Revelation 1:1-8
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
4 John, to the seven churches which 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 from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed [loosed] us from our sins in His own blood,
6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.
Even so, Amen.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." NKJV
How Do We Understand the Book of Revelation?
In two introductory messages to the Book of Revelation it was my purpose to show you that the key to understanding this mysterious Book is to see that the writer, the Apostle John, represents the Church: “I John, who is both your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ…” [1:9]
John was the apostle to the Church and the Revelation is the bridge from the time of John to the end of this present age.
The Book of Revelation is for the Church and for no one else. John is the last link between the Church and revealed truth in written form from God. The Scriptures were finished when the Revelation was given to John in 95 A.D.; but the Church has continued now for over 1900 years.
To the Church:
1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
And the Book closes with the same blessing To the Church:
“Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” [22:7]
How can it be said, by any sensible system of Bible interpretation, that chapters 4 through 20, or any other such exclusion of chapters, is not for the Church but are meant only for a restored nation of Jews in Palestine?
The Scofield Bible makes an arbitrary division because it notes at 1:19:
“…and the things which will take place after this.”
Scofield says that chapter 4 onward is not for the Church because the word “church” is not found after chapter 3. Then by that same principle of interpretation because the word “Jews” in only found in chapters 2 and 3 [2:9 and 3:9] then only chapters 2 and 3 would have anything to do with the Jews.
Please do not deny yourself of the comfort that is intended for you in this Book if you are one of Christ’s dear sheep and you need assurance.
It is so important that you realize that all of the Book of Revelation is for the Church in all the days until Jesus Christ returns from heaven at the end of this present age.
The epistles [letters to the churches] taught that Jesus would return from heaven; but after two generations the Church seems to be near destruction due to persecution from Emperor Domitian.
Besides that, the NT Bible does not become a collected canon until about 400 A.D. which is about 300 years in the future from the time of this Book.
How do the early Christians know that God’s promise of eternal life to those who believe and endure in the faith of Jesus is faithful and true? They know that God is true because Jesus Christ has risen from the grave and He is alive forevermore and He has appeared to John to give these words of assurance to His persecuted and suffering Church.
In both the OT and the NT the saints of God looked to the resurrection of the body from the grave. The gospels and the epistles teach that Jesus who died for the sins of His people did, on the third day, rise from the grave.
How will the Church hold on to its assurance that Jesus will come back to earth?
The Revelation of Jesus Christ is given to John by the Holy Spirit to comfort believers in the knowledge that Christ is victorious over all events in the world even though they suffer persecution. This message is for the Church in John’s day and for every day until the Lord returns.
The Church is warned to keep herself pure from the world.
The Church is told that the enemies of the Church will not prevail but that Christ will be triumphant and His enemies will be defeated and damned.
Are you suffering for the cause of Christ?
You need not be a martyr in the classic sense in order to suffer for Christ. Husbands abandon their wives and children because they hate to live in a Christian home. Men and women have lost jobs or been denied promotion because they took a stand for Christ in the workplace.
And we have countless stories of persecution to blood and death of the Church in places in our time that are hostile to Christianity.
Christ knows that you are His and He will see you on the other side of this veil of tears called life.
Are you discouraged by the apparent lack of interest in the things of God? Take heart because God has not abdicated His throne to any power on earth or in the spiritual realm.
The most widely accepted theory of interpretation in our day is exampled by the “Left Behind” series that pictures the Church being taken out of the world before the great tribulation period. In that system the Church and Israel after the flesh [the Jews] are two separate entities and they never come together in one group.
That theory of interpretation also teaches that the Church is not to be found in the OT. The OT prophecies are for the Jews and the Jews will one day reap the harvest of fulfillment.
My persuasion is that most of the OT prophecies were about Christ and the Church. Is the Church in the OT?
Bear with me while I review with you a very brief discussion on the doctrine of the Church. Aside from knowing that your sins have been washed in the blood of Christ, there is nothing, in my opinion, that is more important for you to grasp if you want to understand the Book of Revelation.
