Revelation 1

Chapter One - Introduction

John was, at the age of 86, exiled to the island of Patmos for his Christian faith.  This was in the time of the Emperor Domitian and there is a little bit of history behind this.  The Roman Empire covered most of the known world – i.e. Europe and the Mediterranean countries and parts of Asia, also parts of the near and middle east, covering many very different cultures and peoples.  Roman law was a great stabilising influence: people could travel to different countries safe in the knowledge of Roman protection, they could trade with the same confidence. In time and in a spontaneous and voluntary way, the Spirit of Rome, Dea Roma, was added to the pantheon of gods in the pagan countries: gradually, this spirit of Rome became personified in the Emperor of the time and a number of emperors were deified after their deaths (as you will know if you watched I Claudius.  Remember that Livia, who had been responsible for any number of convenient deaths, asked Caligula to make her a goddess after her death so that she would not suffer for the things she had done).  By the time of John’s exile, in 96 AD, the Emperor Domitian was declared a god while still living, and all loyal citizens had once a year to burn a pinch of incense at an altar in his honour and declare that ‘Caesar is Lord’.  Of course, the Christians could not do this and as we will see in some of the letters we will be studying, this led to a lot of difficulties for them. Presumably John had refused to do this and that probably was the reason for his exile.  Paul discussed the wording ’on the Lord’s Day’ and told us that this was not a phrase used at the time for Sunday, and that perhaps it related to the day on which the honouring of Domitian took place: but personally I find this very strange unless John was being sarcastic – if he had refused to bow to the Emperor as God, why would he honour him even in this mention?  I have no alternative theory as to the meaning then of the Lord’s Day, but I don’t find this one sensible.

So John was exiled to Patmos – one source says, to a cave on Patmos, but I don’t know whether that implies guards or bars to keep him in.  Someone would have to feed him and so on.  Patmos is an island that looks rather like a seahorse, with a wider top section hanging down, but the neck is long and thin, about 15 miles long and about 5 miles wide. The Book of Revelation is exactly that, a book that John was told, in revelation, to write and to send to the churches as a warning of what was to come.  There are many passages that are hard to understand: there is mention of 10 kings and at one time this was thought to be the ten countries of the EU but that has now expanded beyond this number.  There is a lot of imagery, most of it very beautiful and some of it reminiscent of passages in other books such as Ezekiel and Isaiah.  The early chapters, which we are studying, which contain the letters to the seven churches, are perhaps the most straightforward and the easiest part of the book to understand.

All we know of God is what he has revealed of himself to us through his word – we have discussed this before, there is so much about God that we don’t know.  This revelation of John is the last in a line from Moses on Mount Sinai, Isaiah in the Temple, Ezekiel on the banks of the Kebar River and Daniel in Babylon.  These people were all in the midst of their peoples, albeit in exile for some of them: and the culmination of all these revelations was Jesus Christ.  Now John on Patmos has a further revelation from Christ about two sets of things: the things that are and the things that are to come.

 

1. What is the main reason John gives that people should read these words?

Because the time is near – will soon take place (v1 and 3). Blessing (meditating on and learning from the word of God.  We will also see later how this relates to the letters themselves).

2. What aspects of God are mentioned in the doxology v 4-6? (Trinity: Eternal: Unchanging: Resurrection: Sovereign: Redeemer: Raised his people up to be a kingdom and priests).

3. What else are we told of God in this passage? (A & O, the First and Last). As we have mentioned before, if considered in terms of time-sequence, this is a purely human perspective – for God there is no first and last, no beginning and end (but see the letter to Smyrna for further meaning) but our language cannot articulate such ideas.  We live in a space-time universe and it colours our perception of everything.

4. V7 – why shall people mourn? (Knowledge of their sinfulness cf Sermon on the Mount).

5. V9: what comfort can John have in his exile? (That he is there as a result of his faithfulness, not for wrongdoing: also that he is not alone: brothers and companions in suffering. Also, Jesus told them that suffering would be part of their walk with him so this is how John can share the suffering of Christ).

6. Why are the churches symbolised as lamp stands?  (Receive light from Christ and the gospel and should shed it for others) What is the significance of holding the seven stars and walking among the seven lamp stands?  Hold: can mean hold by the edge, or in this case hold completely within one’s hand.  Jesus holds the seven churches as a symbol that he holds no one church but all the churches: in the same way he walks among the lamp stands to show his presence in all the churches, not just one.  The only real way to unity is to think of the Risen Christ holding all the churches, being present in all the churches, and disregard the things that divide us.

7. There are many ways we can be confined physically: one can be bedridden, under house arrest, in prison, on a boat or living on a small island as John was.  What positives are there in such confinement?  (Lack of distraction/not having to earn living/time to think and pray/time to work out what the important things are and get to know God).  Richard Lovelace 17^th century: ‘Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.’ This could mean that you can make a prison for yourself in your own mind or circumstances can make a prison for you – like Jan with a disabled child – or that, if you are in a true prison of walls and bars, you can be free in your mind like Paul and Silas were.  He goes on to talk of his soul being free: what does this mean to you?

8. How important is it to know anything of John’s background (even the brief piece we discussed at the beginning of this session – does it help or not make any difference?) before reading Revelation?  (that he is a reliable person: that he knew Jesus in life: that he and his brother had argued over who should be first: that Jesus loved him and that it is credible that Jesus would appear to him and tell him these things)