A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

CHAPTER 1

Verses 1 - 3

In verse 1, John says that this book is a 'Revelation'. This means that it is as though there is a curtain, which hangs between us and the Lord Jesus Christ. So we cannot see Him. In this Book, the curtain will be taken away so that we can see Him. That means that He can also see what happens in our lives. If we suffer or have trouble, He sees and knows [1.1].

First, God the Father gave this 'revelation' to our Lord Jesus Christ. He then sent an 'angel', a spirit who brings God's messages, to John. Now (verse 2) John passes the message on to God's people. Verse 2 is very much like other things that John wrote. (See John 21:24; 1 John 1:2,3.) John had spoken in John 1: 1,2,14 about our Lord Jesus as 'the Word of God'. [1.2]. The whole of John's Gospel is his 'testimony' to Jesus. It is his record about Him.

There is a problem in verse 1. It speaks about 'what must soon take place'. They are things 'which are to happen with speed'. Even today, not all these things have happened. But they have begun to happen. Because of that, we can be sure that the rest will happen too when God is ready. Some people think of it like this. When we look back over the past, we remember a few great events. There were long years between them when not much happened. It is like that when we look into the future. There are great things that God will do. But there are long years between them. And when the end of the age does come, it will come 'with speed'.

In verse 3, John says that the book is a 'prophecy'. We have seen that in those days there were prophets who went from one city to another and spoke in God's name in the church worship. I think that verses 4 - 8 are made up of the kind of thing the prophets said. There are a number of other verses like this in the book. John says that although his book is much longer, it is still a 'prophecy'. It will be read out aloud by someone in the church worship. The person who reads it out and those who listen to it are both 'blessed', that is, very happy. They will be very happy because they have heard the Word of God. But it is not enough just to hear God's word. We must 'take it to heart'. We must do what it tells us to do.

The best known sayings about people being 'blessed' or very happy are the sayings of Jesus. You will find them in Matthew 5:1-12. The other sayings in the Book of Revelation are in 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20: 6; 22:7 and 22:14. We have seen that there are seven of them altogether. We have already said that we shall find the number 'seven' many times in this Book. It may mean that something is complete. John adds a reason why people will be 'blessed', very happy. 'The time is near' that is, the time when these things will begin to happen is close to his readers.

Verses 4 - 8 What the prophets have said in the churches.

I think that there are four separate things, which had been said by the prophets in the churches in these verses. You will see that verse 4 and the first part of verse 5 are the first of these; the rest of verse 5 goes with verse 6. Then there is verse 7 and also verse 8. They are separate sayings.

1. Verses 4 and 5 (first part)

It is here that we can see that the Book is in fact a letter. We shall see in verse 9 why it was that John sent a letter to the churches. He writes to seven churches in 'Asia'. We use the name 'Asia' today to cover the great area of the world from the Ural Mountains in Russia to Singapore and from Arabia to Siberia. We call the part of Turkey between the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea 'Asia Minor'. But the Roman province of Asia, which John knew, was even smaller than our 'Asia Minor'. It was only the western part of it. (If you can find some maps in the back of a Bible, they will help you to understand this.)

The Greeks started to build their cities in this part of the world hundreds of years before the time of John. They met the very old kingdom of Lydia, and then they had wars with the great Persian Empire. This was a very important part of the Greek world. By the time of John it was all part of Rome's empire. The Turks did not drive out the last Greeks until 1922. [1.3]

John writes his 'letter' to the churches in the cities that are listed in verse 11. We will say something about each of these seven cities when we come to Chapters 2 and 3. But there were Christians in many other cities. Paul wrote a letter to Colosse, which we know as 'Colossians'. In that letter you will find that Paul speaks about a church in another city called Hierapolis (4: 13). We know that a few years after this time there were churches in cities called Tralles and Magnesia.

Paul had preached the Good News in and around Ephesus for two or three years. This was about AD 52-54 (Acts 19). Acts 19:10 tells us that everyone who lived in the province of Asia heard the Good News. (See also Paul's speech in Acts 20:17-38.) So when John sent his letter to the seven churches, they were not the only churches in that part of the world. We see, too, that the seven churches were already about 40 years old. Notice that John does not have to say who he is. Everyone in the churches knows him well and honours him.