Is the Church a temporary interlude in history, a “parenthesis,” between the times of national Israel of the OT until that nation is restored to its prominence and the Church is removed and separated forever? Is the Bible primarily about the Jews? Or, is the bible primarily about Christ and His Church?
Yogi Bara is quoted as saying: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Well, here is a fork in the road. One fork or system of interpretation focuses on the Jews and the other focuses on the Church. It is one or the other and they are incompatible.
Does the Bible clearly teach a continuity of the only true Church from righteous Abel until the last one of God’s elect is called to faith in Jesus Christ?
By what faith did Abel offer to God a more excellent sacrifice to God than his brother Cain? Abel was neither “Christian” nor “Jew” but he is included in the “roll call” of the faithful in Hebrews 11. Abel can belong to no other category of souls than the Universal or Invisible Church.
What about Enoch who “pleased God”? Enoch can belong to no other category than the Universal or Invisible Church.
To what group do you assign Abram? He believed in the only Gospel before he became the first Jew. Paul writes in Galatians that Abraham believed the Gospel and that there is only one Gospel!
If you believe the Gospel of Christ in saving faith it is the same Gospel that Abraham put his trust in. And if you are a Christian you must be counted as one of Abraham’s seed in Christ to whom all the promises were made.
What can Romans 4 possibly mean if Abraham is not the father of the faithful and in included in the Universal Church?
How else can you understand Romans 9:6-9?
“But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”
Ephesians and Galatians and Romans establish that God has never called anyone as His child due to their birth certificate!
First, in Ephesians 2:11-18:
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh — who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands —
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Come now to Ephesians 3:1-7
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles —
2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,
3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already,
4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ),
5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
The great “mystery” is not that God would have the Church but the mystery of the ages was that it would be made up of elect Gentiles and elect Jews in one body.
Gentiles who did not have the great blessing given to the Jews of having the very Word of God are now called into the one body of Christ, the Church. Ephesians 2 & 3 can only mean that the distinction between Gentile and Jew is gone forever.
Come to Galatians 4:21-31:
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise,
24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar —
25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children —
26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written:
"Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.
30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman."
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
“Jerusalem which now is” is Israel after the flesh and they are in bondage.
“Jerusalem above is free” and is the Church.
If a person can read Galatians 4:21-31 and still maintain that the Church is not to be found in the OT, I kindly suggest that they too are in bondage and blinded to the truth of the mystery of the Church!
We will not read all of Romans 11, but I encourage you to lay aside all preconceived notions of Gentiles and Jews being separate entities and carefully study the parable of the single olive tree. The single olive tree, not a Gentile tree and a Jewish tree, but a single olive tree made up of elect Gentiles and elect Jews that make up the Church.
In Romans 11:25-26 Paul writes:
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
"The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins."
Paul quotes Isaiah 59 and that can only mean that “Zion” and “Jacob” are OT symbols of the Church. If Paul is writing about the Church then “Zion” and “Jacob” in Isaiah 59 cannot mean anything else!
“All Israel” is not Israel after the flesh as Romans 9 clearly teaches but “All Israel” is the Church made up of elect Gentiles and elect Jews.
This is the manner in which “all Israel” will be saved and not the timing, i.e. the Gentiles are saved and then Israel after the flesh is saved.
The context of Romans 12-16 is the Apostle instructing a local church made up of Gentiles and Jews as to how they must submit to one another as they live together in one local body, how to submit to their neighbors, and how to submit to the government that God has placed them under.
If you cannot grasp the conception that the Church spans time from the Garden of Eden until the trumpet is sounded at the end of the present age, then you will not understand the Book of Revelation.
With that as a preamble we now move to an exposition of this strange and wonderful book. It is a book of symbols and very little of it is meant to be understood as being literal. It is our job to understand the symbols and thus to understand this message of assurance and comfort given to the Church.
