Chronological

Look! He is coming!

1 Revelation of Jesus the Messiah! God gave it to him to show his servants what must soon take place. He signified it by sending a message through his angel to his servant John, ² who, by reporting all he saw, bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus the Messiah. ³ God’s blessing on the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and on those who hear them and keep what is written in it—for the time is near!

⁴ John, to the seven churches in Asia: grace to you and peace from He Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus the Messiah, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Glory to the one who loved us, and freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and father—glory and power be to him forever and ever. Amen.

⁷ Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him; yes, even those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of him. Yes! 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.

Jesus revealed

⁹ I, John, your brother and your partner in the suffering, the kingdom, and the patient endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. ¹⁰ I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. ¹¹ “Write down what you see in a book,” it said, “and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

¹² So I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. As I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³ and in the middle of the lampstands “one like a son of man,” wearing a full-length robe and with a golden belt across his chest. ¹⁴ His head and his hair were white, white like wool, white like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵ his feet were like exquisite brass, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. ¹⁶ He was holding seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two-edged sword was coming out of his mouth. The sight of him was like the sun when it shines with full power. ¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though I was dead.

He touched me with his right hand. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I am the first and the last ¹⁸ and the living one. I was dead, and look! I am alive forever and ever. I have the keys of death and Hades. ¹⁹ Now write what you see, both the things that already are, and also the things that are going to happen subsequently. ²⁰ The secret meaning of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, by the way, and the seven golden lampstands, is this. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches themselves.

The letter to Ephesus

2 “Write this to the angel of the church in Ephesus. ‘These are the words of the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and who walks in among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know what you have done, your hard labor and patience. I know that you cannot tolerate evil people, and that you have tested those who pass themselves off as apostles, but are not, and you have demonstrated them to be frauds. ³ You have patience, and you have put up with a great deal because of my name, and you haven’t grown weary. ⁴ I do, however, have one thing against you: you have abandoned the love you showed at the beginning. ⁵ So remember the place from which you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at the beginning. If not—if you don’t repent—I will come and remove your lampstand out of its place. ⁶ You do, though, have this in your favor: you hate what the Nicolaitans are doing, and I hate it too. ⁷ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches. The tree of life stands in God’s paradise, and I will give the right to eat from it to anyone who conquers.’

The letter to Smyrna

⁸ “Write this to the angel of the church in Smyrna. ‘These are the words of the First and the Last, the one who was dead and came to life. ⁹ I know your suffering and poverty (but you are rich!). I know the blasphemy of those self-styled Jews. They are nothing of the kind. They are a satan-synagogue. ¹⁰ Don’t be afraid of what you are going to suffer. Look: the devil is going to throw some of you into prison, so that you may be put to the test. You will have ten days of affliction. Be faithful all the way to death, and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches. The second death will not harm the one who conquers.’

The letter to Pergamum

¹² “Write this to the angel of the church in Pergamum. ‘These are the words of the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—right there where the satan has his throne! You have clung on to my name, and have not denied my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed in your midst, right there where the satan lives. ¹⁴ But I do have a few things against you: you have some people there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who instructed Balak to cause the children of Israel to stumble, making them eat idol-food and engage in fornication. ¹⁵ So, too, you have some among you who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ So: repent! If you don’t, I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. ¹⁷ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches. To anyone who conquers I will give secret manna, and a white stone, with a new name written on that stone which nobody knows except the one who receives it.’

The letter to Thyatira

¹⁸ “Write this to the angel of the church in Thyatira. ‘These are the words of the son of God, whose eyes are like flaming fire and whose feet are like exquisite brass. ¹⁹ I know what you have done: I know your love, your faith, your service and your patience. I know that your works have been more impressive recently than they were before. ²⁰ But I have something against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and deceives my servants by teaching them to practice fornication and to eat idol-food. ²¹ I gave her time to repent, but she had no wish to repent of her immorality. ²² Look! I am going to throw her on a bed, and those who have committed fornication with her will have great distress, unless they repent of the works into which she has led them. ²³ I will utterly slaughter her children, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will give to each of you what your deeds deserve. ²⁴ For the rest of you in Thyatira, those who have not held this teaching, who haven’t discovered the so-called “satanic depths”: I’m not going to put any other pressure on you. ²⁵ Just hold on tightly to what you have until I come. ²⁶ To anyone who conquers, who keeps my works right through to the end, I will give authority over the nations, ²⁷ to rule them with a rod of iron, smashing them like clay pots! ²⁸ That is the authority I myself received from my father. What’s more, I will give them the morning star. ²⁹ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit says to the churches.’

