Revelation 1:20

The voice belongs to the one who spoke in Revelation 1:10–11, a great voice “as of a trumpet” that told John to write what he saw and send it to the seven churches in Asia. John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” on the island of Patmos, where he had been sent “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9). This was most likely in the reign of the emperor Domitian, toward the end of the first century, when the churches of Asia lived under persecution and growing pressure to worship the emperor. Into that setting Christ shows himself as the one who has all authority.

John says he turned “to see the voice”. The word for voice, phōnḗ, is the ordinary word for a sound or a spoken voice, and here it stands for the speaker, in the way we turn toward a voice when we mean the person who is speaking. The verb epistréphō simply means to turn or turn around. It is the natural thing anyone does at a commanding sound behind him, and John’s turning is where the seeing begins. From here on the book is mostly what John sees.

What he sees first is seven golden candlesticks, and then, in the midst of them, the speaker himself. The whole book is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1), and this is the first sight of him that John is given.

The word behind “candlesticks”, lychnía, means a lampstand. In John’s day these were everyday things in homes and public rooms. A lampstand held up a lamp, a small vessel of oil with a wick, so that its light could fill the room. The stand gives no light of its own. It holds the light up where it can be seen.

Jesus himself explains the picture in verse 20: “the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” These were real congregations in the Roman province of Asia, in what is now Turkey: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Each faced its own pressures from outside and its own troubles within, as the letters of Revelation 2–3 show. The word heptá is simply the number seven, and Revelation uses that number again and again as a mark of fullness, so these seven real churches also stand for the whole church of Christ.

The lampstands are golden, chrýseos, made of gold. The lampstand in the tabernacle and temple was made of pure gold, and a golden lampstand is a precious thing. That is how Christ regards his churches, with all their faults.

So the image tells us what a church is for. Jesus told his disciples, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14–16). Paul speaks of believers shining “as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15), and Peter says God called his people “out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The light itself is Christ, “the light of the world” (John 8:12), “the true Light” (John 1:9). The churches hold up his light.

The most important thing in the picture is where Christ stands. He is in the midst of the lampstands, among his people. The letter to Ephesus opens by naming him as the one “who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” (Revelation 2:1). He is near to every congregation, sees each one as it really is, and has authority over each, which is why he can praise, rebuke and promise in the letters that follow.

John describes him as “one like unto the Son of man”. The word for “like”, hómoios, means similar in appearance or character, and the phrase takes us straight to Daniel. There Daniel saw “one like the Son of man” coming with the clouds of heaven, who was given everlasting dominion, glory and a kingdom (Daniel 7:13–14). John sees that same figure, and he is Jesus.

“Son of man” (huios anthropou) was the name Jesus used for himself more than any other during his ministry on earth. He used it when he foretold that “the Son of man must suffer many things” and be killed and rise again (Mark 8:31). The name speaks of his true humanity, and through Daniel it also speaks of his authority to rule and to judge. Now John sees him risen and glorified. The one who walked the roads of Galilee in a humble form appears in heavenly glory, and he is still recognisably the same Lord.

He is “clothed with a garment down to the foot”. The word podḗrēs means a long robe reaching to the ankles. In Israel such a robe marked dignity and a sacred or official position, and it was worn by priests, kings and others in authority. The same kind of robe belongs to the priestly garments that God commanded for Aaron (Exodus 28:4).

He is “girt about the paps with a golden girdle”. The girdle, zṓnē, is a belt or sash, and this one is golden, chrýseos. “The paps” means the chest. A man setting to work girded his loins, around the waist, to free himself for action. A golden girdle worn high on the chest belongs to majesty and solemn service, and it recalls the high priest’s ephod and breastplate.

Together the robe and girdle show Christ as priest and as king. He is our “great high priest”, who can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and through whom we come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14–16). He is also the King whose name is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16). He once humbled himself to death on the cross, and God has now highly exalted him, so that every knee shall bow to him (Philippians 2:8–11). The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) is the same one who stands here robed in glory.

John’s description moves from head to feet and then to voice, hand, mouth and face. Each part shows something true of who Christ is, and Scripture itself supplies much of the meaning.

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.” John had walked with Jesus for years and had leaned on his breast at the Last Supper, and still the sight of the glorified Christ overwhelmed him so that he collapsed. This is how Scripture’s prophets responded when they saw the glory of God. Daniel was afraid and fell upon his face (Daniel 8:17), Ezekiel fell upon his face when he saw the likeness of the glory of the LORD (Ezekiel 1:28), and another time Daniel lost all his strength until a hand touched him and set him up (Daniel 10:8–10). Before the holiness and majesty of God a man sees how frail and unworthy he is. Even the beloved disciple could not stand before the Lord in his glory.

