And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, (6) and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (7) Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. (8) “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the “Almighty.”

The book of Revelation was written by the apostle John who, while banished to the Island of Patmos at the end of his life, wrote down his divine vision of the consummation of all things; a time when the kingdom of God is finally and completely established. It is a prophetic book, symbolic in language and is primarily the revelation of the person and glory of Jesus Christ. John wrote of things he had seen; present and future things.

The Lord is the faithful witness. He is the firstborn from the dead. Jesus is the Prince of the kings of the earth which is His title and glory. Verse 5 and 6 deals with what He has done for us (believers) and what He has made us and what we shall be with Him. In verse 7 for the first time in this book the visible second coming of Jesus Christ is announced. By special divine intervention Christ will return physically and every eye will see Him – this verse announces THE climactic event of Revelation which is the second coming of Christ. This also presents the triune God as Lord of time – past, present and future – who is faithful to His promises and powerful enough to to bring them to pass. Here God confirmed His eternity and omnipotence – He is the alpha and Omega which are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. God created this world and set the universe in place and will conclude it according to His will. Jesus Christ, the returning Lord, is in complete control and authority: He IS the almighty.

At the second coming the Lord is coming for His own. Some shall rejoice and some shall wait in horror and despair of the awful judgment – for them His return will be sorrowful as the “too late” reality of those who rejected Christ and who will be then be faced with an eternity without Him. I return to C.S. Lewis who writes in ‘The Great Divorce’: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done”, and those to whom God says in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there would be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”

God is speaking in these verses. He has put His seal on it. Even so, Amen.