Today’s reading is Revelation 1.
According to the first paragraph of Revelation, God sent an angel to “his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw” (Revelation 1:1b-2, ESV). Most people read this statement as saying, “The angel came to John and revealed God’s word to him and revealed a testimony about Jesus to him and what you are about to read is John bearing witness to those visions.” Perhaps. But I’m not most people. May I suggest another possibility? By reading on, you hereby grant the author of this post permission to suggest another possibility.
The prologue of Revelation does not intend to tell us what the author is about to do, but what this particular author has already done. In other words, the prologue explains to us exactly which John Jesus sent His angel to. He sent His angel to the John who “bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Now, if we were reading Revelation in a vacuum, we might be forgiven for reading right through this and not making any connections. But we aren’t reading in a vacuum. We’ve spent the previous portion of this year reading John’s gospel which began:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5 (ESV)
That gospel ended in this way:
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
John 21:24-25 (ESV)
Not only that, but we read a sermon full of the exact same themes as the gospel record. Do you recall how it began?
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life–the life was made manifest, we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us…
1 John 1:1-2 (ESV)
Wait! What did the author of that gospel and that sermon do? He bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. In other words, the book we are now reading is not telling us what its author is about to do, but telling us precisely who it is that is sharing this revelation. The prologue is saying, “Hey, do you remember that guy who told us about the Word of God, who testified to all he saw, who testified to the One he heard, touched, talked to? Jesus sent His angel to that same guy so you get another installment in the saga of the Word of God, Jesus Christ.”
To drive this home, notice Revelation 1:9:
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 (ESV).
Do you notice “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” was something John had already engaged in and had already suffered for? He was exiled not because of what he was going to write in the book we are now reading, but because of the teaching codified in the books he had previously written. John had already born witness to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
To put a fine point on it, I am suggesting we are confirming precisely why we should read the five books we are reading this year together. They are all written by John the apostle. One may be a gospel, one a sermon, one a letter to a congregation, one a letter to an individual, and one an apocalypse, but they all came from the same pen. They all came from the disciple’s heart, moved by the same Holy Spirit, to tell of the same need to persevere to attain the same victory. It is the same victory we look for.
Just as he started his writing back in the gospel by telling us the darkness did not overcome the light, he will end with this book by encouraging the disciples to hang on: the light always wins.
Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 1.
PODCAST!!!
PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does Revelation 1 admonish you?
Read the Bible 