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First and Last

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Message to the Seven Churches

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 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— 6 and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to bHis God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 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. So it is to be. Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

The Patmos Vision

9 I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was ain the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 19 “Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. 20 “As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

We now begin on the first of John’s visions; Verses 12-16 and we shall see that he is so familiar with Scripture that element after element in the picture has an Old Testament background and counterpart.

He says that he turned to see the voice. We would say: ‘I turned to see whose voice it was that was speaking to me.’

When he turned, he saw seven golden lampstands. John does not only allude to the Old Testament; he takes items from many places in it, and out of them he forms a composite picture. The picture of the seven golden lampstands has three sources.

(1) It comes from the picture of the candlestick of pure gold in the tabernacle. It was to have six branches, three on one side and three on the other, and seven lamps to give light ().

(2) It comes from the picture of Solomon’s Temple. In it, there were to be five candlesticks of pure gold on the right hand and five on the left ().

(3) It comes from the vision of Zechariah. Zechariah saw ‘a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it; there are seven lamps on it’ ().

When John sees a vision, he sees it in terms of scenes from the Old Testament places and occasions when God had already revealed himself to his people. Surely there is a lesson here. The best way to prepare oneself for new revelation of truth is to study the revelation which God has already given.

In the midst of the lampstands, he saw one like a son of man. Here, we are back to the picture of , in which the kingdom and the power and the dominion are given by the Ancient One to one like a son of man. As we well know from Jesus’ use of it, Son of Man became nothing less than the title of the Messiah; and, by using it here, John makes it plain that the revelation which he is to receive is coming from Jesus Christ himself.

This figure was clothed with a robe which reached down to his feet, and he was girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. Here again we have three pictures.

(1) The word which describes the robe is podērēs, reaching down to the feet. This is the word which the Greek Old Testament uses to describe the robe of the high priest (, ; ). The Jewish historian Josephus also describes carefully the garments which the priests and the high priest wore when they were serving in the Temple. They wore ‘a long robe reaching to the feet’, and, around the breast, ‘higher than the elbows’, they wore a girdle which was loosely wound round and round the body. The girdle was embroidered with colours and flowers, with a mixture of gold interwoven (The Antiquities of the Jews, 3:7:2, 4). All this means that the description of the robe and the girdle of the glorified Christ is almost exactly that of the clothes of the priests and of the high priest. Here, then, is the symbol of the high priestly character of the work of the risen Lord. A priest, as the Jews saw it, was a man who himself has access to God and who opens the way for others to come to him; even in the heavenly places, Jesus, the great high priest, is still carrying on his priestly work, opening the way for all to the presence of God.

(2) But other people besides priests wore the long robe reaching to the feet and the high girdle. It was the dress of great ones, of princes and of kings. Podērēs is the description of the robe of Jonathan (), of Saul (, ) and of the princes of the sea (). The robe the risen Christ was wearing was the robe of royalty. He was no longer a criminal on a cross; he was dressed like a king.

Christ is Priest and Christ is King.

(3) There is still another part of this picture. In the vision of Daniel, the divine figure who came to tell him the truth of God was clothed in fine linen (the Greek Old Testament calls his garment podērēs) and with a belt of fine gold (). This, then, is the form of dress of the messenger of God. So this presents Jesus Christ as the supreme messenger of God.

Here is a tremendous picture. When we trace the origins of the thought of John, we see that by the very form of dress of the risen Lord he is showing him to us in his threefold eternal office of Prophet, Priest and King, the one who brings the truth of God, the one who enables others to enter into the presence of God and the one to whom God has given the power and dominion forever.