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It concerns things which are
“soon to happen;” it concerns a time which is
“near”:
It speaks here
about things which will “shortly take
place.” It tells us what the
Revelation concerns, and it concerns things that
will “take place.” We’ve discussed
a little about this in the Introduction lessons, but there is a lot
of discussion and confusion about this. What it has to do
with is things that are certain to come to pass. It
doesn’t necessarily suggest that everything in this book
will come to pass at the same time. It
doesn’t suggest at all that these things have
already taken place. It doesn’t suggest at all
that none of these things have yet taken place and they
are all to take place in the future, as some categories of
interpretation suggest. This would be the
“futurist’s” view of
Revelation. However, this expression
presents strong evidence that these things will come to
pass; some already have; and some are yet to
come to pass.
In
verse 2, we see that John “bears
witness.” He was an “eye
witness.” There is, perhaps, the possibility of a
double meaning there, when it talks about the “Word of
God.” It may be the actual Words that God is
saying, that are being passed through Jesus, through the angel, to
John, OR it could be that it is the “Word of
God.” John is a witness, because he will turn and look
at Who is speaking and it is the Son of God—Jesus. Of
course, John uses this terminology in his Gospel: Jesus is the Word
of God. Do you remember John, chapter 1, verse
1?“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.” “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, [and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of
grace and Truth.” [John 1:14]. So John may
be saying something
specifically—literally—here that he is
witnessing, that he is looking at, that he is
seeing the Word of God—the Son of God.
He will be telling or relating the Testimony of Jesus and the
things that he will see.
The words
“Testimony” and “bore
witness” are common words that are found in John’s
writings. This Revelation is, likewise,
John’s Testimony to that which Christ, through His angel,
made known to John. As we have said before, John is relating
the things that were related to him—the things that
he will see.
The two
expressions in verse 2, “the Word of
God” and the “Testimony of Jesus
Christ,” are synonymous. This expression in
various forms is going to be found several times elsewhere as we go
through Revelation. It will be seen in
chapter 6, verse 9 [“When He opened the fifth seal, I saw
under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word
of God and for the Testimony which they
held.”],
chapter 12, verse 17 [“And the dragon was enraged with the
woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who
keep the commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus
Christ”], and
again in chapter 20, verse 4 [“And I saw thrones, and they sat on
them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of
those who had been beheaded for their Witness [Testimony] to Jesus and for the Word
of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not
received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they
lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand
years.”].
It contains a blessing for the
reader and doer:
In
chapter 1, verse 3 that we just read, we see the
first of seven beatitudes in the book of
Revelation. Did you know or realize that
there are seven beatitudes in the book of
Revelation, or did you think that the only
beatitudes to be found in the Bible were in Matthew
5 [verses 1-11] and in Luke
6 [verses 20-23]? Well, not
so! There are seven beatitudes in the book of
Revelation. Remember that the word
“beatitude” comes from the Latin word,
“beatus,” which means
“blessed.”Beginning in
verse 3, John states:
“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the
Words.”
We’ll see other beatitudes in chapter 14, verse
13 [“Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to
me, ‘Write: “Blessed are the dead who
die in the Lord from now on.” Yes,’ says the
Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, and their
works follow them.’”]; chapter 16, verse
15 [“Behold, I am coming as a thief.
Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his
garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”];
chapter 19, verse 9 [“Then he said to
me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are
called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”’ And
he said to me, ‘These are the true sayings of
God.’”]; chapter 20, verse 6
[“Blessed and holy is he who has part in
the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign
with Him a thousand years.”]; and chapter 22,
verses 7 and 14 [“Behold, I am coming quickly!
Blessed is he who keeps the Words of the prophecy
of this book.” “Blessed are
those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the
tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the
city.”]. Along with this beatitude here in
verse 3, we’ll see that there are seven
beatitudes.
So we see here
in Revelation, chapter 1, verse 3, that there is a
special blessing upon those who read aloud, and to those
who listen, to those who are members of whatever that
assembly or congregation is who “hear” the
prophetic “Words” of the book. The
blessings rest upon those who “hear” and those
who “keep” [obey] the Message.
What great
value there is in a public reading of the Word of God! Do you
ever think sometimes on Sunday morning and Sunday night:
“Well, why are we doing this? After all, the preacher is
going to be up there preaching in just a little while, and
he’s going to have a text that he’ll read and
he’s going to read or recite a number of other passages of
Scripture during the sermon.” If we didn’t have
another reason for reading aloud from God’s Word in our
worship service, this would be a good reason to do it!
Blessings rest upon those who “hear” and who
“keep” [obey] the Message!
In fact,
historically, they say that as time progressed (and I don’t
quite know a time-frame for this), but one reference that I read
said that as time progressed from these early days of the church,
perhaps into the 2nd and 3rd
Centuries and
so on, the one who was the public reader of Scripture was made an
“official”—quote-unquote—of the
church. A congregation might have a primary person to do that
public reading, because not everyone read and not every one had a
Bible. They relied on scrolls that were copied, both the Old
Testament as well as the epistles that had been written. Now
I don’t think there is anything that is Scriptural about
that—the “office of the reader,” as we read about
the “office of the elder,” and so on —but
nevertheless, that was the importance or significance that the
church put on the reading of the Word after the
1st Century. The blessedness of hearing and
obeying God’s Word is a beatitude—a
blessing—that is proved again and again in the lives
of Christians.
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