Sermon Ideas For Revelation 1:4b-8 Part 1

This brief section of Scripture contains a plethora of richly revealing theological statements. The central theological statement in our text is undoubtedly the designation of God in Christ as "the Alpha and the Omega" (v. 8; cf. 21:6; 22:13). This would also seem to be the theological theme most suited to preaching on the Sunday prior to Advent (Christ the King). The ancient rabbis spoke similarly about God, as being the Aleph and the Tau, regarded not simply as the first and the last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but as including all the letters of that alphabet. In this way these rabbis represented God, and John of Patmos similarly represents God in Christ here, as "A to Z," the "Sovereign-Strong"¹ in the most comprehensive sense, the ruler of all reality in nature and of every event in history, the God "who is and who was" and who will be (v. 8). Whatever happens in nature, in history, and in any individual's life happens under the all-embracing providential sovereignty of God in Christ.

There is a Trinitarian affirmation in vv. 4-5, albeit in the unusual order of Father, Spirit, and Son. Probably the Son comes last here as a lead-in to the christological statements in vv. 5ff. It has also been suggested that John has in view here already the heavenly sanctuary into which he will be taken (4:1), of which the earthly tabernacle is "a sketch and shadow" (Heb 8:5). This determines the order in which he names the three persons in the Trinity. John starts from the ark (representing God) in the Holy of Holies, moves to the seven-branched candlestick (representing the Spirit) in the Holy Place, and ends with the altar (representing Christ) in the outer courtyard.²

Some scholars consider the "seven spirits" in v. 4 to be seven angels, perhaps even the seven archangels of ancient Jewish angelology (cf. Tobit 12:15). Angels are closely associated with Father and Son in a couple of other NT texts (cf. Lk 9:26; 1 Tim 5:21). However, angels are rarely called "spirits" in early NT literature. It seems more reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the phrase constitutes John's way of representing the Holy Spirit (cf. 5:6). He represents the Spirit in this unusual way, either as imparted to the seven churches (1:11), or in accordance with the traditional seven-fold energies of the Spirit (in the ancient Greek [Septuagint] of Is 11:2-3), or on account of the influence of Zech 4:10 (cf. Rev 4:5). It is worth noting that John's first theological affirmation in the Revelation is Trinitarian.

Jesus Christ is identified as "the faithful witness," "the firstborn of the dead," and "the ruler of the kings of the earth" (v. 5). All these assertions concerning Christ fit perfectly the situation of persecuted Christians in late first-century Asia. These besieged believers faced death for their convictions, but they were assured of everlasting life through Christ, the real divine authority ruling over the falsely divinized Roman Emperors. That Christ continuously "loves" (v. 5, not "loved" as in the King James Version [KJV]) his persecuted people is a certain assertion, established by the historical fact that by dying on the cross he decisively "freed" (v. 5, not "washed" as in the KJV) us from our sins. (Commenting on the traditional rendering of the KJV, based on manuscript evidence available in early seventeenth-century Britain, William Barclay mentions "with a certain relief" that "the well-worn phrases" about our being "washed in the blood of the lamb," phrases which "convey a staggering picture," have "little scriptural authority."³)

When Christ again in glory "comes" (the present tense underscores the immediacy and certainty of it), the eyes of those who pierced him will see him and weep (v. 7). "Those who pierced him" probably includes "all those in every age who share the indifference and the hostility that lay behind the act" of crucifixion.⁴ Most commentators assert that they weep because their damnation is certain and imminent, but there seems to be no reason to suppose that they are not weeping in part out of genuine compunction.

Finally, let us consider a specially practicable theological affirmation in our text. John declares the church to have been "made" by Christ a "kingdom" of "priests" in the service of God (v. 6). This priesthood of all believers has a dual aspect. In this context it mainly underscores the suffering Christians' privilege of immediate access to, and intimate communion with, God the Father, something that in the Old Testament ritual remained strictly a priestly prerogative. However, it can also call attention to the continuing priestly task of mediation, which Christians undertake as they share with others, by word and in deed, the good news of salvation in Christ.

Steve MacArthur

NOTES

1. Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1995), p. 518. 2. Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1975), p. 34. 3. The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), vol. 1, p. 34. 4. G. Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), p. 28.