Johns Salutaion

Revelation 1:4-8

Johns Salutation

1) Johns recipients:

a. John identifies himself once again as the writer of this letter, If we remember from last week,, contrary to how we would sign our name at the end of a letter, it was custom for a writer to identify themself at the beginning, which is why John also Identifies himself as the author in verse 1. But notice how he was not the first name in that chain. We discussed last time how there was a chain of custody of the revelation, and it originated with the Father, which is why the Father is first name to appear on the manuscript and not John. However here, John is addressing the churches, so this is why his name appears in verse 4 again.

b. His recipients are The seven churches located in Asia Minor (Modern day Turkey) which include: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea) (V.11).

2) The Greeting:

a. The greeting of Grace

i. Grace and peace was the standard greeting the apostles would usually give to each other and to the recipients of their letters. But the word that’s used here for peace is a little different than the English word for peace. The Greek word here for peace comes with the same idea as the Hebrew word Shalom; completeness, wholeness, tranquility, a state of well-being.

ii. But if you notice from the text, it is not John who is actually giving this beautiful greeting. This greeting John is giving from God. Now there are two ways to interpret this passage. Some commentators interpret V. 4 and 5 as three descriptors of the second person of the triune Godhead, Jesus Christ.

iii. However the other interpretative view, and it’s the view that I hold, is that all three members of the exalted Trinity are represented here in this greeting of grace and peace to the churches.

b. From the Father

i. The Anthropomorphic terms of Who is, Who Was, Who is to come are used to describe the Fathers eternality and existence in all of history. Unlike God who is outside of time, Because we as human beings living on this earth right now have only in space and time, and live life linearly, our brains cannot fully grasp the concept of how God can exist simultaneously as an eternal being in all of the past, all of the present, and all of the future.

c. The Holy Spirit

i. Next to be represented in this greeting at the end of V.4 is the Holy Spirit by the phrase seven Spirits. This same wording is used more times in this book in chapter 3, 4, and 5. This could be a reference Isaiah 11:2, where the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of;

1 YHWY

2 Wisdom

3 Understanding

4 Counsel

5 Might This

6 Knowledge

7 And finally Fear of Ywhw

d. I am not 100% dogmatic about that, but it certainly is a very sound case, and one I lean towards cautiously.

e. This same sevenfold manifestation of the Holy Spirit is also seen in Zechariah 4. It is absolutely appropriate that the Spirit is represented here in this greeting, Not only because hes a member of the triune Godhead which is being represented here, but because the Holy Spirit is the spirit of grace according to the author of Hebrews in chapter 10. He is also according to the Apostle Paul, the source of fruit within a believer, one of which is peace (Galatians 5:22).

f. Back to the text at the end of V.4, The Holy Spirit is described as being before the Father who is sitting on the throne in the heavenly throne room in all of his majesty, awesomeness, and glory. Just as a side note, whenever you are witnessing to a liberal charismatic or any alleged Christian who denies the deity of the holy spirit for that matter, this is one of a huge variety of verses you can go to in scripture to make an accumulative case for the Holy Spirit being an individual person of the Trinity.

g. Finally this greeting of grace and peace comes from Jesus Christ, the focal point in the book of Revelation, and this is why I believe the God breathed text mentions the second person of the God head last, because there are a number of descriptors John wants to elaborate on.

i. Jesus is described throughout scripture as being a faithful witness. But what does this mean when John calls him a faithful witness. Well lets examine some uses of scripture to see what John means here.

1. As Jesus was standing before Pilate in John 18:37, he said he came to the earth to bear witness or to testify to the truth, and that truth was to crush the lies, and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom as Matthew 4:23 indicates). 1 Timothy 6 further elaborates on this and I im quoting v.13-15 “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and Jesus Christ, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time” end quote. Later in this book in chapter 3, Jesus is called the faithful and true witness. After reading these, we can define faithful witness as the one who lives flawlessly to the will of God and who always proclaims and represents the truth.

