REVELATION 1

John on
Patmos
 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him, to shew
unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass; and he
sent and signified it by his angel
unto his servant John: Who bare
record of the word of God, and of
the testimony of Jesus Christ, and
of all things that he saw.”
Revelation 1:1, 2.
REVELA'TION, n. [L. revelatus, revelo. See Reveal.] 1. The act of
disclosing or discovering to others what was before unknown to them;
appropriately, the disclosure or communication of truth to men by God
himself, or by his authorized agents, the prophets and apostles.
Webster’s Dictionary
The word ‘Revelation’ means something revealed or shown to us. Yet
many people say it can’t be understood. This is not true at all!
This verse shows us that it is Jesus who sent this message to us, with
the help of the angels, and John was the one who wrote it down for
us. It also tells us that the things were to happen soon. We know that
the messages in Revelation began to happen even while John was
still alive.
 BOOK OF BLESSINGS!
“Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy,
and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”
Revelation 1:3.
There are 3 blessings: for those who read; but some refuse to read it; they
won’t have a blessing. For those who hear the words of the prophecy; but
some will not listen to it; they will have no blessing. And for those who will
keep the things written in this book; but many will not keep them; they will
have no blessing.
 BOOK OF BLESSINGS!
I want those blessings, don’t you? We will read the book, listen
to it, and with the power of Jesus keep what we learn here! We
won't be like these people in the picture.
 MESSAGE
FROM JESUS!

“John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you,
and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come;
and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:4-6.
 BOOK OF BLESSINGS!
Look at verses 5 and 6; see the wonderful words here: “Unto
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own
blood,” Jesus loves me! This I know; For the Bible tells me
so!
“And hath made us kings and priests unto God”; we are all to
be kings and priests; children of the heavenly King, helping
others to learn about Jesus!
 PROMISE OF JESUS’
RETURN!
“Behold, he cometh with
clouds; and every eye shall
see him, and they also
which pierced him: and all
kindreds of the earth shall
wail because of him. Even
so, Amen.” Revelation 1:7
This is another place where
Jesus is promising to come
back to take His children
home. “Jesus is coming in
clouds of pure white, to take
His children home! I must be
ready when Jesus comes, to
take His children home!"
But here we also learn of groups that see Jesus coming and are not
happy at all! It says they will wail; that means they will scream and
cry. It says first, those that pierced Him. The wicked men who
tortured and killed Jesus will be raised from their graves to see Him
come. How will they feel when they see the marks of what they did,
on the great King of the universe!

The other group are those who have loved the worldly things
and have not given their hearts to Jesus and are full of sin and
selfishness. At this time they will have been planning to kill all
of God’s people who would not disobey Jesus. But Jesus will
put an end to their cruel plans.
 “I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning
and the ending, saith
the Lord, which is, and
which was, and which is
to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8

In the Greek alphabet, Alpha was the first letter and Omega, which
looked like a round horseshoe, was the last letter. So Jesus here is telling
us He is there for us at the beginning and will be there at the end and all
the time in between. We would say He is the A-Z.
Jesus will be with us when we come to Him and give our hearts to Him;
when we live day by day; and all the way to the time when He comes to
take us home with Him.
 BROTHER JOHN
“I John, who also am your
brother, and companion in
tribulation, and in the
kingdom and patience of
Jesus Christ, was in the isle
that is called Patmos, for the
word of God, and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 1:9
How did John, the dear old
man who loved Jesus so
much and taught people
about Jesus’ love, end up on
that rocky, rough island of
Patmos, where the Romans
sent their hardened
criminals? Well, it is an
interesting story.
The Roman Emperor was trying hard to get rid of all the Christians. He
thought if he caught John, who was the last of Jesus’ disciples that was still
alive, and killed him in a horrible way, that would scare the Christians
enough to make them stop talking about Jesus and worship the emperor.
So he sent soldiers who caught the old man and threw him into prison.