Seven is the number of perfection in the Bible.
The Book of Revelation unfolds in seven parallel sweeps through time from the resurrection of Jesus Christ until He returns at the end of this present age.
One of the handouts shows the seven parallel sweeps of this prophecy:
1) Christ as He moves among the “Lampstands” or the Church [1-3];
2) The “Seals” are opened and the persecution of the Church is addressed [4-7];
3) The “Trumpets” sound and the Church is avenged and protected [8-11];
4) The War in Heaven between Christ and the Dragon is described [12-14];
5) The “Bowls” of wrath are poured out upon the impenitent [15-16];
6) The Great Whore “Babylon” is exposed [17-19]; and finally,
7) The “Consummation” of “this present age” in a new heaven and a new earth [20-21].
Jesus is the Lamb that has been slain but is still alive. It is as the redeeming Lamb that Christ brings victory to the people of God – “Worthy is the Lamb.”
And now to the exposition of the Book of Revelation: [1:1-8]
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ…” [1:1]
“The Revelation” means “apocalypse” or the “revealing” of Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, to the Church. Christ is the Revealer and the One who is revealed.
His name is “Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.”
His office is Christ or Messiah [the anointed One].
Who He is and what He does is what this prophecy is about and every page of it is for the Church. The message is that of the risen Christ given directly to the Church and it is to be understood by the Church.
Only in the understanding of this message from Christ can the Church endure through the sufferings that are sure to come.
This is the message “which God gave to Him to show to His servants…” [1:1]
We see the order in the Triune Godhead. Jesus is indeed the God-Man but He is subordinate to God the Father, just as the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. “… which God gave to him…”
“His servants…” More with the idea of obedience than of slavery.
[Cf. 2:20; 7:3; 19:2, 5; 22:3, 6]
And the message is about “things which must shortly take place…” [1:1]
This is a prophecy that is about the persecution that is occurring at the time of John’s writing and will soon come to the “seven churches which are in Asia” and to the Church at large until Jesus returns.
Here I must borrow the skill of someone who is a Greek scholar in order to accurately explain “things which must shortly take place…”
My reference is to Ray Summers’ excellent commentary, Worthy is the Lamb.
A literal translation of the verse is:
“The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him to show to His servants what things it is necessary to come to pass shortly.”
The first concept to see is from the Greek verb dei which denotes a moral necessity. “It is morally necessary”, in order for a just end to be accomplished and it is morally necessary for these things to come to pass shortly.
The second concept in the phrase is that it must take place soon in time.
The futurists argue that the word translated “shortly” only means “certainty”.
Their interpretation puts almost all of the events in this prophecy into a future that is yet to happen after 1900 years.
But the Apostle Paul used the same word in 2 Timothy 4:9.
“Be diligent to come to me quickly; …”
“Timothy, I am cold and I need my coat, but no hurry, as long as you “certainly” get it here in the next two or three thousand years.”
No, the meaning of the verse is that most of the things in this Book will occur very soon. And things of a similar nature will continue to occur until the events at the end of the Book.
It is beyond the bounds of any reasonable system of interpretation to teach that most of the events described herein are to occur two or three thousand years from the day they were written down by John.
Christ is alive and He is in the midst of His people and He is going to see to it that His purpose triumphs over those who would stamp out the Church and He is going to do it now! Therefore be comforted and know that Jesus is victorious!
The things that will occur must occur for a moral purpose and they must happen shortly in time.
“And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John.” [1:1]
“Angel” is Messenger.
(It would take another study to show how Christ is God’s “Angel”.)
The word “signified” means to show by signs.
Thus we are told how this Book is designed. It is a Book of symbols or signs.
You must keep this in mind as you read the book or you will go off the deep end trying to make literal sense out of symbolic language.
E.g., No one has a problem understanding what Jesus means when He says,
“I am the door…” It is obvious that Jesus is using the symbol of a door to teach something about Himself. So be very aware as you read the Book of Revelation that you are reading “signs” or “symbols”.
