Christ in Revelation

Revelation opens by naming itself The Revelation of Jesus Christ (v. 1) - the whole book is the unveiling of Him. The greeting comes from the One which is, and which was, and which is to come (v. 4), and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth , who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God (vv. 5-6). Then the certain return: Behold, he co…

Christ Connection - He Holds the Seven Stars

Christ identifies Himself as "he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand." In Revelation 1:20, the stars are the angels of the churches - their spiritual leadership. Christ alone holds them. Ephesus might think they are holding the line by sheer effort and vigilance. But Christ reminds them: You are held in My hand. Your first love is not about your performance. It is about Me.

Christ Connection - Robed in Righteousness

White robes appear throughout Revelation - the garments of victory, holiness, and the wedding feast of the Lamb. Here, the promise to Sardis is that their true name - not the dead reputation they carry now, but their redeemed name - will be confessed before the Father and the angels. Jesus Himself will acknowledge them, claim them, present them. The one who came as a thief in judgment will stand at the throne and say their name aloud.

Revelation 4 is the great throne-vision, and its whole weight rests on one center. A door was opened in heaven , and the voice says, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter (v. 1); at once John is in the spirit , and the first thing he sees is not a timeline but a throne: a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne (v. 2). The word throne sounds again and again through the chapter - everything in the scene is arranged around it. The On…

The slain Lamb is found worthy to open the scroll. Heaven sings a new song: "thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Revelation 5 is the throne-room view of what the cross actually accomplished.

Christ Connection - The Lamb Is Lord of History

In John 10:18, Jesus says of His own life: "I lay it down of myself." The same sovereignty that governed His death governs all history. He laid down His life; He also holds the scroll. The same hands that were pierced now open the seals. History is not out of control. Christ is not surprised. He is opening each seal.

Between the sixth seal and the seventh, Revelation 7 holds back the storm to seal the people of God and then throws heaven open to show who they finally are. An angel rises from the east with the seal of the living God , crying that the earth not be hurt till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads (vv. 2-3); the number heard is an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel (v. 4), the tribes named one by one. Then the…

Christ Connection - The Mediator of Prayer

Hebrews 7:25 declares of Jesus: "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Christ, at the right hand of God, is always presenting the prayers of His people before the Father. And in Revelation, the angel with the censer stands at the golden altar mixing our prayers with incense - this is the work of intercession that Christ perfects. Your prayers do not stop at the ceiling of the room wher…

Christ Connection - The Patience of God

Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9 that the Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The locusts do not kill. The torment is given as a teacher, a last call. Christ Himself, in His earthly ministry, wept over Jerusalem, saying He would have gathered her children as a hen gathers her brood (Matthew 23:37). The same compassion shows here - judgment that aims not at death but at turning.

Revelation 10 turns from the trumpets to a single commanding image: another mighty angel come down from heaven , robed in cloud and rainbow, his face as it were the sun , his feet as pillars of fire , holding a little book open and standing astride the sea and the earth (vv. 1-2). He cries out, seven thunders answer, and John is told to seal up what they said and write them not (vv. 3-4) - the chapter itself refusing to tell the reader everything, leaving some things with…

Christ Connection - The Place Where Our Lord Was Crucified

The witnesses are killed in the city where Christ was crucified. John is connecting their deaths to His. Like Him, they are executed in the holy city. Like Him, they will be vindicated and raised. As He rose on the third day, they will rise after three and a half days. The pattern of Christ is played out in them.

Christ Connection - The Messianic King of Psalm 2

The phrase "rule all nations with a rod of iron" comes directly from Psalm 2:9: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel." This is the Messiah’s coronation psalm, where God says to His Son: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Psalm 2:8). Jesus, born of a woman in history, is the King of all nations. Every kingdom of this world,…

Christ Connection - The True Resurrection

The beast’s wound is healed, but it is not a true resurrection. It is a perversion of what only Christ can do. Christ was truly dead and truly rose. The beast received a wound and seemed to recover - but it remains a beast, still wearing the dragon’s face, still speaking blasphemy. John is drawing a contrast: those who wonder after a mere seeming-recovery are missing the One who actually passed through death and came out alive, undying, unsealed by any wound.

Christ Connection - The Lamb on the Holy Mountain

Christ is the Lamb on Zion. This echoes Isaiah 29:8: "And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision." But also Psalm 2:6: "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." Jesus is both - the Lamb and the King, the sacrifice and the sovereign, the One who was slain and yet sits on the throne.

Revelation 15 sets a song of redemption in the doorway of judgment. Before the seven last plagues are poured out, John sees those who had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark standing on a sea of glass mingled with fire , holding the harps of God (v. 2), and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb (v. 3). The two songs have become one. The deliverance once sung at the Red Sea - I will sing unto the LORD,…

Christ Connection - The Blood They Were Worthy Of

The angel says, "Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy." But Christ - who shed the only perfectly innocent blood in history - did not give His blood for the world to drink in judgment. He gave it to drink in mercy: "This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26:28). Those who drink His blood in faith are forgiven. Those who refuse it will, in the end, drink the other kind - the blood they themselves ha…

Revelation 17 sets two figures starkly against each other, and the whole chapter turns on which one prevails. One of the seven angels shows John the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters (v. 1) - a woman on a scarlet beast, arrayed in purple and scarlet… decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations (v. 4), her forehead branded MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIO…

Christ Connection - The City on the Hill

Jesus taught that "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid" (Matt. 5:14). He was speaking of His church, His people - "the light of the world," salt that has not lost its savor. Babylon is the anti-church: a city that gleams for a moment, built on the foundation of lies, that will collapse utterly. Christ builds one city that cannot fall; Babylon builds another. On that day, there is no ambiguity which was real.

Christ Connection - The Bridegroom and the Bride

Paul writes to the Ephesians: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church… that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25-27). The entire marriage metaphor is about how Christ has already been making His Bride ready - cleansing her, sanctifying her, preparing her for the day when He walks into the wedding feast and calls her His own.

Revelation 20 ends with every human being standing before a throne. I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it… And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life (vv. 11-12). The One on the throne is the Judge of all - and the New Testament names that Judge: the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son (John 5:22), and God will judge the world… by that man wh…

A new heaven and a new earth; the holy city coming down. God Himself wipes away every tear; death, sorrow, and pain are gone. The Lamb is the temple and the light. Genesis 1’s first creation finds its answer here - the Christ who spoke worlds into being now makes all things new.

Christ Connection - The Tree and the Cross

Genesis 3 shows the tree of life hidden, forbidden, guarded. Revelation 22 shows it restored. But what happened in between? Christ. Paul writes: "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom. 5:19). The tree of life that was lost through disobedience in a garden is regained through obedience on a tree - the cross. Every fruit on this tree, every leaf of healing, is the fruit of His finished work.