3) First Born from the Dead

i. Jesus is also described in V.5 as being the First Born from the dead. This is obviously a clear case to Jesus resurrection from the dead But I think that’s only a surface level description that’s worthy of deeper consideration. John knows of his gospel account where he wrote about Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus. Is this a contradiction? How do we reconcile this?

Well I don’t think John is speaking of sequential resurrection but the first in preeminence. This is furthermore confirmed by the Apostle Paul, I’m quoting from his letter to the Colossian church “and he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent” and that’s Chapter 1 verse 18.

Out of everyone who was ever raised from the dead, and out of everyone who will be glorified at the rapture, Jesus is the only one who holds claims to sinless perfection, and the highest of all of the kings of the earth according to Psalm 89.

4) Ruler of the Kings of the Earth

a. This is an appropriate segway into the third descriptor used in V.5 of Jesus as the Ruler of all kings of the earth. We just discussed Psalm 89 as one scripture reference of authority to rule. Later in Chapter 17 of Revelation, and angel tells John that Jesus is Lord of those who are Lords, and King of those who are Kings. Later in chapter 19, with John seeing the second advent of Christ, John records seeing that same verbiage on Jesus’s robe and on his thigh.

i. Of course this shouldn’t be news to you or I. Remember I spoke of the significance of reading Daniel and Revelation together? Well Daniel writing about visions of Jesus coming centuries before the first advent of Christ, details Jesus Kingship over the earth at the inauguration of the Millennial Reign of Christ. Daniel records in chapter 7 as the Father gives dominion to the son to rule “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” And folks Jesus authority to rule is not just in Daniel its littered everywhere in scripture: Psalm 2; Jeremiah 23; Isaiah 9; Isaiah 11; Zechariah 9; Matthew 2; Matthew 21; Luke 19 and those are just a few.

5) In V.5b to the end of V.6, John lists 4 reasons, which can also double as additional descriptors from the prior verses as to why hes praising Jesus in v.6b

a. The first reason is that Christ loves us. The word here that almost always referes to Jesus love for us and his church is agape love. Agape is selfless sacrificial love. A type of love where you do something for someone else, fully knowing that they will never be able to return the favor, nor do you expect a favor to be returned. Agape is an action and in its purest, most intimate form looks horrific and nauseating. In its purest and its most intimate form, it looks like a man with more lacerations that a person can number nailed to a tree with a cross beam who’s entire body weight is supported by 4 limbs and 3 nails. Obviously, I am referring to Christ’s willingness to be put to death for his church who could never pay him back, and that is what John given the immediate context is reminding these seven churches of shortly before he writes what Jesus has to say about the spiritual state of these seven local bodies in Asia Minor.

b. Freed us from sin

i. In the 8th Chapter of his Gospel, the Apostle John records the words Jesus spoke “who the son sets free is free indeed.” Jesus of course in this context was discussing with the Jews how he would set them free, but the Jews who said they were offspring of Abraham claimed they were never enslaved to anyone. But Jesus turns the conversation shifting from physical slavery which is what the Jews thought, to spiritual slavery which is what Jesus intended to convey. He does this by saying any one who practices sin, which according to Romans 3:23 is everyone, is a slave to sin. That is right, if you have not believed that by God’s grace alone apart from works, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you as your penal substitute for sin, and rose from the grave 3 days later, If you never believed and confessed that as your only way to be made right with God, you are a slave. You are a slave and sin is your master, a master that will lead you to an eternity of fire and torment in the depths of hell with no hope of it ever stopping. But for those who have confessed and believed in Jesus death and resurrection according to Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 not only are you no longer a slave to sin, and legally declared as innocent before God, but you are also imputed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because of that not only are we no longer in bondage, but the third member of the Godhead actually lives within us and sanctifies us, and by the grace of God, one day if the Lord doesn’t return first, our Spirits will be united with a glorified body, unable to sin, and we will be fully sanctified and transformed into the full likeness of Jesus Christ.

c. The Shedding of His blood

i. Some of you may remember a controversy that occurred before I was born. John MacArthur was, inappropriately and wrongfully in my opinion, accused of being a heretic by Bob Jones Jr. in a Bob Jones university magazine because of doctrinal views of the blood of Jesus Christ. Though the controversy has long been clarified and resolved, Its worth consideration.

