22nd May 2025

The book of Revelation is intended for all believers in all ages. With all the present chaos and turbulence that pervades the present geopolitical landscape, Christians need not become agitated about whoever is in power or may potentially come to power, but our focus should be on where the power really lies. As the persecuted, suffering church of John’s day pondered the words of this prophecy, tears and fears were quelled and hopes were raised. We also are to take the words of this prophecy to heart (Revelation 1:3).

We can sometimes forget when we open this book, full of mysterious symbols and arresting images, that it is composed in the form of a letter with a clearly pronounced underlying spiritual message, one that transcends all other seemingly strange or puzzling features of the prophecy. Regardless of the degree to which ungodliness and wickedness abound in the present age, the future does not belong to any worldly ruler, however powerfully they appear to wield their authority, or however broadly they seem to extend the realm of their unholy influence. We see that all power belongs to God in Christ and that it is Jesus who holds the future: the one and only potentate (Revelation 17:14). No-one will ever be allowed to frustrate the purposes of God in Christ.

The opening verses (Revelation 1:1-8) identify the revelator and announce the main subject of the letter (vv.1-2), setting the tone for how this final revelation is to be received and understood (v.3). The revelator is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (v.1), but there are several links in the chain of transmission. It is God the Father who gives the revelation to Jesus, who commissions his angel to take the message to his servant, John (v.1). However, John, as a faithful witness, does not keep this revelation to himself but passes it on to God’s servants for whom it is intended: those who will read it aloud to others unable to read its contents themselves, and to the hearers: those who will pay close attention to this word of God and to this testimony of Jesus. On these servants of God, a special blessing is promised (vv.2-3).

As we turn the image-laden pages of the unfolding message of this prophecy, clearly seen, amidst the display of the oft-times baffling but always meaningful symbolism, are important spiritual principles and truths that both warrant and demand our prime attention. But first and foremost, our eyes are immediately fixed on Jesus, the ‘firstborn’ not only of all living human beings, but of the ‘dead’ also, since, by his liberating Cross and bodily resurrection, he has conquered sin and death and destroyed the power of the grave to reign supreme (v.5).

To all who have been joined to him, being rescued from sin by the endless sufficiency of his atoning blood, the everlasting kingdom of God now belongs. They serve as priestly mediators of God to a lost world, offering up spiritual sacrifices to God in the Spirit’s power (vv.5-6). For the bodily appearing of Jesus, believers are called on to look to the heavens, from whence he will return, in so visibly spectacular a manner that ‘every eye will see him’ (v.7).

Now Jesus, who calls himself ‘the Alpha and the Omega’, speaks directly in this letter and his glory is declared as we are made aware of his deity and his oneness with the Father, the one triune God ‘…who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty’ (vv.8, 4,17). Perhaps it was at the sound of Jesus’ voice that John was enraptured and taken up in the Spirit on the day of that final revelation (vv.9-10).

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall                                                    
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church