Have you ever felt like you were in a plane flown by someone who didn’t really know how to fly the plane either? Or have you felt like you didn’t know what plane to get into in the first place? If we were entrusting our lives to a pilot, at 37,000 feet in the air, we would certainly want to make sure he was an expert pilot, capable of dealing with turbulence and unexpected problems.
It’s sad to think about how many people entrust their spiritual lives to a pilot who doesn’t know what to do. Maybe some of us have entrusted our lives to Jesus, allowing him to be the spiritual pilot of our lives, but we still don’t really know that much about him. As we grow in our understanding of Jesus, our confidence in his ability to handle the difficult situations of our lives will grow. We will increase in our willingness to rest in his care and control because we see him as he really is.
I believe most people are desperate for a reliable pilot right now. The world only seems to be getting scarier, and it would be nice to know there’s someone at the helm of our lives who can take us the right direction. People all around us may be looking for someone other than themselves to pilot their lives, because the turbulence is too strong.
Revelation 1:9–20 provides us with a picture of Jesus that should reassure us even in the most uncertain times. John was writing in the midst of the turbulence of persecution. He calls himself a “brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus” (1:9). He was writing from the island of Patmos, where he’d probably been exiled. Patmos was a penal settlement, about forty miles west-southwest of Miletus, where Roman authorities sent offenders.56 It was like an island prison. But in the middle of this persecution and trial, John heard the voice of Jesus and came face to face with images of Jesus that seared his mind. These images were so powerful and awe-inspiring, he could only think of material and physical analogies to describe the glory of what he saw.
Exposition
John writes that he was on Patmos “on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9). This doublet in Revelation typically refers to persecution or suffering that precedes it, so it’s likely that John was exiled because of his witness, just as Jesus died because of the word of God and his testimony, and just as the faithful will be martyred because of the word of God and their testimony (see the two witnesses of chapter 11). Also, the fact that John calls himself a partner in tribulation assumes that he was currently being persecuted, just as many in the recipient churches were.
Ladd thinks that the language indicates that John was no longer on Patmos when he composed Revelation.57 But Aune makes the good point that, although this is a possibility, the use of the aorist tense itself does not prove that John was no longer on the island.58 Why was John exiled rather than simply executed by the Roman government? Only nobility and priests were given the luxury of exile, so this may speak to John’s social position.59 But it could also speak to the honor and respect John had as an older person with recognized status in the Christian community. According to Irenaeus (Against Heresies 2.22.5), John was released from Patmos and lived on until the reign of Trajan.60
John called himself a partner in three things (all agree in the dative case): the tribulation, the kingdom, and the patient endurance in Jesus. The word for “partner” in the Greek is similar to the word for koinonia, or fellowship. There was a commonality between John and the readers. Why are tribulation, the kingdom, and patient endurance listed together? According to Osborne, all three are related and should not be understood individually. Persecution and patient endurance are a part of the believer’s share in the kingdom.61 Mounce believes the order is important. The present is a time of tribulation and the kingdom a period of future blessedness. So, in the interim period, patient endurance is required.62 It is probably best not to think too much in terms of timing when we think about the kingdom. Revelation is a both/and kind of book. The kingdom is coming, and we dwell in the inaugurated age of the kingdom. Through our patient endurance in Jesus in the midst of trials, we will overcome (a common theme in Revelation) and inherit the kingdom of God of which we are already a part. Beale writes, “Believers are not mere subjects in Christ’s kingdom. They are actively involved in enduring tribulation, and in reigning in the midst of tribulation.”63 This threefold description of believers mirrors the threefold description of Christ in 1:5a. There is a corporate identity.
John writes that he was “in the Spirit.” What does ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) mean? Was he in some ecstatic state? Was he in prayer? Was he like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:1–4? The phrase is important in Revelation, because it is the Spirit who empowered John and opened his eyes to see the heavenly visions. Though Aune writes that there is no reason to understand the phrase as referring to the Spirit of God because it could be taken as an idiom that refers to the fact that John received these revelations not “in the body” but in a trance-like visionary experience.64 I side with Osborne65 who takes John’s words more literally here, particularly because of the important role the Holy Spirit has in the rest of John’s visions. Bauckham provides other examples in the Old Testament where the divine Spirit is “the agent of visionary experience.”66 See Ezekiel 3:12, 14; 8:3; 11:1, 24; 37:1; 43:5.
John was in the Spirit “on the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10). This means Sunday, as that day took on this special designation because it was the day of Jesus’ resurrection. It does not refer to the day of the Lord, as some have proposed.67 From the second century on, the idea of “the Lord’s day” was taken to mean Sunday68, so it should not be surprising that this was the idea in the first century as well. On Sunday, while in prayer “in the Spirit” John heard a loud voice like a trumpet. When Moses was on Mount Sinai, something similar happened. Exodus 19:16 says, “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.” If John was literarily making a reference to this trumpet blast as he heard the new trumpet sound off, he may have been placing his revelation on par with Moses’ revelation on Mount Sinai, i.e., that his vision of Jesus was as legitimate as Moses’ reception of the Law. Osborne mentions three other uses of the trumpet in the Old Testament: 1) to signal warfare (Judges 3:27; 6:34; Ezekiel 7:14; 2) as heralds for a king, especially in coronation (2 Samuel 6:15; Nehemiah 12:35–36); and 3) with sacrificial offerings (2 Chronicles 29:27:28).69 Given John’s richness in language and his reliance on the Old Testament, we can consider his intention a combination of these. He heard the voice like a trumpet because the final war is about to begin between the dragon and his forces against the Lamb. The trumpet is sounding forth because of the coming of the King of kings, which will signal the end of all things. And the trumpet accompanies the sacrifice of the Lamb and of those who follow the Lamb who do not love their lives as much as they love the Lamb, and so do not shrink from death.
The voice commands John to write about what he sees, not what he hears. This reminds us of the nature of Revelation. It was a vision to be passed on, penned down, for the strengthening and encouragement of the churches. The prophets of the Old Testament were also told to write for the sake of the people of God. The Lord tells Moses in