The understanding of Revelation comes through understanding the meaning of the symbols and not through a strained literal interpretation.
It is a divine picture book.
The message is given to John, “who bore witness to the word of God…” [1:2]
2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
The “word of God” here is the scope of written revelation. Yet, you cannot miss the inference to John 1:1-18: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….”
It is the “Word made flesh” that gives us the Bible through Holy Spirit inspiration.
In verse 9, John is “both your brother and companion…”
John is contemporary with his readers and shares with them in their tribulations.
John bears witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, and to all the things that he saw. [1:2]
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
“Blessed is he who reads [aloud] and those who hear [obeys] the words of this prophecy…” [1:3]
Blessings are pronounced. What is it to be “blessed”?
Brother Walter Swain is doing a very fine job as he expounds the Beatitudes or the “blessed’s” in Matthew 5.
A blessed person is someone who is content with God’s providence in their life because they have an inner spiritual life in Christ. The external and material things and the circumstances do not determine the contentment of a “blessed” person.
As difficult as it is for unbelievers to grasp, a blessed person may be suffering trials and still have that peace of God which passes all understanding.
David describes a blessed person in Psalm 32:1-2
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit.
This is the first of seven beatitudes in the Apocalypse:
[1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14]
*****
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. [1:3]
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. [14:13]
"Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." [16:15]
Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!'" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." [19:9]
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. [20:6]
"Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book." [22:7]
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. [22:14]
*****
The beatitudes of the Apocalypse open in chapter 1 with blessing upon the reader and the hearer of this prophecy and they close in chapter 22 with the washing of the robes and the entrance into the holy city. The emphasis is on the hearing with understanding.
The only way to “keep those things which are written in it…” is to understand what is written. There should be no doubt that this entire book is meant for the Church.
First “those things” are to the “seven churches which are in Asia” for the “time is at hand”; and then continuing for the Church in every age because every detail of this prophecy has not yet come to pass. [1:3]
4 John, to the seven churches which 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,
John is well known to the churches in Asia and this prophecy is to the “seven churches which are in Asia…” This is the first time the number seven appears in the Apocalypse. This is a book of symbols and “seven” is the number or symbol of completeness or perfection.
So the writing is to seven local churches that are named by Christ and they represent the complete Church until Christ returns.
“Grace and peace” are common words of salutation in the New Testament. And the order is important. No one will have the peace of God until they have received the grace of God.
“Who is and who was and who is to come…”
This is a typical Jewish conception of God.
“Who is and who was and who is to come…”
The Hebrew word “Jehovah” means “the eternally existing one.”
This greeting is also from “the seven Spirits who are before His throne…”
John never uses the term Holy Spirit in the Apocalypse but the phrase “seven Spirits” appears here and in 3:1; 4:5; and 5:6.
The phrase “seven Spirits” is an apocalyptic way of revealing the Holy Spirit as the perfection of “seven Spirits”. The Third Person of the Trinity is not left out. The message is from God the Father to Jesus Christ, the Son, and the “seven Spirits”, or the Holy Spirit.
We have shown in a previous message that in the Gospel, John brings the prophecy of Zechariah to the Church when he linked the piercing of the side of Jesus with Zechariah 12:10.
"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
Now John goes to Zechariah for this expression of the Holy Spirit.
Zechariah 4:1-7
1 Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And he said to me, "What do you see?"
So I said, "I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
3 Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left."
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, "What are these, my lord?"
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?"
And I said, "No, my lord."
6 So he answered and said to me:
"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:
'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,'
Says the LORD of hosts.
7 'Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
The number seven signifies the fullness of the Holy Spirit. In the Holy Place of the temple, Zechariah sees a golden lampstand with seven lights each having seven spouts and wicks. The abundance of oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit at work, as is evidenced by God’s declaration: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the LORD Almighty.
God rules this earth, not by earthly power, but by His Spirit, and John goes to Zechariah for his greeting.