It was usual in the ancient world to read out loud. (See Acts 8: 28-35). John wrote Revelation to be read out loud by someone to the churches when they met.

Then John sends his greeting to the churches. He wishes that they may receive grace and peace from God. [1.4] God's grace is His favour to us. We have not earned His favour. It is ours only because Jesus has died for us. It is His love to us; He forgives our sins. He puts His Holy Spirit in us. He promises us glory. Before we believed in Jesus, we knew only a God who was angry with us because of our sins.

Grace and peace are the outside and inside of the same thing. Now we have God's grace, we also have peace inside us. We know that God is not angry and that He has forgiven our sins. We know that He loves us and we hope for glory. Until we had this peace, there was always a fight between good and bad inside us. God's goodness has won the fight. So grace and peace come to us from God.

Now John goes on to speak about God. Usually we speak of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here John speaks about the Father first, next about the Holy Spirit and then afterwards about the Son. This may be because in the second part of verse 5 and in verse 6 he will go on to say more about Jesus.

So first, John calls God the Father 'Him who is, and who was and who is to come'. You will find this name for God again in verse 8 of this chapter. We notice that John does not here say: 'Him who was, who is and who is to come'. And he does not say; 'Him who is and who will be'. From this we can learn these two things: -

a) We first know that God is now, because He saves us. When we have that experience we can then say: 'God was'. He was there all the time; I just did not know Him. He saves sinners now. He is the God who gives life. So He is the God who made all things.

b) God is the 'God who is to come'. He is already there, in the future. There in tomorrow and the days to come, He is at work for us. And He will meet us as we go forward. He will always be there.

There are two other things we need to say about this.

a) In 4:8 the angels worship God. They speak about him as the one who was, and is, and is to come. They know him as their Maker first of all. Then in 11:17 and again in 16:5, John speaks of God as the one who is and who was. He is no longer 'to come'. He has come! In 16:5 John adds 'the Holy One'.

What about the devil? Look at 17:8 and you will see that the devil 'was, is not and will go'. God will destroy him. This is the nearest that the devil can get to the name of God. We can usually look back into the past, and see evil there. We look into the future, and fear evil there. But often it is not so easy to be sure what is evil in the present.

b) This name for God is important. God told Moses in Exodus 3:13 and 14 that His Name was 'YHWH'. This is often written as 'Jehovah'. It means 'I am what I am' or 'I will be what I will be'. The Jews said that the meaning was: 'I am He who is and who will be' or 'I am He who is and who was and I am who will be'. Another suggestion is: 'I am everything that I will be'. [1.5] Now the Jews knew that this Name was holy and so they did not speak it. About 200 years before the time of Jesus, many Jews began to speak the Greek language. When they worshipped God in Greek they used a word which means 'Owner' instead of 'YHWH'. And when they translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, the same word was used.

So what John says here is that we should remember the real meaning of the holy Name of God. 'The Lord' in our English Bibles does not really give the meaning.

2. Then John speaks of the Spirit of God as 'the seven spirits before His throne'. John speaks like this again in 3:1; in 4:5; and in 5:6. There is only one Holy Spirit: but John speaks about the Holy Spirit as 'the seven Spirits' because the Holy Spirit's work is complete. The number seven may be used in Revelation for something that is complete. [1.6] The 'seven Spirits' are not seven angels.

The 'throne' of God is His seat in heaven as king of all creation; He rules the world. The teaching of these words is important to us. There were seven churches in Asia. They were not alike. We shall see later that they were quite different from each other. Their needs were different. But the 'seven Spirits' matched the seven churches. One church could not say: 'The Spirit of God is at work in one of the other churches. But we are different. He will not move among us here'. Whatever the need of the church was, the Spirit of God could meet the need and fill it. This is still true today. When we see that the Spirit of God is at work in other churches, we cannot say: 'They are different. The Spirit of God will not work amongst us'. Indeed the very opposite is true. It is only God's Holy Spirit who can ever meet the real needs of any church.

