What is the importance of Patmos in the Bible?

John now proceeds to give his own circumstances: "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." (v. 9.) Apostle though he was, as also the beloved disciple who had been permitted to recline his head on Jesu's breast, he yet, in the true spirit of humility, only styles himself the "brother" of the saints, and their "companion" in the tribulation which was the lot of all the faithful. In consonance, moreover, with the character of his ministry, as here recorded, he takes up the position of being in the kingdom, and hence also in the "patience of Jesus Christ"; for if Christ waits patiently until His enemies are put under His feet, John, if in fellowship with his Lord, must also wait. But he is withal a prisoner, an exile on account of his fidelity in preaching the word of God, and in proclaiming the testimony of Jesus Christ. Had Satan then succeeded in stifling the voice of this courageous witness? So it might have appeared even to despondent saints. Not so, however; for Satan, in stirring up this persecution, was but blindly accomplishing the divine will. God had now other work for John, work that required the servant to be in solitude for a season; and He thus allowed him to be banished to this lonely spot, where, undistracted by other voices, or by his daily service among the saints, and alone with God, he could, in undisturbed communion, become the channel of these divine messages to the assemblies. Torn away by human authority from his beloved service among the churches, he became thus, through the Spirit, their instructor down to the end. In this sense he tarries on earth until the Lord's return. (John 20:22.)

John now proceeds to give his own circumstances: "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." (v. 9.) Apostle though he was, as also the beloved disciple who had been permitted to recline his head on Jesu's breast, he yet, in the true spirit of humility, only styles himself the "brother" of the saints, and their "companion" in the tribulation which was the lot of all the faithful. In consonance, moreover, with the character of his ministry, as here recorded, he takes up the position of being in the kingdom, and hence also in the "patience of Jesus Christ"; for if Christ waits patiently until His enemies are put under His feet, John, if in fellowship with his Lord, must also wait. But he is withal a prisoner, an exile on account of his fidelity in preaching the word of God, and in proclaiming the testimony of Jesus Christ. Had Satan then succeeded in stifling the voice of this courageous witness? So it might have appeared even to despondent saints. Not so, however; for Satan, in stirring up this persecution, was but blindly accomplishing the divine will. God had now other work for John, work that required the servant to be in solitude for a season; and He thus allowed him to be banished to this lonely spot, where, undistracted by other voices, or by his daily service among the saints, and alone with God, he could, in undisturbed communion, become the channel of these divine messages to the assemblies. Torn away by human authority from his beloved service among the churches, he became thus, through the Spirit, their instructor down to the end. In this sense he tarries on earth until the Lord's return. (John 20:22.)

We are not told how long he was on Patmos "for the word of God and the testimony" as a very aged man, but it may well have been a year or more. Patmos is a very rocky island off the coast of Turkey. The sun beats down upon it and it is hot. Nothing grows very well there. The Roman emperor Domitian thought he had silenced John, but from that place the Lord has given us a book without which Scripture would not be complete. We are not told the order of John's five books although we find his commission to write in the Revelation. I do not know, but it may have been that he wrote his other writings afterwards. All the evidence shows that all his books were written when he was a very aged man.

(Vv. 9, 10). Before we see the vision of Christ, we learn that such sights call for special circumstances; they require a suited condition of soul, and their appropriate season. Thus it is that John finds himself in circumstances of trial, and, though truly in the kingdom as subject to Christ, yet not in the kingdom and glory, but, in the kingdom and patience in Jesus. Furthermore he is banished to the barren Isle of Patmos. If, however, he is banished to some desolate spot by the decrees of man, it is that, withdrawn from every other influence, he may receive the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. How often, in the history of God's people, times of trial have become seasons of spiritual illumination. As another has pointed out, Joseph must go to the prison to become a Revealer of secrets: David must be driven into the dens of the earth to sing his sweetest songs: Paul must suffer imprisonment to receive his highest revelations; and John must go to his Patmos prison to hear words, and see visions, that mortal had never heard nor seen before.

John is not in this lonely spot as a self-exiled anchorite, embittered against the world; but an outcast for whom the world has no use. Though withdrawn from the Lord's people, he can still speak of himself as their "brother and companion in tribulation," and the Lord makes the loneliness of Patmos an occasion for John to serve others in love.

(V. 9) John speaks of himself as a "brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation, and kingdom and patience, in Jesus." He does not view himself as a member of the kingdoms of this world with their passing glory, but of the coming kingdom of Christ, for which, as believers, we have to wait in patience. Moreover, his witness to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, which warns men of the coming judgment and overthrow of the kingdoms of this world, brought him into tribulation, which led to his banishment to the Isle of Patmos. Thus, in John, we see the true position of the church while passing through a world which has rejected Christ, and while waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool.

(Vv. 10, 11) As so often with saints persecuted for Christ's sake, John finds that his sufferings become the occasion for special encouragement from the Lord. So on the Lord's Day — the first day of the week — in the mighty power of the Spirit, John has special visions and revelations which he is to write and send to seven representative churches.

