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The Revelation of Jesus Christ Part 2: The messenger

Part 2

Revelation Chapter 1:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

There are a few things that stand out to me in this passage:

1.      The phrase, “Revelation of Jesus Christ”, is ambiguous. We can deduce that Jesus Christ is revealing something, yet we can rightly conclude that something is being revealed about Jesus Christ. We will touch on this more as we go further in our studies.
2.      The phrase -“God gave Him to show His servants” tells us:
  • a.    The revelation is from God
  • b.      The revelation was given to Jesus Christ
  • c.      The intended purpose for giving the revelation is to be shown to the servants of Jesus Christ
3.      The “He”  in the phrase, “He sent and signified it…” is ambiguous
4.      The revelation from God, was delivered and made known to John by an angel. It can be deduced that John was chosen to receive this revelation because he was a witness to the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ.


What made John so special?
1 John 1:1-3 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

You see, John was an eye witness. It was John that declared “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
To all you English students out there you may notice something familiar about this chapter’s form. John is writing a persuasive argument. He begins with his conclusion or theses and proceeds to use the tactics of Logos and deductive reasoning to support his theses.
“All things were made by him”
"In him was life"
“the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…”
Conclusion through deductive reasoning: the flesh, Jesus Christ, is______________.

So God submits the revelation of Jesus Christ, the final book in his books of books, to John. He trusts him to “show his servants” that which he reveals.

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