Revelation 1:1-3: Is Revelation Meant to Be Understood?

Passage at a glance

Passage: Revelation 1:1-3 (WEB)
Series: Ten Questions People Ask About Revelation, day 1 of 10
Section: Where to Start
Reading time: 12 minutes
Topics: Revelation, Understanding, Jesus, Blessing
Key words: Revelation (apokalypsis), Prophecy (propheteia), Blessed (makarios), Keep (tereo)
Next passage: Revelation 22:6-12

Part A Context

This is the first of ten studies, and each one takes a question that ordinary people really ask about Revelation, goes to the passage behind it, and gives a plain answer. The disputed questions get a fair hearing. The question under all the others comes first: can anyone understand this book?

Many Christians quietly decide the answer is no. They have heard wild claims, seen confusing charts, and concluded that Revelation is for experts or best left alone. The book itself disagrees. In its first three verses John tells us what it is, who it is for, and what happens to the person who reads it.

The first readers were small churches in the Roman province of Asia, in cities where speaking up for Jesus could cost a person their job or their freedom. John wrote to them from the island of Patmos. They were not scholars. They were tradespeople, slaves, mothers and fathers, and they were meant to understand enough to stand firm.

Part A Explanation

1:1An unveiling, not a cover-up

The book begins, "This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon" (1:1, WEB). The Greek word for revelation is apokalypsis, which means an unveiling, the pulling back of a curtain. It is hard to read the first line as anything but a promise that something is about to be shown, not hidden.

Notice the chain of giving. God gives the message to Jesus, Jesus sends it by his angel to John, and John passes it on to God's servants. The phrase "of Jesus Christ" can mean a revelation that comes from Jesus, a revelation about Jesus, or both, and the book does both. The one being unveiled is not a timetable or a monster. It is Jesus himself.

The audience matters too. The message is for "his servants", for ordinary believers, not for a clever few. If the book were meant to stay locked, God would have no reason to send it to the churches.

1:1-2Made known in pictures

John says that Jesus "made known" the message. The Greek verb is esēmanen, which comes from the same family as the word for a sign. The message comes in signs, in other words symbolic pictures: a Lamb that was slain, a woman and a dragon, a city coming down out of heaven.

That is why Revelation feels so strange, and it is also why it is not meant to be a puzzle. Pictures stay in the mind in a way that arguments do not. A first-century believer who had heard the prophets read aloud would have recognised many of these images from Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and the Psalms. We have lost some of that background, and that is where much of our difficulty comes from.

So the problem is mostly distance, not design. The book was written to be understood by people who lived in a world of Old Testament pictures. The way to catch up is to spend time with those pictures, a few at a time, which is what daily reading does.

1:3The blessing promised to readers

Verse 3 gives a blessing that is easy to miss: "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand."

Look at who is blessed. It is not the person who has solved the book. It is the one who reads, the ones who hear, and those who keep what is written. In the first churches a single person would read the scroll aloud while the whole congregation listened, which many scholars think explains the singular "he who reads" and the plural "those who hear".

The word "keep" means to guard and to obey. Revelation is not given so that we can win arguments about the future. It is given so that we will hold on to Jesus, stay faithful, and live differently now. The reward for reading is not a gold star for knowing the details. It is the blessing of God himself, and it is promised in the first breath of the book.

22:10The book that must not be sealed

Now turn to the very end. The angel tells John, "Don't seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand" (22:10). This is deliberately the opposite of what an older prophet was told. Daniel was instructed, "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end" (Daniel 12:4), and he confessed, "I heard, but I didn't understand" (Daniel 12:8).

Daniel's visions pointed forward to a day that had not come. Revelation is written after the cross, the empty tomb and the coming of the Spirit, and so the seal is off. In chapter 5 John weeps because no one can open the sealed scroll, until the Lamb who was killed takes it. Many readers see the same pattern here: what was closed is opened because of Jesus, and his people are told not to keep it closed.

An open book does not mean an easy book, but it does mean a book that God wants read.

1:4-8What is plain even where details are hard

Honesty helps here. Peter said of the letters of Paul that "there are some things that are hard to understand" (2 Peter 3:16), and nobody has ever understood every detail of every page of Scripture. Revelation has several passages where faithful Christians land in different places, and the next nine studies will say so openly.

But the main message sits on the surface of the text, and it is clear. In the first verses alone we are told that Jesus is "the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth" (1:5). He "loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood". He is "coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him" (1:7). And he is "the Alpha and the Omega" (1:8).

You can understand that. If a reader walks away from Revelation knowing that, they have understood the heart of it.

Key words in Revelation 1:1-3

Revelation (apokalypsis): An unveiling, the drawing back of a curtain. It does not mean something secret or scary. It means that God has chosen to show something.
Prophecy (propheteia): In the Bible a prophecy is a word from God spoken to his people, and often it is as much about how to live now as about what comes next.
Blessed (makarios): Deeply happy because God's favour rests on you. It is the same word Jesus used at the start of the Sermon on the Mount.
Keep (tereo): To watch over, guard and obey. In Revelation, to keep the words means to hold on to them and live by them.

Cross references

Daniel 12:4-9Daniel's book was sealed until the time of the end, and Daniel did not understand.
Acts 8:30-31An honest reader asks, 'How can I, unless someone explains it to me?' and God sends help.
2 Peter 3:15-16Even in Paul's letters some things are hard, yet Peter treats them as Scripture to be read.
Luke 24:25-27On the road, the risen Jesus explains to two disciples how all the Scriptures speak of him.
Psalm 119:130God's words give light and understanding even to the simple.
Revelation 5:1-5The sealed scroll is opened by the Lion who is the Lamb.

