Bird's-eye view
The introduction to the book of Revelation is no quiet affair. It is a thunderclap, a Trinitarian broadside that establishes the authority, identity, and purpose of the vision that John is about to receive. This is not a secret decoder ring for newspaper headlines; it is a revelation of Jesus Christ in His ascended glory. John begins with a standard apostolic greeting to seven real churches in Asia Minor, but the source of that greeting is anything but standard. It flows from the eternal Father, the sevenfold Spirit, and the triumphant Son. The titles ascribed to each person of the Godhead are dense with Old Testament theology and have immediate, concrete implications for the saints who were on the cusp of intense persecution.
The passage quickly moves from greeting to doxology, celebrating Christ for what He has done, releasing us from our sins by His blood, and for what He has made us, a kingdom of priests. This is the foundation of our identity. We are not saved simply to be evacuated from history, but to be constituted as God's royal representatives within it. The climax of this introduction is the declaration of Christ's coming on the clouds, a direct quotation from Daniel 7 that speaks not of the final Second Coming, but of Christ's ascension to the Father to receive His universal dominion. The book of Revelation is the detailed account of how that reign unfolds in history, bringing both repentance and judgment. The entire section is then underwritten by the ultimate authority, the Lord God Himself, the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty. This is a book about the victory of Jesus Christ, and that victory is declared as a settled fact from the very beginning.
Outline
- 1. The Trinitarian Greeting (Rev 1:4-5a)
- a. From the Eternal Father (v. 4c)
- b. From the Sevenfold Spirit (v. 4d)
- c. From the Triumphant Son (v. 5a)
- 2. The Doxology to the Son (Rev 1:5b-6)
- a. His Redemptive Work: He Loved and Released Us (v. 5b)
- b. Our New Status: A Kingdom and Priests (v. 6a)
- c. The Ascription of Glory (v. 6b)
- 3. The Prophetic Declaration of Christ's Reign (Rev 1:7)
- a. The Ascension Coming (v. 7a)
- b. The Universal Witness (v. 7b)
- c. The Divided Response (v. 7c)
- 4. The Divine Affirmation (Rev 1:8)
- a. The Sovereign Lord God Speaks (v. 8a)
- b. His Eternal and Almighty Nature (v. 8b)
Verse-by-Verse Commentary
Revelation 1:4
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from the One who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
John immediately identifies himself and his audience. These are not symbolic churches representing church history; they are seven actual, dirt-under-the-fingernails congregations in the Roman province of Asia. The message is for them, and by extension, for all churches. The greeting is grace and peace, the standard apostolic blessing that combines the Greek and Hebrew forms of salutation. But this is no mere wish. It is a declaration of what is, grounded in the nature of the Triune God who bestows it.
The source is threefold. First, from the One who is and who was and who is to come. This is a clear reference to the Father, an expansion of God's covenant name, Yahweh, revealed to Moses at the burning bush. It speaks of His absolute sovereignty over time. He is the eternal I AM, the God who governs all of history from beginning to end. Nothing in this book, no matter how chaotic it appears, is outside His control.
Second, the greeting comes from the seven Spirits who are before His throne. This is not a reference to seven different angels or spirits. It is a symbolic description of the Holy Spirit in His sevenfold perfection and fullness, as prophesied in Isaiah 11:2. The number seven in Revelation consistently signifies perfection and completeness. The Holy Spirit is fully equipped and present to minister to the complete church, represented by the seven churches.
Revelation 1:5
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood,
The third person of the Trinity is introduced with three glorious titles. Jesus Christ is the faithful witness. He is the ultimate Prophet, the one whose testimony about the Father and about reality is absolutely true and trustworthy. In a world of lies, His word is the bedrock. He is the firstborn of the dead. This does not mean He was the first to be resurrected chronologically, but that He is the preeminent one, the chief, the head of the new creation. His resurrection is the pattern and guarantee of our own. He is the ultimate Priest who has conquered death. And third, He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. This is not a future hope, but a present reality. At His ascension, Jesus was installed as the King of kings. The Greek is archon, the chief ruler. All earthly rulers, whether they know it or not, are subordinate to Him. This is the central political claim of Revelation, and it is the reason Christians could not burn incense to Caesar. There is another king, one named Jesus.
