Revelation 1:9-11
The Apostle John greets the Churches with, “I am your brother and companion in tribulation.” During this season of the Church it was a time of much persecution.
Church tradition says when John was arrested and condemned by the Roman authority the chosen execution would be to boil him in oil. This was done in a type of vat placed upon a fire, then brought to a boil and John being tied up was lowered into the oil to be boiled alive. The story given does not state whether or not the oil was preheated or if it was a slow progressive process, either way it was deadly. At the appointed time, a large instrument was lowered into the oil in order to retrieve the bones of John. However, to their great amazement when they raised the instrument out of the oil, they were astonished to find John grasping onto the instrument and being pulled from the oil alive!
That was a problem for a very superstitious Roman Authority who believed in many different gods. So they made the decision to exile John as a political prisoner to an Isle called Patmos.
Verse ten records John stating, he “was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” Many Believers are not familiar with what it is to be in the Spirit. Without going into much detail, this means to experience a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit much like what John experienced on the Day of Pentecost and in an upper room with other disciples as they were praying after Peter and John’s release from the threats of the Jewish Sanhedrin.
This phrase “on the Lord’s day” is usually surmised by many theologians and Bible scholars to be a reference to Sunday. This is what the Church of today refers to as the Sabbath. This understanding has been disputed over the ages. However, from a very well respected and studied Greek Scholar comes a different interpretation of “the Lord’s Day” being spoken of by John. At the time of John’s writing this book, there was a special day or holiday known throughout the Roman empire to honor as well as worship the sitting Emperor. This is what is believed that John was referring to for he would have been accustomed to this holiday even though he would not worship the Emperor, which could be one of the reasons for his persecution.
The next thing that John speaks about is that he hears a voice behind him. Not just any voice, but a voice he was familiar with as he would lay his head upon the chest of Jesus, such as in the upper room at Passover. However, John noticed a difference this time; the voice had a resonance to it that was not there before. He describes it as a “great voice, as of a trumpet!”
John turns around to hear Jesus proclaim who He is. Much like when God placed Moses in the cleft of the rock as He passed by He declared different attributes of Himself for Moses to hear, Exodus 33:22.
A quick note for us Believers that are being conformed into the image of Christ, take a look at this passage in Philemon 1:6
“THAT THE COMMUNICATION OF THY FAITH MAY BECOME EFFECTUAL BY THE “ACKNOWLEDGING” OF EVERY GOOD THING WHICH IS IN YOU IN CHRIST JESUS.”
We are his children, so we are supposed to proclaim the good things about who we are in Christ, according to this scripture!
As we move into verse eleven we read Jesus say that He is the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last, in other words, the beginning and the end. As a Bible Teacher that studied Hebrew in Israel would say, Jesus probably did not say Alpha and Omega which is Greek. Since Jesus was Hebrew in His earthly walk and John was Hebrew also, he most likely would have heard Jesus say, ‘I am the Aleph and the Tav’ which are the first and the last letters of the Hebrew Alphabet.
Verse eleven ends with Jesus’ instruction to send this book that we are in the process of studying to the Seven Churches of Asia…
