Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to shew to his bondmen what must shortly take place; and he signified [it], sending by his angel, to his bondman John,
The book's opening line names its author, its subject, its channel, and its audience in one breath. Each link shapes how we read the rest: why God gives it to Christ, why an angel brings it in signs, why it goes to servants and not to the world.
The title itself sets the tone. The word means an uncovering of what would otherwise stay hidden:
It is "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him." That is, the unveiling of things to come. The plain meaning of the word revelation, or apocalypse, is unveiling. Of course the unveiling of these future things all hangs on the unveiling of Jesus Christ in His glory. But the main meaning is simpler. God gave Jesus this revelation of things to come so that He might show it to His servants.
Not everything Christ makes known here was already covered elsewhere in Scripture. One writer notes what this book adds:
The revelation of Jesus Christ in this book is of a different character to that which we get in the epistles. This goes beyond the scope of what is unfolded there.
That God "gave" a revelation to Christ has troubled readers. Commentators point to the place Christ took as Man:
It is evident that the Lord Jesus is viewed here, not in His place of closeness as the only Son at the Father's side, but in a place of some distance... Something similar appears in the Gospel of Mark. One striking line there has puzzled many (Mark 13:32): "But concerning that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." He is the servant Son of God all through that Gospel. A perfect servant does not know what his master does. He knows only what he is told.
What He receives is tied to what He has been through and what He is to inherit:
As the Only-Begotten He had no need of a revelation; in His deity He knows all the eternal purposes... But He, who is truly God, became man and took the form of a servant... He is the Man who passed through death. God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand. To Him God gave this revelation about the judgment of the earth and His own glory... And He makes this revelation known to His servants, because His own share with Him in all He received from God.
Kelly compares this word with a line in John's Gospel:
How very different is the tone of John 15:15 "No longer do I call you servants"... Of course they were servants also, and there is not a shade of incongruity. Still the difference between the two relationships is huge, and Revelation speaks to the lower one. I suppose the reason is partly this: in this book God is making known a course of events on earth, and the lower place fits that best.
The label also carries a practical test:
All believers are servants of Jesus Christ. But we must be servants in practice if we are to understand Revelation. A servant above all is obedient. So the measure of our obedience will be the measure of our understanding.
The route the message travels is itself part of the message:
Another remarkable feature is the indirectness of the revelation. God gave it to Jesus, and Jesus signified it to John, not directly but through His angel. He did not simply state it: He "signified" it... He gave it to John in signs, and that sets the character of the book. This prophecy does not come in plain speech, as elsewhere. It comes in symbols or signs. All this is meant to make us feel that there is reserve and distance in the way this revelation comes. It suits the sad falling away that had already begun in the church.
Signs invite guesswork, so one writer sets a guardrail:
Revelation is largely a book of signs (illustrative picture language). This does not mean we can interpret them as we please. A sign means what God intends by it. Scripture almost always explains the meaning of a sign somewhere, though not every time the sign appears.
"Soon" is not a decoration on the sentence. It resists a favourite escape:
This word also warns the reader not to take the attitude the Jews took when Ezekiel prophesied to them. Then they said, "The vision that he sees is for many days from now, and he prophesies of times far off" (Ezek. 12:27). Our hearts have a deep habit of dodging the force of the Word of God. We do not deny it. We push it so far into the future that we can safely ignore it.
One writer sets this book against the sealed prophecy of Daniel:
This book is not a sealed one in the sense in which Daniel was told to seal his prophecy. Then the time was distant; now it is at hand.
- God — the source. Every communication in the book starts with Him, not with John's imagination.
- Christ — the receiver. He receives it as the Man whom God raised and exalted, in the servant place He took in grace. What He receives, His own share with Him.
- Angel — the channel. God sent it in signs, not in plain face-to-face speech. That method keeps reserve and distance.
- Servants — the audience. Not the world, and not the curious: obedience is the measure of understanding.
- Soon — the timing. Daniel's prophecy was sealed; this one is open, because the time is near. So do not push it into a future far enough away to ignore.
who testified the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw.
John has just said that God gave the revelation to Christ, who sent it by an angel to him. Verse 2 tells us what John did with it, and it raises three questions: what "the word of God" means here, whose testimony this is, and how "all that he saw" fits with the other two.
Everything turns on one small word:
The angel gives the message to John, "who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ — all things that he saw." There is no "and" before the last clause. He does not bear witness to something that he saw in addition to the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ, but to all that he saw of them.
The visions set the limits. So the phrase has a narrower reach here than elsewhere:
This is limited here. It does not mean truth in general, nor the gospel in particular. We cannot doubt that John did preach the gospel, and did feed the church of God with all His revealed truth. But that is not the subject of this book, nor the meaning of our text. Everything here is limited to what he saw... So, besides what the apostle had in his ordinary dealings with Christians, and his already long service for Christ, he now receives a new character of word and testimony.
The two phrases also differ in source:
"The Word of God" is limited to the messages contained in this book, while "the testimony of Jesus Christ" is here prophetic in character... We take the Word of God to be what He expresses, either directly or through another, and the testimony of Jesus Christ to be what He Himself announces, or announces through His angel.
It is easy to read the phrase as testimony about Christ. Commentators point the other way:
He "bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ." The Revelation comes with all the authority of the Word of God. At the same time it is the testimony of Jesus: not a testimony to Jesus, however much it may contain truths which do indeed testify to Jesus. The testimony of Jesus is what He Himself gives about things that must soon happen — the things John saw.
Does that testimony stop when the church is taken to heaven? One writer answers no:
The prophetic spirit that belongs to the Revelation as a whole, after the church is taken to heaven, is just as much the testimony of Jesus. This is most important. Some make the gospel, and the presence of the Spirit that goes with it, the same at all times, and they may forget this — as indeed they have. Others have thought that this cannot be a testimony of Jesus, because after Revelation 4 and 5 the rest of the book treats the Jew apart from the Gentile, and makes the world an object of God's judgments.
The two phrases do different work. The first settles the book's authority; the second gives its content:
It is "the word of God," and this at once gives the book full authority and puts it on a level with the other Holy Writings. Then it is "the testimony of Jesus Christ"... This testimony declares that the Jesus who suffered and was treated as nothing here is the coming Lord of all things in heaven and on earth, and that all might and dominion, power and glory is in His hands... As we look over the prophetic field, a great drama unfolds before our eyes. We see beasts and Babylon and other anti-christian forces. But if we do not see them in relation to the testimony of Jesus, we shall miss their real lesson and power.
John testified, and he does not stand apart from his readers:
Notice the person who receives the revelation. Very soon afterwards he calls himself the brother of all Christians, and a sharer with them in "the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus." John is one of us, and he wants to be understood as one of us. He is a sample of the people this testimony is entrusted to. He is ready to testify, and ready also, through grace, to take the consequences of faithful testimony.
- Received. The angel gave the message to John. He did not invent it; he bore witness to it.
- Defined. "All that he saw" is not a third item. It sets the limit of the first two: here the word of God and the testimony of Jesus mean the visions of this book.
- Owned. The testimony is Christ's own, not just testimony about Him. He gives it Himself.
- Weighed. Because it is the word of God, the book carries full authority, on a level with the rest of Scripture.
- Carried. John took it up as a brother in tribulation. He is a sample of anyone willing to bear this testimony and its cost.