Then comes one of the most tender moments in Revelation: “he laid his right hand upon me”. It is the same right hand, dexiós, that holds the seven stars. Laying the right hand on someone was a familiar gesture in Israel, a sign of blessing, healing, comfort and commissioning. Here it raises John up and prepares him for the work of writing that he is about to receive.

“Fear not.” The verb phobéō means to be afraid, and also to be in awe or to revere. The command does not take away John’s reverence. It lifts the terror that has struck him down. God and his messengers say these words again and again when they appear to people in a fearful way. The LORD says to Israel, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee” (Isaiah 41:10), and Gabriel says to Mary, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God” (Luke 1:30). The Christ whose power is overwhelming draws near with comfort to his servant.

The reason John can stop fearing is who Jesus is: “I am the first and the last.” The words for “I am”, egṓ eimí, put the pronoun “I” in an emphatic place, and they bring to mind God’s own name, I AM, given to Moses at the bush (Exodus 3:14). The word prōtos means first in time, place or order, and foremost in rank. The word éschatos means last, final, uttermost.

This is a title of the LORD himself. In Isaiah the LORD says, “I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6), and he says it again in Isaiah 48:12. Jesus takes that title as his own. Before anything was made he was there, the Word who was with God and was God and by whom all things were made (John 1:1–3), and at the end of all things he will still be there. At the close of the book he says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13). He is God, equal with the Father, and all of history lies between his first and his last.

So the persecuted churches, and John alone on Patmos, are in the hands of one who rules every age. He told his disciples, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

“I am he that liveth, and was dead.” The verb záō means to live, to be alive, and the word for dead, nekrós, comes from a word for a corpse. Jesus really died on the cross. The one who is life itself entered into death. That is the heart of the gospel, that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

“And, behold, I am alive for evermore.” The “behold” (kai idou, “and behold”) calls for attention to something astonishing. His risen life is permanent. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him” (Romans 6:9–10). Peter preached that God raised him up, “because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24). He is “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20), the first of a harvest still to come, and he promised, “because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:19). The “Amen” (amḗn) that follows seals the statement as certain and true.

“Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” The verb gráphō is the ordinary word for writing. Jesus repeats the command of verse 11, now with three parts. “Thou hast seen” uses eídō, to see, and points back to the vision John has just had. “The things which shall be” joins méllō, to be about to, with gínomai, to come to be, and speaks of what is certain to happen. “Hereafter” is metá taûta, “after these things”, which marks what follows in time.

Many believers take this verse as the outline of the whole book. On that reading, “the things which thou hast seen” are the vision of the glorified Christ in this chapter, “the things which are” are the present state of the churches in the letters of Revelation 2–3, which also speak to the church in every age, and “the things which shall be hereafter” are the events from Revelation 4 to the end of the book. Those who read it this way see in the last part the time of tribulation and judgment, Christ’s return, the millennium, the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7–9) and the new heaven and new earth. Believers differ on how sharply the three parts should be divided and on how much of the later chapters is still future. All agree that Christ himself gives the revelation, that he rules over past, present and future, and that the book moves toward his victory.

The command to write is how this revelation reaches us. God makes known what is to come, as Daniel told the king: “there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets” (Daniel 2:28). “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Peter says that prophecy “came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:19–21). John writes what he receives from the Lord.

Jesus now explains two parts of the vision himself. The word mystḗrion, mystery, means a secret that was once hidden and is now made known by God. The meaning of the stars and lampstands could only be known by revelation, and Christ gives it at once, before the letters begin, so that his churches understand what they are hearing.

“The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” The second half has already been discussed above. The first half raises the question that follows.

This passage shows us Christ as he is now. He is risen, robed as priest and king, eternal like the Ancient of days, seeing all with eyes of fire, speaking with the voice of God and judging by the word of his mouth. His glory is so great that the apostle who knew him best fell down as dead.

And this same Lord laid his hand on John and said, “Fear not.” The reason he gave was himself. He is the first and the last. He died, and he lives for evermore. He holds the keys of death and of the grave, so the death of his people is in his hands.

He also stands in the midst of his churches. Weak, troubled and persecuted congregations are golden lampstands to him, and he holds their messengers in his right hand. He knows each church as it is, and he speaks to it. He promised his disciples, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20), and this vision shows him keeping that promise.