Please let me caution you again not to get caught up in literalism and miss the symbolism of the Apocalypse. There are not seven Holy Spirits but He is perfect and complete as the third person of the Trinity. Thus the “seven Spirits.”
It is verse 5: “from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.”
Jesus is given three designations:
First, Jesus is the “faithful one” or the “faithful witness” [Cf. 3:14].
John refers to the prophecy of David in Psalm 89:36-37
36 His seed shall endure forever,
And his throne as the sun before Me;
37 It shall be established forever like the moon,
Even like the faithful witness in the sky."
God said that David’s seed shall endure forever and as faithful a witness as the sun and the moon. The throne signifies that his Seed is the ruler over the kings of the earth. This prophecy is now fulfilled in the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
The second designation of Christ is as “the firstborn from the dead”. The resurrected and living Christ is the first one to come forth from the grave in a resurrection body, “the firstborn from the dead”.
Again, John goes to Psalm 89:
Psalm 89:27
Also I will make him My firstborn,
The highest of the kings of the earth.
And the third designation also comes from Psalm 89 as Jesus is:
“… ruler over the kings of the earth.” Or “The highest of the kings of the earth.”
If you were fearful of Emperor Domitian’s armies as they search out and tortured and killed Christians would it not be important to know that Jesus is:
“ruler over the kings of the earth?
It is also important to see that Jesus is the “ruler over the kings of the earth” in a time when the emperors were worshipped as gods.
Then John breaks out in a doxology in 5b-6.
To Him who loved us and washed [loosed] us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
This Ruler over the kings of the earth “loved us”. The proof of His continuing love is that He “washed us [loosed us; set us free] from our sins in His own blood”.
Robert Thomas, in his commentary, points out that this is the only place in the NT where His love is so described.
He “washed us [loosed us; set us free] from our sins in His own blood”.
Nothing should ever remove from our thoughts that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and no matter the circumstances of this life He loved us and shed His own blood that we might experience grace and peace.
We have the assurance of the eternal Lordship of Christ over against the temporal lordship of someone like Domitian.
God has made His children “kings and priests”
Worship a king? No, worship only King Jesus!
We are priests which means we have access to God through Jesus Christ.
We do not go to the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to get to Jesus.
We do not go to a sinful man that some false religion has called a “priest”?
We need no other priest other than our High Priest Jesus!
Verse 7 is a prophecy.
7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him.
Even so, Amen.
John goes to Daniel for this word of prophecy:
Daniel 7:13
I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Christ will return in the same manner as He went into heaven.
Acts 1:9-11
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
That “Every eye shall see Him” tells us that this is no “secret” coming of Christ and that He will be seen by all who are alive at His appearing. It further indicates that those who have long before died will be raised from the dead and those who are alive or have died in unbelief will mourn because of Him.
“Even so, Amen.”
There is a question as to who is speaking in verse 8: God the Father, or Christ.
8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
When God spoke to Moses He was and is “I am”.
But in John’s gospel Jesus repeatedly assumes the “I am” designation for Himself; “before Abraham was, ‘I am’ ”
Both God the Father and Jesus identify themselves as:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega.”
God the Father: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” [1:8]
Jesus Christ: “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.” [1:17]
God the Father: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. [21:6]
Jesus Christ: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” [22:13]
In every place God the Father is called the Almighty but Christ is eternal and can say that He is the First and the Last, the Creator, everything from A to Z, the Alpha and the Omega.
This section [1:1-8] emphasizes the deity of Jesus Christ as being one with God the Father. Christ is God’s divine Agent to bring about God’s eschatological fulfillment of all things.
Are you so “blessed” that you can now join with the church to take the Lord’s Supper? In this memorial Supper we do remember the Lord’s death until He comes.
Do you rejoice that your sins have been washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you afraid of the kings of the earth?
We have our Savior, King Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Jim Gunn
Vineland Park Baptist Church
Hueytown, Alabama
Sola Scriptura 
