on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me’ (John 8:28). ‘I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak’ (John 12:49). It is God’s truth that Jesus brings; and that is precisely why his teaching is unique and final.
(3) Jesus sends that truth to John through his angel (Revelation 1:1). Here, the writer of Revelation was a child of his time. At this point in history, people were particularly conscious of the transcendence of God. That is to say, they were impressed above all with the difference between God and the world – so much so that they felt that direct communication between God and human beings was impossible and that there must always be some intermediary. In the Old Testament story, Moses received the law directly from the hands of God (Exodus 19–20); but twice in the New Testament it is said that the law was given by angels (Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19).
(4) Finally, the revelation is given to John. It is most uplifting to remember the part that individuals play in the coming of God’s revelation. God must find someone to whom he can entrust his truth and whom he can use as his mouthpiece.
(5) Let us note the content of the revelation which comes to John. It is the revelation of ‘the things which must soon take place’ (1:1). There are two important words here. There is must. History is not haphazard; it has purpose. There is soon. Here is the proof that it is quite wrong to use Revelation as a kind of mysterious timetable of what is going to happen thousands of years from now. As John sees it, the things that it deals with are working themselves out immediately. Revelation must be interpreted against the background of its own time.
SERVANTS OF GOD
Revelation 1:1–3 (contd)
TWICE, the word servant appears in this passage. God’s revelation was sent to his servants, and it was sent through his servant John. In Greek the word is doulos, and in Hebrew ebedh. Each is difficult to translate fully. The normal translation of doulos is slave. The real servant of God is, in fact, his slave. Those who are in service to others can leave their work when they like; they have stated hours of employment and stated hours of freedom; they work for a wage; they have minds of their own and can bargain as to when and for what they will give their labour. Slaves can do none of these things; they are the absolute possessions of their owners, with neither time nor will of their own. Doulos and ebedh bring out how absolutely we must surrender life to God.
It is of the greatest interest to note to whom these words are applied in Scripture.
Abraham is the servant of God (Genesis 26:24; Psalm 105:26; Daniel 9:11). Jacob is the servant of God (Isaiah 44:1–2, 45:4; Ezekiel 37:25). Caleb and Joshua are the servants of God (Numbers 14:24; Joshua 24:29; Judges 2:8; 2 Chronicles 24:6; Nehemiah 1:7, 10:29; Psalm 105:26; Daniel 9:11). David is second only to Moses as characteristically the servant of God (Psalm 132:10, 144:10; 1 Kings 8:66, 11:36; 2 Kings 19:34, 20:6; 1 Chronicles 17:4; in the titles of Psalms 18 and 36; Psalm 89:3; Ezekiel 34:24). Elijah is the servant of God (2 Kings 9:36, 10:10). Isaiah is the servant of God (Isaiah 20:3). Job is the servant of God (Job 1:8, 42:7). The prophets are the servants of God (2 Kings 21:10; Amos 3:7). The apostles are the servants of God (Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; Jude 1; Romans 1:1; 2 Corinthians 4:5). A man like Epaphras is the servant of God (Colossians 4:12). All Christians are the servants of God (Ephesians 6:6).
Two things emerge from this.
(1) The greatest people regarded as their greatest honour the fact that they were servants of God.
(2) We must note how wide this service is. Moses, the law-giver; Abraham, the adventurous pilgrim; David, shepherd boy, sweet singer of Israel, king of the nation; Caleb and Joshua, soldiers and men of action; Elijah and Isaiah, prophets and men of God; Job, faithful in misfortune; the apostles, who carried the story of Jesus to others; every Christian – all are servants of God. There is not one of us whom God cannot use, if we will submit to his service.
THOSE WHO ARE BLESSED
Revelation 1:1–3 (contd)
THIS passage ends with a threefold blessing.
(1) The one who reads these words is blessed. The reader here mentioned is not the private reader but the person who publicly reads the word in the presence of the congregation. The reading of Scripture was the centre of any Jewish service (Luke 4:16; Acts 13:15). In the Jewish synagogue, Scripture was read to the congregation by seven ordinary members of the congregation, although if a priest or Levite was present he took precedence. The Christian Church took much of its service from the synagogue order, and the reading of Scripture remained a central part of the service. The second-century writer Justin Martyr gives an account of what a Christian service was like; and it includes the reading of ‘the memoirs of the apostles [i.e. the gospels], and the writings of the prophets’ (Apology, 1:67). Reader became in time an official office in the Church. One of the early Christian theologian Tertullian’s complaints about the heretical sects was the way in which a person could too speedily arrive at office without any training for it. He writes: ‘And so it comes to pass that today one man is their bishop, and tomorrow another; today he is a deacon who tomorrow is a reader’ (On Prescription against Heretics, 41).
(2) The one who hears these words is blessed. We do well to remember how great a privilege it is to hear the word of God in our own language, a privilege which was bought at great cost. People died to give it to us; and, for a long time, the professional clergy sought to keep it to themselves. To this day, the task of giving people the Scriptures in their own language goes on.
(3) The one who keeps these words is blessed. To hear God’s word is a privilege; to obey it is a duty. There is no real Christianity in anyone who hears and forgets or deliberately disregards.
That is all the more true because time is short. The time is near (verse 3). The early Church lived in vivid expectation of the coming of Jesus Christ, and that expectation was ‘the ground of hope in distress and constant heed to warning’. Quite apart from that, none of us knows when the call will come to take us from this earth, and in order to meet God with confidence we must add the obedience of our lives to the capacity to listen.
We may note that there are seven blesseds in Revelation.
(1) There is the blessed we have just studied. We may call it the blessedness of reading, hearing and obeying the word of God.
(2) Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord (14:13). We may call it the blessedness in heaven of Christ’s friends on earth.
(3) Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed (16:15). We may call it the blessedness of the watchful pilgrim.
(4) Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9). We may call it the blessedness of the invited guests of God.
(5) Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection (20:6). We may call it the blessedness of those whom death cannot touch.
(6) Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (22:7). We may call it the blessedness of the wise reader of God’s word.
(7) Blessed are those who have washed their robes (22:14). We may call it the blessedness of those who accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Such blessedness is open to every Christian.
THE MESSAGE AND ITS DESTINATION
Revelation 1:4–6
This is John writing to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the witness on whom you can rely, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and who set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood, and