The letter to Sardis

3 “Write this to the angel of the church in Sardis. ‘These are the words of the one who has the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know what you have done. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen the things that remain—the things that are about to die—because I haven’t found your works to be complete in the sight of my God. ³ So remember how you received the message, how you heard it and kept it—and repent! So if you don’t keep awake, I will come like a thief, and you won’t know what time I’m coming to you. ⁴ You do, however, have a few people in Sardis who haven’t allowed their clothes to become dirty and polluted. They will be clothed in white and will walk with me, as they deserve. ⁵ Anyone who conquers will be clothed like this in white robes, and I won’t blot their name out of the book of life. I will acknowledge their name in the presence of my father and in the presence of his angels. ⁶ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches.’

The letter to Philadelphia

⁷ “Write this to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. ‘These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, the one who has the key of David, who opens and nobody shuts, who shuts and nobody opens. ⁸ I know your works. Look! I have given you an open door, right in front of you, and nobody can shut it, since you have a little power; you have kept my word, and you haven’t denied my name. ⁹ Look: this is what I will do to the satan-synagogue, who call themselves Jews but who are frauds, nothing of the kind. Take note: this is what I will grant you—that I will make them come and worship before your feet, and they will know that I have loved you. ¹⁰ You have kept my word about patience, and so I will keep you from the time of trial that is going to come upon the whole world, to test out all the inhabitants of the earth. ¹¹ I am coming quickly! Hold on to what you have, so that nobody takes away your crown. ¹² Anyone who conquers, I will make them a pillar in the temple of my God. They will never go out of it again. I will write on that person the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name. ¹³ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches.’

The letter to Laodicea

¹⁴ “Write this to the angel of the church in Laodicea. ‘These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, “I’m rich! I’ve done well! I don’t need anything!”—but you don’t know that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ This is my advice to you: buy from me gold refined in the fire—that’ll make you rich!—and white clothes to cover yourselves and prevent your shameful nakedness being seen; and also healing ointment to put on your eyes, so that you will be able to see. ¹⁹ When it comes to my friends, I tell them when they’re in the wrong, and I punish them for it; so stir up your spirits and repent! ²⁰ Look! I’m standing here, knocking at the door. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me. ²¹ This will be my gift to the one who conquers: I will sit them beside me on my throne, just as I conquered and sat with my father on his throne. ²² Let the one who has an ear listen to what the spirit is saying to the churches.’ ”

In the throne room

4 After this I looked—and there was a door in heaven, standing open! The voice like a trumpet, which I had heard speaking with me at the beginning, spoke again. “Come up here,” it said, “and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

² At once I was in the spirit. There in heaven stood a throne, and someone was sitting on it. ³ The seated figure had the appearance of a jasper stone or a carnelian, and there was a rainbow around the throne, looking like an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and sitting on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white robes, and with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ Flashes of lightning, rumblings and thunderclaps were coming from the throne, and in front of the throne seven lampstands, which are the seven spirits of God, were burning with fire. ^6a In front of the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Praise to the creator

^6b In the middle of the throne, and all around the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind. ⁷ The first creature was like a lion, the second creature was like an ox, the third creature had a human face, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. ⁸ Each of the four creatures had six wings, and they were full of eyes all round and inside. Day and night they take no rest, as they say,

⁹ When the creatures give glory and honor and thanksgiving to the one who is sitting on the throne, the one who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down in front of the one who is sitting on the throne, and worship the one who lives forever and ever. They throw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying, ¹¹ “O Lord our God, you deserve to receive glory and honor and power, because you created all things; they existed and were created because that is what you willed.”

The lion, the lamb

5 I saw that there was a scroll in the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. The scroll was written on the inside and the outside, and it was sealed with seven seals. ² I saw a strong angel announcing in a loud voice, “Does anybody deserve to open the scroll, to undo its seals?” ³ And nobody in heaven or on the earth or under the earth could open the scroll or look at it. ⁴ I burst into tears because it seemed that there was nobody who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. ⁵ One of the elders, however, spoke to me. “Don’t cry,” he said. “Look! The lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has won the victory! He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶ Then I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a lamb. It was standing there as though it had been slaughtered; it had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷ The lamb came up and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne.

Worthy is the lamb!

⁸ When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down in front of the lamb. They each had a harp, and they each had golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s holy people. ⁹ They sing a new song, which goes like this:

¹¹ As I watched, I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, ¹² and they were declaring in full voice,

¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, and in the sea, and everything that is in them, saying,

¹⁴ “Amen!” cried the four living creatures. And the elders fell down and worshiped.