Then he ordered him to be boiled in oil! Have you ever dropped a potato
chip into boiling oil and seen it sizzle and turn brown and crisp? Well, that
is what the Romans wanted to do with dear old John.
They threw him into the huge pot of boiling oil, but he didn’t sizzle, he didn’t
die, in fact he wasn’t even hurt! Just like the 3 Hebrews in the fiery furnace,
he was quite safe there in the kettle.
They did not know what to do with this man they could not kill, so they sent
him to Patmos with the criminals. They were sure they had put an end to his
work. But there, on that rocky, barren island, Jesus came to visit him and
gave him the Revelation.
 PATMOS
John probably felt his work was nearly ended when he ended up on Patmos,
but do you know that later he was set free, and it was then that he wrote
Revelation and later on, he wrote the wonderful Gospel of John, where he
tells the story of Jesus, giving us special information we don’t find in the
other gospels. His most important work was after Patmos.
I sort of think that many of the criminals on Patmos, would have learned
about Jesus and His love while on that island with dear old John, don’t you?
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and
heard behind me a great voice, as of a
trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last: and, What thou
seest, write in a book, and send it unto
the seven churches which are in Asia;
unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and
unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and
unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and
unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that spake
with me. And being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks; And in the midst of
the seven candlesticks one like unto the
Son of man, clothed with a garment down
to the foot, and girt about the paps with a
golden girdle. ” Revelation 1:10-13
 LORD’S DAY
It was the Sabbath day and John
had gone off alone to worship his
Lord in nature. As he sat thinking
on spiritual things and praying, he
was given a vision. That is what
he means when he says, “I was in
the Spirit”.
One of the most important things
about understanding prophecy, is
that you must use the Bible to tell
you what the Bible means, you
must never guess or put your own
ideas in there!
 LORD’S DAY

Some people try to tell us that when John said ‘the Lord’s Day’, that
he meant Sunday. There is nowhere in the whole Bible where Sunday
is called ‘the Lord’s Day’. In fact Sunday is never called anything in
the Bible except the ‘First Day’ of the week. But the Bible does have a
day it calls the Lord’s Day, in lots of places; It is the 7th day Sabbath!
“Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:28
All at once John heard a voice; an amazing voice! And he
turned quickly to see what it was. There he saw his dear Lord,
but not toil-worn and poor as He was on earth, He appeared
bright and glorious. Let’s read what John saw:
 TWO-EDGED SWORD

“His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes
were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in
a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his
right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword:
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”
Revelation 1:14-16.
 TWO-EDGED SWORD

Do you know what the ‘two-edged sword’ is that went out of His
mouth? It means the Word of God; the Bible! The Bible is the
Christian’s sword. With it we defeat the cruel enemy, Satan.
 OVERWHELMED

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his
right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first
and the last:” Revelation 1:17.
 OVERWHELMED
John was so overwhelmed from seeing Jesus that he fell on his face on
the ground. This is a very important point. When a messenger from heaven
comes close to a person, he is so overcome with his own unworthiness
that he will fall to the ground. He will feel very humble; he will not be bold
or proud. If you meet people who are boastful and proud, and talk a lot
about how much they know God, you can be sure they really don’t know
Him at all.
But it was the same Jesus who
John had so loved when He was
on earth, and now He came over
to the dear old man and gently laid
His hand on John to strengthen
him. How precious to Jesus was
that dear old disciple that had
grown old in His service!
When we learned about Daniel,
we read that he also fell on his
face when he saw the heavenly
beings. Even when God’s Holy
Spirit comes especially close to
us, in prayer or in a meeting, you
will find that people will become
very quiet, and want to bow down
humbly. Sometimes they will
quietly weep as they feel how
sinful they are. Even heavenly
angels bow down and show
reverence to Jesus.
 REVERENCE
This is why we should always be reverent and quiet in church or
worship. The Holy Spirit is never found where there is noise and
loud, heavy beat music, clapping or shouting. He will not be present
where people are all excited, jumping around and dancing. There
might be a spirit there, but it is a demon spirit, not a holy one.
 JESUS LIVES!
“I am he that liveth, and was
dead; and, behold, I am alive for
evermore, Amen; and have the
keys of hell and of death. Write
the things which thou hast seen,
and the things which are, and
the things which shall be
hereafter;” Revelation 1:18, 19
These words of Jesus are so
wonderful to us. Jesus lives! He
died for us, and He rose again
and now He tells us that He has
the keys of death. Have you
ever had someone you love die?
If they are very close to you, it
makes you feel so sad and
lonely.
 JESUS HAS THE KEYS!

