15 Nov. John's revelation - a dream or vision about Jesus Christ
"This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show his servants what must happen soon. And Jesus sent his angel to show it to his servant John, who has told everything he has seen."
"It is the word of God; it is the message from Jesus Christ. Happy is the one who reads God's message, and happy are the people who hear this message and do what is written in it. The time is near when all of this will happen."
"From John
To the seven churches in the country [the Roman province] of Asia:
Grace and peace to you from the One who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ."
"Jesus is the faithful witness, the first among those raised from the dead. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is the one who loves us, who made us free from our sins with the blood of his death. He made us to be a kingdom of priests who serve God his Father. To Jesus Christ be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen."
"Look, Jesus is coming with the clouds, and everyone will see him, even those who stabbed him. And all peoples of the earth will cry loudly because of him. Yes, this will happen! Amen."
"The Lord God says, 'I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the One who is and was and is coming. I am the Almighty'."
"I, John, am your brother. All of us share with Christ in suffering, in the kingdom and in patience to continue. I was on the island of Patmos, because I had preached the word of God and the message about Jesus."
"On the Lord's day, I was in the Spirit, and I heard a loud voice behind me that sounded like a trumpet. The voice said, 'Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea'."
(Revelation 1:1-11)
The last book of the New Testament is a revelation about Jesus Christ. It's written in the form of a dream or vision, and the dramatic pictures it draws are not meant to be taken literally.
The Revelation of John was written in c.90AD by John, the leader of the Christian church in Ephesus. Many scholars believe that this is the same John who was one of the first twelve disciples of Jesus and who wrote the Gospel of John and the three Letters of John between c.85 and 88AD.
John may well have fled with other believers from Jerusalem to Ephesus to escape the violence when war broke out with the Romans in 66AD (see 1 Peter 1:1). He was later persecuted during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96AD) and exiled to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea (off the coast of the Roman province of Asia, in modern-day Greece) (see the map).
Because of the danger of further persecution by the Roman authorities, much of the content of the vision is written in symbolic and ‘coded’ language which would have been understood by the early Christian believers, but whose real meaning is often hidden to us today.
The revelation begins with an introduction (Revelation 1:1-20) and is followed by individual messages to each of the seven churches of Asia Minor: Ephesus (Revelation 2:1-7), Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17), Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29), Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6), Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7-13), and Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22) (see the map). This is the order that John’s messenger would have visited the seven churches after he arrived in Ephesus by sea from Patmos.
The revelation begins by telling us that an angel appeared to John and told him to send a message from Jesus Christ to the seven churches in the province of Asia.
John tells us he had been exiled on the island of Patmos for preaching about Jesus. On the Lord’s Day (Sunday), John was deep in prayer when he heard a voice and was told to write what he saw to the seven churches.
He turned round to see who was speaking and had a vision of Jesus – the ‘Son of Man’ (see Daniel 7:13-14), the ‘Alpha and the Omega’ (the ‘First’ and the ‘Last’) (see John 1:1-2) – who had been raised from death and is alive for evermore.
You can read about Patmos and more from John's revelation about Jesus Christ @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/…/johns-letter-to-the-7-ch…/