ii. The literal blood substance of Jesus Christ in and of itself has no significance. It was not Jesus plasma, white blood cells, and red cells that cleansed us and freed us from sin.

iii. But the life of every creature, including human beings is located in our blood according God, and this is seen in Leviticus 17:14. Also, according to the Author of Hebrews, the shedding of blood (or the sacrificial life) is required for the remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22).

iv. So what do we make out of what the Apostle John is communicating here? Up until the time of Jesus Christ, God required animal sacrifices for sin, and you can read more about this in Leviticus, and how it all points to the future coming of Jesus.

v. But by Jesus active obedience which deals with him perfectly keeping God’s law, and his passive obedience, and passive obedience, or him going to the cross receiving the punishment for our sins, Jesus became the final sacrificial lamb, the final slaughter, the final death that covered all sin for all time for anyone who repents. But why is this?

vi. Well in order to a sacrifice on our behalf, and you will hear me draw upon Old Testament language here, Jesus as our sacrificial lamb had to be unblemished. This is where his active obedience came in. Jesus had to live perfectly God’s law impeccably, otherwise he would be blemished and unacceptable to the Father as a sin offering. Jesus had to do it on our behalf, we were not capable of doing it ourselves, which is why Paul writes “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:1)

vii. So because Jesus active obedience to the Father, he was able to go to the cross unblemished. If he was blemished in any way, he would have died in vain, paying for his own sins on the cross. But because Jesus was innocent and righteous on that cross, he was able to imputed the sin, thus actually taking sin into himself though he sinless. And after hours of torture at Calvary, taking wrath for our sins that were imputed to him, Jesus was able to finally say “it is finished”. Jesus was accepted the wages of sin which is death, and loves redeeming work was done.

viii. Three days later, God confirmed to humanity that the shed blood of Jesus Christ was the final sacrifice that was needed by raising him triumphantly from the dead.

d. Jesus, by his love, shed blood, and freeing us from our slavery to sin has turned us into a Kingdom of priests.

i. Although believers will be glorified and have the privilege of reigning with Christ in the Millennial Kingdom, I don’t believe this is what John is talking about here.

ii. I think this Kingdom is better understood as the general umbrella of God’s rule in which every believer comes under after they are saved. I think Paul illustrates this better than I can when he says “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13)

iii. Likewise, I don’t believe John has glorified believers ruling with Christ during the Millennial Reign in mind either. But what is he referring to, I think Peter has the answer here of how to define priest. Peter writing to Christians in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, all regions in modern day Turkey says in 1 Peter 2:9-10 “ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who has called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light.” So how do we understand ourselves as priests? Since we who were once in the darkness know the excellence of the One who saved us from the darkness, we are to proclaim the goodness of God. I would say it like this, You don’t need to be a pastor in a pulpit in order to tell of God’s goodness and proclaim his truth, because according to John and Peter, you are a priest, and are commissioned to serve God by doing just that, proclaiming his excellence.

e. Dominion and Glory to Jesus forever

In light of all of the goodness John just conveyed about Jesus, and in light of all of the blessing Christ has given those who he called out of darkness, John wraps up his doxology in a very similar way that Peter did in 1 Peter 4. In light of all Jesus has done while we were still yet his enemies, this should really only response a believer should have, not only is it praise, but its fact, it has been ordained that glory and all dominion be given to Jesus.