But down through the ages, Christians have had a precious hope; Jesus
was dead and He rose again! And now He has the keys; the keys to let
His dear people out of the prison of death and the grave. When
someone dies in Jesus; we know they will come out of that grave again.
When Jesus comes, they will rise again, because Jesus has the keys!
 THE KEYS

Did you know there is a man on earth today that claims he has those keys?
Yes, the pope claims that he has the keys of heaven and hell. If you look on
the Vatican flag, you will see a picture of two big old keys, crossed on there.
But we know that Jesus has the keys, nobody else has them.
Now Jesus tells John to write down all that He is going to show him. He tells
him to write down what he has seen, what is right then and also what is
going to happen in the future! Now only God really knows what will happen in
the future, and this is what that book of Revelation is all about.
 MOSTLY FULFILLED!

When John wrote it, most of it had

not yet happened; but now when
we read it, most of it has already
happened; some of it is happening
and the rest is soon going to
happen.
The Books of Daniel and
Revelation are really ONE
book. They go together and
explain each other. Also the
prophecies found elsewhere in the
Bible also fit in their places. You will
even see that the One who gave
the prophecy to Daniel is the same
One who gave it to John, Jesus our
Savior.
 "BLESSED ARE
THEY THAT KEEP
THOSE THINGS
WRITTEN IN THE
BOOK!"

The Bible is a whole book and the real author of it is the Holy Spirit! Always
pray for the Holy Spirit to teach you when you study the Bible and you then
have the true Author there with you and you will be able to understand it.
To understand the prophecies it is also helpful to learn about the Ancient
Sanctuary and its services and the History of Israel; because the Prophecies
refer to these things and the symbols are clearer when we understand where
they come from.
 MESSAGES
TO GOD’S
PEOPLE

“The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right

hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are
the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks
which thou sawest are the seven churches.” Revelation 1:20
 MESSAGES TO
GOD’S PEOPLE

In the first chapter Jesus starts talking about the 7 churches

and tells John to send the messages to them. Now there were
more than 7 churches in John’s day, so we know that the
number and the names of these churches has a prophetic
meaning. Seven in Bible numbers means complete or perfect.
The seven churches means all God’s people; both back then
and also down through the ages to the end of time.
 MESSAGES TO
GOD’S PEOPLE

It is important to understand that some of the Greek words, that

John originally used to tell us about what Jesus showed him,
are a bit different than we see them in English. The word used
for ‘churches’ meant congregations, or groups of believers. And
the word ‘angels’ means ‘messengers’.
 MESSAGES TO
GOD’S PEOPLE

In each period in history, God’s true people had a special ‘message’ that
was Present Truth for their day, and Jesus showed us that all who carry that
message for their time are carefully held in His hand. He watches them with
love. He ‘walks among the seven candlesticks’; this means He is always
with His true people, guiding and teaching them.
These ‘churches’ stand for different periods in history, but the lessons in the
messages to them, also have instruction for all of God’s children in all
times.
 MESSAGES TO
GOD’S PEOPLE

So there are several ways these seven messages apply to God’s People:
1. First, they were messages to actual congregations in John’s day.
2. They were also messages that applied to God’s People in different
periods of history to the end of time.
3. The messages are of importance to us as individuals also.
4. The Historic pattern of the messages is repeated in the past and
present.
5. They contain promises and lessons for all of God’s children.
CONTINUED IN REVELATION 2