1This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John, 2who testified to God’s word and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.
3Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is near.
4John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne; 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood— 6and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father—to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.
8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
9I John, your brother and partner with you in the oppression, Kingdom, and perseverance in Christ Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 10I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet 11saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
12I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands. 13And among the lamp stands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest. 14His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters. 16He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest. 17When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man.
He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last, 18and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades. 19Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter. 20The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies.
God declared that He would make all things new and would allow overcomers to inherit, while the wicked would take part in the lake of fire, the second death. The making of “all things new” must refer to the recreation of the heavens and earth and the reality of our new start in eternity. The titles taken by God, “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,” are the titles He took in 1:8 at the conclusion of the Prologue. God calling His words “faithful and true” connects back to Jesus and the title He chose when addressing the church of the Laodiceans in 3:14.
God the Father, “He who sits on the throne,” next offers salvation to all who come. That is the sense of giving freely to those who are thirsty. He then connects back to the letters to the seven churches and extends a promise to those who overcome. They will have a special Father-son relationship with God the Father. This may indicate that believers who fail to overcome, to remain faithful to the end, will not have this special relationship with God the Father in eternity.
The list of those excluded begins with the “cowardly.” This likely indicates those who followed the Antichrist rather than confess Jesus out of fear of suffering. The list that follows is a “vice list” that describes the kind of people excluded from heaven. These are relegated to the lake of fire. One problem with this list is that Christians can be guilty of any or all of them. Since salvation is not by works, but faith in Christ, how does this work? These are looking at character traits, kinds of people. The redeemed of God are no longer these kinds of people. They are immune to the lake of fire, the second death. This should serve as a motivation for each Christian to live for the Lord and not fall into any of these sins.