The Apostle John’s vision of Jesus Christ in Revelation 1:9 – 18

“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. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.’

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades’” (Revelation 1:9 – 18).

The following quote is from Dennis E. Johnson’s commentary on Revelation by P&R Publishing, 2001.

In discussing the believer’s desire to see beyond the surface of daily life and to behold the big picture revealed by God, Johnson says the following:

“The Revelation shown to John unveils this deep pattern beneath the surface of history.  How appropriate that before all else John sees the One who makes sense of history on a grand scale and of our experience!

We need to see Jesus – to meet his blazing eyes of heart-searching holiness, to wake up at the trumpet blast of his voice, to respond to his jealous demand for exclusive and passionate loyalty.  Shocked insensible by the impact of his splendor, we need then to hear his words of compassionate comfort, quelling our fears and quickening our hopes.  Every congregation, whatever its struggle at its post on the battlefront, needs to fix its eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12:2).  Therefore, Revelation begins with a vision of the glory of ‘one like a son of man’ who died but lives forever, walking among the churches and holding them in his hand.  For this reason in the letters that flow from this vision Jesus identifies himself in terms of what John has seen and heard in his overpowering encounter with the glorious Son of Man.”

As believers we certainly need to get a vision of God’s revelation of who Jesus is.  That revelation must shatter all of our idols and false concepts of God.  Oh that He may be glorified in us as He reveals himself in and through each one of us.