3. Then John says three things about our Lord Jesus Christ.

a) He is 'the faithful witness'. A witness is a person who speaks in a Law Court and who tells what they have seen and heard. They may only say what they really do know. In the early church, the meaning of the word quickly changed. By the time John wrote Revelation, the word meant a Christian who was quite open about his faith in Jesus when he had to appear in the law courts. He knew that he might have to suffer and to die for his faith. But he told everyone that he was a follower of Jesus. So the word 'martyr' or witness came to mean a person who was ready to die for their faith in Jesus.

Jesus is 'the Faithful Witness' because He too died. He stood in Roman and Jewish law courts. Wicked men judged him. He was faithful to His Father, to the truth and to us. He will be 'the Faithful Witness' again when God judges men. He will say to His Father: - 'This man was one of my followers. He was faithful to me all his life. He must share my glory'.

The other side of these words is this. In those days there were no 'police'. The Romans paid some people to tell them what other people were doing. They might catch some criminals in this way. But they might also catch anyone who worked for freedom and against the Romans. Such a person we now call an 'informer'. In those days he was called a 'delator'. Everyone hated him. Of course, he did not always tell the truth. If there were people he did not like, he made up stories against them. He knew the Romans would listen to his lies. I wonder whether an 'informer' or 'delator' had told the Romans lies about John and that was why he was in trouble. [1.7] Such a man was not 'a faithful witness'. Jesus is!

b) Jesus is 'the firstborn from the dead'. He is risen! And He is the Firstborn. Every one of His people will rise from death to share in His glory.

c) Then He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth (or land). 'Kings of the earth' is, I think, John's code for the Romans. They had power. They behaved as though they ruled the world. Yet it is Jesus, John says, who rules them! The very Jesus who had died on the cross rules the Romans. They seem to do just what they like. But it is Jesus who is in control all the time. Even when God's people are fed to wild animals to excite the Roman crowd, Jesus still rules. He still rules 'the kings of the earth' today.

Now there is one more thing we must say before we move on. Christians believe that there is only one God. They only worship one God. (See Deuteronomy 6:4). John has spoken of the Father, the Spirit, and of Jesus, the Son. They are not three 'gods'. They are one God, but they are three 'Persons'. We call this teaching the 'Doctrine of the Trinity'. I want to say just three things about this.

a) God is wonderful. If it was true only that God is one, that would be wonderful. It is still more wonderful that He is not only one God, but also three Persons

b) You do not need to look further away than your own finger for a picture of the Trinity. Your finger is one. But there are two joints in it: it is made up of three bones. A finger is both one and three.

c) I want you to look at 2 Corinthians 13:14, the last verse of that letter. We call those words 'the grace' and Christians use them very often. Now if God was one, and not three, there could be no 'fellowship' or 'communion', no 'sharing' in Him. Because He is three persons, there is 'sharing' between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (See for example, John 1:1,2 and 1 Corinthians 2:10.) There is a sharing of love, wisdom and purpose. And because this 'sharing' is a part of God's being, He is pleased to share, or to have 'communion' with us too. And that is why Christians love to share with one another. It may be the little food or money that we have. It may be love. It may be our troubles. It may be worship and joy. It may be prayer. But as Christians, we long to share what we have with other Christians. The root of this goes right back to what God is like. [1.8]

2. The rest of verse 5 and verse 6

This is another of these sayings which may have been spoken by a prophet. It is all about Jesus, although His name is not there.

1. Jesus loved us and still loves us. We should remember here that John was the follower that Jesus loved in a special way. Sixty years or more after the death of Jesus on the Cross, John can still say: -'He loves us'. It is not just that He loves all men. He loves each one of His own people in a special way. Paul says: 'He loved me and gave Himself for me' (Galatians 2:20).

2. Jesus has washed us or set us free from our sine. We were like the Jews in Egypt long ago. They were slaves in Egypt. God set them free. We were slaves in sin. God set us free; He forgave all our sins: but sin makes us feel dirty. We need to be made clean. God does this too. (1 John 1:9; Zechariah 13:1). I think that the only times in the New Testament where we read that John sinned are in Matthew 20:20-23 and Luke 9:51-56.

