Revelation - Chapter 1:1-3

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

“The revelation”, this implies that something is revealed.  In order to be revealed, something has to be hidden or at the very least not obvious.  Whether this is a future event and the revelation is prophesy or if it is current events and the purpose or explanation is revealed or if it is current or past events and a part that was unseen is revealed, something was unknown and will now become known.  “From Jesus Christ, which God gave Him”, the revelation is from Christ Himself to John but was given to Jesus from God, John is just a note-taker.  Jesus is in control of the delivery of the revelation.  “What must soon take place”, this implies that the revelation is a prophesy. 

“He [Jesus Christ] made it known by sending His angel to His servant John”.  Who John saw may not have been Jesus Christ but an angel demonstrating Jesus Christ.  There is a reason for suggesting this and we will refer to it later in this chapter.  The KJV version says, “He [Jesus] sent and signified it [gave signs of the message] by His angel unto His servant John”.  This is at best a little unclear, at least to me, exactly the meaning.  What makes it unclear is what I know verses 17 and 18 say.  Did an angel take the revelation from Jesus and deliver it wholly himself to John as the messenger using signs?  The text in its literal interpretation seems to support this.  The delivery method seems to be: God gave to Jesus, Jesus gave to Angel, Angel gave to John, and John writes it down to give to others.  “Who testifies to everything he saw … the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  John has written and testifies to all that was revealed to him.  This is the revelation of God through Jesus Christ, not of or from John.  This is also exactly how the salvation message has been delivered to us.  We are saved by God through Jesus Christ, not by any other person, spirit or thing. 

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”  This is a prophesy and blessed are you if you read it, or hear it and take to heart (keep) what it says.  There are two aspects of this blessing and each one is two-part.  Read it and keep it or hear it and keep it.  If you do either, you will be blessed.  There are seven such beatitudes in this book, this is the first. 

And, that’s it.  This seems awful negligent, in my opinion, as an opening paragraph considering the incredible visions and testimony he is about to unleash in the written pages of this book we call Revelation.  He doesn’t offer guidance or a guide, not even a symbol legend.  He pretty much just simply says, “I was given a revelation and it came from Jesus Himself, and here it is for you.  It’s important so read it.”  You can almost feel the idea that he was too overcome to say too much else.  However, he answers the “What” question.  What is this?   It is a revelation from Jesus Christ.  As brief as he is here, that is enough.