The Journey Begins || Introduction to Revelation || Part 1

Happy 2025 everyone! I pray that it’s been a safe, happy, and healthy start to the new year. From now until September 8^th, we are taking a journey into the book of Revelation. We will take this book apart slowly and learn the different parts of the book, describe the imagery John writes with, and see what the book of Revelation teaches us about God, Jesus, and our world today.

Today begins a 3-part series that introduces the book of Revelation, simply called “Introduction to Revelation.” We’ll hear from John in Revelation 1 to understand what this book is about, what to expect, and what John’s writing style can teach us. The goal for this series is to set up a sturdy foundation to build our knowledge on this book.

Today’s blog is the prologue of this letter, Revelation 1:1-3. If you’re new to my blogs, I will offer three translations for us to read: the NASB (a more literal translation of the ancient texts), the VOICE (a more paraphrased version), and the NLT (a middle-of-the-road translation between literal and paraphrased.) I believe doing this allows us to see a bigger picture of the story being told and allows more people to connect with each other and dialogue with each other.

Revelation 1:1-3

1             This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John, 

2             who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

3             God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.

First, let’s simplify the story here:

• This book is a revelation (word study on this next) of Jesus. This revelation was given to Jesus by God to show his followers the events that will take place in the future. Jesus was sent to John to present this revelation.
  • These events describe realities coming into the world and will be fulfilled in the future.
  • John received signs and insights into these realities.
• John faithfully reported everything he saw as presented by this Jesus.
• Those who read this revelation and follow what it says, for these events are coming soon.

There are two words in this section that are important to understand not only for this section, but in the entire book of Revelation: revelation and prophecy.

Revelation is the Greek noun apokalupsis (ah-po-KAH-loo-psis.) This term refers to the act of revealing or unveiling something that was previously hidden. In the New Testament, it’s often used to describe the disclosure of divine truths or manifesting of God’s will and purposes. In the Greco-Roman world, the concept of revelation was often associated with the disclosure of divine mysteries through visions. In the biblical context, it focuses on emphasizing God’s initiative in making his divine plan known to the world. It’s a way for God to call us to respond with faith and obedience.

Prophecy is the Greek noun prophéteia (prof-ay-ti’-ah). In the New Testament, it refers to the gift of communicating and enforcing revealed truth. It involves revealing future events and God’s will for the purpose of education, glory, and comfort within the church. In the ancient world, this was a common practice worldwide. Biblical prophecy stands out in its origin from the one true God and its purpose to guide, correct, and encourage God’s people.

To summarize, a revelation is an unveiling of something that was previously hidden. A revelation describes divine truths and God’s will, making it known to the world. A prophecy is communicating and enforcing the unveiled truth for the purpose of education, glory, and comfort. (Note how much less fear-filled this is from the imagery of revelation and prophecy in the secular world today.) This is deep educational material filled with imagery and poetry to convey God’s divine teaching and vision for the world. This will be important as we unpack images of scrolls, bowls, trumpets, and more.

Revelation is a book that describes both the future and the present. If offers a future hope to all followers of God, especially those who were persecuted and suffered for their faith. This future proclaims Christ’s final victory over evil and the guarantee of eternal life with him. It also gives present guidance as it teaches us about Jesus and how to live a Christ-filled life. Through the images that we’ll see, we will learn these three things (key points to hang on to):

• Jesus Christ will return to earth in the future.
• Evil will be judged and its reign of terror on the world will end.
• Everyone will be raised from the dead to stand before God for judgment, leading those to eternal life or to eternal separation.

Revelation reveals to us future events, but it’s not with the negative doom-and-gloom mindset that we often assume and expect. While John shares the intensity of the events, he assures us that believers will have nothing to fear. Believers will face these events, but without the fear of eternal separation. Nonbelievers will face these events but have a choice: to repent of their sin and believe in God as their Savior or to continue to choose not to believe and face an eternal separation from God. While this is a very heavy topic to talk about, I want to remind you that we all will have one final choice before we are taken to the gates of heaven. Those sentenced to an eternal separation are those who committed evil in this world and intentionally rebelled against God (see my “What the…?” series). When we think about what life is like after our earthly one, we can remember that Christ is for us and love us unconditionally. He wants us to develop a relationship with him so that we don’t risk eternal separation, but instead eternal joy and happiness in the Kingdom of God.

According to tradition, John (the author) was the only one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples that was not killed for their faith. John went on to write the Gospel of John and the letters of 1, 2, and 3 John. When he wrote this book, John was in exile on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, sent there by the Romans for his witness about Jesus. While we don’t know the history of John’s journey outside of the Gospels, we can assume he faced similar imprisonments like Paul. I would assume that his imprisonment would be more intense due to the direct connection of Jesus, hence being exiled to an island instead of being sentenced to a prison/jail cell.