3. God is our King who sets us free. He rules over the 'kings of the earth'. Now He honours us. He gathers us together and we are a kingdom. This does not mean that we rule over anyone else! God makes every Christian a priest. We may all go to God with our prayers. With a God like that we want Him to have all glory and power. The honour and glory of men does not last long. God ought to have all the glory, and He will have it for ever.

3.Verse 7

This verse is all about the time when Jesus will come again. Jesus warned His followers. Many different men down the years would say that they were Jesus when they were not (Mark 13:6). People say that they can see the 'signs of the end', the 'signs of His coming', when Jesus says these things are only the beginning but not the end (Mark 13:7,8). So we will need to know what the signs will be that Christ has really come.

Our verse in Revelation tells us: -

1. That Jesus will come 'with the clouds'. You will find that Jesus also says this Himself in Mark 13:26. There are several other places. (See Matthew 26:64 for example.) After Jesus died and rose from death, He went back to heaven (Acts 1:9). A cloud hid Him from His followers then. The angels told the followers of Jesus that He would come back to this earth in the same way. See also Daniel 7:13,14.

2. Then Revelation 1:7 tells us that when Jesus comes again, everyone will see Him. Only a few of His followers saw Him when He went back to heaven. It will not be like that when He comes again. It will be open, not secret. (See Matthew 24:26,27.) When there is a storm at night, the lightning lights up the whole dark sky. The coming of Jesus will be like that.

3. 'Those who pierced Him' are the Jews; it could just also mean the Romans as well. (See what John says about the death of Jesus in John 19:34-37. See also Zechariah 12: 10-14.) The 'peoples of the earth' may mean 'the tribes of the land'. The people of the world will not be ready for Jesus when He comes again. They do not believe in Him. They do not do His will. So when He comes, the world will be full of sorrow. Bitter tears will come from peoples' eyes. They will 'mourn'. They will 'mourn', of course, because then He will come in glory and with great power. He will come as their Judge.

4. Verse 8

In this verse we have three or perhaps four great names for God. One of them we have already talked about (see verse 4).

'The Almighty' means that God is the Ruler of All Things.

'Alpha' and 'Omega' are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, like 'A' and 'Z' in English. Now the Old Testament often speaks in this way. For example, look at Psalm 92:2. There the psalmist says that it is good 'to proclaim God's love in the morning' and 'His faithfulness at night'. This does not mean that we should only praise God in the morning and evening. It means that we should praise God all day long, from the start of the day to the end. So God is 'Alpha' and 'Omega', the beginning and the end, but He is everything in between as well [1.9]

‘I am’ here may be a fourth name of God.

Verses 9-20: John sees Jesus.

In verse 9, John tells us where he was when he wrote this book. Patmos is an island in the Aegean Sea. It may just be marked on a map in the back of your Bible. It was about 64km from the nearest point on the coast of Asia. By sea it was over 100km from Ephesus. It was only about 13km long from north to south and it was at most 8km wide from east to west. But there was a narrow neck of land, which joined the north and south parts. You could hear the roar of the sea anywhere on the island when the weather was rough.

John tells us why he was in Patmos. It is not likely that he had come there to preach the Good News to the few people who lived on the island. So when John says he was there 'because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus', he probably means that he was not free. He could not leave the island of Patmos. He was there only because he had preached the Good News about Jesus. John had been in trouble with the Roman law, and the Romans had sent him to Patmos. John may have been made to work in iron ore mines on the island: we do not know. [1.10]. The Romans made use of islands like Patmos to get people out of the way.

It was because John was on Patmos that he had to write his book. He might have been happier to speak his message in the churches. But although he is far away from the churches and he cannot meet with the Christians he knows he is still their brother. He is one with them in faith and love. But he shares more than this with them. He shares suffering with them. As Christians the world around them treats them badly. This is like a heavy weight: it presses down on them. But this happens to them because of 'the kingdom of God' which all Christians belong to. The world hates that. It hates the honour that God gives to His people. But we belong to the kingdom, so in times of trouble, we do not give up. We are brave. We will still follow Jesus, right to the end.