Part B Three lenses on the text

The Pattern

How the whole Bible speaks here

Look at one small word, blessed. The Greek is makarios, and John uses it seven times in this book. The first is in our passage (1:3). Gather the other six and they make a short song.

Blessed are "the dead who die in the Lord" (14:13). Blessed is "he who watches" (16:15). Blessed are those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9). Blessed is the one who shares in the first resurrection (20:6). Blessed is "he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book" (22:7). And last, "Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life" (22:14).

Now here is the connection. The Psalms open the same way. "Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked" (Psalm 1:1), and his delight is in "Yahweh's law." Then comes a picture: a tree "planted by the streams of water" (Psalm 1:3). The Bible's song book begins with a blessed reader and a tree.

Revelation does the same thing on a larger scale. It begins with a blessing on the reader and ends its blessings at the tree of life. John is not handing us a puzzle. He is laying a path, and the path starts at an open book and finishes at the tree. What carries us along it is not cleverness. It is the Lamb who "bought us for God with your blood" (5:9).

The Glory

What this shows us of God

Start with a question that has nothing to do with us. Why would God write a book for his servants at all? Because he delights to be known. "No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him" (John 1:18). The Son came to make the Father known, and Revelation is that same work carried on from heaven.

So why are some parts of the book still hard? Moses gives a steady answer. "The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever" (Deuteronomy 29:29). God keeps some things and gives some things, and both are good.

And why does the book go to servants and not to the clever? Because God is pleased to do it that way. Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants" (Matthew 11:25).

How can sinners be trusted with such a book? Because the one who sends it "loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood" (1:5). That blood is the proof that this book is a gift and not a trap. Then see what follows: "to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever" (1:6). Understanding Revelation is not the goal. Seeing Christ, and gladly giving him the glory, is.

The Challenge

What it asks of us

Let me tell you what I do. When a passage looks hard, I tell myself I will come back to it when I have more time. I rarely come back.

I think that is a kind of excuse. Not a wicked one. Just a quiet one. And I think Jesus has a gentle answer to it. He says, "blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it" (Luke 11:28). Hear it. Keep it. That is the whole job. It does not say, understand every symbol first.

So here is my question. What do I already know from these three verses that I have not done anything about?

I know the book was written for ordinary servants. I know Jesus loves me and washed me. I know he is coming. Do I live as if those three things were true? Do you?

I'm not asking you to feel guilty. I am asking whether the little we do understand has actually touched us. Honestly, that is a harder test than any chart.

Here is one small step. Today, read 1:1-8 out loud. Not in your head. Out loud, the way the first churches would have heard it. Then pick the one line that surprised you, and say it to somebody. A friend, a spouse, a child, a text message. Just that one line about Jesus.

You don't have to be ready. You only have to start.

Part C Daily devotional

Reflection

Picture being handed a book that everyone says is difficult, and putting it on a shelf for years. When you finally open it, you find that most of it was written for people like you, and the hard parts are fewer than you feared. You are a little embarrassed at how long you waited.

Revelation can feel like that book. The cover looks forbidding, and the people who have written about it often sound anxious. But the first page of the book is warm. It is addressed to servants, it promises a blessing, and it tells us that Jesus loves us and has washed us in his blood.

If you have never read Revelation, today is a fine day to begin. If you have read it and been left confused, forgive yourself. Confusion is not failure. It is the place where reading starts.

You do not have to master every symbol. Come as a servant, bring a listening ear, and trust that the one who gave the book wants his people to hear it. The same Jesus who opened minds on the Emmaus road is willing to open yours.

Questions for journaling

What have you believed about Revelation before today, and where did that belief come from?
John says the blessing goes to those who read, hear and keep. Which of those three is hardest for you right now?
Why do you think God chose pictures instead of plain instructions to deliver this message?
Is there a fear that has kept you from this book, and what could you say to God about it?
What is one thing from these three verses that you can obey this week?

Prayer

Father, thank you that you are a God who speaks and who does not hide from your servants. Thank you for sending this book to ordinary people like me. Forgive me for the times I have avoided it out of fear or pride. Open my mind as Jesus opened the minds of his disciples. Help me to read, to hear and to keep. Keep me from needing to have every answer, and make me content to know Jesus better. May everything I learn in these studies lead me to worship you alone. Amen.

Today’s practice

Read Revelation 1:1-8 aloud today, slowly, as the first churches would have heard it, then write down one sentence about Jesus that you did not want to forget.

Memory verse

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.

Revelation 1:3 (WEB)

Common questions about Revelation 1:1-3

What is Revelation 1:1-3 about?

Revelation opens by calling itself an unveiling meant for ordinary servants of God, so it was written to be read, heard and obeyed, even though some details are hard and Christians differ over them.

Where does Revelation 1:1-3 fit in the book of Revelation?

Revelation 1:1-3 is day 1 of 10 in Unveiled's study of the book of Revelation, in the section “Where to Start”. Can an ordinary reader understand Revelation at all, and is it about the past, the future or now?

What does “Revelation (apokalypsis)” mean in Revelation 1:1-3?

An unveiling, the drawing back of a curtain. It does not mean something secret or scary. It means that God has chosen to show something.

What does “Prophecy (propheteia)” mean in Revelation 1:1-3?

In the Bible a prophecy is a word from God spoken to his people, and often it is as much about how to live now as about what comes next.

What does “Blessed (makarios)” mean in Revelation 1:1-3?

Deeply happy because God's favour rests on you. It is the same word Jesus used at the start of the Sermon on the Mount.

How can I apply Revelation 1:1-3 today?