The Unveiling Text: Revelation 1:1-3
Introduction: Reading the Mail
The book of Revelation is perhaps the most abused and mishandled book in the entire canon of Scripture. For many modern evangelicals, it has become a kind of inspired Rorschach test, a collection of chaotic inkblots where they see helicopter gunships, the European Union, and the latest villain from the newspaper headlines. It is treated not as a letter to be understood but as a crystal ball to be deciphered, a puzzle box full of secret codes about far distant events. As a result, the average Christian either avoids the book entirely, fearing its bewildering imagery, or they dive in with a fistful of newspaper clippings and end up with a theology that has the shelf life of a banana.
But the Spirit did not inspire this book to confuse the saints. The very first word of the book is apokalypsis, which means an unveiling, a disclosure, a revelation. It is not a veiling; it is an un-veiling. It was written to make things clear for its original audience, not to obscure them. The problem is not with the book, but with us. We have forgotten how to read. We have forgotten that this is first-century mail, addressed to seven specific churches in Asia Minor, who were facing a specific set of historical circumstances. To read it correctly, we must learn to read it over their shoulders.
This book is a declaration of the lordship of Jesus Christ over all human history, and particularly over the tumultuous events of the first century. It is a book about the vindication of the martyrs, the judgment of apostate Israel, the toppling of pagan Rome, and the glorious establishment of the new covenant order. It is a book that tells us that Jesus is on the throne, and because He is on the throne, His kingdom will advance in history like a mustard seed growing into a great tree. If we come to this book expecting to find a detailed schematic of the last two weeks of world history before the final curtain, we will misread everything. But if we come to it as John’s first hearers did, as a revelation of Jesus Christ’s authority over their immediate world, then the book opens up, and its glorious purpose is made plain.
These first three verses are the prologue. They are the title page, the author’s introduction, and the publisher’s blessing all rolled into one. They tell us what the book is, who it is from, who it is for, and how we are to receive it. If we get these three verses right, we are well on our way to understanding the rest of the book. If we get them wrong, we are destined to wander in a labyrinth of our own making.
The Text
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.
(Revelation 1:1-3 LSB)
The Chain of Command (v. 1)
We begin with the divine origin and the intended immediacy of this revelation.
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John..." (Revelation 1:1)
First, notice the title. This is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." This can be taken two ways, and both are true. It is a revelation from Jesus Christ, and it is a revelation about Jesus Christ. He is both the author and the subject. Any interpretation of this book that shoves Jesus into the background in favor of beasts and antichrists has missed the point entirely. This book is about Him, His glory, His authority, and His triumph.
Second, observe the chain of transmission. God the Father gives it to Jesus Christ the Son. The Son gives it to His angel. The angel gives it to the apostle John. And as we will see, John gives it to the churches. This is a top-down, authoritative, divinely-ordered communication. This is not a collection of John’s fever dreams on Patmos; this is a message from the throne room of the universe. It comes with the full weight of Heaven’s authority.
Third, who is the message for? It is for "His slaves." The Greek word is doulos. Modern translations often soften this to "servants," but that misses the punch. A servant can quit. A slave is owned. This is a declaration of our status in Christ. We have been bought with a price. We are not our own. We belong to a Master, and it is our highest glory to be His property. This message is for those who understand that they are not spiritual freelancers, but bond-slaves of the King.
And what is the content of this message? It is to show them "the things which must soon happen." This is the first of two temporal markers in this prologue that modern interpreters trip over with astonishing regularity. The Greek is en tachei, meaning speedily, quickly, without delay. John is not talking about events two thousand years in his future. He is telling the first-century church what is about to break upon them. This is a prophecy about the near future. The entire framework of the book is established right here. These are not events for us to predict, but events for them to endure. They are events that, for us, are largely in the past. The central event on that near horizon was the final, cataclysmic end of the old covenant world, which occurred in the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70.
The Faithful Witness (v. 2)
John now establishes his credentials not as an author of fiction, but as a reliable witness.
"...who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw." (Revelation 1:2 LSB)
John’s role is that of a legal witness. He is testifying. He is not inventing or embellishing; he is faithfully reporting what he has been shown. And what does he bear witness to? Two things that are one: "the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ." This is a classic Johannine pairing. The Word of God is the message, and the witness of Jesus is the confirmation and substance of that message. Jesus Himself is the ultimate witness.
John simply adds that he is reporting on "all that he saw." This book is a vision. It is communicated in signs and symbols, which is what the word "indicated" or "signified" in verse one means. God showed him pictures. This is why we must be careful not to read it like a flat, prosaic legal code. It is apocalyptic literature, a genre that uses heightened, symbolic, and often startling imagery drawn from the Old Testament to communicate theological truth about historical events. A beast in this kind of literature is not a literal monster; it is a persecuting empire. A harlot is not a literal prostitute; she is an apostate covenant community. John is a faithful witness to the vision God gave him, and we must be faithful readers, interpreting his symbols through the dictionary God provides in the rest of Scripture.
The Covenantal Blessing (v. 3)
The prologue concludes with a beatitude, a promised blessing for those who will engage this book rightly.
"Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near." (Revelation 1:3 LSB)
This is the first of seven beatitudes in Revelation, and it sets the terms of our engagement. The blessing is for those who interact with this book in three specific ways: reading, hearing, and keeping. This reflects the public worship of the early church. One man ("he who reads") would stand and read the apostolic letter aloud to the congregation ("those who hear"). But the blessing is not for mere academic engagement. It is for those who "keep the things which are written in it." This is a book that demands obedience. It calls for endurance in the face of persecution, for faithfulness against the seductions of idolatry, and for worship of the one true God. It is a book to be lived.
And why the urgency? John tells us again, bookending the prologue with a second temporal marker: "for the time is near." The Greek here is ho kairos engus. The appointed moment, the critical time, has drawn near. It is at hand. It is breathing down their necks. Imagine telling a group of people facing an imminent invasion that the "time is near," but you actually mean it will happen in a couple of millennia. That would not be a comfort; it would be a cruel joke. The blessing is tied to the urgency. They needed to hear and obey this prophecy because the events it described were about to happen.
Conclusion: An Unveiled Christ for Today
So what does this mean for us, living two thousand years after the fact? If the book is largely about events in the first century, does it have anything to say to us? It has everything to say to us. First, it reveals the character of our God and the nature of His kingdom. We learn that Jesus Christ is Lord of history, that He judges His enemies, that He vindicates His saints, and that His kingdom is an advancing, conquering reality. The pattern of judgment that fell upon Jerusalem is the pattern of judgment that falls on every rebellious nation and city that sets itself against the Lord and His Christ.
Second, it teaches us how to live as faithful slaves of Christ in a hostile world. The temptations to compromise with the spirit of the age, to bow to the imperial cult of the state, and to despair in the face of apparent defeat are perennial. Revelation calls us to the same radical faithfulness, the same patient endurance, and the same joyful worship that it called the first-century saints to. We are to "keep the things which are written in it" just as they were.
Finally, this prologue reminds us that our God is a speaking God. He has not left us in the dark. He has given us a revelation, an unveiling of His Son. And in that unveiling, we see our hope. The time for the final consummation of all things may not be "near" in the same way it was for John’s first audience, but the principle remains. The Lord is at hand. He is reigning now, and He is putting all His enemies under His feet. Therefore, we read, we hear, and we obey, confident that the blessing promised here belongs to all who are slaves of the unveiled and victorious Christ.