Reflections on Revelation 1

Revelation 01 (Contemporary English Version)
1. This is what God showed to Jesus Christ, so that he could tell his servants what must happen soon. Christ then sent his angel with the message to his servant John.
   
2. And John told everything that he had seen about God's message and about what Jesus Christ had said and done.
   
3. God will bless everyone who reads this prophecy to others, and he will bless everyone who hears and obeys it. The time is almost here.
   
4. From John to the seven churches in Asia. I pray that you will be blessed with kindness and peace from God, who is and was and is coming. May you receive kindness and peace from the seven spirits before the throne of God.
   
5. May kindness and peace be yours from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. Jesus was the first to conquer death, and he is the ruler of all earthly kings. Christ loves us, and by his blood he set us free from our sins.
   
6. He lets us rule as kings and serve God his Father as priests. To him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
   
7. Look! He is coming with the clouds. Everyone will see him, even the ones who stuck a sword through him. All people on earth will weep because of him. Yes, it will happen! Amen.
   
8. The Lord God says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the one who is and was and is coming. I am God All-Powerful!"
   
9. I am John, a follower together with all of you. We suffer because Jesus is our king, but he gives us the strength to endure. I was sent to Patmos Island, because I had preached God's message and had told about Jesus.
   
10. On the Lord's day the Spirit took control of me, and behind me I heard a loud voice that sounded like a trumpet.
    
11. The voice said, "Write in a book what you see. Then send it to the seven churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea."
    
12. When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands.
    
13. There with the lampstands was someone who seemed to be the Son of Man. He was wearing a robe that reached down to his feet, and a gold cloth was wrapped around his chest.
    
14. His head and his hair were white as wool or snow, and his eyes looked like flames of fire.
    
15. His feet were glowing like bronze being heated in a furnace, and his voice sounded like the roar of a waterfall.
    
16. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword was coming from his mouth. His face was shining as bright as the sun at noon.
    
17. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead person. But he put his right hand on me and said: Don't be afraid! I am the first, the last,
    
18. and the living one. I died, but now I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys to death and the world of the dead.
    
19. Write what you have seen and what is and what will happen after these things.
    
20. I will explain the mystery of the seven stars that you saw at my right side and the seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the lampstands are the seven churches.

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In this first chapter of Revelation which serves as an introduction to the book, John outlines how the book came about and his purpose for writing it.  The title of the book is descriptive. What is written in it was a revelation given to John while he was on the island of Patmos. The revelation came from Jesus Christ, who is "the firstborn from the dead" (1:5) and ruler of the kings of the earth, and is addressed to the "seven churches in the province of Asia." (1:4) The book's revelation is primarily of the future rather than historical. My understanding of it is as a revelation of what is to actually occur and not just allegorical or symbolic. That is not to say that there is not sybolism or allegory in the book, only that as a whole the book is not symbolic or allegorical.

The revelation came to John in a vision (in the spirit) on the day of the Lord (the Lord's day). The vision was initiated by a voice that came from behind John telling him to write what he saw and send it to the seven churches, which he lists. (1:10-11)  When he turned to see the source of the voice, he saw Jesus - "One like the Son of Man." (1:13) The description of Jesus was that of a priest with the long robe and gold sash. And yet his head and hair were like that of God Himself, as described by Daniel (Dan 7:9).  At this sight John "fell at His feet like a dead man" (1:17), a reaction most of us would likely have, and was told not to be afraid. It was Jesus who is our Savior and of whom we need not be afraid. John was again instructed to write what was revealed to him, which began with a revelation of what John was seeing at that moment. The seven stars in Jesus' right hand represented the angels of the seven churches, and the seven gold lampstands represented the seven churches.