Lesson 1: Things That Have Been, part 1

Revelation-1:1-6
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,
2 who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
6 and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

First, what is the “revelation?” A revelation is showing something that has not been shown or learned before. The question then is what is truly being revealed in this book. Many of us believe that what is revealed here is what will happen in the future. That, however, is not true. John wrote that this book is a “revelation of Jesus Christ.”

But before we talk about how this is a revelation of Jesus, we need to answer one more question: who is doing the revealing? Again, we might think it is John who reveals this as he writes, but again this is not true. It is Jesus Himself who is revealing something about Himself.

The next question then is, who is this revelation written for? John wrote it for the people of his time as well as for us who live in our modern times. In these verses we also read the purpose of the revelation – to show God’s servants some of the things that “must take place.” The purpose for giving us, His servants, information about the future is stated by Jesus Himself in John 16:33 – “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”


Jesus has told us who believe in Him things that will happen in the future so we do not lose hope when we see these things happening. The book of Revelation tells of many awful things that will happen on this earth, and Jesus told us many things that would happen before these events in such places as Matthew 24. He wanted us to have His peace so we would be able to continue doing His work even in the darkest of times.

John is also writing this to believers in Jesus whom God calls members of His kingdom, and priests to Jesus and God the Father. This picture of us being priests is something we will study in greater depth throughout this study.

*What are you hoping to gain from this study book?