In verse 10, John tells us that just as he 'came to be' on Patmos, so he 'came to be' in the Spirit. God was at work in both. John felt the full power of the Holy Spirit of God upon him.

Then John says that it was the Lord's Day. We know that the Christians met for worship on the 'first day of the week'. (See Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2.) This was because Jesus rose from death on the first day of the week. (See Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1.) We would expect that 'the first day of the week' would soon come to be known as 'the Lord's day'. But we cannot be quite sure that this happened until 50 years after John wrote Revelation. So most people think that John means 'the first day of the week'.

But there was another 'Lord's Day' at that time. The Emperor called himself 'Lord', and a day set apart in honour of him was also called 'the Lord's Day'. This would no doubt be a holiday. There would be games. Crowds would go to the Temples. People would wear their best clothes. Everyone would be happy and excited. All except the Jews and the Christians. The Jews were hated, but no doubt they said prayers for the Emperor in their worship. But the Christians could not join in. They had no excuse. No one understood them. It would be noticed that they did not join in. So perhaps what John says is this: - 'It was Empire Day. People were on their way to find pleasure at the heathen temples. They would pray to their false 'gods' for the Emperor. But it was on that very day that the Spirit of God came on me'. God gives us something far better than the world can give to us.

Then John hears a loud voice behind him. It was like a war horn or trumpet [1.11]. We shall find several times in this book that John hears a voice behind him. Usually the voice tells him what he will see. When he turns round, he sees more than he expects. Often, he thinks that he will see something Jewish. When he looks he sees something which is for all men, not just for Jews.

The 'book' or scroll (verse 11) would have been one very long piece of paper made from a plant, which grew in Egypt and Palestine. This would be rolled up. The skins from dead animals ('parchment') were also used for writing. Pages fixed together as books probably came into use a little later than the time of John. Someone will have to make copies of what John writes. This was long before printing came into use. The church at Ephesus may have been big enough to have people who would write out copies of John's book. Only in this way could each of the seven churches have its own copy.

In this verse we have a list of the names of the seven cities in Asia where the churches were. Someone would first have to take John's book by sea from Patmos to Ephesus. 'Scribes' would write copies in Ephesus. Then the person who carried the copies of the letter to the other churches would have gone north first, perhaps by sea but more likely by road, to Smyrna. This was about 60km by road but much further by sea. Then from Smyrna he would go north again about 85km, to Pergamum. From there he would turn south east to Thyatira. This was about 65km. His journey still took him to the south east, over mountains and rivers to Sardis. This was about 50km. Then he went on to Philadelphia, about another 50km. Then he would go on about 80km to the south east and he would come to Laodicea. A map in the back of your Bible may help you to follow this. At each city he would have to find the Christians, who would take care of him. He would leave a copy of the book and set off again. From Laodicea he would turn to the west for the 160km journey back to Ephesus. The cities were all different. So were the churches in the cities. But we will talk about each of them when we move on to chapters 2 and 3

So in verse 12, John turns round to see whose voice it was that he had heard.

a) First, he saw seven lamp stands or candlesticks (see verse 20). They were made from gold. Now in the Jewish Temple and before that in the Tabernacle, there was a lamp stand made from gold. This stood in the Holy Place. The lamp stand has a single base or foot, and seven branches. Each branch had a lamp on it. This was known as the 'menorah', and the Jews loved it. It was the only source that gave light in the darkness of the Holy Place. [1.13]. The candlestick was a picture of the nation of Israel, which God had chosen long ago to bring His light to a dark world. So there are these things for us to learn: -

1. The churches must be a light for God in the darkness.

2. Each church must stand on its own. Each lamp stand had its own base.

3. The churches of our day have taken the place that Israel once had in God's purposes. We are the new 'Israel'. There is a question here on which Christian people are not agreed. Some think that the Jews have a great future in God's purposes. Some do not. We shall meet this question again later.

4. The churches share each other's light. There would be a reflection of the light from each lamp from the gold of the other stands. This would make the light seem much brighter than it really was. This is a wonderful picture of the sharing between the churches.

