The Revelation letter, informing the Christian readers of all generations that it is from God, continues in its introduction to reiterate its theme – that it’s all about Jesus (1: 5, 6). That the readers’ spirit may be lifted even more, the letter reminds them of why they are followers of Jesus. Three reasons are given: who He is, what He has done, and what He will do.

First, He is the faithful witness. On earth, He spoke and did that which He saw and heard from the Father through the Holy Spirit. He spoke the gospel truth and was faithful unto it by dying for it. He is also the first-born from the dead, meaning that He is the first-fruit or the preeminent one to be raised from the dead. And because of His resurrected, glorified state at the right hand of the Father, He has become the ruler over the kings of the earth – the King of Kings. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28: 18).

Second, Jesus’ activities on behalf of His people shows Him as the One who loves us. That means “always has;” “always will.” Also, as part of that continuing love, He has released us from our sins by His blood. And again from His love, He made us a kingdom and priests to His God and Father. “You shall be made a kingdom and priests” was at first a promise to ancient Israel if it kept its covenant with God (Exodus 19: 5, 6). It didn’t. To the Christian church, however, the letter makes it clear that Christ followers have already been made a kingdom and priests (Rev.1: 6; 5: 10).

Third, Jesus is about to come back. In portraying the splendor and awesome scene of Jesus’ second coming, John, seeing and hearing, is inspired to portray the scene by calling upon and merging three passages of scripture. He alludes to Daniel 7: 13’s “with the clouds of heaven, One like a Son of Man was coming.” He then links that with Zechariah’s end time prophecy in 12: 10-14 that says “Jerusalem’s inhabitants will look on the One they pierced.” Those two images are then combined with Jesus’ Mount of Olive’s prophecy that says “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory (Matthew 24: 30).

Together, the three images are written in Revelation’s intro as “Behold, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him,* even those who pierced Him,** and every tribe of the earth will mourn over Him. Yes, amen.” Rev. 1: 7.

Being reminded of who Jesus is, what He has done, and is yet to do for us certainly proves that He is worth our faith and praise. No matter what we go through here in this life, good or bad, this revelation letter exhilarates the heart in the realization that in Jesus, even now we share in His’ love and righteousness; that we’re not just registered citizens of heaven, but royalty too. And to top it off, Jesus is coming to get us and complete our transformation by making us as He is – immortal, glorified, godly.

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* That every eye will see Jesus goes against the popular belief that Jesus’ Second Coming will be secret. For more on this, pls. read Secret Rapture Needs to be Left Behind. Click here.

** Some have taken “every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him” as meaning that at the Second Coming, there will be a special resurrection of those who participated in Jesus’ crucifixion. I don’t agree because that would make for a third resurrection that’s unaccounted for in the Bible. The Bible only mentions two resurrections. The first is for the righteous dead in Christ (1 Thessalonians 4: 16); the second, a thousand years later, involves the raising of the wicked dead (Rev. 20: 5). For the sequence of end time events, pls. read The Millennium: Earth’s Wasteland. Click here.