe this language is referring to God the Son. And I do so for a few reasons. First, there are a couple of cross-references in Revelation where we see similar words being used to describe God the Son. Revelation 22:12,13, these are the words of Christ, He says, “Behold I am coming quickly and my reward is with me. To render to every man according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” And how do we know this is Jesus? According to Revelation 22:16, the quote is continuing, as it is Jesus who says these words. “I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you of these things for the churches.” This is a Christ reference. And I would say that carries over to our passage, Revelation 1:8. That says the alpha and omega is a reference to Christ, God the Son.

Another reason I take the Alpha and the Omega as being a reference to Jesus, is that it underscores His deity which is a truth we see highlighted throughout the book of Revelation. For instance, there are several places in the Old Testament where Yahweh is referred to as the first and the last. Isaiah 41:4, “I, Yahweh, am the first, and the last, I am He.” Isaiah 44:6, “Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last.” Isaiah 48:12, “Hear Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last.” So then, concluding that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega here in verse 8, it further drives home the point as we see elsewhere in Revelation that Jesus is God. He is the fullness of the Godhead, Colossians 2:9, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily.” He shares fully in the attributes and deity of God the Father, Hebrews 1:3, He is “the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” And this includes the fact that He shares the title of the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega.

So all that evidence in totality leads me to the conclusion that the Alpha and the Omega here in verse 8 is referring to Jesus Christ. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is the first and the last. He is the one who rules over all. He brought it all into existence and He will bring it all to its appointed conclusion.

And finally, at the end of verse 8, one more stroke of the pen from John where He again testifies to the deity of Jesus when He says that Christ is the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Jesus our Lord is no less than “Lord God,” co-equal with the Father. Jesus our Lord is “the Almighty” One, the One who has all power, the One who has all authority, and the One who answers to nobody. And Jesus our Lord, as it says here, is the One “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” He the One as we see back in verse 7, “who is coming with the clouds.” That’s our study of Revelation 1:4-8. I’m going to give you two words of application as we leave this evening. Ready? Head’s up. Look up. He’s coming.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for this chance to be in Your Word this evening. We thank You for the truth that You have given us in the book of Revelation concerning the person of Jesus Christ, His eternality, His purposes, His plans, and the promises of His one-day-and-soon return. God, I pray that we would be a people who are preparing ourselves as we look forward to that day when we will be taken to be with You and spend forever with You and rule and reign with You. God, we are looking forward to that day. We look forward with eagerness to the fact that You are coming on the clouds. We look forward to that day where we will one day be in a kingdom reign and rule with You. We look forward to that day where we will be in an eternal state where there are no tears, no darkness, no grief, no pain or suffering, but where righteousness dwells. God, we pray that You would hasten that day. We know that it is already appointed, but we pray that You would come quickly Lord Jesus. We pray that in the meantime we would be Your holy and righteous subjects. That we would be those who are keeping our lamps trimmed, keeping the lights on. Preparing ourselves in righteousness that You give us the ability to do through Your Spirit. God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for its clarity. Thank You for its conviction and thank You for its promises and it’s hope. May You strengthen us for Your service this week. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.