5. Gold does not 'rust'. Iron 'rusts' - it goes bad! Gold does not. The Church must always be holy in the world. It must never 'go bad'.

b) Then (verse 13) John sees 'one like a son of man' (Daniel 7:13 or better Psalm 8:4). This is Jesus! John does not have to tell us that it is Jesus. We know Jesus often called Himself 'the Son of Man'. Jesus is the Priest in the Holy Place.

c) Jesus is 'among the lamp stands'. So He is also among the churches. In 2:2, we shall see that Jesus walks 'to and fro' among the lamp stands. He walks from one to another. We may be quite sure that He looks at each one to see that its light is still bright. Now we may be sure also that John used to walk for long days from one city to another. He visited the churches. He taught and he preached. He warned them about things that were wrong in their church life. John cannot do that now. He is not free. But he wants the churches to know that Jesus watches them. Jesus loves the churches and He is sad if their light is no longer bright. He knows what happens in each church.

d) Still in verse 13, we read that Jesus is dressed in long clothes that reach down to His feet. We cannot be certain that this is to show that He is our Priest. I think that John looked at the clean, shining figure of his Lord and then he looked at his own clothes - old, worn, working clothes. It is always like this. On earth there is a church of Christ, which is often sad, tired and weak. But the church has as its Head the Lord Jesus. He shines with glory. He is never tired.

e) Then Jesus had a belt made from gold around His chest. When men in those days had work to do they used their belts to fix their long clothes up round the body. They did not want their clothes to hang down around their legs and feet. They would get in the way. This is what is meant by the old English words 'gird up your loins'. But Jesus had finished His work. He died for us on the cross. Now He waits until His Father is ready for Him to come again into this world.

f) John was one of the three followers of Jesus who saw His glory. (See Matthew 17:2.) Now he sees the same glory in Jesus again. It is the same Jesus that John knew about 60 years before.

g) The feet of Jesus were like metal, which is so hot that it shines. The metal may be the very finest brass, which is made from copper and pure zinc. [1.14].

h) The voice of Jesus was like 'the sound of many waters'. John had heard the sound of the sea around the island of Patmos. When the sea was rough it roared on the beaches and rocks. The sea is full of power, and so is the voice of Jesus. But it was a voice that John knew well. (See John 10:4 and many other verses in John's Gospel; and Mark 1:19,20.)

i) Jesus held seven stars in His right hand. [1.15] (verse 16). If we look at verse 20 we shall see that the seven stars are the 'angels' (or messengers) of the seven churches. We do not know whether these are leading men in each of the churches or whether God gave each of the churches its own angel. In either case, the picture John gives us is that Christ grips the source of power in the churches.

j) The word 'sword' here is one that means a long, heavy sword. A man needed both his hands to use it. The idea of a sword that comes out of a mouth is a strange one to us. (See Isaiah 49: 2 and 2:12, 16; and Hebrews 4:12.) But the 'hilt', the handle of a sword was sometimes made in the shape of the mouth of a wild animal. The blade was then like the tongue, which came out of the mouth. The sword is a picture of authority. The word, which Jesus speaks, has power. It is as though it cuts into our hearts and minds.

k) Last of all, John says that the face of Jesus shone as brightly as the sun in its strength at midday.

The Greek 'god' of the sun was called Apollo. The worship of Apollo was popular everywhere, but it was very important at Thyatira. John tells us that it is the Lord Jesus whose face shines so brightly. It is not Apollo the sun-'god'. Now Apollo was often worshipped with the Emperor. The two went together. But it is Jesus, not a human ruler, who is the Light of the World. And not only is Jesus the great light. As we have seen, He also holds the seven stars, the smaller lights.

In verse 17, John tells us that he fell down at the feet of Jesus like a dead man. We believe that this is the same John who was so close to Jesus at the Last Supper (John 21:20). But as we shall see, Jesus really had died! Jesus kindly placed His right hand on John (See Daniel 8:17,18.) Probably Jesus lifted John up.

Many of us think that we would like to see God. We would like to have 'a vision'. But the Bible prophets who did have visions felt the same way as Isaiah did. (See Isaiah 6:5.) He said: 'I am ruined'. We would feel the same or even worse.