This glorious identity immediately overflows into doxology. To Him who loves us, a present, active, continuous love. This is the motivation of our redemption. And He released us from our sins by His blood. The word is literally "loosed" us. We were in bondage, and He set us free through His atoning sacrifice. This is the gospel in miniature.
Revelation 1:6
and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
Our release from sin was not for the purpose of sitting around idly. He loosed us in order to make us something. He constituted us as a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. This is our new identity, drawn from Exodus 19:6. We are not just individual subjects in a kingdom; we are the kingdom. And we are priests, a royal priesthood, tasked with representing God to the world and the world to God in worship. This is the foundation for the Christian's cultural task. We are to bring all of life under the lordship of Christ, offering it up as an act of worship. The only proper response to this high calling is to ascribe all glory and the might to Him, forever. This is not our doing; it is all of Him.
Revelation 1:7
BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and EVERY EYE WILL SEE HIM, EVEN THOSE WHO PIERCED HIM; and all the tribes of the earth will MOURN OVER HIM. Yes, amen.
Now we come to a critical, and often misunderstood, verse. This is not primarily about the Second Coming at the end of time. The language is pulled directly from Daniel 7:13, where the Son of Man comes with the clouds to the Ancient of Days to be given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. This is a prophecy of Christ's ascension and enthronement. His "coming" is His vindication in the heavenly court, the event that made Him the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Every eye will see him refers to the historical outworking of that enthronement. His reign is not secret; its effects are made manifest in history for all to see. Specifically, even those who pierced him would see it. This is a direct reference to the generation of apostate Jews who rejected their Messiah. They "saw" Him in the most terrifying way in A.D. 70, when the Roman armies, as His instrument of judgment, descended upon Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. The prophecy of Zechariah 12:10 is then invoked. The sight of the vindicated Christ will cause all the tribes of the earth to mourn over him. For some, this is the godly sorrow of repentance as the gospel goes forth and pierces their hearts. For others, it is the wail of terror as they come under the judgment of the reigning King. The gospel always has this twofold effect. The "Yes, amen" confirms the certainty of this prophecy from both Greek and Hebrew perspectives. It is doubly sure.
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Lest there be any doubt about the authority behind this vision, God the Father Himself now speaks. He identifies Himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He is the beginning and the end of all things. He wrote the script of history, and He is bringing it to its appointed conclusion. He reiterates the title from verse 4, who is and who was and who is to come, emphasizing again His absolute sovereignty over time. And He adds one more title: the Almighty. The Greek is Pantokrator, the all-ruler, the one who holds all things in His hand. This is the God who underwrites the entire book of Revelation. No matter how fierce the dragon, no matter how powerful the beast, no matter how seductive the harlot, our God is the Pantokrator. The victory is already His, and this book is the glorious unfolding of that accomplished fact.
Application
The introduction to Revelation is not just theological throat-clearing. It is a potent tonic for the fainthearted. We are given grace and peace from the God who controls all of history, who has perfectly equipped us by His Spirit, and whose Son is, right now, the ruler of the kings of the earth. This is not a pie-in-the-sky hope; it is the central fact of modern history.
Because Christ has released us from our sins, He has also given us our marching orders. We are a kingdom and priests. This means our faith is not a private, quiet thing. We have a public, priestly duty to perform. We are to declare the excellencies of our King and to work to see His will done on earth as it is in heaven. This involves everything from how we worship on Sunday to how we conduct our business, raise our children, and engage the public square on Monday.
And when opposition comes, when earthly rulers rage against the Lord and His Anointed, we are to remember verse 7. Christ has already been vindicated. His throne is secure. The judgments described in this book are the outworking of His just and holy reign. Our job is not to despair, but to be faithful witnesses, calling the nations to mourn in repentance before they are made to wail in judgment. The Alpha and Omega has spoken, and His purposes cannot fail.