(1) We have first the commission of the seer: "I John, your brother and joint partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus." John joins himself thus to those he is addressing. He is their representative, in fact already in the kingdom, but in a kingdom to be in which aright involves necessarily tribulation. It is not the kingdom and glory of Christ. It is "the kingdom and patience" — the kingdom in which the cross is still the significant emblem. It is a time which, if appreciated, will be realized as one of marvelous privilege, with all the affliction that it implies, and even just on account of that very affliction. It is the kingdom of the Sufferer, and who is initiating His people into that suffering, through which He Himself has come to the crown, and through which it is His grace to them that they should come also to the crown; for it is "if we suffer," that "we shall also reign with Him." Nothing can set this aside, however things may change here and the Christian world may imagine itself beyond the application of such things to them. The drill and discipline here are the training for glory. They are the initiation into the mind of Christ, for those who are to be with Christ when He comes. They are not to be, onlookers merely, but those who have learnt in themselves the reality of the conflict between good and evil, and have found in the God of resurrection the One who of necessity, first of all, puts His seal upon man's natural condition, in order that He may show Himself only supreme in His own grace and power beyond it. For us, the evening and the morning must always make the day, until that Sabbath comes when these things shall no more be spoken of, although their memory and their blessing shall abide forever.

John, then, is on the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. That speaks at once for itself as to the treatment of the Word and the testimony of Jesus. He is an outcast exile. He is alone, as one for whom the world has no place or portion. He is apart from its strifes and from its glories; not indifferent to all that is going on, not self-exiled, not of his own choice a desert-dweller, not an anchorite or hermit, but one for whom the world has been what it has been to the Lord Himself, — one banished, as Christ was banished out of it. He is keeping the word of Christ's patience, and we know from his own words directly, what the Lord thinks of those who do so. Thus it is no wonder if Patmos be full of other visitants, and if heaven be opened here to the outcast of earth. It is the way to realize such revelations as we are to be introduced to, and we must not look at it as if these things for us were over, — as if we were merely reading a book which has been so furnished to us. No, we are to read it as those who are the brethren of John, and joint-partakers with him "in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus." If we have not something of this spirit, we shall scarcely read it aright.

Then John describes himself in a manner adapted to the testimony he is called to render: "I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus." There is to be ample employment of symbol; but literal fact is carefully stated: the place, a bare and stern isle of the Sporades, where the apostle was banished for the truth's sake; and also the very day when he saw the vision. How all here said harmonises with what afterwards comes out! The whole book supposes saints in tribulation, with their spiritual experience formed into the associations of the kingdom rather than those of Christ's body the church, as yet surely suffering on account of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus. Particular care is taken to show this to us.

The special occasion when these visions were revealed is supposed to be very significant of their bearing on the church rather than the Jews. For the apostle "was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Domitian was persecuting; the conflict was begun between the witnesses of Christ and the idolatrous power of Rome; John's exile exemplified the warfare and suffering which was to continue for ages; as Rome is seen, near the close of the prophecy, drunk with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. Thus the book traces the moral war from first to last without token of any abrupt transition. Such is the reasoning. If the extremes are fixed, and the intermediate links many and various, what reasonable doubt of the continuity of the whole?

For an illustration of the same thing take John in the book of Revelation, where he has opened up to him a still wider vision, where his eye takes in not only the earth, but the heavens, not only time but eternity; takes in the whole range of God's dealing with men, and His purposes in connection with His blessed Son. What is the key-thought of that book? "I was in the island that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." Separate from all the glory and power of this world, John the lonely prisoner, in isolation, sees visions which no mortal eye can see; hears words that none but the anointed ear can hear, and opens to us the revelation of all the ways of God, introducing us into eternity itself.

John, though over ninety years old and suffering banishment in the Isle of Patmos for Christ's sake and for the Word of God, speaks only of his tribulations as making him a companion of other saints of God (verse 9). There is no suggestion here either of self-exaltation or of self-pity. “The kingdom and patience of Jesus” beautifully describes the character of the kingdom at present in contrast to the manifested glory of His kingdom in the millennium. The Lord Jesus will have a kingdom of great magnificence for 1000 years when Israel and the nations bow to Him in full subjection after the Great Tribulation. Meanwhile He has a kingdom in an inconspicuous form composed of all who on earth today acknowledge Him as Lord. This is at a time when He is publicly rejected and is waiting patiently for the day of His public coronation. His present kingdom therefore is connected with His admirable patience, and every believer is privileged to share in this, as John was sharing in suffering for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.

John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day (v. 10). This is not the same expression as “the day of the Lord,” but refers to the literal Lord's Day, the first day of the week. Being an exile, he would greatly miss the gathering of the Lord's people to the name of the Lord (Matt. 18:20) and specially so on the Lord's Day. The Lord graciously gave him something to compensate for this: he heard a loud voice as of a trumpet behind him. This implies a clear public declaration.