6) In verse 7 after John completes his doxology, John issues his first prophetic statement of Revelation.

a. John makes an allusion to Daniel 7. Having a vision of the future day when Jesus takes over as King after the tribulation, Coming in the clouds, Daniel records “behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like the Son of Man and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

i. The word “coming” in the Greek is in the present tense. This is significant because it strongly suggests his coming is already underway, and you can regard it as certain. Despite people who allegorize and spiritualize Jesus literal second coming to earth, you can be assured it will occur just as all of the prophets, and Jesus himself predicted.

ii. Clouds are significant in scripture because it symbolizes God’s presence. You can see this scattered throughout Exodus, Numbers 10, and 1 Kings 8, 1 Thessalonians 4, just to name a few. I think when John says coming with the clouds he is communicating something twofold, that he comes from heaven, and the bright light associated with his glory.

b. At the end of the tribulation, all of the light is plunged into darkness. The lights in the cosmos are turned off, and the kingdom of the Antichrist is plunged into total and literal darkness. But when the Son of Man decends from heaven back to earth in all of his glory, illuminating the entire earth with what Paul calls an unapproachable light in 1 Timothy 6, there is no eye that will fail to miss it. Every human eye shall see his return.

c. Even those who pierced him. Now being that every one who had anything to Jesus crucifixion are in the depths of Hades awaiting their final judgement, I think it is irresponsible to scripture to suggest that Roman Soldiers who drove the nails into Jesus wrists and feet, and stuck a spear into his side will see Jesus’s second coming. So how do we reconcile this? John clearly in Revelation 1:7 draws from Zechariah 12:10. But also in the Gospel of John, John says Zechariah 12:10 was fulfilled at Jesus crucifixion,

d. Did John contradict himself? How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction? Well if I were to reword verse 7 it may look something like this “and every eye will see him, especially the unbelieving Jews in Israel.”

e. How do I come to that, well the prophet says in Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitance of Jerusalem a spirit of Grace and please for mercy so that when they look on me whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him” so what Zechariah is saying being that the house of David is the focal point of this prophecy, when he says “they whom they have pierced” who’s they? THE JEWS! The nation who rejected him? So, by alluding to this prophecy in Revelation, John is saying that yes the whole world will see Jesus return, especially the nation who rejected their Messiah the first time.

f. John once again alludes to Zechariah 12 for the great mourning or wailing when he says “and Every tribe on earth will wail because of him”. Zechariah talks about great weeping after the house of David after Jesus was rejected as the Messiah. Great weeping like one who lost their firstborn. This is how it will be once again when all of the unbelievers of the earth who continue to reject God, and even who acknowledge the wrath of the tribulation was from an angry God (Revelation 6:16) are faced with the sheer terror of finally seeing and being confronted By Jesus.

7) The last point in all of this I want to make before we close is in verse 8, God makes a truth claim regarding his eternality and power almost as to verify the means of how all of this will take place. Or picture this verse as John writing memo, and Got is putting his wet signature on the paper as the source of authority.

a. God references his omniscience by calling himself The Alpha and Omega which of course are the first and letters of the Greek alphabet. We may say something like, “I know something from A to Z and everything in between” God knows all things, so when God promises Jesus Christ will return, you better bet your bottom dollar its going to happen.

b. God then uses the same Anthropomorphic terms we discussed earlier to back up his prior claim in verse 8a of his eternality. He transcends time and space, he exists in all places at all times and therefore, there is no circumstance where he is even remotely misinformed about the coming judgement or return of Jesus.

c. Finally, God makes reference to his omnipotence when he calls himself the almighty. God is all powerful, and nothing is going to hinder God in the second advent of Christ. In fact I would argue because God is omnipotent and sovereign, what we may see as a potential hinderance is actually someone playing right in to God’s had as he ordained it to be.

Friends, as John as John in not so many words conveyed to three literal churches in Asia minor, our God is sovereign, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Our God wrote and ordained history before the foundations of the earth and it’s playing out to this day exactly the way he intended it to go down to the smallest detail. So, when God promises Jesus will some day return in glory, and to right every wrong, and establish his King, you best believe its going to happen.

It’s also a great source of comfort that the God of all goodness is not only in full control of history but our lives as well. If our God can work out history to his good pleasures, we can also be sure our lives, no matter their circumstances at any point in history, are well within his control and working out for his good pleasure and glory. This is affirmed by the fact the God himself would take on flesh to be killed by people, to rescue them from the same sin and depravity that killed him in the first place. We can trust our God! Can I get an Amen?

Lets pray………