The other thing that we should learn is this. When we dream at night, our dreams are mixed up. One thing does not follow on from another. Nothing is clear. When we wake up, we can only remember a little of our dreams. Most of it we forget. But if God gives us a dream or a 'vision', it will be clear. There will be order in it. We shall remember it. This is one of the ways by which we can tell whether it is God who speaks to us in our dreams. [1.16]

Then Jesus speaks. God always adds His word to any dream or vision. These words of Jesus are great and wonderful words. First He tells John not to be afraid. This is so much like the words of Isaiah 44. In verse 2 there, God says: 'Do not be afraid'. In verse 6 He says: 'I am the First and the Last'. Look at John 6:20. There the sea and the wind roar but the disciples hear Jesus speak. And He says: 'I AM. Do not be afraid'. The 'I AM' is the same as the words of Jesus here. What He says to John is that He is God, the God who calls Himself 'I AM'. Jesus says 'I AM' in this way in Revelation 1:8, 2:23 and in 22:16. [1.17]. (See Exodus 3: 14.) Jesus calls Himself 'the First and the Last' twice more; see Revelation 2:8 and 22:13. In Isaiah it is clearly a name for God (See Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; and 48:12.)

Some people may try to tell you that Jesus is only 'a god'. This is not true. He is God! And if He is the First and the Last, then all that comes between belongs to Him too! We want to be His people now, so that at the End, we shall be with Him.

Now let us look at the things that Jesus says to John in verse 18.

1. First, He is the One who is alive. He is the One from whom all life came. He is the only One who has life that He can give away to others. But we live only for a little while, and then we die. Jesus has already fought the war with death and He has won it for us. He really can simply say: - 'I am alive '. All we can say is: - 'I am alive now, but I know that I must die'.

2. Then Jesus says that He was dead. He really died. John fell down as though he was dead, but he did not really die. Jesus did not just seem to die. He really died for us! But we need to be exact here. What Jesus says is: 'I became dead'. [1.18]. Now it is not the nature of God to change. God is. Everything else comes into being - it 'becomes'. If we look at John 1:14 we see: 'The Word became flesh'. God, the Son, who is 'The Word', became Man. We read here in 1:18 that the Word, God's Son, Who took that first step when He became man, now takes another great step. The Living One became dead! And all this was done to rescue us from our sins. But of course, Jesus did not stay dead. He rose again.

3. So there is the next thing Jesus says. Here again we must be exact. Jesus says: 'Look at Me! Now I am the Living One into the Ages of the Ages'. We are only alive in one 'age' of the many 'ages' of human life. But our risen Lord Jesus has a life that reaches forward into 'the ages of the ages'. We cannot explain what 'eternity' is. But it is as though we are going through a narrow door: that is time. It is 'This Age'. Jesus is in a wide, open space. That is 'eternity'.

4. Then Jesus tells us that He holds the keys of Death and 'Hades'. 'Hades' simply means 'the place which we do not see'. When people die, they go to a place that we do not see; although God does see them. Notice what Jesus says here. He has just said 'Look at me!' Then He says: 'Do not worry about Death. There are things that you cannot see'. And then in the next verse He tells John: 'Write down what you have seen'. Jesus compares what is seen and what is not seen. This is usually true where this word 'Hades' is used. We have to look again at what we can see.

Keys are a picture of authority. They give the power to lock or to open a door or a gate. Jesus has such power. We should learn that Jesus has the power to shut and lock the gates of Death and of Hades so that no one who believes in Him will ever enter them.

Verses 19 and 20

In verse 19 Jesus tells John to write things down. This is because he is not free and he cannot go and speak to the churches. Jesus divides what John is to write into three parts: -

a) 'What you have seen' - the 'vision' in this first chapter;

b) 'What is now' - the messages in the next two chapters for the seven churches; and

c) 'What will take place after this' - the 'visions' in the rest of the Book, from chapter 4.

A 'mystery' is not a secret that God keeps from us. It is a secret that God keeps for us. Here it means something that John could not have explained without help. We have already spoken about the rest of the verse.