14:24; Joshua 24:29; Judges 2:8; 2 Chronicles 24:6; Nehemiah 1:7, 10:29; Psalm 105:26; Daniel 9:11). David is second only to Moses as characteristically the servant of God (Psalm 132:10, 144:10; 1 Kings 8:66, 11:36; 2 Kings 19:34, 20:6; 1 Chronicles 17:4; in the titles of Psalms 18 and 36; Psalm 89:3; Ezekiel 34:24). Elijah is the servant of God (2 Kings 9:36, 10:10). Isaiah is the servant of God (Isaiah 20:3). Job is the servant of God (Job 1:8, 42:7). The prophets are the servants of God (2 Kings 21:10; Amos 3:7). The apostles are the servants of God (Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; Jude 1; Romans 1:1; 2 Corinthians 4:5). A man like Epaphras is the servant of God (Colossians 4:12). All Christians are the servants of God (Ephesians 6:6).
Two things emerge from this.
(1) The greatest people regarded as their greatest honour the fact that they were servants of God.
(2) We must note how wide this service is. Moses, the law-giver; Abraham, the adventurous pilgrim; David, shepherd boy, sweet singer of Israel, king of the nation; Caleb and Joshua, soldiers and men of action; Elijah and Isaiah, prophets and men of God; Job, faithful in misfortune; the apostles, who carried the story of Jesus to others; every Christian – all are servants of God. There is not one of us whom God cannot use, if we will submit to his service.
THOSE WHO ARE BLESSED
Revelation 1:1–3 (contd)
THIS passage ends with a threefold blessing.
(1) The one who reads these words is blessed. The reader here mentioned is not the private reader but the person who publicly reads the word in the presence of the congregation. The reading of Scripture was the centre of any Jewish service (Luke 4:16; Acts 13:15). In the Jewish synagogue, Scripture was read to the congregation by seven ordinary members of the congregation, although if a priest or Levite was present he took precedence. The Christian Church took much of its service from the synagogue order, and the reading of Scripture remained a central part of the service. The second-century writer Justin Martyr gives an account of what a Christian service was like; and it includes the reading of ‘the memoirs of the apostles [i.e. the gospels], and the writings of the prophets’ (Apology, 1:67). Reader became in time an official office in the Church. One of the early Christian theologian Tertullian’s complaints about the heretical sects was the way in which a person could too speedily arrive at office without any training for it. He writes: ‘And so it comes to pass that today one man is their bishop, and tomorrow another; today he is a deacon who tomorrow is a reader’ (On Prescription against Heretics, 41).
(2) The one who hears these words is blessed. We do well to remember how great a privilege it is to hear the word of God in our own language, a privilege which was bought at great cost. People died to give it to us; and, for a long time, the professional clergy sought to keep it to themselves. To this day, the task of giving people the Scriptures in their own language goes on.
(3) The one who keeps these words is blessed. To hear God’s word is a privilege; to obey it is a duty. There is no real Christianity in anyone who hears and forgets or deliberately disregards.
That is all the more true because time is short. The time is near (verse 3). The early Church lived in vivid expectation of the coming of Jesus Christ, and that expectation was ‘the ground of hope in distress and constant heed to warning’. Quite apart from that, none of us knows when the call will come to take us from this earth, and in order to meet God with confidence we must add the obedience of our lives to the capacity to listen.
We may note that there are seven blesseds in Revelation.
(1) There is the blessed we have just studied. We may call it the blessedness of reading, hearing and obeying the word of God.
(2) Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord (14:13). We may call it the blessedness in heaven of Christ’s friends on earth.
(3) Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed (16:15). We may call it the blessedness of the watchful pilgrim.
(4) Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (19:9). We may call it the blessedness of the invited guests of God.
(5) Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection (20:6). We may call it the blessedness of those whom death cannot touch.
(6) Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (22:7). We may call it the blessedness of the wise reader of God’s word.
(7) Blessed are those who have washed their robes (22:14). We may call it the blessedness of those who accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Such blessedness is open to every Christian.
THE MESSAGE AND ITS DESTINATION
Revelation 1:4–6
This is John writing to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the witness on whom you can rely, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and who set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood, and who made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever. Amen.
REVELATION is a letter, written to the seven churches that are in Asia. In the New Testament, Asia is never the continent but always the Roman province. It had been the kingdom of Attalus III, who had willed it to the Romans at his death. It included the western sea coast of Asia Minor, on the shores of the Mediterranean, with Phrygia, Mysia, Caria and Lycia in the hinterland; and its capital was the city of Pergamum.
The seven churches are named in verse 11 – Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. These were by no means the only churches in Asia. There were churches at Colosse (Colossians 1:2), Hierapolis (Colossians 4:13), Troas (2 Corinthians 2:12; Acts 20:5), Miletus (Acts 20:17), Magnesia and Tralles, as the letters of Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, show. Why did John single out only these seven? There can be more than one reason for his selection.
(1) These churches might be regarded as the centres of seven postal districts, being all on a kind of ring road, or gyratory system, which circled the interior of the province. Troas was off the beaten track. But Hierapolis and Colosse were within walking distance of Laodicea; and Tralles, Magnesia and Miletus were close to Ephesus. Letters delivered to these seven cities would easily circulate in the surrounding areas; and, since every letter had to be handwritten, each letter would need to be sent where it would reach most easily the greatest number of people.
(2) Any reading of Revelation will show John’s preference for the number seven. It occurs fifty-four times. There are seven candlesticks (1:12), seven stars (1:16), seven lamps (4:5), seven seals (5:1), seven horns and seven eyes (5:6), seven thunders (10:3), seven angels, plagues and bowls (15:6–8). The ancient peoples regarded seven as the perfect number, and it runs all through Revelation.
From this, certain of the early commentators drew an interesting conclusion. Seven is the perfect number because it stands for completeness. It is, therefore, suggested that, when John wrote to seven churches, he was, in fact, writing to the whole Church. The first list of New Testament books, called the Muratorian Canon, says of Revelation: ‘For John also, though he wrote in the Revelation to seven churches, nevertheless speaks to them all.’ This is all the more likely when we remember how often John says: ‘Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the
