Studies in Revelation, Part 4

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Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I’m going to dive right in again. Today we’re going to look at chapter 1 verses 7-8.

Rev. 1:7 “Look, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen!”

Wow! There’s a lot packed into that verse. Let’s have a closer look at it.

Two verses that will help us understand this more are Matthew 24:30 and Luke 21:27.

Matthew 24:30, “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all of the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”

Luke 21:27, “At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

Acts 1:10-11 clues us in more. “They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’” This is to be taken literally, not figuratively. 

When Jesus returns, it will be in plain view. Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.  He will not come secretly and rapture the church first, then come later for everyone else to see. Those who love Him and those who hate Him will behold Him at the same time and in the same way–as a physical Man returning to the earth–the resurrected Jesus Christ. I know that this isn’t a popular view, but give it consideration before merely passing it off as possible heresy.

When it says ‘even those who pierced Him’ we understand that we all have pierced Him. He was pierced for our iniquities. See Isaiah 53:5; Psalm 22:16; Zech. 12:10; John 19:34,37.

Why will all the people of the earth mourn because of Him? His coming marks the final judgment. It is the day and hour of the final decision (see Joel 3:14). Psalm 2 tell us that the nations have been raging against Jesus and His leadership for quite some time. They will mourn their defeat.

And this is firmly established–So shall it be–God will not act in another way–Amen!

Then we get to the part where Jesus starts to speak, in verse 8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.’”

Jesus identifies Himself using the name declared from Exodus 3:14. YHWH is ‘Who was, who is and who is to come.’ Testimony (who was) assurance (who is) and promise (who is to come) all reside within the Name of YHWH. He has been there, when we look at history; He is here now, and we see Him when we look around; and He will come again, just as He promised.

He calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. This is one way of saying the beginning and the end. There’s also another meaning here. All words are composed of letter. Jesus is saying that He had the first word (see Genesis 1) and He will have the last word at the end of the age, and at the end of every age.

In the New Testament, the name Almighty for God is used twelve times. Nine of those twelve times that He’s referred to as the Almighty are found in Revelation. The Hebrew for this name is El Shaddai.

God first reveals Himself as El Shaddai to Abraham in Genesis 17:1 when He is:

1. Exhorting Abraham to walk blamelessly

2. Reminding Abraham of His promise.

He calls us to do the same!

Except we can’t do that on our own. The beauty of our God is that He doesn’t expect us to do it on our own. Through faith, we can reach out to the Lord and ask for His help to walk according to His ways and to cling to His promises. Especially His promise that He is coming soon!

More to come next week! In the mean time, I’d love to hear your thoughts!