The Person of the Book Revealed

Excerpted from Sam’s newest book: Messiah’s Seven Congregations

The Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah, which God gave Him to show to His servants, the things which must quickly occur; and He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John (Revelation 1:1)

The suffering Servant

Though the general introduction of the book is Revelation 1:1-11, the book’s blessing is in its revealed Person (Rev 1:1). The title is not The Revelation of St. John but it is The Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah – it is all about the Mashiach; John is only the mailman faithfully delivering God’s Word. The Revelation reveals Yeshua after His ministry on earth, where He was the Suffering Servant who provided the perfect and eternal sacrifice for our sins.

The Offspring of David

He is now revealed in heaven as the Lord of Glory (Rev 5:12), the Almighty, the Alpha and the Omega (Rev1:8), the High Priest (Rev 1:12-15), as the Lamb (twenty-nine times in Rev 5-22), the Lion of Judah (Rev 5:5), The Word of God (Rev 19:13), the Judge at the Great White Throne (Rev 20:11-15), “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Rev 17:14; 10:16, and “the Root of the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star” (Rev 22:16).

Centrality of Messiah

He is the central Person of the book and of the whole Bible. So, if He is not central to your life, this book will be unclear. Since all blessings for you are in Messiah (Eph 1:3), when He’s not central to your life, there’s no blessing for you.

The centrality of the Messiah to the Scriptures and all creation is also recognized in traditional Judaism, as recorded in the Babylonian Talmud.

Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b, “The world was created only for Messiah.”

Talmud, Berachot 34b, “All the prophets prophesied only for the Messiah.”

Confirming God’s Promises

Now please understand that though the Talmudic writers wrote these words, they did not apply them to Yeshua, since they, sadly, did not accept Him as the Messiah. However, these portions of the Talmud do show that what followers of Yeshua the Messiah believe is not contrary to Jewish thought on the many matters pertaining to the Jewish Messiah. In fact, what we believe about Yeshua actually confirms God’s promises to Israel and the Jewish people.

Blessed in Messiah

To understand the Bible apart from Yeshua is to misunderstand the Bible, since the Bible is about Him (John 5:39). When it comes to prophecy, people get entangled in secondary matters and become speculative and disoriented. Yeshua is the primary matter for our lives; to understand your life apart from Yeshua is to misunderstand your life.

There are just no divine blessings apart from Him, even as the New Covenant reveals: ”Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah” (Eph 1:3). God’s blessings for everyone are in Messiah, and everyone in Messiah is blessed!

The Person from the Triune God is Revealed

The Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah, which God gave Him … (Rev 1:1).  

God gave to Yeshua this Revelation about Him. The word “revelation” is from the Greek word “apocalypse.” The term is used for Yeshua’s revelatory return (1 Pet 1:7,13) as well as for the unveiling of divine knowledge (Luke 2:32). This “unveiling” recorded by John, is about Messiah’s reappearing (in His Second coming to earth), which will be His glorious vindication! He who was rejected and crucified is truly the Lord of all.

In Messiah’s glory is the Father glorified (Phil 2:9-11) – for God’s righteousness and love are most clearly and perfectly revealed in the Messiah’s death for our sins (Rom 3:25-26; 5:6, 8)! As the Bible repeatedly teaches, Yeshua the Messiah is the Son of God and is God come in the flesh (John 1:1, 14, etc.). This is why Yeshua’s death is our perfect atonement for sins, for no one is perfectly sinless but God.

The Revelation of His Glorious Return

The Revelation that God gave to Yeshua is not further information about Himself, for as Yeshua is God that would diminish Yeshua’s own omniscience. What God gave Yeshua is His crowning glory that will be displayed at His glorious return to earth. So, this book is the revelation of Yeshua’s return in the glory that the Father gave Him in order to bestow honor on the Son.

The Father provided Yeshua’s glorious Apocalypse (revelation) to Him in covenant, as the crowning reward of His redemptive work! This revelation of His glorious return, which culminates in Revelation 19, is the focus of John’s record of this prophecy.

We are Complete in Messiah Yeshua

Like elsewhere in Scripture, this book of the Revelation demonstrates God the Father’s eternal desire to glorify the Son. Anyone who denies the Son rejects the Father (1 John 2:23), so to glorify the Father, one must glorify the Son; to dishonor the Son is to deny the Father (John 5:23). As noted, the Father is glorified in the Son, who perfectly reveals His righteousness (Rom 3:25-26) and His love (Rom 5:6-8).

Therefore, Yeshua’s incarnation reveals, as Yeshua taught, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). God’s revelation is to Yeshua, about Yeshua, and for the Son’s glory! He fully blesses through the Son, for He is fully glorified in the Son (John 14:13, Phil 2:11)! More precisely, apart from faith in Messiah’s finished work of His sacrifice for our sins, there are no promised benefits for anyone, for only in Yeshua the Messiah are we complete (Col 2:10) and as He taught us, “No one comes to the Father but through [Him]” (John 14:6).

The Person for His Servants is Revealed

This Revelation as recorded by John (i.e., this “book”) is for Yeshua’s slaves, angels, and apostles. They are all His, and this book is for them and needed by all of them (i.e., all of us). It is to be shown to all His servants via the angel who signified (showed events and visions) to John, who has recorded it for all of His servants, which are we who are reading and studying it.

Please visit Word of Messiah’s Bookstore to purchase your own Messiah’s Seven Congregations A Devotional Commentary on Revelation chapters 1-3.