Revelation 1

¹ The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God  gave him  to show to his servants the things that must soon take place.  He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, ² who bore witness to the word of God and to  the testimony of Jesus Christ, even  to all that he saw. ³ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it,  for the time is near.

GREETING TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES

⁴ John to the seven churches that 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,

It is never enough to just say that God is, or to just say that He was, or to just say that He is to come. As Lord over eternity, He rules the past, the present, and the future.

⁵ and from Jesus Christ  the faithful witness,  the firstborn of the dead, and  the ruler of kings on earth. To  him who loves us and  has freed us from our sins by his blood ⁶ and made us  a kingdom,  priests to  his God and Father, to him be  glory and  dominion forever and ever. Amen. ⁷Behold,  he is coming with the clouds, and  every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Paul put it like this in Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The work of Jesus on the cross for us is God’s ultimate proof of His love for you. He may give additional proof, but He can give no greater proof.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God,  “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

VISION OF THE SON OF MAN

⁹ I, John, your brother and  partner in  the tribulation and  the kingdom and  the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos  on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice  like a trumpet ¹¹ saying,  “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

The idea behind these titles for Jesus is that He is before all things and will remain beyond all things.

¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw  seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the midst of the lampstands  one like  a son of man,  clothed with a long robe and  with a golden sash around his chest. ¹⁴ The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.  His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵ his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and  his voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶ In his right hand he held seven stars,  from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and  his face was like the sun shining  in full strength.

“When we see in the picture his head and his hair white as snow, we understand the antiquity of his reign.” (Spurgeon)

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But  he laid his right hand on me,  saying, “Fear not,  I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living one.  I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and  I have the keys of Death and Hades. ¹⁹ Write therefore  the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and  the seven lampstands are the seven churches.