This book is about the revelation from Jesus, concerning Jesus, and of Jesus that was revealed to John, the follower of Jesus. Let me say that differently: this book is about an unveiling from Jesus, about Jesus. This book reveals Christ’s full identity and the plans for the end of this world. The focus is still on Jesus: his return, his victory over evil, and the establishment of his Kingdom on earth. When we go through this book, we’re not focusing on the when all this will happen nor are we hyper focusing on the imagery that John uses. If we did, we’d miss the message John is trying to share: the discovery of the infinite love, power, and justice of Jesus.  It’ll be weird to look at this story as a deeper understanding of Jesus’ love, power, and justice instead of a fearful foreshadowing of the end of the world – but it will be doable, and we’ll do it together.

Revelation was written in the apocalyptic genre (apocalyptic = uncovered, unveiled, revealed). This type of ancient literature usually featured spectacular and mysterious imagery and was written under the name of an ancient hero. John was very familiar with the Jewish apocalyptic works, but his writing differs. John uses his own name rather than one of an ancient hero. He denounces evil and encourages people to keep to high Christian standards. He offers hope instead of fear. Jesus wasn’t a psychic attempting to predict the future; he was a prophet of God describing what God had shown him. John wrote what Jesus was told about what would happen from God. I think it’s important to recognize the potential for miscommunication here. The imagery used would have made sense to John’s Greco-Roman audience because it was common to communicate stories like this. We wouldn’t have the cultural context of these images, so we have to recognize that what made sense when John wrote this wouldn’t make sense to us.

Jesus shared this message to John in a vision, allowing John to see and record specific future events so he could encourage all believers who would read his letter. The vision included a wide variety of signs and symbols conveying the essence of what would happen. (NOTE: the essence of what would happen is not what would happen. We receive the idea, not the full story.) What John would have seen would have been indescribable, so he used illustrations to show what it was like. When reading this symbolic language, we don’t have to understand every small detail – John didn’t. Instead, our focus is to recognize that John’s imagery reveals Jesus and the glorious and victorious Lord of all. Again: our focus as we progress will be asking: “How is the love, power, and justice of Jesus shown?”

Revelation is a prophetic book (a book that teaches on the divine truth communicated from God) that is both prediction (foretelling future events) and proclamation (preaching about who God is and what he calls us to do.) Prophecy is more than just future-telling, as we established earlier. Behind the predictions stand important principles about who God and his promises that hold present implications for us. The more we read, the more we can know God better and build our relationship with him.

We often use our typical news reports and question the direction of our world. People have used it to connect to the stories in Revelation to support the belief that our world is ending now. The US news mediums are often filled with violence, scandal, and political strife. God’s plan for the future, however, provides inspiration and encouragement because we know he will intervene in history at the right time to fully consequences. I struggle with this mindset. I agree that God provides inspiration and encouragement. Yet if we walk through life with the mindset that God will just come in and fix things, we can become complacent in our action in the world. For me, I understand that this will happen and can rest knowing it will. However, there’s still work to do in our world today. To share Christ’s love to all, to care for those in marginalized communities, and to live our lives as a true reflection to who God is. John is encouraging the churches to read his book out loud so that all people can hear it, apply what it says, and hold on to the fact that at the end of the day – God will reign victorious. Remember, God will win at the end of the day, but we must work to show that victory in our daily lives.

When John says that “the time is near,” he’s not stating that the end of world will be here soon (like within a specified time range.) He’s urging his readers to be aware that the end of the world could happen at any time. That we should be ready for when we’ll be at the gates of heaven awaiting the last judgment and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth. We don’t know when the events John shares will happen – making us be prepared for when this will happen because it will happen in a blur. As we journey through this book, we’ll learn about the events and learn how we can be prepared for when it happens.

Today, we introduced Revelation as a book about the future and today. It reveals the future, but in a way that reveals Jesus’ love, power, and justice. The author, John, wrote this from the island of Patmos and the only one of the twelve disciples who wasn’t killed for sharing the Gospel. Revelation is apocalyptic literature, meaning it uncovers the message about who Jesus is and God’s plan for the end of the world. John received a vision from Jesus and transcribed everything he saw as best as possible so he could encourage all of God’s people. Revelation is a prophetic book that shares future events and states who God is and what he calls us to do. John prepares us for when the final judgment will occur and encourages us to be aware at all times for it.

As I did towards the end of last year, there will be a list of the associated scriptures for you to go and study connected with the main passage today.

In Part 2, we will dissect John’s greeting to the seven churches he’ll write to in Revelation 2 and 3. Until then, stay blessed.