Lesson 4: The Things That Have Been, part 4

Revelation 1:19-20
19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.
20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

We summarize this chapter of Revelation with a few thoughts. Again, we see that John was commanded to write what he had seen, what he was seeing, and what he would see - the past, the present, and the future. For John the past was his life as a disciple of Jesus, as well as the prophecies that he knew from the Bible he had memorized, the Old Testament.

The present for John was his experience with mostly the churches of Asia. He had been to many of them, but he had been a pastor and elder to the church of Ephesus for most of his time after leaving Jerusalem. We see from his other letters, especially 1, 2, and 3 John, his deep love for these people.

In the next several lessons, as we study Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we will see Jesus’ words to these seven churches, and we will see all three time-elements in each of these letters. Jesus will tell these churches what they had in the past and what they have now; He will also tell them what they have lost and what they need.

Since these letters are written to seven churches of Asia, and there were many other churches in Asia as well, we need to see how these seven churches represent something about the future too. As we look back in our own history we see periods of time since these churches were formed, periods that have great similarity to things that Jesus said to these seven churches. We will look at these historical times as we look at each of the individual letters to these churches, and see how Jesus told us the history of the church, including our own time, and how the needs of each church also apply to the needs of today’s church.


One other thing to remember as we study this book of Revelation is that “mystery” is something that has been said or described before in the Bible but has not been understood, and Jesus wants us to understand it now.

We also need to understand that numbers in the Bible also have meaning. For example:
1 is the number of exclusion, there is only one God
2 is the number of difference and division
3 is the number of enclosure, of Divine perfection
6 is the number of man
7 is a number of completion and spiritual perfection
10 is the number of perfection of Divine order 
12 is a number of governmental perfection
We will identify others as we see them in this study.