each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying: d. Even they who pierced Him : When Jesus comes, it will be a particularly meaningful revelation for the Jewish people. Of course, it was not the Jews alone who pierced Him . But we know John had in mind the revelation of Jesus to His own people because this is an allusion to Zechariah 12:10. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. iv. We should consider the fact that this is the only physical description of Jesus given to us in the Bible. The only other description that comes close is in Isaiah 53:2: He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. ii. Jesus is the one who lives, and was dead, and is alive forevermore . He has the credentials of resurrection, and lives to never die again. The victory that Jesus won over sin and death was a permanent victory. He didn’t rise from the dead just to die again.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near. at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I love you.

i. If we understand our own deep sinfulness, this seems almost too good to be true. We can stand clean before God – clean from the deepest of stains. No wonder the same Apostle John also wrote, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

i. If Jesus is both the Beginning and the End , then He also has authority over everything in-between. This means that Jesus has a plan for history, and He directs the path of human events toward His designed fulfillment. Our lives are not given over to blind fate, to random meaninglessness, or to endless cycles with no resolution. Instead, Jesus Christ who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End directs all of human history and even our individual lives. d. The Almighty : This word Almighty translates the ancient Greek word pantokrater, which literally means “the one who has his hand on everything.” It speaks of the great sovereign control of Jesus over everything – past, present, and future. i. First, we believe that the Book of Revelation must mean something. This is a book that Jesus gave to show His servants something. It isn’t a book of meaningless nonsense. It has a promise of blessing, not a promise of confusion.I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. i. The white hair and head also connect Jesus with the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9. “The term of Ancient of Days belongs to God the Father, yet it also agreeth to Christ, who is equal with the Father as to his Divine nature.” (Poole) e. Which approach is correct? Each one is true in some regard. The Book of Revelation did speak to John’s day. It speaks to church history. And it does have meaning for our personal life. So while elements of the first three approaches have their place, we can’t deny the place of the futurist view. We can know the Book of Revelation speaks with clarity about the end times because of two central principles drawn from Revelation 1:1-3. ii. Adam Clarke believed the angel of each church was its pastor. “ Angel of the Church here answers exactly to that officer of the synagogue among the Jews called… the messenger of the Church, whose business it was to read, pray, and teach in the synagogue.” (Clarke)

i. Jesus has done all this and more for you. You have much to praise Him for – so praise Him! “Would you not wish to be in heaven when your life on earth is over? The time will come when you must die; would you not desire to have a good hope of entering then into the felicities of the perfected ones? I am sure you would; but if you are at last to be numbered amongst the redeemed host on high, you must here learn their song. You cannot be admitted into the choirs above without having practiced and rehearsed their music here below.” (Spurgeon)c. His feet were like fine brass : Since fire is connected with judgment, these feet like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace speak of someone who has been through the fires of judgment and has come forth with a refined purity. Jesus has been through the “Refiner’s Fire.” i. Some suggest that it was because they are arranged in a roughly circular pattern. Others think it was because these were postal districts in the Roman province of Asia. Many believe seven churches were chosen because in the Bible, the number seven often represents completeness, and these letters – and all of the Book of Revelation – are written to the complete church, not only these seven churches . Seiss writes, “The churches of all time are comprehended in seven,” and quotes many modern and ancient commentators that agree with this perspective. g. His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength : The glory of Jesus is so great, so shining, that it is hard to even look upon Him. Jesus has the same glory as in His transfiguration, when His face shone like the sun (Matthew 17:2).

i. For example, many of the Reformers called the Pope the beast of Revelation chapter 13, but they didn’t necessarily want to believe that the end was very near. So they believed that Revelation spoke of their time, without necessarily speaking to the end times.So it seems that the Book of Revelation is not prophesising the end of the world but is a polemic against the Roman Empire. d. This was a spectacular vision, and many people wish they could have a spectacular vision like John had, but we can know the very same Jesus John saw. We can know His purity, His eternal wisdom, His searching judgment, His victory, His authority and His majesty. Each of these aspects of His nature are ours to know intimately. Stylometric analysis, a process which analyses an author's style of writing, shows that the Book of Revelation and John's Gospel display more differences to each other than any other two books in the New Testament.