The Revelation of Jesus Christ

John's written record of the Revelation of Christ shows us future of mankind, and you what your future holds. Jesus! Not Just a little child lying in a manger, nor just a good teacher, nor even the savior dying on a cross for the sins of mankind. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. What is unveiled? There are five categories:

          One, the attributes of Christ.

          Two, the commendations, critiques, and admonitions that Jesus has for His churches and His followers.

          Three, what true worship of Jesus looks like when all pretense and all inhibitions have been removed. John describes his vision of this worship in which the reasons for worship of Jesus are incorporated explicitly; these speak primarily of His wonderful actions as manifesting and growing out of His divine love and perfect holiness.

          Fourth, the way that Jesus will work in our lives to remove the hold of the world (symbolized by the wildbeast and the system he sets up), the flesh (symbolized by the great harlot), and the devil (played by himself, but cloaking his actions in the world and the flesh). These forces want to control our lives; to free us, Jesus is going to trash them in our lives so that they no longer have any influence on us. This conflict ends with judgment of all that is right and destruction of all that is wrong.

          Fifth, a glorious future in which we will be united eternally with Jesus in a love covenant.

Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Apokalupsis can have several meanings according to Strong. Laying bare (unveiling), disclosure of truth, or manifestation. So the rest of verse 1 must be used to infer which meaning in this case. God gave Jesus this apokalupsis to show to His servants, John and his readers, what must soon take place. The rest of the book of Revelation includes all of these aspects: what must soon take place is a disclosure of truth; but we find in subsequent chapters that the nature and character of Christ is laid bare [chapters 4-5]; and the things that must soon take place include the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the world. [1:7, 14:1, 19:11-16] But from the outset, the disclosure of truth refers first and foremost to Jesus Christ, before it refers to the things that must soon take place.

          This is consistent with the Old Testament prophets, who testified to their contemporaries. The statements of these prophets were much more focused on God, His character, and His expectations and assessment of the Israelites (and the Gentiles when appropriate) than on the foretelling of things to soon take place.